The Prodigal Daughter Part I
Posted on Fri Aug 14th, 2026 @ 6:14am by Commodore Tyler Malbrooke & Lieutenant Commander Alyssa Maren & Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble & Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr & Maren Malbrooke
Edited on on Fri Aug 14th, 2026 @ 6:38am
2,615 words; about a 13 minute read
Mission:
The Mysteries of Maren
Location: Briefing Room - Deck 1 - USS Pioneer
Timeline: MD005 1030 hrs
The message from Captain Thorrin still played in Tyler's head he wondered if it were true. This would be a question that would be answered shortly as sitting off the port side of the Pioneer was the Merian Class USS Herodotus, Thorrin's vessel. Tyler sat in his customary seat at the head of the table and rubbed his hands through his hair. "Neil, I can't think right now. I need your tactical mind. What are the odds that this is true or an enemy of some sort?"
Grinning at his friend, Neil said "Best way to find out if there is an ambush is to walk into it, as long as you keep your head on a swivel, sir. As to odds, I'm sure Rommie could run it down but numbers won't mitigate this. Just ..." he paused, then said, "Well, take it at face value till you get a reason not to is the best I've got right now." Gesturing with his thumb at the Sergeant Major, he said, "We've got your back."
Lachlan stood off Tyler’s shoulder, positioned where he could watch both the door and anyone coming through it.
“I’d rather flank an ambush than walk into one, sir,” he said, casting Neil a brief look. “But aye. We’ve got you.”
His attention returned to the entrance.
“If something’s wrong, we’ll know soon enough.”
There was something vaguely comforting in the fact that the Sergeant Major stood ready to take anyone down. "I mean. A daughter, from another universe? Sounds farfetched almost impossible." Tyler said.
"And that's the rub. You won't know till you know," Neil said. "Best to walk right up and see what's what."
"Here I am going to have to agree. Best to meet this standing up as it were. Sergeant Major just be ready to drop anything and everything." Tyler stood and straightened his uniform. He made sure to make himself a cup of coffee and returned it to his seat. Now, they waited for this Captain Thorrin and company to arrive.
Lachlan’s eyes followed Tyler as he stood, then shifted back toward the door.
“Anything hostile, aye, sir,” he said. “I’ll draw the line at droppin’ the seventeen-year-old unless she gives me a very good reason.”
There was just enough dry humour in it to take the edge off, but his hand still rested close to his sidearm.
“Everyone gets through the door first. Then we see what we’ve actually got.”
Thorrin stepped onto the transporter pad aboard the Herodotus. "Maren you have trusted me thus far. But now I am going to have to ask you to take one more leap as it were. This is the best place for you until we can figure out how to get you home."
Maren shifted her weight on the transporter pad, her mother’s coat pulled close around her despite the room being perfectly comfortable.
“Trusted is doing a lot of work there,” she said, giving Thorrin a look. “Mostly I’ve been injured, kidnapped by physics, medically glued to your timeline and surrounded by people who keep making decisions while I’m unconscious.”
There was less bite in it than there might have been a few days ago.
She glanced towards Marisa, then back at him. “And you know this has very strong stepdad-dropping-the-difficult-kid-off-with-relatives energy, right? ‘It’s the best place for you, we’ll visit, try not to set anything on fire.’”
Maren huffed and looked down at the transporter controls beneath her boots.
“I get it,” she admitted. “The Pioneer makes sense. He’s... Tyler, even if he’s not my Tyler, and you can keep working out why the universe slammed the door in our faces without me taking up half your Sickbay.”
Her eyes returned to Thorrin, guarded but warmer now.
“You did try to get me home. I know that.” She paused, then added quickly, “And I trust you a bit. Don’t look pleased about it.”
"Oh. I won't," was all the New Orleans accented Captain could mutter back. Then he took his place on the transporter pad.
Marisa just smiled as she, too, took her place on the transporter pad. Maren had mellowed a lot, and would--hopefully--settle in here better than she had on the Herodotus where there would be the constant pressure to find a way to get her back to what could only be a pending death. Here there was a chance to settle in and begin to make a new life for herself. A safer life.
"Mister Farrelly you may energize when you are ready." Thorrin addressed the Irishman at the controls. As the transporter took hold he glanced at Maren. They had come so far with her aboard the Herodotus. He hoped that seeing her father would not force her back into that shell.
A moment later they materialized in the Ready Room of the USS Pioneer. Things being what they are Thorrin had requested the Commodore transport them directly to him. When the transporter effect reconciled Thorrin stepped forward with his hand stretched. "Commodore Malbrooke sir. I am Captain Thorrin, this is my first officer Commander M'Lessa and Maren Malbrooke." Thorrin indicated the people present after shaking the Commodore's hand.
Tyler took Thorrin's hand and shook it. After the introductions there was a moment where all Tyler could do was look. She stood there and looked so much like him. Especially around the eyes, and the hair was the same. It was uncanny. After a beat he smiled. "Sorry, it is not often that I see someone who is so much me, and yet not at the same time across the table. This is Lieutenant Colonel Tremble, my First Officer, and our Chief of the Boat Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr. Please have a seat. Can we get you anything?"
Marisa didn't want anything. She took a seat, content to let Thorrin and Maren do the talking.
Thorrin felt that perhaps an introduction was needed. "Ms Maren Malbrooke this is Commodore Tyler Malbrooke in command of the USS Pioneer. Commodore, meet Maren Malbrooke. Ms Malbrooke arrived with no warning in the vicinity of the Typhon Expanse. Her vessel emerged from a temporal anomaly while we were on a routine survey mission. After confirming her identity and story we thought the best place for her would be here. That is until it can be learned how to return her."
The transporter released her into the Pioneer’s briefing room, and Maren knew which one was Tyler before Thorrin said a word.
That was the worst part.
For half a second, everything else in the room dropped away. The unfamiliar officers. The table. The polished Starfleet lighting. Even the dull awareness of Marisa and Thorrin beside her.
Just him.
He looked like her father without looking anything like the man she knew.
Too clean. Too well-fed. No exhaustion carved into him, no wariness sitting behind every glance, no old tension in the shoulders from years spent expecting the next alarm to mean someone had found them. His uniform actually fit properly. His hair was tidy. There was coffee sitting within reach as if mornings were allowed to be ordinary here.
Maren hated him for it for one ugly little second. Not him, exactly. The universe. Then Tyler smiled.
The feeling from him reached her before she could stop it. Surprise. Disbelief. Something warmer beneath that, something she didn’t want to examine too closely because her own emotions were already doing enough without borrowing his.
So, she locked onto the easier thing. His comment. Maren’s eyebrows lifted. “Yeah, well,” she said, folding her arms beneath her mother’s coat, “I take after my mum.” It came out smoothly enough. Mostly.
She knew it was rubbish. There were pieces of Tarelle in her, certainly, but anyone who had known her father for more than five minutes would have seen Tyler all through Maren. The stubbornness alone should have qualified as genetic evidence.
Still, this Tyler didn’t need to know that. Her attention moved briefly to the two men introduced beside him. Tremble earned a quick once-over. Lachlan got a little longer. He was watching.
Not staring, exactly. Assessing. The way people did when they were trying to work out whether she was going to cry, bolt, lie, bite someone, or pull a knife from somewhere inconvenient.
Maren could almost respect that. Almost. Then Tyler asked if they could get her anything. Her eyes went back to him. “A way home would be brilliant.” There was no smile with it. After a beat, she added, “But I’m guessing that’s not in the replicator.”
She took the offered seat eventually, though she chose one for herself rather than the nearest convenient place, dropping into it with the air of someone complying under formal protest.
Then Thorrin started introducing her. Again. Maren’s eyes slid towards him as he worked through the neat little version. Name. Arrival. Temporal anomaly. Confirmed identity. Best place for her. It sounded disturbingly tidy. By the time he reached until it can be learned how to return her, Maren had begun bouncing one heel beneath the chair.
“Hi,” she cut in, looking across the table towards Tyler. “Still here, by the way.” Her gaze flicked towards Thorrin. “You make me sound like a damaged shuttle someone found drifting.”
Then back to Tyler. “I did arrive in one, to be fair, but there’s quite a lot missing between ‘temporal anomaly’ and ‘we thought we’d bring her here.’”
She leaned back in the chair, arms folding again. “And just so we’re all clear before this gets any weirder, he’s not my dad.” The words came quickly this time. Maren held Tyler’s gaze. “I have one.” Her fingers caught lightly at the cuff of her mother’s coat. “He’s just somewhere I apparently can’t get to.”
"I would not pretend to be your father. Trust me when I say I know the difference between myself and that version of me. I have been through the barrier between universes more time than I can count. In fact, I am sure the DTI has a file on me by now." Tyler laughed at his own joke. It was an attempt to lighten the mood.
All at once Tyler realized the woman had a point. "You know, you're right. We are sitting here talking about you and not with you. For that I apologize. Perhaps it is best to simply ask if you wanted to stay here. Until we figure out a way to get you home that is."
Neil knew he and the Sergeant Major, Thorrin and M'Lessa were spectators at this point. He made it a point not to over scrutinize Maren and listen. She'd been vetted and the crew of the Herodotus would have vetted her completely before even going into warp. She also wasn't a child that needed an adult in the room for an interview. Chewing on the inside of his lip for a moment, he said, "Commodore. All things being equal, perhaps the COB and I should take Captain Thorrin and Commander M'Lessa for a walk around the Pioneer?"
Glancing toward Maren he met her eyes and said, "From my seat, welcome to the Pioneer. If this is where you chose to look for answers, then so be it. We do tend to fix a lot of problems," he said with a wry smiled. "Even if we usually have a hand in creating them ourselves."
"Yes," Marisa said to Neil. "I think I would like to see your ship. The commodore and Maren need a few minutes alone to feel each other out and decide what they want to do moving forward." She didn't think leaving them alone would cause too many problems. At least as long as no blood was spilled.
Thorrin looked toward Maren. Thorrin could take the Colonel's suggestion for a tour, or not. But, he knew it was not up to him, it was up to her. She would not talk unless she felt comfortable, and Thorrin knew that.
Maren’s attention stayed on Tyler when he apologised. That, at least, she hadn’t expected. Her arms loosened slightly from where they were folded across her chest, though she caught herself before it looked too much like progress. “Yeah,” she said. “Asking me first is generally a good start.”
The comment about crossing universes more times than he could count earned him a look that was somewhere between disbelief and reluctant curiosity. “Of course you have,” she muttered. “Apparently being you comes with a really weird relationship with basic physics.”
Then everyone started arranging themselves around the idea of leaving. Maren glanced from Neil to Marisa, then to Thorrin. She caught the question in the way he looked at her, waiting instead of deciding, and for once she appreciated that enough not to make him suffer for it.
She looked back at Tyler. This was going to be weird with an audience. Worse, probably. Five adults watching her meet the man who had her father’s face sounded like some kind of counselling exercise designed by people who hated teenagers.
“You can go,” she said at last, directing it mostly towards Thorrin and Marisa. “I’m not going to bolt through an airlock or anything.” A beat. “Probably.” Her gaze shifted to Neil and Lachlan. “And you two can stop pretending this isn’t incredibly awkward. I know what security looks like.”
She looked back at Tyler, studying him again despite herself. “If he turns out to be evil alternate Dad, I’ll shout.” Then, after the smallest pause, she added, “Or throw something.” Neil raised an eyebrow and grinned at Maren. "We are marines. Not bouncers. Usually. If I thought you were a threat Miss, this would be a much different sort of meeting since my job is to hand him," he gestured with his thumb toward the Commodore, "A ship and a crew for him to get things done with. The sergeant major keeps the rest of us in line." Glancing again at Tyler he added, "He's a good man, so cut him a bit of a break while he adjusts."
Then he turned to the others and said, "Ladies and gents. We can start the tour with Marine country and see what kind of bug juice the kids have going today."
"Bug juice? Mon Dieu. Have you not any Chateau Le Jour Écarlate?" Thorrin said as he followed everyone out. He was not sure how this would go. The only thing he did know was that Maren Malbrooke was about to learn how different things truly were.
A Joint Post By
Commodore Tyler Malbrooke
Commanding Officer, USS Pioneer
Captain Thorrin
Commanding Officer, USS Herodotus
M'Lessa, AKA Commander Marisa Sandoval
Executive Officer, USS Herodotus
Maren Malbrooke
Civilian, USS Pioneer
Lieutenant Colonel Cornelius Tremble
Executive Officer, USS Pioneer
Battalion Commander, The Cure
Sergeant Major Lachlan Barr
Chief of The Boat, USS Pioneer
First Sergeant, The Cure
RSS Feed