Disclaimer: See Chapter 1. Thank you so much to vulcangiggles, Ahlysha, bina W, maba7x and the anon reviewer for reviewing.
Kiki gripped tight to Tomik as they rounded the last street corner, and he slowed the airbike as they approached his home. Several other vehicles were parked outside his home, and she smirked as she slipped off the bike.
"I still can't believe Soval of all people has a biker gang."
Tomik raised an eyebrow. "Most Vulcans own something like this. It is more economical than an aircar for shorter trips, and is usually easier to maneuver in tough terrain. Perhaps someday soon I will buy you one of your own, and we can make our own gang."
She laughed. "Or join Soval's! My highest ambition, being a biker babe!"
He shook his head and placated his sehlats, who were leaping all over him as he shut and locked the gate. Soval and his friends were surveying Tomik's plants around the border of his front courtyard. The ambassador turned and gestured towards the door, quietly offering to start on some tea while Tomik started dinner.
"That is an agreeable arrangement," Tomik said with a nod. He kept Kiki back as the men entered his home. "Do not hand them tea. Only me...it is seen as an...advancement?"
She shook her head. "I don't get it..."
"You would be offering yourself to them as a mate."
She raised her eyebrows in comprehension. "Oh, a come-on! Ok...only handing tea to you...gotcha."
She paused, then turned back to him. "But wait...then I'd be offering myself to you as a mate then, right?" she said with an innocent quizzical look on her face.
Tomik raised both eyebrows, and he opened his mouth but nothing came out right away. "Yes," he finally said, deciding it was best not to lie.
She blushed hotly. "You were tricking me," she teased. "And I suppose witnesses made it even more official."
He looked to the food he was chopping. "Yes."
She giggled. "You know, if someone did that to me on Earth I'd punch them, but..." she touched his cheek, "it's kind of endearing."
"Does that mean you will hand me the tea?"
"One of these days." She kissed his cheek. "Now let me help."
"She has you there, Tomik," Soval said with a slight smirk. "Earth females do not appreciate deception any more than our own kind. And deception is illogical."
Kiki laughed and kissed Tomik's cheek again, and the agent turned to his former colleague with a smirk of his own. "Please keep amusing my ashaya, Soval. I rather like the results."
That made her laugh harder, and she punched him playfully on the arm. "Shall I feed you ingredients for this stew, sweetheart?"
"I would be agreeable to that. The red spice there..." He reached into a drawer and pulled out a measuring device. "To that third line, please."
She obeyed and waited for his command to scatter the spice into the braising roots at the bottom of the pot, and Soval fetched him a small pitcher's worth of water. She poured it in, slowly like he asked, and then he clamped on the lid and let the roots steep in the liquid for several minutes.
"Is Earth treating you well, ambassador?" Kiki said, poking her head out from behind Tomik to look at the elder Vulcan.
"Well enough," he said simply. "I am told that the Earth ambassador has placed heavy restrictions on all the females working in his employ. Is this true?"
Kiki nodded. "Yeah, I've had to get the help of Jo and Minister V'Las to be able to get out. He's treating it like a prison."
"And has even come here searching for Kiki," Tomik added.
Kiki blushed. "I don't understand it at all. I haven't done anything, and he doesn't have the right to tell us who we may and who we may not date."
"He does have the right as ambassador to set certain standards in the Embassy, but there is no law preventing the mating of our two species. His behavior is erratic," Soval said, making a mental note to investigate this further. "He also cannot set foot into a Vulcan citizen's house as he did just to search for you. I take it you had a reason to be out?"
"Jo and V'Las had me over, and then I came over here."
Soval frowned. "I will look into this matter."
…
Trent stormed into the area outside his office, where his staff was busy getting started on the day's work. All of them were occupied with their duties, though a few were discussing their personal lives as they sorted through paperwork. One was expecting a baby soon, and it made him sick.
He turned his gaze from the women closest to him and found Kiki near the back, talking softly to Jo as she pulled up various tabs at her work station.
"Ms. McMahon," he said clearly over the soft rustling of fabric and the clatter of PADDs being sorted and arranged. "My office. Now."
He had had enough of this woman and her antics, and he knew she was disobeying orders to see her new Vulcan boyfriend. He wouldn't have it, and he shut the door hard after she stepped into his office.
"Have a seat," he growled, rifling through his PADDs to pull up a dismissal form.
Kiki obeyed and brought up her note taking program on her PADD. "Is this going to be addressed to humans or Vulcans?"
"What?" he asked testily.
"I'm assuming you asked me here to take a memo, since I am in the communications department." Kiki blinked, seeing that Trent was an angry, almost unhealthy shade of red.
"No, that isn't why I brought you in here, Ms. McMahon. I brought you in here to terminate your tour of duty with me in this office. You have repeatedly disobeyed direct mandates by this office and I am firing you for insubordination. " He gave her a smug look. "I will need your signature on this PADD confirming that you know you are terminated, and will not be eligible for rehire unless and until you pass a personality profile that states you are fit for duty."
She paused and stared at the PADD, then tossed her own aside and took it from him, signing it. "So I am no longer in your employ?"
"No, you are not."
"Good," she said. "Before I go-"
An aide popped his head into the office. "Sir, Ambassador Soval is here to see you."
"Very well. Ms. McMahon, you may pack your things. Your shuttle will leave momentarily."
"No, I'm staying, because I think I know why he's here in the first place."
The man in question swept silently into the room, his robes billowing around him, and she had to admit, he cut an impressive figure as he slowed his pace and stopped at her side.
"It is fortuitous that Ms. McMahon is here. It has come to my attention that you may have been...unfair in your recent treatment of her, and her blossoming relationship with Tomik of Shi'Kahr."
"He just fired me, ambassador," she said.
Trent smiled. "I did, and you are in my office, Soval, and it's my prerogative to hire and fire who I want. Now, please leave. I have other business to attend to. It is not a Vulcan matter, it's a human matter, and the Embassy we are standing in now is considered Earth soil."
Soval's jaw clenched. "Your..."
Trent held his finger up. "Earth property, Soval. Earth people. Human business," he said too calmly. "There is a memo out now: due to a terrorist threat, the Embassy is now sealed down. You may leave, but all of the humans are now confined to the Embassy compound until further notice, or..." he glanced at Kiki, "their shuttle takes off."
"Terrorist threat," she said incredulously. "How incredibly convenient. And while you tell us about this 'terrorist threat', tell me more about how dangerous the streets of Shi'Kahr are. I know the Vulcan people are still a little on edge about this virus deal...or maybe they've just been woken up to how attractive we are. So tell me more about these terrorists, and the rapists and serial killers and criminals roaming around Vulcan. Why else would you lock us up? It's obviously for our own protection against our horrible, dangerous Vulcan allies. And we can't take care of ourselves, and we lack the critical thinking skills to turn down marriage proposals. We've just been waiting for this day to arrive, when we can whore ourselves up to any Vulcan man who happens to glance our way."
Trent turned a delicate shade of dark red. "You are out of line..."
"I'm not your employee anymore. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a desk to clear."
She walked out of the office with her head held high, and she could almost sense Trent's anger following her out into the main office. The women stared at her as she passed, and despite her relief at finally being out from under Trent's thumb, she couldn't keep the tears from pricking her eyes. She picked up her valuables and shoved everything else into a box from the storage closet, and Jo frowned at her.
"Kiki, what's wrong?"
"I got fired. I'm leaving."
Jo stared at her for several seconds, then got up and started clearing her desk as well.
"Jo, hold up...you don't have to-"
"If he's kicking you out, I'm leaving too. I quit."
Kiki watched for a moment as Jo took her name placard off her desk and started shoving her things into the box, and to her amazement, several of the women around her followed suit.
"Ladies...you don't have to do this..."
"Yes, we do," Jo insisted. "An attack against you is an attack against us, and everything we stand for. This was a long time coming, Kiki. And we're all married. We'll be fine."
Soval exited Trent's office, followed hotly by the Earth ambassador, and his face turned deep red again as he watched several of his secretaries packing up their things.
"What is the meaning of this?" he roared. "Get back to work!"
"We quit!" came the response.
Trent simply grinned. "Good, quit for all I care!"
He snapped his fingers and pointed at Soval. "Security, see this man out. And lock down the compound. No one leaves without my permission until the terrorist threat is cleared." He looked to Kiki and Jo. "That includes the two of you. All human staff active or not, are confined to the Embassy or their apartments until further notice."
He waved one of the Embassy guards over. "Lock down all communications. Lock the campus."
The guards hustled off, and Trent looked at Kiki. "Your shuttle leaves in an hour," he growled.
"Ambassador!" Soval growled, tossing off security as if they were feathers. "I strongly suggest you desist in this illogical display! These women are Vulcan now, and you cannot hold them here! Their husbands will storm this Embassy if necessary to rescue their wives, and this attack on the citizens of Vulcan will not go unpunished!"
"They are human, Soval! Not Vulcan!" Trent snapped. "They are human, and nothing you can do can change that!"
Jo snorted. "My husband is already making inquiries. You think you can hold us here? You think you can isolate us from our husbands? They're coming already...I just informed V'Las of the situation, and he's sending security over now. Maybe you should just call this off and let us leave."
Trent grinned. "They will wait. As soon as each of you has checked through security you can be..." he coughed, "reunited with your husbands."
He waved at the security guard, "I said get the ambassador out of here. It's for his own safety. Officers, see these women to their quarters, if they don't have quarters, double them up!"
Trent waved at Jo and Kiki as they passed, that sickening smirk still plastered to his face.
