Holidays and Family

Posted on Tue May 24th, 2022 @ 6:27am by Rear Admiral Rune Thul

Mission: Episode 3: Conflicts of Interest
Location: Thul Quarters
Timeline: Mission Day 1 at 0800

Rune watched his family as he sat in his chair with a steaming hot chocolate, he wished his parents could see his sons grow up but they were gone. He sipped at his drink slowly after blowing on the surface several times. As the hot chocolate went down, somewhat cooler than before, Rune smiled at his sons as they went about organising their Christmas presents. Some even required assembly which they tended to.

Vestar was on his own chair but between their sons, a trash bag in hand. Occasionally their sons would throw the rubbish into the bag. It had become a game to them several years ago, though the majority of the rubbish had already been taken out since it was Boxing Day.

Yesterday was full of laughs, tears for absent family members and excitement for gifts. Even though both Betazoids and Trills didn't have such a holiday, some of their own cultural events had gift giving as part of the proceedings. Rune blamed the Humans for this, though enjoyed it nonetheless.

The Chalvana situation came back into mind a moment after Tomnas, Kirk and Vestar all left to sort out where these new things were to go in their rooms or to pack them away, Rune didn't know for his attention went to working out why the Romulans wanted to destroy the Chalvana system.

Did the Chalvanans wrong the Star Empire somehow? Or are the Romulans just mad with the need to cause the Federation trouble? Probably the latter since they had been enemies for a long time.

He was glad that Interstellar Aid had sent USS Hope, USS Mercy and USS Peace and the USS Martin Luther was there monitoring the Chalvana star. Nothing new has happened yet since the first flare so there wasn't much going on except the Aid ships assisting Chalvana III's population, and if anything did happen the Martin Luther would inform Command.

He did have the inclination to send additional ships, just in case, though it would take time for them to get there. Though most were already on other assignments that couldn't be rescheduled. Rune did leave orders that should the Martin Luther's captain declare emergency that at least 2 closest ships would be directed to Chalvana.

Lost in his thoughts he failed to notice Vestar perch on the armrest and the hand in his hair stroking softly. "Ro," Vestar said firmly.

Nearly spilling his drink Rune reacted but saved the beverage. "Hi. Sorry," he replied.

"No need," Vestar stated with a smile as they made eye contact. "Thank you for a wonderful Christmas, the boys are happy and I'm happy."

Rune could tell that Vestar was avoiding talk about Strategic Command business, of course Rune didn't reveal anything classified but the rest however filtered was fair game. He smiled back. "You are welcome Imzadi, I'm glad it is over and I too am happy."

"We better start preparing for the next holiday." Vestar said, though he sighed.

Rune sighed at the same time and the two laughed.