Playdate! Part 2
Posted on Wed 2nd Oct, 2019 @ 12:33am by Commander Jasmine Collins-Keller & Lieutenant JG Artyom Mikhailov
1,085 words; about a 5 minute read
Mission:
A Diplomatic Affair
Location: Pushkin Park, Deck 28
Timeline: MD 7, 1700
Previously, as the children played ...
Lani watched her friend nod up and down and made her head do the same. She had no ideas why she was nodding, but it seemed fun. She squealed with laughter as the young girl petted Oscar and made his tail bump all over like he did at home when daddy had treats.
And now ...
Matthew took off in the direction of the smaller children almost as soon as he saw them, happily grinning with Laika running along side. It took Artyom picking up his own pace to ensure that the small holographic emitter he was carrying didn't exceed its maximum range, lest Laika disappear suddenly. Noticing the other 'real' dog, Artyom also wondered exactly how it would evaluate Laika.
While Matthew took to running around, Artyom smiled with a short nod to the other arrivals.
"Good Afternoon," he greeted.
"Hey, you made it! Hi, Matthew!" Anthony called to the boy, watching to see if he could tell that Laika wasn't biological. Darned if I can tell! he thought.
"And it looks like the Commodore's daughter is here, but I don't see ... oh, wait, isn't that her wife?"
"Sarah!" McCabe called out, beckoning to her. "Come join us!"
Oscar barked happily as he ran and played with the hologram pup. He was careful to avoid knocking into any of the children. When he realized the pup didn't have a scent, he cocked his head curiously. Looking around, the children didn't seem to know the difference, so he allowed the strange creature to remain.
The fluffy blonde woman seated on a different bench looked up from the Padd she'd been reading, smiled, and rose. She wandered over to the group of adults, shooting a glance at the scrum of younguns. "Athena," she called, "Chīsana mono ni kiwotsukete!"[1]
"Hai, hai, mama-chan!" the girl called back, sounding exasperated at the reminder. She returned her attention to the dogs and her new friends.
Bella eyed the new comer, apparently named Athena, with even more interest. "What are those words? I don't understand them," she said.
"They're just Sunrise language," the dark-haired girl answered, her hands full of fluffy doggy fur. "My Kā-chan comes from Sunrise land."
Sarah arrived at the group of adults and smiled. Anyone who wondered why the gorgeous and glamorous Commodore might be attracted to the otherwise plain and somewhat overweight blonde woman would be enlightened at that moment, as the smile warmed the group like a campfire on a cold night. "Anthony! Jasmine! How nice to see you! And..." she studied Artyom for a moment. "I don't think we've met? Sarah Suzuki; I'm Athena's mama."
Artyom reached out with a free hand out of habit. "Artyom Mikhailov... nice to meet you." He pointed after a moment to Matthew who had already begun to follow the other children around. "That one is mine, his name is Matthew. We only recently came aboard."
Sarah nodded, following the pointing finger with her eyes. "A fine young explorer, I see."
Anthony turned his eyes back to the growing crowd of children. "Oh, and a climber, too!" he laughed as he watched Matthew scaling a short plastic dome.
Arabella grabbed Athena's hand and pulled the girl over to her father. "Daddy, Daddy!" she exclaimed. "Afena speaks two languishes! Can I learn another one tomorrow? She speaks Sunrise, and I wanna learn Sunset, 'kay, Daddy?"
Anthony smiled, "Let's see what tomorrow brings, Punkin. Today has brought friends to play, so that's what we'll do today."
"'kay, but I'm not forgetting!" Bella said, tugging Athena back toward the rest of the children.
"Most likely not," he shook his head, laughing.
Artyom watched Matthew moving up the dome with confidence, even as his fatherly-instincts told him to be nearby in the event Matthew were to fall. The ground looked soft enough, though, and Artyom managed to convince himself to limit his attention to observation only. He looked back to Anthony and Sarah, but as he wasn't sure what to say he just smiled.
Sarah watched the little girls go toward the climbing set, and smiled. "Of course, she already speaks sunset." She chuckled and explained, "sunrise language is a literal translation of 'nihongo,' and comes from the fact that Japan was the furthest-east of the cultures with whom they were familiar -- so they were the land where the sun rose. But if you watch old two-dee dramas, especially from the first century, when they were called 'movies,' many of them demonstrated a happy ending by having the characters ride off toward the setting sun... the west. And the place where those dramas were set was North America, where they mostly spoke English, a predecessor of our Terranglo and the Federation Standard derived from it." She looked thoughtful for a moment. "Though a close second was Espanish, if she's really set on learning another language."
Sarah looked around at the other adults, blushed, and looked down. "Sorry. I'm dull and pedantic; two great tastes that go really poorly together."
"Actually not," Anthony said gallantly. "I had no idea about any of that, and I will need every bit of knowledge possible to keep up with my daughter and her schemes! At four, she's already about to outclass me in questions and wiliness."
"I'm just glad that I have Oscar." Jasmine gave a small laugh. "Yesterday, I was napping because Lani was napping. The little imp woke up and sneaked out of her crib. If Oscar didn't wake me, I don't know how far she would have gotten. She was already out the door and headed to find her daddy."
Artyom caught himself smiling a bit at the realization that he wasn't the only father who was dealing with a toddler too smart for his own good; since attending daycare, the 3-year old was always coming home knowing something he hadn't before. Matthew had surprised Artyom when he began counting up to twenty on his own, and then again up to ten in what Artyom figured was Andorian. "I was a little nervous when we came to the station. I wasn't sure how Matthew would do with other children, seeing as how it was just the two of us for much of his life. It is good to see him making friends."
Anthony laughed and said, "Let's hope we adults can do as well as they do!"
Jasmine laughed. "Yes please."
1) "Mind the little ones, and play nice!"
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