Posted by Lieutenant Commander Paris Carisi (Armorer/Physicist) in Arrival on Barlon V
https://www.star-fleet.com/core/stf5/odin/posts/112545/ Original start of the post

Paris leaned against the wall of the hangar waiting for Mason to get done talking to the officer at the desk. She was hot, tired, and irritated. One week ago they were lying in bed excited about the future they were starting. Jumping to the present the air of excitement and adventure had worn off. This was the third planet they had been to searching for Harper. Negotiating the child welfare system of the Federation was turning out to be harder than finding an enemy ship in a nebula with no sensors. Everyone said they had Harper at their facility until Mason and Paris arrived. So far they had found Andorian Harper, Ferengi Harper, and Betazoid Harper but not Harper from the big planet. It took everything for Paris not to just call up the girl. She had been on the verge until Mason pointed out that it would be best for them to show up with the paperwork in hand and not more promises.

“H-A-R-P-E-R,” Mason spelled out, slowly and clearly for the man behind the counter. “An orphan brought here only a few months ago from that disaster on the colony world, the one that blew up from volcanoes and was then swarmed by giant insects?” His voice was tight, and Paris would be able to tell that it was barely controlled aggravation that was resting behind the words. “Uh, sure, let me look that up,” the main behind the counter nodded, chewing his lip and then beginning to search the database of children at the facility. “You have the forms filled out and ready to submit?” He asked Mason as his eyes moved to the blonde leaning on the wall, paused for a moment and then moved back to Mason.

“Yes,” Mason’s answer was short and sharp, with a flurry to the final part of the word that could of cut butter like a whip. “I already submitted that on this date, here,” he leaned over and pointed at the screen that showed the forms had been submitted by a Mason Black and Paris Carisi regarding a foster adoption of a little girl named Harper. It was the same process at every stop, and Mason had about had enough of the Federation record keeping system that was touted as foolproof. Problem was, it was operated by fools. “Douglas, yes?” Mason asked in a rhetorical question as he picked up and then dropped the staffers name plate back into place on the desk. “What does it tell you, is she here?”

The calls and videos with the little girl had become harder and harder to manage. Mason had spent weeks trying to cut through the red tape for them to foster her. He contacted everyone he had ever had a conversation with that could help them along in the process only still had things crawling at a snail’s pace. While this frustrated Paris and Mason, it was starting to also affect Harper. Hanging up was getting harder and harder when she begged for a date as to when she could come live with them. The soft words of soon and we are trying had begun to end the calls with tears first with the little girl and then with Paris.

“What the hell do you mean?” Mason’s voice was barely below that of a full blown rage quit. “No, we aren’t here looking for a Hagh’pur, Harper is not a Klingon! She’s Human, Douglas, Human! Like you!” Leaning over the desk, Mason and Douglas began talking in quieter tones, though the tapping of Mason’s hand on the counter top belied a growing impatience.

Paris hated how much pressure was on Mason right now. He had just gotten the promotion of second in command of basically a floating city. This came with so many more responsibilities and stress. She should have been doing all she could to lessen the stress but right now all Paris wanted was their family. Pushing off the wall she walked over to Mason hoping that this time he would have more information than just a different planetary address.

Standing up as Paris approached, Mason stood with his hands on his hips chewing his lips while Douglas also stood up and began to collect a few PaDD’s that he needed for something. Mason was quite aware of how much Paris had invested in Harper, and in him. Her dreams of a family were something that Mason also wanted with her but with his medical condition, he had been unwilling to risk having a child and passing on the illness he had inherited, and in fact had been told that he wouldn’t be able to have children in any case. It was something that Mason hadn’t been sure he and Paris could get past, with her deep dreams of having a family of her own and Mason not being able to ‘deliver the goods’. Then, Harper had quite literally fallen into their lives. Paris believed in signs, and Mason did as well.

“So babe tell me they know where she is at,” Paris tried to keep the edge out of her tone, “or is all you got was another destination.” It was getting hard not to take out her anger on him. Deep down she knew it was not Mason’s fault but he was the only thing she was able to vent her frustration to and on. The last time they had this conversation Paris completely melted down. This resulted in neither of them speaking for three light years as they traveled to the next destination. The sun beating down on them from the subtropical climate of the planet was not helping either. They were both hot, sweaty, exhausted and hungry.

Paris Caris

Turning to Paris, Mason smiled but it was a tight and frayed smile. “Well, it isn’t a no yet,” he explained. “Their system underwent some maintenance a few days ago and one of the data nodes collapsed, so they lost a bunch of records. Douglas Dingleberry there said they couldn’t check their systems, but they had paper copies.”

“Uh, I’m still here you know,” Douglas said behind Mason. He had turned to go as Paris had approached, but had paused in case she wanted to speak to him. Thus, he overheard Mason’s invention of his last name. Spinning back around, the look on Mason’s face would have skewered a dozen crew from the lower decks as if he had just found them around an unauthorized still hidden in Engineering.

“Why? Why are you still here Lieutenant?!” Mason said through clenched teeth with enough acid to melt latinum. “My Fiancee is tired and grumpy, we have hardly slept in a week and have travelled light years to get here only to find that your system is down, your coffee is terrible and sure, we can have a Klingon kid named Hagh’pur. I do not want a Klingon kid named Hagh’pur, Douglas, I want a Human girl called Harper that was brought here only a few months ago and is named on all of that paperwork right there in your hot little hand. So I fail to understand Lieutenant why the hell you are still here. Run along, before I get cranky.”

Turning back to Paris, Mason almost snarled at her. It wasn’t her fault, he knew, but he couldn’t keep the tone from his voice. “Of all the god forsaken holes they send us to they send us here, what the hell is here? Nothing. They running a slave camp or something?” Leaning his back against the counter he folded his arms and kicked his heel firmly against the grain with a thud several times. To be honest the planet was actually gorgeous with sun, beaches and stunning scenery but to Mason at that moment, it could have been Mercury in summer. “I’d offer to get coffee, but it’s probably swamp water. You wanna sandwich?”

Cmdr Black, XO