Dangling Threads - Part Nine

Posted on Tue Jul 21st, 2020 @ 4:52pm by Division Admiral Talon Yeager & Lieutenant Commander Monique Deepshadow & Lieutenant Samantha "Sammy" Yeager & Lieutenant Melody McKnight-Yamaguchi & Post Captain Davijaan "Oddball" Yeager

Mission: Mission 109: The Travelers Path
Location: Various Locations - Starbase Vanguard
Timeline: 1935Hrs - September 23rd, 2393

Melody sighed. "All this time. I had believed that it was me," she admitted. "I was the reason you and dad never ended up together."
Melody regarded the other woman who she has no DNA in common whatsoever, except they were siblings by marriage. "Did you and Davijaan ever resolve your issues?" she inquired.

"No," Sammy answered, almost as a whisper. "I've been afraid to bring it up."

Talon raised an eyebrow, this was a revelation for her. "What issues sweetie?" she asked, concern coloring her tone of voice.

Sammy breathed out, the sound was a loud whoosh of air. "Hoo boy..." she paused. "I was eleven years old... I wanted to know the story of my mother, Dad wouldn't tell me. I insisted, he refused. I pushed and he forbade it... So I accused her of running out on us..." she paused as she looked at Melody. "How did I put it?" she let out a soft sigh as she was certain that this would provoke an angry response.

Melody paused. "I was the one who made the accusation... I said if she had run off like the cowardly veQ and that's when you slapped me for it," she commented as she gently touched her face. "It was at that time, you set the record straight with your side of that tale."

Talon raised an eyebrow. Sammy had slapped Melody, this was something new and yet Talon wasn't sure of what happened or why. "Go on... please?"

Sammy gently picked up the cowboy hat that she liked to wear, even when on duty. "Dad didn't tell me and I have to live with the consequences of said event," she commented. "If dad had told me, it would have changed my perspective on things... But I had also assumed that she had run away from dad, not knowing she had been murdered. I watched him transform right before my eyes... My nine-year-old self knew not what she had done... I was such an arrogant child... Oh, Talon... I didn't just piss him off... I broke his resolve as he told me... That was after he smashed his fist into his desk, with me in the room. Broke six bones in his hand... He told me even while under that level of crippling pain... Then he went to sickbay and I'll never forget what he said right before he went out the door. "Ahh... The eyes are the windows to thy soul... But this above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day. Thou canst not then be false to any man."

Melody winced. "Oh... fuck..." she paused. "That's really harsh..."

"Indeed," Talon answered. "I knew you two had a concern buried in the past but I had no idea it was this serious..."

My mother was tortured to death Talon..." Sammy addressed Talon as one woman to another, rather than daughter to parent. "She died screaming... She died to cause my father pain and dad almost went mad because of it..." Yeager explained. "Oh, don't blame him for this event... It was all me. I wanted to know... He didn't tell me, I demanded, he refused to tell me. I went digging, he forbade it, I pressed, he stood his ground and then I called her an unfit mother. A cowardly veQ of a woman... Yet, I was only an arrogant child... I didn't know what I had done..."

Melody paused. "I'm sorry... I had no idea..."

Sammy turned her head to regard her sibling. "That is why I said that you two must hammer out a peace you both can live with... I cannot let you make my mistakes... Ladies... I destroyed my relationship with my father because I didn't take the hint... All I have left is dust and ashes. I can't let you two make my mistakes..."

Talon regarded the woman she called her child. "Davijaan didn't want to tell you not because he wanted to make life hard for you, but because he didn't want you to have to live with that legacy, your mother's death was exceptionally violent, designed to get to him and through him, you as well." Talon paused. "Yes, your mother was dead but you weren't and he couldn't face it again, it was too deep and so personal," Talon explained. "Oh, he did tell me all of this... I suspect I know Ja'nette Yeager far better then you do. As I looked up her file and then using my command clearances, I made all the black ink go away... Suffice to say, I can see how Ja'nette and your dad ended up together."

Sammy nodded her head. "Dad didn't want me to spend my life looking over my shoulder at the mistakes of the past." she answered. "but it was a little too late mom."

"Exactly," Talon answered.