A Surprise and a Cream Pie

“Well that was unexpected,” you say looking down at the shiny medal pinned to your shirt. The Cochrane Medal of Excellence in Biology shone in the light of the auditorium. There were people on scaffolding repairing some damage and removing Borg infected debris. Standing in front of you was a StarFleet Admiral that you didn’t recognize and you had already forgotten the name of.

“Your creation of the Changeling Detecting Plant saved potentially millions of lives and started a new branch of botany, I’m just sorry that it was so belated,” he said after you shook hands. The small crowd of a few StarFleet personnel and some of your family and harem clapped.

“Well people thought I was dead,” you shrugged, holding for a second as Aelita took a photo. A few feet next to Aelita, Captain Freeman was standing behind Jessica while shooting your daughter glances, concern, anger and relief flashing on her face. When Mariner, you, and Jessica had walked into the conference center, Captain Freeman had immediately hugged Jessica and smiled at Mariner right before starting a lecture. A lecture that quickly died when the Admiral approached and hurried you into the least damaged auditorium where a few people had gathered. Those who had already been in the room included a few random StarFleet ensigns, a Federation reporter, T’Lyn, and Tendi. You focused back on the Admiral once the pictures were done. “By the way, um sir, wasn’t this a bit rushed?”

The Admiral actually snorted, “In the span of a few days, you had been lost in time and then **** by the Borg. Not to mention the chaos that arose from the efforts of your companions to locate you. Orders came down to hand the award over before you attract a crystalline entity or a Q.”

“And who says I’m not already here?” Laughter briefly filled the auditorium before fading away as everyone tried to find the source. The Admiral slowly turned to look back at you.

“Anyways, congratulations,” he gave a final handshake before leaning forward slightly. “Technically, you never resigned from StarFleet. If you ever feel like returning and desire to get reinstated, you would only need to reach out to StarFleet.”

“I’ll think about it,” you replied while thinking about how being in StarFleet might be fun again. It could give you more time to see Jessica in her home universe and spend more time with Mariner. But all your stuff was back on Prime Earth and you are now the owner of a few stores if you remember right; might be too much of a hassle moving everything.

With much to think about, you left the stage and met back up with your family. “Anyone hungry?”

“Not exactly what I meant but at least we’re in a restaurant,” you comment as you hammer a shelf to a newly built wall. All around you people were moving furniture, breaking down debris, building walls using a sort of construction/replicator device to build walls, among other tasks.

“It's technically a food court dad,” Jessica corrected you. You cracked a smile. Jessica, Aelita, Marinette, and some of the others were seated at an already repaired section with a pile of food that Jessica got from a replicator that only spat out junk food.

“Finish up with those shelves and come join us,” Aelita urged you on.

“Yeah yeah,” you said as you moved over to get another shelf, one that Laura had cut. You nodded your thanks and got to work on the shelf. After the little ceremony earlier, you had thought about finding someplace relaxing to eat and catch up with your harem and introduce them more formally to Jessica but it turned out that most of the relaxation or entertainment places were closed while people evaluated the damage. And the rest were either at limited capacity or overfilled with celebratory drunks.

Eventually, you and the group had settled in an outdoor food court area close to the convention center. Starfire, Diana, Laura, Ranko, Kate Mariner, T’Lyn, and you started helping the clean up efforts while Jessica, Aelita, Marinette, Pixel, and Katara perused the new remaining stalls that were still open.

“Anything good left?” You asked after finishing your section and seeing the pile of junk food was a lot smaller than you remember.

“I have found that this cream pie to be satisfactory,” T’Lyn says, holding out the treat. “I understand that its name is the Mile-High Cream Pie.” You nodded in thanks and accepted the chocolate cream pie with the sugary topping.

“I am…pleased that you all had endured the attack with minimal injuries,” T’Lyn said, nodding to Mariner, Aelita, Starfire and yourself.

“It’s all thanks to my rescue!” Jessica declared, standing on her chair and pointing at T’Lyn. T’Lyn raised an eyebrow. Aelita, Starfire, and Marinette muffled their giggles; Jessica continued to hold the pose, looking at T’Lyn expectantly.

“Truly?” Jessica grinned. She moved over to sit next to T’Lyn and started sharing all the details. You smirked a little, you could see T’Lyn’s eyes were slightly widened when Jessica got so close.

“Hey James, man,” Mariner said, getting your attention. “How much longer are ya gonna be on Risa? Since most of the city is ya know broken.”

“Well, we have a few days left with the villa plus I hear that the rest of the planet is alright,” you shrug, most of your ideas on what to do on the remaining five days had gone up in smoke. That doesn’t mean you didn’t mean you didn’t have some. “Are you still free the next couple of days?”

“I mean, they haven’t called me in,” Mariner smirked just as her comm badge chirped.