Holidays with the Picards

Description

Christmas and other holidays can always be a fraught time for families. Whether you argue like the Picard brothers, or the Feemans, or are still figuring it out like the Riker twins (clones) the chances are there’s some drama when a family gathers for the holidays. From a Frontier Day truther for an uncle, or a grandmother who won’t stop talking about accidentally going back in time to meet Eisenstein, the future of families could be chaotic.

Whether it’s Christmas, Passover, or a Trill celebration of bacteria that we’re not aware of yet, write a scene with one (or more) of your characters returning home for the holidays. How do they relate to their families, who do they return to, or do they make time with their found families aboard their ship?

 

Criteria

  • Stories must be submitted through the BFMS and your entry should link to that story. Stories should be between 1,000 and 2,500 words.
  • Stories will be graded using the Bravo Fleet Fiction Rubric, which marks on the following criteria: Language, Style, & Mechanics; Adherence to Canon; Perspective; Characterization; Originality; Use of the Prompt.
  • Stories must be written during the competition period and should not be a reuse of an existing story. Stories written before or after the competition begins will be disqualified. The BFMS publication date will be used.
  • The story must be a single author post in BFMS and not a joint post with another author.

Winners

Submissions

User ID Content Date Entry
Cressida Brennan 2765

https://bravofleet.com/story/139236/

2024-11-29 19:07:53
Tiberius Rain 2087

Rain family ranch
Earth

Tiberius stepped onto the creaky wooden porch of his parents’ ranch and inhaled the crisp winter air. Gone were the scents of the livestock and crops. Now that the planting season was passed, the fields were empty and the herd were in the barn out of the cold. After retiring from command, his old man had taken up running a farm as a way of keeping busy. His pops knew that if he just sat around idle, he’d be too prone to getting into trouble. His mother, knowing his father as well as she did, was all too happy to encourage his new venture, preferring to help him with this rather trying to explain away violating fleet rules for dashing off on some adventure to stop who knew what.
“Mom? Dad? I’m home!” Tiberius called out.
He cracked open the front door and slid inside, careful to keep it from opening too wide. He saw his younger brother Kyle’s coat on the hanger next to his younger sister Erin’s. Tib sighed. Again, no sign of Danny this year.
He figured that was to be expected with how tense holidays could get. For all his grace and care in the command chair, he seemed to always struggle with younger brother and father. Too often, he felt like he was born into the wrong family. Growing up in an admiral’s shadow had challenged him to venture out and find a way out from under it. As for Kyle? He had no idea why he and his younger brother could never share a room together.
His mother stepped out of the kitchen, all poise and grace, arms wide to wrap him into a hug. She gave him a tight squeeze, as she always did. They shared greetings and a bit of small chat, catching up.
“So, how are you?” She said, holding him by the shoulders and sizing him up.
Tiberius smiled with a soft shrug.
“Not bad. Just wrapped another mission on the Rubi. Might be my last, I think.”
His mother gave him a curious look. If she’d been holding a cup of coffee, he could imagine her curling up on her favorite reading chair, eager to hear the story.
“Do share.” She said.
“Well, I’ve mentored this crew as long as I can, I think. They’re at a point now where they’re ready to stand on their own. It’s time to move on.”
She smiled at him warmly.
“You always had good instincts. Got those from your old man.”
Tiberius sighed, smiling ruefully. “Sometimes.”
“Come on. Let’s get you some coffee.”
She brought him into the kitchen. From the large kitchen window, he could see his brother and sister outside hurling snowballs at each other and laughing. It made him chuckle. Kyle and Erin always had a deeper connection with each other than he could ever forge with them. He chalked it up to them being twins.
He gave them a nod of his head. “How’ve they been?”
His mother shrugged. “Kyle is fine. He somehow gets himself into trouble like your father. Finds it like he’s got a damn nose for it. Trust me, I’m glad you have my sense because fleet help us all if I had to pry the lot of you out of the brig every weekend. Erin? Well, Erin is Erin. She’s her same quiet self, but if I’m being honest? She’s the brains between those two.”
Tib laughed. “Absolutely. The silent act is just a ruse.”
The two shared a warm laugh that froze over when his father stepped in from outside. Adrian kicked the snow off his boots before removing them and setting them next to the door. His old man was about to come in when his mother stopped him.
“Coat.”
She pointed at the coat wrack and Adrian turned and nodded. Shrugging out of it and hanging it up. Adrian gave Tib a sharp nod and fished a fresh cup of coffee of the countertop.
“Glad you could make it.” Adrian said.
This, of course, did not fly well with his mother, who cuffed him up the side of the ear.
Adrian sighed. “Welcome home, son.”
Tib lifted his coffee in salute to his old man.
“How’s the farm treating you?”
Adrian sighed, running a hand through his progressively greying hair. Where there was once a black mane cut short and wildly kept. Now he was greying out mostly, and it laid down in a now tame part. His old man’s salt and pepper look gave Tib a grim look into his own elderly years. Still, his pops wore it well enough.
“Had to treat a lame hoof with the hoof doc. Had some kind of puss pocket going. Probably stepped on something and it got infected after that.”
“It’ll be ok now though?”
Adrian shrugged. “Need a few weeks to know for sure, but he’s confident he got the issue.”
Tib nodded, sipping at his coffee.
“That’s good.”
He wasn’t really sure what to say. He’d never really bonded with his old man the way Kyle and Erin did. They didn’t have to deal with their dad when he was at his worst. When he cast a shadow, that felt like he’d never climb free of it to see the light of day.
“How’s your piloting?”
“I’m not ace pilot like you were. But I hold my own.”
Adrian grunted.
“I bet.”
Another swat up the side of the head by his mother, who often refereed their interactions. Adrian rarely did well unmonitored. Something happened to him in his past, before Tib. Something that made him cold. Somehow Erin and Kyle melted through that frosty exterior, but they never shared their secret with him.
“Heard you’re finally transfering ships at least.”
“Word gets around fast,” Tib said between sips of coffee.
“I have friends in places.”
“People actually like you?”
This time it was his turn to catch one upside the ear.
“Be nice, you.”
A swat and a warning. But the faint ghost of a smile on his mother’s lips told him he’d amused her.
“The point was: Good. It’s about time you stopped playing around and moved on with your career.”
Tiberius sighed, setting his mug down. Now that the warm up round was done, they could finally get to the heart of it then.
“And there it is. The ever unpleasable curmudgeon makes his displeasure known to his greatest failure.”
Adrian flinched, as though he’d been stabbed in the gut.
“You couldn’t be pleased about the fact I graduated top of my class. No, you didn’t even bother to show up. Nor could you be bothered to attend when I got command of the Rubidoux.”
Adrian opened his mouth to explain, but Tiberius halted. The cork on his anger finally undone.
“No. Let me finish first. I’ve tolerated your silence, and your absence, and the constant disapproval my entire life. I’ve stood back and watched with envy as you bond and share war stories with Kyle and Erin as if they were your favorites. Yet you do nothing but act stonily around me like you don’t even know how to deal with me. I get it. I’m not the son you wanted. I’m not some wild child like Kyle or Erin. No, instead I wound up more like Mom. So you were content to shove me off on her. Instead, the greatest thing you ever gave me was a long cast shadow to climb out from under, and an unending supply of scorn and disdain. The likes of which I’ll never be able to completely diminish.”
His mother made no move to intervene or mediate. This was a bout that been a long time coming. Rather than dance around it though, Tiberius had grown tired of the tiptoe tension they’d been managing and just decided to go right at the issue.
Adrian nodded finally. After a long moment of silence.
“You’re right.”
Tiberius blinked. Dumbstruck at the admission.
“I am?”
“Yeah. I’ve been an ass. I know it. I knew you’d have it the hardest growing up being held to standards I set. Would you join the fleet? Would you be a pilot? Would you go after your own command? How young would you be when you did it?”
He sighed, sliding down onto a stool at the island counter between them, gesturing for Tib to do so. Tiberius was a bit jittery and amped from his sudden onset of frustration. But he could see his old man making an attempt, so he did his best to take a deep breath and be an adult about it and sit down too.
“It wasn’t easy.” Tib said softly.
“I know. It killed me that you had to go through that. But I didn’t think you wanted me helping you. Making it easier for you. Anytime I tried, you got upset with me, dug in and tried even harder to do it your own way. And that made me truly the most proud of you.”
Tib suddenly felt like he was a deflating balloon. All that rightous indignation and anger he’d been carrying around for years, stolen from him. Now in its place was a big choking pile of pain.
“You were?”
“Am.” Adrian corrected.
“Not once have you let me down. From your work ethic to the way you try and lead everyone below you to be better versions of themselves. You’re the best parts of me I never could be when I was your age. We live in different times. Faced different issues and threats. But you carry the name, and our values, tall and proud. I know I’m not the best at showing it. It was too easy to put myself in the box you’d typecast me in. Crotchety old man. I figured you were comfortable with that because it drove you to keep being better. But it’s clear that it’s exacted a price on you that I never wanted you to pay.”
Adrian sighed. He looked up from behind salt and pepper brows to look Tib in the eyes.
“I’m sorry.”
“I’ll leave you two alone for a bit. I’ll go check if the twins need any coco.”
Adrian nodded to his wife as she left with a weary smile.
“You had the worst of it because you were our first together. God, we did so much off the cuff at the time. We had you just before the Dominion war broke out.”
Tib nodded. “I remember the stories mom would tell me before bed.”
Adrian bit back a chuckle and nodded. “She ever tell ya about the time we met?”
“No, actually. I always wondered how the two of you wound up being an item.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“That it’s a mystery she fell in love with you?”
“Well… I wasn’t always a cranky old ass,” Adrian said with a wry grin and wink. Tib realized it wasn’t the first time he’d seen that look on his father, but rarely had it ever been directed at him and he felt conflicting emotions just then.
“So?” Tib said, prodding his father verbally to share.
“Well. There was a nasty battle. The ship I was on, the Indy, took some ugly shot. We were bleeding atmo and power. Couldn’t set auto self destruct because of the intense damage. And we were in the fleet’s front. It was only a matter of time before we bought the farm.”
“So, what did you do?”
“The only thing I could. I went to engineering, overloaded the warp core, and plotted a course right into the enemy fleet. We had a few minutes, tops. Ordered the stragglers to the escape pods and punched in the commands.”
Tib was leaning on the countertop, drawn in by his father’s story. “And?”
“Well, I rigged a small site to site transport next to my fighter. Hopped in and launched off the rear deck just as the ship hurled off. The explosion and debris storm took out my maneuvering and power. I was going to die in that bird. Going out the way I always wanted. In my fighter.”
“But?” Tib asked, hinting to continue.
“But then that glorious blue tractor beam field enveloped my bird as I was losing consciousness. When I came to, I saw your mom that. She had a bad gash the nurse in the sick bay was trying to treat. She asked me what the hell I was thinking, doing something so stupid.”
“What did you say?”
“I just told her I wasn’t thinking. I was just doing. She gave me a look then. Like she was finally seeing me for the first time. She told me, Well, when I’m done with you, you’ll think before doing something that stupid.”
“What did you say?” Tib asked again.
“I laughed. I told her no promises on the thinking part, but as long as she stuck around I’d do my level best to try.”
“Oh that’s the worst.” Tib laughed.
“Hey come on. Your old man used to be a real lady slayer.”
Tib rolled his eyes, laughing. “Sure, let mom hear that. You’ll see the old war lioness come back again.”
Adrian laughed for a bit before sliding into a cough.
“True. But we’ve been a team ever since. She keeps me grounded. As best as anyone can, anyway. But she’s my other half. The one who gets it.”
“This isn’t going to edge into when are you getting married vibes is it?”
“No. Noooo, that’s your mom’s territory. I’m just here to show you why it’s not so bad if you pick the right dance partner.”
Tiberius only smiled at that. Eventually everyone returned back inside, and for once, Tiberius found himself thankful to be home if only for a little bit. He’d long counted the stars his home. But family was also home. And it was nice to be in this particular home for a bit after all.

2024-11-13 01:42:37
Andreus Kohl 2374

https://bravofleet.com/story/137998

 2024-11-09 21:55:11

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