“Can we… drop the ranks for a moment?”

Karyn hadn’t expected that, certainly not as the first thing out of her son’s mouth after stepping back aboard the Odyssey, Jordan in tow, both of them making a beeline for her ready room. She and James had agreed to see them the moment the entire squadron had finally caught up with one another.

Sitting on one of her sofas, with James next to her, Karyn just nodded to her son. “I think it would be wise.” She took off her combadge, and James did the same. Both of them placed them on the glass coffee table in front of them. A quiet signal: this was no longer formal. This was no longer Starfleet officers talking. This was family.

Alfie and Jordan sat opposite them, hand-in-hand, both trying to look more grown-up than they had ever seen them before. Alfie hesitated for a fraction of a second, like he was choosing his opening move.

“I resent the fact that, once again, it’s down to me and Jordan to step in and save the day.”

Karyn pressed her lips together, fighting a smile.

It was the tone. The performance of it.

She placed a hand over her mouth, stifling a smile at how very dramatic that statement from her son was. It was cute, in her opinion, how he was trying to be serious and confident with his words. For a fleeting moment, all she could think of was him dressed up as Captain Proton with his brothers and Uncle Tobie, getting ready to save the day on the holodeck from Doctor Chaotica. At the corner of her eye, she saw that James wasn’t doing much better beside her to hide his bemusement.

“Alfie, my darling, what do you mean?”

He sat up straighter. Jordan gave him a small, steadying look and then Alfie spoke. “We were used last time during the negotiations with the Talaxians and Ocampa on Talveya, and I got pulled into that temporal paradox two years ago in the Paulson Nebula.”

“What temporal paradox, babe?” Jordan asked, looking at Alfie in a loving, but concerned way.

Alfie waved it off. “You don’t have clearance for it,” he said quickly, almost too quickly.

Karyn exchanged a glance with James before looking back at her son and his fiancé. “Alfie, Jordan, you both know how proud we are of you and your contributions towards the work we do out here in the Delta Quadrant.”

“And both of you were incredible with the Talaxians and Ocampas, we said it before, that your status with them was a crucial element to the success of the trade talks,” James added. “It’s why you both received those commendations.”

Karyn nodded in agreement with her husband. “We also understand that right now, having to ask you and your classmates to step up and deal with another situation can be a challenge. However, that is the life of a Starfleet officer. We deal with the unknown, and sometimes the universe sends us on the most bizarre missions.”

She leaned forward slightly, softening her tone. “We step up anyway and deal with it. We understand. Especially now that this time you are having to deal with a possible future version of yourselves, which doesn’t make sense as to who they’ve become. Unfortunately, that’s the nature of time-travel, it always throws something your way you’re not expecting.”

“Yeah, but Mom, this isn’t normal! You’re asking me to chat with a future version of myself, alongside a kid who’s apparently mine, and a guy who’s supposed to be my husband that I’ve never even met! How messed up is that?” Alfie whined.

“It is messed up,” Karyn agreed. “I couldn’t agree more with you on that fact.”

“Alf,” James leaned in, tone sharpening as he looked at his son. Karyn noticed that he was taking his stern, firmer dad approach. “You saw that future version of the Odyssey, destroy the future version of the Orion. There is no way any of our ships in the squadron could survive an attack. Do you honestly want to see the Astra or the Whirlwind or the Odyssey destroyed?”

Alfie rolled his eyes and pushed to his feet abruptly, tension snapping through him, after letting go of Jordan’s hand. “Of course not, Dad and don’t do that. Don’t try to corner me with that.” He took a few steps away, dragged a hand through his hair, and then placed his hands on his hips. “You know I don’t want to see that, none of us do. The Odyssey is my home, the Astra has become our home,” he said as he turned and gestured towards him and Jordan. “And the Whirlwind is where my future in-laws are. Don’t try to shame me with that stuff. Come on, I’m not twelve anymore!”

“I’m not trying to guilt-trip you or shame you, Alfie, but you need to understand the consequences here if we do nothing,” James remarked.

“I know the consequences!” Alfie snapped back.

Karyn didn’t appreciate the tone her son was taking. “Then listen to your father and me and get over yourself with this, Alfie. You are acting like a twelve-year-old you, because you’re not getting your own way.”

“Oh, that’s really supportive, thanks, Mom,” Alfie sarcastically said.

Karyn stood slowly, not raising her voice, but filling the room all the same. “Alfie, I am trying to be supportive, we both are,” she indicated towards her and James. “But for our plan to succeed, you are going to have to cope with dealing with a possible future son of yours and someone who, in a different timeline and reality, will be and was your husband. I get it that it’s not Jordan, and we get it that you two are madly in love with one another. The whole damn squadron knows that, and probably the entire Fourth Fleet!”

Karyn paused. “Yes, it’s uncomfortable. Yes, it’s unfair. And yes, you’re being asked to face something none of us ever prepared you for.” She held his gaze. “But that doesn’t mean you get to walk away from it.”

She took his hands into hers and held them tightly, like a mother, not a Starfleet captain. “If we don’t stop future-slash-alternative-reality-you, then others will die, the entire Delta Quadrant will be devastated.”

“You’re talking about possibilities,” Alfie shot back. “And you’re talking about the possibility of the Borg being completely wiped out for good. I don’t see an issue with that?”

Alfie let go of his mother’s hands. “If Janeway couldn’t do it, if Picard couldn’t, then maybe this is how it happens! Surely it would be doing the entire galaxy a favour to rid ourselves of them, once and for good?! I mean, they destroyed your homeworld, Mom, and killed most of your family! Maybe this is the moment it finally ends with them!”

Something in Karyn’s expression changed. She felt it in her bones.

Not anger. Not quite.

Something sharper.

The sound cracked through the room.

Alfie froze.

His hand rose slowly to his cheek.

Karyn had lost it with her son shouting at her and slapped him.

“Do not,” she said, voice tight, “ever use my losses to justify something like that.”

She took a step toward him. Conviction was in her eyes.

“You think I don’t know what the Borg have taken? You think I haven’t lived with that every single day?” Karyn took a moment. “And still, I would never choose this. That is not the woman I am, and that is not the man I raised in you to be either!”

Alfie stood there, shocked that his mother had hit him like that. Both James and Jordan had stood up the moment she had hit him and put him back in his place.

Pointing at him, holding back the tears, Karyn continued. “You need to grow up, Alfie, yes, you’re a cadet, yes, you’re young, but understand this, my son, you are part of something that is bigger than all of us. Yes, this mission is going to be uncomfortable for you, but you’ve not met Parker, and you’ve not met Preston yet. See the bigger picture around you for once and not just what’s in front of you.”

Alfie pushed back the tears. He and Karyn had never fought like this before. Never. She had never laid a hand on him. He said nothing.

“I’m sorry for hitting you, Alfie, but don’t ever think you or anyone in this universe gets to tell me what the Borg deserve. I know that already. Everyone who has ever lost someone to them knows that. But I am not someone who would endorse the genocide of any race, especially when it puts others at risk as well.”

Standing up straight, she went to the coffee table, picked up her combadge and placed it back on her uniform. It had changed now, back to them being Starfleet officers. She was his superior.

“What your future self is planning isn’t justice, it’s annihilation. And it won’t stop with them. It never does. I’m sorry for hitting you, but if you ever want to be compared to the icons like Janeway or Picard, then do something amazing, not something devastating. Be remembered for changing the galaxy, not standing by and allowing it to be destroyed. Be better”

Karyn turned and walked out without another word.