Chapter Two
Healing
Hoshi and Elizabeth reached out, each taking one of her hands as Tia fought for control. She would not give in to the emotion. She would not! She was in public, and she would not give in! She was among humans, not Aurans, and she would certainly not give in! "When kilyes … when ran we did, knew what lis – leaving behind we were." Her words were strangled to strained whispers. "Knew it I did. Let myself … about it think would not!"
Cutler's hand closed more firmly about hers. "Oh, Tia, I am so sorry."
"About another thing talk! Qualsia! Please! Cry can not! Cry must not! Qualsia! Please!"
"Are you ready for your shift in Life Sciences? Abrams can be demanding."
Tia gasped. "Ready I am!" she said, relieved.
"Good, because we'll be making planetfall in two days, and there'll be a lot of work to do then. We're going to have to set up collecting and cataloging samples at the beginning, and analysis of dozens of things. We'll be starting with spores and taking them through cultures, hopefully to explore their entire life cycle. Have you had much experience with that?"
"Yes; much. Is hard not, to study … to study …" she had to think for a moment about the words, "single celled orgasms."
x
Hoshi and Liz exchanged a look, both trying to keep their faces still. "I think," Elizabeth said very carefully, "you mean 'organisms'."
"Orgasms are … something else," Hoshi explained, trying not to let anything show in her tone.
"They sure are!" Cutler commented with a lascivious smile.
"Single not?"
"Well …" Liz said thoughtfully. "You can have them singly, paired, I've even seen clustered."
Hoshi shot her a fiery look. "The words are similar, but not alike." She tried to keep her voice less tight then she felt, trying her best to keep on track despite her friend's antics. "Remember I told you about English having similar words, including synonyms, homonyms …" Hoshi gave up. "Just trust me."
"Daai. Then 'orgasms' are single celled not."
"Well, under some circumstances, I suppose you can have them in a cell."
"Liz, you're not helping!"
x
Tia watched the exchange between the two women, feeling no less mystified, and finally she gave up. She supposed she would understand in time, but not this morning. "But … the laboratory, the methods you use, I may have…"
"I thought of that." Hoshi said as she took out a Padd and handed it to Tia. "It wasn't easy, but I think this should help." She turned it on, and on the screen a series of words started to flow across the screen. "This is hooked into the UT. Activate the speaker up on the monitor in the lab, Liz will show you how, and this will translate what is on the screen into Auran text, as it's doing now to my words."
Tia started to smile and tried to stifle a laugh.
"It will help you to get acclimated to reading English and …" As the text continued to flow Tia tried harder to stifle quiet giggles. "What's so funny?" When the screen dutifully translated this, and also her own laughter, into Auran text, Tia dissolved in peals of tinkling high laughter "Sheesh, do someone a favor…." When Tia read this translation, all hope of control was lost. She lost her composure, laughing so hysterically that Elizabeth and Hoshi barely managed to keep her from tumbling onto the floor.
Hoshi turned off the infernal device, but it was a long time before Tia could stop laughing long enough to recover even an illusion of composure. "Thank you!" she gasped, and threw her arms about Hoshi, hugging her. "Thank you, thank you, thank you! I in klanstu … in weeks laughed so much have not!"
"Glad to help." Hoshi said, trying not to sound miffed.
"I think it's your spelling," Cutler suggested.
"That spelling was?" Tia asked mirthfully.
xxx
After breakfast, Tia accompanied Elizabeth to the Life Sciences department, specifically to the Bio lab, where she took her place in the midst of a venue that seemed equally familiar and strange. It was familiar in that every bio lab had to follow certain standards, and research into new and unusual specimens was not all that different in concept. It was strange because of the manner of the people she encountered, and because she could not read a single written word.
It made her even sorrier that she had laughed.
x
But everything was a wonder. At Hoshi and Elizabeth's insistence, as well as the Captain's strong suggestion yesterday, she had activated the UT. Otherwise, she would have been incapable of keeping up or making any sense of the things around her. While it was still disconcerting to hear those she spoke to conversing with her in not-quiet-fluent-yet Auran – especially when their lips failed to move with their words – it was better than trying to figure out what was being said.
In particular, she had to admit that her confidence in herself had been sadly misplaced, or at least exaggerated. As sure as she had been that her training would carry her through; things here were simply too different. Everything about what she saw was strange, and though it all filled her with a sense of wonder, by the time she was alone in the room with Elizabeth Cutler at the end of her shift, she had to admit in English: "Ready I am not. Too rilys, um, different this is." It was 1600 hours, and the past day felt like a vast jumble.
"Give it time. I'm sure you'll manage. This is just your first day, after all."
"I … More than 'fitting in' it is. Here all are 'Starfleet'. Is civilian not. Where 'fit in' do I?"
Elizabeth extended her hand. Tia looked at it, not sure what the other meant, any more than she had been by the gesture of the man in the Mess Hall. Sensing her confusion, Elizabeth grasped her hand firmly. "With me."
Their eyes met, and Tia finally felt she understood.
xxx
They walked together in the ship's evening, having no particular destination, simply walking and talking. Tia could not keep her mind on any one conversation, UT or no, there were simply too many things to see. Every turn, every sight was a wonder. She had spent the last day studying English with Hoshi, and the day before that she was so taken by the wonder of the people around her that it was all a jumble. But now, with a guide to interpret what she was seeing, things were starting to make sense. She had turned off the UT, determined that she would do her best to learn this confusing language, no matter how hard.
"What this is?" she asked as they came to an alcove. It was little more than a depression in the wall, a small chamber fronted by a free standing control console.
"That's called a 'transporter'."
"What does it?"
"You put something in there, and it is converted into energy – don't ask me how, I'm not a technician – but the energy can be directed to another place and whatever was inside the chamber is recreated."
"Recreated?"
"Put back the way it was."
"Exactly as was it?"
Elizabeth shrugged. "So far as I know. I've never heard of any differences." She watched the way Tia was staring at the chamber. There seemed to be a … longing in the girl's eyes she could not understand. "What are you thinking?"
"I know not," she confessed. Then she turned from the device to Cutler. "Glisnaq Phlox me said to that to remove from my body the scars he could. I wonder; would be what he use this?"
"I doubt it," she said. This was the first she had heard of any scars. "Why don't you ask what he had in mind?" She suspected the Imaging Chamber would be of more use for any extensive 'reconstruction work'.
Tia was suddenly excited. To remove the scars of a lifetime of slavery, to be whole and unmarked? "See him may we?"
"Of course."
xxx
When the two women entered the Sick Bay, Phlox was just finishing placing a piece of meat into a small jar half filled with sand. Suddenly, the sand seemed to explode into a fury, and when it settled the meat was gone. He recovered the jar and turned to his visitors with an air of satisfaction. "Welcome. I was just finishing feeding my pets."
Tia stared at the now quiescent container, vastly surprised.
"Are you sure he's had enough?" Cutler asked, eyeing the jar with a measure of apprehension.
"Not to worry. He doesn't care for live meat." He put the plate he had been holding aside. "So, what can I do for you?"
x
Tia was staring fixedly at the Doctor, but she couldn't speak. She was still excited, but now it was fading under a flood of apprehension. It was wrong, coming to him. She should not be thinking of this, but couldn't help it. She wanted to be free of these marks of suffering and slavery, but to ask…. She couldn't. It was wrong. It was…. She started to back away from the man, but Liz grabbed her wrist, restraining her.
"She wants to know if you can do anything about the scars," Elizabeth volunteered when the silence had dragged on interminably. Tia stared at Elizabeth, shocked at the woman's audacity. How could she take it on herself to –?
"Of course," Phlox said expansively, coming over to her. "I was wondering when you were going to drop in."
"You – you can … them remove?" she asked, stunned despite herself. She wanted this so badly that she could not imagine it happening.
"Unless you want to keep them," he said with a smile.
"Nyas!" she exclaimed, but then recovered. "No. I mean, I do not. I them want gone to be."
Phlox took her arm, steering her toward a diagnostic bed. "Well then, shall we get started?"
"Now?"
"Unless you have something more pressing?"
Tia stared at him in confusion. "Pressing?"
"No, Doctor, there's nothing pressing," Elizabeth cut in smoothly. "Now would be perfect."
xxx
Elizabeth waited in a chair as Tia, after a brief examination, lay down on the platform of what Phlox referred to as an 'Imaging Chamber', but which she had always known was considerably more. She knew that within it he would do all for Tia that needed to be done. She had not seen the extensive wounds and scars that marked the Auran's body, but suspected they were considerable.
Tia was nervous, but the Doctor assured her there would be no pain. She could even relax enough to go to sleep if she wanted. She would be in there for about a half hour, and whether awake or not would make no difference. Neither scientist suspected Tia would take advantage of the offer of a nap.
He pressed a button and the platform slid into the chamber, which sealed itself. The Denobulan turned to Elizabeth with a smile. "How is she getting on?"
"Can she hear us?" Elizabeth asked cautiously.
"Oh, no. The chamber is completely soundproofed. I find it helps in keeping my patients quiescent if they don't hear a lot of the things that go on out here. Things like red alerts, for example." Elizabeth shook her head ruefully. Only a Doctor would have that sense of priority.
"She's … coming along. Her command of English is staggering, when you consider she first heard it four days ago. But when it comes to dealing with humans… I sometimes have to think back to my first days aboard Enterprise, how different everything was, how strange. Hoshi had asked me to kind of be her best friend, but it's hardly a chore. She's pleasant to be around – and sometimes she's so enthusiastic I have to restrain her, but she's … fun … to be around. Reminds me of myself the first day I came aboard.
"But even so, I'm still not sure I'm the best one to empathize. I can help with humans, but I didn't exactly grow up in the cornfields of Iowa." She looked up at Phlox speculatively. "Perhaps you're a better one to relate to her."
"I didn't grow up in the cornfields of Iowa either," he said with a disarming if impressively wide smile.
"No, but you know what it's like to be the only one of your kind among aliens."
"I'm sure you'll do fine."
xxx
Tia stared in disbelief at her reflection, staggered by the change. Her blue blouse raised to just below the level of her pringlee … of her 'breasts', remembering what Hoshi had told her, but held high in the back, she looked over her shoulder at the mirror. "See them I can not!" She was unable to tear her eyes from the smooth expanse of golden flesh. "Hidden they are not; tell I could!"
"No, they're gone," Phlox assured her. Tia dropped the blouse, which draped itself about her. She pulled at the collar, enough to see clearly down the gap, gasping in profound delight mingled with astonishment.
"Dirlyantu!" she exclaimed. When Elizabeth repeated it as a question, Tia looked up, her face bright with delight. "Perfect!"
Elizabeth smiled, recognizing Tia's feeling. There may be, as she had learned from Hoshi, the fact that Aurans held no particular part of the body as more significant than any other, but there was still a pride common to females of every race.
Tia let go of the blouse and was about to grasp the hem of her skirt, to check further, but the prohibitions Hoshi had stressed had her hesitate in front of Phlox and Elizabeth. Settling for running her hands up her legs, the expression of astonishment on her face at the smooth skin that met her touch was sufficiently telling to the pair. But when her hand traced all the way, and the expression of mounting apprehension was replaced with relief and joy, Elizabeth could not school her face into impassivity, something Tia noticed right away.
"They were especially thorough there," Tia told her, removing her hand from under the skirt, "knowing how sensitive a woman is."
Elizabeth felt the blood drain from her face, and she could not restrain her own outrage! When the fiery string of expletives wore down about thirty seconds later, she saw Tia was staring at her, astonished and completely baffled.
"Don't bother!" Liz exclaimed. "Even for snakes; it's physically impossible!"