Star Trek: Bendross
Episode 12: Family Reunion
(Fall, 2072)
By
And
The Bendross Players
The California sun beat down with its typical enthusiasm. A bright, sunny day. It was a day for splashing in a swimming pool. For taking a drive. For flying a kite. For watering a garden, assuming you had the water rations.
A funeral was the last place Hamilton Ashby wanted to be. He stood in a new, cheap black suit watching as soldiers laid his grand aunt to rest.
Hamilton winced slightly at the memories his recently detoxed brain was sending him. So many holidays blown off. So may calls that were never made. So much time that should have been lavished on the old lady, and now it was too late.
Hamilton found himself wondering why he'd never really reached out to his grand aunt.
Her family was there. A typical set of corporate people. Somber clothing Quiet attitude, enough money to get into the Suburban American lifestyle and get in over their head.
Hamilton carefully kept a straight face. This wasn't the occasion to let his class prejudice spoil things. It was time to draw together.
He moved over to the oldest man in the family group. He couldn't tell how old the man was. The man was half Japanese and wore whatever age he had well.
"Mr. Nogano? I'm Hamilton Ashby."
Nogano looked at him coolly. "We've met."
Hamilton looked confused. Had he offended the man in a black out?
"It was when you were much younger." Nogano clarified. "You were a child."
"Ah." Hamilton nodded. "I'm sorry-"
"It is not important. The years have been eventful for both of us." Nogano said. "I am now the oldest survivor of our branch of this family. I have something to speak to you about. We will be meeting At grandmother's house after the service. Will you join us?"
"Well, I... uh..." Hamilton tried to think of a graceful way to lie his way out of a painful afternoon with corporate drones and their children.
"It is important, and it will probably be our last opportunity." Nogano said.
Hamilton sighed but the Patriarch was right. He'd be leaving the planet soon. This was not a casual trip. This was one giant leap, never to be repeated for Hamilton in all probability. "I'll be there."
"Good."
With somber ceremony the soldiers placed his great aunt's coffin on the equipment to lower it into the grave.
Then a preacher started to talk about how all departed souls found lasting peace with god, and a lot of other stuff that Hamilton tuned out.
The small sharp valley nestled in the hills behind Vista City looked odd to Hamilton. "It's a waste to put a cemetery here. It'd make a great resort. It's wasted on dead people."
Hamilton was idly wondering what it would be like to water ski on Black Lake when shots rang out.
Hamilton found himself splayed to dive for cover, when he saw what the shots were. The honor guard was firing old training rifles in the air, as his great aunt's coffin was lowered into the ground. The sergeant at arms continued to order the salute as Hamilton tried to regain his damaged dignity.
Then the ceremony was over. Workmen started to fill in the grave. The head stone stood nearby. People started to file away. Hamilton looked at the grave. He reached over and picked up a hand full of the soil that was going to cover his grand aunt up, He put it into a small glass jar. That was the piece of Earth he'd take with him to the new planet.
Hamilton thought of all the opportunities now gone forever. All the connections that he didn't bother to make. Michelle "Mikki" Ashby-Nogano. Nearby was the rest of the family. People Hamilton had only barely heard of. Scott Ashby. Jennifer Ashby. Spaulding Ashby. What kind of name was Spaulding? Spaulding's wife Helen. At least she had a normal name.
At the other end of the row, His mother and father. John Ashby. Crystal Lannier Ashby.
"Who the hell were you people?" Hamilton asked them. The next question occurred to him. "And who the hell am I? What of you all makes me who I am? And what the hell am I doing here?" He didn't voice these questions.
Sighing he brushed his fingers across each stone and walked away for the last time.
-*-
The Ashby family home was a generic suburban house of the last century. A touch more than one hundred years old, it spoke of the good old days when energy was cheap and everyone had air conditioning. The solar panels had a tacked on, after thought look that only houses made before the big oil crunch could maintain. Some elements spoke of more recent innovations. Extra sealant over most doors and windows and a heavy filtration unit to keep the fallout down when the nukes were flying.
Hamilton noticed patched over bullet holes, and long term wear. This house was not a show house but a working home. Hamilton remembered the smell when he walked through the door clearly.
It looked like an old lady's home. Doilies and china hutches. However, there were odd touches. Hamilton recognized an executives terminal and desk in the den. Modern stuff. There was gun collection on the living room wall to make even the fiercest back woods survivalist drool.
On another wall there were framed pictures of flying machines going back one hundred and twenty years. Hamilton, the air plane bunny recognized most of them. From the F-4 Phantom II to... he stopped. An F-97. His plane. Was Grandma Mikki a plane bunny herself? Hamilton wished again he'd gotten to know her better.
Hamilton was welcomed in like a member of the family. Which technically he was, but it felt immensely odd to him.
There were men and women, children and animals to meet and try to remember their names. "If I had known I would have loaded a Farley chip." Hamilton thought. A Farley chip allowed someone with a direct neural interface to load visual images and names into a computer file for later mental access.
The Elder Nogano caught up with Hamilton and escorted him into the den and closed the door.
"I am sorry you waited so long to come home to us, Hamilton." He said.
"Uh. Well, The fact of the matter was that I didn't know you people were here. If I did, I'd been right into your laps. A little to late now, isn't it?" Hamilton replied.
"In most ways perhaps. But not all. Grandmother was proud of you, you know." Nogano said.
"Was she?"
Nogano pulled a framed picture down off the wall and handed it to him. His graduation picture from the Airforce Academy.
"Hmmph."
"You know that I am the Vice President of Operations for Nogano-America." Nogano said.
"I'm impressed." Hamilton said. "If this colony thing doesn't work out, can I have a job?"
Nogano nodded "Of course. However, right now we are talking as if the Bendross III will succeed."
Hamilton blinked "Okay. Go ahead."
"You know that before I was the vice president of operations I was chief of Security for Nogano-America. Before that I was a guard, an investigator and general agent." Nogano said.
Hamilton blew out a breath. "Now I really am impressed. You started in the mail room. Okay. Your name is still Nogano. That means you're near the top of the food chain."
Nogano shrugged "I tell you this so that you are not surprised when I tell you that Grandmother had me keep tabs on you."
Hamilton was shocked. "She did? But, then why didn't you call me up and offer me that job ten godamned years ago?"
Nogano was calm. "Grandmother was from a different time. She believed that coming home was your choice, and your struggle. She would not deny you the lessons you had to teach yourself. I had a forensic psychology profile done on you. Even now, if you were not family, we would never consider hiring you. You're too undisciplined and lack proper self control."
Hamilton felt his face start to darken. "Thanks cousin. I love you too."
Nogano held up his hand "These same qualities would make you an acceptable freelance investigator. That is the position for which I will hire you should your current project fall through. However that is not what we are discussing here."
Hamilton nodded broadly "Oookay. What are we discussing."
Nogano held up a disk. "This."
"What's that?"
"It is our true family history. From accounts, logs, research, and top secret documentation. There are secrets in this that even today would damage certain powers. Grandmother started this project early this century. Once she had married into Nogano family, she shamelessly used Nogano-America resources to ferret out even more. This is very, very hot information, Hamilton."
Hamilton blinked. "Seriously? Real hard core stuff?"
"This is not treasure. This is not a payoff. This is who you are. This is who we all are in this house today." Nogano said sharply. "This is not for you to sell or barter like you did the file you stole from Bendross Corporation."
"If it's not for public release then why are you giving it to me?" Hamilton said.
"Because as a member of our family I feel that you have the right to know. More importantly, You will soon be the only member of our family residing out side of the Sol system."
Hamilton blinked. "An off site backup?"
Nogano smiled very faintly in approval. "Exactly. I welcome you to our family. This is your right. I also impose a duty upon you. This is the price for the open door. You must take our family out to the stars with you and make sure that this record survives and that our family, at least in some small way survives."
Hamilton looked at the disk carefully. "I was figuring on surviving..."
"I know. And now, perhaps the Nogano/Ashby family will, too."
Hamilton looked sideways at Nogano. "The Ashby/Nogano family."
Nogano chuckled but looked a little sad. "Grandmother said that, too."
Hamilton took a breath "I'm in. At least I don't have to kill anyone to make my bones."
"The real challenge will be to survive." Nogano said. "Before we rejoin the family I have one question. Please answer with utmost truthfulness. What did you steal from the Bendross Corporation that they felt was worth a space on the Bendross III?"
Hamilton thought about it. "Honestly? I have no idea."
Nogano blinked in shock. "Really?"
"Really. I was drunk when I did it."
Nogano laughed until his eyes watered. After a few moments Hamilton joined him.
It turned out to be the happiest wake Hamilton was to ever see.
Disclaimer: Paramount owns all things Trek. I claim original characters and situations in this story for me.