Posted by Lieutenant Casela Synthi-er (Counsellor / RTF) in Package Deliveries

Posted by Captain Zachariah Cobb (Commanding Officer) in Package Deliveries
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Karrah smiled at him as she bustled in and out, and then disappearing with the four children for a little while. “Help yourself.” Several of the children came to say hello to ‘santa,’ Even without the suite the natural beard and rosey cheeks gave him away. The children thought this was great fun being able to have breakfast with Santa and that he ate something other than cookies and didn’t always drink milk. Zanya was at the opposite end of the table, single handedly feeding 3 infant/toddlers at once. And some how managing to NOT get anything on herself, despite the very eager tiny hands that wanted to grab hands, hair, and loose clothing.

With the grateful eagerness of a man wholly famished, Zachariah settled at the table and reached for a plate, piling it high with a full selection of the tapas. With not a second further wasted before digging in to the delicious meal, he turned his mental attention wholly to the gathered children.
“A very good morning to you all,” he announced, “and what exciting plans do you all have for this fine day, eh?”

Terul walked up to Zanya and handed her a piece of paper, “Do you know where Mr Anderson went? Will you give him this?” Casela sighed, she was afraid of this. But she nodded to Terul, “Of course. I don’t know when I’ll see him, but I’ll make sure he gets it.” This exchange brought on a small crowd down on her, Lanshay, Petall, Vedi and Mecona, and Vetad. All with small items, asking about Pinkerton, Sparky, Cpt Kangaroo, and Doolittle. Zanya took them into the other room putting them in a bag before returning to clean the toddlers up and setting them loose onto the floor.

She turned to Cobb after the children left to get ready for school. She topped off his mug and then sat down to peck at a plate of food for herself.
Lt Synthi-er, CNS

With the children now gone, the room assumed an almost venerable calm. Cobb placed his empty plate onto the table then began to glance around the room. “Is there anything else I might offer to do for them while we’re here?” he asked, desiring to make himself useful as thanks for the marvelous food.

• Captain Zachariah Cobb

Casela shook her head with a smile. “You’ve done enough. The children would probably love it if you would do the dishes, but Kara would have a fit. I’m going to have Alfred transport their bags, and then we will have to get going. Their father is stationed on the Ark Angel and it’s several days away.”

The last time the children had been on a shuttle was on the old beat up Valkyrja. And when Zanya had brought them to Delotha. It was a bitter sweet trip for Zanya knowing that she had brought them to the orphanage and would now be taking them home. They were all very excited to see how the shuttle worked and watch the stars out the windows. That night however was a different matter. Vedi and Neltus took the top bunks but the other beds were still high and Julin and Mecona were scared they would fall off. Zanya also knew that the excitement had died down and now nervousness and a little fear had set in. She told them stories until they fell asleep. But later when she checked on them, Vedi and Neltus had both moved down onto the lower bunks with Julin and Mecona. It was a long trip though and the children were cooped up in a small space.

Vedi groaned watching Neltus, “Dude, really? Even if we were on Delotha we’d still be on break from school. Knock it off.” Neltus looked up from the PaDD Zanya had given him confused. “Why? I like this stuff.” Vedi huffed, “Well I don’t want ta…Dad thinking I’m not as studious as you.” Neltus shrugged and went back to his PaDD he wasn’t studying, he was just reading. “You know I like to read, Vedi.” Vedi did know it and rolled his eyes and he knew Neltus wasn’t studying because Mecona was in his lap and he was reading stories to her. Julin ran over holding his robot, which was dangerous in the small shuttle, almost knocking Vedi over. He picked him up, which was interesting because Julin had had a growth spurt and wasn’t a baby anymore compared to Vedi’s 8 year old size. “Bedi?” Vedi laughed, sat down on a bench with Julin, “Yeah munchkin?” Julin giggled and wiggled on the bench. “Abis our daddy now?” Vedi grinned and nodded. Julin didn’t quite understand the concept yet. Mecona herself barely understood that they had parents but they were gone and now they had a new one. “Bedi? If Abis our daddy where was he?” Vedi looked at Neltus as his brother glanced up at the question. They didn’t know how to answer the question. Zanya put the shuttle on auto-pilot and walked to the back having heard the conversation. “Come here, Julin.” Julin giggled and wiggled closer to Vedi and took Vedi’s face into his hands, “Hugs kisses nosies!” and he wrapped his little arms around Vedi with all the strength in his little body and then planted a kiss on Vedi’s cheek as Vedi sighed, resigned to the antics of his 3 year old brother. But then, wrinkled Bajorin nose to center ridged Cardassian nose Julin proceeded to shake his head back and forth touching the tip of Vedi’s nose with his. Then happy with the results he hoped down and climbed into Zanya’s lap. Zanya did her best to help Julin understand. “See Julin, Tabris hasn’t always been your daddy. He is NOW but he wasn’t before. And he spent a LONG time looking for you. He searched and searched until he found you, and when he did he KNEW you were supposed to be his. It happens like that sometimes. Children are not always born to their parents. They are born somewhere else and their parents have to search and search for their children. But this is very special because that means that Tabris CHOSE you.” The explanation wasn’t just for Julin, but all of them. Julin however just nodded. “Like when I lose Bot. I have to look and look.” Zanya smiled, “Yes Julin, like that.”

The next day there was a lot of talk about what Ark Angel would be like. Zanya keyed a few things on the console. “Alfred, do you think you could make a 3D model of Ark Angel and show the children all about it?” And with that order the HUEY had a HUGE amount of information to give the children and it kept them occupied for hours. They learned where the shuttle bay was, where the schools and nurseries were. The lounge and arboretums and the gym and the holodecks. “Where is our room?” Alfred pointed out several places. “Mr Asam has not communicated that information, but it will be in one of these 3 places.”

Neltus studied the diagrams of the Ark Angel over and over when he called his siblings over, “Look at this, we’ll probably live here or maybe here!” He pointed to a few areas with excitement. “Dad works here in Engineering, and school is here” Neltus enthusiastically said as he looked at his brother’s and sister, seeing their faces and stopping. “What’s up?” Mecona looked up at Neltus and said “I miss Ms Karra….” Mecona snuggled up to Vedi as Julin kicked his little feet back and forth on the bulkhed bench “I want to play with Karriff. Where Karriff?” He asked looking around, still not fully grasping that he had been adopted. “Vedi looked at him and said, “Karrith is back on Delotha munchkin. You can’t play with him anymore.” Julin looked at Vedi as though he had broken Bot in half and got up and yelled “I WANT TO PLAY WITH KARRIFF” He stormed off as far as he could, which was only about 6 feet but he was still mad. Neltus looked at everyone and said, “I’m… I thought… I thought this was a good thing. I thought we wanted to stay together…” Mecona looked at him and scooted over and wrapped her little arms around him and said, “It is good. I just miss Ms Karra” Later on that day, after the tensions died down and the mood lightened up Vedi said, “Hey Neltus, you mind showing us more of what you found out about the ship?” Neltus zoomed in on the rec areas and explained what was available and the others were excited for all the possibilities
Zanya and Tabris’ Gaggle of Children

For his part, Zachariah kept mostly to himself on the shuttle ride out, allowing the children, and their understandable excitement, full reign of the shuttle’s limited cabin space. He read reports, he dozed, he began and then scrapped a letter to his son more times than he could count. But more than all of those, he stared out of the window at the vast and isotropic space beyond and imagined what manner of horrors might be waiting for them on their next mission…

• Captain Zachariah Cobb