By Lt. (jg) Rada Dengar
80615.2240
Concurrent with If the Captain Ain't Happy. . .
-=Wren’s House; Melbourne , Victoria , Earth=
80615.2240
Concurrent with If the Captain Ain't Happy. . .
-=Wren’s House; Melbourne , Victoria , Earth=
Wren couldn’t help but smile to herself as she stood in the doorway of Tam’s room. She had confronted Tam the day before about the mess which he had made of the place. Sadly his attitude towards cleanliness and order was something he had inherited from his mother. There were toys and games covering the floor, a little universe had been created where toy soldiers and stuffed bears several times their size apparently joined forces to combat plastic dinosaurs. The walls were covered with pictures of the man Tam pictured as his father; a barrel-chested half-Vulcan who it seemed spent most of his time standing on top of a starship travelling through space.
Taking in the sheer number of these drawings she realised just how right Rada was about Tam needing to know the truth. Tam had spent most of his life wondering where his father was and Wren had managed to keep him pacified with stories about the man being on very important missions for Starfleet and not being able to come home. Recently however he had begun to want more. Wren tried to tell herself that it had been inspired by her stories of how his father had now become Chief Engineer causing Tam to think that his father may be able to take some time off and come home now that he’s got some more authority. She knew that this wasn’t the real reason though, like most children Tam thought that his father by definition had to be the most important and influential person on the ship anyway, she worried the real reason was that Rada had admittedly been in her thoughts much more often recently and she realised that Tam was probably sensing this.
She had told Tam that his room was such a mess that she could no longer get in there to make his bed, so that Tam would either have to start making the bed himself or start cleaning up the floor. It seemed that Tam had decided to go for the best of each and cleared a foot wide path leading into the room, around the bed and out again. This was apparently his idea of a fair compromise.
Wren was awoken from her contemplative state when the hallway door began to whine. It had been getting stuck recently, Rada had sent her instructions on how to fix it but had written it in some Engineering technical jargon; she understood the words ‘Follow these simple steps’ but none of the ones after that. She realised that this was probably a result of Rada worrying about seeming condescending and trying to avoid being seen to dumb down the language, it wouldn’t surprise her if he had to look up old technical manuals to remind himself what half of these words meant anyway. Finally the door forced itself open and Tam came running through, his hair was a mess and there were grass stains on the knees of his pants, she would have been worried about this if he didn’t have a cricket ball in his hand.
“Come here, we need to talk,” she told him, gesturing into his room.
“Did I do something wrong?” was his worried reply. He could sense that his mother was uncomfortable talking to him about this and that generally only meant something bad was to come.
“No, you haven’t done anything wrong,” she assured him. She started to flatten his hair back into place leading to him getting that ‘Oh mum!’ look on his face that he got when she fussed over him like that “I know, you like it as it is,” she laughed softly and relented.
With due diligence to not interfere with the miniature battle she managed to carefully traverse the path over to the bed. Tam on the other easily made his way over by simply jumping over any toys in his way. He sat on the bed next to her and she put a hand on his shoulder, he craned his neck back and looked up at her, patiently waiting.
“It’s about your father,” she said and his eyes instantly lit up.
“He’s coming home?” Tam blurted out excitedly.
Wren sighed, how could she say this? “Your father is not the man you think he is. Rada Dengar is not half-Betazoid and half-Vulcan, he is an Angosian.”
Tam didn’t understand he knew this wasn’t true and yet he sensed no deception from his mother “No he isn’t, I’ve…” he stopped himself.
“You’ve what?” asked Wren curiously.
Tam looked down at the floor and muttered “I can’t tell you.”
“Can’t tell me? Why not?” she asked, tilting her head around to look into his eyes.
“Because I promised and you’ve always got to keep your promises,” the child explained.
“Who made you promise?” her voice was becoming sterner now as she was genuinely scared now at what could have been happening.
“I can’t tell you!” he asserted, but this time Wren managed to capture a thought from the child.
“Your father made you promise?” she snapped, shocked by this sudden revelation and then scalded herself for raising her voice at a time when Tam clearly didn’t need it.
“That’s unfair! I’m not allowed to use my abilities on people without their permission…”
“What did he say to you?” she cut him off now, the worst possibilities running through her mind.
“He said I couldn’t tell you that I’d seen him,” Tam replied, ashamed that he’d been unable to keep his promise “that he wanted to keep it a surprise and that it was really important to Starfleet, he made me take an oath and everything”
“What did he do?” she questioned “He didn’t hurt you…”
“No,” the child snapped back, feeling a need to defend his father “He just showed up at my school yesterday morning and talked to me and told me about logic and stuff. He then told me that we might be spending a lot more time together soon but that he couldn’t come home yet.”
“What did your father look like?” she asked softer now, dreading the answer.
“L…like you told me he did. His ears looked like mine and he was really tall.” Tam explained, desperately confused now.
Wren’s eyes were now caught by a fresh drawing on the table next to her; this Vulcan was different to the one in the rest of Tam’s drawings. He was just as tall and muscular but he had one distinguishing characteristic, a dark bushy beard. She’d recognise that beard anywhere, this was Tam’s father.
“You are not to speak to him again,” she asserted “and if he does show up you are to run to the nearest adult and tell them to contact me”
“B…but,” Tam stammered trying to object.
“Promise me, Tam. Promise me you won’t talk to him again.”
Tam looked up, he could sense that this was very important to his mother; he could feel that she was terrified and he recognised the building rhythm of her heartbeat. “I promise,” he said, his voice beginning to tremble as he was feeling his mother’s fear.
“Thank you,” she said, wrapping her arms around him and bringing him in for the tightest hug she could. She hated that she had scared him so much but at the moment her mind could only focus on the one thought. Whatever happened, she couldn’t let him get to Tam.
Lt. (jg) Rada Dengar
Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012
Chief Engineer
USS Serendipity NCC-2012