Death Becomes Her
Chapter 21
Kate had showered and she was sitting there as someone else was working on her makeup while another someone was putting her hair up. She had planned to have really large curls but apparently someone else had other ideas. Even worse she couldn't see what was happening since she didn't have a mirror.
Her hair was done and finally her makeup was finished. "Mirror, please?" Kate wanted to see what they had done to her.
Much to her surprise she got an answer that she wasn't expecting. "Not yet."
Next thing she knew this headdress was being attached to her head and it wasn't a simple tiara. This thing took two people to put it on her head and attach it.
Kate was doing her best to look that far. She failed looking to her right. But looking to her left she saw silver and some dark red flowers. It had to stick out from her head by over a foot! Amazingly the thing wasn't all that heavy but she was beginning to wonder just what was going on. She knew this ceremony was going to be part Earth and part Angoran. So this dress must be Angoran.
"Stand up for us, we need to get you dressed."
Kate tried to look down to see the dress. But they stopped her. "DON'T! It will come off and we'll have to start all over again. Hold your head level."
Now Kate was back to using her eyes to try and look down as these two dressed her.
She wasn't wearing a bra and was quickly finding out that it was form fitting. What she could see of it was that it was nude with the same red flowers. It was sleeveless and there was a silver clasp on her right shoulder.
Kate was looking down again. "KEEP YOUR HEAD LEVEL!"
She was just standing there until finally those two were happy. "Walk for us, carefully," they told her. She took a step and that was when she figured out that her train was maybe a little large. She was still barefoot.
"Enough." They stop her. "Shoes." One tried a high heel again that was easily six inches and totally white. Then someone helped her keep her balance and put her shoe on her other foot.
"This way." One was on either side, holding her hands far out to her side. Finally they reached a mirror. Kate's eyes were huge and her mouth fell open. She barely recognized herself.
She was wearing a crystal-embellished nude illusion dress that boasted both swirling embroidery and large red floral appliqués down the bodice and around the hemline of the design. On her head, she wore a matching silver crown with the same scarlet poppies and chrysanthemums scattered throughout.
They had given her thick, arched brows, rust eye shadow on her lids, and a berry pout, complete with a ruby crystal placed on her bottom lip. Kate's hairstyle was a side-swept chignon.
The red flowers were more than just sewn into the dress. They extended out from the dress and her fingers told her that they were solid to the touch.
"Keep your head level." Kate was bending her head again to look. "We don't have far to go." She was in a small room off to one side outside of the biosphere.
"I'm going to go see if they are ready for you." One of them left her while the other fussed over her and checked every little thing.
"This is an Angoran dress?" Kate asked her.
"It's a Woodward design. I've never actually seen one in person. It's a great honor to have her design a dress just for you. There's no other dress like it."
Kate was looking at herself and she looked so different. This was definitely not the dress she had been thinking of. "Where's my mother? She's supposed to be here."
"That is not part of the Angoran celebration." The family sat with everyone else.
"It is now so go find her before I remove this…dress and wear something else. Move it!" She was still standing there.
Kate watched in the mirror as she scurried away. She wanted her mother. She was supposed to be here helping her. Instead she had these two putting this thing on her.
She had finally gotten used to what she looked like now. But this look wasn't what she liked and it was her wedding, damn it! This dress had to go.
Kate got the clasp on her right shoulder off and that seemed to hold most of it in place so getting it to fall to the floor was amazingly easy. Now she needed to figure out how to get this thing off her head without pulling all her hair out.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?" Blast it! They were back. The dress was on the floor, she was damaging the headdress, and had ruined all they had done.
"Getting out of this thing. Where is my mother?" Kate asked again.
"This is not right," one of them stated and they both came to Kate to get her to stop before it was totally ruined.
"Leave me alone!" Kate batted at their hands. "It's my wedding, not yours. Now go find my mother or I'll go out there topless looking for her. …MOVE IT!" Kate yelled and watched both of them scurry away.
"How did they put this thing on?" Kate was feeling around to try and figure out what was holding it in place.
Kate was still trying get it off when suddenly there were three of them. "I've been told there's a problem," the older and new woman stated. She saw Kate was half naked, the dress was on the floor, and Kate was trying to get the headdress off.
"What are you doing?" She didn't like what Kate was doing either.
"Getting out of this mess. Where. Is. My. Mother?" Kate wasn't going to ask again.
"That's not part of the ceremony. She's out with all the others," she informed her.
"Well she is now. Ha, got it!" Kate found them and tugged and the headdress fell right off.
"Stop that!" She actually came forward to pick it back up and stopped dead in her tracks when Kate glared at her and growled.
"This wedding is my wedding. It's half human and half Angoran. But I'm not wearing that thing and I'm not doing it without my mother. Now get out of my way!" Kate picked the headdress up and made her way to the door.
"She's lost her mind," one of her helpers commented. Kate used the headdress to cover her breasts, opened the door, and left.
She knew where the biosphere was located so that was where she started walking.
"STOP!" They were following her! Kate felt a wave of relief when at the door she saw some help.
"KURN! GET DOWN HERE! HELP ME!" Kate yelled and kept walking since running and holding onto this thing was probably impossible.
Kurn stomped his way toward Kate. "I'm going to find my mother. If any of these three try and stop me I want you to break every bone in their Angoran bodies. Got it?" Kate turned and glared at the three who actually looked very afraid.
"With pleasure." Kurn took a step, blocked the path of the three, and got his hands ready to break some bones.
"They're both mad." All three spun around and ran for it. He was after all a Krogan and he was partly red instead of all green like all the others.
oOo
"They wanted you to wear this?" Jo picked it up off the floor to look at it.
Kate had made quite the spectacle when she had walked into the biosphere wearing next to nothing and was using something to hide parts of her.
Her mother was now in this little room with her. Kurn was just outside blocking entrance and Rick was talking with Jim and Amelia.
"You bought an Angoran dress specially made just for her?" Rick looked at Amelia.
"The designer's well sought after. It's an honor. …I made a mistake, didn't I?" Amelia felt terrible.
"Kate looks Angoran and is Angoran. But she's Second Chance so she thinks Human. She didn't grow up here. That's why she has a diamond ring," Rick reminded both of them.
"Now what do we do?" Amelia came here for a wedding and now that might be in doubt.
"That's why Janet left here running with her wife. There has to be a white dress somewhere on this ship." Rick was hopeful.
oOo
Kate was taking the makeup off while Jo was trying to figure out how to get her hair back down. "We'll figure this out, Katie. I'm sorry, honey. That thing was ugly and what have they done to your hair?" Jo was still trying to figure out how they did this.
That had Kate laughing. "I'm glad you're here, Mom. It wouldn't be a wedding without you. You think everyone will be upset?"
"It depends. Do you trust your future husband? He is in command of this ship," Jo pointed out. "HA, finally." Jo got her hair to fall down to her shoulders.
"But I'm Angoran now. So are you, by the way," Kate said.
"On the outside. What's in here," Jo tapped her chest where her heart resided, "is what's truly important. So it looks a little Angoran. And I'll have Angoran grandchildren. It's your wedding, honey. Just don't forget to say I do," Jo gently joked with her.
Kate reached out and touched her mother's face. "Love you, Mama. You know, you're only thirty. It's not too late for you."
"Let's get you married first, honey, then we can talk," Jo said as a single tear ran down her face.
oOo
Kurn stopped Janet and her wife at the door. "We have a dress." She held it up so he could see it. Kurn nodded and moved aside to let them enter.
They find Kate hiding behind something and her mother. "We found the most white dress we could find that was your size. Spent Rick's money to get it," Janet grinned and handed it to Jo.
"We'll be out front, waiting." Janet and her wife retreated. "Keep up the good work, Kurn." They hustled into the biosphere to inform Rick how things were going.
Jo held it up against Kate to see. "Well it's not my wedding dress but it is white. Mostly." And by white she meant stark white. Very, very white. "Put it on and let's see what we can do. After you fix your makeup and I do something with your hair." Jo was afraid what those two had done and what had been done to get that thing off was going to leave Kate bald.
oOo
Kate was standing in front of the mirror looking herself over. "Not bad, Katie, not bad at all." Kate could see her mother, who didn't look like her mother naturally, right behind her. Right where she was supposed to be when she got married. Bracken may have killed her body but he hadn't killed her.
"I'll get this Kurn person to announce that you're ready." Jo hustled to the door while Kate continued to stare at herself.
Kate had adapted to what she looked like now. She also watched as she fought back tears. She was getting married. It might not be the perfect wedding of her dreams, but in some ways it was even better.
"The coast is clear." Jo was back. "Here, before you make a mess and ruin all this hard work." Jo handed her something to dab away the tears.
Jim on Earth was supposed to be the one walking her down the aisle. Instead, thanks to the mess she was in, her mother was doing it. Though technically in an Angoran wedding she would be walking alone. It was supposed to symbolize she was giving away her independence and tying herself to the man she loved. It was simply a last minute change though Jo peeled off before they reached Rick and who was there supporting him.
Rick was wearing a uniform she had never seen him wearing before. It was all white save for a few highlighted areas and he was even wearing a cap.
She saw Jim right behind him and standing next to him, grinning wide at her was Alexis. She looked so sweet wearing what had to be a new dress for her.
Someone she had never seen before took her left hand and Rick's left hand and wrapped a ribbon around both of them, binding them lightly together.
They each repeated what they were told to say and Kate had to admit the words were different yet very familiar. So far it was all Angoran until the man officiating told Rick, "I'm told per human custom you are to kiss the bride."
Kate grinned as Rick's lips got closer and closer until still with their hands bound by a ribbon, they kissed each other. It wasn't like some of their kisses. This one was soft and was over far too soon for her. Then the space erupted.
Rick, Kate, and Alexis were the very last ones out of the room per Angoran tradition. It was meant to symbolize that this room was now theirs and they were giving it back for everyone to use.
Dinner was in the cafeteria since it was the only place on the ship large enough to hold any amount of the crew and guests.
"So where's our honeymoon going to be, husband?" Kate smiled at him since any honeymoon was an Earth thing and not an Angoran one.
They had already talked about this. The troop transports were already being loaded with Krogan for the trip home. They would be doing this for months. All of the Krogan had to be off the Relay and off all of the old Alliance ships first. That would be followed by taking Krogan off the planet to reduce the overcrowding and give the planet a chance to recover.
Additionally all of the Krogan needed shots to reduce their need to reproduce at a rate that had caused this mess in the first place.
The SSV Sagan still had a mission to do. So in a week they would be leaving for the next Relay. They would have a chance to design a honeymoon on the home planet of the Systems Alliance while Rick left the ship under the very competent command of Janet Murray.
Their honeymoon wasn't forgotten, it was simply delayed.
oOo
"Captain Richard Alexander Rodgers. It gives me great pleasure to promote you to the rank of Commodore effectively immediately." Admiral McDonald removed his old rank and pinned the new ones to his uniform.
"May your command always find success and may all who serve under your command provide success for themselves and the ship they serve on." Jim stepped back one step and gives him a crisp salute. Rick gave him one right back.
oOo
Jim and Amelia were leaving the very same day with a number of transports. "Good luck, Rick. These are your new orders and all of the information Intelligence has on the next Relay. Look it over and decide on how best to proceed. Your basic orders remain unchanged. Get as many Mass Relays back into operation as you can and place those systems back under the control of the Systems Alliance. Good luck, Rick." This time Jim shook his hand.
Amelia was hugging Kate. "She was the best dress designer in the system. I thought it was an honor that she was making a dress just for you. It never occurred to me that you would think of it as being ugly," Amelia apologized again for the dress that was going back to its designer.
"I don't blame you and please tell her I'm sorry. That thing just wasn't me. But thank you for coming. It was still memorable and something I'm never going to forget." Kate hugged her quickly and released her.
"Give your mother a chance. She may not look like your mother but you don't look like her daughter. Try to focus on what each of you know instead of what you two look like. She still has a big shock in front of her. She's only thirty years old now," Amelia warned her.
"I noticed. If I've learned anything through this it's try and keep an open mind. I'm not on Earth any longer and space is a lot bigger than I ever thought it was," Kate told her.
Amelia smiled at her. "You haven't seen anything yet, my dear. I've grown up here and it's still bigger than even i can imagine."
"Ready to go?" Jim joined them. "We need to go see the kids when we get back."
"Grand kids even." Amelia smiled at Kate. "Rick's a good man. You just have to adapt to marrying a man who's in the military. At least you get to go where he does. Not all wives get to say that. Good luck, Kate."
Kate watched them walk to the shuttle out to their ship for the trip home.
"So how do you feel, Lady Rodgers?" Rick slipped his arms around her waist from behind.
Kate had learned that per Angoran society it wasn't required that she change her last name. It was an Earth custom though even on Earth she didn't have to. Kate chose to change her name.
"Pretty amazing…husband." Kate grinned since the word husband was Human and not Angoran.
"One week of down time before we leave for the next relay. Any plans on what we should do with our time?" Rick had a few ideas and one of them involved staying in bed a lot.
"Maybe one or two," Kate said shyly and spun to face him. She saw behind them in the distance Alexis being held by Kurn. A couple more years and she was going to be too big for that.
"We can discuss something," Kate said since she felt like she was ready.
"Name it. Just so long as it doesn't conflict with our mission." These Relays came first.
"I wanted your thoughts on…on us having a baby." Kate held her breath for a moment and his answer was his kiss.