𝘈𝘭𝘢𝘯𝘢'𝘴 𝘌𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘳𝘱𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦 ✭ 𝙇𝙚𝙜𝙖𝙘𝙮

[8] 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐚𝐧 𝐞𝐦𝐩𝐢𝐫𝐞

"Dude! Your grandparents are here, I wanna meet them!" Ten-year-old Alana Pike gave a little smile, running a brush through her golden hair and trying to get it into a high ponytail. "Ambassador Sarek and Amanda Greyson are freakin' legendary!"

The two young girls were in Alana and Jim's shared quarters, on Alana's side. Selar, a cadet in the Academy, wore a formal dress uniform. Alana was only ten and therefore a little too young to be a cadet just yet. Instead, she had on a nice dress.

Once again, it was late February, and therefore, diplomat season. The Enterprise had been assigned to transport several ambassadors to discuss the admission of the Coridan system to the Federation. Unfortunately, Ambassador Mackay wasn't onboard; she was already on Coridan.

"Miss Pike-"

"Selar, we talked about this. It's Alana, AP, or Captain Pike. Hell, I'll even take Emory Archer Junior. Don't make me sound like I'm old."

"Very well, Alana- I fear that you are too illogical and emotional for their pleasure," Selar deadpanned, adjusting her collar slightly.

Alana gasped and let her hair fall out of the ponytail she was holding it back in. "That's rude! You take that back!"

"It is merely true, Mi- Alana."

"Hmph. I am not!" In about five seconds, Alana proved Selar's point.

Raising an eyebrow, Selar checked the time. "Forgive me, but I should be going to meet them with the captain, my father, and Dr. McCoy."

As Selar left, Alana gave a little huff and worked on putting her hair back into the ponytail she originally wanted it in. After a few minutes of struggle, she got it, and then headed out of her room. From there, she walked around a bit until she ran into one of the Andorian ambassadors and his partner, who were looking over different aspects of the Enterprise. "Hmm, while the Enterprise is a competent ship, I much rather the structure and honorable ways of our dear, lost, battleship Kumari."

By then they had noticed Alana, who gave a little wave. "Hey. I don't mean to intrude, but that was the one Commander Shran captained, right? Like the one that got destroyed in the prelude to the Earth-Romulan War? And... the one involved with Captain Archer and the conflict at-"

"P'Jem," the ambassador nodded, not wanting to start any old drama. "Indeed. General Thy'lek was previously in command of the ship. He was a valiant leader and it was no mistake handing the ship to his experienced hands."

You know, maybe I shouldn't bring P'Jem up. Even though that's old tea, the Vulcans might still be kinda pissed, and Jim doesn't need more fights... and Jon and Em don't, either. They'll all be after me.

Suddenly, Alana spotted a flash of blue in her peripheral vision, farther down the hall. She blinked, thinking that she was hallucinating, before realizing that she wasn't. "If you'll excuse me, please?"

The Andorian and his partner nodded, and she headed past them. She and Selar had gotten quite familiar with Enterprise, and both of them knew it inside and out. Neither of them could last very long playing Hide and Seek since they both knew all of the good hiding spots.

About fifteen minutes into the search, she heard a yowl and sprinted over in the direction of the sound. There, at the end of the Jeffries tube, was one of the Tellarite ambassadors, and judging by the look of it, he was dead. His eyes were dark, hazy, and halfway closed. There was no blood, and since his head was at an awkward angle, Alana assumed that he'd had his neck snapped or something.

"Oh my god... AP to bridge. I've got a murder to report." She was shaky as she sent the message to the bridge, relaying the details before noticing another flash of blue. "Pike out."