Disclaimer: Paramount owns Enterprise and everything connected with it, except Tia Anlor (Tee-ah' Ahn'-lor), who belongs to me and I'm not sharing. (G)
This is the 18th story in this series (counting the AU episode 'Face in the Dark Mirror), the others being 'Golden Girl'; 'A Few Words'; 'Glistni'; 'Small Time'; 'Acquisition'; 'What Do I Do Now?'; 'For Want of Kilyiis'; 'Daasii'; 'Noblesse Oblige'; 'Roses and Thorny'; 'Time and Again', 'House of Cards' and 'Starlight Maiden', 'Armageddon', 'Luuru', 'Cross and Crown', 'Pulsar' and 'Face in the Dark Mirror'. This story begins about three weeks after the conclusion of 'Cross and Crown'. Tia has been on the Enterprise for about nine months.
Later works will include 'Treaty / Violation', 'Life Goes On', 'Sufferance', 'The Court Martial of Hoshi Sato', 'Extreme Prejudice' and 'Fractured'.
Rating: PG
"Can you fix your past without breaking your future?"

Time Stream
By JMK758
Prologue

The most prevalent sensation on the bridge of the starship Enterprise was anticipation. The vessel had entered many solar systems over its time in space, but never one, they could recall, that had such an emotional impact upon one of them.

As was normal for Alpha Shift, the Command Crew was at their various stations. What was not normal was that this time the young Exobiologist Tia Anlor was also on the bridge, standing next to Captain Archer. She wore a Starfleet uniform, as she normally did on 'away missions', this one trimmed in 'Sciences blue', with 'Enterprise' emblem but sans any rank insignia.

On the main screen, the vista of stars and other cosmic bodies flashed past them, shattered into the range of colors of the spectrum as they passed, refracted by the ship's warp field. In the center of the screen, enlarging quickly; was a white dot that rapidly grew in size and intensity.

"Approaching co-ordinates." Travis Mayweather reported from the pilot's station.

"Bring us out of warp."

Almost faster than could be discerned, a huge sphere resolved itself out of the cosmos and flashed past on their right. Barely an instant later the bright white dwarf star flashed off the left side of the screen.

As the faster-than-light field collapsed about the huge starship; the image on the screen resolved into that of a blue-on-blue planet. In the upper right part of the screen a huge red gas giant hung, its colossal system of rings hundreds of kilometers wide, each ring discernable in varying colors of the spectrum, over a hundred distinct rings in the system. But though the huge giant was impressive in itself, it was the smaller, blue on blue planet which shared a binary orbit with it that was the focus of attention.

Jonathan Archer heard a soft gasp beside him, turning to the young woman who stood, unable to move, unable to tear her eyes from the image on the screen. Her gold-tinted complexion was higher than usual, and her breath was coming in a series of sharp, erratic gasps. Her eyes, locked on the screen, unable to blink, were moist with tears she could not even try to hide.

Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker III stepped silently to her from the upper level, standing beside her so she stood between them, her body trembling slightly despite herself. Her hand, down beside her, closed about his and her breath calmed slightly. She took a deep, steadying breath, unable to blink.

"Aura." Her quiet, prayerful whisper filled every part of the bridge.

The planet before them was almost equally divided, blue oceans and lakes and even bluer land, which blue they knew to be the result of the vast amounts of gold in the soil, mixing with the chlorophyll of plant-life, everything. The red giant, named Sabaoth, the ancient embodiment of that race's second deity, contributed his ruddy light to the planet, illuminated by the white dwarf 'behind' them. Sabaoth's effect was most prominent in the tinting of the clouds that spotted the world below.

Trip Tucker tightened his hand about his beloved's; not saying anything. In a time such as this, there was nothing that needed to, or could, be said

Jonathan Archer stood up from his chair, the motion just distracting Tia's attention from her home. "Would you care to do the honors, 'Ambassador'?" She looked up at him blankly, turned an equally blank look to Trip, who with a gentle motion directed her to the chair. As she reached for the arm of the chair, she found her hand trembling, and she sank gratefully into the seat, not sure she could have stood much longer.

She stared at the screen, at the planet she had come to accept she would never, ever lay eyes upon again, and found she could have only one word was in her mind. 'Alee.' Home.

She sat in that center seat, staring, unable to think of anything else until she became vaguely aware of a whispering to her left, one that grew sharper as it repeated until it gained her attention. She looked to her left, to where Hoshi Sato was whispering something to her. "Standard orbit." Tia looked at her, uncomprehendingly. "Standard orbit."

There was an unfathomable smile behind that 'stage whisper', even as she realized what the words meant. She looked at the dark pilot in the seat before her. "Standard orbit, Ensign Mayweather."

"Aye, aye." The man said; then glanced back to her with a wide smile on his face. "Captain."

On the screen Sabaoth moved off to the right, its huge rings drifting away last as Aura grew larger, larger and larger still, until it nearly filled the screen. Continents resolved themselves with crystal clarity, islands appeared; the landscape became clear, the surface rotating from left to right, then toward them as they settled into orbit. There was huge Muljala, with Casplase to the southwest. When that tremendous continent passed 'behind' them, they were crossing over the Sulyana ocean. In moments landscapes again quickly 'approached'. There was the triangle of the three islands Jaswl, Nimsup and Tinvlasni. Her heart was pounding so hard it hurt. There, just coming over the western horizon toward them as the faster ship caught up with it, was the huge continent Losban. They fell into orbit and Tia stared at Losban, blinking away tears, unable to take her eyes off it as they traversed its length. She knew that it was coming as Enterprise slowed to a geosynchronous orbit; she had only to wait as they traversed that huge continent.

There! There it was; coming closer over the horizon. Her city. Pastuu!

Her breath started coming faster and faster, broken and shattered as she gasped, tears trickling down her cheeks beyond anything she could control as she gripped one arm of the command chair, her other hand clinging tightly to Tucker's.

Pastuu. It really was. Coming closer; coming into view 'under' them as they settled into orbit. Pastuu. Oh Aura; Oh Sabaoth. Pastuu.

Pastuu.

She was HOME!

x

At a slightly tighter grip from Tucker, she remembered to try to control her shattered breathing, but it was hard. She took a deep breath, trying to fight the twin urges to scream for joy and cry. "Misa-? Misa-? Misa ovre nic cassau ti?" A movement of Trip's hand in hers caught her attention, and she smiled. "Can talk we them to?"

"I've identified the higher power frequencies being used in the city below us." Hoshi reported.

"Open a channel." Archer directed. "Tie in the UT."

A moment later Hoshi nodded; and Tia took a deep breath, doing her best to steady her voice when it threatened to break. "This is Tia Anlor of Pastuu, 'Ambassador' to the Human government, aboard the Earth Starship 'Enterprise'." Her voice was trembling, and she could barely keep it under control. The UT rendered her Auran speech into colloquial English. "I wish to speak to the Relatu."

"Transmitting on all established frequencies." Hoshi reported. "I dare say it's creating a stir down there."

"I dare say." Archer agreed.

"Getting a signal. On screen." The image on the screen changed from the blue planet to a room, in which a group of people were assembled. At the desk at the far end a single man sat. All the men and women present were characterized by a golden pigment to their skin. It was clear from their positions in the room that the call had interrupted some meeting or conference. The man upon whom the camera focused and then zoomed in on was as golden-blond as Tia.

The only thing that distinguished him from the others in the room, beyond being seated at the only desk, was the golden pendant hanging about his neck, a lozenge shaped emblem in the center of which was a blue, multifaceted stone of the same shape. 'Radiating' from this large stone were eight smaller ones reaching from the stone to the other edge of the gold, four on each side.

"I am Relatu Gulbret. Who is speaking?"

"I-" Tia felt a warm body behind her move against her, and Relatu Gulbret, the bridge, Aura and her friends vanished, replaced by a nearly dark cabin.

Chapter One
Pillow talk

Commander Charles 'Trip' Tucker awoke when the body in his bunk with him moved slightly, so he supposed that he had had just enough rest to be awakened, even though the chronometer across the room from him showed 0523. Though there were no lights on, the tiny light presented by the chronometer and other pinpoint displays provided enough dim light for them to see one another by.

However, he did not begrudge the early rousing. The slightly cooler body on the bunk with him – what a difference 2 degrees made – was warm encircled in his arms, spooned against his body. He passed his hand upward along the warm body under the cover. The bunk was built for one, but was not 'crowded' at all. He moved carefully, not wanting to wake his companion but, seemingly on its own, his hand 'found' and cupped its comfortably rounded 'target'.

"Shar-les?" A melodious voice, which he'd often thought of as 'ear candy', whispered quietly a few moments later. It was, however, more of a sigh. "Salyuuni?"

"Hmmm?"

"That you my pringle holding is." She said softly. There was a measure of sadness in her tone he did not understand.

"Sorry." He whispered into her ear, his quiet breath tickling warmly. He made to move away very, very slowly, but her fingers touched his hand.

"Did say I you it should move not." He smiled in the darkness. "Only, in dark or light, have trouble finding either you do not." He could almost hear her smile. "Is your human nature this?"

"My human male nature."

"Nyas." She whispered, letting go of the dream, finding comfort in exchange for it where she could; this time in wiggling her shapely posterior against his firming anatomy. "This your human male nature is."

He drew her closer, and she certainly made no effort to resist. He rested his cheek on her bare shoulder, his lips near her ear, breathing in her scent, his whisper warm against her ear. "Tia." Her name ended in a long, contented sigh.

She turned over to face him, her eyes bright with delight; her initial disappointed sadness driven away by joyous surprise. "That first time you my name did correctly pronounce!" She smiled at him radiantly.

"Huh?" He asked, astonished.

Her whispered words were filled with delight. "Always you – and all others – 'T'-a' say. Finally you do say T-ahh'."

He frowned in disbelief, looking at her as she snuggled against his chest, her face just inches from his as they kept their words to intimate whispers. "Over eight months, and now you mention it?"

She shrugged. "It was important not." Indeed, compared to the lovely memory that she was only now starting to adjust to as the dream it was, nothing else was important.

x

"What else have I been getting wrong?" She smiled. "Do I at least get your last name right?" She thought it over; then shook her head. "Come on."

"Say you always 'On-lor'. 'Ahhn'-lor' should you say." He let his head fall to the pillow with a quiet 'thump', making her giggle.

"Eight months." He could not believe it. "Tee-ahhh' Ahhn'-lor." He whispered.

"Daai." It came out 'day-eye'.

"What else have I been getting wrong?" She smiled, but shook her head. "Come on."

"Well…" She shrugged prettily, her breasts moving distractingly against his chest, "pretty much every thing." He picked his head up, looking at her closely. "When try to speak Auran you do, the funniest accent you have."

"Funny accent?" She nodded, smiling. "That's why you didn't say anything. You've been laughing at me all this time." She thought about it for a moment.

"Daai." He pulled the cover off her far enough for his hand to have an unobstructed target, then he recovered her.

"Shar-les!" She exclaimed, barely keeping her voice down, her hand covering the assaulted spot. "Why hit my minlu?"

"That's where bad little girls get punished."

x

She grinned, even while rubbing away the sting. "I a 'little girl' am nyasi; at least longer nyas."

"I've noticed." He drew her closer and they hugged one another in silence for a long moment. Ever since her return from Risa, after the luuru had passed, she was definitely not the young woman of seeming twenty two years that she had been. She looked now to be nearly thirty, and appeared closer to his own age, but she was still quite certainly the same person he had known.

"Shar-les?" She whispered against his neck.

"De stal?" She was silent, but from the tremors in her body he couldn't miss the fact that; "You're laughing at me again."

By the time she pulled back enough for him to see her face; she had forced a serious expression upon it. "Anston." It was short for 'anston li eda', 'sorry I am'; and interchangeable with 'anston li kir', 'apologize I do'. "Should laugh not."

"But I'm just such a funny guy."

"Daai." She could hold the serious expression no longer. "But 'de stal'' in your tongue 'what did you say?' would be. And 'day-stal'' would you say, 'day'-stal' not. If 'what?' you say wish to is, if to get more words, 'mosti' should you use."

"Mosti." She tried to keep her lips from moving when he stressed the 'o' rather than the 'i'. "I guess I really should learn your language properly. You've been trying so hard with ours; I've sort of been picking up things as we go along. And screwing up, it seems." She sighed, drawing close, hugging him.

"Is right all." She said, trying but barely managing to keep sadness out of her voice. "I here am – you on Aura are nyasi. See Aura I ailu … never again will." She had resigned herself, and realized she had to again, that she would never see her home again – except perhaps in her dreams. "May be I your language should learn and my own forget."

He pushed her off, his eyes locking on hers, his voice quiet and intense, no longer an intimate whisper. "No. Don't ever forget Aura. Don't ever forget anything about it. It's as much a part of you as you are of it. Maybe you can't go back there now, but maybe someday the day will come when you will."

"May be." She thought about it quietly for a long moment before whispering; "But what if come that day does? What then?"

"What do you mean?" He whispered, no longer that quiet intensity.

"Will forget me you?"

"Ti-ahh?"

"Nyas. Will forget me you? If ever to Aura I return, will -." He pressed his finger to her golden lips.

"I am never, ever going to forget you. That's impossible." She looked at him intently.

"Will remember me you? Matter what happens nyas? If stay, if go, will remember you me? Will remember you me?"

"Darlin', I swear I could never forget you. Ever. You are everything to me. I will remember you today, tomorrow, next year, next century, next millennium." She hugged him. "But what's with this? Why such thoughts?" She shrugged.

"Think sometime that forget you me will."

"Impossible." He held her close. "You're impossible to forget."

x

She lay quietly for a very long time. He did not try to intrude upon her thoughts, but just lay with her, his arms about her, her head against his chest.

Finally she shook her head, having resolved not to give in to the feelings. "Quinli – Sad I do want to be nyasi. Want thoughts auric – happy when li tuvi – I you with am."

"So do I."

She looked up into his eyes with an anticipatory gleam as she remembered something she was sure could distract her from this bleak mood. "Did something hear yesterday – funny to humans they said. Hear it want do you?" He nodded. "Knock, knock."

He was mildly surprised, but played along with the ancient riddle. "Who's there?" She drew back, a stricken look upon her face, and stared at him, her spirits plummeting at warp speed. Her face fell as if she were about to cry, despite the Auran conviction that one never cries in public. She turned away from him quickly, huddling in the thin blanket. "Ti-ahh?" She didn't answer, just shook her head. "Honey, what's wrong?" She wouldn't respond for several moments to his gentle shaking of her shoulder, his attempts to comfort her completely unsuccessful. Finally she looked back at him, sadness etched deeply into her features as she exclaimed in a voice laden with misery;

"Forget me already you did!" But at his distressed surprise she couldn't keep from grinning, and started to giggle.

"You set me up."

"Daai. Fun it was." He didn't know whether to be 'outraged' or amused, so he settled on both. But she suddenly stopped giggling and put her hands behind herself protectively. "Does expression that mean that hit my minlu again you want to?"

"Maybe I should. I told you one day you'd wind up over my knee."

She grinned. "Confused me that did, but it Liz Cutler explain did. Video record I with some of our friends viewed. Those women it seemed to enjoy, especially what next came."

He stared at her in absolute astonishment. "Is that what you two do, watch S&M porn?"

She looked mildly baffled. "I those words know not. But one evening Liz, Hoshi, Jennifer, Andrea, Dina and I in Liz's quarters were, and favorite things we discussed. Something Andrea spoke of I comprehend did nyasi. Audio visual records she accessed and … Shar-les, what that expression on your face means?"

Trip Tucker was too astounded to answer. Sometimes, he reflected, one can really learn more about friends than one ever really wanted to know.

x

Instead, to save himself, he just hugged her, holding her close to him, feeling her cuddle even closer; closing every space between them. "Shar-les?"

"Hmm?"

"Together would stay we?" Her voice trailed off.

"Honey, what are you saying?" She was quiet for a long time. She could not forget that dream, or the reason why she had probably dreamed it.

"I know not. Know only have to… Hoshi me did tell that Wrenaouq Archer my signal did approve. We the Auran ship calling are; a 'compressed burst hail', she said. She on the frequency the Muutuur did use transmits 'Auranli eda'; 'Auran I am'. If receive it they do, find us they will."

"Honey, that's great!" But she did not seem as thrilled as he'd expected. In spite of living in a state of perpetual exaltation, he'd seen her more excited over a water polo match they'd watched two weeks ago with Archer; even though she did not have a clue about the rules or much else; as was made very clear when she enthusiastically celebrated the wrong team's goal. He asked her directly.

"Because when alone, with no chance to my people see, knew what I was; stranded and alone for the rest of my life. Now, I my people might see. Now, maybe, my world I might one day see. I want to." She looked up at him. "But if it could mean losing you, would I nyasi.

"If ever to Aura I would one day return, what of you? Say forget me not. Would stay on Enterprise you?" He drew back a bit so he could look at her, surprised. It was a long moment before he could answer.

"I … I honestly never thought about it. I kind of got used to having you here. That you couldn't … wouldn't … go back. I guess I never gave it a thought that that might change." He looked deeply into her golden eyes. "Why? Is it going to change?"

She looked up at him, her eyes haunted. "I know not. I know truly not."

"Then why bring this up? Anything could happen. We knew this. But why worry so much about it now?" She looked away for a moment, unable to hold his eyes. But the pressure of his hand on her back made her look at him again.

x

"The Luuru. Past it I am. And the luuruna"

"And?"

She looked away again; blushing deep gold, closing her eyes so he could not see the change in them as her heightened color caused the tiny vessels in her eyes to be strongly highlighted, as if her eyes were shot through with golden lightning. It was considered a deeply humiliating thing for an Auran to be so seen. "It you treat as if thing happened has nyasi."

"Oh, no. A lot has happened. I'm just still adjusting to it. I mean," he passed his hand above her, "a new body; sort of. A new –." She buried her face in his chest, and an aborted sob stopped him. "Tia?" She did not look at him. He pressed his fingers under her chin, but it took several long seconds for her to succumb to his gentle pressure and look up to him. It took a long moment for her to trust that her eyes had returned to normal, and she could look at him. But when she did, she could not wash the expression of deep misery from her face. "What's wrong?"

"I kir dresnaqu - do know what not. You 'Salyuuni' are and act as it not." She whispered, her voice trembling with unexpressed emotion. "After the luuru, you Salyuuni are. At least you kentile are. But you say thing no. You do thing no. Waited I have. Waited so long! But..."

"I don't understand. 'Waited' for what?"

"After the luuru … past it I am … Tuvi mrunion Alirki ne Avinyaan seelna edalouu. You mrunion Alirki ne Avinyaan always will be." She looked up at him, her golden eyes searching. "But what makes that me?" She whispered.

He shook his head. "I don't know." She started to pull away, but he held her firmly. "I don't understand what you're saying. You've never told me what that means. You were never willing to. Are you ready to now?" She thought about it, trying to answer, but then shook her head, not meeting his eyes. "Then how can I know how to respond?"

"An Auran would know." She whispered quietly, even while realizing how unfair it was. She looked into his eyes, pleading for his understanding. "So personal it is that to say it I can not. Have given up so much of Aura; told you all so much; but this so wedsa, so personal is, that explain it I know how to nyasi. You kentile are. You Salyuuni are. An Auran would need it explained not, but further go I can not. Already too much said, given too much up. An Auran does speak of it nyasi. Have spoken so many times of unspeakable things, because humans – you do understand nyasi. But this far I go can nasi. Too kalriis … too perverted have I allowed myself become to; can more to nyasi." She clung to him, begging. "Misa trinas tuvi nyasi? Can understand you not?"

He wished he could. He devoutly wished he could. He had realized there were so many things that Aurans understood between them, so much taken for granted, that to speak of it openly had become so gauche as to be offensive. She had tried to break away from these limitations, which even put a taboo on verbally expressing love when it should be felt and … understood itself, but it was clear she had reached the limit of her ability to break with tradition, with the way a decent Auran behaved.

He wished he could understand, because obviously these words went far beyond the simple expression. He could ask Hoshi (again), and she would give him the translation, but could she communicate the depth of meaning behind the words? As he watched her desperately hopeful expression collapse, he knew there was no hope here. "Tia, I'm sorry. I wish I could understand. If I am this thing to you, what is it you want to be to me?" Her eyes were moist as she blinked tears away, and looked up at him longingly; putting everything she had into one whispered word:

"'Tuvili.'"

x

He racked his brains. "'Tuvi' means 'you', doesn't it?" She nodded hopefully. She couldn't say it, but she could help him get it. "And 'Li' means 'I'?"

"Daai." She held her breath. Was he going to get it?

"So 'tuvili' would be a combination, somehow, of you and I?" She put her arms slowly around him, drawing him down close to her bare body, but it was only so he would not see the pain in her eyes, her infinite sadness. Her lips were near his ear, but though they moved with a single word, she could not say it. She drew back.

"You I do understand not. You me the Salyuun exchanged with. Yet waited so long I have, patient have I tried to be; so patient that insane it making me is; but you nothing say, you nothing do!"

"The what?" She stared at him, monumentally shocked and clearly hurt.

"The Salyuun!" She exclaimed. "You can have forgotten not!" She could see in his eyes that he had. "You did. But how? How could you the Salyuun forget?"

"The what?"

"On Risa!" She insisted, growing frantic. "On the beach!"

He shrugged, mystified. "I'm sorry, honey, I don't kn-"

"We did!" She exclaimed desperately, sitting up. "I there was! I remember! We did! We did!" He came up, putting his hands on her bare shoulders.

"Calm down, honey. Please. It's all right." But she was devastated, tears glistening in her eyes as she tried to hold her fracturing control.

"Is 'all right' nyasi." She cried. "I – you my Salyuun accepted, almost five klanstu ago. You did! You can forget it not!"

"I haven't forgotten; you said something that night, but you were so worked up that I didn't understand it. You were kissing me so much I couldn't even make out the English."

x

She froze, staring at him, horrified, his words crystallizing her own memories. Suddenly it was as if the joyous haze through which she remembered that night was stripped away and she remembered with horrible clarity that it was as he'd said. She stared at him, stricken.

"Then you … then you never … you never accepted the Salyuun?"

"As I recall, I barely had a chance to accept anything. But what is it, and I probably will."

"'Probably'?" She exclaimed, her voice an octave high. She looked like he'd just slapped her, which he realized wasn't far off. She'd spent the last five weeks in a blissful romantic misconception, and

"'Probably' probably wasn't the right word."

"Nyas." She gasped, tears trickling down her cheeks.

"Then tell me. What is it? What's it supposed to mean?"

She shook her head, unable to endure it any longer. The luuruna was over. She couldn't get it back, and the Salyuun was for that night only. Without it, for her, 'tuvili' could mean nothing!

x

She pulled away, getting off the bed and reaching for her robe, pulling it on. He lay watching her in silence, wishing he could know what to say. He only knew he didn't think it best to try to stop her.

She cinched the robe closed in silence and pressed the exit button beside his door, letting herself out into the corridor. She only knew she had to get out of there. She had to get away from him before she shamed herself by crying like a heartsick atasiu.

In the empty corridor she leaned sadly against the bulkhead beside the door, cursing her own culture, the restrictions that couldn't even let her say it, when he should be able to sense it on his own. It was in such bad taste to say it that it was forbidden, perverted, but she wished with all her heart she could tell him.

"Tuvili." She whispered miserably, wishing she could reenter the room and tell him, squeezing her eyes shut tightly to keep back the bitter tears. She wanted to tell him. She longed with all her heart to tell him. But she could not, not and avoid breaking even more taboos, not and remain decent. But inside her heart cried out for her to go back inside, throw away her lifetime of customs and decency and just tell him.

"Yours I am."