June 20, 2360

I got in! Mara and Mama have been helping me apply to flight schools, and I got accepted to my first choice. It's a school run out of a federation space station, but has no relation to star fleet, luckily. I don't want anything to do with them. They're why I never knew my father. He was a science office, and the ship he was assigned to, the Bermuda, disappeared mysteriously without a trace. Mama got one of those form letters, you know the type. It says “Dear family of lieutenant junior grade Jarnel, We regret to inform you that your loved one is currently missing in action. He was serving aboard the USS Bermuda, when the ship went missing.”

They go on to say how sympathetic they are of our loss, and how long it will be until until he is no longer considered missing, but actually dead and at that time (not before) does my mother qualify for the benefits entitled to her as his wife.

As of fifteen and a half years later, the deadline they set out for officially changing his status to dead has come and gone, but they still technically call him missing in action without explanation. My mother holds out hope he'll return. I, on the other hand, loath the organization that took away my father six months before I was born, and still hasn't told us if he's alive or dead.

I'm not sure what Mama's family thinks of star fleet and don't really know if I care that much. They're nice to me because I'm “B'Lalen's girl”, and half Trill or not, they seem to think I've got Mama's strong spirit. I think they'd been waiting for something like this, because they had a d'k tahg for me. That's the knife I'd gotten in the form of a training piece about five years ago. I guess that means they consider me well trained enough to handle a real weapon.