She was once a foolish girl. While young and naïve, Kim Taeyeon had truly believed in the wonders of the sedulous established Galactic Federation. Its high-tech spaceships, uniformed captains and crew, shiny lights, top secret missions, and the old stories of the war which had birthed it. The war that ultimately saved and defined the Tau Ceti System had sizzled her narrow little mind at age four.

The valiant cry for independence, that had started in her home of Tustion, now capital of the Federation against the machine of the Republic. But among all these tales there was only one thing she really wanted to know more about. A single privateer that had changed the lives of millions and the legendary ship that had aided him on this mission.

The tales of her father, a war hero, her hero, who had been a captain then and carried on his work even after the war. Captain Kim of the CTS Nuria; she'd wished nothing more than to be just like him. The idea of piloting her father's same spaceship, as unrealistic as it was, would be the highest honour and, like a looping track in mind, was set to be her lifelong dream.

Her fifth birthday, was a day she'd never forget, sitting in front of her cake at home, listening to her mother's promises of a special present, which would arrive with her father after he'd returned from a courier mission. They waited and waited, but he never arrived. Instead, Mrs Kim got a call. Taeyeon still feels a grip on her heart when she remembers her mother picking up that phone.

On the outskirts of the Pegasus Galaxy, her father had apparently suffered an accident, and the CTS Nuria was off comms. Attempts to retrieve the ship or his body were fruitless efforts, and after two years of grieving, they lost hope. Captain Kim was buried in an empty casket with all the commendations a loyal old war sailor like him deserved.

His wife couldn't contain her tears, no matter how strong she'd wanted to seem in front of their daughter, and Taeyeon wrapped her little hand around her mother's and squeezed it with a newfound apathetic strength, watching the sailors and all of those other people she presumed were her father's friends lay flowers upon his grave.

She was different, but it wasn't new. She'd changed when her father went missing, and she'd never be the same since the day she'd accepted he'd died.

“I'm very sorry for your loss.” a voice, just as young as hers, awakes her from her trance. Taeyeon looks up to a girl and whispers a response with a husky voice.
“Thank you.” but differently from the other children who were politely offering their condolences, this girl stretched out her arm towards Taeyeon.
“My name is Choi Sooyoung.” she says and with a nudge from her mother, Taeyeon begrudgingly shakes her hand. “My dad was a friend of your dad. I heard many stories about him.”

She isn't sure why Sooyoung was trying to be friendly, instead of going out about her business and appreciating the presence of her own living father, but Taeyeon had heard stories of a Commander Choi, and she was intrigued.

She sniffed and turned fully towards her. “He was my father's right arm in the Elysium, right?” Sooyoung smiled and nodded. “I've heard stories about your dad too.”