Next day Kirk was sitting in his chair, as usually, Sulu was at the helmsman's station, Chekov at the navigator's station, Uhura at the communications station with her earphone, Spock at the science station, and Bones and Ibrahim a bit behind Captain's chair. Kirk looked around and smiled.
'Captain, an incoming message!' Uhura frowned.
'To the screen,' Kirk ordered smiling.
'Aye, Captain,' Uhura said nodding and pressed a couple of buttons. A strong man in a long purple robe appeared on the screen.
'Yes?' Kirk said alertly.
'Captain Kirk?' the man asked frowning.
'Yes,' Kirk said politely. 'What's the matter?'
'Captain, I'm Mirell, the Ambassador of Troyius. Elaan, Queen of Troyius and Dolman of Ellasu, wishes to use your ship to go home from a visit.'
Kirk frowned deeply but said:
'We'll accomodate Her Majesty Elaan, Ambassador, don't worry.'
'Very well!' Mirell exclaimed relieved. 'Thank you, Captain!'
'It's nothing.' Kirk smiled.
The screen turned black.
'Oh no!' Kirk exclaimed in dismay. His officers except Ibrahim exchanged meaningful glances and looked at Kirk with sympathy.
'What's the matter, my lord?' Ibrahim asked gently.
'Elaan Queen of Troyius and Dolman of Ellasu is a very very willful and headstrong queen,' Kirk explained frowning. 'And her tears, like tears of all Ellasian women, have the power to make any man to fall in love with her and follow each her whim. I had the misfortune of transporting her to her wedding with the King of Troyius, and she nearly made me to attack some ship! Thankfully, later Bones made a vaccine against the Ellasian women's tears, and we all are inoculated against them...Oh no!'
'There's one person on the ship who isn't inoculated, - our new counselor,' Bones said grimly. 'You, Pargali.'
'But I can be inoculated immediately, right, Leonard efendi?' Ibrahim asked at once resolutely.
'Yes, of course.' Bones nodded with approval. 'You're right, Ibrahim.'
Kirk nodded and smiled.
'So let's go to the Sickbay, Pargali,' Bones smiled slyly.
'Does it take long?' Ibrahim asked evenly.
'No, not long.' Bones smiled. 'And you won't ask if it's painful?'
'I've been in many battles, Leonard effendi,' Ibrahim said proudly. 'I won't.'
Bones nodded with approval.
'Let's go then, Pargali!'
Ibrahim nodded.
They went to the elevator, descended some stories and went to the Sickbay. Ibrahim looked around curiously, he was healthy and didn't need Sickbay before. It was a large room with many simple but comfortable beds and some machines over them, some chairs, a table and a cabinet.
'Now sit down on one bed and roll up your left sleeve, Pargali,' Bones commanded. Ibrahim obediently sat down on a bed and rolled up his dark satin left shirt sleeve. He read about inoculation last evening, when he read about science, and thought it a great invention, many diseases could be fought like this in his time. Several of his lord's children that died from smallpox could be saved then.
'Wait, first I must examine you, Pargali,' Bones remembered.
Ibrahim nodded.
Bones took out his medical tricorder and waved it around Ibrahim. Then his face fell.
'Oh no!' he exclaimed very grimly. 'You're allergic to the vaccine!'
Ibrahim looked at him quizically.
'You have an idiosincrasy to the vaccine,' Bones explained. 'If you take it, you could fall ill or even die!'
'Oh no,' Ibrahim muttered. 'And what to do then?'
'I don't know,' Bones said acidly. 'Let's talk to the Captain.'
Ibrahim nodded, rolled his sleeve back up and rose.
'At least you're pefectly healthy barring that, Pargali,' Bones said acidly.
'Why thank you, Leonard effendi.' Ibrahim bowed.
They ascended back to the Bridge.
'Well, how you took vaccination, Pargali?' Kirk smiled at seeing them.
'He's allergic to the vaccine, Jim,' Bones informed him grimly.
'Oh no!' Kirk said for the umpteenth time this day. 'And what to do now?'
'My lord, my training bids me to turn around and bow my head when in presence of a lady of royal blood anyways,' Ibrahim said quickly. 'So I'll try to do that when I meet her.'
'Very good, Ibrahim,' Kirk said with approval.
Ibrahim nodded.
'I trust you not to succumb to her charms.' Kirk smiled. 'Resist, Pargali!'
'I'll do my best, my lord.' Ibrahim bowed.
Soon the pilot of Dolman Elaan's shuttle connected with the Enterprise and asked permission to come aboard. Kirk gave his permission.
'Well, now we all line by the airlock, by rank, Pargali,' Kirk explained. 'First me, then Spock, Scotty, Bones, you, Sulu, Chekov and Uhura.'
Ibrahim nodded.
'Well, let's go then,' Kirk said resolutely.
They, all arrayed in the dress uniform, except Pargali, who was in his elegant Turkish clothes, went to the airlock and lined up on the sides.
At seeing a bright spot Pargali turned around quickly, bowing his head.
Kirk smiled. He himself watched as Elaan came in, tall and voluptuously slender, with oval face, large dark eyes and long dark hair falling in many braids on her shoulders, in a long light draped orange dress with deep V neck and light blue girdle and light blue lining of the hem, both embroidered with pearls, two golden buckles with pearls on her shoulders, with pearl flower shaped earrings in her ears, pearl necklace around her neck and pearl threads in her hair. Some pretty girls, in bright long wide dresses embroidered with gemstones and in bright jewelry, were with her. She smiled brightly to Kirk and his officers.
'Greetings, Captain Kirk,' she said, her eyes twinkling.
'Good morning, Your Majesty,' Kirk said evenly. 'You know Commander Spock, Dr McCoy, Commander Scott, Lieutenant Sulu, Ensign Chekov and Lieutenant Uhura. And this is our new counselor, a civilian, Pargali Ibrahim efendi.'
'And why is he turned around?' Elaan asked slyly.
'It is the custom of his land when meeting a lady of royal blood,' Kirk explained evenly.
'Oh? And what land is that?' Elaan asked curiously.
'Turkey,' Kirk said evenly.
Elaan nodded.
'He's handsome even from the back,' she remarked.
Kirk grinned.
'Oh, did I mention that Dr McCoy made a vaccine against the Ellasian women's tears?' he observed. 'And we're all inoculated now.'
'And Ibrahim efendi?' Elaan asked smiling.
'He's allergic to the vaccine,' Kirk admitted.
'Oh, is he really?' Elaan smiled.
'Yes,' Kirk said evenly.
Elaan nodded.
'Now, Your Majesty, Spock will escort you to your room,' Kirk said evenly.
Elaan nodded and smiled.
'Your Majesty,' Spock said evenly and stepped forward.
Elaan nodded gracefully.
Spock led her and her ladies in waiting away.
Ibrahim turned around quickly and looked at Jim.
'Handsome even from the back, really?' Kirk grinned. 'Well, you are.'
Ibrahim blushed.
'But my lord, she guessed quickly that I'm not inoculated,' he said urgently.
'Yes,' Kirk admitted grimly. 'Well, as I said, resist, Pargali!'
'Yes, my lord.' Pargali nodded.
Ibrahim diligently avoided Elaan all day long, quickly turning around and bowing his head or going away quickly at the least sign of her. He spent some time in his cabin reading, and some time on the Bridge, where Jim complained to him about Elaan, how she was trying to order him around and asking various outrageous things. Ibrahim sighed and smiled sympathetically.
But once when Ibrahim was going from the Bridge to his room Elaan met him in a passage, and, though he turned around and bowed, she commanded:
'Turn around, Ibrahim efendi, it is an order.'
Ibrahim obeyed. Elaan looked right into his eyes. She was very beautiful. She took his hand and said pitifully:
'Oh, Ibrahim efendi, I'm so unhappy in my marriage! Only a sophisticated man like you can understand me!'
She hid her face into his shoulder and wept onto his neck. Her tears were burning on his skin like fire, and he felt that he would do anything for her, go to the end of the world to please her, to be with her.
'Ibrahim efendi, let's elope together!' Elaan pleaded. 'You take the power over this ship, you could, I know, and order them to go where you want. We'll settle in some distant planet!'
Ibrahim knew that it was only a glamour, and tried to resist, remembering his Hatice Sultan and their child. It worked to some degree. And also he felt decidedly unwell, it was hard to breathe and he felt dizzy. He remembered that usually a vaccine was made from a weakened version of the harmful substance, so if he was allergic to the vaccine, then he was allergic to Elaan's tears too. Oh noo, not this!
Ibrahim went to the Bridge, urged by his desire to obey her, but also thinking he could do something to thwart her plans. Elaan followed him, smiling to him. He walked into the Bridge and darted to Captain's chair. He quickly seied Kirk, drew his scimitar and held it to Kirk's throat.
'Do what I say, or he'll die!' he hissed ominously.
Elaan was standing in the doorway and smiling at him.
The Bridge officers were afraid to shoot Ibrahim, in case they harm Kirk too. But Ibrahim whispered to Kirk urgently, with great effort because of Elaan's spell and the allergy:
'My lord, my lord, please do something, she has control over me!'
Kirk grasped his right wrist and twisted it painfully. Ibrahim dropped his scimitar and fell to the ground himself, it was too much for his body weakened with the sickness.
'Ibrahim, Ibrahim, what is it?' Kirk shouted, leaned and felt Ibrahim's neck for the pulse, relieved when he found it. Then he rose and looked at Elaan.
'Go to your cabin, Your Majesty, your plan failed,' he said smiling broadly and dangerously. 'Back at it again?'
Elaan huffed and retreated.
'Bones, examine Pargali, quickly,' Kirk ordered urgently.
Bones squatted near Ibrahim and waved his medical tricorder around him.
'He's allergic to her tears,' Bones explained then. 'Which makes sense as he's allergic to the vaccine from them.'
Kirk sighed with relief.
'And he fought her power, being unwell! What a man!'
'Yeah,' Bones said with approval. 'He's something else.'
Kirk smiled.
'Sickbay? Bring a stretcher here quickly please!' Bones commanded into his communicator. 'And a hypospray with something against allergy!'
Soon two pretty nurses came to the Bridge carrying a stretcher. They looked at Ibrahim lying prone on the floor, gently took him and put him in the stretcher. One nurse gave a hypospray to Bones. Bones took it, put it to Ibrahim's neck and pressed.
'All right, taking him to the Sickbay now,' Bones said brusquely.
Kirk nodded.
Bones and the nurses with Ibrahim in the stretcher left the Bridge.
'Oh my!' Kirk smiled broadly. 'What a counselor we have!'
'Yeah.' Uhura smiled.
Ibrahim woke in a bed in the Sickbay and saw smiling Kirk before him.
'W-what happened, my lord?' he asked still a bit dizzy.
'You dropped when I twisted your wrist to make you drop your scimitar which you held to my throat being under Elaan's spell,' Kirk explained smiling broadly. 'You whispered to me to do something before that. You are allergic to her tears as you are to the vaccine from them.'
'I thought so much,' Ibrahim sighed. 'Please forgive me, my lord.'
'For what? You were under her control.' Kirk smiled.
'Yes, my lord, I resisted as I could,' Ibrahim sighed.
'You saved us again, Ibrahim.' Kirk smiled. 'Thank you.'
'It's nothing.' Ibrahim smiled weakly.
'Oh what a lady!' Kirk smiled.
'My lord's wives are so willful and headstrong that I've seen it all.' Ibrahim smiled.
Kirk nodded smiling.
'You know, Elaan of Troyius and Hellasu, it reminds me of Helen of Troy and Hellas.' Ibrahim smiled. 'The beautiful queen that started a war.'
'Really.' Kirk smiled. 'And I haven't thought of this.'
'It's a story of my native land.' Ibrahim smiled dreamily.
Kirk nodded smiling.
'At least she haven't started go a war this time around.'
'Yes.' Ibrahim smiled.
'Oh, Ibrahim, I'm tired of her caprices,' Kirk complained. 'When will she go away at last!?'
'You complaining to me about her is like my other lord complaining to me about his wives.' Ibrahim smiled. 'Once two of them made a fight that was heard all over the palace, but my lady Hatice came and put them in their place!'
Kirk smiled.
At this point Bones came in.
'Captain, don't overwork the patient, please!' he ordered.
Ibrahim and Kirk smiled to each other.
When it was time for Elaan to depart at last, the senior officers of the Enterprise lined up by the airlock. When Elaan with her maids came, Ibrahim quickly turned around and bowed his head carefully.
'Your Majesty, bon voyage.' Kirk smiled broadly.
Elaan smiled acidly.
'Stay well, Captain Kirk, Commander Spock, Commander Scott, Dr McCoy, Lieutenant Sulu, Ensign Chekov, Lieutenant Uhura...Ibrahim efendi...'
Ibrahim stayed turned around, ignoring her stoically.
Elaan huffed and left the airlock proudly.
Ibrahim turned back around quickly and looked at Jim.
Jim smiled to him.
'Well, Pargali, let's go to the Bridge now,' he ordered. 'At last we're rid of her!'
'Yes, my lord, and a good riddance!' Ibrahim smiled.
creen went black.
K
