Later Days {Star Trek Enterprise Fan Fiction}

The Decision

"It's not like either of them are related to you."

Once she had heard that statement, Marie Patrice Beckett, who was not a violent person, but was, instead, flighty and selfish and superficial, slapped that Andorian model across her azure face so fast that both of them were surprised by the force and speed of her outburst of anger and violence.

"Don't you ever say that again about my Ma Melissa or my Ma Norri! Ever!"

And then she had fired that model, and gotten a transport to Lafa II, even though the next trunk show was in three days and MP Fashions of Andoria, Inc. was dependent upon its expected attendant sales and publicity.

=/\=

On the USS Excelsior, Thomas Digiorno-Madden asked to see his captain, Erika Hernandez. She agreed for her Tactical Officer, an Ensign, to have a week's worth of leave on Lafa II even though that ship was nowhere near the area and there were, as there always were, it seemed, flare-ups at the Romulan Neutral Zone.

=/\=

At the Beckett Veterinary Hospital on Lafa II, Joss Beckett explained to his Calafan assistants that he'd be occupied for several days, and they'd have to somehow carry on without him, unless there was a dire emergency. The stray cat had had her kittens and was stable. The injured linfep was eating tofflin roots again and seemed to be on the mend. The other assorted patients were going home and no new ones were expected. He'd lecture to schoolchildren about animal safety at a later date. This was more important. He and his wife, Jia, would come, as would their kids, Jay and Shaoqing.

=/\=

Declan Reed gathered up his most necessary art supplies, a sketch pad, and a pair of small canvases, and boarded a transport as soon as he heard. He left a note with Oxford, as an artist in residence, and his request for emergency leave was quickly granted as the transport sped to Lafa II and he looked out a window or at his fellow passengers and sketched them on his PADD – a tall Imvari, a pair of Xyrillian men, a Tandaran mother with three children who seemed to overwhelm her, and a Vulcan MACO.

=/\=

And on Lafa II, Neil Digiorno-Madden sent out a notice to the press that the celebrated restaurant, Reversal, would close for a week, possibly more, as there was pressing family business. His long-time girlfriend, Ines Ramires, would come with their two children, Marty and Jenny Lee. His nighttime woman, a Calafan named Yinora, would come, too, with her husband, Fepwev, and their children.

=/\=

From light years away, they came. And on May the sixth of 2206, they began to arrive.

=/\=

The Med Center was a cheery, well-lit place where most of the patients and medical personnel were native Calafans, silvery in aspect, many with bald heads, both male and female. There were even a few from the other side of the pond, another universe, and those were coppery in shade. But the family did not stop to see or greet any of them. They came to see but one patient.

The room was small and warm, but it had none of the touches that a home or even a hotel has. Instead, it was a sterile warehouse for equipment and one Leonora Digiorno, aged seventy, who had fallen and broken her hip. Leonora – Norri – was not alone. Sitting on the bed, distraught and confused, was her long-time lover, Melissa Madden.

"Your family is here to see you," announced a female Calafan nurse. The woman's almost Irish-sounding accent betrayed origins on Lafa V. Her mottled silver arms and very, very short hair gave away that she was maybe thirty years of age.