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Miradonian Biological Flight Mechanics

Posted on Thu May 7th, 2020 @ 10:56am by Rear Admiral Farenia Meowlith & Lieutenant Mona Gonadie & Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox
Edited on on Tue May 19th, 2020 @ 12:37pm

Mission: Return to the Core
Location: ARW Golden Ghost
Timeline: 2397

The largest cabin on the Golden Ghost was still relatively small by Federation standards, especially for a family of now five, and Mona was still having a hard time wrangling the three newborn chicks to get them fed as they did their very best to fly around like chickens. They'd make it up to the lower shelves with a lot of flapping, then from there, flap their way across the room like it was a game to another set of shelves, then to the couch, then glide to the floor and repeat.

And poor Mona was running around no longer filled with pregnancy hormones and without her heightened bond-awareness so they were evading her fairly easily, leaving her somewhat frazzled.

Eventually, she finally put her foot down, rested her hands on her ample hips, and scowled. "It is time for all good chicks to eat and if you don't eat, you can't grow up to be big strong birds like your parents. So that means you all need to stop playing and line up, right now!"

All three ignored her and kept playing and laughing as if she weren't even there.

"So help me..." Mona muttered under her breath as she flopped down on the couch just in time to catch Tala. "Finally..." Then she felt Dox through the chicks' bond coming back to their quarters, possibly with bad news as she felt rather grumpy.

The chicks' mental abilities were still strong. Extremely strong, it seemed, as the quietest of the three girls transmitted her senses to Mona through touch. Looking up with her big, bronze-colored eyes, the young girl with an already brilliant plume of greenish-blue down and feathers crowning her head, said in a gentle voice. "Ri’anov?"

It was the Romulan word for mother, that the chicks used when referring to the other half of their parents. The decidedly Romulan half, that was stepping through the door with a PaDD in her hand and a scowl on her face. Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox might have only been the flight chief on the Hera, but on the Artan-Run GOLDEN GHOST, her rank as an Artan Baroness put the ship under her uncomfortable command.

Unfastening the neck of her crimson Starfleet uniform, which she preferred to wear on the Ghost so that the crew would remember that the young, redheaded Romulan woman WAS a Starfleet officer first and foremost, stepped over to Mona and smiled as much as she could. "Sorry, I'm late getting back. My attempt at contacting Starfleet and the Admiralty... took longer than I thought and didn't exactly go well."

"Then you can tell me about it while you help me convince these three it's time to eat," Mona replied, leaning back on the couch, exhausted. "They listen to you more than me for some reason."

"Right. Okay, I'll see what I can do." Raising an eyebrow slightly, Dox took a slight breath. As always, she had a thousand things on her mind, but ultimately the four people in this room needed to be her primary concern before other considerations. In truth, she was far more frustrated trying to be an officer in charge of a situation she could do very little about than she was trying to adapt to being a mother, which as a concept still seemed so unusual for her.

A Mother. She was a mother. The three amazing, beautiful girls in the room where her and Mona's daughters. Her mind could barely wrap itself around the idea. In the day since the Golden Ghost had left Mona's homeworld of Miradon, every time Dox closed her eyes, she was half-afraid that when she opened them again, this would all somehow have only been a dream, it was still all so surreal to her. But it was real and it was wonderful and she was determined to not screw it up.

Mona was still sitting calmly in Mona's arms, though her eyes were fixed on Dox with that kind of deep focus that had become commonplace for her in these, her first days of life. On the edge of the bed, the slightly chunkier Hlai'vana was bouncing up and down on her hands and knees. Of the three, she had the least amount of feathers and looked the most Romulan, with mostly dark black plumage on her head, pierced by two shocking streaks of crimson red that stretched back from her eyebrows to the nape of her neck. And she was leaning over the edge of the couch, poking her other sister, Amihan, on the forehead, giggling each time.

For her part, the golden-plumed Ami, who had almost complete coverage of feathers and looked the most Miradonian of the three made a rythmic ringing sound every time her sister booped her. But when Dox cleared her throat and spoke, all three fixed their attention on her with the same intensity that Tala had. "Really? Are you three not eating? Are you not listing to your Nona?"

For just a moment, Dox was taken aback by hearing what sounded like her OWN mother's voice coming out of her and she tensed up at the idea, before shaking it off and picking up the two, wayward birds and plopping them on the couch next to Tala, on Mona's side. "When your Nona says it's time to eat, it's time to eat, young ladies."

Using the Miradonian word for 'mother' to mean Mona, Dox went over and opened a small travel container of the golden Miradonian paste-meal that, for now, was the primary part of the chick's diet, along with a plant-based milk-like drink that was extremely high in sugar that they had gotten a few kegs of from Miradon that they also needed. Preparing a large bowl and a small, rubber spoon, Mnhei'sahe walked over and sat on the floor, cross-legged in front of the couch, handing the PaDD that she had tucked under her arm to Mona.

While she began to start feeding the children small spoonfuls, one at a time, she kept her eyes on the fidgety girls, while talking to her beleaguered wife. "Again, I AM sorry it took so long. With the Ghost not just being an Artan ship, but a repurposed Romulan Bird of Prey, the comm frequency isn't considered as secure at a Starfleet intel one, so it took a while just to get through. Eventually, Admiral Meowlth replied, but she wasn't particularly... direct."

As Hlai'vana pushed a little forward, trying to snipe an extra spoonful from Tala, Dox leaned in and narrowed her eyes at the little girl that looked so much like her Romulan mother it was a little creepy. "Hlai'vana ir-Quen'toukie t'Sendatu-onay GoDox! Wait your turn."

While the children were only a little over a week old, they were extremely developed. While their telepathic bonds often meant that Miradonian children learned a basic grasp of language in the womb and came out muttering, they seemed to be advanced beyond even that. They could speak a few words already, in three different languages, and seemed to completely grasp when their mothers spoke to them. And, in this case, the utterance of Hlai'vana's full... and extremely long name, had the desired effect of restoring order as Mona looked at the PaDD that replayed the one-way message from the Starfleet Admiral.

"So she can neither confirm nor deny anything, except..." Mona began with a frown as she began playback of the message. "You know most people would assume she's a Vulcan and that everything she's saying is the truth," she mused, adding her own notes to it on which phrases were lies and which were truths or partial truths. "So there's no contact with the Hera, she doesn't know why, Rendal's ship escaped back across the neutral zone, the Persephone is likely investigating. That's what I gather from her pulse, breathing, and eye dilation."

"And I can't really tell her what Hera and Rei told ME over the same frequency." Dox sighed slightly as the chicks continued to take their tiny spoonfuls that she gently presented to each, one after the other. As they ate, they began to thrum gently with happiness.

"But, the reference to the Persephone tells me that they're likely already there. At Warp 7.5, we should arrive in the system in about six days at the most. Maenek t'Liun said she was going to see if she could milk a bit more speed out of the engines, though." Dox said, the frustration clear in her voice as she spoke. "As for the Admiral, she's V'gelnian. Vulcanoid Rigellian. She's as Vulcan as I am as a Romulan, where lying is involved."

After another few moments, the bowl was empty, and the girls sat back up and began fidgeting slightly. "Once we get there, I can find out more about what's going on, I hope. It's just... frustrating. I'm sorry, Jhu Dhael."

Putting the bowl on the deck, Dox pulled herself up, picked up Vana and Ami and sat next to her wife and bond-mate, who she called 'Angel Bird' in Romulan. The three girls were sitting, spread out between the two women's laps, and now all five were physically touching again, reconnecting them all emotionally and telepathically.

The brightly plumed Miradonian woman leaned into her snuggle with her bond-mate as she thrummed softly. "I really miss being able to tell where you are from across the galaxy, let alone across the ship. Promise me you'll never leave my side again, my Minay?"

"I wish I could. I truly do." Dox said, leaning into Mona as the Chicks began trying to climb up on the both of them rather gently, but forcefully. "And it looks as if they agree. All I can promise... Is that as long as I'm able, I'll always come back."

As Dox spoke, Hlai'Vana got just a little higher than the other two and began planting her feet into her Romulan mother's chest quite firmly, a determined look on her face. Raising her eyebrow and smiling slightly, the Romulan pilot could feel the waves of thoughts and emotions through their link and saw an image of flight in her mind. "Oh, I know what this is."

Putting a hand behind the black and red feathered little girl, Doc caught her as she tried to kick off into the air. "Gotcha, Wild Bird. We certainly named you correctly. They're still trying to fly, I see. How's that been going, Mona?"

"Unless we can convince them to reduce gravity in here to Miradonian standards..." Mona began, rubbing her hand through the feathers on her head in frustration as Tala also started climbing up her to try and take off. "I doubt they'll grow out of it any time soon. They're also refusing to wear the boffer belts Briaar made. On the bright side, they at least know to go potty in the refresher..."

Sighing, Dox could literally feel Mona's frustration through their bond and it hurt her just a bit. Especially since it was her DNA that was limiting the children's Miradonian abilities due to the increased bone and muscle density of Romulan biology being a part of their make up. "Well, I know the specs well enough for a T'liss class Bird of Prey, and unfortunately that wouldn't be feasible here."

Holding them all a little tighter, the kids could also feel their mother's emotions and calmed down just a little, trilling in unison. "The sensors, weapons and engines are all modern, but the substructure and gravity generators, while in excellent condition, are still largely a century-plus old. This ship isn't designed to be able to regulate individual rooms for specific gravity, and the crew would likely... freak out to bouncing around the ship."

Looking down at the chicks, Dox ran a finger through Mona's feathers, massaging her head a little as they talked. "But back on the Hera, we will be able to adjust the gravity in our quarters, and the shipwide holo-emitters can be adjusted to generate a little extra padding on everything. Plus, the holodeck can replicate almost any gravity scenario. They will see through the visuals, but I figure we can design something fun for them with that in mind." 

"How long, under normal circumstances, would they be able to fly? You said you grew too heavy after a little bit." Dox asked gently.

"I was able to fly until I was three, so I figure they should be able to until they're two." Mona pulled out a small PaDD and pulled up some medical readouts. "They'll still be able to do about what they're doing now until they're four since I was able to until I was about six. As for seeing through holos... The docs on Miradon did an eye test - standard procedure for mixed parentage. Though they all have compound eyes like I do and they're still developing, they're pretty sure only Ami will have the full racial abilities. Vana likely sees things more like you do, since she only has three sets of receptors like you do rather than the full twenty-three like me. And Tala looks to be about halfway, with about 14 receptors."

At which, the golden-feathered Amihan began humming a bit to the rhythm of their mutual thrumming. It was a melodious sound, like a literal songbird that was remarkably soothing. "I think she likes us talking about her. heh."

"Though, they all react to Hera as though they can see her aura. I wonder if that's more their extrasensory abilities, though." Dox said, a quizzical expression taking over her face. "Mona, I know you told me about how Miradonian's mature... but... they seem to be so... developed. They're moving like toddlers."

"Yeah, they should be able to feed themselves in a few months. I understand that that's pretty fast for a sentient race, but that's just how we evolved. Some say guided by the twin goddesses themselves into the perfect race. Some say by chance." The brightly plumed Miradonian woman stroked a hand over Tala's feathers as she leaned her head against Dox's shoulder.

"You know, Ami has my mother's plumage? She had beautiful golden and silver feathers as well. She was descended from the arctic tribes. Father was a tropical blue mix like me and Tala. He was a Chronicler from Quen'quen when he met my mother in the frozen Quen'adia. Then, rather than start a family in either of their homes, when the call for volunteers to start an experimental colony came up, they jumped on the chance."

It was rare for Mona to ever speak of her birth-parents, considering her traumatic past, but Dox listened and did her best to share her love through their bond, and through that bond she could almost see what Mona was describing. While Mona spoke, Ami nudged her head up under Mona's hand and tried to co-opt some of the attention Tala was getting. Meanwhile, Hlai'vana tried to take the moment to sneak off of Dox's lap to no avail.

Pulling the seemingly most adventurous of the trio back over, the red-headed Romulan looked at the raven-black plumage on Hlai'vana, with streaks of crimson and ran a finger through her own red bangs. "Of everyone I saw on Miradon, I don't remember anyone with colors like her, though. I mean... it looks more like... she got this from me. Is that... possible?"

The tiny tot giggled slightly as she reached up and put her hand on her Romulan mother's hair, a curious look on her face as she explored the similar color, but completely different texture difference between feathers and hair.

"Red of any sort is rare on Miradon and black is non existent except in mixed-race pairings like ours," Mona replied, giving plenty of attention to Ami as well. "So yeah, I'd say so. I'm betting there's a lot of your lineage in them that we haven't noticed yet, as well. Like the way they grump about just before bed? Just like you after a long day at work."

"Oh, very funny." Dox said with a grin and a light chuckle. "I'm not grumpy, I'm... Romulan."

As she thought about it, her grin faded slightly. The children would have to deal with all of the slings and arrows that come with being Romulan, in spite of being half Miradonian. That, and the baggage of her own family history that was now theirs as well. "I try not to think about that, honestly. I... hoped the entire time that they would be so much more you than me."

"I've not met a single Rihannsu with feathers, though several have earned them," Mona replied with a grin. "Including you."

With a tight-lipped smile, Dox blushed. Mona saw her in a way nobody else seemed too, and it was still something that she sometimes had a hard time accepting. As such, a decidedly green color filled her cheeks which, this time caught Tala's attention, as the green and blue feathered newborn raised a very Romulan looking eyebrow to touch Dox's warm cheeks. As she did, she looked at Mona and smiled. 

The three chicks still thought largely in images and feelings, not really in words, so DOx could only wonder what was specifically going through the most observant and curious of the three's mind as her daughter examined her cheeks with her hand, only to then look at her own hand and smile even more broadly.

"I wonder what she's thinking. What she's seeing." Dox said, in a low, hushed voice to Mona.

"When you blush you have the exact same aura she does because your blood is warmer and closer to the surface," Mona explained, leaning in to plant a birdie kiss on her bond-mate. "And I'm betting she can see it quite clearly. When she grows up, I think she'll have your aura normally. She's also probably figured out that they have your blood. I can tell blood base and type just by looking at people blushing, you know."

Smiling, Dox leaned into the kiss and tucked into the couch a little tighter. "I shouldn't be surprised. What can't those beautiful eyes see?"

The brightly plumed aviatrix grinned wider. "Plenty, I assure you. Like our guest on deck eight that you visit every so often? I hear she has a horse that I equally find completely invisible. Then again, it's said that when we're old enough to finally see the great Bone Dragon Vhel'kur, it's our time so I'm in no rush to see her or anything related to her."

"I can understand that. And yeah, her horse is named 'Taxes'. I think it's an earth joke, or something. I used to be scared of horses, but he's... unusually sweet."

There was a moment where it was silent in the chamber but for the sound of the chicks thrumming, which Mona had joined in on. With one arm tucked behind Mona's back, Dox was holding Vana and Ami on her lap while Mona had Tala.

"I know that it's difficult for you not still having that level to your ability to sense our connection like you did when they were still in you. But, otherwise, I know we weren't able to spend as much time on Miradon as we planned, but... how are you doing? Are you... okay?"

"Other than being tired, yeah. I'm happy they're finally here where we can both enjoy taking care of them." Mona paused a moment as she booped Tala and Ami happily. "In fact, I don't think I've ever been more content in my life. I mean, I'm looking forward to getting back on the Hera, but overall... Yeah, I think I'm still on an emotional high."

"Content... that's a good word. And less frightening than saying 'happy'. But I am. I am... happy." Dox said with a smile. "Sometimes I feel afraid that I'll somehow wake up and none of this will be real. But..."

As Dox was talking, her commbadge chirruped. It had been patched into the Golden Ghost's communication system. Rolling her eyes, she groaned a bit as she tapped the badge and replied. "Yes?"

"Commander Dox. It's Maenek t'Liun. Would it be possible to discuss the list of vessels available from Baroness Sarika. I have some thoughts I'd like to go over with you." Came the voice of the Ghost's Commander and Chief Medical Officer.

Looking at the children in her arms and her wife beside her, Dox paused and shook her head slightly. "It would be possible, Maenek. At Oh Seven Hundred Hours in the morning, please. This evening, I'm spending with my family. That said, I'm interested in going over your ideas. Thank you. Dox out."

"Ie, Commander Dox. Thank you. t'Liun out."

Letting her head fall back against the back of the couch with a sigh, Dox smiled and turned towards Mona and chuckled lightly.

Mona chuckled as well. "I see you've taken Char's lesson to heart. I can say that I wholeheartedly approve." While she couldn't interact with it, since they were sleeping all together and Mona was still high on pregnancy hormones, she had been privy to that particular dream visitation of the spirit of the elder Romulan Starfleet Admiral that had taken Dox under her proverbial wing. "Though if you wander off in dreams like that any more, I'm going to start demanding that you get paid for it."

"In my defense, I was asleep at the time, and she was a ghost." Dox said as she scootched up on the couch a little. "But... I needed to hear what she had to tell me. That as important as our duties are, my primary duty needs to be to you. To you and to them."

"Not to the Artan fleet. Not to Starfleet. Not to the Rihannsu Senate or my Grandmother. To this. To our family." Dox said, a tear in her eye for the woman she had only met once who came across the veil from Vorta Vor to impart this lesson. 

"And that's what's most important on Miradon as well. Nothing outweighs family to us. Jobs, careers, schedules... They all revolve around either being single and helping you find family or having family and making concessions for it." Mona smiled brightly as she gave her bond-mate another kiss. "And I intend to make sure at least a little of that heritage is brought to the Hera."

 

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