Post by Deleted on Jan 5, 2017 13:34:00 GMT -8
Sixteen year old Sandy Belle played with her breakfast cereal with an antique silver spoon in the small dining nook of the bunker under her family's sprawling ranch house located in Tyler, Texas. Sandy languidly stirred the milk left in her mostly finished bowl, watching the remaining cereal flakes twirl in the bowl as she did so, although her blue diamond eyes seemed fixated on one particular flake that clung stubbornly to the edge of the bowl.
Feeling an affinity to the lone flake, Sandy suddenly looked up at the middle-aged heavy set woman who sat across from her eating, asking cheerfully, for she always tried to sound cheerful even when she didn't feel it, "When do y'all think we can go back upstairs, Ms. Hamilton? I really, REALLY would just love to see sunlight again!"
The older woman looked up with a kind smile, answering as she had a hundred times before, "Sandy, you know as well as I do, we'll be able to go back upstairs when security gives the all clear."
Looking forlornly at her breakfast bowl, Sandy grumbled, "Knowing Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones, that's going to take a while! Kind of like waiting for Godot."
Waiting for Godot was a twentieth century play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for the arrival of someone named Godot who never gets there, but who meet several other people who they talk with just to kill time. Before the war with the Klingons, Sandy's parents took her as a preteen to a live production of the play in Dallas' Winspear Opera House. It was an absurdest play, so she didn't understand much of it, but enjoyed the adventure and the fact that her father, mother, and all three of her siblings were together. These days, Sandy felt a kinship with the protagonists in the play, for she felt she was waiting for her parents to return for her but who would never come back.
Thinking on it, that was probably the last thing they had done all together as a family. Since the war, her father, Commodore Thaddeus Belle, was somewhere off-world at some super secret location that no one would tell her. Her mother, as a career Starfleet R&D civilian scientist, was in some super secret bunker on Earth somewhere that no one would tell her as well. Her two brothers, identical twins, were in Starfleet Academy studying to be Federation security officers, but since the academy in San Francisco was destroyed, she didn't know where they were either.
The only one of her immediate family whose location she knew was for sure was her sister, five years younger, who was currently sleeping nearby in the bunker. Sandy had been very close with her younger sibling before the war, but now her thin and sickly sister had become withdrawn and hardly ate anything, just slept for hours, no matter how hard Sandy tried to engage her. Her sister was a constant worry for Sandy these days, who didn't seem to get better no matter what Sandy tried to do to lighten her mood; but Sandy didn't know what else to do about it, being only a teenager herself.
As to the three adults whose care the two sisters had been put under, the two security guards were too grim and monosyllabic to get close to, and Ms. Hamilton, the girls' full-time tutor and, Sandy knew for a fact, nanny, although friendly enough, had strict orders from Sandy's father to be an authoritarian to the girls first and foremost. Sandy herself had been lectured by her father before he left to only refer to the "hired help" by formal title and last name, because, "Y'all need to get use to formalities and protocol when you get into Starfleet, young lady!"
Sandy dutifully did as her father told her, for she always wanted him to be proud of her, being more than a little bit of a Daddy's girl. She did draw the line at becoming a security officer, for she loved the sciences, especially those dealing with alien species, for in that she followed her mother. Sandy finished the last spoonful of her cereal, not because she was still hungry but because her mother had always admonished her when she didn't, saying sternly, "There are starving children in the universe who would love to have that food you left on your plate, young woman!"
Sandy was never sure how eating all the food on her plate would help any starving children anywhere, but she also never questioned her mother. Sandy's mother was a renowned xenobiologist, and sought to weaponize alien viruses to create biological weapons to by used against the Federation's enemies. Sandy too wanted to be an xenobiologist since she was age six, but for much different reasons than just because she wanted to be like her mother, although that probably played a part in it too. Truth to tell, Sandy was a Mommy's girl just as much as a Daddy's girl.
However, Sandy primarily wanted to be an xenobiologist because she was curious about all things alien, both biological and cultural. Sandy was curious not as to sentient alien races devices but as to their minds, and believed if you are to truly going to understand a sentient alien race, you had to understand the non-sentient creatures that surrounded the race often causing it to develop in the way it did.
Sandy sighed as she stood up to clear the table, trying to remain optimistic that she would get out of the bunker soon. The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex was an important target for the Klingons although it's defenses were quite formidable, and since it's boundaries moved as it grew, it bordered just outside Tyler's own city limits. Thus, if the Klingons attacked the metroplex, it affected Tyler too, although the self-proclaimed "Rose Capital of the Universe" had no strategic worth itself.
Mr. Smith poked his head into the dining nook informing in a matter-of-fact manner, "All's clear, you can go upstairs now."
Sandy's rose petal lips curved up in a big smile as she squealed in delight, pushing herself past the security officer standing in the doorway with a muttered, "S'cuse me," as she raced upstairs as fast as she could, not stopping until she was out the front door. Once there, she closed her blue eyes tightly, tilting her head upwards as she opened her pale arms wide towards the sky as if in supplication as she basked in the hot Texas sunshine.
Somewhat reluctantly, she opened her big blue eyes, scanning the suburban cul de sac her house was located on. Her smile grew even bigger when she saw one of her neighbors who had gone to public high school with her before the war began and before she was suddenly enrolled in home school. Sandy had been popular in high school, the class secretary, actively engaged in all sorts of extracurricular activities and a bit of a social butterfly. Since the war began, she still kept virtual visits with her high school friends, but it just wasn't the same thing to her, for she missed the friendly hugs they often gave each other in greeting or farewell, and the emotional warmth one feels when next to someone who is a friend but which can never be replicated by hologram or social network.
As Sandy vigorously waved jumping up and own, yelling, "Clarice! Over here! It's Sandy!"
As Clarice waved back and walked towards her, Sandy's heart suddenly fell as she heard Ms. Hamilton's voice from behind her, "Don't forget, you have your Klingon language lesson in half an hour!"
Feeling an affinity to the lone flake, Sandy suddenly looked up at the middle-aged heavy set woman who sat across from her eating, asking cheerfully, for she always tried to sound cheerful even when she didn't feel it, "When do y'all think we can go back upstairs, Ms. Hamilton? I really, REALLY would just love to see sunlight again!"
The older woman looked up with a kind smile, answering as she had a hundred times before, "Sandy, you know as well as I do, we'll be able to go back upstairs when security gives the all clear."
Looking forlornly at her breakfast bowl, Sandy grumbled, "Knowing Mr. Smith and Mr. Jones, that's going to take a while! Kind of like waiting for Godot."
Waiting for Godot was a twentieth century play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters, Vladimir and Estragon, wait for the arrival of someone named Godot who never gets there, but who meet several other people who they talk with just to kill time. Before the war with the Klingons, Sandy's parents took her as a preteen to a live production of the play in Dallas' Winspear Opera House. It was an absurdest play, so she didn't understand much of it, but enjoyed the adventure and the fact that her father, mother, and all three of her siblings were together. These days, Sandy felt a kinship with the protagonists in the play, for she felt she was waiting for her parents to return for her but who would never come back.
Thinking on it, that was probably the last thing they had done all together as a family. Since the war, her father, Commodore Thaddeus Belle, was somewhere off-world at some super secret location that no one would tell her. Her mother, as a career Starfleet R&D civilian scientist, was in some super secret bunker on Earth somewhere that no one would tell her as well. Her two brothers, identical twins, were in Starfleet Academy studying to be Federation security officers, but since the academy in San Francisco was destroyed, she didn't know where they were either.
The only one of her immediate family whose location she knew was for sure was her sister, five years younger, who was currently sleeping nearby in the bunker. Sandy had been very close with her younger sibling before the war, but now her thin and sickly sister had become withdrawn and hardly ate anything, just slept for hours, no matter how hard Sandy tried to engage her. Her sister was a constant worry for Sandy these days, who didn't seem to get better no matter what Sandy tried to do to lighten her mood; but Sandy didn't know what else to do about it, being only a teenager herself.
As to the three adults whose care the two sisters had been put under, the two security guards were too grim and monosyllabic to get close to, and Ms. Hamilton, the girls' full-time tutor and, Sandy knew for a fact, nanny, although friendly enough, had strict orders from Sandy's father to be an authoritarian to the girls first and foremost. Sandy herself had been lectured by her father before he left to only refer to the "hired help" by formal title and last name, because, "Y'all need to get use to formalities and protocol when you get into Starfleet, young lady!"
Sandy dutifully did as her father told her, for she always wanted him to be proud of her, being more than a little bit of a Daddy's girl. She did draw the line at becoming a security officer, for she loved the sciences, especially those dealing with alien species, for in that she followed her mother. Sandy finished the last spoonful of her cereal, not because she was still hungry but because her mother had always admonished her when she didn't, saying sternly, "There are starving children in the universe who would love to have that food you left on your plate, young woman!"
Sandy was never sure how eating all the food on her plate would help any starving children anywhere, but she also never questioned her mother. Sandy's mother was a renowned xenobiologist, and sought to weaponize alien viruses to create biological weapons to by used against the Federation's enemies. Sandy too wanted to be an xenobiologist since she was age six, but for much different reasons than just because she wanted to be like her mother, although that probably played a part in it too. Truth to tell, Sandy was a Mommy's girl just as much as a Daddy's girl.
However, Sandy primarily wanted to be an xenobiologist because she was curious about all things alien, both biological and cultural. Sandy was curious not as to sentient alien races devices but as to their minds, and believed if you are to truly going to understand a sentient alien race, you had to understand the non-sentient creatures that surrounded the race often causing it to develop in the way it did.
Sandy sighed as she stood up to clear the table, trying to remain optimistic that she would get out of the bunker soon. The Dallas/Fort Worth metroplex was an important target for the Klingons although it's defenses were quite formidable, and since it's boundaries moved as it grew, it bordered just outside Tyler's own city limits. Thus, if the Klingons attacked the metroplex, it affected Tyler too, although the self-proclaimed "Rose Capital of the Universe" had no strategic worth itself.
Mr. Smith poked his head into the dining nook informing in a matter-of-fact manner, "All's clear, you can go upstairs now."
Sandy's rose petal lips curved up in a big smile as she squealed in delight, pushing herself past the security officer standing in the doorway with a muttered, "S'cuse me," as she raced upstairs as fast as she could, not stopping until she was out the front door. Once there, she closed her blue eyes tightly, tilting her head upwards as she opened her pale arms wide towards the sky as if in supplication as she basked in the hot Texas sunshine.
Somewhat reluctantly, she opened her big blue eyes, scanning the suburban cul de sac her house was located on. Her smile grew even bigger when she saw one of her neighbors who had gone to public high school with her before the war began and before she was suddenly enrolled in home school. Sandy had been popular in high school, the class secretary, actively engaged in all sorts of extracurricular activities and a bit of a social butterfly. Since the war began, she still kept virtual visits with her high school friends, but it just wasn't the same thing to her, for she missed the friendly hugs they often gave each other in greeting or farewell, and the emotional warmth one feels when next to someone who is a friend but which can never be replicated by hologram or social network.
As Sandy vigorously waved jumping up and own, yelling, "Clarice! Over here! It's Sandy!"
As Clarice waved back and walked towards her, Sandy's heart suddenly fell as she heard Ms. Hamilton's voice from behind her, "Don't forget, you have your Klingon language lesson in half an hour!"