You Knew My Father?

[Vansen Tyree]

Vansen Tyree was a man of few posessions. The posessions he did have were largely generic and non-descript: certainly far from personal. It was a habit from years ago that he'd never shaken, and also one that life lessons had reinforced. As a pilot, everything he owned aboard-ship needed to fit into a tiny locker; and as an officer, he'd learned that space battles could wreak havoc on any belongings that carried sentimental value.

In his old age however, that self-imposed rule had begun to soften, and he allowed himself a handful of concessions to sentimental memory. Most notable was a series of small polyplast ships that decorated one of the shelves in his office. Each one had been hand-constructed from mass-produced model kits, the kind seen at crafting vendors across the galaxy. And within each one - or rather, within the larger cousins upon which they were based - Vansen had once fought and served.

About half-way along, a ship was clearly missing. That model had been moved, and now sat on Vansen's desk, in the midsts of a slight overhaul. A small brush clutched in his fingers, he added the last few strokes to the telltale red marking that distinguished a Republic Star Destroyer from it's Imperial successors. For most of his time aboard - and in command - the Valkyrie had sported generic Imperial grey; but the flashes of red reminded him of the simpler times of the Clone Wars, back when the difference between good and evil had seemed simple and obvious.

A chime from his doorway interrupted his reflections on the past. He didn't even need to glance at the security monitor on his desk to know who it was. Carefully, he set the brush aside, and placed the lid back on the tiny metallic canister of Republic Red.

After a moment spent restoring his composure, he cleared his throat to speak.

"Come in."

[Carré Inirial]

Graphite whispered softly across the paper, tiny flicks coming together gradually to form a small, angelic face. A second, slightly smaller one joined the first, before the pencil was put down and the work scrutinized by a pair of emerald orbs.

She smiled softly, pleased with how she'd managed to capture Emma and Brianne's adorable expressions. Further detail and the eventual coloring would, however, have to wait. Carré rose from the table in the small lounge, gather her supplies up before she strode out into the hallway.

It was, after all, not every day that her 'Uncle' called her for a meeting...and a rather official sounding one at that. It made her wonder, as she stowed away her things, if there was something amiss. Or if someone had finally taken enough of an exception to her relationship with Kelly to do somewhat about it. She'd certainly be having words with Adonis if that was the case.

There was no use, however, in worrying about something that might not even happen. Carré took a deep breath and smoothed out her uniform jacket, fingers settling the deep blue fabric just right before she took the shortest route to Vansen's office.

She paused outside, briefly cursed her lingering nausea from the prior evening's shenanigans, and touched the comm panel.

"Come in."

With proper decorum and formality, she stepped in as the door swooshed open, and stopped next to the chair before his desk. "You asked to see me, Commodore." Carré said respectfully as she offered a formal salute. Emerald eyes glanced down at the ship perched on his desk and she was hard-pressed to keep her smile as minimal as possible.

[Vansen Tyree]

The salute caught him completely off-guard. It made sense of course - he was the Commodore after all, and she was one of his many pilots - but amidst all his reminiscing on the past, he'd almost forgotten that he was anything more than a mere friend of her family.

"Please," he gestured towards one of the seats in front of him, offering a slightly uncomfortable smile. "In private, Vansen will do just fine."

He watched in silence, frowning a little at her apparent discomfort. It was all that damned Teagan child's fault, this new appreciation for the importance of children; spending time with the offspring of one of his oldest friends reminded him of how much he'd neglected the children of another.

It was long overdue of course; he couldn't even recall how long Carré had been aboard his ship, and yet he hadn't taken the time to exchange more than a few words with her, all of which had been centred on work. He'd justified it by reminding himself of how critical their mission was, and how busy he'd been trying to stop the Wheel from flying apart into a disorganised mess; but it was all dren at the end of the day.

"I don't -"

He stopped, deciding that wasn't the way he wanted to start at all. He frowned, trying to pluck something useful from amid the thoughts in his brain.

"You've grown a foot since I last spent any time getting to know you. And a lot -" His voice faltered slightly. A lot was one hell of a way to undersell Alderaan, Endor, and all the other chaos that had transpired over the last few years. "- has happened since then."

He looked away, eyes on the still-drying paint of his model Valkyrie. He forced himself to smile; though unusually, it wasn't a foul mood that he was battling against.

"Neither of us have much in the way of family anymore. I wanted to make sure you knew I was here, if you ever -"

He trailed off completely, and silence fell again.

[Carré Inirial]

"I thought I'd start with the formal just in case, Uncle Vansen." Carré said with a smile, adding the uncle in just to see if she could make him keep his smile the way she used to be able to.

She sat in the proffered chair and crossed her legs, folding her hands in her lap. He looked as if he were carrying the weight of the entire Alliance on his shoulders. And if he wasn't, he at least felt like he was. She tilted her head and gazed at Vansen in silence until his words trailed off.

"If I ever need you. I know, Uncle Vansen." Carré nodded as she spoke, eyes falling to the model Valkyrie. "Especially since we're both pretty well stuck with Adonis."

After a moment, she continued. "Speaking of my big brother, have you seen him around recently? He left in the middle of an argument I'd like to finish."

[Vansen Tyree]

"Even before your brother was working with Intelligence, I never had a damn clue what he was up to," Vansen grunted.

A hint of a smile crept onto his withered old features. "Half the time, I'm not even sure that he knows."

His face quickly turned thoughtful again. It was easy to criticise Adonis, mainly because he made it so easy. A childhood spent frakking about had evolved into an adulthood spent frakking around; the only think that elevated him above the antics of fighter pilots was the level of suave and charm he seemed to employ these days.

But with everything that had happened, Vansen couldn't blame him. And at least in recent years he'd mellowed - begun to show a little more restraint, and commitment to his job. His gaze focused firmly on the Valkyrie replica, and the metaphorical old friend residing within. Looks like you finally got him to start behaving after all.

His eye climbed back to regard Carré. "Still, I don't particularly want to talk about Adonis. I'd much rather get to know my -"

Though 'dead friend's daughter' was the most accurate description, it hardly conveyed the kind of sentiment he was going for. He simply let the sentence trail off instead.

"I was surprised when I heard you'd enrolled at the Academy; you never really struck me as the type. You were more of a princesses and ponies girl, last I heard."

[Carré Inirial]

Her head dipped and her smile grew bright at his...unvarnished comment. It was vintage Tyree, if a little cleaner than normal, and assured her that he was at least still himself under the weight of his command.

"Princesses and ponies...yeah, that phase didn't last very long." Carré winced at the old memories, visions of pink dresses, dolls, and rainbow ponies dancing across her mind's eye. "Mom tried to make me keep it, she really did. I don't think she was ever happier than that period. But I had six brothers, and I followed them everywhere. Wanted to do what they did. Be just like them. I idolized them, especially Harris. I'd always loved flying, but when Harris went to the Academy as a pilot..."

Her voice trailed off and she blinked, casting her gaze down to her hands. Turned up, she absently stared down at the faint scars across the right palm and wrist. Each of them in turn had indulged her every want, teaching her everything from how to pilot to how to fight - the latter of which got them all in trouble when she first turned up with a split lip, looking all too proud of herself.

She continued, picking up her train of thought where she'd left it. "...I was ten. There was no one else left in the house to be a buffer, so I got all of mom's attention, and dad's when he was home. Mom tried to turn me into a lady for the next five years, which I pretended to go along with. Dad played his Patriarch card and betrothed me to someone when I was thirteen. By the time I turned fifteen though, they'd come around to the idea that I wasn't going to stay home. So off to the Academy I went."

A thought occurred to her as the silence fell, but she didn't feel comfortable asking it. It would likely put her uncle in an awkward spot if she asked how long he'd known Adonis was still alive. She pushed it aside and folded her hands together once more, lifting her gaze to meet his.

"Not going to ask why it took me so long to come over to the Alliance after That Day? Adonis did." she said in a moment of surprising bitterness that she instantly regretted. "I'm sorry...forget I said that."

[Vansen Tyree]

"If I did -"

Vansen's voice trailed off, and his jaw clamped shut. That Day had changed many things for many people; it had instantly turned fearful compliance into angry defiance in some, but in others the transition took much longer to take hold.

He let out a sigh, his voice coming out unusually soft as he tried again. "If I did, I'd have to ask myself the exact same question." He frowned. "I had to lose an eye and a wife before I finally came to my senses."

[Carré Inirial]

"I was there, you know...on an observation deck on the Death Star. An honor accorded to my flight class..." her words trailed off as she blinked in surprise, his words finally sinking in.

"A wife? What wife? I didn't even know you were married...my god, I'm so sorry." Carré winced at how hollow it sounded, even if she meant it sincerely. There was no amount of sorry that could fix that sort of pain, a fact she well knew.

[Vansen Tyree]

Vansen shrugged, though his eyes made it clear that the situation wasn't nearly as casual as he was implying.

"You never met her," he pointed out, "And you never will, thanks to our friendly neighbourhood Empire. Hardly seems right for you to be sorry."

He trailed off. "And besides, it's not like I have the right to expect your sympathy, or accept it. A lot of people have loved and lost a hell of a lot more in this war than I have, and yet they still keep on fighting. You don't see Alderaanians like Leela Vorega or Kelly Perris buckling under the weight of everything they've lost. They don't wallow in self-pity, lamenting the loses of their loved ones. Day after day, they fight for those people's memories; and so that countless others across the galaxy won't suffer the same fate."

Another shrug. "What right do I have to do anything different?"

[Carré Inirial]

"Kelly does wallow, when he's drunk enough. He just doesn't think anyone notices." Carré said with a sigh, fingers lacing together absently.

"Well, regardless, you do have the right to mourn however you wish. Wallowing...is pretty pointless, I agree. I've done enough of that myself the last few years."

[Vansen Tyree]

"On that point, we'll have to disagree," he grunted.

He sighed, suddenly feeling all of his far-to-many years catching up with him. His fingers fell idly to the wedding band on his finger, twisting it in a gentle circle. A bittersweet smile crept onto his face. "She'd kick my ass if she caught me moping," he muttered.

His gaze fell away. "And she'd never forgive me if I gave up."

[Carré Inirial]

"I wish I'd met her." she said simply, watching his expression, emerald eyes bright and observant. The gentle twist of his ring didn't go unnoticed, and it made Carré wonder why she'd never really noticed it before.

The silence was comfortable this time, each of them briefly lost in their own thoughts. She cast her emerald gaze toward the ship models arrayed neatly on a shelf and suddenly wished she'd brought a sketchbook and pencils with her. A detailed drawing of the Valkyrie's bridge with her father and uncle in their usual spots would look right at home.

"Neither would I, Uncle." Carré replied at long last, trying to fix him with her father's stare and failing at it badly enough to emit a snort of laughter. "I did not inherit the Inirial Stare. I got the stubbornness in droves, but not even a speck of the Stare."

[Vansen Tyree]

Vansen offered a ghost of a smile. "That's because you have your mother's eyes. You could glare as hard as you wanted, and it would still look like -" He trailed off, frowning his way into thought. "How did your father put it? 'Like sunrise over the Juran Mountains'."

His smile remained, whistful memories floating through his mind. Back when the Clone Wars had first begun, barely a day had gone by when Vansen hadn't been regailed with some tale about Anpher's life back home on Alderaan; and if there was ever a story that didn't feature his beloved wife, it was because he was too busy talking of the love and pride he felt towards his children.

Such stories had even softened the heart of the interstellar pursuer of ladies that Vansen had once been. Were it not for those stories, Vansen would have died a bachelor rather than a widower; if only he'd not waited until so late in life to find love, he too might have become a father, and felt the joy that Anpher clearly had every day.

Despite the somber thought, his demenour managed to brighten a little. "Your brother has her eyes too; that's why Adonis couldn't even manage to out-menace an Ewok."

[Carré Inirial]

She had the grace to blush at the compliment, taking just a bit of pride in being compared to her mother. Lady Ishara Breness Inirial had been quite the beauty, a fact which her father remarked upon as often as possible. Carré had inherited her mother's emerald gaze and delicate features, her father's famous and decidedly implacable stubbornness.

From around her slender neck, she unclasped a tiny blue holocube suspended on a braided silver chain. A touch saw it spring to life with a soft click, light emanating from each facet on its surface as the holopics began to slowly scroll through the air. Her parents, her brothers, their fledgling families, one after the other. She sighed softly as it ended, but the cube pulsed with light in her palm.

Carré blinked as Vansen's words sunk in and elicited a peal of laughter. "He couldn't even out menace my pony when I was little, nevermind an Ewok. Though I've heard rumors that he put that gaze to other uses."

[Vansen Tyree]

"I don't know," Vansen said carefully. "That pony of yours looks pretty fierce."

He attempted to maintain a straight face, but even more than half a century of practiced stoicism, bitterness, and outright misery couldn't keep his wrinkled features from fracturing into a grin, a hearty laugh tumbling in it's wake. His normally pale cheeks turned a jovial red; a hand rested against his top lip as he chuckled into his fingers.

"Did I ever -" he started, but found he had to stop for a moment to recatch his breath. "Did I ever tell you about when I caught Adonis up to his usual antics during his intern cruise?" His fingertips scrubbed at his lips as he wrestled his laughter down to speakable levels. "He tried it on with one of my comm officers, but oh -" He shook his head with a smile. "- she was way more woman than he was experienced enough to handle."

He drew in a breath. "She strung him along; even invited him back to her quarters. I don't quite know what happened in that room; but somehow, Adonis ended up locked outside in the corridor, with every single scrap of his uniform locked on the inside."

"I caught him, four corridors over and two decks down, trying to convince the door to his quarters to open and let him in. Turns out she'd planned ahead, or called in a favour with the maintenance crew; overrode the lock controls so it wouldn't let him in."

Vansen sighed happily. "He still hasn't lived it down. All I have to do now is make some passing comment about his uniform, and then what him nearly explode with effort trying not to blush."

[Carré Inirial]

"Hey now...you are not allowed to taint...Rosebud's...memory..."

Her words dissolved into a fit of laughter for several moments before she managed to regain a modicum of control. She returned the tiny holocron to her neck and tucked it underneath her uniform top.

Emerald eyes were still bright with mirth as Vansen tried to speak and found it difficult through the laughter that plagued him. It was good...really good to see it so, she mused for a moment until he managed to continue.

By the time he finished, she had tears in her eyes and laughter that wouldn't stop no matter what she tried. Imagining her brother in such a compromising position was easy, but the wealth of tormenting she'd get from using it was truly priceless. Let him call her Leelee again. The payback would be glorious.

"Ahh gods...thank you...for that." Carré stammered as she gradually caught her breath, fingertips wiping the tears from her cheeks. It took several minutes, during which she had to avoid her Uncle's singular gaze lest the laughter overwhelm her again.

"I am damn glad I behaved myself then. I wouldn't want you taunting me about something like that for the rest of my life."

[Vansen Tyree]

Vansen fixed her with a knowing look, a glimmer that mixed mischief and disapproval sparkling away in his eye. "Oh, don't worry about that: I've managed to rustle up plenty of dirt on you, too."

It was true, in a manner of speaking. Though he hadn't actively been imposing himself into the lives of Carré, Adonis, or any of the other people he felt a duty of protection towards, he'd been keeping his eye on them as best he could with the resources available - trading stories, favours, and general scuttlebutt at any opportunity, just to reassure himself that they weren't getting too badly into trouble.

Some were harder to hear things about than others of course, like John Glayde, and that Felacatian ex-girlfriend of his: old subordinates who'd run off back to SpecForce to do whatever it is that secret SpecForce people did. He tried, though. And as long as he kept on trying, he felt like he was doing at least something to honour the memories of those who were dead and gone.

His brow tugged into a frown, as he found the conversation steering itself around towards the uncomfortable ulterior motive for summoning her here.

"Speaking of which, I've been hearing a lot of chatter about what you've been getting up to lately."

[Carré Inirial]

Emerald eyes widened for a brief moment, before they narrowed with with a speculative glint. The expression remained there as she mulled over what he could have heard about, or not heard about, or, if she was to be honest, who. She could only hope no one had told him about the Sanis/Kelly debacle that had nearly ruined everything.

Carré sighed after a few moments, the silence turning slightly awkward. With a slight shift of his brow, her uncle had changed the mood of the moment entirely. That would make anyone apprehensive, but especially her. Biting her lip, her posture straightened as her hands folded together in her lap.

"Speaking of which, I've been hearing a lot of chatter about what you've been getting up to lately."

Chatter? What chatter? She hadn't done anything egregiously stupid in months! Unless that shore leave counted...but Mara had sworn up and down that she didn't start the brawl - on purpose. It had been an...accident. Maybe breaking the barstool over the Devaronian's shoulders hadn't been a good idea after all.

"Would that be...good or bad chatter? Because if its bad, I'm reasonably certain I can explain..." Carré offered, running over the last few months in her mind to try and anticipate.

[Vansen Tyree]

Vansen's eye looked firmly at his desk, rummaging through the flimsies and datapads as he spoke mostly to himself, allowing Carré to hear his muttering external monologue. "I've had half-a-dozen different officers file incident reports. More, if you count the unofficial submissions."

He found the datapad he was looking for, but didn't activate it just yet. He stopped, fingers lacing together in protective defense over the screen as his gaze climbed back to the Flight Officer.

"As your father's friend," he said, his steely vision boring into Carré's eyes. "I feel a certain duty to protect you from this kind of thing." His brow furrowed. "As a responsible commanding officer however, I am afraid I cannot."

A finger stabbed into the activation stud on the database, his hands spinning it around to face Carré, and sliding it across the table towards her. Fingers laced back together again as he allowed a long, heavy silence to descend. His stern features didn't falter even in the slightest, until a fraction of a second after he spoke again.

"Congratulations, Lieutenant Inirial."

[Carré Inirial]

She tilted her head as her fingers tightened together in her lap, emerald eyes watching her uncle closely. To say she was worried would have been a slight understatement. When he mentioned her father and his sense of duty, she'd have sworn her heart stopped.

Lips parted as if to reply, Carré leaned forward to look at the datapad and only half-heard Vansen speak again. Emerald eyes blinked in disbelief, while her features did a credible imitation of a fish struggling to breathe out of the water.

Fingers picked up the datapad as she glanced up to find the mirth dancing through his features and lighting his eye. "Seriously? Lieutenant?!" Carré breathed at long last, scrolling through the info on the datapad before returning it to his desk.

"Thank you...well, that hardly seems adequate, but I mean it. I just wish dad was here to see it." her voice emerging suddenly quieter than only a moment before.

[Vansen Tyree]

"If your father were here to see it," Vansen began, easing himself out of his seat with a fair bit more effort than he would have liked, "He would have been absolutely insufferable."

"I made a bet with him that you'd never make it past Recruit; whereas he insisted that one day, you'd end up outranking the both of us." He offered her a smile, extending his hand across the desk. "I'm very glad to be proven wrong."

He hesitated for a moment, a slight thoughtful look flashing across his brow. "Though admittedly, I was assuming you'd bump your head on the glass ceiling that the Empire's prejudices throw in the way of every young woman in the service. Defecting to the Alliance? Well, thats cheating."

"You must get that from your father. He never did play by the rules."

[Carré Inirial]

She rose automatically as he did, reflex quickly setting her on her feet. Her expression was bright and her smile broad as she shook Vansen's hand with a firm grip. "Very glad I could dash your expectations, then."

Carré's cheeks flushed with a touch of warmth, emerald eyes glittering with pride. "I wouldn't be an Inirial if I played by the rules..." she dipped her head as she suddenly wished Adonis were around. It was just like years ago, when she'd managed to accomplish something...she still wanted that approval from those that mattered to her.

"...life would be very dull if I always behaved myself, after all."