Chapter Three

Questions

Three days passed without incident, and as far as the crew of the Enterprise was concerned, all the remaining days before their 'vacation' could be equally dull. The Enterprise did seem to be a magnet for disaster, but this time things seemed to be going amazingly well. This time they just might make it without a crisis.

Anticipation among the crew had been growing steadily, with every person aboard making his or her solo or group plans. Even the anticipated instructions that those who remained aboard would have to pull twelve hour shifts to cover for their fellows had been met with no undue distress. Everyone knew they would have their turn in paradise, and that was enough to keep spirits high.

When Ensigns Sato and Cutler finished spending the evening together chatting about their plans, they left Liz's quarters feeling, not anticipation, but concern, having decided to look in on their friend. After months of a regular routine broken only by the unusual, a recent change in their routine was noticeable indeed. For the past two days, the third member of their trio had been frequently conspicuous by her absence. They had had dinner together, but Tia had seemed quite reticent, not her usual effusive self, and had left immediately after finishing her meal.

"Not only has she not been seen outside duty hours," Liz was saying as they strolled down the corridors, "but last evening Trip was alone for movie night."

"That is unusual." Hoshi agreed, having passed on the 'traditional' Tuesday film night herself in favor of a private evening in the company of her 'very good friend' Shamus O'Cathain. "What does she say at work?" She asked the biologist.

"Not a thing."

"No?"

"No. And that's what concerns me. She doesn't say anything's wrong, but she's unusually quiet. And she takes a lot of 'breaks'."

"I wasn't aware you punch a clock down in bio."

"Come on, you know better than that. Abrams doesn't mind what we do in our shifts when we're not orbiting or coming from a planet. There's enough to keep us busy just following up on things from weeks ago. We've got more things growing down there than most farms. But a lot of the time she's just … gone."

"Gone?"

"I don't mean gone gone, like she walks out on us. She's got her assignments just like I have mine, and she does them, but lately it's … well, she's just not in there."

"You know, in picking up new languages, you look for patterns, but right now you're becoming a real challenge."

"All right, I'll give you a 'for-instance'. Yesterday she's recording a progress entry in her log, and she records the entire thing in Auran. She knows better, and she is always so meticulous. Ever since she started to try to learn English, she's been very careful. You know that; she's almost obsessively careful. She doesn't want to use the UT for anything. But this time Sarah and I are sitting there watching her and she's making all the entries in Auran, and she doesn't even notice."

"That it pretty odd."

"I put the UT to it later; everything was right. But it's like her attention's a billion light years away. And have you noticed her color? She's been getting … well, more golden each day. I was concerned it was her blood pressure so I ran a check."

"You checked her out?" Hoshi asked, surprised. "What did she say to that?"

"Nothing. I did it behind her back – literally."

"And?" She asked, not commenting on the ethics.

"Nothing. BP is normal for her, though too low for a human; temperature 96.813 Fahrenheit, everything else normal. But the level of gold, minerals, vitamins and enzymes all elevated. But I'm not as concerned about that as I am about her in general. I think something's wrong, and she won't tell me what."

"You asked her?"

"Well, not point blank, but this afternoon I did ask how she was, and she said she was fine. But she used the word 'cusla'." Hoshi stopped; disturbed.

"We've been over this."

"Yes we have." The word referred to 'healthy' rather than 'fine', and had become an issue some weeks ago when used as an evasion by the young woman. They had been 'investigating' what they thought was a problem, and had opened a whole can of worms neither of them had wanted to pursue. They had confronted her, and she had told the truth while evading the spirit of the point.

"Well, I think we're both thinking the same thing. I think its time we came out and asked her."

It had not been a long walk to their friend's quarters, but whatever they had expected to find when they got there, it was not a uniformed Security Officer posted outside the door. "Andrea?" Hoshi asked, concerned as they approached. "What are you doing here?"

"Lieutenant Reed posted me." The woman replied, brushing an unruly lock of blonde hair behind her right ear.

"Why?"

"Well, it's like this. The Commander told the Captain, the Captain told the Lieutenant, the Lieutenant told me … and so I'm telling you." She grinned to take the sting out of her words.

"You've been waiting to say that to someone, haven't you?"

"Yes. Thanks. But seriously, she's not to leave her quarters for ten days other than meals and work."

"But why? I mean, I saw what happened in the Mess Hall, I couldn't believe it; but Trip says there were no charges. Why's she being punished?"

"No, you don't understand. She's not being punished. She requested these specific terms. Seems she's been sleep-walking."

"We know." Liz said. "We're the ones who 'turned her in'."

"Well, she doesn't want to be let out to go back to the gym. She can come out any time she wants, and sometimes we'll chat for a while; it takes some of the boredom out of the tour. But if that door opens and she's asleep, my orders are to put her back to bed, gently but firmly."

"How long has she been in there?"

"About an hour."

"Can we see her?"

"Sure. So long as she's awake she can do whatever she pleases."

Hoshi pressed the signal button at the door, and a few moments later the door slid open, but whatever Hoshi would have said died in her mouth. It had been two days since she'd really looked at Tia, particularly in the diminished light of the ship's evening, and the change in her friend was surprising indeed.

The Auran's body normally had a tint of gold in contrast to the varied pinks of their own skin, and at dinner it had been pronounced; now it was marked. She was a very definite gold, though not as if she had been dipped in the metal. Her body still had a normal range of shading, but that range was intense indeed. It extended from mid-range gold at the extremities to deep suffusing color in the areas where a human would be a deeper pink or red. When she opened her mouth to speak, the depth of coloring was startling.

She was dressed in a short red robe which set a severe counterpoint to her coloring. While Hoshi considered for a moment how to ask what was going on; Liz was typically more direct. "What the hell is happening to you?"

"Luuru."

"Gesundheit." Liz replied. "Now what's going on?"

Tia looked at Hoshi in inevitable confusion, but decided to give up.

"Klusel, please." She stepped aside, admitting them.

-

"All right, hon," Liz began impatiently as the door slid shut, "I really am not in the mood for twenty questions. Something is going on with you, so just tell us what. Leave off the fanfare, just level with us." Tia looked imploringly at Hoshi.

"She means dupris kylrintio makrys di klista." Tia nodded in acquiescence.

"Much in me happening is. Sure to in English say it I am not. But wanted to ovre … to talk … to you about it." She thought carefully, searching for the words while the women waited in barely held patience. "The sleep running you saw, my body's way it was of holding back the luuru. Knew I too soon it was, in my vlasra … my unconscious. Burning off the energy my body was. Now, with the announcement of Risa, change things have. The luuru allow I proceed to can. In fact, barely stop it I can."

"Why did you ask Security to lock you in?"

"Preparing for the Luuru I am. Meditate and rest must I, and my strength conserve." She picked up a container off her desk. "Also this vile concoction must I drink."

"I've noticed that. What is it?"

"Vile. Made it I did, but though good for me it is, of good taste is it not."

Hoshi took and sniffed it, but it had no odor. She looked at Tia questioningly, but the girl did not try to prevent her. She took a tiny sip, gacking and grimacing. "Erg! This is revolting. How do you drink this horrible stuff?"

"In great quantity, as often as it I stand can."

"And you can't make it with any better flavor?" She extended it to Liz, who pushed it away, having no desire to sample it.

"It concentrate is of every nutrient, vitamin, mineral and enzyme my body needs."

"I still think there's room for cherry flavoring."

"Could find no way to compatible make it. Can help me you?" She asked Liz.

"Oh, do it – in the name of common decency." Hoshi urged.

"Sure. But what's it all for?"

Tia searched hard for the words, and for the first time wished she were willing to give in and use the UT, but she had what she recognized and admitted to herself was more stubborn pride. She'd thought all afternoon of how to approach her friends, but she still had not settled on the proper words. She stepped toward her desk, trying to buy an extra second before again facing the women.

"The Luuru the third phase of the Auran life cycle is. Comes it at different times, for everyone the same not, but the stages same for all it is." She leaned against the back of the chair set under her desk, trying to find the right words. "Phases in Auran life there three are." She said carefully. "Atas 'childhood' you say. Then begins at about the tenth year of life the Cealra, which now I am. To you a 'girl' I would be called. Now, Luuru, I a 'woman' will be, that which you are, an adolescent 'girl' no longer but an 'adult'."

"An adolescent girl. How old are you?"

"I nineteen palyis am. On your planet …" She paused, considering, "twenty two 'years'."

"On Earth, that makes you an adult."

She shook her head. "Is same not. Years I have lived may to a status me entitle, and learned I have that humans maturity connected with biology is, but endured the Luuru I have not, so 'girl' I am, 'mature' am I not."

"Then the Luuru is both biological and social, a 'rite of passage'?" Hoshi guessed.

She thought about the interpretation, but then shook her head. "Nyas. A real change it is. My body will mature become. More than just possible to refnali become; that for three palyis could I be. I … I change will." She frowned, struggling to put difficult explanations into a foreign language. "My body will be as it now is not. A girl I longer will be no, but a woman…" She glanced at Liz. "… except I a tail will have."

"What?" The biologist exclaimed, shocked.

"Well, something that did say one of the crew. Describe me once when think I hear not as 'a nice piece of tail'."

"It doesn't … that's not exactly what he meant!"

"It is not?"

"NO!"

"Ok." She picked up a padd from the desk behind her and made a show of deleting an entry. "No tail."

Liz and Hoshi exchanged anxious glances. "Hon, could I see that padd?"

Tia turned over the padd to Liz. It was off, but she turned the screen back on. "'It was the best of times, it was the worst of ti –' You bitch!" Tia giggled as she ducked away from the upraised padd. "You scared me half to death."

"I sorry am, but resist I could nyasi. You so apprehensive looked." She was still giggling.

"You give me such good reason!"

"Apologize I do." But then she loosened her robe, turning away from them to let it fall off her shoulders and halfway down her golden back. She looked over her shoulder at them. "So, what do you of wings think?"

"I think you're going to need them when I kick your saucy butt!"

-

But humorous though the diversion was, Hoshi tried to get things back in order. "You asked for our help. You said you need a favor." The humor in Tia's eyes vanished.

"Daai. A large one." She restored the robe but did not bother to tie it. She caught a meaningful look from Hoshi and tied it firmly, then crossed the small room and sat down on her bunk. "Please sit?" Liz sat down beside her, Hoshi pulling out the desk chair and turning it around. "The Luuru upon me has been for klanstu – 'weeks'. Anston … I mean 'sorry'. Nervous I am. Tied tongue I get." She shrugged helplessly. "But holding it off I was, because ready I was not. Now, with us to Risa going, possible it is. The Luuru on shipboard can be not, know to do it how a planet on only. Privacy must I have, but isolation not." She looked away, blushing, though so deeply golden had her skin become that at first they did not realize except for her reluctance to look at them.

"Know how to explain not. You the first people who are Auran not to learn of this are. Even among ourselves, it wedsa is. It 'private' is." She tried to convey with her tone just how private it was, hoping she could communicate it well enough.

Liz exchanged a glance with Hoshi, and took Tia's hand, and the girl seemed to gather strength from this, at least enough to look at them. Her eyes were still shot through with gold, though both women pointedly did not notice, knowing in time it would fade and the girl was stressed enough as it was. Liz, in fact, kept careful if subtle watch to see how long it would take for the 'bolts of lightning' to fade, considering it a good barometer of her blood pressure.

"All Aurans this endure. Men they … a rite of passage is it. It a long time ago was, a way to himself prove, and think I still it is. A time of trial is, or so I think."

"It's probably more a case of male bonding and getting bombed." Liz said wryly. Tia shrugged.

"May be; I know shall ailu … shall never." For a moment her voice broke as she realized how true this was. Not only because it was as private to men as it was to women, but because she would never again be among her own people.

She tried to push the thought away with sufficient violence, so much so that the mental shove showed clearly in her face. "But among women …" She could not continue, and instead turned to them, her tone imploring. "Liz, Hoshi, so much you have done; so much a part of my life you are. I know … I know you each have plans for your vacation. You Liz spoke of 'climbing mountain', you Hoshi spoke of 'going camping'." She looked down, unable to meet their eyes. "I … I have right no to inter…" Her voice trailed away in embarrassment. She wanted so badly to ask, but now that the time was here she could not bring herself to do so. Hoshi leaned forward, closer to her.

"Tia, what do you want to ask of us?" It took a while for Tia to look up, and when she did her expression was openly pleading.

"For woman, the Luuru is attended by the closest family; mother, mother's mother, sisters, female 'cousins'; women family. It is best done at a body of water, a beach or river. Seen I have images on files of several places on Risa that would do, but have I others to share with me it no." Still holding Liz's hand, she reached out with her other hand to Hoshi's. "Described yourselves often as my 'big sisters'." Her voice took on a deeply pleading tone, as if she were afraid of the answer. "The Luuru is short, hours only. Still leaves it two nights and two days for your plans. As endure I the Luuru, would you …" She took a deep, shuddering breath, trying to fight the apprehension welling up in her. "Would you … please … my sisters be?" She watched her friends apprehensively, but Liz turned to Hoshi with a smile.

"Better pack your bikini. Looks like we're going to the beach."

"Sure does."

"Ealyiis." She exclaimed in monumental relief, feeling almost ready to collapse after the pent up tension was gone.

"Hey, we'd be honored. Did you really think we'd turn you down?"

"Was sure not. Months it has been since your 'R&R', and spoke so longingly you both did of your plans…" Hoshi cut her off.

"Hey, plans can be changed, and a day at the beach is hardly an ordeal. Besides, we're both honored to be asked to participate in something so significant to a friend."

"So, are there any ceremonies or other rites to observe here?" Liz asked.

"Nyas. Only to see that starve to death or drown I do not."