Meeting Her Father

Posted on Thu 27th Nov, 2025 @ 10:53pm by Lieutenant JG Kellian Michaels & Khellian s'Siedhri MD
Edited on on Thu 27th Nov, 2025 @ 10:54pm

1,860 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: From The Ashes
Location: Food Court, Promenade

0600 had come too early in the opinion of the physician who had to open his clinic on his own. His daughter bless her, had to attend Sickbay for her own residency hours which he would never begrudge her. He was incredibly proud of her achievements, and would not speak against them. It did make things more difficult for him, with his scheduling. For he could not rely upon her exclusively to open the other clinic. They'd shifted the hours somewhat, so that both of their schedules could be accommodated.

It was a blur of patients and charting and patients and more charting, until the words before him on the screen were blurred and indistinguishable from one another. At that point he decided that he needed a break, some food and some tea.

Food was the easiest of his necessities to get, for he'd already decided that today he would remove himself from the clinic in his downtime. If he did not, he would simply work instead of allowing his body to rest.

Instead of eating in as he was oft known to do, he allowed his booted feet to take him down to an area of the station that catered to the culinary minded. It was not far from his clinic, and sometimes(frequently) he allowed his nose to lead him to some new experience in the cuisine culture of the universe. He'd never eaten so well as he had since coming aboard this city in space. Not looking for anything in particular, Khellian simply walked until he found something that appealed both to his sense of adventure and his need to fill his belly.

Elsewhere in the food court, Kellian Michaels stood in the long line of people wanting Trill Burgers and looked at the central seating area, which was swiftly becoming crowded. He might have to eat lunch at his desk, he decided. The line he stood in, however, moved pretty quickly. He gave his order, paid for it, and went back out to see if he could find somewhere to sit until his number was called.

Finding something that stirred his fancy was easy enough to do here with so many choices. He made an order at the taco stand for something called Elotes and ordered a flight of tacos. He chose at random from their selection, knowing from the smells coming off the man's grill that he would enjoy everything. He input a table number and settled in, just before the rush of people entered. Khellian looked up at some sound that distracted him from his waiting for his food, and saw a man that he recognized only from a record. He'd looked the man up when his Makila had come weeping to him over her fears relating to being in love with the man.

"Would you care to join me, Lieutenant Michaels?"

Kellian glanced toward the sound of the voice and saw a Romulan gentleman gesturing to him. Kellian tried to recall where he might have met the man. Was he someone Makila knew? Someone from the Romulan community in the Garden District would be unlikely to call out to a Starfleet officer. Maybe he ate at The Hangman's Noose? Kellian decided it didn't matter where he might have encountered the fellow before. The guy was offering a seat at his table, and the food court was becoming packed enough that Kellian decided to take it. He approached the Romulan. "Thank you, sir. I was thinking I'd have to eat in my office. You know who I am, but I can't recall you, I'm afraid. Have we met before?"

"No, we have not met in person before now." an enigmatic sort of smile graced his lips when he spoke "But my daughter Makila speaks highly enough of you that I felt the need to look you up so that I might recognize you if the opportunity presented itself."

"Oh, you're Dr. s'Siedhri! I'm glad to meet you." Kellian took the seat across from the Romulan doctor. "It's surprising to me that we haven't met before now, but I know you split your time between the Tivoli Gardens clinic and Dawnstar, and with Makila and me working also, that keeps all of us very busy. Still, I'm sorry we haven't met before now."

"Indeed, one's life does tend to be as busy as one allows it to be. I confess I prefer my hours filled.". He contemplated the man across the table from him thoughtfully. "though, I would have made time to meet my daughter's partner had she asked it of me.".

"Likewise," Kellian said. "I think Makila is sometimes a little shy--and she may not have been certain where she and I stood. I wasn't certain, myself, for several weeks." He gave Makila's father a wry look. "I was dithering--if that word translates into Romulan."

"It does not but I am long enough among the humans to understand the word.". Khellian sighed gently and continued "though shy is not a word I've heard associated with my Makila before now. Quiet, yes but not shy. "

"Romulans never struggle to make decisions?" Kellian said. "Lucky people!"

"Not that we don't, but we don't have a word specific to the phenomena. May I ask what you were dithering about, if I used the term correctly?". The older man prompted gently to the younger. He could see why his daughter liked him.

The humor in Kellian's expression fled, and he glanced down at his food, lost in thought for a moment before he glanced to both sides and then looked directly back at Makila's father. "My grandfather and uncles are involved in organized crime on Earth, sir. I debated with myself over whether I had a right to pursue any kind of relationship with Makila at all, even simple friendship, given the possible danger to her.

"Then I reasoned that, if I didn't have the right to have a relationship with Makila, I had no right to have a relationship with anyone--and that is where I balked. I'm a sapient being; I have the same rights to happiness and friendship as anyone else. I just had the bad luck to be born into my particular family and born to a father who rebelled against it--and who paid the price for that. Unfortunately, feeling that way does not make the situation any safer for Makila or for anyone who I might want to befriend. Thus the internal conflict."

"Those are heavy thoughts. I am sympathetic. I felt similarly when I ran from the Tal Shiar with her packed in my bag" he chuckled wryly. "Did I have any right to kidnap their child and run to the Federation? Did I have the right to start her life as a fugitive, without asking her consent?"

Startled respect shone in Kellian's eyes. He leaned toward Makila's father and spoke in a low, incredulous voice.

"That is one of the bravest acts I've ever heard of, sir. That's uncommon love." Even now he could barely imagine it.

"I suspect that Makila has an opinion on the subject now as an adult." He spoke with certainty, for he was certain that his daughter was in love with the young Lieutenant, and just beginning to suspect that the young man felt the same about her.

"There is no way she doesn't understand and appreciate what you did for her," Kellian said. "I actually feel that, as long as I've known her, she has wanted to be someone you admired and respected. Now I understand why--and I feel the same way about my own father."

"I have found that she brings out the best in people, just by being herself. She is easy to love. Though the fact that she speaks thusly means I may need to speak more to her directly about how proud I am of her." The focus was too much on him, and the embarrassment was beginning to show on his ears. He hadn't done it out of ideals of bravery, but instead the sanctity of life. Makila had been newly born and innocent.

"She is very easy to love," Kellian said with a nod, "and you raised her to be that way." He reflected on how his his own father had raised him--to have a very clear idea of right and wrong, but also to be cautious. During much of his later childhood, he would never have dreamed of sitting in the middle of a crowded food court with a man he barely knew, and God knew what at his back. He forced himself not to consider that. There was no point in going backward. "My father taught me how to love, too, but it was more in his care of me. I didn't understand that for a long time, and sometimes, I rebelled against it."

"I did as well. Though my parents encouraged excellence in all things. The profession I chose wasn't the most lucrative, but it was respectable."

"My father thought I was going to be a concert cellist," Kellian said. "He was stunned when I finished my time with the Starfleet orchestra and went into forensics."

"Truly?". His voice brightened with interest "I wonder what you would make of the Romulan version of the instrument.."

"I didn't know there was a Romulan version of a cello," Kellian said. "I would love to hear the music and try one out."

"Oh my yes. I would enjoy hearing such a thing in the hands of a human. Especially, if you are as skilled as to play with the Starfleet Orchestra." Khellian chuckled softly "I might even be able to find some Homeworld music for you to experiment with if you would like."

Kellian's eyes widened. "Oh, I would like! Makila asked me to compose a piece for her, and I'm working on that, but I'd love to be able to include some Romulan music in it, too--to compose variations on."

"I shall make the appropriate inquiries." He took another bite of his meal and chewed thoughtfully. How long would it be before the young man sat in the Romulan's quarters as his daughter's mate he wondered, then briefly turned his thoughts to the human customs involved. "She does appreciate all things Romulan, despite having been raised mostly in human social circles. She doesn't behave as a true Romulan, for which I both despair and am grateful for. Her heart methinks would not have fared well on the homeworld."

"I haven't met many Romulans, to be able to comment usefully on that," Kellian said. "But she does have a very loving heart, and if she wouldn't have fit in well on your homeworld, that's its loss. I think it's a shame that there aren't more people like her."

"My father's heart bursts with pride at that statement, however I know that my homeworld is as much a product of its prejudices as anything else. I am something of an aberration for a Romulan." he offered a one-shouldered shrug of indifference, but there was something in his tone that was faintly bitter and angry at the expression of the thought.

 

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