A Happy Reunion

[`kora fatanu]

I'M WAITING AT THE STATION
SEARCHING FOR YOUR FACE

It seemed like her father had been gone for a million years. Not that Kora minded staying with her aunt, but what she really wanted was to go up with koro. She would ask him again and again while he was here, and she knew that he would never say yes. Still, she kept hoping that someday he would decide she was old enough to come along.

She'd put on a dress today. She was still wearing her battered, old black leather boots, but she was wearing a pretty yellow and white dress that koro had bought her a year before.

Weaving through the people of the bustling port was easy for the girl, who had lived here all her life. The port was as much home to her as the small apartment she shared with her koka, Serraphim. Her aunt had to work today, and so she wasn't along on Kora's excursion. It made her feel somewhat grown-up, going to meet her father by herself.

Kora was only twelve, but twelve is almost grown when you live on the edge of the 'verse. She was coming of age soon, but Kora hadn't given any thought to marriage. As of yet, no one had even caught her interest. She loved working on engines and getting into trouble with her friends. She didn't know it yet, but some day soon someone was going to catch her eye.

Today though, her eye was out only for her father. She watched the sky for the Nyx while scanning the crowd for familiar faces. Chrys wasn't likely to leave the ship, but Gray or Sonja might. The face she was looking for would tower above the rest, and be covered in tatoos. Maybe that's what she would ask for on her birthday. She was coming of age after all.

[[ TAG; Waka.]]

[waka FATANU]

Waka had a feeling that the captain would have a last minute list of work that needed done around the ship for him to do in port, so he did what any good mechanic would do and avoided him at all costs. Avoiding anyone on a ship as small as the Nyx and getting ashore unnoticed was nigh impossible, which is exactly why Waka viewed it as a challenge. He wasn't know for being lazy, far from it, but the captain had a tendency to think that he knew the ship better then Waka did, which simply wasn't true. What the Nyx needed while they were in port he would see to soon enough. First things first though, he had to see Kora. Through no small amount of cheating at cards he had been finally able to save up enough extra credits to get Kora a beautiful Gaian silk dress. Her coming of age ceremony would be coming up soon and he was determined to have his daughter be the most beautiful girl there. Luckily Kora looked like her mother so most of the work was already done. He very carefully checked the dress inside of box before stowing it in his sea bag. As soon as the engines were shut down after landing Waka was out the airlock like a shot. His eyes searched the crowd at the docks for his daughter, who he knew would be here even if she had to sneak away.
Kora was weaving through the crowd with a practiced ease, if it wasn't for the yellow dress Waka may have never recognized her, in the last six months she had grown like a weed. As he began waving his hand at his daughter he hoped that the dress would fit her still.

[`kora fatanu]

I'M WAITING AT THE STATION
SEARCHING FOR YOUR FACE

'Where is he?' Kora wondered for what seemed like the millionth time, standing on tiptoe, trying to see over the crowd. Her boots gave her a good six centimeters, but even then, she was just above average height. Her koka said she was still growing, but Kora didn't believe a word of it.

Suddenly, a familiar face rose out of the crowd. A tall, heavily tattooed man waved to her, and suddenly Kora forgot all about being grown up. She ran to her father like a four year old girl, a grin on her face.

"Koro!" the girl exclaimed as she reached him, and threw herself into his arms. She loved her father more than anything in the world, and hated that he was away all of the time. Kora was never happier than when he was at home.

She didn't pay any attention to his bag, as he almost always had one. At this moment, she was far more excited about seeing her father than about her upcoming birthday.

[waka FATANU]

Waka deliberately caught his daughter with one hand while shielding his seabag and her dress box with the other. It was a good thing that as big as Kora had grown he was still able to catch and manipulate her weight with one hand. He would be damned if she ruined her dress with how much he had to pay for it. Feeling his daughter in his arms again made this last underway completely worthwhile however.
After a minute Waka pried his daughter off him and sets her on her feet in front of him. “ Tamahine Let me get a look at you. If you keep growing as fast as you have been I might have to jump into your arms next time” He says this with a grin as he admires his daughter. It had been months since he had been back here and more and more she was beginning to look like her mother did when they got married. It was time that he started paying more attention to the boys around Moai, they would start sniffing around Kora soon if they hadn’t already.
“So how have you been Tama? How are your Matua and the shop doing?”

[`kora fatanu]

I'M WAITING AT THE STATION
SEARCHING FOR YOUR FACE

Kora let herself be caught up in her father's embrace. She was still grinning when he put her feet on the ground once more. “Tamahine Let me get a look at you. If you keep growing as fast as you have been I might have to jump into your arms next time,” he said. She laughed at him. "I don't think I'll ever be that big, she replied, but did a little spin to show off her pretty yellow dress none the less.

“So how have you been Tama? How are your Matua and the shop doing?” He asked as she turned back to him. "Well, I've been helping around the shop alot. I'm finally big enough that I can do anything Koka can do," she said as they started towards the shop. "I'm getting real good at engines too. Willem says I'm good enough to get a job on one of the ships, she stopped to judge the look on her father's face as they walked.

Oh, how she wanted to go out and see the 'verse...

[waka FATANU]

On hearing his daughter say she wanted to work on the ships Waka stopped, his work was not something a girl should be thinking of, heck it wasn’t even something he should have thought of to tell the truth. Their people were nothing without their culture, there were many things that Kora could do, but leaving Moai was not one of them. After losing Serra, Waka could not bear the thought of Kora being in that kind of danger, besides there was tradition. “Tamahine, Moai is our home, you know if I could make a living here I would stay, but we are Maori, without our people we would be nothing, are you so eager to leave them and your Koka behind? Space is just that, it is empty, an emptiness that can kill, would you trade that for your home?" He looked into his daughters eyes to gauge her feelings and reaction, Waka did not believe in beating around the bush, he was going to nip this like of thought in the bud.

[`kora fatanu]

I'M WAITING AT THE STATION
SEARCHING FOR YOUR FACE

Her father stopped dead in his tracks and locked eyes with her. 'Uh oh,' the teen felt her stomach drop. Her words had hurt him, she could tell. “Tamahine, Moai is our home, you know if I could make a living here I would stay, but we are Maori, without our people we would be nothing, are you so eager to leave them and your Koka behind?"

"Well, no, but..." For a moment the girl's eyes dropped to her shoes.

"Space is just that, it is empty, an emptiness that can kill, would you trade that for your home?"

Kora looked back up at her father, her courage returning. "Koro, I love Moai. But... there's gotta be more to the 'verse than," she motioned to their surroundings. Determination showed on her young face. Unlike her father, Kora didn't put much stock in her background. Like many young people, she wanted to get away from her home. For drifter children that often meant signing on with one crew or another. Without a mine, Moai depended on the port and the business that came along with it.

[waka FATANU]

“Look at me Tamahine, what do you see?” Waka looked into her eyes and lowered himself to her height so that she could get a good look at his heavily tattooed face. “Each of these tattoos represents some victory I have had, some milestone I have achieved. I bear the proof of my life on my face for everyone to see. I can tell you that one place is very much like another.” He gestured around him and called Kora’s attention to the large steel dome that covered Moai as well as the structures around them. He pulled his daughter into his arms as he felt the warmth of his home envelop him. “Steel is steel, sky is sky, and space is space Tama, the differences between here and there are negligible. What does matter is people; the rest of the verse is the same while only Moai has your friends and family. Why do you think I always come home?” at this point Waka held his daughter at arm’s length and looked once more into her eyes, if he wanted this young woman to listen to him he owed her the same courtesy. So he waited.