Location: Overwatch Station, CO Ready Room

Elsie was in her ready room, she needed a moment to catch her breath. It had been a long day, and she wanted a moment to herself.

She sat down and looked at a blank monitor, she could see her reflection off the monitor. She had a grave smile on her face.

She wondered how the girls were doing. She hadn’t seen them all morning, mainly because she was busy and meetings and they were in school. But with Byron being gone, they were the closest thing she had to him. But there are also their own people and they’re also her children and she missed them dearly.

It was almost lunch time so she decided to head down to the mess hall and surprise him. They’ve asked her to go down and visit them on several occasions. But she had been so busy as of late that she hadn’t been able to get down there. And she knew she needed to do better about that.

Elsie started to head towards the mess hall, leaving the command center and her office behind her her office was attached to the command center so she literally went from the command center straight to the turbo left and down to the mess hall.

Overwatch Station, Mess Hall

Mila, Hope and Amber walked into the mess hall, and they were so happy to see their mother. They all walked over to give her a hug.

“Mom.” Yelled out Amber with a big smile on her face, as she reached over to give her even a deeper hug.

“I’m so glad you can eat with us today mommy.” Hope said with the big grin on her face as well.

Mila was the only one that seemed to be rational in her approach but she was super excited, it was clearing her tone. “Mom this is a wonderful surprise.”

“I’m sorry I’ve been busy as of late, I hope this isn’t the standard way of doing things on the station, I’m going to get better about this and we’ll find proper time even if I have to flex around my schedule a little bit.” Elsie said with a smile on her face, and she returned you to the children’s hugs.

“I’m so glad you could take some time off mom, I know how busy you are.” Mila said as she took her mom’s hand to start dragging her towards the table where the girls were sitting at.

“You got a table with a view.” Elsie said with a smile on her face.

“Yeah sometimes we get lucky mama.” Hope said with a big grin on her face, she was so happy because she was the one that picked the table today and she was so happy that I was by the window. Hope didn’t like not be able to see outside, especially since the Moon and the Big Planet we’re so beautiful.

“How are you guys liking your holographic teacher?” Elsie asked as she looked to the three girls.

“Mom seriously you need to talk to the engineers and have them give our teacher a personality she’s so mundane and boring.” Mila suggested with a slightly annoyed look on her face.

“Hey she’s not that bad, I kind of like her.” Hope said as she voiced her own concern.

“Well you’re the only one that likes her then.” Amber said agreeing with mila, that the teacher was obnoxious and black personality.

Mila and Amber who would prefer a new program, the holodeck had several different teachers so why couldn’t they pull for one of them why did it have to be this lady and why did I have to be this program?

Elsie just grandin smiled. “It wouldn’t really be the school experience if you actually liked your teacher, now would it?” She said teasingly.

“I think it’d be better mom, not worse. I would actually want to learn out actually want to do something with my classes instead of just trying not to fall asleep in them.” Amber suggested to her mother.

“I’ll take that under advisement.” Elsie said as she tried to give a straight face. She did not want to show the kids, her sense of humor in this situation. It could easily trigger them. Elsie was going to look into the situation.

“We would appreciate that “ Mila said, not wanting to push their luck and asked for more.

Elsie was pleased to see a healthy balance of food in their trays. “I’m impressed with you’re food options. Who wants to get in cream after school today for being so healthy?”

All three girls said in unison. “Me!” They screamed in excitement. They love a good bowl of ice cream.

Location: Overwatch Station, Corridors

Elsie left the luncheon with the girls, she was heading to the bridge. The journey was slow and tiresome. She was thinking about the girls requests.

It was a reasonable request and one that she could easily fulfill. She would review holographic teachers of today. She hoped she could find a replacement the girls would like.

Elsie was heading back to the turbolift. Her next stop the command operations center. She still had work to complete today.

Location: Overwatch Station, Command Center

Elsie was now in the command center, she looked around and get to tell the other officers are all at work. She slowly made her way towards the operations table.

She didn’t say anything she just looked around, she was very proud of this team. Even with her not being here they were able to perform their duties, and that made her very proud.

And she walked towards the Operation Center she continued looking around the room, she was expecting an afternoon shipment to come in for the station itself. They are running low and so food provisions. Even though they had replicators the crew still prefer to have good old traditional food. Their cargo bays aren’t large enough to sustain long-term stories so they had to get constant containers full of food that would last a month at most.

She had no idea how Armando kept the shipments going on a regular basis. She knew though that he was a mastermind always thinking ahead. I gave her a new found respect for the logistics team which before taking this assignment she would have never considered their feelings or how things are processed or what loopholes they have to go through.

Becoming a divisional Commander really opened her eyes too the broader spectrum of starfleet, I made her proud to be a member of starfleet. Especially after all those years where Starfleet kind of turns back on his exploration program but it was the other programs that maintained it and nurtured it. And now she understood why.

For Elsie this is a very surreal moment, she was starting to understand more and more about what it meant to be a Starfleet officer. And how Starfleet was more than just exploration. It was partially defense it was partially Logistics it was partially the compassion and caring for others. And even though they went through a dark time and they focus primarily on their own units and their own core worlds, she was happy to see that they’re returning to a sense of normalcy.

Even with the assault by the Vaadwaur, the core foundation of the Federation could not be shaken. And they were pushed back. The Federation had prevailed and they weren’t able to stop them. As

Elsie continues to look around the command center the scene starts to fade away.