Uhura is six when she starts receiving dolls from around the universe. The first one she gets is human and looks a little like her aunty, tall and pretty and wearing a star fleet uniform. It arrives shortly after her birthday along with a recorded video message from her father which is the only gift better than the doll. For weeks afterwards his message is everything to her and she plays it every night before her granny tucks her up in bed with the doll and her teddy. Nana helps her write a thank you letter and sends it into space, so her daddy can know just how much she misses him.

The next doll, a blue Andorian girl with fluffy candy floss white hair, arrives unexpectedly three months later along with another video. In it he tells her all about the foreign planets he's been to since his last call and about all the exciting and strange things seen. His eyes light up as he talks and when he laughs its almost as if he's home. Every day for the next couple of weeks Uhura finds herself checking the post every morning hoping for another message or doll.

Her father doesn't disappoint, sending her a sophisticated Kelvan doll capable of transforming into human form, hiding its hundreds of tentacles. The message that comes with it sadly does. Solar interference seems to distort the message making it nothing but a scrambled and blurry mess. The next few days are full of sleepless nights spent curled up with Nana and her dolls, until confirmation from the federation confirms that everything is okay.

A stern Vulcan doll in traditional garb and a bendy Orion in a bikini find their way to Uhura with the up most speed as way of an apology, along with an hour long video. Several more dolls arrive every few months, they crowd Uhura's bed and make her the envy of her friends but its the messages Uhura really lives for. A calender hangs by her bed counting down the days till he come home again.

A Cardassian arrives in time for Christmas along with a doll house in the shape of her father's ship. It includes a bridge and captain's chair, sleeping quarters with double bunk beds, a recreation room and a transporter room that's buttons flash and make noise when pressed. Many hours are spent with friends playing spaceship, going on make believe adventures to alien planets just like her farther. Granny tells her off for making Nikky (the Andorian doll) the captain of the ship, its a mans job after all she says, but makes her a special captain's outfit none the less.

The dolls continue to arrive until Uhura is ten when her father returns bringing with him a shiny new shuttle pod big enough for two dolls (three at a push). Having him at home means the the dolls stop coming, buts that's okay cause she doesn't need the dolls when her daddy is there to play with.