From: Sarah Albertini-Bond (serendipity77_at_gmail.com)
Date: Sat Jul 07 2007 - 18:45:44 PDT
=/\=
"The Orphans"
<continued from Rahul's "Relief Response"?
=/\=
Location: GATEWAY STATION - 2
Scene: Ambassador's office
Time Index: Prior to "Detonation"
"Ambassador, there is one more thing I need to bring to your attention
that needs immediate attention," Slater Zeman said as he wound up all
the things that Xana just *had* to do.
"Mr. Zeman, you are aware of the fact that we are not going anywhere.
The wormhole is gone. Ships coming to the Gamma Quadrant from…well
anywhere else but the Gamma are slim to none. We are on the GATEWAY
for the foreseeable future," Xana said patiently. "And yet, I have a
list of things as long as my arm of things that has to get done
*now*."
"Yes, Madam Ambassador," the Arcadian replied neutrally.
When her Chief of Staff said nothing else Xana sighed and sat back.
"Yes, what else do I need to do?"
"I believe you need to talk to the Superintendent at the GATEWAY Public School."
"Why?"
"There is a question of…citizenship and legality that the
Superintendent needs cleared up."
"If we're talking about civilians here, then only the ranking
Federation government official would be able to settle it," the
Bolian/Italian explained, "since, again as I like to point out, we're
stranded in the Gamma."
Slater Zeman waited a moment, letting silence settle in the room.
"Ma'am," he said quietly, "*you* are the ranking Federation government
official in the Gamma Quadrant now. There will be no other officials
coming out here for a long time."
Xana blinked at that. For a woman who just gave an impassioned and
some would say, articulate speech the only response she could muster
up was:
"Oh shit."
#
Scene: GATEWAY School System – Superintendent's office
Ben Hiram was a wiry teenage male with a most unusual after-school job
– personal aide and intern for Ambassador Bonviva. The pay was ok but
he did get free food (some of it home-cooked by the Ambassador) and
that was definitely good. He was recruited by Tomas' Vukovic, the
former Chief of Staff, who had seen the need for low-level position
that would need to be filled by someone who could be molded into what
they needed. Eilean Peri, the Chief of Security for the Ambassador,
taught Ben how to work the office and more importantly how to gage
what to tell and not tell the Ambassador.
But he stayed because the Ambassador herself often let him come along
(whenever possible) on interesting assignments and more importantly,
asked what he thought about things. She took his opinion as she took
anyone else's in the office and he liked that. He liked thinking that
what he'd tell her would be used to help shape things.
"Explain this to me again," Xana said as they sat in an empty office
waiting for the Superintendent to come back to them with a list of
names.
Ben swallowed the lump in his throat and shifted in his chair. The
question was simple, his answer would not be. "Right, well lots of
people on the GATEWAY are involved in trading in someway. Well they
often have to go off-station to get their stuff. But like they have
kids and stuff and the kids have school. So usually during the few
nights that the parents are away they stay with…I dunno, someone
else."
Xana furrowed her brow. "Isn't there some kind of legal guardian
arrangement set up?"
"Well…kinda. I mean I know my parents have guardians set up for me if
they like die," Ben replied, "but it's not like I go there."
"Why not?"
"Well if my 'rents die then I'm supposed to go to my grandparents on
EARTH," the intern replied, "but if they're going off-station I just
stay with some friends or someone. It's just easier that way."
Superintendent Peoples came back into the room. "Ambassador, here are
the names of the children whose parents or guardians are off-station
and their next-of-kin is as well."
Xana took the PADD and scrolled down. "Dear gods, there must be
hundreds of names here."
"Three hundred and sixty-four," the Superintendent replied.
"Three hundred and sixty-four?" Xana asked disbelievingly as she looked up.
"The GATEWAY school system educates thousands of children each year,"
the Superintendent explained. "Many of those children are part of
families. And now we have a situation where there are no parents for
those children and sending them to their next-of-kin would be a
logistical nightmare, not to mention incredibly unsafe."
The Ambassador shook her head and read the list of names. "Whose your
contact for Starfleet? Anything we would do we'd have to consult with
them."
"It's Counselor McInnis," the Superintendent replied.
"Right, I knew that," Xana sighed. Tapping her communicator she said,
"Bonviva to McInnis."
[[McInnis here.]]
"I don't want to take you off-course whatever your current command has
given you," Xana said as diplomatically as she could muster, "but
there's a situation at the GATEWAY school that we would need
Starfleet's opinion on."
[[Understood.]]
While waiting for Gene, Xana wandered around the school, listening at
doorways to the kids inside. The school administration had made sure
to keep all the kids who were affected by this in school, under the
pretext of after-school activities. Her heart wanted to just take
care of the children and somehow bring them all home with her. Logic
dictated that would be impossible, not to mention illegal.
Ben came walking over with a new PADD. "I got that cross-referenced
list for you – with the kids and the location of their guardians," he
said. "Oh and I got an update for you. Came over from the office."
"Update?" Xana asked as she began reading the new PADD.
"Your daughter is now with…uhh…I think they said Commander Gorman's
family," Ben relayed.
"Where's Commander Gorman?" she asked.
"In the hospital. She's in ICU," Ben said. "Wait I wrote it down."
Xana impatiently took the PADD from Ben. "Dear gods, she's
unconscious in ICU and the baby is in neo-natal ICU."
"Dahlia is with the Commander's family," Ben offered.
Xana shook her head. "Damn it. I need to find out what's going on
there. And I really should get Dahlia out of their hands, they've
enough going on."
"Oh and one more thing."
"What now?"
"You're getting your military liaison," Ben replied, looking for that
PADD in his deep pockets of the jacket he wore. Finding it he handed
it over.
"If said military liaison made it," the Ambassador sighed. "Wait I'm
getting Lieutenant Jack *Casey*? I'm not important enough to get a
Casey."
"Casey?" Ben asked.
"Oh that's right, your family isn't Starfleet," Xana sighed. "Right
there are a few Starfleet families that you'll hear about. Casey is
one of them. And you'll really hear about them."
"Rochelli is another," came from behind them.
Xana looked over Ben's should and saw Gene standing there in his
civvies. There was a history for both of them with the Rochellis –
for her it was shaky. For him it was quite good. She couldn't figure
out if Gene was trying to needle her in some way or if he was just
throwing himself into the conversation. "Yes, Rochelli is another,"
Xana agreed. Turning to Ben she explained as she handed back that
PADD, "But in our case, we're getting Apollo, if you will. Trust me
when I say that Adm. Casey is Zeus throwing down his thunderbolts from
SFC." Looking over at her husband, who she rarely got to work with
these days, she became friendly – if professional. "We have a
situation here at the school that we could use your help with."
"I can just about guess," he offered, handing his wife a PADD.
"We have a number of children on the Station without their custodial
parents. This is a list of just the Starfleet kids. If they're
lucky, one of their parents is still on Station, or a close relative
can take them. But there are a lot of others who are going to fall
through that bureaucratic crack."
Xana scanned the PADD quickly.
"Do you have an estimate?"
"In the hundreds at least, maybe into the thousands."
"O gods," she whispered. "All those kids."
"We did some brainstorming in the Counseling Department, and came
up with a number of proposals. We'd like the civilian kids included
along with the Starfleet children. This is no time to play 'them' and
'us.' "
Xana nodded, still struck by the enormity of their task. Just
when she thought it couldn't get any worse, she found it could. Much
worse.
"What were the proposals?"
"There may be adults among the Starfleet and civilian populations
who are willing to take on children as temporary adoptees. The
'temporary' status is just nit-picking. The chances of them ever
reuniting with their families in the ALPHA Quadrant is virtually nil."
Xana heard it in his voice, then. His home was gone, too. BAJOR
had once been just hours away. Now it was more than his lifetime
away. His parents. His brother. The family farm. Gone. Or so far
away, it was likely just as if it were gone. She didn't offer him
comfort. Her world was just as gone as his was. But that wasn't the
reason. He'd found the thing he was searching for, the thing that
would help him pull himself out of the darkness and back into the
light.
"We may also find various individuals willing to assume
responsibility for children as 'big brother/big sister' kinds of
organizations did on TERRA in the Americas. Some of the cadets at the
ACADEMY did that, but I don't know a lot about their actual programs.
I don't think they were meant to become surrogate parents, though.
Just role models. This may work for some of the older children."
"What about the rest?" Xana asked. "We're not going to get nearly
enough volunteers. And we're going to have to vet those who do
volunteer very carefully to avoid any kind of abuse."
Gene nodded.
"Actually it was Mowree that came up with the idea."
"Our Caitian?"
"Yes. It seems that Caitians are quite family oriented, but their
familial ties tend to be quite broader than most humanoids are. They
live in aggregates with large numbers of aunts and uncles and cousins
as well as their biological parents. On TERRA they'd be called
'Prides.' "
"You're talking about a sort of orphanage?"
"In a manner of speaking. They'd all live in a communal dormitory
setting, much the way we did as cadets in the ACADEMY, and they'd be
overseen by a variety of folk. Mostly Starfleet officers, especially
from the Counseling Center at first, but with every officer and
crewman required to spend one duty shift a week supervising, even if
it was just while they all slept. The Counseling Center already
handles the education of Starfleet children. It's just another step
to inclusion of the others."
"You've given this a lot of thought," Xana offered with real approval.
"I'm here on this side of the Wormhole for a reason," Gene said
levelly. "If the Prophets have given us this burden, then it must be
because they feel we can carry it."
Xana had never known him to speak in this manner. Her own
spiritual life was a rocky affair, split between the demands of two
jealous Bolian deities. Gene's religious upbringing had never been
much of a concern. But if it helped him out of his funk, she was all
for it.
"Good," she said. "Let's take this to Kane. Maybe if we solve a
problem before he realizes it even is a problem, he'll give us some
latitude for other ... problems," she muttered.
-------------------- =/\=
NRPG: As the time index indicates this takes place before the events
in Jerome's post. Kenneth and I had started this and didn't want to
give it up. But I thought it important to shed some light on issues
that are outside our normal activities that could happen on a station.
Kenneth, thank you so much for writing this with me. As far as the
other things we talked about with Xana in prison and Gene going to
ANDARA well I'll leave that in your capable hands but I'm around if
you need anything.
Everyone: 1 more post after this so hang onto your hats ;)
=/\=
Kenneth Field
envision_at_fidalgo.net
aka Commander Gene McInnis
CNS/GS-2
aka Lt. JG Mowree Nurunyon
aCNS/GS-2
aka Tomas' Alexei Vukovic
Former Chief of Staff to Ambassador Xana Bonviva
currently with the BORG
aka Maury R. Tee
Professor of English (Retired)
Proprietor of "Impulse Drives,"
a little shop of horrors
GS-2, Promenade
=/\= and =/\=
Sarah Albertini-Bond serendipity77_at_gmail.com
Ambassador Xana Bonviva
Federation Ambassador
GATEWAY STATION - 2
From HyperNews_at_youth.net
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