Krennla District, First City, Qo'noS
Early Morning, Trial day 5.
Morning came far too soon for Marla's liking. She had not slept well and when she did finally sleep, she had dreamed of Kay'vin, reliving the glorious days of their courtship and that night, that wonderful, passionate first night they had spent together. She'd had little sleep that night either, although for much more pleasurable reasons. It had been fortunate, she remembered with a smile, that thanks to its location on a busy throughfare, the hotel had seen fit to soundproof its rooms for the comfort of their guests.
Their trip to the Corte Ingles the previous afternoon had been productive. The department store was huge and sold pretty much everything. Marla had come away not just with an entire new wardrobe of clothes but several books from their English language section. Her skill in reading that language was not great, although she was improving with practice but these particular books were very much based on illustrations that required very little interpretation. She hadn't let Kay'vin see the titles she had chosen, keeping them carefully hidden until they were safely back in their hotel room.
When he did finally get a glimpse of their content, he'd turned an interesting shade of red. "Um… Marla? The Joy of…" He choked and put the book down quickly. It was not that he was ignorant of sex or even particularly shy about it; life in the Defence Force did not allow for that. Marla was not his first woman, not by any means, but she was the first, and only one, that he wanted to marry. Making her his wife might be an impossible dream but he would not dishonour her.
Approaching him, she settled herself next to him on the sofa, noting with mild amusement and not even the slightest trace of embarrassment, that her already short, very tight skirt, had ridden up to her thighs showing off a scandalous amount of bare leg. If things went according to plan, she would very shortly be showing him a lot more than just her legs. Her hand slid across to his and drew it back towards her, placing it on her thigh. To her disappointment, he froze and quickly pulled his hand back again.
Marla hesitated, wondering what was wrong. She had not expected it to be so hard to seduce him. In the short time they had been a couple, he had been full of fun and mischief, teasing and tormenting her and generally driving her mad, exasperating her to the point where she could almost have killed him but somehow, had ended up laughing instead. Now though, just as she'd thought they were both ready to take their relationship further, he'd suddenly become straightlaced and serious. Had she offended him somehow?
"It's just a little fun," she said lightly, trying hard not to sound defensive. "You know the old saying, 'what happens in the Defence Force, stays in the Defence Force' – or in this case, our hotel room."
He growled, annoyed at her flippancy. She constantly complained that he did not take life seriously and now that he was, she treated it like a joke. "It is not funny!" he snapped. "Do you not understand, Marla? I dread the end of this. I do not want tomorrow to come, nor the day after. I just want this… to last the rest of my life."
She gave him a quizzical look, not quite understanding. "You're telling me that you're sad about our holiday ending when it's barely begun?
Getting up, he moved across to the window, staring blindly at the bright lights and the traffic of the Gran Via. Put like that, it sounded so silly. "Yes," he said resolutely. "I find that I do not want two days with you, or even three. I want you for my mate. I want forever, even though I cannot have it and I will not disrespect you with less."
She followed him to the window, standing by his side and taking his hand, entwining her fingers with his. "You will have it," she promised him. No longer teasing him, she had never been more serious about anything in her life. "One way or another, Kay'vin-oy, we will have our forever."
He was very still for a moment as he thought about that. She'd said it so matter-of-factly that he could not help but believe her. A low growl erupting from his throat, he turned and lifted her into his arms. "Forever," he agreed, and swiftly crossing the room, he threw her down on the bed and joined her there.
USS Endeavour
Early Morning, Trial day 5.
As had become their habit over the last few days, Chrissie and the children were having breakfast with Mackenzie and Kehlan. It was still very early, ship's time, and the group pretty much had the whole of Ten Forward to themselves, allowing them both privacy and the luxury of a table with a spectacular view of the orbital facilities above the First City.
Toni finished the last of the sausage and bacon on his plate and reached for a slice of toast to mop up the remnants of his meal. "I'll be spending today with Commander Ahmed," the teenager informed his mother with obvious pride, "and…"
"Mama," Kally complained, interrupting her older brother mid-sentence. "Kara's playing games under the table!"
"Kara, put your padd away," Chrissie admonished her daughter. "How many times do I have to remind you, no computer games while you are eating?"
Flashing a venomous look at Kally, Kara did as she was told. Waiting until she thought her mother was no longer looking at her, she elbowed the younger girl. "Tell-tale!"
"OW!" Kally yelled, elbowing her sister back. "Stop it!"
"Girls," Mackenzie's voice sounded calm but it cut through the bickering, causing both girls to stop and pay attention. "You know the rules about shipboard behaviour. If you would prefer to be confined to your quarters, by all means carry on."
As both of them apologised, admittedly with slightly sulky tones, Chrissie gave Endeavour's captain a grateful look. Her girls were not normally this badly behaved, rather they were missing their father and reacting to the tension in the adults around them. Even so, she was struggling to cope with their naughtiness.
Acknowledging her gratitude with a reassuring smile, he brought the conversation back to where it had been before the interruption. "You were saying, Antonio? Please continue."
Toni finished his toast before speaking. "Oh, I was just saying I'll be with Commander Ahmed. He's been teaching me loads and he's promised to go through some of the bridge command training programme with me."
"That will stand you in good stead if you do decide to apply to the academy," Mackenzie said, making a mental note to have a quick chat with the commander to make sure that any training modules they accessed were age appropriate.
"What about you, Fina," her mother asked, turning her attention to the oldest of her girls. "You're very quiet. What will you be doing today?"
"Me?" Fina had been on her best behaviour during breakfast, determined to do nothing that might get her into trouble and curtail her privileges. She missed her father as much as the little ones did but she was having the time of her life on board the Endeavour and the more time she spent there, the more she was certain that she wanted to be an engineer when she was old enough. And she would do it, despite that horrid teacher back on Frontera telling her that she should choose something more gender appropriate and that she was too young to know what she wanted anyway! So what if she was a girl? Even back in the twentieth century, girls had been able to study physics. It just wasn't fair and Vavvie would have gone nuts at the teacher if he'd known about it. She didn't bother to comment though; the teacher probably wasn't even alive after what had happened on Frontera. "I have duties with Commander Argyle. We're going to be realigning the warp coils this afternoon."
Chrissie frowned at that, glancing at the two Starfleet officers. "She's only eleven, is it safe for her to be doing that sort of thing?"
"Mama, I'm not a baby," Fina protested, embarrassed by her mother's worry and worried that the adults might agree with her. "I know I have to be grown up when I'm down there and not mess about and obey any orders I'm given."
Her oldest two children were growing up, Chrissie realised with pride and a tiny bit of sadness, taking on adult duties and responsibilities. They were both of high school age now and thinking seriously about their futures. She worried about that future. They had lived through two major wars and moved about more than was good for them and their schooling had suffered as a result. She would have to make decisions soon about their education, but that would depend on where they ended up. Would they move back to Frontera or even Earth? Or would they stay here on Qo'noS? It depended on so many things, not least of which was the outcome of Krang's trial. If he survived that, and she was beginning to feel cautiously hopeful that he would, the next hurdle would be to find out where Starfleet would send him – or would he return to Imperial Intelligence as she suspected Lorgh hoped.
"I'm not a baby either," Meren, the youngest of her brood, interjected. "I'm learning how to use a proper bat'leth."
No, Chrissie conceded, just a little regretfully, he was not a baby anymore. It was not just her oldest two who were growing up fast. Krang had explained to her that Klingon children grew and matured much more rapidly than their human counterparts and would be considered adult at the age of fifteen. Her little ones were not growing quite that fast but it was still faster than she liked. Meren was three and a half and seemed more like a five-year-old.
Sensing her preoccupation, although guessing only partly correctly as to its cause, Toni put out a hand and squeezed hers before letting go again. "You'll be fine today, Mama. It will be over soon and if there's any justice in the world – and if the Klingons really are as honourable as they say they are – then Vav will be home soon."
"Is it nearly done yet?" Fina asked hopefully. She wanted her Vavvie but was trying very hard not to complain and upset her younger siblings.
"I think today might be the last day of testimony," Chrissie said cautiously. "After that, I don't know what will happen, whether there will be questions – although I suppose there must be since the lawyers are bound to want to cross examine – or if the judge will make an immediate decision based on the submitted evidence."
Kehlan shook her head. "It's hard to say. To the best of my knowledge a trial has never been conducted in this way. Chrissie, the rules for the meqba' are strict. What the judge has done is… unprecedented."
"I do think today will be the important day," Mackenzie said soberly. Aware of the presence of the children, he was very careful in phrasing his question. "I would imagine you will be skipping forward a little and beginning to discuss the important issues?"
Chrissie nodded. "Yes. Mauritius was just a wonderful holiday. Apart from the fact that we grew closer as a family, there is nothing about those days that is relevant to what came after."
She was very glad of that. Those few days had been special and she did not want to share them with the court. Turning her head slightly, she looked out of the window and just for a moment, it was not the blackness of space she saw but the bright colours of the Mauritian beaches. A little smile crossed her lips. "Those were good times and happy memories."
"Oh, we had so much fun didn't we," Toni said reminiscently. Hoping to make his mother laugh and lighten her mood a little, he added, "Mama, do you remember that yellow tree in the botanic garden?"
His ploy worked. A wicked grin lit up Chrissie's face. "I will never forget that moment. Your poor father! I've never laughed so hard."
"I take it you're talking about Mauritius?" Mackenzie inquired, intrigued by their obvious amusement. "What happened?"
Interested enough to stop sulking about the forbidden computer game, Kara looked up from her plate. "Tell the story, Mama," she begged.
"I love that story," Kally chimed in with a mischievous giggle. "Vavoy always blushes when you tell it."
Chrissie pretended to think about it. "Well…. If you can tell me what the tree was, I might be able to remember better."
"It was Golden Shower," Toni said promptly, "the Indian laburnum."
"Cassia fistula," Fina corrected, showing off her knowledge of the plant's proper Latin name. "A tree that is now known – in the Inigan family at least, as Klingon sneezewort!"
Kehlan's eyes lit up with barely suppressed laughter. Chrissie was not the only botanist in the room. "Oh… I know that tree and I bet I know what happened. Come on Chrissie, tell the story…"
The Corte Ingles is a real department store, one of the largest chains in Spain, it sells pretty much everything and is huge! It really does have an English language book section although its not as big or as well stocked as I implied in these chapters. No prizes by the way for guessing what books Marla bought...
The Gran Via, as its name suggests, is one of the largest and busiest shopping roads in Madrid.
The SSR Botanic Garden in Mauritius is also a real place. The tree mentioned does actually grow there.
Vav is Klingon for Dad/Father, and Vavoy means daddy. Some of the children call Krang Vavvie, which is not a proper word and is a cross between Vavoy and Daddy.