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༄ chapter one
-ˋˏ INNOCENCE ˎˊ-
summer, 2258
EARTH was not a place with familial feelings to Vera Crynn. Sure, she had lived there her entire life and had countless adventures within it's atmosphere, but it had never truly felt like home. Vera knew there was so much more that could be called home.
For her, home was the wide, open, endless expanse of space, the stars so close she could reach out and touch them, her eyes filled with a sense of childish wonder as she and Kit fluttered past planets she knew she would never explore, dreaming of the creatures that might inhabit them. Home was the foreign planets she held so dear - Vulcan, Andoria, Risa, Nibiru - and couldn't help but adore, despite the cultural differences that set her so apart from them. Home was her spaceship, the USS Avalon, which she and Kit had managed to steal in their youths.
Home was anywhere but Earth, anywhere but Starfleet Headquarters for Vera, and yet here she was again, her stomach filled with dread as she stood before the Starfleet Council. Here she was, being accused of crimes against a galactic federation, and yet, she felt nothing but confidence as she rose to her feet for the council, which consisted of elder members of Starfleet, all staring at her with judgement. Well, of course, there was her godfather, Chris, but she wasn't much concerned about his opinion for the moment being.
"Vera Jadwiga Lemuria-Crynn." Vera cringed at the sound of her full name as the lead councilwoman spoke, her voice sharp and almost painful to listen to, with a scratchiness in it that raked against Vera's ears, "You stand accused of thievery and desertion in the face of a draft of the Starfleet Galactic Federation. What do you have to say in your defense?"
Clearing her throat, Vera stood taller, being sure to show no outward fear. She was not a woman easily intimidated, and it had become somewhat of a game for her over the years to challenge authority, though it may have just been her own father's abandonment of her family all those years ago.
Starfleet was beyond powerful, as they controlled nearly everything in the galaxy, but she was not going to allow that to stand in the way of her own future. "Well, to start with, I don't think it's very fair of you to call it thievery, seeing as it was a ship I was given for a private mission and just happened to keep. Alrighty?" Her words her silky and confident, her soft-spoken Scottish accent a great contrast to the burnt American one the councilwoman had.
In response to her brash statement, gasps resounded throughout the shocked council, none of them having heard such disrespect from a subordinate before. Vera had begun to doubt her decision to act so boldly in front of this group as she glanced over at her godfather, who rolled his eyes before turning away from her, his cheeks tinged red with embarrassment, as everyone on that council knew exactly what she was to him, and their close relationship.
