Rating: K+ this chapter
Pairing: eventual Sulu/Chekov, mentions of Kirk/Bones
Notes: Again, Posting this here for the benefit of those who don't frequent the LiveJournal communities.
To Sleep, Perchance to Dream
Part 1
They don't get many nights like this, especially not planet-side. There's music and dancing and food in strange colors that tastes much better than it looks. The natives are friendly, much more trusting and open than Pre-Warp Earth likely would have been to an alien presence in their sky and at their table. Not that there are any tables in the immediate vicinity. There are plenty of benches and cushions scattered around the courtyard, though. Just close enough to the fire pits for their occupants to benefit from the warmth while leaving plenty of room for the dancers.
Sulu is out of breath and just a little dizzy as he falls onto a large cushion under some kind of ornamental tree, a laughing Chekov plopping down next to him. They have a friendly game of push and shove before they grudgingly decide, lips twitching as they exchange teasing glares, that the seat is big enough for the both of them. Sulu's never been much of a dancer, always felt a little awkward going through the steps. Which is just plain weird coming from an avid fencer. But he had found it hard to refuse the pull on his sleeve, inviting him out into the glow of the fire.
Especially when the hand pulling him had belonged to a grinning Russian genius trembling with excitement over the whirling colors and rising music. The other dancers had made room for them with easy smiles, made welcoming gestures, hands brushing along their arms, over their hair, coxing them, encouraging them. There were no steps to follow, they spun and twirled and turned their own path amid the smiling faces and colored cloth flowing like water around its wearers. Sulu had felt like a child again holding tight to Chekov's hands, feeling the same simple elation he'd shared with his sisters spinning in their apartment in San Francisco trying to be the last one standing, falling to the floor to watch the room turn around them. He'd grinned and laughed and hadn't been embarrassed at all when they tripped all over each other trying to mimic the fancier spins of the other dancers.
He's still laughing now, silently in his mind, watching Chekov watching the dancers, mimicking their movements with his hands, with his wrists. He's never been able to sit still. Sulu tilts his head back, staring up through the thin, spindly branches of the tree at the sky. He watches a star move behind one wispy cloud and then back out into the open. He briefly entertains the thought that it's the Enterprise spinning slow and graceful with a purple-blue planet as her partner. He knows it's not. The Enterprise is in a parking orbit somewhere above them and the moving star is very likely one of the Tetrite's own weather satellites. But he likes the imagery.
He's about to turn his attention back to the courtyard when the planet's moon, slightly pink in color, comes out from behind a cloudy blanket. He watches, intrigued, as the spear like buds of the tree shiver and then gasps outright when they fall open into pearly crystalline starbursts blushing peach in the moonlight. He feels Chekov shift beside him, hears his soft murmur of appreciation at the sight of the night blooms. Sulu reaches up, cupping one flower in his hand to angle it towards them. The stem detaches from the branch easily, though he hadn't meant it to. Bringing it down to face level he examines it closely, voicing his discoveries aloud because they're just that fascinating. An inner and an outer Corolla, one a multiple of three the other a multiple of five, the petals soft and velvety. Neither a monocot or a dicot, or maybe it was both. No stamen, but two slender pistils in a spiraling helix. Gynoecium only. A female flower, a female tree.
He's ready to jump up and search, eager to see the male counterpart when he hears an amused little hum coming from his friend. He glances over and Chekov is giving him that look he only wears when he's thinking 'My swashbuckling, stoic, ass-kicking pilot is secretly a total nerd and that will never stop being funny'. Sulu mock-glares, spinning the flower between his fingers before snapping his hand up to tuck the flower into the Russian's curls. He makes an indignant noise, nose wrinkling and eyes crossing as he glares at the offending decoration placed in his hair like he was some lovestruck country girl. And Sulu knows his navigator would never forgive him if he knew just how adorable Sulu thinks he looks like that.
Later, when Sulu is giving his report of the 'incident' on the planet's surface, he will only be able to describe the startling and shrill exclamation that broke that playful moment as "SQUEE".
***
"Did you, at any time, feel lightheaded?"
"No."
"Any visual or auditory hallucinations?"
"No."
"Were there any glowing orbs or mist?"
"No."
"Did they have you ingest anything?"
"Yeah, that sweat scented tea they had at the dinner. It wasn't any different."
"You can't be sure of that. You! Yes, yes you. I want a sample of whatever you gave these two. Don't give me that look, I know you can understand me!"
"Bones-"
"Were there any candles or incense burning, or dishes of scented oil or similar."
"Um, no."
"Was there anyone claiming to be a god or deity of some sort?"
"No."
"Was there any mention of sacred, holy, mystical or otherwise ethereal soil, artifacts or persons?"
"No..."
"Any nubile, vestal virgins?"
"What? No."
"Really, Bones-"
"Did you touch or were you made to touch any ritual objects?"
"No."
"Were you touched in an invasive manner, sexually or otherwise?"
"No!"
"Bones! Jesus, would you stop already?" Kirk yells, then turns to make soothing gestures at the group of startled Tetrite officials standing in an adjoining colonnade. After a moment they focus their attention back amongst themselves, giving the Starfleet officers the privacy McCoy had requested for their conversation. Turning back again, he gives the doctor an exasperated look. "Seriously, you're freaking out a bit."
"Excuse me, Captain," Dr. McCoy bites out in a low growl while he continues to wave his tricorder over Sulu's body. Scowling at the view screen he resets the calibrations and starts scanning Chekov instead. "But I need to be thorough. This freaky, alien ritual shit usually happens to you, so forgive me if I'm a little snappy while I adjust."
"Doctor, we're fine." Sulu says, receiving a sharp look from McCoy. "They didn't do anything to us. We touched hands, Chekov and I, not the Tetrites. We shared a bowl of tea, there was some chanting. Nothing weird happened."
"What kind of chanting?"
"Oh my God, Bones." The captain groans sliding a hand over his eyes. "Sticks and stones, man."
Whatever argument the doctor was about to present to the contrary was interrupted by the appearance of Lieutenant Uhura striding into the room holding a lacquered bottle and looking mildly irritated. She gives the Tetrite officials a short bow, waits for it to be returned than crosses the distance between the door and their group with a quick stride. She hands the bottle to Dr. McCoy with an aggravated sigh.
"One of the runners was waiting out in the hall with that. He seemed a tad nervous about bringing it in. I can't imagine why."
"There, you've got your alien tea, their scans check out okay- and don't give me that look Bones, you'd be throwing fits if there was anything wrong with them- can we move on?" Kirk asks. McCoy rolls his eyes and the captain turns back to Uhura. "Lieutenant, what did the Grand Poobah say about this whole incident? I'm hearing things about flowers, did we trample someone's garden or something?"
"The Tetrite Master of Ceremony regrets any misunderstanding or undue stress his subordinates' actions may have caused," Uhura says with a bit of irritation over correcting the captain's accidental-on-purpose botching of the alien's title but quickly slips into the rhythm and tone she adopts when trying to explain an important concept that doesn't translate well across languages. "He wants to make it clear that their actions were undertaken in good faith and that it never occurred to them that we might be troubled by those actions."
"Understood."
"They seemed to think Sulu and Chekov would be particularly open to exchanges of that type because of... previous interactions? He didn't really go into detail about that." She pauss and looks in their direction, arching an eyebrow in question.
"We were dancing." Chekov supplies and Sulu feels himself blush when Kirk snickers. "There was lots of spinning."
"Oh! Well, that actually makes sense then." Uhura explains when they all turn to her in confusion. "The spinning, it correlates to the significance of the flower. That's what seems to have triggered the whole thing, the flower Chekov had in his hair."
"Wait. You were putting flowers in your hair? Seriously?"
"It was Sulu."
"Traitor."
"Gentlemen, please take this seriously. The flower represents companionship to the Tetrites, because of the way the pistils, the two things in the center, curve around each other." Uhura continues, twisting her index fingers to mimic the flower. "I think the dance may mimic the flower and hold the same significance. A kind of deep connection, a compatibility between two people. There are very intense undercurrents in the symbolism but in a positive way. It's difficult to explain."
"Keptin, my mother would not be pleased with me if I got married by accident." Sulu can't help but chuckle at the earnestly worried look on the navigator's face.
"Sorry, Ensign. That's just one of the risks you take as a Starfleet officer. Along with spontaneous cloning and alien induced pregnancies. Didn't you read the fine print?" That gets a small smile out of Chekov and an amused snort from the doctor.
"It wasn't a marriage ceremony, the Master of Ceremony was very particular about that." Uhura assures them. She gestures with her hand as she tries to find the right words to explain. "He said couples who marry later sometimes do this ritual too but that it doesn't have anything to do with that in and of itself. It's a show of dedication between two people but doesn't seem to have any legal consequence. Like wearing BFF rings or carving your initials onto a tree."
"BFF?" Chekov asks.
"Best friends forever." Sulu supplies without thinking. He shrugs defensively at Kirk's second snicker of the night. Captains really shouldn't snicker. "What? My sisters had tons of those things."
"The point is," Uhura cuts in before Kirk can say something inappropriate. "The whole thing was done for fun because they thought Sulu and Chekov would enjoy the exchange. They didn't expect us to freak out when we saw them getting dragged off."
"Right. Okay, is there anything else you want to brow beat the Tetrites out of, Bones?" Kirk asks turning to his CMO. McCoy gives him an exasperated look but replies that there wasn't anything else he needed. Kirk nods and flips open his communicator. "Spock, I'm having McCoy, Sulu and Chekov beam up now. Uhura, myself and the rest of the away-team are going to stick around and try to smooth things over with the local Big-Wigs. We'll beam up later."
"Understood, Captain."
"Come on, Lieutenant. Lets make sure we haven't scarred the Tetrites for life." Kirk says, heading in the direction of the officials who have been waiting patiently for their private discussion to be over. Uhura follows close behind.
"Transporter One, three to beam up." Dr. McCoy orders into his own communicator with a sour twist of his mouth. "God, I hate these-"
"- things." He finishes after they've re-materialized on the transport pad. Sulu shares an amused smile with Chekov behind the doctor's back. The CMO's dislike for the transporters is well known among the primary bridge crew.
"Well now, Doctor. Did ya bring me a little something from the surface?" Scotty smiles good naturedly from behind the controls.
"No such luck, Mr. Scott." McCoy grumbles, stepping down and towards the doors. "This stuff is considered a bio-hazard until it's been analyzed. It's not alcoholic anyway. You two, with me to Sick-Bay please."
"Well, good riddance to it then." Scotty calls to their backs as the door slid shut. They follow McCoy down the halls to Primary Sick-Bay. They don't see a single face along to way, not surprising as there generally aren't many people walking the halls during Gamma shift. Though when they enter Sick-Bay there are a fair few number of nurses ready to carry out any instructions McCoy might throw out.
"Nothing to add to the Long List of Tomfoolery tonight ladies and gentlemen, not yet anyway." The CMO calls out with a pointed glance back at the helmsmen. "Nurse Jenkins, take blood samples from Tweedledum and Tweedledee while I check in with M'Benga, will you?"
McCoy waits just long enough to see the nod of a red-headed nurse with big eyes before ducking into an office on the left. Nurse Jenkins gives them both a smile that is somehow sympathetic and amused at the same time while leading them to a bio-bed.
"So what happened with you two, then?" She asks, preparing two hypodermics.
"There was a misunderstanding over a flower." Sulu provides and winces as his blood is drawn. Jenkins arches a thin eyebrow, lips twitching, but doesn't enquirer further. Chekov watches with interest as his own blood is extracted into a second vial, the sight of which makes Sulu a little queasy.
"Thank you, Jenkins." McCoy has returned from whatever business he had with M'Benga and takes the vials from the nurse. She nods to the doctor and then to the two helmsmen and heads back to her station. They wait patiently to be dismissed while McCoy examines the samples.
"Right, I'm going to run this by the guys in Chemics," Dr. McCoy growls, gesturing with the bottle of Tetrite tea in one hand and their blood samples in the other. He fixes Sulu and Chekov with one of his more intimidating glares, as though he can bore his instructions straight onto their brains with his eyes. Sulu is reasonably convinced the Doctor thinks a gold tunic is some kind of Starfleet indicator for reckless stupidity instead of a color reserved for command. "You two come straight to Sick-Bay if you experience vomiting, dizzy spells, black outs, discoloration, mood swings, loss of appetite, lapses in memory, flash-backs, psychic abilities, alterations in age, or a sudden change of gender."
"But not a gradual change of gender?"
"Out."
Sulu spends a restless night in his quarters. He uses half of his remaining water allowance for the week taking a real shower that does nothing to calm his mind. He gets up an hour after he first lies down to stretch. The exercise is a useless effort without the meditative state that seems to stay just out of reach. He's watered his plants twice, reviewed the next mission three times and answered every message on his PADD when 0700 hours comes around. By the time he finishes breakfast in the mess he's managed to convince himself that the sleepless night had nothing to do with the feel of soft hands pressed against his or the glow of firelight in blue-gray eyes.
***
End Part 1