Camelot

Author's Note:

This is yet another incomplete work, but one that could be completed, I think. This Marrissa Story requires familiarity with Worlds in Collusion, so it is advisable to read it first. As I post this, I have not figured out exactly how I'm dividing what scenes I wrote of this, so I can not tell you how many parts are complete. I can tell you that I'm serializing it much like A Little Earlier.

...

Her Royal Highness, Lieutenant Marrissa Amber Picard, Princess of Halifax, Heir to the Throne of Essex, Chief of Security of the Federation Flagship Enterprise, sighed as she sunk into the soft bed of her flat on Essex. The Enterprise hadn't been in transporter range when she had finished her interviews in Parliament, so she had, as she had informed her adopted father and commander of the Enterprise, Captain Jean-Luc Picard, headed for her flat on the top floor of the Act Building on Settlement Street. She had taken a quick shower, then spent an hour relaxing in the hot tub on the roof. The Enterprise still hadn't been in range, so she decided that spending the night would be the best idea.

Marrissa, like a lot of little girls, had fantasized about being a princess when she was little. Her father had event taken to calling her his little princess. She'd eventually out grown those fantasies, replacing them with dreams of commanding a starship, a common enough dream for the child of two Star Fleet Officers. She'd managed to live that dream a few times, and now at almost fourteen had managed to find herself Chief of Security on the Enterprise.

It was a lot of work, and at times she wished she could have told herself to look for something else back when she'd declared that she was going to be Captain of the Enterprise to her parents. But she hadn't, and she had managed by luck mostly to find her way into Star Fleet, the youngest to hold her rank by a large margin. It wasn't just a dream anymore, and she was determined never to give anyone reason to take it away from her. It wasn't easy, but as the Captain had once quoted, "We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."

Today a lot of her fantasies about being a Princess had suffered a healthy dose of reality as well. The Parliament of Essex was not yet up to full strength in the aftermath of what they were now calling simply the Impact, but it was quite intimidating. Marrissa had been called before the Joint Committee for Governmental Oversight

She had expected the questions to be focused on her actions in the matter of former Prime Minister Dessalines, and there were some questions on that matter which she handled fairly well, Marrissa believed. The vast majority of the questions, however, she was totally unprepared for. She had no idea what the criteria for selecting a Prime Minister was. Nor did she know how one could get into the House of Lords. In fact she didn't know much at all about Essex's government.

Marrissa had a stack of books, physical books, just to underline their importance, which she'd been told to read. She was heir to the throne, and apparently this kind of knowledge was required of such a person. Marrissa had thoughts of removing herself from succession, while she had dragged the books to her flat. Unfortunately she had to be at least twenty-one to do that, and there was that family motto to consider.

Officium Acredo, duty accepted wholeheartedly ... she had to consider it an apt motto for herself. Not many teenagers would have dived into the job as Chief of Security, much less her former duties as Chief CONN Officer. Jay Gordon had once remarked that once he saw that Marrissa had decided that she was going to do something, he had two choices. He could either help her, or get out of the way, because nothing stopped Marrissa once she knew something was possible for her. In general, he took the former, rather than the latter course, which was greatly appreciated by Marrissa.

Marrissa reached over and picked up the top book on her bedside table. She opened up "Essex Parliament: A Historical Primer" to the first book mark.

"House of Lords. It is commonly perceived by those outside of Essex that the House of Lords is an extension of the family line succession that is present in the monarch. This fails to take into account the fact that all members of the House of Lords are what are termed life peers, having their seats only because of their own merits. While it is true that the heir to the throne has an automatic seat for his or her lifetime, this should be properly seen as a method of training the next monarch. This will be discussed in a later chapter ..."

Marrissa paused her reading for a moment. Even if she didn't learn anything from this book, it would at least work as a sleep method.

...

Marrissa woke the next morning to her communicator chirping. Sleepy, she reached over to her bedside table, dislodging the book she'd fallen asleep reading as she did so. The sun was just starting to streaming into the bedroom through its mullioned windows. A glance at the anniversary style clock on the table allowed her to note that it was only 0530 local time, which she quickly translated to about 0600 ship time. She tapped the communicator as she fastened it to her night gown. "Lieutenant Picard, here."

"Enterprise, Commander Riker." The First Officer's voice was way to cheerful. "The Captain told me to let you know we're in orbit now, and he expects you on board soon."

Marrissa slid out of bed, into her comfortable green fluffy slippers. "I'll be on board as soon as I have my tea and breakfast, Commander. Let Lieutenant Nelson know that I expect to see how the physical fitness program is going. I've reserved the EDF obstacle course at Mount Valhalla next week for him."

"I'll let Nelson know," Riker replied as Marrissa walked out of her bedroom. "By the way, Lieutenant Sutter wanted to let you know that the security team following them last week was not appreciated."

Marrissa punched up an order of pastries, ham and eggs on the replicator in the Kitchen. "Which Lieutenant Sutter?" Some day, she promised herself, she would actually use something other than the replicator and the tea kettle in the Kitchen.

"Princess Clarrissa, of course," Riker replied. Marrissa could hear a protest in the background, as she put the kettle on. Tea, she'd been informed by her cousin, the Queen, should never be served cold, and the fresher the better. It was one thing that both the Queen and her father agreed on. Actually, it seemed that the Queen and her father were agreeing on a lot of things lately, mostly ones that were meant to 'protect' Marrissa.

"Inform the Princess that if she's not careful, I'll assign a detail for her on the ship. Marrissa out." Marrissa watched her kettle brew her tea, continuing her reflection. Calling Clara Princess was turning out to be quite amusing. The traditional Princess was everything Clara was not. Of course Marrissa, being more of a traditional tomboy was that, in a different way. Clara could often be found taking apart some gadget, grease smeared somewhere on her face. Dresses? Not Clara, they made it hard to move in the Jefferies tube, and you never knew when something would break.

The kettle started to whistle, and Marrissa pulled it off the burner. She poured her tea, and picked up her ham and eggs from the replicator. The pastries joined the rest of her food on the table, as she sat down in the high backed Windsor chair. As ate, she considered her best friend on the Enterprise a bit longer. If Marrissa had the heir to the throne job, she wasn't going to let Clara get out of her fair share of duties as long as the Enterprise was assigned to Essex. If the tomboy with the dirt smeared face had to do the job, then the grease monkey would have to do as well.

Her eyes caught a picture that had been left behind from the pervious week, when Clara had been staying with her recovering father at the flat. It was one of the infamous kid's crew, as they were called on the Enterprise-D. Taken on the Bridge, shortly after Marrissa had received her promotion to Lieutenant junior grade, it showed her seated in the command chair, in uniform, her friends around her. Clara had taken the counselor's seat, and wore her own newly minted Ensign's rank. The irrepressible Shayna Sachs, security, engineering, and practical joker, had slid between the two chairs, and had a smirk that was just asking for trouble. On Marrissa's other side, between the First Officer's Chair and the Captain's Chair was Alexander Rozhenko. The part Klingon was one that Marrissa missed. Unfortunately he was staying in Minsk. Then there was Jay Gordon in the First Officer's chair.

Jay Gordon ... the blond haired boy had somehow inserted himself into Marrissa's life in such a fashion that even six months after he and his family had left the Enterprise-D, they still chatted at least twice a week if not more. He had been her constant companion from the moment that they'd met on the then incomplete Enterprise-D until the day of that departure. She missed him.

There were two other boys in the picture, sitting cross-legged in front of the Captain's Chair. Patternson Supra ... at least Marrissa thought Patterson was a boy, there was some question on that, had been the CONN Officer. Then there was the tie breaker of the Kid's crew of the time, Tyler Smoak ... he hadn't had a long time on the Enterprise-D. Marrissa wondered where the little boy was now.

She shook her head as she finished her ham and eggs. Picking up a pastry, she headed back to her bedroom to put on her uniform and pick up the books. She'd been summoned aboard, and knew better than to delay too much. Being left behind once was enough.