With Regrets - Part Four

Posted on Thu Mar 19th, 2020 @ 6:01am by 2nd Lieutenant Jasmine Connor-Yamaguchi & Division Admiral Celeste Yamaguchi-Hobbs & Colonel Brianna Hobbs

Mission: Mission 98: Building Our New Home
Location: Various Locations - Starbase Vanguard
Timeline: 1700Hrs - July 13th, 2393

Jasmine Connor suddenly rose to her feet. "I need to go to the bathroom. I'll be right back." and with that, she moved off into the bathroom as Charon turned to Celeste. "Mom?" he asked softly.

"She was a surprise," Yamaguchi-Hobbs commented softly. "I thought she was dead." she sighed softly as the door opened and in came Brianna Hobbs with Jackson in the stroller.

"Hey hey hey! We're back." Brianna stated as she parked the stroller and took out the contents.

"Hey, Bree." Yamaguchi-Hobbs smiled at her wife. "I have a surprise for you," she added. "You might not like it though, so I'll warn you ahead of time." the middle-aged female commented to her wife.

"I'm in a good mood, Celeste. It would have to be pretty nasty to break it." She smiled as she put the child on the couch.

"Challenge accepted," Yamaguchi-Hobbs responded evenly as a young woman emerged from the bathroom and moved over to the gathering. "I'm the surprise," Connor stated evenly, as she had heard the last part of her mother's statement.

"Brianna. This is Jasmine. My daughter..." Yamaguchi-Hobbs explained. "The one I thought was lost. Turns out I didn't have all of the facts on the matter at hand and neither did Jasmine here or Rob for that matter... Yes. Captain Robert Connor is her father..." she paused. "Jasmine, this is Brianna, my wife." as she handled the introductions.

"Nice to meet you, Jasmine." Brianna cheerfully greeted the young officer. "I would ask you how you're doing but I'd imagine it's just confusion."

Jasmine nodded as she sat down on the single person sofa, she got comfortable. "Yeah. I was originally thinking I'd never know who my mother was, then she-" she indicated Celeste as she spoke. -"Apparently had a hallucination where she and I had a screaming match with her asking when my last cycle was, apparently I was pregnant."

"You were playing my part in that little fiasco between me and my mother.?" Yamaguchi-Hobbs inquired.

"Which was really strange as I've never been pregnant," Jasmine responded in a quiet tone of voice. "And then I find out that I'm part of a much larger family that I had given myself credit for." she paused. "How are you doing Brianna?"

"Doing well, thank you." She answered. "Although I think I might have caught a bug when I was in the field. I keep waking up nauseous."

Jasmine frowned. "Well, there was a bit of a flu bug making the rounds recently," she commented. "Or it could be a newly developed allergy."

Yamaguchi-Hobbs raised an eyebrow as this was news to her but she elected to say nothing, she was often awake and up before Brianna most days recently, as she was the commander of the Starbase.

"So..." Brianna wanted to get to reason Jasmine was at their home. "Am I in the way? I'll take the kids out if you two want some privacy?"

"No," Jasmine answered. "We discussed the matter before us before Charon wanted attention." the younger woman added. "Besides, there is no need to keep the matter private. I never hid anything in my life from my dad as it was always just the two of us, neither of us were subtle about things." she paused.

Yamaguchi-Hobbs smiled. "Well Jasmine, you'll fit right in with our awkward family. Considering I have two Andorians as my kin and the three Caitians you met and Jackson here," she explained.

Jasmine smiled. "It sounds like you have a fascinating family mom." she paused, the word sounded odd to her and tasted weird in her mouth.

"That's a way to describe our family," Hobbs replied. "I never thought of our family like that."

Celeste regarded the two women before her. "Well up to this point. I had only the one child, now I have two," she commented. "My other children were five aliens, two Andorians with a rather odd sense of humor between them, and three children who are Caitian who love being groomed and playing with wool," she commented.

"I guess your right in a way. Our family isn't exactly orthodox." Brianna mused.

Jasmine smiled. "Somehow, I expected nothing less than an unusual family. It means I have fascinating siblings and in-laws," she explained. "Mom is married to a woman with mostly aliens as children. What's not to like?" as she picked up Charon as she began to cuddle with him. "I mean. really, what's not to like?"

Charon laughed as he wasn't expecting someone wanting to muscle him around like this. He did not complain, however.

"They are rather likable, aren't they?" Brianna asked rhetorically.

Jasmine let Charon sit up in her lap. "Well, he's soft and fluffy and adorable and-"

"He needs to be groomed," Yamaguchi-Hobbs added with a helpful smile. "Don't worry, he won't shed... Too much..." she added, with a rather evil-looking grin.

"Don't let Celeste scare you. They are easy to groom and they'll tell you what they need." Brianna told Jasmine.

Celeste regarded her wife. "You are ruining my fun..." she commented with a rather evil grin on her lips.

Jasmine was busy grooming the child before her. "Charon's fur is rather soft, he's not hard to look after."

The other two Caitian kits were waiting patiently for their turn to be groomed but both were sitting in silence. "It does feel odd though," Jasmine commented. "I think I'm in one of your battalions Bree..." she sounded unsure if she should be calling Brianna by name and it was showing.

"Really? Do you know who your see-oh will be?" She asked.

Jasmine nodded her head. "My company commander is Ouros Yamaguchi and my Battalion commander is Major McKnight." she paused. "Ouros is an interesting soul, much more laid back then her reputation suggests."

"I was unaware that Ouros had a reputation." She replied. "Have you meet her?"

"She does, she comes across as someone it's not wise to cross but she's a real sweetie when you get to know her, it's really odd actually," Connor explained evenly. "Oh, you should hear what the rank and file say about you." as she suddenly grinned. "Well, one of my male squadmates said he wants to do things that I can't explain with the kits present."

Yamaguchi-Hobbs smiled. "Well, that's one way to feel appreciated."

Brianna turned to her wife. "Trust me, I've been called things that are a lot less flattering."

Connor chuckled. "I wasn't going to put it like that but... it works."

"What does?" Charon asked.

"Something you don't need to be worrying about, young man. Until you are older that is." Connor explained with a smile.

"I think you'll like it here. There are plenty of things to do, enough space on a livable world, and plenty of people to mingle with. On top of that this so far has been a quiet sector." Brianna told her.

Connor grinned at the other woman. "Well, with the developments and instability with the Klingons and the Tholians back on the scene, I doubt it'll stay quiet for long," she commented.

"As long as the Klingons keep their dirty little civil war within their own borders we can relax. As for the Tholians, they are at best saber rattling." Brianna replied.

Celeste paused. "Bree, you and I both know that the Klingons can't keep anything to themselves," she commented evenly. "Their style of government doesn't permit them the ability to advance their tech, so they will get left behind."

"If any Klingon warlord does get any ideas about raiding Federation space they won't show up in any kind of force. Besides, why would they risk getting vaporized by Star Fleet? They're already a generation behind, as you have pointed out."

Connor regarded Brianna with a rather melancholy look in her eyes. "And falling behind more and more by the second. Do those without a house deserve to suffer because of their leader's failures and such?. Should we remain oblivious to the suffering of a people we don't know and don't care about?"

"Not our problem, Jasmine," Hobbs replied. "I'm sure one day the Federation will stick its nose in where it doesn't belong but that day isn't today."

Celeste could see where her daughter was coming from and she also spotted the wording Jasmine was using. "Jasmine, the best we can do is to help the refugees when they come across the border, same as we're presently doing for the Romulans. As much as some do not deserve our charity for the crimes they committed against us ion the past, that was then and this is now."

"That does not mean that we have to like it," Connor answered.

"No. But we do have to accept that this is not our war to wage, it's theirs and this has been centuries in the coming..." Celeste added in a quiet tone of voice. "Either the Empire will remake itself or it'll fall for good."

"We keep saying that and after they fall on their boney faces they keep getting up." Brianna chipped in.

"Yeah, ain't that the truth," Celeste commented, a gentle smile on her lips.

"Enough talk about ridge heads. I want food." Brianna told the mother and daughter before her.

Jasmine raised an eyebrow. "Such talk, and in front of your children, no less."

Charon regarded Jasmine. "Mom is not wrong. My siblings and I, we used to be slaves of the empire," he commented

Jasmine shivered as she held him close to her. "Not anymore. Charon..." she paused. "What are we having?"

"I have chicken marinating in the refrigerator. I was going to turn on the grill outside and cook them up." Bri told Jasmine.