New Teacher

Posted on Mon Jul 27th, 2026 @ 7:44pm by Lieutenant Evy McCauley & Bellamy Ghazi

1,407 words; about a 7 minute read

Mission: Prologue
Location: School Room
Timeline: 2389

Bellamy Ghazi sat sideways in one of the chairs at the open end of the horseshoe-shaped desks, one ankle resting over the other while they reviewed the same three lines on Oriana McCauley for the third time. Ten years old. Daughter of the Chief Operations Officer. Fifth ship. It was not much to go on, though five ships before adolescence suggested a child who knew how to pack quickly, learn new corridors and decide very early whether a place and its people were worth investing in. Around them, the classroom waited in its own carefully arranged quiet, desks angled so every student could see each other, shelves prepared but not overly neat, and the pull-down map on the wall currently displaying Federation territories in soft bands of colour, all borders, routes and tidy labels pretending space was less complicated than it was.

They had chosen dark brown trousers and a moss-green knitted jumper over a cream shirt, the colours soft and natural without being so cheerful they became suspicious. A small enamel fox pin sat near the collar, its tail curled around itself, while sturdy lace-up shoes waited beneath the chair for whatever the day decided to throw at them. Bellamy set the PADD aside at last and glanced towards the door, patient rather than expectant. Oriana already knew how to arrive somewhere new. Bellamy was more interested in finding out what she did once she was there.

Oriana led her mother and father into the school room as they entered through the doors. She had already been attending school here for sometime, but now was getting a new teacher. Her red wavy hair bounced around her head with the motions of her bouncing through the door. Her mother and father were both still in their operations and engineering uniforms looking quite similar to each other. Evy had her wild locks tamed in a french braid while her husband's hair and stubble were neat in comparative to the two wild women in his life.

"Hello!" the little girl called out to the teacher sitting at the desk.

"Hello," Bellamy smiled as they stood, looking at the girl with the red hair and eager eyes, and then the parents. "I'm Teacher Bellamy Ghazi...and you must be Oriana," they said, their voice warm with it. "It's really nice to meet you." They were aware that this classroom was familiar for many children, yet...they also firmly believed in making it something that suited their teaching methods as much as the students.

"Yes, Ma'am!" the little girl bounced her way over to where the teacher now stood near the desk.

Evy and Arun followed suit into the heart of the classroom and introduced themselves. "I'm Lieutenant Evy McCauley."

"Lieutenant Junior Grade Arun McCauley."

They had both extended their hands to shake the teacher's hand as they had learned the customs of Starfleet and the Federation.

"I'm Oriana!" Oriana stated again. "Do I call you Teacher Bethany or Teacher Ghazi?" she asked politely.

Bellamy shook both offered hands in turn before looking back to Oriana, their smile warming at her enthusiasm. “Bellamy,” they corrected gently, without making anything of the mistake. “And I don’t use ma’am, because I’m not a man or a woman. I’m just me.” They gave a small shrug, as though it were the easiest thing in the world, because to them it was. “You can call me Teacher Bellamy, Teacher Ghazi, or just Bellamy. Whichever feels most comfortable for you...although if you invent something completely new, I reserve the right to decide whether I like it first!” They gave her a small, almost cheeky smile before motioning towards the desks. “Would you like to sit down, Oriana, and tell me what you enjoy learning about most?”

Ori blushed a little bit when she needed to be corrected, but easily took the seat offered to her. "It's nice to meet you, Bell-ahm-y?" she asked sounding out the name with the syllables.

Bellamy nodded in approval of how Oriana was saying it. "It is lovely to meet you, Oriana," they said and sat down. Their eyes went briefly to her parents and they gave them a nod, before focusing back on the girl. "Now...what do you enjoy about lessons? Do you have a favourite one?"

Looking over to her parents for approval, she then looked over at the teacher. "I like the arboretum the most," she said, bubbling out. "Especially when the new plants arrive."

Arun smiled at his daughter. As much as he was dictated to be in the agricultural sector, it seemed like his daughter was thriving here, and he got to enjoy the Engineering department now.

Bellamy chuckled softly, with warmth at it...they could see the excitement in her, and it was wonderful. "I like it too...so, botany then? It's not my best subject to teach..." they looked thoughtful before they nodded. "Ah, easy fix. You'll have to show me it and tell me your favourite plants. I am sure from there I could figure out how to best teach the class on all things plants."

The girl perked up. "I have some books that I got that I can show you!"

Arun looked at his daughter. Some of the things that she was interested in were extinct and no longer alive. "I can help you show which ones are good to show off," he replied.

Smiling, Evy knew what he was putting out there. "Oriana is interested in a variety of things. We can definitely help with tailoring those so it's not too much for all the other kids."

"I am sure it won't be," Bellamy said to Evy, meeting her eyes for a moment. "I want the children to respect and...understand that different people absorb different things in different ways," they nodded and looked at Oriana. "Do you like...physical books? The old ones with pages?"

"I've never had any, but I have seen them talked about in school," Ori replied. "We've always used PADDs for everything."

It was factual for what they used. Oriana still hadn't been connected to the network yet, where as Evy and Arun were always connected and chatting as needed. It was just quiet din now.

"I think that I'll book the holodeck one day...take the whole class to an ancient library," Bellamy said, encouragingly but more...putting out an idea, to see if Oriana liked the sound of it. They did not want to guide her too much, but for history lessons having handled one could put things into a...different perspective. More tactile. "You may not like the feel of them. But I think...it's nice to see how much it has changed, how our ancestors used to read things. Also...some books? Apparently they smell funny."

The child made a scrunch on her face. "Smell funny? Why'd they smell funny?"

"Well...back in the day, they were made of wood pulp," Bellamy said before they gave a small smile. "And the paper, it...took on different scents."

"So...they'd grind up trees for that?" she asked thinking that she made sense of what she was being told about things. She didn't know about wood pulp, but she knew how to pulverize herbs in a pestle and mortar.

"They used to, yes," they said as they met Oriana's eyes and then looked over at Evy and Arun. "Replicated books are...just matter though." They almost wanted to reassure more than anything...it was difficult to know what parents would and would not accept in their homes.

Oriana had a mix of a look of horror on her face, dashed with a smidge of fascination, and then part confusion then. "I'll need to see more about this, because I'm not seeing in my head how it works... can you show me?"

Evy smiled loving how her daughter was trying to envision it, and how it was going to go. They always had PADDs since coming to the Federation to be more tactile than what they were.

"I can show you," Bellamy said with a small nod, before they met her eyes. "I think it would be a good history lesson for everyone. What do you think? Field trip to the holodeck for the first history lesson?"

"Sure!" the little girl squealed. "Sounds like fun!"

---

Bellamy Ghazi
Teacher
USS Guinevere

Evy McCauley
Chief Operations Officer
USS Guinevere

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