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༄ chapter two
-ˋˏ THE EXPLANATIONˎˊ-
VERA looked over at Kit, watching as he swallowed nervously, standing against his father's hand in an effort to make himself taller than Chris, and, metaphorically, be above him, though Chris was steadfast to prevent that from happening.
"I'll ask one more time, Kit, Vera, what have you two been doing all this time?" Chris repeated, his voice a dangerous low that made Vera beyond nervous, shifting under his disapproving glare. When her father left her family for Vulcan when she was a child, Vera had been left without any semblance of a proper father until Chris stepped in. Now, it was so engrained into her that if she did something wrong for him, Chris would leave just as her father did that it was impossible to admit her wrongdoings to the man who cared for her after she first came to America.
Sighing, Vera stepped forward, prompting Chris to take his hand off her shoulder, though he remained steadfast in holding his own son beneath his own height. "It's pretty much what you heard back there, Chris- we stole the Avalon and abandoned."
"You're as crazy as your damned dad." that seemed to have been a gut reaction from the Captain. But upon seeing the redness that overtook Vera's face - a combination of anger, embarrassment, and sadness - he backed away, shaking his head.
"Sorry, I-" A flicker of regret, then extreme disappointment crossed his eyes, his grip on Kit loosening in the slightest as he stumbled back. Chris, as Vera had always remembered him saying in an effort to guilt trip her, was an aging man, and he relied on his son and goddaughter to carry on his legacy after he left. The problem, though, was that those very same people he relied on to keep his reputation shiny clean were criminals in their own right.
"Why?" He asked pathetically, and it sent a pang of guilt through Vera as she looked at his face. He wasn't disgraced, nor disappointed, but just empty. It was obvious that Kit and Vera were not good people, which in and of itself Vera was not concerned about; the problem came about when it became so obvious the pain she had caused the man who practically raised her.
"Look, Dad, we're sorry-"
He was cut off by their father, who was obviously done with the two; he had raised them both to be the perfect loyalists to Starfleet, and now they stand accused of desertion, something not favored among the purists under their employ. "No, you're not sorry. If you had just an inkling of regret, you never would have done it in the first place. Christopher, you know how much Starfleet does for us. You've disgraced them!"
Kit scoffed, squirming out from under his fathers' grip, now towering over him and Vera. "All they've done is brainwashed you into thinking you want to be here." That was almost enough to send Chris over the edge, as his cheeks flushed a bright red and he made to leap on the arrogant boy, though Vera held him back.
"Kit!" She hissed, her voice dangerously low as she pulled her godfather away from his son.
Shaking his head, Kit raised an arm in defiance. "It's true! All we've ever worked for in our lives is for Starfleet, and we get nothing for it." His words were harsh and certainly not a reality Chris ever wanted to face. Starfleet was beyond powerful, and ruled the entire galaxy, so if they were to hear such a thing, they would be quick to cease the person who said it.
"Maybe if you knew what fucking loyalty was, you would understand," Chris replied, his voice filled with rage. It was one thing to oppose Starfleet on a foreign planet that had no connection to the Federation; it was another entirely to defy them in their own headquarters.
Scarlet filled Kit's cheeks as he looked down at Chris in disgust, preparing himself to attack the man he had looked up to for so long. Before he could, though, Vera leapt forward, putting a hand on each of the man's chests to prevent them from fighting. Thinking to only a few years earlier, when she and Kit had first decided to leave Starfleet, she had no idea it would amount to such a disastrous idea.
All she had wanted was a bit of freedom, the opportunity to leave Earth and travel on her own accord. She had done so much in those few years - find unknown civilizations, visited remote Starfleet bases under the guise of actually belonging to Starfleet, and made more than a few friends along the way (particularly Scotty, whom she had felt a kinship to the first time they spoke).
Kit and Vera had believed they had done it all in the name of research; they thought they had brought themselves to such drastic circumstances because of the restrictions and strict rules they were put under as lowly Cadets.
But, now that they were faced with Chris and the consequences that came from abandonment, Vera felt a bit differently. She had in no way partial to Starfleet - in fact, she believed everything Kit did when it came to their oppression and brainwashing - but, the fact of the matter was that Starfleet guaranteed safeness, and if there was one thing Vera needed more than adventure, it was security.
"Chris, Kit, please. Look, Chris, I know we were wrong, but we're ready to join Starfleet again," Vera pleaded, her words falling empty as both men looked at her skeptically, knowing exactly what she was trying to do.
"Yeah, Dad, we were just kids trying to be rebellious, but we're ready now-"
"Bullshit," Chris interrupted, shaking his head.
Knowing that if she lost Starfleet and Chris after today, she would have nothing, Vera clung onto her godfather, shaking her head vehemently "It's true, Chris, I promise! We were young and dumb and weren't thinking. All we wanted to do was have adventures of our own. But, now that we can truly be a part of Starfleet, we're ready to start anew," she insisted, a desperation in her voice that even Vera herself had never heard before. She cared little to none about Starfleet, but after so long without her family, she had to pick up the pieces of what was left, from biological to her godfather and brother.
Before Chris could respond to her pleas, though, someone poked their head around the corner of the dark hallway, the very same councilwoman as before that argued for Vera, Ellora. "Pike? They've called an emergency meeting at the academy concerning the Kobayashi Maru. It is vital you join us."
Giving a single nod, Chris dismissed Ellora before turning back to the two. "I want you two gone before I come back. Go somewhere else, Scotland, Space, wherever, but I don't want you see your face again." Though he was talking to both of them, Vera noticed he didn't once look at her, rather aiming it towards his son. Glancing back once, he left the hallway hurriedly, along with several others that walked in large strides towards the academy building.
After a moment of silence, Vera and Kit looked at each other uncertainly, both knowing they wouldn't just give up on themselves like that. "So...we're going to that hearing, right?" Kit asked, though he already knew the answer.
