ILuvHawkeye: smirks Illogical being the key word. Is Tuesday morning, 8:20 your time good enough for a fast update? There is more you in this chapter, by the way.
Thank you to my ONE reviewer, ILuvHawkeye. Come on, people, where are you? R&R, please!
Two sets of feet were approaching this time. T'Son's Vulcan memory and hearing combined to tell him that Vokar was one of the people. He could not tell who the other one was, though he had suspicions. Those suspicions turned out to be correct when one of the most feared women in the Romulan Star Empire came into view. And for the first time in what seemed like forever, she was afraid.
"Come with us," Vokar said, lowering the forcefield. Toreth looked like she did not trust herself to speak. T'Son sighed and came up without a word. He supposed it should be an honor that the Chairman of the Tal Shiar wanted to talk to him in someplace more private than the brig, but truth be told, he was nervous too.
Toreth led them to her quarters, Vokar keeping a disruptor pointed at T'Son. Toreth entered and quickly shut the door and put an extra security shutout on it. She looked around the room nervously. This was the room in which she entertained guests who she had a special liking for... almost like friendship. Vokar was by far the most frequent visitor, for often they would take a cup of Rooibos (specially imported from South Africa, Earth) tea and sit on the loveseat and talk about everything from Toreth's latest plan that could shatter worlds to arguing over who the best 3-D chess player was. Now she and Vokar sat there again, but T'Son was in the armchair next to them.
"Toreth," T'Son began, "I do not believe we should began these talks without one more person present. Qwi... Qwi deserves to be in on our reunion. May I...?" He gestured to the monitor on the table in front of them.
"Yes," Toreth said at last. She shoved T'Son out of the way and contacted Qwi herself. She did not trust T'Son. After all, she had been able to change so radically. Why should he not? The not-so-familiar-anymore face filled the small monitor and looked from T'Son to the two Romulans and back. At last, she smiled.
"I told you you would be captured," she told T'Son with a grin.
"Qwi, allow me to reintroduce you to... to Commander Toreth of the Romulan warbird Kaleh, Chairman of the Tal Shiar," T'Son said hesitantly, very uncharacteristic for a Vulcan. But then, T'Son had never seriously bothered to act very Vulcan, not unless he was attempting to be annoying.
"Oh... my... goddess," Qwi breathed, leaning forward and talking a long look at Toreth. "I am so darn psychic. Who is he? Friend? Boyfriend? Husband?"
"This is my first officer, Subcommander Vokar," Toreth said. "He is my best friend, but we are not a couple of any sort."
"Well, then, sorry, T'Son, I thought you were captured," Qwi said cheerfully. "I had not realized you actually did want a 'big, happy reunion.' Thanks for inviting me."
"This is not a 'big, happy reunion,'" Toreth said, eyes narrowing. "Commodore T'Son is a prisoner of the Romulan Tal Shiar for breaking treaties and crossing into what you call the Romulan Neutral Zone. He merely asked to be allowed to contact you, and for the sake of what the three of us once had, I allowed it." T'Son and Qwi both spoke at once.
"For the sake of what we once had? Toreth, are you saying you no longer care about us? You take your job way too seriously."
"I broke the treaty? You are in the Neutral Zone too, or did your Romulan self not notice? I'd rather be in Ferengi hands."
"T'Son, the point is to not get caught. And Qwi, it will have been a decade since my leaving in two months. Do you honestly think that I would bother to remember two Federation people I thought I would never see again. I am not even in love with Spock anymore!" Qwi and T'Son both gasped. Toreth's love for Spock was legendary among the Trekkie Trio. She had done everything, from speaking of him as her one true love and future husband to making out with pictures of him printed off the internet. She might as well have suddenly sprouted tentacles out of her head (which in this future world was actually not all that farfetched).
"Who are you in love with now then?" Qwi asked.
"No one, actually," Toreth responded. "The Chairman of the Tal Shiar really does not have time for things like relationships. But enough about me. What about you two?"
"We already know everything about each other," Qwi complained. "You already know everything about the Federation. Tell us what being the center of the Romulan universe is like."
"Actually," Vokar cut in, "she is one of about four "centers of the Romulan universe. And to know everything about each other, you would have to be married." Toreth grinned at Vokar and then at the expressions on the faces of T'Son and Qwi.
"Never," Qwi breathed. "The closest I have ever come was dating that one guy at the Academy named Daniel Derek Crown!"
"If any two members of the Trekkie Trio were to date, it would probably be Toreth and I, as Qwi and I have a hate/hate relationship," T'Son said.
"That was once upon a decade gone by, T'Son," Toreth said severely.
"Well at least one thing about you has not changed. You still speak in weird, flowery, poetic language," Qwi said.
"Actually, that is truer than you might realize," Vokar said. "She learned to write Romulan out of a very... graphic... love poem-" He was cut off as Toreth shot her hand out and half choked him.
"I was a sixteen-year-old girl, full of romantic notions that love might actually someday be a part of my life," she hissed. "I suppose next you are going to tell them that I like Britney Spears' music!"
"You do?" T'Son and Qwi asked together. They glared at each other, annoyed by their unwitting alliance.
"I always say the wrong thing while socializing," Toreth groaned, releasing Vokar and burying her faced in her hands.
"I cannot believe I let T'Son contact Qwi!" a furious Chairman cried as she paced. Somewhere on the other side of the warbird, a vase shattered. "Now I have to divert from Romulus and capture Qwi as well! She was all but asking to be captured and to see my warbird. Why do they have to come back into my life just when it is perfect!?"
"Toreth, I admit that this is an inconvenience-" Vokar began, but he could not say more before Toreth started ranting again. Vokar sighed. He truly loved his friend, but sometimes it was hard being the only one she could confide in. She had once vaguely mentioned some "honorary uncle" person she used to e-mail with problems when she was in the twenty-first century, and Vokar wished he were here right now. At last, exasperated, he took her by the arm as she went and stopped her restless moving.
"Toreth, you owe nothing to these people anymore. You left all sense of Federation obligation behind when you came to Romulus. Why get so worked up about a misplaced sense of loyalty?"
"Because, Vokar, I am not sure that it is misplaced. One of T'Son's greatest talents, perhaps the greatest, is turning me completely inside out emotionally, or at least it was when I was younger. I feel like I owe them something for running away and leaving them behind."
"You do not. When we get back to Romulus, you will see. You will be surrounded by Romulans, all of whom you said are much better than humans, and you will wonder how you ever thought to like this two. Besides, weren't you planning on a skiing trip in a few weeks?" At last, Toreth smiled. Vokar was right, of course.
"No, Vokar, we were planning a skiing trip in a few weeks. Now, if you will excuse me, I need to get some sleep. Unfortunately, even as a Romulan, I need sleep in order to think clearly. Good night."
"Good night," Vokar said, wondering why she bothered to use the Earth expression still. She was excellent at concealing the fact that she had once been human, but if you knew it, blatant signs like that one jumped out. He left for his own quarters, wondering what exactly that bond between who she once was and who T'Son was meant.
T'Son himself was sitting in his brig and wishing the ship's counselor was there. Even Logan or Gail, who were not counselors, would be good just to talk to. Unfortunately, Toreth had made sure that had got a cell to himself. What an honor. Toreth had given him a few padds with novels on them, but they were all in Toreth's tastes. He suspected the one labeled 2004 Ways to Break out of a Romulan Brig was merely a joke and Toreth had made sure none of those ways were possible.
The main thing he wondered was why in the name of Mount Seleya he had invited Qwi to be part of their discussion. He had thought there was absolutely no more possibility for friendship there whatsoever. Worse, maybe he just did not want to be the only Federation member talking to two Romulans, one of whom he knew tending to get furious very easily. Toreth might have had a point when she said friendship was more trouble than it was worth.
He rolled over and decided to try to get some sleep. What else could he do? At least this was better than, say, remaining in the twenty-first century, having Toreth move to Kansas, Qwi all but move to the moon as it was inaccessible and so was the high school at their old school, and having First Contact not come because their timeline was polluted by a television show.