OOC: This RP was done in advance several weeks ago.

Luka was exhausted. The past several weeks, starting with her arrival on the Athena, the insanity in the mirror universe, and the aftermath of all that, had left her wiped. She’d done a lot to try to calm herself and Mukin down, but the Borkin hadn’t done well with all the action. Luka was a little worried about him, if she had to be honest.

She grabbed his food bowl and poured out a supplement for him, then placed it on the ground and stepped over to check her messages. When she opened up her messages, Luka had to sit down looking at the title alone. Something from her father. “Urgent. Mother’s Health”

Luka opened it up, and her face went from confused to worried to devastated all at once. It was bad. An illness Galdor hadn’t been able to cure. Degenerative. Genetic. Usually they didn’t get it until later in life. Mother wouldn’t last the month.

Luka felt like she was going to suffocate under the sudden weight on her. She called Ghubari, sending the CO a comm message.

=^=Captain… can we talk…?=^=

From her desk in her ready room, Ghubari’s head lifted and her face took on a concerned expression. She still didn’t know Luka as well as she’d like, but she could definitely tell when the Laleri was distressed. =/\=Absolutely. I’m working late in the ready room. Come on down,=/\= she said softly.

A few minutes passed before Luka reached the ready room. She spared a glance at the bridge crew and tried not to show her distress to them as she pressed the chime. Her tail was low, ears back slightly, and she could feel her hand shaking slightly. Oh, mother… she thought, fighting back a quiet sob.

Ghubari rose to her feet a moment before the chime rang, and rather than just call out, she moved to the door and opened it manually, her pale amber eyes showing all the concern she felt. Stepping to the side, the empath gestured to the sitting area. “Have a seat and tell me what’s wrong,” Koraia said gently.

As Luka took the chair with gratefulness, she released a long held breath. “There is a… situation back home. My mother has…”

She took a deep breath. “It’s called Astin’s Disease. We haven’t been able to really determine what causes it, but it first affects the En’ne, then the brain. Those who have it slowly lose all sense of reality. It only affects the old, but it’s not pretty.”

Ghubari nodded slowly as she settled into the end of the sofa nearest the chair, positioning herself so she was facing her XO. Her understanding of the direness of the situation settled in fast. It wasn’t something that anyone could do anything about and therein lay the problem; the helplessness.

She let her head fall into her hands. She knew her mother might get it eventually. Her maternal grandmother had died of Astin’s, as had her mother. It was just several years earlier than Luka had expected, and it was hard to wrap her mind around.

“I’m so terribly sorry Luka,” Ghubari said, knowing what it was like to fear the worst for a parent. She had never faced this situation specifically, but she could imagine it and knew how terrible the reality of it must be. “What is it that you need? How can I help you?”

“I have to go home,” Luka said, choking slightly on the words. “I have to be with her. She has a month, maybe less… It’ll take at least a week for me to get home to Galdor.”

Ghubari nodded, expecting as much. It was hard to see and feel Luka in so much obvious pain and there was really nothing she could do to ease it. But she could support her and that was what she would do.

She sat up again. “I haven’t been a part of your crew for long, but I suppose fate has decided it’s time for our paths to part ways. I think I’m… I’m going to request a return to the Galdori Space Fleet. So that I can stay closer to my family in the future. Exploring the universe with Starfleet was a nice idea,” Luka said, in an almost absent-minded manner.

A sad expression came over Ghubari’s face as she willingly let down any guard that was up. “I understand. It will be a terrible loss for Starfleet and the Athena and most definitely me, but you have to go where you are needed. And Home needs you,” she said with another nod.

Reaching a hand out and resting it on Luka’s arm, Koraia gazed deeply at the XO. “I will miss you. We only just started to really get to know each other but if there is anything I know, it’s that the path is rarely straightforward and you just never know when it will loop back around to something. I highly suspect this will not be the last time our paths will cross, Luka of Galdori. And I hope for both our sakes, that that proves to be true.”

Luka nodded quietly. “Thank you Captain. I’m sure your next executive officer will be wonderful in the job.” She moved to stand up. “Permission to be dismissed?”

Ghubari rose and nodded. “Dismissed. And Luka? Best of luck. And again, I’m sorry for what’s happening to your mother. I wish you and your family all the best.”

What else was there to say really? There was something gut wrenching about watching someone have to leave through no fault of their own. But sometimes it was moments like that that could alter your life entirely. Maybe that would happen for Luka, maybe not. Either way, she inwardly prayed to the Ancestors to watch over the Laleri.

She also knew that she, Ghubari, would be okay. And the Athena would carry on, as it always did. She had a great team to help her keep things going and she would deal with a new element to that team when they arrived.

Luka nodded quietly before turning to leave and stepping out of those doors. It might be the last time she saw the Captain she had known for barely a month. It felt like it had been so much longer than that though. This month had felt like it had taken years.

OOC: I, Miriam, am not leaving my position as XO. Over the course of the past two years since I got my position aboard the Athena, I have felt it more and more difficult to play Luka outside her very professional aspect as the XO. Doing more personal things with her didn’t come easily as her personality just isn’t there in my brain. In pursuit of becoming a better XO, I’ve decided to retire Luka and bring in a different character. Anyone who knew me in my early days in the club might recognize her, Jennifer Wallace. I hope you can all accept a new XO character again, so soon (In character) after the last one was taken from you. Goodbye, and also Hi, good to meet you all :D