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Adventures. Maybe she could spin her attempts to get to the commode from her hospital bed as such. Or all the times she her legs would seize up and she fell during physical therapy. The sudden and uncontrollable waves of pain in what her brain though was still there. What she would give to have a time-machine and stop the Daedalus from ever flying that day. Her left hand perhaps.

Jiseth's eyes drifted awkwardly to the couch. Comfortable in feeling, but she felt foreign here. Maybe everything was a few centimeters off from what she remembered. It was not long before she realized that she wanted just a bit more time with the child. She got her wish and to keep her hand with this one. Her head shot back quickly to Zero with a look of relief on her face.

"Y-yes. Absolutely, I would love to."

Trying to not get too excited, she reminded herself that she would probably lose balance and hit something. The Romulan stepped lightly or as much as she could given the lack of feeling she had. Walking was mostly guesswork and sometimes she found herself watching her feet rather than seeing where she was going. Still, it was at least a short walk to the other room.

Pulling back the small sheets on Callion's bedding, Jiseth ran her hands over it to warm it up a bit before Zero put her in. She silently hoped her presence would not disturb the child's sleep, but it seemed little would be required to send her off into dreamland. Leaning in with a gentle kiss on her forehead, she softly sung a lullaby similar to one she had heard from her own mother.

"From the heart we'll cry
From the heart we'll smile and laugh
Tears of sadness and the tears of joy
After crying it is all the same
It will come down to the thought, these tears are from the heart
The goodness that we share from far apart
All the mornings when I think of you, all the evenings when I feel for you
You bring out the best parts in me
Callion, I love you
The dreaming girl I see..."

[Shuttle Theseus]

The hardest part currently was yet to come. Landing presented its own challenges in and of itself, but the initial deceleration from orbital velocity was top on her list. Normally a shuttle could simply raise shields and let them take the brunt of the force of reentry. Normally... Starfleet had its own set of rules for first contact situations and minimal interference was required. Which meant she could not dive down like a fiery comet with a pair of sonic booms to herald her arrival even though it was really the only one fitting for her.

"Alright then. I'll find a spot for us to set down and we'll take the buggy. Mr. Sukal, would you assist me in removing that ridiculous gun from the back of it? After we land of course."

The anti-grav system could keep them at their altitude with ease, but the impulse engines had to be set to full reverse. In doing so, the Discovery appeared to zoom away on their monitors. Jiseth leaned forward and looked past Tekin in order to see the diminishing size of the ship in the viewport. A moment later her boss called and she cleared her throat.

Theseus to Discovery. Beginning minimum wake descent. All systems green. Maybe we'll come back with tans. Theseus out.

It was like being dunked into a tub full of ice water how sobering it was to hear Zero speak of the Romulan's death. Or at least, everyone thought she was. For a second time. Admittedly, it must have allowed the Augment to grow on her own in a way that Jiseth could not assist with. This realization was rather bitter and it left a soreness in her chest. How many times a heart could break, she had no idea, but it seemed at times hers was determined to find out.

Before she could adequately figure out a reply, Callion stepped forward. For such a young age, she commanded herself well. Perhaps it was the hormones kicking in, but in the Romulan's mind right now nothing would look cuter than a tiny Admiral's uniform for the infant. Her heart stopped, however, when she heard the word Mom. Actually, no. It felt like it exploded in her chest. Especially after she hugged her.

Jiseth hunkered down and leaned forward, sliding her hands around her daughter until each met with the opposite elbow. Her cheek rested on top of Callion's head for a moment as he closed her eyes. This moment was beyond words for her. So good it hurt. It may have been too early to tell, but for a minute amount of time she felt she was home.

"That's correct. And you are Callion, my daughter..."

She moved her right hand back and to the child's forehead, gently tracing the ridges along it with her finger tip.

"...Our daughter."

Looking back up to Zero, there was a warm smirk tracing Jiseth's lips.

"I suppose... I should fill you in on where I've been."

A warm smile came across the Romulan's face as she slowly knelt down and began scratching just behind Ghost's ears, drawing him in for a hug. After a few pats on the shoulder, she eased back though suddenly found herself getting covered in wet dog kisses. Wiping her face with the back of her hand, Jiseth was glad that at least he was surely happy to see her. Eventually she would have to make peace with the Trill and curly-haired wunderkind, but that though went to the back burner when she heard the infant speak.

For some reason she was surprised, though a moment she realized how silly that was. If she inherited any of Zero's genes then she would be light-years ahead of other children. Especially Human ones. Romulan children had already devised a plan to murder everyone in their immediate family by age 3, so this little one still had time.

Cautiously she took a step forward, ignoring the blizzard of white hairs now covering her black shorts and grey shirt. Her head tilted to the side as her eyes focused on her daughter. The little eyes staring back at her did not instill fear as she thought. It was mostly curiosity. Curiosity about much of how life had been up until this point. And without a doubt what was going on in the little one's head. Even so, Jiseth's eyes quickly began to water up, trying to keep the sniffling to a minimum.

"She's already speaking and walking... Such a beautiful mind. She gets that from you no doubt... I'm sorry-I... If she ever runs off as a teenager, I guess that's on my end. Or does any insane daredevil stunts... I would imagine she will outrun me pretty soon though umm... I guess I should have thought of something better to say... All I can think of is thank you."

There was a thumping in her ears, the sound of her own heart beat, it may as well have been the subwoofers to a dance club. Jiseth's hand trembled slightly after hitting the chime. Hearing Zero's voice from the other side did not help much. Slowly she placed it behind her while her other hand reached back and took hold. A walking, relaxed parade rest was far less confrontational than crossing her arms like she was instinctively trying to. With a deep breath she took a step forward and the doors hissed open.

Jiseth stepped into a disturbingly familiar place. It looked no different than the first day they had moved in together on the Churchill. Then again, there was a certain consistency to Starfleet interior design. Luxurious by Romulan ship standards. Her eyes scanned the room quickly. No one else seemed to be there aside from the members of her former family. Or were they still family? She had no idea.

She certainly was not the same woman, at least she did not think so. The cargo shorts the Romulan wore which exposed her prosthetic legs or her shorter hair cut were the least of the alterations. Somewhere along the way to recovery it was like a switched was flipped though the process to get to that point took many months. Day after day, hour after sweat-drenched hour, she learned to walk again and had to dig deep into herself to find the strength to not confine herself to a chair. Or take a one-way ticket out an airlock.

Her head bowed and eyes went straight to the floor in front of her. Jiseth was fairly certain Ghost could have heard the actuators in her legs. Worse, she knew Zero would figure it out and not require the canine's level of hearing. She wanted to savor this moment, but it felt like a court martial hearing. Simply waiting and wondering for what verdict might come, it was in her nature to assume to worst though things with the Augment could hardly have been described as terrible from what broken memories she had.

"I... I got your message."

Sukal/Tekin tag

To say that Nevir was starting to get upset over the lack of a Benjamin was an understatement.  He wasn't itching to get down there, actually the truth of the matter was that there was no need for it.  But when you are given orders.... you follow them immediately.  He was about to slap his own badge when Jiseth came to him with the news.

"Chief Ops, I've met him on the Bridge, but not enough time to get to know him.  I'm sure he'll know of me, which will be interesting, but that's it.  Alright, I'm sure he'll be here any moment, lets get prepped to take off." he said, finally climbing aboard the shuttle.

"Shall we, Lieutenant Jiseth," Sukal said to the woman in his professional tone...though without the normal Vulcan iciness most would have expected.  He glanced over at the Chief Science Officer:  Tekin Nevir...a Bajoran.  "I suspect this mission should pose some interesting moments for examining the atmosphere," the Operations Chief added to the Bajoran.  "A moment of exploration without trouble would certainly be nice."

[Deck 10 - Shuttlebay - Theseus]

If there was one thing that bugged her about the Argo-class shuttles, it was probably the buggy. As much as she loved it, the thing kind of got in the way. Especially since there was only one way in and out of the bloody ship. At least a Danube had doors on the sides of the cabin close to the cockpit. Then again, Starfleet systems design was predicated on emergency transporters working to send the occupants to safety before being vaporized. If only the recorded history of the last two decades proved they actually worked and in the presence of those who would rather keep their fingers crossed, Jiseth was the type to prefer sulking about her predicament while floating in space and slowly suffocating.

After stepping past the buggy and into the cockpit, she was reminded of how many design features had been taken as inspiration from this type of craft and used on the Daedalus. Inspiration is perhaps inaccurate compared to shamelessly stolen. Things were on a time crunch and she just did not have the time to invent everything as she went. Plus, Admiral Brown gave her access to every bit of nonstandard tech she could get her greedy hands on. Phased polaron beam emitters, Breen energy disruptors, a cloaking device, even a shower. That last component was incredibly important because the hot water helped the Romulan get used to burning in Hell, which was where a surprising number of supposedly nonreligious humans wanted her to go.

Taking her seat at the controls, Jiseth strapped herself in and began powering up the warp core. Severing the lines that connected the Theseus to the Discovery, she held off starting the engines until Sukal was seated.

"We're on our own power... Rear ramp closing... Locked. Pressure seals are all green. Lift thrusters engaged... Altitude 2 meters and holding... Landing struts coming up... Struts locked. Impulse engines spooling up to idle..."

The Romulan was mostly talking to herself as she ran through her checklist. It was not until she reversed away from the landing pad, turned toward the forward end of the shuttle bay, and swiftly flew out into space the empty vacuum did she exit her almost mechanical process. Her hand went up to her helmet and the polarization faded, revealing her face once more.

"...I wonder how long we could explore. We have rations for days and they didn't exactly give us a deadline for this mission. Your thoughts, gents?"

[Deck 10 - Shuttlebay]

"Oh, ma'am! It seems your signature is required, the release for the shuttle has been amended."

The operations crewman held out the PADD to a rather bemused Jiseth. She gingerly took it and scanned for any changes. At first she saw no alterations, but an eyebrow did raise when she got down to the passenger manifest. Now the COO was coming a long which completed the trifecta of having everyone be of the same rank, let alone the heads of their respective departments. Well, Jiseth was not technically CFO, but that particular individual was away and she had taken over those duties in addition to her own.

A gloved finger scribbled on the handheld screen before she returned it and he departed with a slight bow. She looked over to her first accompanying officer. Bajoran. Gavin's boss. If she were a Ferengi, her lobes would surely be tingling from the opportunity this presented.

"...Seems we're taking Mr. Sukal, from Ops. Vulcan, if I remember correctly. Have you ever met him before?"

My apologies. I have someone else on the way. They will be there shortly.

Danke

Tekin tag

Permission to leave Benjamin behind?

Tekin tag

"And here I thought you were interested in the planet... this is all a ruse to play with the cart." he said, smiling to show her he was kidding.  He took the offered PADD from one of the techs, to make sure that the equipment they needed was on board.

"1 minute 44.9 seconds?  Did they lower the gravity in here for you?  Best I could do was one fifty seven." he said, shaking his head and handing the PADD back.  "We are just waiting on one more and then we'll be off.  Did you have a site in mind, or do you want me to choose?"

[Deck 10 - Shuttlebay]

Her right hand went up to the side of her helmet and with a gentle press the visor went transparent. There was a ghostly blue glow on her face from the heads up display projectors and a grin only a hair more noticeable than that of the Mona Lisa. It had been ages since she had met a rather jovial humanoid who was not already a close friend and the CSO's demeanor was enjoyably refreshing to her.

"Oh I don't need to stage an away mission just to get the toys out of the box... And no. I made sure to actually press down the accelerator pedal."

There was an equally smug and coy smirk that tugged at her lips before she tapped her helmet again. The visor polarized from the top down until it was completely a solid dark grey only broken up by lighter hexagonal outlines. Reaching over, Jiseth pointed to a small map on the PADD.

"We'll fly over the largest storm in the north eastern continent and land on the far side beyond that tall mountain range. Mostly desert and flat grass plains out that way, so we should be able to get a number of deep core samples or whatever else you eggheads want."

[Deck 10 - Shuttlebay]

Jiseth's gloved hands gripped the steering wheel of the Theseus' buggy firmly. Since someone from Ops on the bridge had been looking out for her and given a fair number of personnel to assist her in preparing the shuttle, there was quite a lot of time on her hands. They had the shuttle fueled and were inspecting the buggy when she mentioned she had never driven one before. With that in mind and to kill two birds with one stone, as well as time while they waited for the passengers, they put together a track for her to drive around using cargo containers with diode torches to mark the boundaries.

It was a fine example of mucking about for professionals.

The buggy lowered slightly as she firmed up the suspension using the center console. It even had a hard surface mode for the traction control, best when on pavement, which she made sure to have on. The more she looked over the vehicle features, the more she wanted one for herself. The motor could kick out the equivalent to 794 horsepower which in her math said 800, something that was adequate to her tastes since she normally snubbed her nose at anything less than two-thirds of that. It had 4-wheel drive, 4-wheel steering, and a plasma cannon for... preventing the local constabulary from pulling her over with a speeding citation perhaps.

With her helmet securely on and its visor polarized her face was completely obscured. Just as well for plausible deniability purposes. One of the amber shirts walked near the starting line where the buggy was parked, holding a Starfleet flag. A small crowd of onlookers watched from the walls of the shuttle bay, mostly ambers with some crimson mixed in. There were whispers of about the new flight officer though the only thing that could be seen to identify her on the grey flight suit was a rank insignia and her call sign. Some say she's wanted by Starfleet Intelligence and that she uses her prosthetic legs to sleep upside down like a bat... All they knew for sure is, she's called Oddball. Then the flag was raised and a hush fell over the entire facility. A clock timer near the observation deck went to zero.

"Three... Two... One... GO!"

With the flag swung down, Jiseth jammed her foot into the accelerator and was surprised at how quick it bolted away. The engine went from a low hum to a wail as the world around her began to blur and she was pushed back into her seat. A long screech from the tires herald her arrival at the first corner as she pulled in hard for the left hand turn. Her aim was just a touch off and missed the apex by about a foot. She was going far too fast, however, to take too much time to chastise herself over it.

Swiftly thereafter came Tokaido, an even sharper turn to the right. This time she managed to keep the buggy in tight as she became little more comfortable using the brakes though anything more than a tap would jolt her forward in the seat. Powering out to the third part was a 90-degree left followed by a 90-degree right before two consecutive and wider right turns, the aptly named Bonnethead. In her mind this challenge would prove her skill was superior to the wit of the dainty, curly-haired fanny bandit Van Gelder. The buggy's front lurched downward as she hit the brakes hard, coming around the first turn and her hands pulled quickly at the wheel to make it around the second without sliding out of the track boundary. The last two rights seemed almost peaceful by comparison.

Next came a long, sweeping right, which was actually more terrifying than the previous turn because she had been instructed not to take her foot off the accelerator during it. With tiny inputs back and forth on the wheel, she kept the vehicle from letting centripetal force flip it on its side. Next came a long left where again she maintained a hold of both the petal and the wheel, forcing her titanium cage with wheels to submit to her command even tough she could tell it was not happy going this fast. It was becoming less of an all-terrain buggy and more of a machine that wanted nothing more than to kill her. This she found... fun.

Though the second to last corner was not quite as sharp as those found in Bonnethead, she was coming in twice as fast. The brakes began to howl as they heated from the friction. The tail end of the buggy slid out as it went around in unusual situation where she found herself turning right to go left. Relieved to be passed it, she put a little to much speed into the last corner, Raynor, and went around it with the left two wheels off the deck. They came back down and bounced a bit as she passed the flag waver who had taken the liberty of finding a safe distance from the track.

Gently this time, she touched the brakes and turned around towards where she started before coming to a stop just short of the loading ramp of the Theseus. Climbing out of the vehicle, her arms were shaking and she had to grip the frame of it to keep balance as her heart had apparently decided to set off its ejection seat and went ricocheting around her chest cavity. With short, quick breaths her shoulders rose and lowered as she looked up to the clock. The time to beat, set by a demonstration lap prior to hers, was 1 minute 45.7 seconds. With a PADD in hand, an Ops crewman approached her.

"You did it in 1... 40... 4.9! Well done, Lieutenant."

Jiseth gave a thumbs up before hopping back into the buggy and driving it onto its Argo-class mothership. The rest of the deck teams made haste to gather up the cargo containers and ready for the impending launch. After the secured in place, the fully suited Romulan stood outside the shuttle with her arms crossed, looking towards shuttlebay entrance through her darkened visor. Waiting was indeed boring, but right now she was more than happy to acknowledge that today would be a good day.

The Romulan turned and drew herself in close to hug Raynor. Though it was more a playful attempt at suffocation by constriction. It was a good thing when someone took your breath away, right?

"I've heard Klingons like prune juice. I might go for that. Kinda sweet, but very hearty. A lot like someone I know..."

There was a tinge of pain remaining in her ribs. Well, a lot actually. Her brain had been kind enough to let her forget about it for a few minutes at least while she tried to process Zero's message. Even so, she looked up at the Klingon with her chin rested on his chest.

"I never doubted you, but to be quite honest I thought you'd be the one dealing with a shotgun wedding before me. Granted, Zero doesn't have parents and lucky enough most of her friends want me gone forever ever so... Maybe they'll just use the shotgun as a deterrent. I guess you'll have to watch my back, heh, like always. Need a better title than best man because that goes without saying. I won't shame you with maid of honor or ring bearer either-wait! I got it! You shall be the Lord of the Ring!"

No, he's Ensign Bridesmaid.  ^_^

He'll look very flattering in a teal sundress, but who's getting married?