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father.
    "I'd already failed him.” Stuart shrugged a thin shoulder. “I had to get away.” His voice sounded quiet and full of desperation. Stuart closed his eyes and paused for a moment. When he looked back at her, his eyes held such pain. “He has such power over me. Just one wrong look.” He shook his head, his voice a whisper. “The thought of one wrong look."
    The pain in his voice was now tinged with fear as his body shook. “He was going to destroy whatever was left of me.” His eyes held tears he would not let fall, while across from him Rieko shed tears for his pain.
    "He's still there, even out here. I can't get rid of him.” Stuart's soft voice cracked at his realization.
    "Why Earth Space Fleet?” Rieko asked, hoping to lighten the mood.
    Stuart blinked several times as if clearing his head, he smiled that crocked half smile. “Because it's like that ship.” He nodded to the model that had brought them to this moment. “There was a time when MacEwan's sailed the open seas, alone out there in that giant span of water and sky.” He voice filled with reverence. “Now there isn't a place on Earth not connected to every other, but out here we're all alone in a little ship in the vastness of space. Just like those first MacEwan's who took to the seas."
    She smiled at his reasoning. He was out here to explore like the rest of the ship, but not so much to find new things but to prove humanity was big enough to deal with the hardships of the exploration. He actually seemed excited by the same isolation that scared Rieko so.
    The room fell silent for a moment. “Sometimes I wonder how much of me is me.” Stuart wondered aloud. “How much is him, them.” Rieko knew he meant his father and the MacEwans who had come before. “How much of me is the way it is because he molded me."
    Rieko couldn't imagine anyone shaping independent Stuart, but then she knew that parts of him weren't his. “People don't mold children,” Rieko spoke.
    "You can mold anyone,” he told her, with a sure voice, “if you're strong enough, they're weak enough."
    "You aren't weak, Stuart.” How could he think he was weak? He was probably the strongest man she knew and all that he had told her tonight simply reaffirmed it.
    "I like the way you say my name,” Stuart said, seemingly out of nowhere.
    His eyes looked at her for answers, and she knew she had none. Rieko moved to sit beside him on the bed. She placed a hand on his face. “Your love for blowing things up, that is Stuart,” she said.
    "Is that an attribute?” His voice held sarcasm.
    "Your protective nature, self reliance, attention to detail,” Rieko continued a list of his attributes.
    "The last is his. Can we not talk about this anymore?” His eyes pleaded as much as his voice. “Please."
    Rieko nodded her head. She knew her cheeks were wet with tears she had let fall for those he could not.
    "Oh, Rieko; I didn't mean to make you cry.” With concern, Stuart wiped the wetness from her soft cheeks.
    Rieko closed her eyes and leaned her forehead to his. “You're a good man, Stuart, no matter what he's ever told you.” Who does that to their own child ? “Thanks,” she said. Tonight he had to a great extent let her in as she had asked him to, as he had wanted to. “I love you."
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    Chapter Six
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    "Hey, Rieko, come in here,” Taylor called to her from inside the Captain's ready room. “Ya gotta see this."
    Rieko wasn't surprised to see the wooden model sitting on Shawn's desk. The rest of the bridge crew, except Stuart, were all there looking at it.
    The Executive Officer, Commander Poloski's dark eyes ran meticulously over the small wooden creation. “The Lieutenant's attention to detail is commendable.” She almost complimented Stuart as she raised a pale eyebrow.
    Mike, the helmsman, was bent down with his dark face inches from the ship, his hazel eyes full of wonder. “How long do you think it took him to