Stardate 52036.0

     Captain Mason looked up from his work as a young man entered his ready 
room. He smiled when he saw who it was.
     "Chaz!", He got up and went over and gave the boy a hug.  The boy gave a 
forced smile.
     "How's it goin', dad?"

     Ensign Bruder was eating in the ship's cafeteria, which everyone called 
the "Equilibrium" because it was where you fueled up and regained your balance,
but also because the ship is the Equinox.  A boy entered the Equilibrium, and 
looked around.  He spotted Bruder and walked over to her.
     "Is this seat taken?" he asked as she looked up.
     "No," she replied.
     He smiled and sat down.  He ordered only coffee.
     "I'm Ensign Bruder, and you are?"
     "Just call me Chaz."
     "Okay, Chaz, then you can call me Etely."
     "Okay, thanks.  I just came aboard.  See, I have some people out there who
don't want me on Vulcan anymore, because they think the Dominion might attack 
there next, so they had me sent here."
     Etely rolled her eyes, "Well, I don't mean to be insubordinate or 
anything, but if I were you, I'd keep my distance from the Captain.  He doesn't
like 'little lost boys and girls whose daddies and granddaddies didn't want 
them out fighting' too much.  I think those were the words he used once.  I 
should know, see, I'm supposedly one of them.  Maybe my grandpa did ask for me
to be assigned here, but all the other crap Mason says about me is a lie."
     Chaz raised his eyebrow, obviously amused, "Oh?  Like what?"
     She waved her hand, "I don't want to go into it.  So, Chaz, you look 
pretty much human, maybe a little Vulcan as well."
     He smiled, "Very good.  Yes, my mother was Vulcan, but I got all my dad 
in me.  Let's see, as he put it once, 'a stubborn, selfish, insubordinating, 
illogical terror.'  Yes, I think those were the exact words.  Perfect imitation
of him himself," he gave a sly grin.
     "Oh?  So who is your dad anyway?  You got a last name?"
     "Yeah, but I don't care much for it.  Whenever I say it I get goosebumps,"
he sure did smile a lot.
     "Oh, so I get the idea you like to talk about your dad as little as 
possible."
     "Exactly."

     Captain Mason paced his ready room. You could almost see the smoke coming
out of his ears, and when he talked it was more like hissing.
     "I thought that I told you specifically to stay away from Ensign Etely 
Bruder-" every syllable of her name he spit out with obvious disgust, "-when 
you got here, and I have sources that saw you eating with her in the 
Equilibrium," he stopped pacing, "That's insubordination."
     "Well, Dad,"
     "Captain!"
     "Well.. CAPTAIN MASON," he said his father's name the same way the Captain
said Bruder's, "it is actually not insubordination.  See, you can't tell me to 
stay away from one of the other crew members.  I'm not even a Starfleet 
officer."
     "Yes I can!  I put you on this ship so you wouldn't go through what you 
went through before!  Don't make me send you back to Vulcan!"
     "I don't think you'll do that."
     "That's where you're wrong.  I will send you there in a heartbeat if you 
are seen with her again.  Dismissed!"
     Chaz Mason walked out of the ready room, amused at what would keep him on
this ship.  Yes sir, he'd get something to blackmail that jerk with.  He went 
straight to the holodeck.  He was late for a date.

     "...And so they say that the time bomb I sent was what killed them," she 
was sad, remembering what just happened 5 days ago.
     "I'm so sorry," Chaz replied, "I've had my share of hard times too.  Man, 
half the time, my dad pretends I don't exist.  Half the people I meet who have 
met my dad say that he specifically told them he didn't have any children.  
See, as soon as I was old enough, I was sent for Vulcan logic training.  It was
way too hard since I was only half Vulcan, and it got me down.  See.. I.. I 
kind of lost it."
     Etely tensed, wondering if he had found it yet.
     "No, no, see I had a mental breakdown.  From the pressures of the training
and most of all my dad, being so demanding.  So I was sent to a medical base 
and spent a year there.  I got better, not having to deal with my dad.  He was
happy when I got out of there, but didn't send me back to Vulcan because the 
Dominion were starting to close in on that sector, so he had me sent here.  So,
that's what happened to me."
     "Wow," Etely relaxed, realizing Chaz was okay now.  Which he was, and he 
knew it too, but Etely kept having this bad feeling that he wasn't telling her 
something, something very important about his dad.  Like.. like she knew him or
something.