Posted by Lieutenant Commander Dr. Royal Sinclair (Chief of Security) in Cori’s Quarters- Evaluating Options

Posted by Lieutenant Corinne Dalton/SARAH (Ships AI/Avatar) in Cori’s Quarters- Evaluating Options

(snip)

“And he decorates too…” Cori commented idly, tossing a smirk at her friend. “What’s next, macramé?” she said as she handed him the vase to place where he had suggested.

He took the vase and said “No, but I knit and crochet, smartass.” and set the vase on the shelf.

“Make me a scarf?” she said with a grin. “Blue to match my eyes?”

“Anyway, after the brief occupation by the Klingons there was a lot of rebuilding to do. Most of us spent our free time working with salvage and other sort of teams, most of which were formed by Starfleet officers. I had stopped going to the dance studio, so when I wasn’t at school or doing homework, I hung out with the teams and just did whatever work was needed. The farm was gone and my horses were also dead, so it wasn’t like I had anything better to do.” She lifted her brows as she pulled out a framed object tucked on the long side of the crate. “You can guess where that story goes. It’s so cliché, after all. Child is exposed to Starfleet and for whatever reasons a therapist can easily point out, decides that that is what they wanted to do instead of whatever they had imagined for their life.”

Unwrapping the paper that covered the metal frame with protective glass, she hesitated. She knew what it was and she lived in that world often enough that she wasn’t sure she wanted to drag it here too. But Cori knew Royal wouldn’t let her get away with it and finished unwrapping it. It was a watercolour painting of rolling hills overlooking the ocean with her family’s farm nestled in the one little valley, with two horses (one dun-tan with black mane and tail, one grey) grazing at the top of one of the hills. To this piece of art, Cori had no immediate commentary.

~Corinne Dalton

Royal didn’t ask, he just took the picture and set it on the very top of the bookcase and angled it so that it was visible from the desk.

“What’s next?” he asked without a look to the picture.

Sinclair

Underneath some other wrapped objects that she would come back to, there was a bit of fabric and Cori was pretty sure what it was. “It was here on the Saracen that I decided to go hunting for my birth parents, Royal. Up to that point there had been no information on them as the info from the freighter was spotty. There was a lovely woman at the Displaced Persons Bureau that helped dig deeper and she eventually came up with an answer. And that’s how I came to know who my parents were and what my birth name was.” She looked up at Royal and grinned. “I kept Corinne. Never felt like Vivian.”

“But that day, with that looming question answered, I grabbed my ballet slippers which I had dragged with my everywhere, including the Academy, and never worn mind you, and I went to the holodeck.” Corinne’s smile was sad and yet wistful. “I put on my slippers and I danced. For a brief moment I felt like it was okay, that while I had chosen a different path and wasn’t ever going to be some sought after dancer, I could have a little bit of that old feeling back.” Those ballet pointe shoes represented something she still couldn’t quite name but felt integral to her identity. Maybe it was hope- she kept them close even though she had no intention of using them. But the possibility had always been there.

~Corinne Dalton