Shards of Ice

Posted on Mon Mar 16th, 2020 @ 7:59am by Division Admiral Maraad Skyshatter & Captain Robert Connor & Division Admiral Celeste Yamaguchi-Hobbs

Mission: Mission 98: Building Our New Home
Location: Various Locations - Starbase Vanguard (47)
Timeline: 1030Hrs - May 30th, 2393

Captain Celeste Yamaguchi had come on watch not ten minutes earlier as she had special dispensation to show up late, she needed to get the kits up and get them out the door to school which was located on the planet surface, the small army of children were beamed down and them were returned to the base later in the day when they were coming home.

Yamaguchi-Hobbs knew that today was going to be a big day, in that all the marine forces assigned to the Taurus Reach would be arriving today on the USS Liberty, the fourth ship of the Belleau Wood class troopships. The middle-aged human female smiled as she regarded the long-range sensor display while she was seated at her post in Operations. "Maraad, the marine troop convoy is approaching, they will be here shortly." she addressed the base Exec by name as he had insisted and all but demanded this of everyone in Operations, they address each other by name rather than rank, it was not standard procedure but Sildra Vaxx-Warfield had given the idea her full backing.

"Excellent." The Dranaei male answered. "What do you have for me Celeste?" he inquired with a gentle smile on his lips.

"I have the Liberty, the Massachusetts and two cruisers. I make it the Yukon and the Athena," she explained as Yamaguchi-Hobbs picked up a PADD and she handed it to the Dranaei. "The information on the ships, plus their skippers." she had an odd look on her face as she explained.

"You look concerned. Is there a problem?" Skyshatter inquired of the human female before him.

"Yes but not for the reason's you'd think," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered. "I have some-" Yamaguchi-Hobbs paused as she considered what word to use here. "Unfinished business with the Commander of the Massachusets." was what she settled on. "He and I have avoided this issue for far too long."

"Will it cause problems for others?" Skyshatter inquired with a gentle smile. "Or just for you?."

"No, but I will need a little time to deal with it and him. I expect him to say or do something that's truly epic in its stupidity." Yamaguchi-Hobbs commented. "In any case, this will not take too long."

Skyshatter nodded his head. "I will go with you as I must speak with him at the same time."

"Okay," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered, he could have easily demanded it of her or overruled her as he did have far greater seniority in his present grade then she did. "Will you be alright?" Skyshatter inquired a moment later in a gentle tone.

"I'll be fine. Maraad, he's not staying long and this is long overdue." Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered, a gentle smile on her lips. "They'll be arriving any second," she added before she put the scene on the large wall monitor. Suddenly there were three flashes as three large ships dropped from warp, two were Century class heavy cruisers, the third was the Guardian class battleship but the fourth flash was larger and brighter than any of the others as the USS Liberty appeared from warp, she massed more than all the other Federation ships combined and she was also more massive then anything else present with the exception of the Starbase that Yamaguchi-Hobbs was standing on.

Skyshatter watched the scene unfold in silence as the display before Yamaguchi-Hobbs beeped at them. "Captain Connor wishes to come aboard, transporter room eight."

Skyshatter noded. "Answer affirmative, tell them that we will be along shortly."

Yamaguchi-Hobbs smiled as she rose to her feet, she then followed him out of the Operations center and into a turbolift. Yamaguchi-Hobbs tried to control her emotions as she knew she was meeting with her first love, the first person she had ever had sex with and the first man who had ever done anything with her. "This is going to be outright fascinating." she mused in a soft tone.

Skyshatter nodded. "I understand," he responded with a gentle smile. "I miss Se'yal."

"I understand," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered with a soft sigh, her spouse was planetside, attending to a hundred billion things, issues and problems. Celeste knew her wife was a busy woman most of the time and she did not begrudge her

The turbolift doors opened and Skyshatter indicated that Yamaguchi-Hobbs was to exit first, she did so followed by the massive Dranaei male who followed a moment later. The two moved into the transporter room. "Two to beam over from the USS Massachusetts. Captain."

"Energize whenever you're ready Chief," Skyshatter answered, professional as ever. "Then leave us, we have matters to discuss."

Two pillars of light appeared before quickly coalescing into two officers, one of whom Celeste knew intimately well, the second was a Commander who stepped forward. "Captain Skyshatter. My request for parts and such." he handed Skyshatter a PADD with the familiarity of two old friends meeting again. "Of course Commander, welcome to Starbase Vanguard. It's been a long time. Let's let these two talk."

"What. Oh sure. Sounds good." the Commander answered

"Come, I will give you a full tour of what we have, it might be rather spartan but it suits our needs, for now anyway," Skyshatter answered and just like that, Celeste was alone with Robert. He regarded her in silence before he spoke. "It's you, it has been a long time Celeste."

"How could you do that to me?" Yamaguchi-Hobbs asked and demanded, both at the same time.

"My family was relocating to Alpha Centauri. I recall telling you that one night." Connor explained before he sighed for the second time.

"Right before you fucked me, you mean," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered a trifle hotly.

Robert sighed softly, he was hoping this was going to go better then what this was turning into. "I didn't turn on you like everyone else turned on me. When I left, not one person wished me well but then I didn't tell anyone I was leaving." Connor regarded her. "Don't look so surprised, as the teachers knew, they at least wished me well but you didn't and neither did anyone else," Connor explained.

"What did you expect, they all think you turned on me," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered.

"Yeah, it was all a pissing contest, to see who was next to have their way with you. They all wanted one thing only from you. I wanted a little more, remember.?" Connor responded as he glared at her.

"Yeah. I remember. I was young and idealistic." Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered quietly. "I recall all the other men looking at me the way a drunk looks at a bottle of booze." the tall female answered. "You never said goodbye. That's what bothered me. After losing what would have been our child, you ran away and then never bothered to keep in contact with me. For twenty-three years, I wondered what the fuck had happened to you."

"You want to know why I never contacted you?" Connor answered in a quiet tone. "Because this was exactly what I expected, you tearing me a new one and blaming me for everything that went wrong, I knew it was coming so I decided to not bother with it. Besides by the time I figured out what I wanted to say, I had bigger problems to worry about, as did you. Remember them?" Connor inquired. "The Borg followed by the Dominion."

"I remember having two Jem'Hadar Kartarkens in my possession," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered. "I recall how I obtained them, from unruly houseguests who intruded into my sickbay to slaughter my patients, I also recall the bollocking I got from the nurse the first time and from one of the Doctors, the second time." she sighed. "I kinda kicked him in the balls for screaming at me." she then shrugged. "He pissed blood for a week because nobody would heal him."

Connor regarded her with an odd look before a sudden realization dawned on him. "Wait, you kept those throwing knives?."

"Of course I did, I used them too. They make great Jem'Hadar can openers." she then smiled sweetly. "They are among my most prized possessions," she explained. "My spouse is positively green with envy that she can't use them as well as I can."

"Wait. What?." Connor inquired. "You married a woman?"

"I did," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered. "Our relationship sorta." she frowned as she explained. "Fell outta the sky, you might say. It was sudden and dramatic." she paused. "Do you have anyone.?"

"Other than Jasmine. No." Connor answered. "She's a special case, you might say. She's a marine and she came into my life via way of mail order... You could say."

"Oh?" Yamaguchi-Hobbs regarded him before she figured it out.

"She's adopted and yes, she knows," Connor explained. "She's off in the Marines these days, I hope she is well."

"I have three of my own and my son, he was, you could say, an oops baby." Yamaguchi-Hobbs did not wish to have that conversation and nor did she wish to explain the details about how Jackson came into the world or how he was conceived. Suffice to say she was not happy with how it started but Jackson was her son and that was the end of the matter. Yamaguchi-Hobbs paused. "Wait, how old is your daughter?"

"She's twenty-three years old," Connor commented as he sighed, he tried not to think about the child that he and Celeste had lost but he knew that Jasmine was his child as he had a DNA check done on her and after finding out that Celeste was the mother, he had been angry about it but then he realized that Jessica must have taken her daughters child and carried it to term herself, that was the only logical explanation for how Jasmine had even come to exist, taking an unborn from its mother without her knowledge would produce the same reaction as having a miscarriage would.

Connor was unsure of how Celeste would take this news and story but he knew she would take this very poorly so he'd leave this for another time. "How is your family doing these days?"

"Daniel, James, and Marie are all busy with their families and their assignments, they make look so easy and yet, here I am sitting here with four children, one biological and three Caitian children and I can't keep up most days. They run me into the ground."

"Four children is a major handful. Jasmine kept me busy most days of raising her, she wanted to know many things.. including making weapons in an old style forge, something I believe you loved to do." he slowly smiled. "That had to be one of the scariest experiences, seeing you with that power hammer and the fact that you said if anyone tried to rape you, you'd stuck his balls under that power hammer and splatter them flat, still gives me the goosebumps," Connor explained.

"I still do," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered lightly. "I wish I had the chance to take Rol'chok to the hammer, he earned it." the tall female explained. "Starfleet Security started a manhunt on Starbase Twelve and they hunted him down, he killed ten more people before they finally shot him dead."

"I heard about that." Connor sighed softly. "I'm sorry."

"You did nothing wrong," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered. "The matter was closed at the time. I was left to heal and deal with the aftermath, which persists like a sexually transmitted disease, badly in need of curing," she added, with a smile.

Wait. Your son is the aftermath." Connor sighed softly. "Well. I don't know what to say."

"Say nothing, there is nothing to be said on the matter. I know what my son is and I know what he means to me." Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered. "Rol'Chok is long dead and it matters not how my son came into this world, what matters is what he does from this point on, who his father is, is unimportant, what does matter is that he has me for his mother."

"You always were fearless Celeste. I've always loved that about you." Connor sighed. "I.. I just never got over you."

"Nor I you," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered, a statement that took him and her, both by surprise.

"Can.." he stopped before he tried again. "I'd hope we could be friends... At least?"

"Yeah. I'd like that." Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered with a smile.

"Hows your family doing these days?" Connor inquired, somewhat changing the conversation topic.

"Well Marie, Daniel and James are busy with their various families and children." Yamaguchi-Hobbs let out a soft sigh. "They make it look easy whereas I have one biological child and three Caitian children who run me into the ground every day."

"Doesn't your spouse help?" Connor inquired.

"Oh she does more work with the children then I do. It's exhausting and backbreaking for us both and you'd think with experience of raising Andorian children, I'd know what goes into it but no. Caitians are a whole different kind of interesting children." Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered. "I have two adult children, both are Andorian with bondmates and children of their own. I went through six kinds of hell, adopting them." she sighed. "Feeling like I am mired up to my neck in frozen shit is not how I liked to spend my evenings having nightly go-arounds with the Andorian adoption agency but, they were insistent that I raise them as Andorian, not as blue-skinned humans." she then rolled her eyes. "Yeah, you get the idea."

"Yes. I do." Connor answered. "They did alright, they had you as their mom." he then smiled at her.

"Well the Andorian adoption agency sure got their pound of flesh outta my ass, I can tell ya that. Especially after they were done fucking me." Yamaguchi-Hobbs sighed softly.

"Yeah, government agencies feel they can do anything with anyone but in actuality, they can't do a thing with no-one." Connor sighed softly.

"What of you?." Yamaguchi-Hobbs inquired. "Anyone in your life?"

"No, other then Jasmine," Connor explained.

"Who's Jasmine?" Yamaguchi-Hobbs inquired in a soft tone.

"My daughter, she's left home and joined the Marines. She is what you might call a child by mail order." Connor explained. "Yes, she knows she was adopted by me and I have made no effort to find her mother." Except that was not true, Rob thought to himself as he knew exactly who Jasmine's mother was but he was certainly not about to tell Celeste that little detail, not until after he had time to help her adjust to being in his life again and him in her life, they did have twenty years and a lot had happened in that timeframe.

"Nice," Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered evenly. "How old is she? if you don't mind my asking?" Yamaguchi-Hobbs inquired with a smile.

"Jasmine is twenty-three. She'll be going on twenty-four in about nine months." Connor explained. "You'd like her, she reminds me of you in many ways."

"Well, she has you as her father, that has to be a good thing," Yamaguchi-Hobbs responded with a gentle grin on her face.

"Well. I'd best get back. The Massachusets is new with many glitches in the system still and I have to check in with your people anyway." Connor commented with a sigh. "We'd be here all day otherwise."

"Yeah, we can always chat via subspace and I'm not hard to get ahold of these days."

"Nice." Connor came over to her but he stopped at the last moment, Celeste gently slipped her arms around him before she kissed him on the lips, she found him kissing her back and for only one moment, it seemed like they were the teenagers of their youth again but it ended when their kiss ended. "Mmm. Just like old times," she commented.

"I'm sorry. I uhh." Connor sighed softly.

"No, it's okay. I'm glad you're back in my life again.." Yamaguchi-Hobbs answered quietly.

"Same here. I'd better get going, work to do and all that."

"Yeah." Yamaguchi-Hobbs then moved over to the transporter station and he went onto the pad. "Let's see if I remember how to use this thing," Yamaguchi-Hobbs said a little too loudly.

Connor sighed as he commented. "Energize."

Yamaguchi-Hobbs activated the system in silence and she watched as her old friend, her first love and her first serious boyfriend teleported off the Starbase and back to his assignment as she turned to leave. Yamaguchi-Hobbs then thanked the transporter operator who's time she had used to before heading back to Operations.