Far Over, The Highland Mountains, Cold - Part Three

Posted on Wed Mar 18th, 2020 @ 3:15am by Fleet Admiral Heather Duval & Commander Ethan "Hardcase" Duval & 1st Lieutenant T'Kera "Demolitions" Duval

Mission: Mission 98: Building Our New Home
Location: Deneva - Highland Mountains
Timeline: 1000Hrs - June 17th, 2393

Heather Duval regarded the man who looked like her brother walk beside her in silence as they slowly moved their way across the uneven ground, the ice cold winds gently washing over Ethan Duval as he seemed content to keep his thoughts to himself.

She didn't object but then she had come for a rather specific goal. "You know, eventually T'Nae is going to hear that you exist and she's going to want to meet you," Duval explained.

"You came here to feel me out. To see what sort of a man I was." Duval answered her.

"Yes." Duval regarded the man beside her as she nodded with a gentle smile on her face. "I wanted to know who and what you were. Jeff was confused about what happened when you were captured."

"Yes. I was on a mission performing reconnaissance for the-." he paused a moment. "You could call it the evil version of Starfleet, I saw many people I knew except they were different people. Happier was the big one, they seemed like they wanted to wear the colors. That's, not something I've had in many years."

"You can have that again." Duval saw her chance and she seized it. "Look, we're not a military dictatorship and we don't treat people like that.." Duval explained as she was clearly wanting him to put the uniform back on. "Come back with me... Starfleet has great need of officers with your caliber."

"Starfleet doesn't need me that much Heather," Duval commented softly.

"Maybe... But I do." Duval sighed softly as she looked at him. "You are my second brother, you look and act like Jeffery in so many ways, you are the spitting image of him. You are kin to me." Duval explained, to her it was a done thing.

"Just like that?" Ethan inquired of her. "Heather, you don't even know me."

"I'd like to... So would Jeff and Enrique and all of their children too. Oh everyone related to me knows of you. Lieutenant T'Kera Duval is more curious than most. She is presently having a fun time at the monastery, probably having a duel with one of the masters or she's getting to know the layout of the land." she paused. "Or she's getting laid."

Duval raised an eyebrow. "Well. I hope she has fun," he responded.

Had he known that he was being shadowed by a younger woman, he would have paused except T'Kera was watching her fathers clone very carefully from about a thousand yards behind the two people on the same trail as they walked, rifle in hand as she watched the two talk. "So.. what are you two talking about?" she asked the wind softly.

T'Kera breathed out and then breathed in again. "This is a lovely place." the young woman said aloud to herself more than anyone else before she lowered her rifle, she then slung it over her shoulder before the young woman started walking again, taking her time down the trail which was heading towards a truly massive mountain that looked to be about ten to twenty miles away. "I bet that's where you're going aunt Heather," K'Tera added a moment later.

Meanwhile, back down the trail, the two older people were still talking. "You could settle for this. I mean it's a wonderful world but. What would you be doing?" Duval inquired of the man next to her.

"I would be living here, training students and finding peace.." Ethan answered back.

"Peace. From the demons that plague you because of what you did in an alternate reality?" Duval asked him in a gentle tone of voice.

"Yes. I was unkind to the younger people but that was what everyone else did, the Starfleet I served was harsh and ruthless," he explained. "The very antithesis of this universe's Starfleet."

"Oh." Duval sighed softly, while she brushed her hair back out of her eyes as the two of them were now walking into the wind, it was a brisk and steady light breeze what was cold but dry, the skies were empty of any clouds and thus were a brilliant blue as Kappa Fornacus climbed ever higher into the skies above the Highlands. "That's not what I was expecting you to say." she mused aloud.

Ethan regarded her. "My resignation is still processing. It should take another two months to take effect," he explained. "Why would you want me to come back to Starfleet.?" he decided to roll the dice and see what she had to say.

"Because Starfleet has great need of good officers. I read your file, by the way, even the parts that were covered with black ink of which there was a lot." Heather explained. "A fleet commanders clearance tends to trump a lot," she added by way of explanation.

"I see," Duval answered in a light tone, clearly accepting what he was being told and not like the angry tone she had been expecting. "Like I said. Jeff mentioned you existed and so I decided to look into who you were. I liked what I saw."

Ethan regarded her as the cool breeze gently caressed him like a long forgotten lover he had recently found while he processed the details that she had just revealed. "I'm not sure how I feel about that.."

Duval shrugged her shoulders lightly. "It's just me doing my homework. Considering you are related to me," she commented. "Besides... You sure you don't want to give this reality's Federation Starfleet a chance?" she inquired. "We don't brutalize our people."

Ethan mulled it over in his mind as he fell silent while the two of them walked down the trail. "I don't know if I want to go back out.."

"That's fine, I'm not forcing you to do anything. What matters is that you are happy. What matters is that you know your family is here for you, if and when you need them." Duval answered with a smile on her lips.