“Life In The Academy: Part VI”
"My homeworld is located on the other side of Federation space. I believe that we are closer to the centre of the galaxy than any other Federation member or installation, anywhere in the four quadrants. You probably heard of the Black Cluster in your Stellar Cartography classes? Well, Hirumaria is located in a nebula fairly close to that Black Cluster."
“I vaguely remember hearing about the Black Cluster,” he stated feeling somewhat stupid for not being able to recall something like that. “I cannot recall the full detail on it, perhaps instead of enlightening me on the Black Cluster, you will tell me more about Hirumaria. Whenever you speak of it you have a mixed emotion of both happiness and sadness about you, but perhaps talking about it and being able to share your knowledge on it will help to bring ‘home’ a bit closer to you.” He offered.
"Hirumaria has always been considered as the cradle of our species, a cradle that we must protect and preserve. It is my home, and I miss my family and my friends dearly. Hence the mixed feelings you're getting from me, I guess. But 6 months is too long a trip. I could probably comment and ramble upon on my home world for hours, and still you'd not know much of it. We have striking natural landscapes, a beautiful and colored night sky created by the nebula. I must admit that the night sky seen on most words, the blackness with the little dots of light, and the occasional satelite such as the Moon, is pretty dull when compared to the glorious colors the nebula cast upon the night sky of my home world."
“It sounds beautiful,” Cyrin commented. “Lieutenant, with happiness comes sorrow. You miss your home world, even I do miss Betazed even though I spent a vast majority of my life growing up here on Earth. Being a hybrid I have the privilege of being both human and betazoid. Having two different heritages comes with a price. Do I embrace my human side or do I embrace my betazoid side. The answer lies within. To fully appreciate both sides I must embrace both sides, as must you embrace both happiness and sorrow. I am not saying you don’t appreciate either one. But you would be doing yourself a disservice not to embrace both sides. Knowing that you are in a large way protecting your home world’s beauty as well as protecting your friends and loved ones.”
Tamara remained silent for a moment, and then she turned her furry head to look at Cyrin. "You are wise, Ensign. Wiser than most people of your age I've met so far," she told him with a warm smile. "Most of the hybrids I've met seem to favor only one part of their heritage, thus they encounter a lot of problems and troubles when the other side starts to express itself. They try to repress what makes a part of themselves. But a coin has two sides, and both sides are as important."
“I agree, however, even though I have embraced both side of my heritage, I tend to lean on the Betazoid customs and philosophy more so than my human side. Of course that is because I look predominantly Betazoid with the black eyes. Yet that is just a cause of genetics, Betazoid genetics are dominant to human genetics. Just like Klingon genetics are dominant to human genetics. That is in no way saying that those two species are superior, just their genetic encoding.” He said shifting a bit.
The striped feline nodded, rubbing one of her round ears a bit. "I guess one always tends to favor one side of one's heritage, for any number of reasons." She paused and tilted her furry head a little. "Genetics are a quite interesting thing, especially in our galaxy. Despite a lot of physical differences, most species of anthropomorphs the Federation encountered so far are able to procreate together. We are compatible, on a genetic level, despite coming from species that evolved on planets light-years away from each other. It has always amazed me, even though we now have an explanation for that."
"Sometimes, I wonder what we'll look like in the far future, after generations and generations of crossbreeding. Would all species somehow mix together, and evolve toward something new, incorporating bits of every species that populate the galaxy today? Or would the species of today still exist, retaining most of their genetic particularities, and incorporate some genetic codes from other species? I've been told that humans are the best at crossbreeding, because their genetic codes adapts easily to foreign genes. If I am right, I think that the latest census showed that the majority of hybrids where of humans mixed with something else."
Cyrin pondered the feline’s statement for a moment. “Perhaps, I don’t keep that close an eye to scientists as it is. I am sure one could say that humans have the most ‘untainted’ genetic structure, but then again hundreds of years from now that could be different. The Human species genetic coding may over-power the other species genetics due to so much cross-breeding. It might be that people like myself will no longer be called hybrids but have a distinctive name instead of Betazoid-Human hybrid maybe something like a Beman or Huzoid,” he said with a soft laugh.
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Ensign Cyrin Dicari
Chief Operations Officer
U.S.S. Charon
&
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Commander Tamara Akasy
Executive Officer
Starbase 204-A
Zetari Station
