Star Trek: The voyages of the USS Apollo

Chapter Forty Five: The Return Home

Ensign Jodem Tal had been missing for far longer than everyone else on the Apollo. Mainly because a year before he had been assimilated by the Borg at Vega Colony and de-assimilated two years later at the Concordian Union. He had not seen his family for six years and wondered how they would react upon seeing him with his Borg implants. Finally he saw his parents pass by a Human woman reuniting with her daughter after five years and they both froze in shock and horror. Jodem thought it was for the best that they not see him with his Borg implants until he returned home. So they were genuinely shocked to see him with a Borg implant sticking out from where his eye once was. It took a few moments for them to recognise him before they ran over to him and his mother said "Jodem. My son. What have the Borg done to you?" as she placed her hand on the implant to feel it so that she would be sure that she wasn't hallucinating. Jodem sighed and said "They ruined me. But I'm myself again. It's all going to be fine."

Alisha had not seen her mother, her two brothers and her younger sister in five years. They had been so proud of her when she became first officer and had encouraged her to try and make captain one day. She had missed them so much and was glad that she was about to be reunited with them at long last. Immediately after stepping off the shuttle she saw them. Looking for her. She started running towards them right away and called out "Guys!" They all looked over in the direction they heard her shout from and started running to her right away. As Alisha embraced her mother she said "I'm so sorry that that single mission in the Badlands took so long." Alisha's mother let out tears as she said "I know. I know."

Rear Admiral Ethan Rivers was the last to step off his shuttle. He walked off the shuttle with two of the most important people in his life. His wife, T'Vrell and their son Lucas. Lucas was three years old and found the place he was in to be very strange and bizarre. He had spent all of his life on the Apollo and had only ever been on a planet a few times over the last year. Lucas also wondered why all of these people were together and what was going on. All he knew was that he and his parents would no longer be living on the Apollo and neither would his soon to be born younger sister. Ethan looked around the crowd for any sign of his mother, father and T'Vrell's parents. He had been waiting to see them again for so long. Then he heard a voice say "Ethan?" Ethan looked ahead and he saw his mother exit the crowd with his father and T'Vrell's parents. Finally after five years, he and T'Vrell were reunited with their parents.

Ethan's mother had tears in her eyes as she ran over and said "My son! After all these years!" Kumiko was in tears as she tightly embraced her son and said "I have missed you so much Ethan san." Ethan could tell that his mother was overjoyed that he had returned. But also devastated that they had been apart for five years. Kumiko then saw T'Vrell and said "I take it that you would be my new daughter in law?" T'Vrell took two steps forward while holding Lucas' hand and said "Yes. It is a pleasure to finally meet you." It was then that Kumiko then saw her grandson in person for the first time. He was a spitting image of his father at that age and had pointed Vulcan ears that he got from his mother. Kumiko immediately scooped Lucas up in her arms and said "I love you already by the way."

While Kumiko was holding Lucas, Ethan was looking straight at his father who he had not seen in person for years. True they had seen each other on the communications, but they had not been in the same room since the day they had the mother of all arguments. The reason for the severe straining in their relationship was because Samuel had refused to support Ethan's desire to join Starfleet while demanding that he support him at an important event. This had caused them to not talk in years and they both seemed like strangers to each other now. But the two knew that they now had a chance at rebuilding their relationship, so Ethan shook hands with his father and timidly said "It's great to see you again." Samuel made a small nod and said "Yes. It is." T'Vrell's parents had spoken with Kumiko and Samuel many times since they heard that Lucas was born. Both of them were full believers in Surak's philosophy of logic and T'Vrell's father, Kopor, demonstrated this when he said "It was a logical choice for you to see the illogic in your refusal to give your blessing to Ethan when he expressed his desire to join Starfleet. I am curious by the way. Why did you choose to illogically not give him your blessing?" Samuel knew that now was the time to finally explain and said "Because my father was in Starfleet."