The courtroom, Qo'noS, 2375

Trial Day 5

Listening to Krang speaking of her wedding day, Marla smiled. How could she have known when she'd woken that morning and decided to find Kay'vin and apologise to him, that she would end the day as his wife? The Terrans said your wedding day was the best day of your life and Marla decided they were right, although the day she had given birth to her first child had come very close – all right, maybe not the actual birth, she thought wryly. That had been painful and unpleasant, but the expression on Kay'vin's face as he held his newborn son for the first time had made it all worthwhile.

"…relevance of all this?" Losing patience at what he saw as unnecessary detail, the prosecutor interrupted Krang's testimony.

"If you allow me to finish," Krang growled, visibly annoyed at the interruption, "the significance of what I am telling you will be made clear in time." He turned his gaze to the judge. "May I continue?"

Krahl was quick to give his permission. It was getting late and he was almost ready to call a halt to the day's proceedings, but not quite yet. He wanted to hear the end of this part of the story first.

Bowing his head respectfully, Krang considered what he needed to say. In fairness to the prosecutor, the details of the wedding were not particularly relevant and until T'Bor had objected, he'd been preparing to move on to the events of the following days. He was about to speak again when thunder rumbled, followed by a slight shaking of the building. Here in the courtroom, with its ancient stone walls, they were isolated from the outside world and Krang had forgotten about the awful weather that morning. Now he took a moment to wonder just how bad things were outside. "I had forgotten to arrange a communicator for Chrissie," he said eventually, "so when I decided to call and invite her to the wedding, I had to go through Grenn. She was on her way home after picking up the children from their first day at school and…"

Only half listening to Krang's words, Marla dismissed the faint evidence of the storm as unimportant, allowing her mind to drift away from the oppressive confines of the courtroom and back to the little church in London where she'd married the love of her life. She remembered how she'd been ushered upstairs by the vicar's wife, whose name, she had learned was Kathy, and who did not seem at all fazed by the task of preparing a Klingon bride for her wedding.

The Vicarage, St Mary of the Heavens, London

Wednesday 2nd February 1994

Opening a large chest and hunting through its contents, Kathy pulled out a dress from amongst the layers of tissue - at least, Marla assumed it was a dress although it was indecently short. "I wore this on my first date with Peter," the human woman reminisced, tossing it aside and continuing to rummage.

Marla stared at the discarded garment. "You wore that in public?"

The Klingon woman's shocked expression made Kathy laugh. "My dear, I wasn't always a vicar's wife. I was quite a rebel in my youth. In fact, Peter wasn't even a vicar when I met him." At Marla's look of interest, she continued, "I was at university studying fashion and design and he was in the police. We met when he arrested me at a big anti-war protest back in '68. Probably not the most auspicious start to a courtship, but here we are, nearly twenty-five years married and with two grown boys… Ah…" She found the dress she was looking for and pulled it out. "Here it is. This was my wedding dress. If it fits you, and I think it will, I'd be very happy to see you wear it."

The garment, a deceptively simple dress in the style of the late 1960's, although Marla did not know that, was like nothing she had ever seen or worn before. Even so, she didn't hesitate to accept. "It is beautiful," the Klingon woman said sincerely. "I would be honoured to wear your dress."

Kathy offered her a pleased smile. "You'd better try it on then."

Service in the Defence Force did not allow for modesty and Marla was quick to remove her uniform. Looking at the delicate white dress, she was glad she'd chosen to wear the scandalously flimsy and very expensive lingerie she'd bought in Madrid. It was hardly uniform issue but she'd donned it in hopes of a reconciliation with Kay'vin. She sighed; she was on duty that evening and her wedding night was likely to be spent lying on her back under a console instead of in bed with her new husband. Still, she did not regret her course of action. In another hour or so, she would be his wife and they would have the rest of their lives together.

About to touch the dress, she abruptly changed her mind. It was such a beautiful white and she did not want to get it dirty. "I should wash first."

Nodding her approval of that idea, Kathy showed Marla where the bathroom was. The Klingon woman disappeared inside and re-emerged a few minutes later, clean and fresh and ready to try on the dress.

"Oh…" Stepping back to inspect the bride, Kathy gave a little sigh. If she ignored those odd, blatantly alien ridges on the bride's forehead, Marla really was beautiful and the dress fitted her to perfection (luckily, it was both sleeveless and empire style) even if it was a little shorter on her than it should be, coming to just above her knees. Tears welled up in Kathy' eyes; with no daughters, she'd never thought she would see the dress worn again. How odd that it should end up with a complete stranger that she'd only just met for the first time that day, one of the alien invaders no less… and yet… it felt right. "You look lovely, my dear."

Turning away for a moment to recover herself, she surreptitiously wiped her eyes before picked up a make-up box and opening it. "Now, what do you think of a little of this colour around the eyes?"

A little bemused, Marla allowed the older woman to select and apply the colour she thought best. As a daughter of a great House, she was fairly conversant with the ideas of makeup and fashion, but Terran styles were unfamiliar to her. Even so, she exclaimed over a little pot of glitter that Kathy said was eyeshadow, telling her that it was currently very fashionable back home to subtly emphasise the patterns of the cranial ridges with such products. They'd ended up trying it out and both women had to admit that the effect was striking.

It had been about that time that the woman from the bridal shop arrived. Realising that they were lacking in several necessary items, most notably shoes, Kathy had got on the phone while Marla was in the bathroom and explained the situation to the shop owner, who happened to be a friend of hers and was glad to help. It had perhaps been lucky that having gone on a serious shopping spree in Madrid, Marla did at least know what size she wore. The woman had brought several pairs of shoes with her and after trying them on, Marla rejected the stilettos as being impossible to walk in, although she did comment on their potential usefulness as a weapon. Instead, she selected a low-heeled pair that matched the dress very well even if they did seem very flimsy. She could only hope that she would not have to fight while wearing them.

The woman from the shop had been nervous at first. Marla was not what she had expected, however, and slowly relaxing, she became caught up in the excitement of the wedding preparations. With the shoe problem sorted, she stayed long enough to help Kathy do the bride's hair and put the finishing touches to her makeup.

Eventually, with only a few minutes to spare, and satisfied that their job was done, the women led Marla over to the mirror. Staring at her reflection, Marla could not quite believe how different she looked. Kay'vin was not going to recognise her, a thought that was both disconcerting and amusing. She looked like… she looked like a bride. Suddenly it all seemed real and she was filled with a sense of urgency, a need to get to him. Her mate was waiting and the rest of her life, the most important part, was about to begin.

Perhaps the biggest surprise of the day, from Peter's point of view at least, was not the large shuttle which came down to rest on the road in front of the church, disgorging a squad of heavily armed Klingon soldiers who spread out, checking and securing the site. Nor was it the second shuttle, which arrived a few minutes later. A black-uniformed Klingon emerged, immediately followed by several others, all of whom were dressed in the more usual grey armour. From their bearing and from the reactions of the soldiers, Peter suspected that these Klingons were very senior, something that was confirmed a moment later by the young bridegroom.

"That's my boss," Kay'vin informed him, gesturing towards the one in black. "He will be my… what did you call it? Best man? The one standing next to him is Marla's superior officer. He will act in place of her father for the ceremony." He frowned as he remembered the briefing he'd been given. "Are your women property that they are given away by their fathers?"

Peter laughed. "No. At least, not anymore although that was indeed the origin of the custom. Our women are free now and in this part of the world, forced marriage is illegal."

Kay'vin thought about that. They were having this wedding now to protect Marla exactly that. In some ways, he mused, Terran society was more advanced than his own. He said nothing of that however, instead offering to take Peter over to meet the two chosen witnesses, an invitation that the vicar accepted.

It was the arrival of the third, much smaller shuttle just as he'd been about to approach the Klingon officers that caused Peter's surprise. Landing behind the other two, its hatch opened and a feminine figure stepped out, accompanied by two young children and a uniformed soldier who appeared to be acting as her bodyguard. Both she and the children were known to the vicar and he frowned, wondering what Chrissie was doing in a Klingon shuttle.

With a loud shriek, the little girl pulled away from her mother and ran up to the black-uniformed Klingon who lifted her into the air, swinging her round and settling her on his hip. Keeping hold of her son's hand, Chrissie went to join the Klingon who slid his free arm around her waist and pulled her close against him in a manner that the watching vicar could only describe as possessive. He was not far wrong; conscious that not all his officers had actually met Chrissie, Krang was making sure thar they all knew this human woman was his mate and under his protection.

Peter could not help noticing how comfortable both mother and daughter seemed in the Klingon's embrace. He and his wife had been away at a conference at the time of the raid on his church but one of his neighbours had witnessed the whole thing, or at least as much of it as had been visible from his front window and had told Peter how a very distraught Chrissie had knocked on his door asking if he'd seen her children. Neither mother nor children had been seen since then, but his wife had heard from the churchwarden, who in turn had heard it from his American housekeeper, that Chrissie had gone over to the enemy and was living with a Klingon. That didn't make sense and Peter hadn't known whether to believe it but since the two women were housemates, he supposed that Sarah had been in a position to know. It was not his place to condemn, he reminded himself, especially when he didn't know the whole story.

The wedding ceremony itself had been surprisingly straightforward considering the unorthodox nature of the congregation. Aware that the Klingons had almost no understanding of Christianity, he'd pared the ceremony down to the bare minimum – the traditional wedding march played by his wife on the antique church organ, a brief welcome speech, and then Chrissie read a passage from the bible.

…When the master of the feast tasted the water now become wine and did not know where it came from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew…

Chrissie paused for a moment, smiling. Klingons loved stories and this one was new to them. Right now, they were listening with interest, waiting to find out what happened next and with their penchant for strong alcohol, she rather thought they would not be disappointed.

The master of the feast called the bridegroom and said to him, "Everyone serves the good wine first, and when people have drunk freely, then the poor wine. But you have kept the good wine until now."

Seeing their obvious engagement with the reading, Peter swiftly revised his plan to give his usual wedding sermon, choosing instead to explain the context of the story, keeping it very brief and moving quickly on to the vows.

The couple spoke the traditional words with heartfelt sincerity, their attention focussed so completely on each other in a way that made Peter feel as though he were almost intruding and any doubts he had harboured about this very unorthodox wedding evaporated into nothing.

Kay'vin had asked if an element of Klingon tradition could be incorporated into the service and now, with vows and rings exchanged, Peter gave him a nod to go ahead.

Stepping back from his bride to give himself enough space, Kay'vin unsheathed his d'k tahg and turning slightly so his actions were visible to the audience, he drew the blade across his palm, clenching his fist to encourage it to bleed before loudly proclaiming, "tlhingan jiH! I am Klingon!"

He hadn't told Marla he was going to do this and a brief expression of surprise crossed her face before she decided she approved of this addition to the Tera'ngan ceremony. Reaching for her own knife only to remember that she was currently unarmed, she took his blade from him and taking great care to avoid spilling blood on the beautiful white dress she had borrowed, repeated both gesture and words.

They joined hands, fingers laced tightly together before shouting in unison the final words of the Klingon oath of marriage. "WE ARE KLINGON!"

"It is done." Making another quick revision to his final proclamation, Peter spoke in a voice loud enough to cut over the applause that had broken out. "In the presence of God and by the laws of both Humans and Klingons, I now pronounce you husband and wife." He grinned before adding, "You may now kiss the bride!"

In the ensuing roars of approval, Marla's words were barely audible as she danced back out of her new husband's reach. "Kay'vin you big oaf, don't you DARE get blood on this dress!"

Note: the bible reading is from John 2: 1-11, The Wedding Feast at Cana.

Klingon Weddings: While we see a Klingon wedding, full of pomp and ceremony in the DS9 episode You are Cordially Invited, there is no reason to believe that this is the only valid way of marrying. Worf was marrying into a Great House and Sirella was known for her love of such ritual showmanship. Marla in contrast is running away from a Great House and is only interested in getting married. We see other, simpler forms of marriage in TNG episode The Emissary, and DS9's The House of Quark and it is these I have used as my inspiration.

The anti-war rally that Kathy mentions really happened. It took place in 1968 in Trafalgar Square, London and was protesting against the Vietnam War. Over 200 arrests were made.

As always, a big thank you to all those reading and supporting this story, especially Solasnagreine, JDC0 and RobertBruceScott. A massive thank you also to Linny, my lovely beta reader, whose idea it was for Marla to end up in a late 1960's wedding dress borrowed from the vicar's wife.