Everybody Knows This is Nowhere

Part 1 - Charlotte

A young woman looked out a starship window as the familiar sights of a known system slipped away from view. A nearby display showed the date – January fourteenth of 2154.

She smiled, patting a swollen belly as her husband slipped his arms around her. He gazed at her, his face a mass of inconsistent characteristics, as was hers.

They both had notched noses, but only her ears had small points. They also had ridges around their eyes, although his were more pronounced than hers. He was also darker than her, with skin tones close to a dusky taupe whereas her skin was an almost translucent alabaster. His eyes were dark, too, a mahogany brown, while hers were an impossibly light crystal blue. They kissed.

"You know," he told her, "I really should be getting back. We've got to make it to this rendezvous on time."

"Of course," she replied, "just think! We'll meet our forebears! It's very exciting. You'll be in Sick Bay, on alert. And of course I'll run communications."

"Right," he agreed, "and Cousin Amanda will be at Tactical, and Great-Aunt T'Les at the Science station as always, and Great-Uncle Charlie in command."

"Don't forget Cousin Stuart in Sick Bay – he's so serious! Or there's your Aunt Yoshiko in Engineering."

"Yes," he confirmed, "but don't overdo it today, Charlotte."

"I won't, Andrew. I'll be right there. I just want to write a little letter to, to them."

"See you after shift." They kissed again and Andrew departed for Sick Bay.

"Let's see," Charlotte mused, "how to begin? Ahem.

Dear family."

She took a breath. "My name is Charlotte Mary-Jane Reed-Hayes Archer. How odd this must seem to you! But we have been waiting for this our whole lives. I must remember, you're not in the same place as we are. But we are family just the same."

She paused. "It will probably be easier if I just lay out my family tree. But a tree implies something growing straight and tall, whereas my and my husband's – they meander and cross several times. So it's more like a family bramble, I guess, a tangle of a sort."

She rubbed her own back a little, as her center of gravity was shifting. "Okay, now, you are going to be confused, I bet. I know I am sometimes! So I'll start with your end of things. There were a total of one hundred and seven children born to the first generation. That is, to you guys. I know how weird that sounds. I bet most of you aren't even dating yet. Hell, according to the old logs, we know that most of you don't even realize that you like each other."

That thought made her chuckle. "We only care about a few of these people, at least when it comes to me and mine. We'll call this Generation 2.1, because you are the real Generation 1.0, okay? You are my great-great-grandparents. And Generation 2.1, those are my great-grandparents. Er, they're your kids. See how confusing it is already? On my father's side, it goes as follows – first of his great-greats is Major Jay Hayes, who married Lili O'Day, the sous-chef. Well, I don't need to tell you your ranks and roles, of course. They had two kids together – one was Jeremiah, who was called Joss. Their daughter was Madeline. Joss married Kim Sloane-Chang, the daughter of Sandra Sloane and Daniel Chang. Joss and Kim had three kids of their own – Pete, Marie and Stacey. Those are all Generation 2.2, if you're keeping track."

She took a breath. "Generation 2.2 wasn't quite as big, as there were definite space issues. So there were – er, are, sixty-three of them. Pete married Amanda Phlox. She's one of the grandchildren of Doctor Phlox and Amanda Cole."