Chapter 4
"Look at that! Is that a cow?" Sulu asked in amazement, pointing across the rolling meadow to the bovine munching contentedly in the afternoon sun.
"That's a cow." Uhura confirmed.
"Wow. That's a big cow."
Uhura grinned as the helmsman crowded a little closer to her and tried to steer them in a wider berth around the...steer.
'Maybe that's WHY they're called steers' she thought, but didn't say.
Instead she chided him gently, "It doesn't even have horns."
"Ah...shit!" Sulu stopped and looked at his boot.
Uhura grinned to herself as she sat in the pew of the church waiting. She seemed to remember Pavel telling her that the Russian Orthodox churches didn't have pews, that the congregation stood. If that were true she was glad of at least that one difference between the church and Grigory and his flock.
She was keenly aware of the strained silence in the place, nothing to do with what was about to happen, more to do with the strange face in their midst. A dark face.
She tried to turn aside the force of the scrutiny being turned on her and her mind wandered back to the meadow where she and Sulu had been just a half hour ago.
The colour had drained from the fastidious officer's face as he examined his beautiful Rigellian boot and the very common dung hanging from it.
"I seem to remember something about a pilot deciding, against the objections of his passenger, to land four kilometres from the compound...something about a walk in the country?" The communications officer didn't even try to keep the mirth out of her voice.
She gave a full throated laugh and continued walking, mindful of not ending up in the same smelly condition as her companion.
"Who knows..." the helmsman remarked as he skidded the boot on some nice clean grass, "...it may be HOLY SHIT!"
Uhura turned.
A phalanx of very serious looking men appeared on the rise.
Sulu hurried to her side.
She had to roll her eyes, an army he would protect her from,but a cow? Not so much.
She caught him glaring at her, "What's so funny?" he demanded.
"Nothing." She turned away from him and put on her most charming smile as the group of ten men approached.
They didn't look like the type to be charmed. They all wore beards above which they all bore the same wrinkles, grooved into their faces from years of wearing the expressions of suspicion they turned on the two Starfleet officers now.
They stopped. One of them, a great hulking barrel of a man, stepped forward and the voice that issued forth was so startling in it's high pitch and feminine melody that Sulu almost laughed...almost.
What stopped him was the pinch he felt on his left arm where Uhura was digging her fingernail into him,'don't you DARE!'.
Somewhere in the back of his mind another startling fact dawned on him. This guy was speaking Standard.
"...we don't have anything of value to trade."
"We don't have much of value either. We have some unusual fabrics, a few bits and bobs, lovely teas, some used replicat-"
"Teas?"
"Oh, yes, beautiful teas, the man we purchased our craft from left a galley full that my friend and I couldn't possibly consume ourselves."
Uhura smiled inside...she knew damned well what tea meant to Russians. They LOVED it! Pavel himself almost never drank coffee, only tea, black, black tea that would have been unbearable if he didn't pour so much sugar into it she was surprised he didn't have to eat it with a spoon...how that kid had trouble keeping weight on she'd never understand.
There was a brief conference among them and the spokesman turned to them again.
He looked at Sulu, "You will wait here." To Uhura he tipped his head, "Madame, we would be honoured if you would attend our celebration."
"We're not splitting-" Sulu blurted.
"It will be my pleasure to attend." They didn't know she couldn't speak Russian too well...but she could sure understand most of it.
She pinched Sulu again - he gave her hand a squeeze - wishing she'd pick a different spot to pinch because that last one almost had him yelping out loud.
Uhura understood some of what had occurred in the huddle - there was nothing sinister in it - just some junior guys hoping to score points with the higher ups with the score of some nice tea for their Czarina.
She also understood what the celebration was, a wedding. She wanted Sulu to know where she was headed and so was happy when tolling bells gave her a cue to ask, "A celebration sounds lovely, we've had a long trip. What is being celebrated today?"
"The wedding of Brother Chernyeshevsky and Sister Galliulin."
"A wedding! How lovely! Gentlemen!" She held out her arm to their leader, he took it gingerly, "I love weddings!"
She did love weddings, she cried, almost everytime. Perhaps it was the price she paid for being the cool level-headed one in almost any crowd.
This was a solemn crowd. In a solemn place. This church was very plain, rough wood pews, plank floors, wood walls.
The only ornamentation were the gold and red velvet thrones dominating the room from the top of the altar. Even the altar was bare of any religious artifacts.
Just a brown room and those two garish thrones.
She heard the doors behind her swung open, she was dying to turn around and look but since nobody else did she sat as they did, staring stonily to the front.
She was aware of someone moving up the aisle toward her and as he approached and passed her she glanced in his direction. 'He's so thin!' she thought. Boy, McCoy was going to be pissed about that.
As he took his place at the front, she thought he looked small and alone and wished there someone there with him.
Then she mentally slapped herself. It wasn't even him!
Damn those beards!
The man raised his hands. The congregation stood. Uhura stood.
The doors behind the altar swung open and the 'Czar' and 'Czarina' stood resplendent.
They could have been Nicholas and Alexandra. They wore brocades and silks and fur, gold and emeralds and diamonds and rubies.
They were completely out of context for their surroundings.
As they stepped grandly forward Uhura studied the 'Czarina'.
She had never met Pavel's cousin, she was a tiny thing with a sweet face and...oh, brother..she was out to here!
Uhura almost groaned aloud.
Somebody did shout a wordless cry from the rear of the church and the congregation turned.
Uhura did the same, there he was, he wasn't so thin as the other guy but he was a lot paler at the moment. Uhura surmised that he'd just gotten his first look at his cousin.
And someone else, his eyes touched hers briefly, she allowed herself not even a tiny smile, just a look of curiosity.
He did the same, much to his credit, considering his nerves must be pulled taught as piano wire right now.
He was shoved playfully by an old woman standing beside him and he made his way down the aisle. As he passed Uhura she was certain she could hear his heart pounding.
Uhura turned front and centre again and watched as he knelt and kissed the feet of Father Grigory. 'Oh, boy, he'll LOVE that!' she thought and watched as he rose and stepped a step to the right, right in front of his cousin who did not know him.
He knelt again, she offered her hand, he held it in his two hands and kissed it, held it...held it...'Let go Pav. Let go Pav!' Uhura thought as the crowd gave each other quizzical glances.
At last he did let go and Uhura let out the breath she'd been holding as he rose and stood to one side of the altar.
'Here comes the bride' Uhura thought and sure enough she did appear, but not from the back of the church.
She appeared from a door left of the altar.
'Poor girl,' Uhura thought, 'She really looks beautiful, look at her. Poor girl.'
Irina took a step forward then stopped. She was looking right at Uhura. She turned toward Uhura, Uhura had only time to think, 'Oh oh.'
Irina pointed. "She's from Enterprise!" she said in Russian. And then in Standard. "You are from Enterprise!"
Shit. Uhura had only seen Irina very briefly when she'd been on the Enterprise, she hadn't even spoken to the goddamned girl who must have had some kind of photographic memory stupid poor idiot girl!
Father Grigory rose. Uhura didn't dare look at Pavel but from the corner of her eye she could see that he was doing a very good job of keeping his face passive, of just following along with the drama unfolding before him.
Well, nothing to lose now, "Oh, my yes! Irina...Irina uh...Gali...Gali...I'm sorry I've forgotten your name, but yes, I remember you. You were with Dr. Sevrin weren't you?"
Irina stepped forward, her voice high pitched, demanding. "Why are you here!" Standard again.
"I'm on leave. Enterprise is docked. I rented a yaght and I'm on vacation."
"Where is Pavel?" this was the Czarina, but in Russian.
"Did you say, Pavel?" Uhura asked meekly, feigning ignorance of the language.
The Czarina nodded and Uhura answered, "He's on the Enterprise. You know Pavel Chekov?"
Oh, brother! Uhura thought, I'm playing this innocent routine as far as it will go! 'Don't move Pavel! Don't say a goddamned word!' she thought fiercely in his direction, willing him to hear her.
The Czarina looked at her cousin, who she was meeting for the first time as Brother Cherneyevsky, on the day of his wedding.
She spoke to him in Russian, "Brother, we are sorry for the interruption of your wedding."
Pavel bowed to his cousin, "Czarina! No apology necessary!"
The Czarina turned to Father Grigory, "My lord, we may deal with these issues AFTER the wedding!"
The Czar, Father Grigory, turned to his Czarina and smiled and Uhura was stunned to the core. He looked on her with adoration, affection, reverence.
He turned to his flock, smiled, it was a beautiful smile, full of good humour, "On with the wedding!"
A collective sigh of relief swept the little room but the bride didn't look the least bit relieved, she looked shaken and upset as she took her place before her betrothed.
She did not look up at him and Pavel knew what she was thinking suddenly and he didn't like himself very much for it. She was thinking of him. She was thinking of him and she was marrying this other man she barely knew. She was thinking of him because she still loved him. He knew that, he knew it from their mutual friends, one of whom had called him a 'goddamned asshole' and said she would love to slap him but it wouldn't make him any less an asshole.
He had screwed up with her. He knew that. He'd tried to fix it. He'd only made it worse. They were impossible together, that's all there was to it.
They were impossible, he and this girl whose hand he was sliding a ring onto...this girl he was kissing for the first time in years...it always felt the same, like the sun rising inside his heart.
"Look at that! Is that a cow?" Sulu asked in amazement, pointing across the rolling meadow to the bovine munching contentedly in the afternoon sun.
"That's a cow." Uhura confirmed.
"Wow. That's a big cow."
Uhura grinned as the helmsman crowded a little closer to her and tried to steer them in a wider berth around the...steer.
'Maybe that's WHY they're called steers' she thought, but didn't say.
Instead she chided him gently, "It doesn't even have horns."
"Ah...shit!" Sulu stopped and looked at his boot.
Uhura grinned to herself as she sat in the pew of the church waiting. She seemed to remember Pavel telling her that the Russian Orthodox churches didn't have pews, that the congregation stood. If that were true she was glad of at least that one difference between the church and Grigory and his flock.
She was keenly aware of the strained silence in the place, nothing to do with what was about to happen, more to do with the strange face in their midst. A dark face.
She tried to turn aside the force of the scrutiny being turned on her and her mind wandered back to the meadow where she and Sulu had been just a half hour ago.
The colour had drained from the fastidious officer's face as he examined his beautiful Rigellian boot and the very common dung hanging from it.
"I seem to remember something about a pilot deciding, against the objections of his passenger, to land four kilometres from the compound...something about a walk in the country?" The communications officer didn't even try to keep the mirth out of her voice.
She gave a full throated laugh and continued walking, mindful of not ending up in the same smelly condition as her companion.
"Who knows..." the helmsman remarked as he skidded the boot on some nice clean grass, "...it may be HOLY SHIT!"
Uhura turned.
A phalanx of very serious looking men appeared on the rise.
Sulu hurried to her side.
She had to roll her eyes, an army he would protect her from,but a cow? Not so much.
She caught him glaring at her, "What's so funny?" he demanded.
"Nothing." She turned away from him and put on her most charming smile as the group of ten men approached.
They didn't look like the type to be charmed. They all wore beards above which they all bore the same wrinkles, grooved into their faces from years of wearing the expressions of suspicion they turned on the two Starfleet officers now.
They stopped. One of them, a great hulking barrel of a man, stepped forward and the voice that issued forth was so startling in it's high pitch and feminine melody that Sulu almost laughed...almost.
What stopped him was the pinch he felt on his left arm where Uhura was digging her fingernail into him,'don't you DARE!'.
Somewhere in the back of his mind another startling fact dawned on him. This guy was speaking Standard.
"...we don't have anything of value to trade."
"We don't have much of value either. We have some unusual fabrics, a few bits and bobs, lovely teas, some used replicat-"
"Teas?"
"Oh, yes, beautiful teas, the man we purchased our craft from left a galley full that my friend and I couldn't possibly consume ourselves."
Uhura smiled inside...she knew damned well what tea meant to Russians. They LOVED it! Pavel himself almost never drank coffee, only tea, black, black tea that would have been unbearable if he didn't pour so much sugar into it she was surprised he didn't have to eat it with a spoon...how that kid had trouble keeping weight on she'd never understand.
There was a brief conference among them and the spokesman turned to them again.
He looked at Sulu, "You will wait here." To Uhura he tipped his head, "Madame, we would be honoured if you would attend our celebration."
"We're not splitting-" Sulu blurted.
"It will be my pleasure to attend." They didn't know she couldn't speak Russian too well...but she could sure understand most of it.
She pinched Sulu again - he gave her hand a squeeze - wishing she'd pick a different spot to pinch because that last one almost had him yelping out loud.
Uhura understood some of what had occurred in the huddle - there was nothing sinister in it - just some junior guys hoping to score points with the higher ups with the score of some nice tea for their Czarina.
She also understood what the celebration was, a wedding. She wanted Sulu to know where she was headed and so was happy when tolling bells gave her a cue to ask, "A celebration sounds lovely, we've had a long trip. What is being celebrated today?"
"The wedding of Brother Chernyeshevsky and Sister Galliulin."
"A wedding! How lovely! Gentlemen!" She held out her arm to their leader, he took it gingerly, "I love weddings!"
She did love weddings, she cried, almost everytime. Perhaps it was the price she paid for being the cool level-headed one in almost any crowd.
This was a solemn crowd. In a solemn place. This church was very plain, rough wood pews, plank floors, wood walls.
The only ornamentation were the gold and red velvet thrones dominating the room from the top of the altar. Even the altar was bare of any religious artifacts.
Just a brown room and those two garish thrones.
She heard the doors behind her swung open, she was dying to turn around and look but since nobody else did she sat as they did, staring stonily to the front.
She was aware of someone moving up the aisle toward her and as he approached and passed her she glanced in his direction. 'He's so thin!' she thought. Boy, McCoy was going to be pissed about that.
As he took his place at the front, she thought he looked small and alone and wished there someone there with him.
Then she mentally slapped herself. It wasn't even him!
Damn those beards!
The man raised his hands. The congregation stood. Uhura stood.
The doors behind the altar swung open and the 'Czar' and 'Czarina' stood resplendent.
They could have been Nicholas and Alexandra. They wore brocades and silks and fur, gold and emeralds and diamonds and rubies.
They were completely out of context for their surroundings.
As they stepped grandly forward Uhura studied the 'Czarina'.
She had never met Pavel's cousin, she was a tiny thing with a sweet face and...oh, brother..she was out to here!
Uhura almost groaned aloud.
Somebody did shout a wordless cry from the rear of the church and the congregation turned.
Uhura did the same, there he was, he wasn't so thin as the other guy but he was a lot paler at the moment. Uhura surmised that he'd just gotten his first look at his cousin.
And someone else, his eyes touched hers briefly, she allowed herself not even a tiny smile, just a look of curiosity.
He did the same, much to his credit, considering his nerves must be pulled taught as piano wire right now.
He was shoved playfully by an old woman standing beside him and he made his way down the aisle. As he passed Uhura she was certain she could hear his heart pounding.
Uhura turned front and centre again and watched as he knelt and kissed the feet of Father Grigory. 'Oh, boy, he'll LOVE that!' she thought and watched as he rose and stepped a step to the right, right in front of his cousin who did not know him.
He knelt again, she offered her hand, he held it in his two hands and kissed it, held it...held it...'Let go Pav. Let go Pav!' Uhura thought as the crowd gave each other quizzical glances.
At last he did let go and Uhura let out the breath she'd been holding as he rose and stood to one side of the altar.
'Here comes the bride' Uhura thought and sure enough she did appear, but not from the back of the church.
She appeared from a door left of the altar.
'Poor girl,' Uhura thought, 'She really looks beautiful, look at her. Poor girl.'
Irina took a step forward then stopped. She was looking right at Uhura. She turned toward Uhura, Uhura had only time to think, 'Oh oh.'
Irina pointed. "She's from Enterprise!" she said in Russian. And then in Standard. "You are from Enterprise!"
Shit. Uhura had only seen Irina very briefly when she'd been on the Enterprise, she hadn't even spoken to the goddamned girl who must have had some kind of photographic memory stupid poor idiot girl!
Father Grigory rose. Uhura didn't dare look at Pavel but from the corner of her eye she could see that he was doing a very good job of keeping his face passive, of just following along with the drama unfolding before him.
Well, nothing to lose now, "Oh, my yes! Irina...Irina uh...Gali...Gali...I'm sorry I've forgotten your name, but yes, I remember you. You were with Dr. Sevrin weren't you?"
Irina stepped forward, her voice high pitched, demanding. "Why are you here!" Standard again.
"I'm on leave. Enterprise is docked. I rented a yaght and I'm on vacation."
"Where is Pavel?" this was the Czarina, but in Russian.
"Did you say, Pavel?" Uhura asked meekly, feigning ignorance of the language.
The Czarina nodded and Uhura answered, "He's on the Enterprise. You know Pavel Chekov?"
Oh, brother! Uhura thought, I'm playing this innocent routine as far as it will go! 'Don't move Pavel! Don't say a goddamned word!' she thought fiercely in his direction, willing him to hear her.
The Czarina looked at her cousin, who she was meeting for the first time as Brother Cherneyevsky, on the day of his wedding.
She spoke to him in Russian, "Brother, we are sorry for the interruption of your wedding."
Pavel bowed to his cousin, "Czarina! No apology necessary!"
The Czarina turned to Father Grigory, "My lord, we may deal with these issues AFTER the wedding!"
The Czar, Father Grigory, turned to his Czarina and smiled and Uhura was stunned to the core. He looked on her with adoration, affection, reverence.
He turned to his flock, smiled, it was a beautiful smile, full of good humour, "On with the wedding!"
A collective sigh of relief swept the little room but the bride didn't look the least bit relieved, she looked shaken and upset as she took her place before her betrothed.
She did not look up at him and Pavel knew what she was thinking suddenly and he didn't like himself very much for it. She was thinking of him. She was thinking of him and she was marrying this other man she barely knew. She was thinking of him because she still loved him. He knew that, he knew it from their mutual friends, one of whom had called him a 'goddamned asshole' and said she would love to slap him but it wouldn't make him any less an asshole.
He had screwed up with her. He knew that. He'd tried to fix it. He'd only made it worse. They were impossible together, that's all there was to it.
They were impossible, he and this girl whose hand he was sliding a ring onto...this girl he was kissing for the first time in years...it always felt the same, like the sun rising inside his heart.
