Disclaimer: Paramount owns everything except Tia Anlor (Ahn-lore). As I have said in 'Golden Girl' and 'A Few Words', she belongs to me. These stories occur in order. This is the third story Tia appears in. Later works include: 'Small Time', 'What do I do now?', 'Daasii', 'Noblesse Oblige'

Glistni is from the Auran language, meaning 'Biologist'.

Perspective: This story takes place the day after 'A Few Words', thus being Tia's 4th day aboard the Enterprise.

Rating: PG

Glistni

by JMK758

Chapter One

When Tia Anlor opened her eyes, it took her a moment to realize where she was. She had been dreaming, she thought, of Aura and her home, and now for a moment the room she was in was strange. But in a matter of seconds, the memories flooded back and filled in the pieces.

The metal walls that surrounded her were not the pale brown wood of her bedroom. The view through the window before her was not the golden dawn of Aura's sun, but the rapid streaks of stars, comets and other space matter seen through the effects of a starship's warp field. The cot she lay on was not her soft bed in the room she rented in the home of her friends, but one assigned to her by the humans aboard this ship. She was in space, trillions of valyris from her bedroom; her world was a long way behind her, and all her friends were dead.

"Kisteis." She whispered softly. "Qua linli guroriis welli wrintrilou." But as much as she could hope it was all a dream, it was not. Looking about the room, seeing nothing there that was hers but knowing that from this time forward it was all things she had to get used to, she knew it was not a dream. "Oh Aura! Duliq qua liis zurllo iwus guzquei ler!" But much as she wished her friends had lived to see this, it could not change the bitter reality that they had not.

She was alone, on a strange ship traveling to who knew where, among strangers she could just barely understand but could in no way comprehend, and she had to get used to it or go mad!

She pushed the cover off her bare body, sitting up and trying to get her bearings. The walls were metal, not the wood draped with lovely cloth of gold she was used to. To her right was an even smaller room than the one she was in, and through the door to her left was a slightly larger one where she had sat with her new friend Hoshi Sato, while the other woman worked to teach her the language of the people she had so unexpectedly found herself living among.

These strange people, they were like her in body and yet not. Far more like her than the Silurians were, they had evolved just as Aurans had, except that their bodies were designed to be based on carbon and iron, rather than carbon and gold, giving their flesh a pinkish hue, rather than a natural golden complexion. In fact, when any of them had mentioned golden skin to her, they seemed to mean a deepening of their own native pigments rather than pure gold. She herself was not like the metal taken from her world so long ago, but tinted in various shades in the way their bodies were tinted in shades from their red blood. Still, the pink was an interesting color ...

She stood up, stretching her body, hands reaching over her head, fingers just touching the low metal ceiling. The others on this ship were taller; some of them likely couldn't do this. Of all those she knew, Hoshi was perhaps the closest to her in height. By the measure of these humans, she knew she stood 61 of their inches, or 5 of their 'feet' plus one more twelfth. She had learned that their 'foot' was 12 inches, which she had been told was the length of a foot, but she had seen that almost everyone she met had different size feet, and she had quickly slotted this piece of information into that rapidly growing 'file' of things that confused her about this race.

That 'file', after four days with them, was becoming immense!

-

She looked at the chronometer on the desk by the right wall, the numbers reading 06:21. If she was interpreting them right, she had 99 of their 'minutes', or 113 of her own piwu before she was due to report to Lt. Abrams.

She went into the smaller room which, though it contained several things, was dominated by a cylindrical shower, partially obscured and partially transparent. It had to be entered through the curving wall, and the entire thing seemed odd. The portions that were obscured were roughly where her pringlee and sulyas would be hidden from anyone outside the shower, but who would be out there? Certainly, if she knew someone well enough to be in this room with her, that person would be within the contraption. Someone like...

She forcibly stopped herself from thinking about Shar-les. Certainly he did not think of her in any particular way, definitely not in the way she had been thinking about him in the brief times they had spent together. And thoughts of him were starting to do things to her, things low in her body, that she did not want to think of since there was no possible way he would be interested enough to...

"Kraanstat!" She exclaimed. It did no good to wish! He was nice to her, but he would certainly want a human, not a refugee Auran whose ways were probably as incomprehensible to him as his were to her. And she felt nothing from him, no feeling in her that he would want...

Bitterly, she entered the shower, thinking of how nice it would be if he were there with her. She could not help it; she couldn't get him out of her mind! When she closed her eyes she could almost see him, and when she was in bed last night she couldn't stop thinking that maybe, just maybe, he might possibly...

Frustrated, she banished the insane thought from her mind, reached out and gave the right knob a furious twist!

Her shriek echoed in the small chamber as she tried to protect her body from the stream of ice, pressing back against the curved wall, twisting and turning in a useless though instinctive effort to escape the frigid jet and instead turning more of her body to its abuse until she forced herself to stop protecting her body and grasp the knob again, twisting it back. She stood gasping in the sudden silence, the water dripping from her golden body, shivering in the intense cold. Her flesh was now a bright gold.

She shook her head ruefully. Using more care, she moderated the temperature of the two knobs until she felt less like she'd jumped into a vat of liquid hydrogen!

At least there was one good thing, however: her body no longer felt like it had when she thought of Shar-les.

-

She had put on a blue skirt and light blue blouse, choosing it from the collection of matter re-sequenced clothing that Hoshi Sato had helped her accumulate. The linguist had been particularly helpful in getting her used to life aboard this ship, being with these humans. Not only was she teaching her English so that Tia could fit in without the crutch of a machine translating her every word, but she was teaching her about all things human. Of course, so much of what she said was completely baffling, while other things were monumentally confusing, but Tia decided that, in time, it would all start making sense.

Anyway, she knew the clothing she was wearing was considered both attractive and acceptable to humans. It was considerably different from choices she would have made for herself, preferring much more draping garments of brighter colors and more floral designs, but in this instance she deferred to her friend's judgment.

The skirt that she wore went mid-way down to her knees, and the blouse had no sleeves but buttoned high to her neck. She left the top three buttons unsecured. Hoshi had spoken to her about keeping her pringlee covered when among them, but this garment closed to about the level of her alyes, which were covered, so she supposed this to be sufficient for the human norm.

On Aura, the concept of covering particular parts of her body as opposed to others did not make any sense, as no part was of any particular importance than any other, but to the humans it did, so she complied with their rules. On Aura, what one wore depended upon personal preference and the weather. Here there were rules that seemed obscure at best and incomprehensibly contradictory at worst. Still, she followed Hoshi's advice, whether she understood it or not. Usually not.

---

When she entered the galley, filled still with the joy of discovery, and saw the looks in the eyes of three uniformed young men to her right, she decided she had nonetheless chosen well.

One of them smiled more than the others, his eyes stroking her body. He raised his hands to her, the bottoms of his hands touching, as well as his fingertips, leaving a small pointed oval of space between them, through which he looked rather pointedly at her. The others seemed particularly interested in this, and though she didn't understand the gesture she raised her own hands to copy it, looking at him through her slightly spaced hands.

He seemed particularly delighted, and brought his hands very slightly together, decreasing the space. She smiled, happy to be able to establish communication, or at least contact, even if she did not understand it yet, and copied the change, not certain what the significance was, and his friends seemed amused. He tightened the space a little more, looking at her questioningly. He was clearly asking her something, but she had no idea what. Going with her instincts, she smiled back and pressed her hands together.

He seemed delighted by this, his friends extremely interested as well. One of them beckoned to her, but before she could take a step, from the left side she saw Hoshi Sato approach the table, cutting across her view, her body blocking Tia's sight of the men as she leaned over the table, her voice pitched so low Tia could hear nothing but her manner one of outraged fury.

Though Tia did not hear what Hoshi was saying, the expressions of the three young men went quickly from surprise through contrition to distress; and then they left the table, none of them looking at either woman as they left.

Hoshi stood at the table, her back to Tia, for several seconds; and when she finally turned Tia could see a fiery anger in her friend's eyes. Tia felt a stab of apprehension, and started to take a step back, but in the seconds that it took for Hoshi to step up to her, she had hidden the expression behind a smile. "I'm sorry about that. It was very disrespectful what they were doing."

"I ... understand not." Tia said, hunting for the right words. She had assimilated so much English yesterday that, despite an exceptional memory, much of it was still a jumble. Hoshi thought briefly, trying to find the words to explain to the Auran.

"What they were saying was ... inappropriate."

"What were they curlak ... saying?" Hoshi looked about; making sure no one was paying attention. She pitched her voice low.

"He was asking ... well, he was asking about the ... about your sulyas."

Tia was surprised. Of what interest would that be to anyone other than a person she would be intimate with? "What about it?"

"Well, I ... that is..." Tia's smile faded.

"Are saying you they to lialu me wanted?" Hoshi hesitated.

"If I understand you right, yes."

"Kiel vantis!" Her sharp exclamation cut through all surrounding conversation, bringing the room to a deafening silence. Tia was outraged; it was absolutely disgusting, and she told Hoshi so even if the woman did not understand what she said. She launched into a fiery diatribe where she told her new friend all about humans and what was appropriate in the way to express one's self to a young Auran woman! It was probably just as well the U.T. was turned off; because she had the feeling she would probably burn it out!

Hoshi waited until Tia ran down, and then asked with a small smile: "Keelyas vintlinti?"

"Yes. Feel better I do. Did ... understand me you?"

"Not a word." Hoshi lied.

Tia thought it over. "Good. Use language like that I do not."

The linguist grinned. "Come on. I have a friend I want you to meet."

The golden girl hesitated. "Will ... want my sulyas he will not?"

"I very much doubt it."

---

Hoshi led her over to the table where she had been seated, and waiting for them was a young woman wearing the uniform trimmed with the blue color of the Sciences section. She was young, perhaps early thirties as Tia understood human biology. Her skin was some shades lighter than Hoshi's, and her short hair was a light medium brown, framing features that were at once delicate and determined. "Tia Anlor, Elizabeth Cutler." Hoshi said in introduction. The young woman held out her hand, which Tia remembered in the nick of time to grasp.

"I'm happy to meet you." The young woman said. "I missed you yesterday. I was off duty when you were introduced to the rest of the team."

Now Tia remembered; she had heard the name yesterday when she met Lt. Abrams and the rest of the biologists serving aboard Enterprise, after she had been assigned at her own request to work in that department.

"I ..." She hesitated, unsure. She did not want to repeat the same words, but others escaped her. And they were not in an order she was used to. But then again, none of the human speech she heard seemed right. The words were so often scrambled from the way they ought to be.

Of course, she couldn't deny it was she herself that was not fitting in; she just could not get used to it. "I ..." She looked pleadingly at Hoshi. "Lorkri palurani dinglirou minere! Dilyanta cuvres alyanti." Hoshi reached out, touching her arm reassuringly.

"It's all right." She looked at Elizabeth. "She can't think of what to say in English, but she wants you to know she is happy to meet you too."

"Is the UT on the fritz again?"

"No. But she doesn't want to use it."

"I learning English am. Hoshi me teaching. To on a machine depend I would be understood off Enterprise never."

"I see. Why don't you sit down?" Tia did so, trying to mask her nervousness. "How long have you been studying? I thought you were on board only a few days."

"Day ... Yesterday Hoshi teaching me started."

Cutler gaped at her. "You learned all this in a day?"

"I a good linden ... 'memory' have. Hear what your word matches mine, it I remember. At least, unless nervous I get. Forget I do."

"Well, I must say I am very impressed."

"Words, sometimes make sense they do. But reasons, that have ... trouble I with do." She glanced at the empty table near the door. "Know what mean they not. Greeting thought I it mean did." Cutler glanced at Hoshi.

"Babe in the woods."

Hoshi nodded. "She could use a big sister."

Tia, struggling over the unexpected reference to 'babe in the woods', whatever that was, had no idea what they meant by a 'big sister'. "Sister I have."

"Oh?"

"Nissa. She is nine ... what is word? Palyis. Cycles of Aura about sun?"

"Years?"

"Nine years old. She goes to..." Suddenly Tia couldn't speak, a sharp wave of emotion silencing her. She fought to control, to suppress it as her two new friends looked on in concern. She couldn't breathe, her throat constricted in an effort to withhold the emotion. It took all her strength of will to fight the sudden flood that threatened to overwhelm her. Finally, after a long moment, she had recovered enough control that she could breathe again.

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"Nissa." She looked at them, her eyes glistening with tears she absolutely refused to shed. She tried to speak clearly, but her voice was reduced to a trembling whisper. "I am my sister going to see again never!"

In the silence, the reality drove a blade into her heart.