Chapter Five
Home and Lost
When Tia Anlor touched the activation button on the temporal device strapped to her wrist, her quarters on Enterprise vanished from around her and she stared in shocked disbelief at that which replaced the small room. She stood on a white gravel walkway which followed a meandering path that emphasized a vast garden on either side of her. One could not reach either the street behind her or the tremendous building before her without giving considerable attention to a wide variety of flowers and blossoming trees.
She was absolutely astonished to recognize that the huge structure constructed of white stone that gleamed in the afternoon sun was the Pryndonitan, the administrative building that was the residence and offices of the Principal Relatu in the city of Zaslani, over eight hundred valyris from her own home city of Pastuu.
This was the Administrative Center for the Losban Nation. This was the place where the first delegation of Silurians had met over sixty palyis ago with the head of her nation; the place where the 'Treaty of Friendship' had been negotiated and signed; the place where everything had gone wrong.
Tia realized almost immediately that she could think clearly again. Whatever influence that unnamed man had had on her mind was gone now that she was no longer in his presence. Of course, she was now in the past, or seemed to be, and so it did not matter how much influence he exerted upon her. That was over; she was here.
Amazed, not having believed that the device on her wrist could have taken her anywhere, she looked about, careful of any trickery. She turned now, looking behind her. She stood on a path cutting a series of gentle curves through a large garden stretching from the street to the Pryndonitan, and from one end of the vast, street-wide structure to the other. About her, the familiar blue-green grass had been freshly mown, its honey-like scent filling the air, and varieties of flowers she had not seen in nearly a year; had despaired of ever seeing again; fluttered in the gentle breeze, their colors shaming the spectrum itself.
There are many people walking on the street before her, going about their business. They were dressed casually, with utter disregard for fashions or 'requirements' of dress, as these things did not exist on Aura. Many of the women wore the long, flowing fashions, or the shorter ones she especially favored.
She had longed for some of the floral styles again, especially those made of klinzt, which earthly 'silk' could not approach for luxurious softness; to feel their freedom on her body. Looking down at her own clothing of Risan 'silk', she felt vastly 'underdressed', a concept Liz had introduced her to; which before this moment had been incomprehensibly silly, but now suddenly meant something. At the first opportunity, she would dispense with this Risan garment, attractive as it was, in favor of a proper vuslin, or perhaps a mulrynwaq. Perhaps she would go beyond her limits, and treat herself to an elegant liyentuin.
But then reality brought her up short. She could 'treat' herself to nothing. She did not even have a dulapol to her name, not even a maspol. She grinned at the irony of the situation; she'd taken no money with her in her mad dash to the Krontis, and on Enterprise she had no use for it at all. Now that she was home, she literally had nothing but the Risan gown she wore – and that had been bought by Hoshi and Liz.
But then this momentary lapse into nostalgia was pushed away by yet another realization. Not one person in sight had pink, brown or green skin.
They were Aurans all, as she was.
And unlike this morning, this was not a dream.
She was Home!
x
Reality set in after a long, stunned delay as she came to understand that she was home, and the emotional impact struck her. 'Refugee', a human word, she had come to accept that she would never again see her home, and suddenly she was standing upon it, on a planet she had believed she would never set foot upon again. She had come to accept her life on Enterprise because it was the only one there was for her, and she loved its myriad and distinct joys. Now she was home.
She was thrilled, ecstatic; there was no word in Auran or English for how she felt. She felt her heart would burst in her chest for joy which simply could not be contained. She wanted to scream, to shriek for joy! Only her realization that she could not explain her outburst held it in.
Looking up into the daytime sky, she saw in the violet heavens the tremendous red gas giant Sabaoth, which took up a huge arc of the sky, its wide-flung rings displaying every color of the visible spectrum in wonderful disregard for regularity other than its own. It was vastly distant, over two and a quarter million valyris; but it and Aura circled one another in stable binary orbit about the far more distant white star Ealus. So much larger was the ringed gas giant that in the daytime its reflected light bathed Aura with its ruddy glow, enough to cast its own shadows on the brightest of days. The daytime sky was blue when Sabaoth was not fully visible above the horizon; and when seen in the night sky the true blackness of space was unknown. The planets' elliptical orbits were such that sometimes the tremendous rings were seen from above, sometimes from below, sometimes almost invisible if seen edge on, always presenting different aspects as its colors changed hue and intensity.
It had always seemed ironic to her that that world represented 'Lord Sabaoth the Unchanging'; since change was its most prominent feature.
She had missed Sabaoth's comforting presence as much as she had Aura itself.
She started to laugh, as quietly as she could. The joy simply could not be contained. She thought she would explode in ecstasy!
She became aware that her cheeks were wet, and she raised a hand to her face, surprised, touching the trail of tears. She realized her joy was so intense her body was 'shorting out', as Charles would say. She did not care.
Suddenly she was aware of a presence behind her. She turned, looking up at a tall golden man who had obviously exited the Pryndonitan. She had been blocking his way on the narrow winding path. She was about to turn away, to quickly rub the tears from her face, but she remembered in time that this care was a symptom of the Occupation, one she was there to destroy forever. "::Beautiful Sabaoth today is.::" He said, having noted her upward gaze. He spoke to her with a distinct Juliksu accent. She had thought she would never hear it again.
"::Beautiful.::" Tia tried to say, but her voice cracked and suddenly she could not stop the tears. She did not even realize how it happened that she was pressed to this tall stranger, her face buried into his chest as she began to weep.
The man, whose name she did not even know, put his arms about Tia and held her as she pressed her face to his chest, sobbing. Her emotions, strained by all that had happened that morning on Enterprise, then overloaded by the realization that, impossible though it was, she was home, had shattered completely, and no matter how hard she tried she could not contain them. After nearly an Auran year, in which she believed she would never see her world again, she was no longer a 'refugee', no longer stranded and lost in space. She was no longer anything bad. She was Home!
The violence of her emotion surprised even her as she wailed, her heart breaking as she wept, her entire body wracked with the overpowering emotions as she stood in the arms of a perfect stranger and cried nearly a year's worth of tears she could not hold.
"::Why cry you do, when you happy are?::" He asked as he patted her back. It felt so good that she did not have to tell him she was happy, but a part of her mind; one conditioned by training in the Muutuur; an 'underground' that did not yet exist; urged caution.
"::It because is happy I am that cry I do.::" She answered truthfully when, a long time later, she could speak. She looked up into his golden eyes. "::Thought to see I this place again would never. Gone I a long time was.::"
"::Where were you?::" She was about to shrug, but stopped herself. Bad habits had to be watched out for.
"::I know not.::" She admitted, but then turned and walked away as quickly as she could, having no idea where she would go; just away. She knew it was shockingly rude, in Auran and even human manners, but he was about to start asking questions she could not answer.
xxxxx
T'Pol's announcement hung in the air, none of those present knowing exactly how they should feel about it. The image on the screen, though of an extremely attractive young woman, was still that of a stranger. Each of the crew was, to some degree, vaguely sorry she was dead, but there was no emotional content to it.
As they came to more fully appreciate that this was – somehow – Trip's wife, they felt a touch of sympathy for their friend; but he knew her no more or better than anyone else.
She looked like a nice, apparently physiologically unique, young woman. She'd tried in some way to change the history of her planet, and she and the rest of her people were dead. They tried not to draw any conclusions beyond that.
Jonathan Archer, knowing his friend as he did, was not astonished to hear that the man had fallen for a non-human. He'd done it before. Indeed, looking at the image on the screen, he had to admit that he respected Tucker's taste; but beyond that…
Beyond that, there was a Temporal Agent on his bridge; one he had, admittedly, grown to trust - to a point - but who was now telling a tale of gloom and doom that seemed to focus on Trip Tucker's 'wife'.
'When will the universe stop driving me mad?' He thought imploringly. "All right. Are you telling us that this woman is some focal point in time?"
"No, Captain, not at all. Of herself she is no more significant to the Time Line than is your Chef. However, in a closed community like this one is, the presence or absence of 1/85th of your total number of crewmen has an exaggerated effect upon the chain of circumstances. She had no effect, for instance, on your course on any occasion other than the day you found her, when Enterprise diverted from its original heading when you responded to sensor readings of a derelict ship.
"But where personal influence of one out of eighty-five is greater than that of one in five million, in the case of several of you, the personal influence was quite marked."
"I'll say so," Trip agreed feelingly, "if I was going to marry this woman!"
"So." Archer said sharply, trying to regain the course of the conversation. "Beyond the changes to Beta Aragon III, Caldis III, Eminiar VII and VIII and Aura, what aren't you telling us?"
"I'm sorry, Captain?"
"You want us to stop whatever happened to Aura and two other planets, get treaties with another two, and presumably return Trip's wife to him -."
"Cap'n!" Tucker exclaimed, unable to keep the distress out of his voice. He had been trying to divide his attention between the important conversation and the stunningly compelling information on the Padd.
"Sorry, Trip." He'd forgotten just how particularly shaken his friend had to be. He returned his attention to Daniels. "Those are laudable intentions. Certainly saving the populations of three planets, to say nothing of the rest, is something everyone on this ship would get behind. But what's the down side?"
"The 'down side' is that much of what you recall of the past eight and a half months will either happen very differently or not happen at all, and different events will be substituted in their places. Some things will not change at all, others will change a little and some will be completely different."
"What things? And how?"
Daniels held out another padd. "This, from the Protected Archives, contains the Logs of the Enterprise for the past nine months. You'll want to study them and compare them with your own memories and logs." Archer took the padd, stepped over to the Science Station and handed it to T'Pol.
"Download this for access by all Senior Staff."
"Yes, sir."
"The padd I gave Commander Tucker contains extensive personal information." He did not have to elaborate. It would contain all that was available on Trip's many months with the woman who was to become his wife. "You'll need all this to make your decision."
"I won't guarantee I come to the decision you hope for."
"I know. I'll return when the decision has been made."
"How will you know that?" Daniels gave him a curious half-smile.
"I'll know."
xxxxx
Tia went far enough to the corner to be sure that the man who had sought to comfort her was gone; then doubled back. Much as she wanted to spend the day, the week, the month, looking about this capital city; much as she wanted to find some way to travel 800 valyris to her home in Pastuu – even knowing it would not be built for nearly thirty palyis – she knew she had a duty to perform. This was why she was here, and she had absolutely no idea how long she had.
That she was here before the Silurians she was sure. Whether her mysterious benefactor had allotted her ten days, ten hours or ten minutes she had no clue. Best, she decided, not to waste any of them.
Returning to the front of the building, trying as best she could to refrain from hugging everyone she passed along the way, a human gesture she could barely resist, she stood on the sidewalk across the wide garden from the massive white structure. The Pryndonitan took up the whole square, set inside the garden which surrounded it. Images from Enterprise of places like the 'Buckingham' palace in England only approached this white marble structure for grandeur. It was almost a thousand palyis old, and so preserved it should stand another thousand in its magnificence.
The marble was the rarest stone on Aura. A millennium ago this building contained virtually all there was on the continent. It had represented the height of splendor. It is true that, since then, more of the rare stone had been found and used in other public structures scattered over the world, but for sheer impressiveness nothing could approach this building.
It was modestly decorated and accented in gold, which also shone dazzlingly in the bright sunlight. Soon it would be stripped of the almost worthless metal by the avaricious Silurians, who actually damaged the precious stone in their efforts to gather their prize. Even today she could still not imagine what value other races put in it; that they could be willing to kill or die for a useless metal which was so soft it had to be combined with other metals just to give it some strength.
But for today she considered herself lucky to see the Pryndonitan in its original grandeur, as it had been meant to be seen, almost blinding to the eye with its precious marble and even its golden highlighting.
She started across the winding white gravel, her attention as much on the multitude of flowering plants which were the intended focus of this meandering path to the administrative building. For a moment she reflected on the residence and administrative center of her own city, which was completely devoid of any marble at all save for the traditional keystone of the arch over the door, but was also surrounded by a sea of Aura's natural beauty, an attempt to remind all of what was important in their lives. That one white keystone in the arch symbolized that building's connection with this massive central structure; but for the moment even the nostalgic thought of her home city's center could not detract from the impressiveness of this moment as she approached, by several stages, her destination.
As she reached the doors, looking up at the top of the tremendous carved structure, she felt infinitesimal indeed. It rose to at least three hundred val tall, with ornately carved towers that stretched to touch the violet sky. Pulling open the door, she stepped into the main public room, and went from infinitesimal to only tiny.
The room was so large it dwarfed anything within Enterprise, or any other room she had ever seen. It was literally the largest interior space that she had ever stood in, and the scale was daunting indeed. Her mind strove to take in the limits of the tremendous white chamber. The distant walls about her were carved as no Earth Cathedral ever approached, tastefully highlighted in common gold. The untarnishable metal was used for its effect, but did not diminish the grandeur at all.
The reception area was enclosed in a low, waist high wall, and was about a hundred square val, about thirty human 'feet' to a side; tiny compared to the offices and work areas that surrounded it and not crowded at all. Bracing herself, trying not to look like she was as nervous as she felt, Tia strode up to the main desk. The woman seated behind it looked up at her. "::May I you help?::"
"::Speak I the Relatu need to. Urgent news I him bring.::"
The woman turned to her computer. "::What your name is?::"
"::T-.::" Tia bit it back sharply. "::Misala Anlor of Pastuu.::" She lied, giving her father's mother's name and praying she had the dates right. Her grandmother should be near her age now, maybe slightly older – she hoped! Her heart crept upward into her throat as the receptionist consulted the records, deciding the person named was an adult and thus was entitled to make the request.
The woman activated the intercom at her desk and began a cryptic series of terse statements with someone Tia could not hear, finally looking up. "::You the Relatu may for twenty piwu see.::"
Tia felt her heart slowly lower itself back to its wonted place. "Ealyiis." She said gratefully, heading to the indicated door at the rear of the room. She knew it would be quite a walk to actually reach the presence of the man she'd come so many miles and years to see, but it would be worth it. She was sure that what she had to say would make it the most interesting eighteen minutes of the man's life.