CHAPTER 3 - Thanks for reading everyone! This is a shorter chapter still - but I promise to keep them coming on a weekly basis till it's done! cheers...Dia

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"WAKE UP!"

Sulu shot to his feet before his brain shook it's way to consciousness.

He looked around....what....?

Holy shit! Fully awake now, he scrambled across to Uhura and the comm board and long overdue voice issuing from it now.

"I'm okay. I'm sorry I missed call. I can't talk long."

"Goddamn it where were you!" The helmsman shouted past Uhura's response, earning a glare from her that shut him up immediately.

"I'm sorry. I was slightly injured."

"Eight days late and you say slighty?"

"An axe handle split and went through my hands."

"Oh, my God. How is it? Did they-"

"Uhura, I haven't got time. I just wanted to check in. I'm fine. I haven't seen Natalia ...but I've seen someone else...Irina Galliulin is here...." He made a noise that didn't quite get through the mic. "Father Grigory has decided that we should marry okay I have to go now...out."

"Whoa!" Sulu shouted, to empty air. He was gone.

The helmsman and the communications officer looked at each other - mirroring each other's slack jawed amazement.

Uhura recovered first, "Put that damned kettle on."

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He always thought that he would marry someday. He was one of the few Starfleet officers he knew who did think that.

But, he didn't think it would be to Irina (though he did think it at one time) and he sure as hell didn't think it would be on some planet he'd never heard of, in front of his beloved cousin Natalia, who was married herself now to a heretical Russian priest, she an ersatz Czarina now , the leader of the maniacs who'd killed his girlfriend.

And he didn't think it would be with this face he studied in the mirror.

His wedding suit was traditional somewhere, but certainly not in Russia. A high collared silk shirt, a linen suit jacket to his knees, linen trousers, low boots. Some other day he would have thought it looked pretty good.

Today all he could think of was that he was finally going to see Natalia, his cousin.

He only hoped he didn't blurt out something stupid, like 'Cousin, I've got to get you out of here!'

He felt a twist of guilt in his gut. Pain for Irina. Hadn't given her a second thought since Father Grigory informed them that he would marry them.

He knew Natalia would be at the ceremony and that once he was 'married' into the flock he would be allowed to move about the compound freely. It would be easy then.

"You look very nice, Brother Chernyeshevsky."

Pavel Chekov automatically turned at the name and felt a small bit of panic send his heart racing, 'How easy it has become to answer to that name, as if it were my own.' he thought.

He smiled at Lily, the elderly kitchen supervisor who shuffled toward him, tiny and impossibly wrinkled and impossibly sweet and kind. He leaned down to accept her hug, she slapped him on the back, her noodle like arms displaying her astonishing strength gained over years of hard kitchen work.

Lily hadn't had an easy life he knew - but she was one of the warmest people he'd ever met - a woman whose eyes welcomed you with total acceptance and love.

She was his favorite person in the place and he hoped that he could find some way to help her out of this situation....at least that's what he thought most of the time, sometimes she just seemed so happy he felt like the biggest Scrooge in the world deciding for her that her life was not being lived in a healthy way.

'Maybe I should just forget this, what right do I have to- NO! Damn it!' These confusing thoughts were really starting to get to him...

'Ha!' he thought, 'Wait till tonight. My wedding night....Bozhe moi!'

A stinging slap to his face brought him back to Lily's grinning face, "Where were you? Pay attention boy! You are getting wed - you are getting wed right now! Let's go!"

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"Let's go!"

"When?" Sulu demanded.

"Today!"

"What!"

"What exactly are we waiting for?!" She began readying the little ship for landing. "It is past time to get some terra firma underfoot - well not TERRA but - solid ground underfoot and a good look at that damned navigator of ours!"

"He's going to get married to Irina? That's so...weird...her not knowing who he is and...I think he could really mess up his head if he sticks around that bloody place too much longer."

"He probably doesn't consider it a real marriage."

"Will there be a real wedding night?"

Uhura made a face he couldn't quite decipher but her words were plain enough, "She might recognize him."

Sulu gave her a look she had no trouble deciphering, she snorted out a bleak laugh, "No, not that. The scar he left unrepaired, she's seen them before."

"Oh, ya. And he hasn't even seen Natalia yet."

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Czarina Natalia liked the weddings the best! She stiffened her shoulders in preparation for the heavy brocade cape the dressers held in their hands.

A simple dip of her head told them to go ahead and settle the weight of responsibility on her tiny shoulders. She shifted slightly, and felt the full, always surprising, weight of the thing.

She heard the hymnal start in the church and smiled. It was time.

She liked the weddings best.

She took her place to the right of the altar and happily waited for the groom to approach and take his place.

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Pavel Chekov tried to slow down his heart by running through the Zen breathing meditation Sulu had taught him once. It worked fairly well, and even under this stress he could feel his heart slow and his muscles relax and just as he was thinking there was nothing to it the doors swung open and there was a church full of people and there was the Czarina, Natalia, his cousin.

"BOZHE MOI" he blurted out and the faces in the church all turned towward him as Lily beside him laughed softly.

"There, there, boy, nothing to it...go on and take your place."

Her little shove was unnecessary, really, because it was not the wedding itself that had brought his outburst, it wasn't even the fact he was 'marrying' a girl he had once loved, who had no idea who he was...no it was none of these things that brought the shout from him.

It was the sight of the very pregnant Czarina.