A Few Words
By JMK758
Disclaimer: The usual legal assurances re: Paramount, UPN, 'Enterprise' and all holders of Copyright.
Tia Anlor (pronounced Ahn-lore) is my own creation, having first appeared in 'Golden Girl (Revised)'. After more than two years working on this series (so far 24 posted stories as of March 2006), I decided to go back to the roots and enhance the stories with background detail established 'later'.
These stories take place in the later part of the First Season.
This is Tia's second appearance aboard Enterprise, the morning after 'Golden Girl'. The third is in 'Glistni', which takes place 'tomorrow'.
Rating: G
Chapter One
Awakenings
The Krontis shook violently, knocking Tia and Arianis to the deck, almost everything on the laboratory tables falling noisily around them, glass shattering and heavy scientific equipment crashing about them. Both young women knew, even without being able to see outward from the laboratory, what was happening. They and their fellows of the Muutuur, or Underground, had tried to escape from the control of the demons of hell that ravaged their planet, had stolen a Silurian cruiser, but their escape attempt had failed!
Even before Tia could push herself to her feet there was a deafening roar, the ship was buffeted again and they both fell, sliding the length of the room, more equipment crashing around them! Whatever was happening to the ship was not centered in this room, but was nearby – close enough to be heard!
Arianis got to her feet. Tia would have preferred to stay where she was, but she had to help her friend. They had to get out of there!
"Arianis!" Tia yelled. "Zin ti -." Whatever she would have told her friend to try to do was lost in an earsplitting roar and they were hurtled bodily against the wall, Arianis' piercing shriek barely audible over the noise. They were pinned against the metal bulkhead as the inertial stabilizers failed. They would now be subject to the full force of the explosions which rocked the ship about them!
The force eased for a moment, long enough for Tia to drop to the floor, but the other girl could not move in time. Tia looked up at her friend, pinned to the wall by the inertia as she ship started to spin sickeningly about them. "Arianis!" She screamed over the noise. "Ceicar mis!"
Before the girl could move to 'get down' there was a titanic explosion, the laboratory – the entire ship – shook as though in the hands of a mad giant, and everything in the room, including the massive workbenches, launched itself at them!
Arianis' scream lasted only an instant before the room hit her!
x
Tia Anlor sat bolt upright on the bunk, her shriek echoing off the metal walls of the small cabin! She clutched the blanket to her heaving chest, gasping frantically, the triple beats of her heart pounding a wild rhythm in her ears. She fought back another wild scream as she sat, searching the room frantically for something that was familiar.
A few seconds later her door slid open, and she turned into the flood of light shining into her dimly lit room, seeing an alien man framed in the doorway, a weapon in his hand. Her breath locked in fright as she stared at this man, his blue clothing broken by a trim of red at his chest, and a representative patch adhered to his left sleeve. She tried to say something, if only another scream of terror, but she could not breathe or speak. He said something to her, four words that sounded like a question, but which made no sense. It sounded something like 'Rr yuu hol ryyt' but that was not right either. The words were gibberish to her.
The blanket which she had held clutched to her chest slipped from her trembling hand, and for an instant his eyes flickered to her heaving pringlee, then again to her eyes.
She thought it was because they, and all her flesh, were golden rather than the pink pigments of his skin. Perhaps that was why he fixed so upon her body.
He seemed satisfied that she was not in danger, because he backed out, letting the door close, but not before his eyes focused again on her pringlee.
Left alone in the room, Tia stared at the door, fright giving way to distress as the memories of the previous day flooded back to her.
She remembered the attack on the stolen ship, the Krontis; then waking up in a strange room surrounded by three frightening aliens who at first spoke to her in gibberish, then somehow started speaking fluent Auran.
But no. They were not speaking Auran, they had been speaking some other unintelligible language. But she had heard Auran due to a machine the smaller female had been using, as she surmised they heard her in their tongue.
They told her that every one of her friends, everyone she had escaped with, was dead.
x
That shock had been hard enough to bear, but then came a whirlwind of experiences, each more shocking than the last. She was among aliens; her friends were dead; she was stranded! She met one of the people who had come aboard the Krontis to rescue her, one who they called 'Shar-les', though the woman had called him 'Treep'.
He, at least, did not scare her!
But it was all a jumble and; as she sat on the bunk in the room he had brought her to last night, she tried her best to make some sense of the myriad of experiences.
The Silurians had come back, and had demanded her return. She remembered nothing of the encounter on the 'bridge' of this 'Enterprise' except a wild panic that had ripped her mind from her!
When she could think again, the Silurians were gone, and the … humans … told her they had bought her freedom for, she realized; a volume of gold that was almost incomprehensible! They had bought her – that much she comprehended – but they then set her free!
That made no sense! She was on her home planet a Miktriz – a 'slave' – as were all her people; but they did not want her as a slave.
'Shar-les' had brought her to this room, and despite her mounting apprehension he had left her alone. After talking with her for a long time; he had not made any move to claim his ownership of her or require anything of her in 'services' for her 'freedom'.
Confused and exhausted, she had fallen asleep, and had descended into nightmare!
x
Getting off the bed, she found her clothing where she had lain it across the back of a chair. Having nothing else to wear, she pulled the tight material up her legs and over her torso to close it at her neck.
She did not want to wear this tight clothing; she would just as soon dispense with it, but there was nothing else for her to wear. She had the feeling, having seen the full coverage blue uniforms that the aliens wore on this ship; that they might not appreciate seeing her in less.
Thus far they had been kind. She did not want to do anything that would risk that.
x
It took her a moment to remember which button to push to open the door, but when the metal portal slid aside, she saw two women passing. "Galyas!" She exclaimed in as friendly a manner as she could. They stopped; looking at her with what she thought might be surprise, if she was interpreting the expressions on their faces properly. Pink faces. She doubted she would ever get used to that. It was not the proper gold complexion, but …
Each of them said a single word to her, the same word, but she did not understand it from either of them. Guessing it might be a greeting, perhaps their equivalent of 'galyas', she pressed on. "Mrunion werunne o Tia. Suur edalii tuvilii?"
They looked at her with blank expressions.
"Li cizkre eda. Li ku Aura klus." She told them she was new, that she came from Aura, but they did not seem to understand. The taller woman answered her tentatively, but her words meant nothing. She thought for a moment, finally remembering the name of someone who might be able to help.
"Mona Hoshi sei?"