Delve into the dark

Posted on Thu Jun 6th, 2019 @ 4:41am by Lieutenant Commander Ariana Monroe-Wayne & Brigadier General David Hurd Sr

1,807 words; about a 9 minute read

Mission: Episode 98 - A Raid on Peace
Location: General Hurd's office
Timeline: MD01 1600 hrs

Making her way back to her Quarters Ariana walked inside and sat down on the sofa. The downside to being on reduced duties was she didn’t have that much to do besides reports although with the other Counsellor’s off station she was covering any emergencies that cropped up with those left on station. Relaxing back on the sofa her mind wondered back to the conversation she’d had with her father before he’d had to depart the station.

< Flashback to before the marines departure >

Having been asked by Freya to check in on General Hurd, Ariana had made her way to his office. Arriving at Hurd's office Ariana had pressed the chime and politely waited for Hurd to answer.

General Hurd, who was not pleased be bothered while he was cleaning his .45, put the peaches on his desk and barked, "Enter!!!!".

Walking inside Ariana smiled warmly as she walked over to Hurd's desk. "General I'm Ariana Montoe, Chief Counsellor. Freya Ross asked me to check in on you. She didn't go into details but she did say you'd suffered a loss." She looked at him curiously.

Looking at her he said, " What's to know, Family is dead, my hitch of an ex took the kids and ran.

"Okay..." Ariana nodded. "There's a certain amount of anger, resentment and hate there." She took a seat in one of the chairs and got as comfortable as she could. "There's also a fair amount of pain wouldn't you agree?"

Looking at here incredulously he said, "You think?"

“No...I feel” She looked at Hurd her dark eyes settling on him. “I can feel the pain you're trying to bury and in time that pain will consume you.”

"Pain is subjective, and I've been dealing with it for many years". Standing, Hurd turned to face out a window and said, "And over these many years pain and I have become close friends ".

Ariana nodded. "I'd imagine the life of a marine is a hard one General. Even harder when you've lost as much as you've lost. Freya told me that you were extremely upset when she spoke to you."

"Yes I was, still am to be honest". Composing himself, Hurd asked, "Not to deflect but do I know you from somewhere other than here?" "Your face looks very familiar but I can't place it".

Ariana smiled "I don't think so Sir. People have said I look cery much like my mother, maybe you've met her? Her name is Marina Kees but before she married my stepfather it was Marina Kelea. I never knew my father, all I know about him is that he was a man she met and fell in love with whilst on Earth, twenty eight years ago."

Hurd's eyes went with a feeling he could not explain. Very slowly he asked, " I need to know more".

Ariana looked at Hurd with surprise. "What is it you'd like to know?"

"Everything, I need to know everything, because I know your mom's name from somewhere."

“Everything....perhaps I can do better than that” Ariana smiled. “May I?” She motioned to the computer, waiting for permission before walking around and calling up her personnel file along with private stored photographs from her own files. “There...everything you need to know about me along with photographs of my mother, stepfather and half brother.

Nearly fainting at what he saw, Hurd slumped back into his chair, his face cupped in his hands. After a few moments, without raising his head, he said, " I don't want to scare you, but many years ago I was in love with and dated your mom".

"What?" Ariana looked at Hurd like he was crazy. "I never met you, at least not that I remember." She smiled at first before she thought about it. "Wait...my mother met my stepfather just after I was born, they've been together since then. So just when did you meet my mother?"

"I met her", Hurd said his voice shaking, "Approximately 17 moths prior to your date of birth". Hurd raised his head, looking into her eyes wondering.

"But....how? You would only have been a child when I was born." She was finding the whole situation more than a little hard to grasp.

"I honestly don't know how, I really don't, but my bet is that Section 31 was involved and... I guess I'm your dad".

"Wait! you're saying that you're my....Dad?" She looked at Hurd in disbelief. "I'm sorry but you're going to have to explain this to me a whole lot better!"

"How, exactly would you like me to explain something I don't know how to?"

"The only way you'd be my dad is if you'd been back in time!" Ariana looked at Hurd curiously. He did look a lot like the man her mother described to her time and time again. "Stupid question...have you ever time travelled?"

"Yes I have", Hurd said in a steely voice, "But the circumstances of which are... Classified."

"But...what about the rules of non interference? You fell in love with a woman in the past and you made love with her resulting in a child that might never have existed." She couldn't help but wonder what Starfleet would say about that.

"Yes, I did, and I loved her.". "But if you think for one second I care about what Starfleet thinks of f that and that, now I know that you exist, that don't care for you, you are very mistaken."

Aeryn smiled warmly. "Did you know about my mother and section 31? Just before she found out she was pregnant she was recruited by section 31 for some experiment to do with using telepaths and empaths in the field. The experiment didn't work on her. She told me because she was afraid it might affect me."

"I see". "Well that sounds exactly like something 31 would be responsible for."

Ariana ran her hands over her bump as she always did to relax herself. "Before we worry about that there's something we need to do first." She paused for a moment. "Computer....run a DNA comparison of medical records for Lieutenant Ariana Monroe and Brigadier General David Hurd. She looked at Hurd as the computer did its work.

"DNA Comparison shows a 99.5% match between records for Ariana Monroe and David Hurd Senior."

Upon hearing this, Hurds jaw dropped, and his eyes went wide, not a word escaping his mouth".

Ariana knew exactly how he felt. "I'll have the result double checked but I doubt it's wrong." She paused for a moment. "So where does this leave us? I came to see you about your loss only for us both to find we're family. No only have you gained a daughter but a granddaughter too!" She rested her hand on her stomach.

Running his hand through his hair, Hurd replied simply, " I don't know, where would you like to see this go?"

Aeryn looked at her lap for a moment before looking back at Hurd. “I’d like to get to know my father. Mum told me plenty of stories about your short time together, she loved you very much you know.”

Hurd smiled as he said, " I loved her as well, and I'd like to get to know you as well". Pausing for a short moment he asked, "How is she?"

“She’s happy.” Ariana smiled. “She met my step-father a few months before I was born. He wanted kids, they married a couple of years later and my brother was born a year after that. My step-father treated me like I was his own, he encouraged me to join Starfleet.”

Smiling and interlacing his fingers, Hurd said, "I'm glad for that, more so than you think".

Ariana smiled warmly. “Would you like to come over for dinner with me one night? We’ve got a lot of father, daughter time to catch up on. Plus there’s something I have to explain about the granddaughter you have growing in here as well. It’s nothing bad, so don’t worry about that.”

"I agree, that we do." He looked at her, smiled, and added, "I would be honored to have dinner with you."

Ariana's smile beamed. "Excellant! This isn't going to make things awkward here on the station for you is it?"

"How so?" he laughed.

"Well having to explain it to Admiral Bremer for one!" She smiled. "Does it help knowing that you haven't lost all of your family?" She looked at Hurd curiously. "I'm afraid I won't be able to be your counsellor anymore, I'll have to transfer you back to Freya if you feel you still need help.

Hurd arched his brow, deeply in thought. He really didn't know what to say.

"It's okay if you can't answer that right now. You...we...have lost a lot. Would you...tell me about them?" She looked at Hurd curiously. "I want to know everything there is to know about you and my family. I know we don't have time now but when you come for dinner?"

"Well", Hurd said thoughtfully, "I'm free whenever, rank has it's privileges".

"So how does tonight sound?" She smiled warmly. "I'm understandably eager to get to know my father!"

"Tonight sounds fine, just name the time and place." Hurd fell silent, again deeply in thought, his head spinning from all the events that had taken place in the last few minutes.

“Say 18:30 hrs, I’ll meet you at my quarters.” She smiled as she stood to leave. “Thank you father....Sir.” She shrugged her shoulders.

Standing, Hurd smilied and and extended his hand. "In private you can call me Father or Dad, But in public, please adress me as General Hurd or Sir because after all", he laughed, " I have a reputation to maintain."

Ariana smiled. "I think I like the sound of Dad" she stepped forward and paused for a moment before giving Hurd a gentle cuddle. She looked a little bashful as she stepped back again. "Sorry...I just had to do that!"


His face turning a shade red, Hurd replied, ''Its quite alright'. Turning and looking at the massive pile of PADDS on his desk, he said, "I still have quite a bit of work to do before dinner, and i assume you do as well".

“Well not as much as I would have thanks to being on reduced duties but I do still have some reports to fill out.” She smiled as she turned to head for the door. “I’ll see you later Dad.”

< Current Time >

Ariana sighed so far there was little news, or so she’d heard, on how the battle was progressing. She could only hope her father and friends were fairing well. For now all she could do was wait for news.

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