Winterborn

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[font=Palatino Linotype][color=#999999]O[color=#99AA99]n old Earth, in ancient Greek mythology, the "Chimaera" was a kind of monstrostiy. A creature that had the head and body of a lion, then the head of a goat, and a tail that ended in a snake along with its head. The stuff of legend, so it's said. The Chimaera in my story was the remnant of my father's old days in the Naval Forces. The last thing left from the time when he was younger, bolder, and when he had more hair on his head. But that's a completely different affair I won't talk with you about. So.

One day he came to me and said we'd go out. On a trip. To somewhere. I didn't have anything much better to do - I admit that the first months after the academy I avoided anything like "getting a job" or whatever like the plague. I was being helluva lazy to be honest, but anyway, I didn't have anything else to do, so I came along, wondering where we'd go.

And so it came that we ended up on the nearby space-port and my father led to me an old, old hangar on the far edge of the said port. Before I go on, let me say that I really don't know what made him crack, or rather not so much crack as change his mind. I once asked him later, way later, and he told me - he really loves to be cryptic, and he's not a man of many words, but anyway - he told me I'd find out for myself soon enough. I can only speculate about the reason right now though. Maybe it was that he wanted to cast aside the last remaining bit of days long gone, but I doubt it. I also thought he might have just wanted to do his best to, well, keep me safe and sound, but knowing my father that would be too plain. What I like to think is that rather than doing those two, he saw himself in me beyond the point of me being his beloved daughter. Just like my mother had done.

So he put in the pass-code to the gate's lock, and the old steel-framed doors came to life, sliding open slowly while the lights flickered on one by one. And there it was.

It wasn't the monstrosity of old. This was his ship. His own Chimaera. His. Very. Damn. Ship.

"When you go out there, my dear, do it with her. She has a long history, dating back beyond my days, beyond the time I met your mother. And she's all yours now. So take care of her, and she will take care of you." - He said.

And that was when I got my father's blessing to go my own way in the universe.

Well, obviously it's what I ended up doing shortly thereafter. And now I'm here.