Awkward Reconciliation

Posted on Mon Dec 1st, 2025 @ 3:55pm by Lieutenant JG Camryn Shepard & Cadet Freshman Grade Gracelyn Shepard

Mission: MISSION 0 - History Speaks
Location: Firefly One listening station
Timeline: 03.09.2397
2678 words - 5.4 OF Standard Post Measure

A lone, unmanned satellite drifted past Firefly I, a small listening station with two structures in an elliptical orbit around a moon. The top rectangular facility, fifteen meters long and five meters wide, spun counterclockwise with a single access port to connect with any ships equipped with an airlock. A type 11 shuttle, Seabrook One, docked into the listening station for the moment as Firefly I continued its elliptical orbit. The second facility was spherical with two blades rotating. Attached to the top facility by a self-sustaining regenerative shield, it occasionally passed a single energy vortex in the silence of space.

Inside the shuttle, Ensign Gavin Banks tapped a few buttons on the pilot console, ensuring they docked fully. He turned to the half-Klingon young woman, replying, "We’re here. Are you okay, Grace?"

Grace exhaled, shaking her head. Brushing the stray curled hair from her aquamarine blue eyes over her shoulder, she gripped her fist and growled softly, "I don't know, Gaven. I havent seen her in years." A turmoil of emotions brewed within her soul as she glanced towards the ensign.

Sensing that anxiousness, Gaven placed a gentle hand on her arm, replying softly, "It'll be okay. If your mother is anything like mine, she would be happy to see you."

Somehow her feelings softened by his touch as Grace attempted a half smile, exposing her small fangs, "Thank you. I don't know if I needed that, but thank you."

Gavin nodded, standing up. He replied, "Why don't you take a few moments of rest. I need to check on the lieutenant to see if he's about ready to get going."

Grace said nothing as Gaven walked towards the airlock. Her bright colorful eyes glanced over the console. Set on standby, she studied the scrolling numbers and words. Tapping a few buttons, she brought up a navigational map of her journey. Her next stop appeared to be the USS Elysium. Exhaling a quick, short breath, she closed the map and got out of her chair. Walking towards the airlock, it opened as she froze while looking up at her mother.

Camryn gasped softly, recognizing her Grace as she stared back. She murmured her name.

Grace stared back at her, keeping her anger at its usual place. They hadn't spoken in years as a rift slowly formed between them and festered for a long time. She had a fiery look in her eyes, feeling perturbed. Nostalgia simmered for a few moments when she replied haughtily, "Mother. Long time no see."

Cam exhaled, closing her eyes. Not liking the tone she spoke with, she opened her eyes and snapped, "Don't talk to me like that!"

Slightly offended, Grace snapped back, "I can talk to you however I like, Mother. We havent spoken in years!"

"I know that!" Cam argued back, quickly catching herself half yelling and replied with a lowered voice, "This isnt a good place for it."

Cam stormed past Grace as the cadet scoffed, watching her go right towards the shuttle lounge from the aft section. The ensign approached Grace, whispering, "Erm, is everything o-."

Grace glared at the direction her mother stormed off to, closed her fiery Aquamarine Blue eyes and harrumphed, shaking her head, "Everything's fine, Gavin. Let's move on."

Sensing she her quietly fuming, Gavin elected to not pry and nodded, returning to his piloting duties. As he passed the lounging area towards the cockpit, Grace took her place far from him at the sensors department of the shuttle which was the other seating slightly a few meters away from the cockpit. Studying the sensors, she fumed while trying to control her emotions into doing something to calm herself down.

Gavin worked the console, opening the com, "We are disembarking, Lieutenant Solek. Good luck."

A quiet hiss sounded as the shuttle released its docking clamps from the airlock. Gaven maneuvered it out and around the station before going along the route he planned out. Pressing the button, it escaped into warp. The quiet beeping of his navi console echoed softly as the brilliance of warp lights danced on his eyes. He turned to his friend, "Hows the sensors look, Grace?"

A quiet mumble disappeared in the echoing din of the quiet rumbling of the shuttle. Gavin sighed, trying again quietly, "Grace?"

"Huh, oh its fine," Grace grumbled, studying the sensor maps, "Everything's green. So far."

Silence rang out once more as the pilot monitored his space lane. As the navi computer sensed something out of alignment, he quickly narrowed down the issue and quieted it with a simple reroute. Turning around, he spoke, "You sure you don't want to talk about it?"

Grace exhaled, shaking her head, "It's fine. I just need to cool down. Thanks."

"Understood," he replied, trusting that his friend could handle her emotions well.


In the small lounge area, Cam sat alone in her thoughts with her bag seated next to her. With her blond hair down, she studied her clasped hands, her thoughts wandering. A feeling she couldn't place down drifted away from her. What felt like eternity became minutes as she looked up to see the small porthole of the shuttle. She studied the light patterns and the speeding stars as the shuttle stayed in warp. Time held no meaning to her as she fell into her straying thoughts. Suddenly, she believed she saw him again. Calen Hope. Just one fleeting moment. Her head started to hurt as the echoes of her memories with Calen started to rush through her mind. It nearly clouded her vision as she almost felt his vacant touch on her skin.

"Mom?" A somewhat quiet and changed tone distracted Cam.

"Hmm?" Cam turned to see her daughter standing before the table. Grace had this far away look in her aquamarine blue eyes. She studied her daughter's half Klingon features and almost recognized him in her. Barely. She replied, "Yes, Grace?"

Grace bit her lips, tapping her finger on the table. Unsure of how to approach her, she inquired, "Wanna talk?"

Cam shrugged her shoulders, offering her a seat, "Sure. If you want to talk instead of yelling."

Grace growled, growing frustrated, "Yell? Why, I - " She balled her fist and rammed it on the table with force.

Unhindered by the table quaking with the force of her daughter's rage, Cam raised her finger, replying, "Gracelyn Hope Shepard. I am your mother. You will not talk to me in any disrespectful tone like you just did in the airlock. Just because we haven't talked in years doesn't mean you will treat me with scorn and anger."

Grace growled softly, pulling back her fist to reveal a spherical dent on the table. She rubbed her subtly ridged forehead with her fingers and mumbled, sitting down, "Sorry, mother. I-I sometimes let my ego get the best of me."

"I know, hun," Cam sighed, smiling at her with concern, replying, "It's that half Klingon pride of ours. I was once your age, you know? So full of myself. Eager. Passionate. Thinking I could do anything. Then I got older. Wiser. Grace."

"Hmm?" Grace looked up, her aquamarine blue eyes glancing at her mother's steel gray eyes. It seemed to reflect back at her, as if she stared at her own soul.

Wringing her hands to hide her nervous energy, Cam spoke, "I'm sorry I disappeared. Excuses shouldn't mend this broken bridge between us. How can we pick up the pieces?"

Grace thought for a few moments, shrugging, "I don't know, mother. I thought about you. Searched for you. Grew up. Applied to join the academy. You haven't written. Not once."

"I-I'm sorry, Grace. I did. I wrote to you. Did you," Camryn replied, hoping she did get her messages.

She shook her head, "I did, but they meant nothing. I didn't understand," she stopped herself from speaking, biting her lips to avoid growing emotional.

"What, Grace?"

Grace growled softly, closing her eyes as her Klingon rage simmered quietly. She opened her eyes, nearly erupting, "You abandoned me, mother! Just like father, you both - "

"Grace!" Cam immediately raised her finger to tender her emotions, opening her palm to quietly soothe her, "Gracelyn, calm. I - I can't begin to apologize."

"Save it, mother," Grace grumbled, sniffing as she wiped her eyes while shaking her head, "I tried to write you back, but my messages never got through. I couldn't find the words. After a few years of trying, I just gave up. Decided that you just - You disappeared from my life. Just like father. It broke my heart. So I moved on. Or, so I thought."

"Grace," Cam sighed as Grace turned her face away with her blonde hair obscuring her face. She shook her head, "Grace, your father didn't abandon us. He wouldn't. It's complicated."

"Complicated?" Grace looked at her with newfound disgust and snarled, "No, its simple, mother. He disappeared. Vanished. Without a trace."

Cam felt sad, shaking her head, "I know you wouldn't understand. You're still a kid."

Grace shook her head, growling softly while baring her fangs, "Then make me understand, Mother."

"It-I," Cam sighed, looking at her hands again and picking at her fingernail. She grew sad, feeling isolated.

Grace studied her with disgust, allowing her Klingon side fully encompass her emotions as she replied, "Typical. And you're my mother?"

It jolted Cam upright as she spat back gently, "Grace, stop. Look, you're still young. You can't understand the connection I have with your father. He's still there. Out there. Lost. It's why - "

"You abandoned me? That's it? That's why you disappeared from my life for nearly twenty years? All I get from you is a holo and a few pictures?" Grace growled softly, trying to keep herself from lashing out.

"Yes," Cam replied, feeling guilt and regret, "Look, Grace. Your father. He's El Aurian. I - “

Grace shook her head, growling, "Save it. You say you can feel him, but I can't. He's dead. Gone. I heard about your exploits with him. How you guys just chased each other across galaxies, but you cant. I don't - "

"Gracelyn..."

She scowled at her mom, stopping her, "No. Move on. Can you try? For me? Or are you going to go back out there searching for him?"

"I-" Cam sighed, looking into her daughter’s colorful eyes. She closed her mouth, calculating the next thing to say.

Grace added with a snarl, baring her fangs, “I need to know, mother. Am I a mistake? Is this why you abandoned me for him? Hoping he’s still out there? Did you even love -“

“Grace!” Cam tried as her daughter’s anger overwhelmed her.

“No, you,” She interrupted, ramming her fist on the table, “don’t care! I’m a mistake because why else would you dump me in the hands of your Klingon brother? He treated me with kindness, unlike you. Uncle substituted himself for a father figure I needed when you disappeared. Shame-”

“Grace, stop!” Cam yelled, feeling hurt, “You’re not a mistake. You never were, so don’t.”

”Then what am I?” Grace silently fumed.

Cam looked into her bright colorful eyes, grasped her hands together and leaned forward, replying, “You’re a happy accident and I mean it with every fiber of my soul. Gracelyn, you have your father’s spirit. His heart of adventure. When I look at you, I see him. Everyday.”

Grace scowled at Cam, her anger simmering like a pot of kettle over the stove. She watched her fish around her pocket. Cam took out a small picture and gasped softly. She looked at Grace, placing the picture toward her, "Look. It's you and your father. Look at how happy he was."

Brushing her hair over her shoulder, Grace gingerly took the picture. Studying it, she listened as Cam continued, "You're right about one thing. We did chase each other across the galaxy. Soulmates are rare, one of a kind. He became mines when we met caught each other's eyes. We belonged to each other."

Grace felt her anger soften, looking up as Cam resumed, "When I finally caught up with him, it was Risa. We stayed, enjoyed each other’s company. And then, you happened. I felt it, Calen felt it. The joy of you was everything, especially him. We decided to do it right, so we eloped on that day in Risa. It was a beautiful ceremony. When word reached your uncle, he grew furious, but he understood."

Grace blinked, her anger gone. She listened as Camryn extended her hands forward, speaking, "Gracelyn. Hun."

Her fingers grasped air. Grace looked at the offered olive branch and grasped her hands. Feeling her grip, she tightened her hands while feeling her strength. It soothed, calming her down as Cam coolly replied, "Do you know who I see when I look at you? I see him. Your father."

"Mother?" Grace tried to pull back, but Cam held on tightly pulling her forward.

She nodded, "Your have your father's eyes. His soul. Its attached. Entwined in you. You don't know it yet. You may not feel it, but that's okay because I feel him in you. Your senses are not attuned to the feeling that I'm feeling. Grace, he loved you more than I. I watched him play with you. His joy was boundless."

"I-" Grace sighed, after holding onto her for a few seconds, they released. She shook her head as the memory gave her pain, "don't. I can't. He's gone, mother. I wish, you need to deal with that. I'm sorry."

Disappointed, Cam pulled back away from her, sadder. She crossed her arms, hugging herself while looking at the table. Grace watched her with pity, trying to find something to say. Finally, she spoke, "Mom."

"Hmm," Cam looked up at her face with a far away look in her gray eyes. She quickly shifted the conversation, looking at her cadet gold uniform, "So, the USS Elysium? You're going there as a cadet?"

Grace nodded, smiling as she appreciated the subject change, "Yeah. Engineering."

"Was it," her mother added, curious as she pointed at herself.

Grace smirked, shaking her head, "No. Not exactly. I actually couldn't figure out what I wanted. Tried different classes. None of them appealed to me, except for engineering. Sorry mother, but it wasn't because of you. I hated you. No, it was actually Uncle that coached me into learning more about engineering. Told me why I should take it. I found it I actually loved it, so yeah. You're looking at Freshman Cadet of Engineering of the USS Elysium."

Cam nodded, smiling, "Either way, Grace, know this. I am proud of you. My love for you never vanished. Do you know why you are named Grace?"

She exhaled, shaking her head, waiting for her mother to continue. Camryn replied, "You represent hope. Resiliency, which is your Klingon spirit. Empathy of the El Aurian. It was my idea and your father accepted it."

Grace smiled, nodding, "Thank you. I like it. Mother, I'm sorry."

Cam cocked her head, inquiring, "For what?"

Grace's demeanor toward her mother changed as she replied, "I was cruel to you. Disrespectful without fully understanding why. Now I do. I'm going to the USS Elysium. You are going to the USS Seabrook. It's okay. We might not be on the same ship, but I understand now, because I listened. I'm sorry."

Cam smiled, offering a dismissive wave, "It's okay, Grace. You're my daughter and still growing. I hope, I can still be a part of your story."

Grace exhaled, standing up. She moved around the table as Cam stood up. They embraced in a hug which felt like an eternity. Grace gently moved away and whispered, "If you need to find him, I understand. We can keep in touch. I need to head back to the sensors."

Cam nodded, watching her return to the cockpit of the shuttle. She returned to her seat and looked out at the view screen again, watching the warp tunnel.

TBC