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Posted by Civilian Cerenity (Luna’s daughter) in Holiday time, a planet for the guardians - Catia VI

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Holiday time, a planet for the guardians - Catia VI

Cerenity smiled following the capten when she stopped spotting a lion fish. ” Zachariah ” she said pointing to the animal. ” the dolphins remained me of daddy. He was always fun like that I miss daddy” she said her voice becameing sad for a moment. That disappeared as a large shadow passed over them. ” Capten look its mommy. ” she said excitedly.

Zachariah floated onto his back so that he could watch Luna swooping overhead. From here she looked like any other bird, albeit larger in size than the average Earth species. He was impressed at the control the woman had over her flight.

Luna was flying in lazy circles high above the bay. She used the wind currents so she did not have to flap her wings as frequent. Cerenity waved then her attention was back in the dolphins. ” let’s go before they leave” she said excitedly.
Cerenity

“Aye,” Cobb agreed, turning back onto his front and paddling lazily after the young girl.
“Cerenity,” he called out softly, “I know you miss your daddy. And I also know that…his current whereabouts are unknown. I promise you that, when we return to the Leviathan, I will use the resources available to me to look for him.”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Cerenity smiled. ” Realy Mommy misses him to. She won’t say it. I wish daddy were here you would love him. Zachariah where is your family. ” She said with a smile. As the headed to the dolphins. ” do you like star fleet. Mommy doesn’t want me to join star fleet i don’t understand why. She won’t tell me” she added as they go in close.

The question had been borne of innocence. A child so loved and protected by their mother that they wanted the same for all others. But as her words, delivered so sweetly in that almost musical voice, struck him, he felt the ocean shift beneath him, the void opening wide and waiting to swallow him whole.
“Zachariah, where is your family?”

He attempted to hide the pain of remembrance with a laugh. “Oh lass, when you’ve been alive for as long as I have, you begin to feel like everyone has gone to Valhalla without you. Modern medicine is a marvel indeed, but loneliness that one cruel disease that refuses subservience to all treatment.”

” but you don’t have to be lonely” cerenity said.

With a breath, he sank below the waves, in part an attempt to drown the threat of tears with a deluge of warm saltwater. But equally driven by a morbid curiosity to see with his own eyes the chasm that might, even now, be reaching out for him. As it was, all that greeted Zachariah Cobb in this cerulean kingdom was fish.

Emerging once again, Cobb picked at a strand of seaweed that had become entwined in his own, silver hair then, with a shrug, continued, “My father died in service when I was seventeen years old. My mother three years earlier than he. It was the reason I decided to join Starfleet,” he snorted out the bitter, painful truth, “because at that moment I realised I had nowhere else in this entire universe to go.”

” i think mommy and you are alike in that regard” she said again a bit confused by the adults.

“Aye, I imagine that to be true,” Zachariah muttered, casting another glance overhead and to the swooping figure of Luna.

“I can understand your mother’s reservations,” Zachariah quickly steered the conversation away from his own miserable history. “Being a Starfleet Officer is a demanding, and dangerous, profession. But it is also the singularly most rewarding thing that I have ever done, Miss Cerenity. And when you reach the age to sign up for the Academy, if that remains still, at that time, your wish, then if I am not already with the gods I would give you every ounce of support and encouragement that I possess.”

Finally reaching the dolphins, the animals seemed completely unconcerned by the arrival of these two, curious humans, and continued to dip and leap in energetic circles all around them. With a measure of hesitation, Cobb eventually dared to reach out a hand and run it alongside the body of a passing dolphin and was rewarded with a drenching from the creature’s tail for his effort.

“What would you like to do in Starfleet, Cerenity?” he asked around a mouthful of water.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Cerenity giggled as she reached out to pet a dolphin as well. “There so smothe and soft.” She said as she thought about the question. ” I want to protect everyone like mommy but I like engineering and science do I don’t know what I want to do” she said.
Cerenity

“Engineering?” Cobb suddenly came alive, blue eyes dancing with excitement. “Now that’s my wheelhouse, Miss Cerenity. If I say so myself, I was a damned fine engineer at one time. Before I had to give it up for the burdens of command.”

For a moment he fell silent again, his gaze directed beyond the horizon, as if against that glorious backdrop of orange, pink and purple from the setting sun, he could see the memory of his former life play out.
Then with a shake of his head, his focus was returned to the present and he added with uncustomary eagerness, “I might have a few things in my ready room need fixing if you want to learn a thing or two from an old man like me, lass?”

• Captain Zachariah Cobb