Serene had opted for the transporter pattern buffer routine. Which meant she had not made much progress at all, even with Azure's help throughout the night. On the plus side, she'd managed to pack one duffle bag outside of the rest that went into transporter stasis, so at least she'd have time to sort through the rest of it when she made it home.

Yet, by the same token, the human woman had also sent her belongings via another shuttle. Why? Well, Azure had learned it was best not to question Serene's sometimes questionable logic.

Either way, they departure from the academy had gone smoothly, with Serene showing off the piloting skills that she'd picked up growing up. The shuttle had raced up through the atmosphere and into warp.

Of course, they'd been at warp for several hours now. Azure had fallen asleep almost immediately after entering warp, and was thus blissfully unaware of where Serene was really taking her.

Serene didn't mind ultimately that her friend had passed out. She'd kept busy between listening to Risian pop music and plotting warp navigation routes on the fly. The rest of the time she'd spent browsing the extranet looking for information on the planet Geman.

There was a beep on her console and the shuttle immediately decanted from warp. Serene checked the sensors briefly, confirmed their location, then with a grin, looked over at Azure.

Azure heard the beep and stirred. She tried to turn over, but realized when she couldn't that she was asleep in a shuttle chair. She opened her eyes and turned to Serene. "Sorry I fell asleep, I was exhausted. I take it from that beeping we're here?" She looked out the cockpit window, but instead of a ship, she saw a green planet. "Serene, where are we exactly?"

"Geman." Serene replied bluntly.

Azure groaned. "What the bloody hell are we doing here?" Azure had taken up watching British Television shows and had adopted the phrase years ago.

"You see... the way I saw it..." Serene fidgeted in her chair. "You have unfinished business here. So, what better way to resolve it than to just confront it head on. At the very least I want to see your world! I mean... forests, volcanoes... what's not to like? I promise I won't even try to blow this one up."

Azure groaned and took a deep breath. They were here now, she couldn't turn back without Serene. She let out the breath she was holding. "Fine. I don't like it, but there's nothing I can do now, I know how you are when you put your mind to something, same as I am. And I do appreciate what you're trying to do."

Serene grinned. "Then my plan was a success... now to get landing clearance..." After a short while and a brief conversation with the Geman spaceport control, they were descending into the atmosphere.

The world was lush and almost completely green. The canopy below was thick with the tops of the jungle trees. Breaks in the jungle could be seen where towns and cities were, but they were sometimes hard to spot if not for the spires of the buildings. Mountains could be seen in the distance, but only the tops of the tallest ones had a light cap of snow. It was too warm anywhere else. A large sparkling blue ocean could be seen to the East on the other side of the jungle.

As they approached the spaceport for Azure's home, a medium sized city in the Western part of the Northern hemisphere named Machi, the city came into focus. Tall buildings packed closely together, with a mix of smaller ones of varying shapes and sizes. The spaceport was off from the rest with a road leading into the city. A park was in a central location in a city square, and around the outskirts of the city, homes could just barely be seen high the trees.

With a care and precision that was totally unlike Serene, the human set the shuttle down on the spaceport arrivals pad with a soft thump. Serene shut the shuttle down with a handful of commands. "Alright... let's go see that world!" She clambered out of her chair, grabbed her duffle and walked to the rear door of the shuttle and opened the hatch.

Azure grabbed her arm. "Not so fast! My world may look beautiful, but some species of plant and animal can be quite dangerous. If I say not to provoke or touch something, you have to listen to me. I don't need to be rushing you to the hospital to be pumped full of some antidote. I don't want to have to explain to you father why his daughter needs surgery to fix an injury. OK?"

Serene let out a whine not unlike a two year old. "Way to be Ms. Nancy Negative Azure..."

"I'm just saying, be cautious. Sometimes the flowers used for decoration in some places really shouldn't be stopped and smelled. Since we all grow up knowing what's what, there aren't always signs to warn the tourists."

"Well... that's dumb..."

Azure shrugged. "We don't get many long term visitors...And one more thing, you're the first true friend I've made in Starfleet, and to my people, friends are family. So, I'd like to introduce you as such. Would that be OK with you? You don't mind being my 'sworn sister', it's kind of like your version of a best friend."

"'Sworn sister' eh?" Serene frowned as she pondered the translation. "That so totally didn't translate right I think, but it'll be fine. I did grow up on a starship with a whole bunch of different species."

"Well, then let's go see if my cousin is working today. He does regular flights from here to the South."

They exited the ship with their bags and made their way inside to go through customs. They showed their IDs, and Azure answered the official when he asked what their stay was for and for how long. He waved them through and Azure went over to an office beside the ticketing counter.

She leaned against the door frame a minute unnoticed. A man with short dark green hair sat behind a desk doing paperwork. When he didn't' look up, Azure sighed.

"What does a girl have to do around here to get a welcome home?"

The man's head shot up in surprise. "Azure!" He jumped up and walked over, picking up the shorter woman in a hug. "What are you doing here?"

"Hi there." Serene threw the green haired man a grin.

Azure through her arm around Serene's shoulder. "My 'sworn sister', Serene, here convinced, well, dragged me against me will back here."

"I just didn't tell you where I was taking us... it's your fault for passing out before we left orbit."

Azure rolled her eyes. He looked both of them over. "Well, your timing is just about perfect Serene." He held out a hand. "I'm Malachi, Azure's cousin."

Serene took his hand with a mischievous grin. "A gentlemen already, and you said people weren't friendly here Azure..."

Malachi smiled back. "Well, I'm not sure how friendly everyone else will be. Anyway, there's a party tonight, you guys should come, it will give Azure a chance to see everyone."

"A party? I so shoulda brought that skirt..." Serene shrugged. "Oh well... I'll just have to work with what I have."

"What sort of party?" Azure asked.

Malachi sighed. "It's a birthday party, for Risa."

Azure glared at him. "Are you crazy?"

"No offense to Serene here, but Risa was you're sworn sister first."

"Exactly, was. Not anymore."

He ran a hand through his hair. "Azure, will you just come and give her a chance to explain her actions? It was a long time ago, people change."

"Of course she will. We'll both come." Serene sensed Azure was about to protest and lightly elbowed the other woman in the gut."Won't we, Azure?"

"Fine." She said. "We'll be at the Arbre Hotel."

"I'll swing by and get you at 1800."

Azure nodded and lead them outside. Waiting at the entrance was the Geman version of a bus. A carriage with a couple rows of seats and a place for cargo underneath was hovering just off the ground and connected by a harness to a rather large lizard. The lizard had brown skin, with a long lean body. It's claws had been trimmed for safety, but being an herbivore, it retained it's teeth. A leather strap was around it's body to connect it to the "bus", and the other end of the bridle was held by the driver perched on a seat in front.

Azure walked right up to it without hesitating and accepted the help of a man already on board in climbing up.

Serene stood dumbfounded for a second at the taxi platform. "Woah... a real... that some kind of lizard?"

Azure chuckled. "Yes. it's called a Gantlya. We use them much like your people used to use horses."

"Can I... pet it?" Serene was still standing there, her mouth ajar. "I've never seen anything like it before."

"You can pet one later, the driver has a schedule to keep." She held out a hand to take her bag.

Serene hesitated for just a second, then grabbed Azure's hand and jumped up into the carriage, throwing her duffle into her lap. "Oh fine."

Once she was seated the driver gave a command and the lizard walked forward. The ride was a bit slow compared to a shuttle, but surprisingly smooth. The carriage was open, allowing Serene to see the sites, however, a canopy could be put in place in case of rain. And rain it sometimes did, they didn't call it the rainy season for nothing. The air was currently humid, and warm, but in a few hours it would be even hotter.

When they reached the hotel, Azure indicated it was time to get off, along with most of the other passengers. Azure rooted around in a secret compartment in her bag where she had stashed what was left of her cash when she left. She had never taken it out since she didn't have to exchange it for another form. Finding a few coins of the right value, she put them in the electronic slot attached to the driver's seat and gave a nod of thanks.

"What was that?" Serene asked, looking at the slot where Azure had just deposited the coins.

"We have an economy here, everyone gets paid for their work, and uses that money to buy what they need."

Serene's eyes went wide. "Wait... you said money? That totally wasn't in the extranet file on your planet."

Azure shrugged. "I guess whoever wrote it forgot to put it in or something. Don't worry though, I have access to my parent's old bank accounts, and I have one of my own since I worked through school."

"But it's not gonna be an issue... I mean... is it expensive? I'm gonna have to figure out some way to pay you back, which will be tricky as we don't have money in the Federation..." Serene trailed off, clearly deep in thought.

"It depends on your definition of expensive, and how long we stay, what we do, etc. A bus ride is cheap. And this is the only decent hotel in the city, the other is mainly used by University students, so it's always overrun this time of year with school being out. But don't worry, it will be fine. We'll figure out some way you can 'pay me back' later."

Serene was still frowning, but seemed a bit more at ease. "Okay. So let's check in... then I want to change into some lighter clothes... it's way too warm here for pants and a jacket."

Azure nodded and went to the reception desk to get a room with two double beds. She was handed two key cards and asked if they needed help with their bags, but Azure shook her head no.

"Ok, we're on the seventh floor, got us a view of of the park too. Lifts are this way."

Serene followed Azure.

XXX

Azure changed as well into something a little more fitting for the whether. She unfortunately hadn't brought her old Geman clothes, not that she was sure they'd even still fit her after eight years. She instead had settled for a dark colored tank top and a pair of black shorts with sandals and had pulled her long blue hair into a ponytail to get it off her neck. She had also gone through her cash and found her old bank card wish she luckily had kept with her cash.

Azure looked at a wall mounted clock, it was almost time for the party. "Malachi should be here soon, we should get downstairs."

Serene was in the process of finishing tying her shoe. "I think I've never actually lived in a tropical climate... I'm totally not prepared for this." She finished and jumped to her feet. Her solution to the heat had been to switch to her exercise clothes, a moisture wicking t-shirt and shorts, both a bright shade of purple, edging towards pink.

Azure stared at her and tried to suppress a laugh. "Oh my, that's going to make you stick out just a bit." She jokingly said holding up her fingers with just a smidgen of space between them. "Didn't you bring anything a little less...conspicuous? Most young people here wear similar things to what you would. Just accented with traditional touches. We've been importing clothes and fabric from Federation worlds for some time after all."

Serene gave Azure a puzzled look. "So what... dull boring colors then?"

"No, not always. We were bright colors too, but when your hair is a bright color you'd want to balance it, and vice versa. Do have another pair of shorts? The top is fine, but too much of one color isn't always a good thing."

Serene sighed and began digging through her bag again. After a few seconds she pulled out another pair of similar shorts, except these were more of a soft blue. "Best I got." She held up a hand to stop Azure for a second. "No... I'm not going back to pants in this heat."

"I don't expect you to. Those will work fine."

Serene nodded. "Good then let's roll before we're anything greater than fashionably late."

"You, know, I never quite understood that phrase of yours."

XXX

Downstairs in the lobby they were met by Malachi, another man with bright blue spiky hair, and a woman with long pink hair that was tied back.

Azure balked.

Serene glanced at the trio, then back to Azure. "So... would this be a bad time to ask what happened between you and... uhhh... Risa?'"

"Now's as good a time as any." She sighed. "Risa thought we would all go off to the same University, graduate, and all live happily ever after. She thought I wasn't serious about applying to Starfleet Academy, so when I did, and got accepted, she got mad. I tried to convince her not to say anything until I was ready to announce it, but she couldn't keep her mouth shut."

"That's not petty at all." Serene commented, sarcasm clearly dripping in her voice..

"She went straight to my aunt and uncle and told them. Which caused them to get even more mad at me. She sided with them trying to convince me to stay. Malachi was the only one to support my decision and recognize that it was my decision. When I wouldn't change me mind, she treated me the way everyone else did, shunning me for leaving." She paused trying to find the right words. "It's hard to explain, but to my family and people, I should have stayed and used my talents to help here. They don't believe in getting involved in the Federation's business. They aren't afraid of other species or speciesist or anything, they just...want to keep to themselves. Since I didn't, I as the odd one, and they didn't like that."

Serene had stayed remarkably silent throughout the Azure's explanation. "Maybe this is my human upbringing speaking, but why would... nevermind... dumb question... so you're saying this entire thing started because she told on you that you were going to join Starfleet..." The blond woman shook her head. "That's just plain sad."

Azure thought for a moment. "Yeah, it kind of is. I guess, I just didn't quite realize it, or look at it from a different perspective."

"I mean, mom... well my step mother anyway, is a Vulcan. They're all expected to go to the Vulcan Science Academy, she didn't. Her family didn't get all up in arms..." Serene trailed off suddenly. "Okay bad example, she's a Vulcan. There's no emotion there. It just seems dumb to me and you know I'll say that to their face if they bring it up right?"

"Yeah, Vulcan's are really not the best example of anything emotional." Azure joked. "And I wouldn't expect anything less from you." She smiled.

With a deep breath she walked over to the three. "Hello. Risa, Kai. This is Serene."

"Hey, long time no see! We were beginning to think you'd gone off and forgotten about us." Kai, ever the joker, said in reply.

"Serene, this is Malachi's friend Kai and Risa."

"Hi there." Serene extended a hand as a greeting.

Before Azure could say anything else, Risa stepped forward and started talking all at once. "I'm sorry for how I acted back then. I shouldn't have told your aunt an uncle about you joining Starfleet Academy before you were ready. Or ignored you, or treated you the way I did. I know that now. I just always thought we'd go to University together and room together and do everything else together. When you said you going to leave and go to school millions of light years away, I panicked," Risa explained. "I've wanted to call you or something for years, but I never knew what to say." She paused, "I really am sorry Azure. I never meant to hurt your feelings the way I did. Can you forgive me?"

"Woah..." Serene was taken aback by the sudden avalanche of apologies from Risa and interrupted.

Azure smiled. "I think I can do that. Serene was just telling me how stupid it all sounded anyway." She shrugged. "We were teenagers, after all. I should have tried harder to explain to you why I wanted to leave. After my parent's died, I just always wanted to leave."

Risa smiled and launched herself at Azure throwing her arms around her. "I see you're still one for theatrics," Azure said giving her a hug back.

Serene smiled. "Well... that went well. Probably too well. Something so has to go wrong later."

Azure glared at her. "Well, maybe my aunt and uncle will be like Risa here."

Malachi shook his head. "I wouldn't count on it, Aze." He used her old childhood nickname.

Azure ignored him. "All right, let's get this over with then. I'm kind of afraid now who's going to come out of the woodwork at this party."

XXX

A short ride later, Azure and the others arrived at the party. It was being held at Risa's parent's home, a traditional tree house style home built high off the jungle floor to avoid certain jungle creatures. Even though most of the population now lived in the apartments and homes in the heart of the city, the traditional homes could still be found on the outskirts of most cities.

"And here I thought this was gonna be more like your typical backyard BBQ." Serene gazed up at the treehouse before looking back at Azure and the others.

"Barba what?" Malachi asked confused. Clearly the phrase had lost something in the translation.

"She means cooking food over a fire and grill," Azure explained.

The others nodded in understanding.

"Human tradition." Serene mentioned idly.

"We do that too at times, we just call it something different."

After taking a elevator up to a series of platforms that connected to other homes, Malachi and the others quickly walked over to Risa's. Azure stopped, took a deep breath, and then followed them.

Malachi opened the front door and stepped in, "Well, everyone, look decided to come to the party?"

Risa and Kai came in and stepped aside so Serene and Azure could enter. "Azure finally came home, and just in time!" Risa said excitedly.

Risa's comment was followed by silence as Azure stepped inside. Looks of shock stared back at her. She swallowed. "Hello." Most of those present had never seen a human and their looks quickly went from Azure to Serene.

Serene grinned despite herself. "Hi there, guys." She appeared to be completely unfazed by the eyes of twenty or so Gemans staring at her.

After the initial shock wore off, the party guests went back to what they were doing.

"Okay… that was more like you said." Serene glanced back over at Azure.

"I should make the rounds, thank everyone for coming, but you and Serene are welcome to anything," Risa said with a smile indicating a table laden with food and drinks. Malachi followed her and true to what Azure remembered, Kai made a B-line for the food and began piling it on a plate.

"He always could pack it away," Azure said with an amused smile. Then her eyes fell on the aunt and uncle standing with Risa's parent's across the room. "I hate to leave you alone in a strange place, but I think I should do this alone."

"Azure… I grew up on a warship." Serene rolled her eyes at the Geman. "I can take care of myself… and some of these Gemans do have pretty hair..." With that, Serene was off, heading towards the refreshment table and a pack of male guests.

Azure took a deep breath and made her way across the room. When she reached the four older Gemans she turned to Risa's parents first and bowed. "It is a pleasure to see you again. I hope the family of my sworn sister is in good health."

Risa's mother, a tall tan Geman with dark red hair smiled. "It is a pleasure to see you again as well, Azure. We are indeed in good health. I know Risa has longed to have her sworn sister home." The woman gave her a hug and flashed Azure's aunt and uncle a 'be kind' look over her shoulder."

"We are glad you have decided to finally come home. You and your friend are welcome to stay and enjoy the party," Risa's father said before also giving her a quick hug. They then gave a nod and excused themselves.

Azure then turned to her aunt and uncle and bowed. "I ask you to forgive me for my behavior when I was younger, and accept me back as your niece." She kept her head bowed until they answered.

"You admit that you were wrong?"

Azure's head snapped up. "No. What I did was they right choice for me at the time. I was not wrong, but I could have handled it better, but you could have listened better too."

"You dishonored the family."

"It was never my intention to do so. I was always told that I could be whatever I wanted, and become what I wanted. I wanted to join Starfleet and become a doctor, I thought that would bring the family honor. On other worlds, Starfleet Officer's are respected."

Her uncle let out a heavy sigh. "But we are not a Federation World, why would you want to join their Starfleet? Why would they even accept you as one of them?"

"Because I needed to get away, I couldn't stay here." Azure voice was beginning to rise. "Everything reminded me of my parent's in some way, I tried to tell you that. But all you saw was me leaving and doing something you didn't approve of. And they do accept me at Starfleet."

They looked like they were considering this. "Then why not come home sooner? Why wait almost ten years?"

"I didn't come because I didn't think I was wanted! Besides, communication goes both ways, Malachi knew how to get ahold of me, if you wanted me to come home all you had to do was send me a message." Azure was almost yelling now. They still weren't getting it.

"Perhaps, we all could have tried harder to communicate, then and now." Azure's aunt gave her husband a look. As the sister of Azure's mother, she had tried to do right by her niece and do what she thought her sister would want for her daughter.

"Then why not just come alone? Why bring, what exactly is she anyway?" Her uncle, always the hard one to convince being a stickler for the Old Ways.

Azure fumed at the attack on her friend. "Her name is Serene, and she's been a good friend, worthy of being called a sworn sister, and she's the reason I'm here in the first place." A few guests turned to stare, including Serene.

"Dear, Azure is right." Her aunt sighed. "My Dear Azure, there is no need to raise your voice, I think we can come to some…" but she was cut off by a loud explosion and quake that shook the trees and building.

Serene darted across the room in a flash to the nearest window. When Azure finally caught up, she saw what had Serene's jaw wide open. In the distance, near the top of one of the mountains, fire was spewing into the sky, turning it black. Molten lava streamed down the side of the mountain and down into the valley, lighting the trees on fire, and a large black and grey cloud of smoke was rising into the air.

"That's not normal is it?" Serene was looking at a small tricorder she'd keep in one of her pockets, even as she spoke to Azure.

Azure shook her head solemnly. "No. That's what a volcano looks like when it blows, and I'm guessing the early warning system failed."

"I totally didn't do it, by the way." Serene chuckled and gestured for Azure to take a look at the readings. "You see these seismic anomalies?"

Azure manages a small smile. "Not this time, at least." She then looked down at the readings. "Yeah, and if I can remember my physical science class from The Academy, they aren't good."

Serene swallowed visibly. "There's also an enormous amount of seismic pressure building up right underneath our feet…"

No sooner had she finished her sentence than another tremor nearly knocking everyone off their feet. Well… Serene managed to stay up. Sirens began to wail as in the distance, the entire spaceport abruptly sank into the earth.

Azure grabbed the window ledge, catching herself from hitting the floor completely.

Malachi made his way over to them and looked out the window. He cursed under his breath when he saw the smoke coming from where the spaceport was, or used to be.

"Oh, that's really not good." Azure said.

"Dad's so gonna kill me..."

"That is if we make it out of here."

Serene was staring at the reading again. "If I'm reading this right… the underground lava flow is literally going to collapse the ground under us. The entire plateau is going down. That's not right..." She looked back at Azure, then at the others in the room.

Azure stared back at her, hitting her on the shoulder. "There's no need to scare everybody more than they already are!" she said inclining her head to their audience. "As it is, they won't be able to evacuate anyone without help from another city."

Serene punched Azure back, but didn't respond.

"She's right, with the shuttle port gone, the whole evacuation plan is thrown off," Malachi said.

Azure thought a moment and looked back at Serene, "Something tells me we're going to have to violate a few rules if we are going to save as many people as possible."

Serene put the tricorder away and faced Azure with her hands on her hips. "I'm not about to sit around and do nothing."

Azure smiled. "Neither am I. Besides, you father will never forgive me if I don't keep you from getting yourself killed in the process."

"We do need to send a subspace message to Starfleet though. You guys have a subspace transceiver?"

"There was one at the Spaceport, but I think there's another one at the Town Hall," Malachi answered her.

"There is, they use it for secure messages," Risa said.

"I'll go to Town Hall and contact your dad."

"Screw that." Serene grabbed Malachi's hand to stop him. "General broadcast on all channels requesting immediate assistance. Dad will get the message, but he's on the other side of the Federation."

"We'll just have to trust that someone will come," Azure said. "In the meantime, we do what we do best. Save the day."

"So… we need to get down underneath the city. Are there caves or caverns?" Serene looked to the crowd around her. "I need to see what's going on… and preferably not burn alive doing it."

"There's an old cave network at the base of one of the mountains, but we have to go through the jungle to get there," Azure said.

"How far? And are we going to be eaten on the way?" Serene's questions were always so direct.

"A couple of miles, we can take a hover-bike so we get there faster. As for the animals, they usually have an instinct about natural events like this, I'd be willing to bet they are fleeing the area."

"Great, I'm driving." Serene looked down. "We're gonna need a change of clothes… something heat resistance but covering and climbing gear… any of you think you can hook us up?"

Kai nodded. "Yeah, my family's into rock climbing. I can get you the gear."

"We have heat resistant gear that might fit you at the station," Risa's father, a firefighter, offered.

"Then let's meet down the street at the bus stop as soon as possible," Azure told them.

"Azure… let's get back to the hotel, I brought some things we may need down there."

They had a plan, one Azure reflected was probably stupid beyond reason. However, if they didn't do anything, they were, screwed.