A Family Dinner

Posted on Mon Aug 5th, 2024 @ 1:33am by Lieutenant Commander Dr. Jeremiah McEntyre, M.D.

677 words; about a 3 minute read

Mission: What Is Past Is Prolouge
Location: McEntyre Ranch - Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington, Texas

When Admiral Chakrabarti came to Dr. Jeremiah McEntyre, M.D at the Phlox Center two weeks ago and told him of the available posting on the Amaterasu, at first, the Caitian was excited for the chance to jump back out into the frontiers of space. He’d been looking for a new space posting the last two years, since the decommissioning of the U.S.S. Midway. He was eager to take it. To get back out to do what his colleague, McCoy, called: Frontier Medicine. Though his children were…less than pleased to hear their father wanted to go back out into the cold of space.

Sitting around the dinner table, his eldest son, Jeremiah “James” McEntyre, Jr, was making his point known…quite loudly, with a fork in his hand, gesturing wildly.

“You can’t be serious, Dad! You told us when Midway was pulled from service that you were done with the Five Year Missions! Hell, you told Mom that, even took the job at the Phlox center! Why go back out now?”

Jeremiah Senior leaned back in his chair, an old wooden one from gods know when. Their house was old, built a couple years after the end of the Third World War with the rebuilding of the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington Metroplex. Looking down the table, his eyes focused on his son.

“Son, what do I have here but an empty house to come home too. I know you and Leanne would rather I wind down for retirement, but I’m still able bodied, still fit, why shouldn’t I be out there?”

James put down the fork, looking at his dad intently.

“Cause we don’t want to lose ya, Dad! It was bad enough when Mom died, but to lose you! The Klingons are still out there, still eager for a fight! It would shatter us! Right Leanne?” He looked to his sister for reinforcements. The Half-Caitian woman looked at her brother and then her father.

“Honestly Dad. I think you should do it. Fleet needs good doctors, and those Excelsiors are poised to take over for the Connies. I think you should get in on the first wave, get ya a leg up if you ever want to make Captain someday.”

Always looking forward, his daughter was. Jeremiah smiled softly at that, a big grin and a swish of his tail. His son looked at his daughter with a confused look.

“You want him to go? Lee!”

“I just think that if Dad is determined to go back out, We should let him.” She took another bite of her meal before continuing. “You’re acting like he’s an old man, but he’s only 50, he’s still in the prime of his life!”


James stopped, looking puzzled.

“I….”

Jeremiah broke the stammering Half-Caitian

“I leave the day after tomorrow.”

They both looked stunned

“DAD!”

“I was trying to tell y’all that before y’all started in on your poor old father. It’s a shuttle ride out there. They lost their CMO and several other crew when they hit a mine, according to Admiral Chakrabarti. Apart from that, it’ll be good to get back on the horse, as they say.”

He stopped, looking down at his plate.

“When your mom died…It…It nearly broke me, 30 years of marriage, 33 if you count our courtship. I thought that taking a desk job would help me to reconnect with you both, but this house is just too much, the silence is deafening and I think that a space assignment…it’ll help me to make peace with her passing and I think that's what she would want. So I'm going! Whether you two like it or not, it’s my decision!”

It was a day later he took an early shuttle to the North Hampton and out to the Amaterasu. With a gleam in his eye and a determination to do good once more, the Good Caitain Doctor set out into the galaxy once more into the frontier of medicine.

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