Civilized Savages
By Didi
Disclaimers: Star Trek is owned by the late and great Gene Roddenberry. I own nothing within this story except the improbable idea behind it. Paramount owns the rights to the show and I do wish they would run of the wonderful reruns of the older series. Please don't sue me cause I have no money and will have to pay you in lint.
Summery: When one of their own goes missing, Enterprise crew goes on a search as to why.
Acknowledgement: To my darling Julie who loves Star Trek and is always willing to listen to me either rag or rave about episodes. Always know that you're opinion is more important than the stupid producers.
RATING: Rated R for content.
Note: I know that Enterprise hasn't been on television for long and the characterizing of the characters on the show may not be accurate but it's the way I see them. Bear me with here as I attempt to give some life to this.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Seven
~~~~~~~~~~
Klingon Warbird Kollarg - Mass Hall
Hoshi ducked behind Klaang as a tankard came sailing into the air, a slight victim of a brawl that had broken out across the room. The big warrior batted the tiny missile out of the way with his massive hands and continued into the room without pausing.
Strangely enough, even though she was still deathly afraid of Klaang and his massive shoulders, she felt better knowing that he had brought her here and was probably...huh, hopefully, going to protect her from his fellow warriors.
She edge as close to Klaang as she possibly could without actually touching the man. Their last meeting had not been too great after all, he all but sneered his good bye at the Enterprise crew after leaving him in the Great Council Chamber on Kronos probably hoping never to see another human again as long as he lived. Well, so much for wishes coming true.
Well heck, it's not like she sought them out. They were the ones that kidnapped her and... "Oh my god," her smooth brows wrinkled together in concern. In all the fear and excitement, she completely forgot about the fact that the crew of the Enterprise may not know what had happened to.... She almost breathed a sigh of relief as she remembered that Mr. Chiqu-Shue was there and no doubt would explain it to Malcolm and the rest of the crew. She would literally have breathed a sigh of relief if not for the distinct smell of an oily unwashed body not suddenly assaulted her and a massive brick wall that was a warrior's back, knocked her off her feet and on her ass.
Catching her breath in the back of her throat, she rolled out of the way before the falling body could crush her beneath the sheer force of the body's descent to the ground helped along by the swinging fist of the man's opponent. Scrambling onto her feet again, a massive hand grabbed her roughly by the shoulder and lifted her out of harm's way just before two more bodies landed where she had been standing only a millisecond before. Unable to do anything but clutch at the hand that rescued her, her eyes still glued on the tussling bodies on the ground, she didn't realize that she was being shoved into a bench not too far from the center of the hall.
She continued to watch the fight with some morbid fascination and failed to notice that she was getting quite a bit of attention herself. Klaang glanced about the room, nothing the stares and speculation in his fellow warriors eyes. The girl may be tiny and breakable by a mere touch, but she was the only thing that they had to combat their enemies at the moment. It gulled the others to know that with all their strength and skills, they have to rely on a frail thing such as this to save them all. Of course, it helps that she was not sore on the eyes.
After taking few deep breaths and swallowing the urge to scream like a madwoman, she turned to the food-laden table and nearly screamed anyways. She stared at the massive plates and bowls overflowing with wiggling worms and crawling little crayfish like creatures.
Setting a large brown bowl in front of the tiny woman, Klaang grunted, "Eat."
"No thank you." She shook her head and pushed the bowel away with her fingertips.
"Eat!" He announced again pushing the bowl back toward her, his big hands crushing a few of the wiggling worms unfortunately enough to be hanging off the sides. He then licked the juices from his hand without thought and poured thick red wine down his throat, while keeping an eye on the rest of his comrades in arms watching their little visitor. "Wine."
She glanced at the red liquid, it had a very distinctive smell that was rather familiar and... She stared at it horrified. "Is this blood?"
Another warrior sat down next to her, jostling the bench. She glanced up briefly, noting the red eye patch, she almost shank back. "It is blood wine, will put hair on your chest."
Hoshi made a face and shoved the goblet away, as well as the bowl. There was something surreal about sitting at a medieval style table with two seven feet tall warriors trying to feed her blood and worms. "I don't want hair on my chest."
The two men laughed as if she said something uproariously funny. "You bought us a weak one, Klaang."
"She is strong enough for now, P'Mai" Klaang answered shoving the bowl back at the little woman who was turning a fascinating shade of white. "Gagh will put meat on your bones."
She looked at him then looked at the bowl of wiggling brown creatures. Closing her eyes to avoid looking at it, she asked, "Are you saying that I'm skinny?"
The two warriors glanced at one another. "Yes."
She made a face as she pushed the bowl away again, her stomach feeling distinctively queasy. "I'm in excellent health I'll have you know. I don't need any more meat on my bones, or anywhere else on my body for that matters. And I'm not eating the gagh." She said the word as if she was really about to throw up.
"You will eat," P'Mai said putting a plate of what appeared to be black spiders in front of her that made her want to gag. "You need strength."
"I eat that and I'm going to lose everything else in my stomach." She put her hand over her mouth in an effort to keep herself from gagging at all the live food in front of her.
Klaang frowned, the woman was looking singularly ill. "You do not want your food alive?" That was a definite curiosity.
"No, I don't." She shook her head. "I can handle the occasional sashmi and wosabi as well as the next person but live food?"
"What is shesheme?" P'Mai asked with a cautious eye, his only eye.
"It's sashmi," she corrected automatically, her eyes averted from the food on the table. "It's raw fish. A native dish to my country."
"What is fish?" Klaang asked but not really caring as he got up and walked toward another table. After a few moments of selections, he came back with giant plate that was double the circumference of Hoshi's waistline. "Eat."
She peeked at the plate before and noted with surprise that nothing moved. Taking a big black rocking looking piece, she sniffed it cautiously. It emanated a wonderful aroma. Next to it sat chunks something familiar in various shades of blue and brown. "Bread and cheese," she looked up gratefully and smiled shyly at the big warrior. "Thank you."
P'Mai shook his head at his friend and poured the girl something from another pitcher. "Drink, you are too dry."
Taking a tentative sip, she noted the lack of copper smell and the strange sweetness. "Honeyed mead." She laid a hand on the man's arm before the warrior could put the pitcher back. "Can I have some more? I'm awfully thirsty."
The one-eyes warrior glanced down at the tiny white hand on the sleeve of his black armor and was momentarily distracted. "You may have more." And poured the cup to overflowing.
Hoshi smiled and took sips of it so that she could set the metal goblet down without spilling anymore on herself. Then she licked her fingers of the sweetness and sat about to tackle the break and cheese. She suddenly found herself famished. It's been a while since her oatmeal breakfast. "This is wonderful," she said through a mouthful of strong cheese. "I haven't had anything like this since my trip to Italy." She informed them as she continued to eat.
P'Mai and Klaang looked at one another and then continued to watch the woman with great interest. They were not the only ones as well. The fight that had broken out earlier had ended with one man unconscious on the ground and the victor sitting on a table sipping wine with his friends, watching the pasty little thing that was eating with enough enthusiasm to impress even the Klingon warriors gathered for their end-day meal. One would think that her captain has been starving her by the way she was shoving food into her mouth, chewing the tough bread while trying to drink at the same time.
Someone came around and placed another selection of cheese before her, which she acknowledged with a thanking nod of her head. "Aren't you eating?" She asked Klaang as he continued to drink his wine and watch her.
He nodded his head and picked up a handful of gagh. That was pretty much enough to make Hoshi lose her appetite. She stopped eating so abruptly that it took the men a moment to realize that she had turned a rather unbecoming shade of green. As Klaang shoved the fist full of wiggling worms into his mouth, Hoshi made a dash across the room to empty her stomach into a huge bin by the side of the room. She was lucky she had chosen the waste-bin and not the wine-bin to toss her cookies.
The men watched with strange enthrallment as Hoshi slumped against the wall and made a disgusted face. "I hate it when I do that."
P'Mai smiled a toothy grin as he watched the tiny woman take deep calming breaths, oblivious of the men watching her, and turned back to Klaang. "I like her. She's funny."
~~~~~~~~~~
Enterprise - Bridge
"Captain," T'Pol's eyes glanced up from the monitor that she and Lt. Commander Reed had been hovering over. "We believe we've found them."
"The Klingons?" Archer asked as he rounded the terminal top with quick moments.
"Yes sir," Reed sighed, he had been hoping to find the Klingon's still on the station where they can get to them easily. "Apparently, they've been gone for some time now. The trail is pretty cold."
"But there is a trail, right?" Archer asked pointedly.
"Yes sir." Reed answer with a nod of his head. "We can follow it."
"Then let's get going. Archer to Engineering."
"Tucker here, have we found something?"
"The engine ready to go to warp, Trip?" Archer sat down in his chair and glanced briefly at Ensign Thomas Williams, who was temporarily acting as communications officer. It was strange to see the young man there where Hoshi usually was.
"We were ready a hour ago." Tucker announced as his feet clamored down the ladder. "Let's get going already."
"Then we're on our way. Mayweather..."
"Course laid in, sir." Travis's competent hands rested lightly on the control in front of him. He was practically humming with anticipation.
"Then let's go find Hoshi."
To be continued...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So honestly, who's actually enjoying this story? I love Star Trek but I have no confidence when it comes to writing for it. Okay, forget the details of things cause I know they suck, but how do you like the story so far?
By Didi
Disclaimers: Star Trek is owned by the late and great Gene Roddenberry. I own nothing within this story except the improbable idea behind it. Paramount owns the rights to the show and I do wish they would run of the wonderful reruns of the older series. Please don't sue me cause I have no money and will have to pay you in lint.
Summery: When one of their own goes missing, Enterprise crew goes on a search as to why.
Acknowledgement: To my darling Julie who loves Star Trek and is always willing to listen to me either rag or rave about episodes. Always know that you're opinion is more important than the stupid producers.
RATING: Rated R for content.
Note: I know that Enterprise hasn't been on television for long and the characterizing of the characters on the show may not be accurate but it's the way I see them. Bear me with here as I attempt to give some life to this.
~~~~~~~~~~
Chapter Seven
~~~~~~~~~~
Klingon Warbird Kollarg - Mass Hall
Hoshi ducked behind Klaang as a tankard came sailing into the air, a slight victim of a brawl that had broken out across the room. The big warrior batted the tiny missile out of the way with his massive hands and continued into the room without pausing.
Strangely enough, even though she was still deathly afraid of Klaang and his massive shoulders, she felt better knowing that he had brought her here and was probably...huh, hopefully, going to protect her from his fellow warriors.
She edge as close to Klaang as she possibly could without actually touching the man. Their last meeting had not been too great after all, he all but sneered his good bye at the Enterprise crew after leaving him in the Great Council Chamber on Kronos probably hoping never to see another human again as long as he lived. Well, so much for wishes coming true.
Well heck, it's not like she sought them out. They were the ones that kidnapped her and... "Oh my god," her smooth brows wrinkled together in concern. In all the fear and excitement, she completely forgot about the fact that the crew of the Enterprise may not know what had happened to.... She almost breathed a sigh of relief as she remembered that Mr. Chiqu-Shue was there and no doubt would explain it to Malcolm and the rest of the crew. She would literally have breathed a sigh of relief if not for the distinct smell of an oily unwashed body not suddenly assaulted her and a massive brick wall that was a warrior's back, knocked her off her feet and on her ass.
Catching her breath in the back of her throat, she rolled out of the way before the falling body could crush her beneath the sheer force of the body's descent to the ground helped along by the swinging fist of the man's opponent. Scrambling onto her feet again, a massive hand grabbed her roughly by the shoulder and lifted her out of harm's way just before two more bodies landed where she had been standing only a millisecond before. Unable to do anything but clutch at the hand that rescued her, her eyes still glued on the tussling bodies on the ground, she didn't realize that she was being shoved into a bench not too far from the center of the hall.
She continued to watch the fight with some morbid fascination and failed to notice that she was getting quite a bit of attention herself. Klaang glanced about the room, nothing the stares and speculation in his fellow warriors eyes. The girl may be tiny and breakable by a mere touch, but she was the only thing that they had to combat their enemies at the moment. It gulled the others to know that with all their strength and skills, they have to rely on a frail thing such as this to save them all. Of course, it helps that she was not sore on the eyes.
After taking few deep breaths and swallowing the urge to scream like a madwoman, she turned to the food-laden table and nearly screamed anyways. She stared at the massive plates and bowls overflowing with wiggling worms and crawling little crayfish like creatures.
Setting a large brown bowl in front of the tiny woman, Klaang grunted, "Eat."
"No thank you." She shook her head and pushed the bowel away with her fingertips.
"Eat!" He announced again pushing the bowl back toward her, his big hands crushing a few of the wiggling worms unfortunately enough to be hanging off the sides. He then licked the juices from his hand without thought and poured thick red wine down his throat, while keeping an eye on the rest of his comrades in arms watching their little visitor. "Wine."
She glanced at the red liquid, it had a very distinctive smell that was rather familiar and... She stared at it horrified. "Is this blood?"
Another warrior sat down next to her, jostling the bench. She glanced up briefly, noting the red eye patch, she almost shank back. "It is blood wine, will put hair on your chest."
Hoshi made a face and shoved the goblet away, as well as the bowl. There was something surreal about sitting at a medieval style table with two seven feet tall warriors trying to feed her blood and worms. "I don't want hair on my chest."
The two men laughed as if she said something uproariously funny. "You bought us a weak one, Klaang."
"She is strong enough for now, P'Mai" Klaang answered shoving the bowl back at the little woman who was turning a fascinating shade of white. "Gagh will put meat on your bones."
She looked at him then looked at the bowl of wiggling brown creatures. Closing her eyes to avoid looking at it, she asked, "Are you saying that I'm skinny?"
The two warriors glanced at one another. "Yes."
She made a face as she pushed the bowl away again, her stomach feeling distinctively queasy. "I'm in excellent health I'll have you know. I don't need any more meat on my bones, or anywhere else on my body for that matters. And I'm not eating the gagh." She said the word as if she was really about to throw up.
"You will eat," P'Mai said putting a plate of what appeared to be black spiders in front of her that made her want to gag. "You need strength."
"I eat that and I'm going to lose everything else in my stomach." She put her hand over her mouth in an effort to keep herself from gagging at all the live food in front of her.
Klaang frowned, the woman was looking singularly ill. "You do not want your food alive?" That was a definite curiosity.
"No, I don't." She shook her head. "I can handle the occasional sashmi and wosabi as well as the next person but live food?"
"What is shesheme?" P'Mai asked with a cautious eye, his only eye.
"It's sashmi," she corrected automatically, her eyes averted from the food on the table. "It's raw fish. A native dish to my country."
"What is fish?" Klaang asked but not really caring as he got up and walked toward another table. After a few moments of selections, he came back with giant plate that was double the circumference of Hoshi's waistline. "Eat."
She peeked at the plate before and noted with surprise that nothing moved. Taking a big black rocking looking piece, she sniffed it cautiously. It emanated a wonderful aroma. Next to it sat chunks something familiar in various shades of blue and brown. "Bread and cheese," she looked up gratefully and smiled shyly at the big warrior. "Thank you."
P'Mai shook his head at his friend and poured the girl something from another pitcher. "Drink, you are too dry."
Taking a tentative sip, she noted the lack of copper smell and the strange sweetness. "Honeyed mead." She laid a hand on the man's arm before the warrior could put the pitcher back. "Can I have some more? I'm awfully thirsty."
The one-eyes warrior glanced down at the tiny white hand on the sleeve of his black armor and was momentarily distracted. "You may have more." And poured the cup to overflowing.
Hoshi smiled and took sips of it so that she could set the metal goblet down without spilling anymore on herself. Then she licked her fingers of the sweetness and sat about to tackle the break and cheese. She suddenly found herself famished. It's been a while since her oatmeal breakfast. "This is wonderful," she said through a mouthful of strong cheese. "I haven't had anything like this since my trip to Italy." She informed them as she continued to eat.
P'Mai and Klaang looked at one another and then continued to watch the woman with great interest. They were not the only ones as well. The fight that had broken out earlier had ended with one man unconscious on the ground and the victor sitting on a table sipping wine with his friends, watching the pasty little thing that was eating with enough enthusiasm to impress even the Klingon warriors gathered for their end-day meal. One would think that her captain has been starving her by the way she was shoving food into her mouth, chewing the tough bread while trying to drink at the same time.
Someone came around and placed another selection of cheese before her, which she acknowledged with a thanking nod of her head. "Aren't you eating?" She asked Klaang as he continued to drink his wine and watch her.
He nodded his head and picked up a handful of gagh. That was pretty much enough to make Hoshi lose her appetite. She stopped eating so abruptly that it took the men a moment to realize that she had turned a rather unbecoming shade of green. As Klaang shoved the fist full of wiggling worms into his mouth, Hoshi made a dash across the room to empty her stomach into a huge bin by the side of the room. She was lucky she had chosen the waste-bin and not the wine-bin to toss her cookies.
The men watched with strange enthrallment as Hoshi slumped against the wall and made a disgusted face. "I hate it when I do that."
P'Mai smiled a toothy grin as he watched the tiny woman take deep calming breaths, oblivious of the men watching her, and turned back to Klaang. "I like her. She's funny."
~~~~~~~~~~
Enterprise - Bridge
"Captain," T'Pol's eyes glanced up from the monitor that she and Lt. Commander Reed had been hovering over. "We believe we've found them."
"The Klingons?" Archer asked as he rounded the terminal top with quick moments.
"Yes sir," Reed sighed, he had been hoping to find the Klingon's still on the station where they can get to them easily. "Apparently, they've been gone for some time now. The trail is pretty cold."
"But there is a trail, right?" Archer asked pointedly.
"Yes sir." Reed answer with a nod of his head. "We can follow it."
"Then let's get going. Archer to Engineering."
"Tucker here, have we found something?"
"The engine ready to go to warp, Trip?" Archer sat down in his chair and glanced briefly at Ensign Thomas Williams, who was temporarily acting as communications officer. It was strange to see the young man there where Hoshi usually was.
"We were ready a hour ago." Tucker announced as his feet clamored down the ladder. "Let's get going already."
"Then we're on our way. Mayweather..."
"Course laid in, sir." Travis's competent hands rested lightly on the control in front of him. He was practically humming with anticipation.
"Then let's go find Hoshi."
To be continued...
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
So honestly, who's actually enjoying this story? I love Star Trek but I have no confidence when it comes to writing for it. Okay, forget the details of things cause I know they suck, but how do you like the story so far?