The War at Home

Posted on Tuesday, 9 March 2021 - 7:17pm by Lieutenant JG Adrianna Eberhardt & Crewman Leopold Eberhardt

Mission: Operation: Trail of Tears
Location: USS Standing Bear | Crew Quarters

It was a tad after the midnight hour aboard the starship Standing Bear, and both Leopold and Adrianna had managed the near impossible; The two had managed to wrangle some time together. They were working a similar shift for once which meant they had turned in early for the fresh start in the early morning.

Of course 'morning' was more a loose interpretation. Going by Earth's 24 hour clock aboard a starship in space did not give you the same effect as waking up to a beautiful sunrise. Regardless, Leopold was woke up prematurely by a notification that a message had arrived via subspace.

He typically would have just ignored such information, rolling over and getting back to sleep, but it was a letter from home. Did my parents respond this soon he thought. He tried not to wake Adrianna, but she tended to notice everytime he left their bed.


Nevertheless, he rolled out and retrieved a PaDD to look over the correspondence. It was not a recording but rather an actual typed message. It was not even from his parents as he anticipated. It was from his sister. His eyes raced through the contents of the message, skimming at a quick pace.

Adrianna felt the bed go cold and turned over to snuggle up closer to Leopold. All that welcomed her was a lifeless pillow though. Her eyes fluttered open and she looked around. From the seam of the doorway she saw a dim light.

Silently and still half asleep, she managed to put on Leopold's disgarded undershirt that just about made her decent, not caring if it was inside out, and went to investigate. She saw Leopold had a PaDD in his hand. She yawned and in broken standard asked, "you have epiphany in dream?" She walked over and placed a hand on his shoulder, softly.

"No," he replied with some concern in the tone of his groggy voice. "It's a message from my sister in response to the one you and I sent to my parents," explained Leopold. He looked at Adrianna. "My parents have been arrested by the authorities on Ekos," he said with a seriousness that was a splash of cold water onto them both. "They are set to have a trial at an unspecified date yet to be determined, but my sister says things are not looking good."

Adrianna sat next to him. She'd been in this position but had been the one pulling the trigger. "Do you know what for and whether we can help," Adrianna asked trying to be supportive. She wasnt sure how much their hands were tied at this point.

"Being that it is not a Federation world, it is unlikely that the Federation can or will help," Leopold said. "Plus, Ekos is not exactly the most welcoming place to the Federation, especially Starfleet." He looked through the PaDD skimming the message. "They were arrested by the Ekosian authorities for crimes against the Ekosian government. If I had to wager a bet, I would say that means espionage, but the only enemy to Ekos is Zeon, and my parents would never get involved with anyone from Zeon. They are extremely loyal to Ekos."

Adrianna thought about it a moment. His words didn't provide a solid answer that made sense to himself. She sat back in the seat the suddenly a light bulb went on in her head, "Oh gawd. It wasn't Zeon. It was us." Guilt rushed over her. Had she just signed her future inlaws' death warrants?

Leopold's face went numb and his mind caught up to what Adrianna was saying. The realization hit him. "Ekos monitors all transmissions incoming and outgoing. We had nothing to hide, nothing at all. We sent it through as we would any normal transmission to a planet, but we did not account for the political ramifications," he quipped.

"Damn it!" he shouted. "They took my parents because of me because I'm with Starfleet and the Federation. They aren't spies, Adrianna...they are political pawns being used by the Ekosians."

Adrianna jumped at him suddenly shouting. "This is technically my fault. It was my idea. I didn't think, I'm sorry. I'm sorry," Adrianna felt that she'd sobered up in an instant, without having any form of alcohol in days. She softly put her hand on his arm, "what can I do to help. Anything."

Leopold shook his head, dismissing the woman's guilt. "You may have encouraged me to contact them, but this was going to happen anyways," countered her fiance. "They could have done nothing, let my parents receive the message and reply. It was a harmless correspondence." Leopold stood up and paced around for a few moments. "Clearly, the Ekosian government is up to something. My parents are not Federation citizens. So, it's outside of the Federation's jurisdiction, but this is definitely some sort of message. They are making a statement by doing this."

Adrianna watched him pace. She was silent, unsure of what to say. "We could take some leave and go," she offered, "I have a smuggler friend who'll be near us soon. I've recently called in my favour, but I'm sure he'll help for old time's sake."

"Keep it up your sleeve," replied Leopold. "I can't just walk onto the Bridge and into the Captain's Ready Room. I'm just a Crewman" noted the man. "Captain Stillwater needs to know about this. We can't just request leave and not explain what's going on. If we go to Ekos alone and they decide to arrest or detain us, we become a foreign affairs nightmare."

Adrianna ran a hand through her hair. "I'll talk to the cap-ee-tan in the morning. Come with me. You know more of Ekos than I. Once he's aware, we can send another message to try and stall their trial until we make a plan." She stood up and took his hands, "did the message contain anything positive? Focus on that so you can sleep."

"Yes," he replied "The positive thing is that my parents are still alive and my home world hasn't destroyed itself yet." Leopold gave her a look that showed he was being a bit sarcastic. "Ekos has its own laws and ways of doing things. We definitely need to stall because public executions are still very much fashionable on Ekos."

Adrianna's jaw went a little slack. She felt so guilty. She didn't have anything to say that could help. Adrianna blinked and then wrapped her arms round him, "I am so sorry. We'll sort this. I promise."

"That would be ideal," he said. "I wanted you to meet my parents at a nice supper, not their last meal before meeting a firing squad."

She wanted to make a quip about it still being a meal together but bit her tongue. Now wasn't the time. "Come on, bed," Ade pulled him gently back to their room, "we'll see the cap-ee-tan first thing."

"Okay, but you are taking the lead with him." Leopold got back into bed. "The Captain has a reputation for being prickly. At least that's what the general opinion is from us lower deckers."

Adrianna couldn't help but smile at that, "he's fair and understanding. He's not a prick-y." She curled up to him, yawning. Her language skills faded and so to her consciousness.