Fortune {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}

The Book

"... you do not have to tell me anything, of course, but, uh, I just gotta say, I bet she's a hellcat." – Tripp Tucker

"I can't go back to that when we've moved so far forward in the past two years. I'll just have to stay away." – Doug Beckett

=/\=

She walked through the halls, a vision in her midriff-baring uniform. She was looking good after the last one – definitely still a hot little number after having six kids!

At least, that was what she thought of herself.

Andrew Miller was a good find – attentive, better than average-looking and even a decent Science Officer. He was even a bit gallant and sometimes funny. That was all good.

As for child care, she still had Aidan MacKenzie, and even brought him in for some of the fun at times, but he had other interests and – horror of horrors! – even sometimes threw her over for the new teacher, Miss Cheshire. It was daring on his part, and that made her want him even more. As for tossing him into the agony booth for his insolence, she had considered it, and even done it at times, but it always degraded his performance. Plus, she needed him to care for her four remaining kids.

The other two of the six were, so far as she knew, dead somewhere on Lafa II. The twins. Eh, well, she would have liked a daughter, she had to admit. But this was one of the main reasons why she'd produced such a large brood to begin with. It was an heir and several spares, and they could and would fight over the succession once she was gone. No sense in giving them any ties to each other, save the all-important central blood tie to her. That blood tie was not only undeniable, she figured it would keep her alive for many years after they'd all reached the age of majority.

She would teach them well. She already was teaching them, and Aidan and the teacher – what was her name? Suzanne? No, Susan. The three of them were teaching the four children, and Miller even, at times, threw in a few tidbits. They were learning to fight, and to torture, and to collect a generous cut of the winnings from the wagers laid during the weekly Game Night, along with the three Rs. They were learning to treat their inferiors like dirt.

In short, they were learning to be emperors and, if she could just have another one with Miller, she'd have a good basis for the future and could rest a lot more easily.

As she sauntered down the halls, sloe eyes beguiling every comer and turning every gaze into either a withering put-down or an inviting come-on, the Empress Hoshi Sato smiled and had not a care in the universe.

That is, until a small, greyish-white blur brushed her foot as it raced from one opened door to another, mere seconds before it slid closed.

A mouse.

They had been loose on the Defiant ever since Hayes, Cutler and Tucker had departed, never to return. That was, what? 2157.

Yes, her four remaining sons – Jun, Kirin, Arashi and Izo – they were learning many things. If she had a fifth one with Miller, perhaps she'd name him Nezumi – mouse – and he could learn how to be an exterminator.

She hated mice.

=/\=

"Unless you, uh, go for an older woman." – Travis Mayweather

"You will try to reassemble your lives. You'll put your, your puzzle back." – Malcolm Reed

=/\=

"What do you think just happened?" Norri asked as the three of them returned to the cellar. They had pillows with them, and more bread and water, the pretexts for having gone up there so as not to scare the children or generate too many questions.

"Uh, what happened?" Melissa asked her quietly.

Malcolm showed Melissa the PADD, with the clear little movie of him kicking the toy into the funnel cloud and it bouncing off, "Huh," Melissa said, after she'd reviewed it a few times, "It's like the cloud isn't a cloud at all."

"Yes," he said, "But I can't say what it truly is. And without access to the grid, we don't even have a means of contacting a meteorologist and asking."

"You really think this is a weather phenomenon?" Doug asked.

"No, I don't," Malcolm said, "It's just that that's the first specialty that popped into my head. But of course, well," he sighed, "I suppose it doesn't matter. I just wish I wasn't missing so much of Declan's first day."

"I know," Norri patted his arm, "And I can't tell you that there will be other days, even though we all know that there will be. It's this first ever day. And you really didn't want to miss it."

"No," he said, "I do, I want to be a good father to him. I just fear that this is, well, it seems inauspicious."

"I bet a lotta things started out oddly and turned out all right," she said, "I understand you and Lili didn't exactly have a conventional first, er, well, no specifics in front of the kids."

"Understood," he said, "And we most certainly did not. And I am led to believe that such was true between Doug and Lili and between Melissa and Doug as well. I suppose the only truly conventional first meeting was you and Melissa."

"Yes," Norri said, smiling a little, "I suppose that's true. Kids, let's get the bedding all set up for later."