Chapter 15: XV
K'nera paused at the entrance of her quarters briefly while trying to screw up the resolve to face just what kind of redecorating Lwaxana Troi had done to her quarters while she had been working overnight. Since K'nera had transferred to Talceus Prime she had returned to her quarters four times already to find that the other Betazoid woman had completely overhauled them in an effort to add more spice to them. Each time Lwaxana had been there waiting to sense K'nera's initial reaction to the room. Extending her own senses, K'nera knew that the woman was waiting inside this morning as well.
Keying in her access code, she stepped inside and was pleasantly surprised. Her room now resembled her quarters on Celyn Four. Around her were the sharp and bold reflections of the Klingon heritage that had been given to her by her adoptive family. Gone was the light and airy décor of Shiralea Six that had been the result of Lwaxana's last attempt at trying to add more flair to K'nera's abode by recreating the Parallax Colony. Instead, for the first time since arriving at Talceus Prime she could see a small piece of the only home that she could remember. K'nera wasn't sure how Lwaxana had done it, but she had even been able to acquire holo-photos of her brother and cousins as well as her foster parents. K'nera could scarcely believe that she was in fact still at the Klingon outpost rather than in her quarters on the world that had become home to the small group of telepathic Klingons.
Lost in her thoughts, K'nera was taken by surprise when the older Betazoid spoke up.
"It's a bit dull for me but it would seem that you approve, finally, of what I've done in here."
"How?"
"It wasn't easy. When I finally realized that you'd want nothing less than what you were already accustomed to, I decided to find out just what that was. Do you have any idea just how hard it is to contact anyone inside the Klingon Empire? I believe I was given the run around for at least three days before I was finally able to speak with the Lady Lu'tor."
"You spoke with my mother?" K'nera didn't know just why she was so surprised. After all, how else would Lwaxana have been able to replicate her home so well? There was even a portrait of the family homestead on Ty'Gokor on the far wall. The attention to detail was unbelievable. There was a Klin Zha board, a game similar in concept to the Terran game of chess, in the corner to remind her of her games with her father and brother.
"An interesting woman, she is. At first, I don't think that she was too keen on speaking with me. That is until she learned the reason for my call. After that she was all too happy to help me come up with some ideas for the room."
"I'm sure," K'nera said with a smile as she imagined her mother's reaction to being contacted so abruptly out of the blue by the eccentric ambassador from Betazed. Lu'tor was a very stern woman and the very thought of her interacting with Lwaxana was very funny indeed. K'nera couldn't imagine two women who were more polar opposites.
"Yes, and with her help I was at least able to get a few personal touches for in here. I was surprised by this picture. I don't think I've ever seen a group of Klingons looking quite so…carefree."
"Klingons have just as much fun as any other race, Ambassador. It's just that some people have a hard time appreciating the same things that they do."
"So, it would seem. Well," Lwaxana gave the room one last glance before she prepared for the door as she spoke. "I'll leave you to get some rest, but I'll be back later on. With it being your night off, you'll be able to join the rest of us for Tam and Jemma's wedding."
K'nera eyed the woman since she really had no desire to join in and celebrate with any of the other Betazoids. She preferred to limit her time with them so she offered the only excuse that she could think of on such notice that she thought might could be used without offending Lwaxana.
"I'm afraid that I don't really have anything that would be appropriate to wear to a wedding, Miss Troi. I came to Talceus Prime to work; not socialize."
Lwaxana let loose a hearty laugh before replying. "Oh, don't worry about that, Young One. I'll be by after the midday meal."
With that, Lwaxana breezed out of the small set of quarters leaving K'nera wondering just what kind of day she could look forward to.
DS9
Alexander took his first look around the Y'tem as the transporter beam cleared. He knew ahead of time that the ship would be huge by looking at the schematics, which was only confirmed by the sheer size of the transporter room. From his research before arriving, he knew that the ship's normal complement consisted of one thousand and fifty officers and crew but was able to hold more than six thousand additional ground forces. The Y'tem had yet to see much actual battle since it was still a very new ship and had been used primarily alongside the Negh'Var, Qa'Vek and Yinlu'TaH to defend the Klingon core systems. Knowing that, Alexander wondered just how the massive ship would hold up in real combat.
Not given much chance to take in and ponder the full majesty of the ship, Alexander moved off of the pad and proceeded with the other men toward the bridge where each of them would report for duty. Just as when he had been transferred to the Rotarran and then the Ya'Vang, the men were met by the first officer who insured that they had pledged their loyalty to the Empire. They were then each assigned to their quarters to settle in before their first duty shift.
Ch'Targh approached him in the corridor as the two headed down to the Crew Deck together while discussing their new assignments. Ch'Targh's primary station would be maintaining the tactical sensors while Alexander had been assigned to the auxiliary bridge crew. Ch'Targh had been one friend that he'd been glad had been assigned with him on the new ship. He had come to value his friendship with the other man far more than he would have suspected the first time that he'd met him back on the Rotarran. He could be gruff, but he was a true friend.
After arranging a time to meet up in the training room later, the two Klingons headed off toward their separate quarters. It only took Alexander a few moments to stow his belongings away, so he decided to take his spare time to send out another message out to K'nera before the start of his rotation shift. With the time differences as well as their conflicting rotation shifts it could be difficult to find time that they both were available to speak. Instead, they both sent off holo-letters to one another nearly every day.
After listening to the latest message, it was clear that Lwaxana had made K'nera her very own special project. The woman seemed to take great pleasure in trying to expand the younger Betazoid's understanding of her own culture as well as finding ways to get under her skin. Alexander had to admit that he would love to sit back and watch the two interact since Lwaxana was an acquired taste for sure. He had always just been lucky that he found her exuberance enjoyable. She was so different from the Starfleet Officers that he'd grown up around and she had flown into his life at a time when he had needed an ally of sorts in his desire to be carefree.
At least he knew that there was someone there to watch after K'nera at the Klingon Outpost while he was still light years away. He didn't like the fact that she had begun to speak less and less about her duties and co-workers. That told him all he needed to know about her treatment by the other Klingons. On the Ya'Vang, she had a few friends and her uncle. On Talceus Prime she had no one save her limited association with Lwaxana Troi.
From what Alexander could tell, the xenophobic hostilities that had spread through much of the Klingon Military were even more intensified within the ranks of those who were tasked to watch over the refugee camp. A disturbing thought considering the fact that those individuals were now responsible for the safety of so many non-Klingons.
Shaking his head to try to clear his thoughts, Alexander set about preparing his next message to send to K'nera so she would have a new one once she awoke to be ready for her next rotation shift. In it he explained that the Y'tem was scheduled to join the rest of the joint Alpha Quadrant Fleet in two days' time. From there, he fully expected the battle for the quadrant to make its way to the Cardassian Empire's space.
Once the ship joins the fleet at Deep Space Nine, Alexander hopes to see his father before the fleet's deployment. He briefly thought of trying to convince him to join him in a message to the Rozhenkos back on Earth. He knew that it wasn't very Klingon of him, but he felt as if he needed to have some things said just in case the upcoming battle was the last one for either or both of them. Alexander knew that it had become almost an unwritten tradition of soldiers in various wars throughout Earth's history when the warriors knew that they were facing certain death; a very Human need to not leave unfinished business behind. He knew that his father would feel no such need to leave behind such messages though.
Leaving behind the macabre thoughts of impending doom, Alexander decided to join his friends for the midday meal; certain that a few hours in the company of Ch'Targh and the others would soon have him laughing too hard to worry about tomorrow.
DS9
K'nera did her best to ignore the fact that Lwaxana was at her door and was ready to walk with her toward the main gathering hall that had been set up for the refugees. After a long night of recalibrating the planet's power generators, all she wanted was to sleep the day away. Still, even while doing her best to block the other woman's intrusion into her thoughts, Lwaxana was nearly impossible to ignore. Giving up on trying to sleep through the wedding that she was apparently expected to attend, K'nera went ahead and got up and answered the chiming at her door.
"Lwaxana, I thought I told you that I didn't have anything appropriate to wear to a wedding."
"And I told you not to worry about that," Lwaxana smiled as she pulled K'nera through the doorway while snatching up the younger woman's coat and began to lead away from her quarters. "I'll explain as we head over to the wedding."
K'nera rolled her eyes as she reluctantly allowed herself to be coaxed into following the ambassador. As they walked down the frigid causeway, she listened to Lwaxana explain how the wedding would be unlike any other than she had ever attended within the Klingon Empire.
"Because we can sense the emotions and thoughts of others, our culture has evolved to be totally honest and non-private. Wedding ceremonies are performed in the nude as a symbolic gesture that the parties involved have absolutely nothing to hide while going into the marriage. Not only will the bride and groom be naked, but the guests are always without clothing as well." Lwaxana giggled at the expression she found on K'nera's face before she continued, "So you see, it really makes getting ready for a wedding quite effortless for all involved."
K'nera stopped in her tracks and put a hand on Lwaxana's arm upon hearing her explain the upcoming ceremony. "What? You have got to be kidding. Do you mean to tell me that you expect me to go into a room full of people that I barely know and then stand around naked?"
"You'll only be standing around during part of the wedding. Afterwards we'll all be dancing and mingling; having a wonderful time. Don't be so self-conscious about yourself. No one will even be paying much attention to you. This is Jemma's day after all."
"This sure doesn't sound like any other wedding that I've ever been to before."
Lwaxana nudged K'nera forward once more to get her to continue in the direction of the makeshift wedding hall as they spoke. "I don't know much about Klingon marriages. Tell me about them."
"Well, I can promise you that they don't get married naked. That's for sure."
"Naturally. Not everyone is comfortable enough in their own skin to marry in such a manner. What about afterwards? I don't think I've seen any Klingon couples serving in the Empire. Though the women that I've come across didn't really seem like the types to just stay home and wait for their men to return home after a battle."
"Klingon society is extremely complex. Males traditionally dominate public life in the Empire; women, in turn, traditionally rule the household and the management of the family's affairs. Klingon women are treated as equals, except in politics and matters of inheritance. Marriage itself is considered a private matter and public celebrations are usually not very common. Divorce is easy but few find the need to dissolve a marriage since Klingons mate for life. Marital indiscretions are even rarer."
"I find that hard to believe. Klingons, males especially, gallivanting from one end of the galaxy to the other, light-years from home and you expect me to believe that they don't indulge from time to time with partners of convenience?"
K'nera snickered at the presumption since she could understand how those unfamiliar with Klingon customs could come to such an opinion of them. "Absolutely. And for two very good reasons. One, any such actions would reflect on the family of the individual and would bring dishonor to them."
"And the second?"
"The wronged party has the option to either kill or severely wound the transgressor if one decides to bed someone other than their spouse."
Lwaxana raised a brow before chuckling. "I can see how that might put a clamp down on infidelities. And I'm guessing I could just imagine the kind of injuries that a woman might inflict on her husband to keep him from feeling the need to stray again."
As the two continued to walk together, Lwaxana continued to explain just what she could expect while attending the ceremony that would join Tam and Jemma in marriage. While doing so, she explained that Betazoids have the ability to have multiple lovers and she knew of several people who had quite open marriages though couples do tend to be exclusive when they have children at home or are trying to have any. A concept that was very foreign to K'nera.
Once at the hall where the wedding was to take place, the two joined the other Betazoids who had arrived ahead of time for the festivities. Lwaxana guided the younger woman to where they would change out of their clothing. Seeing K'nera second guess the process of stripping for a wedding of people that she hardly even knew, Lwaxana reminded her that she would be far less conspicuous if she joined and blended in with the rest of the participants than if she retained her Klingon apparel.
Knowing that Lwaxana was right did not help make it any easier to shed her uniform, but she went ahead and decided to do it anyway. Feeling very out of place, K'nera joined the rest of the guests in the large hall that would serve as a wedding venue and did her best to blend in with the wall.
Glancing around without trying to appear like she was staring, she watched as the rest of the Betazoids behaved as if they walk around nude in public every day. In doing so, she also noticed just how deathly quiet the hall was. Not a soul was speaking, well not aloud at least. By watching the body language of all of the guests, it was clear that there were some lively conversations taking place just a mere few feet from her. K'nera, however, was not keen on the idea of lowering all of her defenses that she keeps up to block out the excess background thoughts of all of those around her. A wall that was so strong that only the briefest of stray thoughts and underlying emotions could penetrate without extra effort. To be honest with herself, K'nera wasn't sure just how quickly she'd be able to reconstruct the barrier if she decided to take it down. She had rarely done so and never around so many other telepaths.
Normally, K'nera spent at least an hour after waking up each day meditating so that she could clear her thoughts enough to strengthen her mental barriers to keep the thoughts of others from overwhelming her. Today she hadn't been able to meditate at all since she had been awoken by the ambassador only moments before it was time to leave for the ceremony. Already she could feel her defenses weakened. Just in the short amount of time that she'd been surrounded by the other Betazoids in the hall K'nera had begun to hear more and more stray thoughts of the others.
As the ceremony began, K'nera continued to watch on with curiosity. With no other choice but to lower her constant, impenetrable wall of mental fortitude, she opened her senses up so that she could follow the goings on of the wedding. The joining was unlike any other that she had ever attended within the Klingon Empire.
Before the ceremony was complete, the thoughts of the others in the room began to drown out those of the couple whose day it was. Most were paying close attention to the wedding but even so, there were a multitude of underlying thoughts that began to muddle K'nera's mind. Trying to sort through it all was absolutely exhausting. As Tam and Jemma said their vows, K'nera slipped back into the changing room and found her clothing. She then put as much distance between herself and the other telepaths as she could.