"You know, I've been in your quarters many times. Although sparsely decorated? I'm always amazed at how messy this place, actually is"
"I'll get around to it, Lary. Cheers!"
"Cheers…" Laryssa replied, as she sipped from the half filled, glass of amber liquid. "Smooth!"
"Ain't it a kick? From my dad's private stash. 2020, very few cases of this Scotch are left. We drank three entire bottles, myself and my parents when I returned home. I never thought I could get that drunk and survive"
"You should try Romulan Ale, you'd love it. So, I have to ask, how did you figure me out?"
"I suspected that something was a little off, when they brought you in…" Amanda replied, as the two sat in the small, black leather chairs. "… The way they treated you? Was more for show. You seemed to know just enough about Humans and Vulcans, to make a passing grade…"
"We knew little about Humans, but as you now know? Romulans and Vulcans, used to be the same species"
"I read the files. Your first mistake, was giving the Surak Salute. No self-respecting Vulcan, would use his or her left hand and more than that? Continue to give that wrong salute, which is a dishonour, by the way"
"Thank you for correcting me on that, by the way. And the second?"
"You talk in your sleep. I know enough Vulcans, to recognise the sounds of their language. The third, was two days before we broke out of that cell…"
"Wait, I talk in my sleep?" Laryssa asked, as she sipped from her glass once again.
"Yep. We shared that cell for a week, remember. Now, what clenched it for me, was when I was blindfolded once again, and taken for interrogation, again. Actually, I was beaten for the fun of it"
"I'm sorry about that"
"I know. I was, in and out of consciousness, as I was dragged back to our cell. But, I did clearly hear your voice, giving a report to your superior, in Romulan. That much, I heard clearly"
"We, no They? Underestimated you, as they had with Humanity"
"I was supposed to be your little project, but I turned you into mine. Little did I know, it was actually true? Until those two soldiers entered our cell, and tried to kill the both of us"
"They betrayed me, I was one of their officers, and they where going to simply kill me"
"I know how hard it was for you, to turn against them? But self preservation, is key to survival. This, all of this? Wouldn't be possible without you Laryssa. Oh, by the way? I almost forgot. Command has given your proposal more thought. You've been invaluable to this project and as such? Your status as a Prisoner of War, has been removed. They've accepted your request for Diplomatic Asylum. On one condition…"
Laryssa's eyes opened wide with joy, as she almost leapt from her seat, spilling her drink as she leapt into the air.
"Name it!"
"You have been given identification of a Vulcan female named Laryssa, not an unusual name from the eastern provinces. Your travels will be limited of course, only Vulcan and Earth and always with someone at your side. If you are found to break the rules which I will give to you shortly? Your status will be revoked and you will be imprisoned without charge for the rest of your life"
"I completely understand. I would do the same thing, in your position"
"In the small bag, is that list. Front pocket, written on paper"
Creating an assumed identity, had never been an easy task due to the interconnected databases of the Coalition planets and starships, but it had become an almost second nature to the one time Starfleet Officer in the recent years. However, creating an identity for a one time citizen of Romulus, was in fact the most difficult task to date, next to informing the former enemy officer, now her friend of the conditions which she had to follow, for the remainder of her life.
"They want me to become sterile?"
"I'm sorry Lary, it can be done easily and without surgery…"
"No, I understand as my DNA, is Romulan. I understand and I accept, if I was to ever have a child? It would be half-Romulan. This, is a long list of conditions. I can never reveal my true identity to anyone beyond those whom already know, that goes without saying actually"
"You're starting to sound like me…"
"I've picked up a few of your bad habits over the years. Well, some of them anyway. It says here, that I am the last descendant of my family?"
"I thought it best to stick to your actual identity, as close as possible anyway. Makes it easier to remember. Keep reading, actually? Look at the last one on the list, on the other side of the page"
"Condition one hundred and fifty-nine. This, this is amazing. You did this?"
"I did. Once this project is complete? You'll go back to Earth and work at Starfleet Command, as a specialist on Romulus. I had to call in some huge favours for that one, the biggest favour I had left"
"No, Amanda? That was your Golden Ticket, not mine. I would never have asked for this from you"
"You've more than earned it…"
In the months which had followed, the Starship Enterprise had returned to Earth after the completion of her final assignment, a goodwill tour of the Coalition worlds and known space, along with a side project of locating a suitable system for the first Starbase to be constructed by Starfleet, beyond the Sol System. Upon her return and the attendance of her crew at the ceremony to finalise the Coalition into law, the Coalition of Worlds was finally reorganised into a new alliance, the United Federation of Planets was born, in the Earth year of 2161, which had commenced with the decommissioning ceremony of the NX-01 Enterprise, and a speech as given by the once Captain of the gallant starship, Jonathon Archer.
In the years which had followed, the former Earth Starfleet had been commissioned as The first line of defence and exploration arm of the new Federation. Constructing new and highly advanced starships with the lessons learned from the secretly captured and analysed Romulan Battlecruiser, the United Federation of Planet and it's Starfleet Protectorate had continued to expand across known space while the Romulan Empire remained as secretive as their identity. An identity known only at the highest levels of the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet Command and one former officer of the Romulan Imperial Navy, hiding under the identity of Vulcan Scientist and Analyst.
I was born, on the planet of Romulus, in a province on the Southern Hemisphere of the planet. During my first and only deployment, for the Imperial Navy during a time of conflict with what had been considered as a less advanced species, I was ordered by the Commander of the ship to monitor a captured Starfleet Officer, a female Human prisoner during her interrogations, whom had become less than co-operative during her captivity. I had never seen a human before, very few of my people had seen a human. Beyond the dried red blood on her face and bruises which had formed across her face and body? She had looked nothing like what I had been led to believe for the species. I was personally selected from the entire crew, because of the fact that I looked like the allied species of the humans. I looked like a Vulcan, a distant brother species of my own race. Not only that? I am also a linguist and had studied what little we had on the human language of English. I had never heard such an unusual accent before, an accent I had later learned as being called 'Irish', from one of the northern nation-states of Earth. In the days which had followed my assignment, I had begun to recognise the human for what she was, terrified for her own future, a future I knew would not be a long one as she would be first interrogated by the Tal'Shiar and executed as an enemy of the state, publicly. After which, her remains would be studied by our scientists for the reasons of developing a biological weapon to use against the Humans.
How could one little Human female, get to me in such a way that I had begun to question my own loyalties to the Empire and the Praetor? It had seemed that the more I pushed her for answers, the more she had pushed back, as if analysing myself and not the other way around. My answer came, when two members of my own crew entered the cell where we had been kept, with their weapons turned onto the both of us. It was an act of self preservation, on my behalf which had led me to kill one of my former crewmates, vaporising his body and turn on the other. Two men that I had known since I had arrived onboard of that vessel. In that one moment, I became a traitor to the Empire as I assisted the human female known to me as Amanda Wallace, to capture my own vessel and murder her crew. Eventually? I was taken back to Earth and Starfleet Command, questioned and analysed by their superiors in secret, as was the vessel.
Once the war between the Humans and my former people had reached it's inevitable conclusion with the loss of the war on the side of the Romulan Star Empire, I had spent two years on Earth at Starfleet Command in a classified bunker beneath the complex. Officially, I did not exist although unofficially? I gave Starfleet everything that they had needed to win the war. One of my people's vessels, it's database, bodies and intelligence on the Romulan Star Empire and it's capabilities and tactics. If my people would ever discover my duplicity, I would be publicly executed as would my family and everyone that I knew, as a warning to others. Luckily? I had no family left as they all died during the recent war. Eventually, I was given a limited freedom, hidden under the disguise as a Vulcan citizen and taken to Vulcan to assist with the analysis of the Captured Cruiser at the demand of Amanda Wallace whom had been made the Director of the classified 'Project Caesar', whom I had served faithfully as a member of her team.
Eventually, with the creation of the new United Federation of Planets, I was finally made an unofficial Federation Citizen at her demand once again, and permitted a certain amount of freedom within the Federation, but I would always be under her constant surveillance and that of the new Starfleet Security and Intelligence departments. I understood why, I was still a Romulan by birthright which is still an enemy state.
"They want me to become sterile?"
"I'm sorry Lary, it can be done easily and without surgery…"
"No, I understand as my DNA, is Romulan. I understand and I accept, if I was to ever have a child? It would be half-Romulan. This, is a long list of conditions. I can never reveal my true identity to anyone beyond those whom already know, that goes without saying actually"
"You're starting to sound like me…"
"I've picked up a few of your bad habits over the years. Well, some of them anyway. It says here, that I am the last descendant of my family?"
"I thought it best to stick to your actual identity, as close as possible anyway. Makes it easier to remember. Keep reading, actually? Look at the last one on the list, on the other side of the page"
"Condition one hundred and fifty-nine. This, this is amazing. You did this?"
"I did. Once this project is complete? You'll go back to Earth and work at Starfleet Command, as a specialist on Romulus. I had to call in some huge favours for that one, the biggest favour I had left"
"No, Amanda? That was your Golden Ticket, not mine. I would never have asked for this from you"
"You've more than earned it…"
"What else did you have to give up for me Amanda?" I asked politely, even though I knew the answer.
"I had to vouch for your loyalty, personally. If you ever step out of line and at the first sign of any form of duplicity as mentioned on that very long list? You will be arrested and charged with espionage. Since I've vouched for you? I'll be arrested and placed in prison for the rest of my life, as will you. Knowing that your people have a very long lifespan? That could be almost two hundred years for you Lary, so please? Keep your nose clean"
"I give you my word, I will. Once again, thank you Mandy. I won't let you down, I promise. So, you're my guardian I guess?"
"I know that you'll outlive me by a century, but for the rest of my life? You and I are going to have to find a way to live with each other in our lives"
"There is an old saying on Romulus, when someone saves your life? They own you, until you can repay that debt. You saved my life Amanda, I guess you own me in that same way?"
"Payment, has already been made in full. Just, stick to the rules and I'm certain that we can get along as we have since I brought you here?"
A further two years into the dismantle and analysis of the former Romulan ship later, the project was far from complete, but Amanda felt a need to return to her home on Earth. As I was basically bound to her side by Federation law? I was at her side when she returned to her home world as we both took to our positions at Starfleet Command as Specialists on the Romulan Star Empire, with myself under the disguise as a Vulcan, without logic. Eventually, Amanda fell in love and married an officer at Starfleet Command, as for myself? Well, I was permitted to have a relationship with anyone whom had wanted to become involved with me, although I was sterilised many years before, with my own agreement so that my Romulan DNA would not be passed on to my off-spring.
It may seem strange, but I have fallen in love with a Human and was eventually permitted to marry Amanda's own cousin named Jason Wallace, although I was not permitted to tell him the truth of what species I am and that hurt me with each day that had passed. I had fully engrossed myself in the Human and Vulcan traditions while on the planet Vulcan, I had found myself a balance between the two cultures after abandoning my own birthright. To those around me, I was nothing more than a V'tosh-Ka'tur named Laryssa, a female Vulcan without Logic, whom had fallen for and married a Human male, the cousin of my saviour. My cover, for not being able to have a child of my own, was an infection when I was younger which had destroyed my ability to have a child, something which he had accepted as he had a child of his own, from his previous marriage to a Starfleet Officer whom had died in a training accident, thank god she wasn't killed during the war by my people. As for my saviour and now Cousin by marriage, Amanda Wallace-Shaw? She never did get around to completing the book she was writing in her spare time, mainly as her career and her family with her husband and their twin daughters, took up most of her time as had my own family and career. My husband Jason, passed away at the age of eight-one as I remained at his side and faithful to all of my vows which I take seriously, all but one. My confession to my life-long companion as he lay on his deathbed, frail and old while due to my long lifespan, I had the appearance of a forty year old woman.
"I never, understood why you stayed with me Lary? Look at me, I am old"
"You are as beautiful as the day I fell for you, Jason. But, there is something that I need to tell you. Something that I have been hiding from you, from everyone since before we met" I whispered, with tears rolling down my face as he lay on the hospital bed.
"I don't care Lary? I know who you are. I've always known, who and what you are"
"You, you've always known? Why didn't you tell me"
"Amanda told me, the day I told her that I was going to propose to you. I was shocked and angry, not at you because I understood why you hid it from everyone. But with her, for not telling me sooner"
"You, you understood?" I said with a slight smile.
"And I still do, my beautiful Lary, my wife. Before we even met, you where bound to my family by Law. Amanda, knew that you where lonely, so she put me in your path in the hopes that at least? We would be friends. I have never cared what planet you where born on, to me? You are Laryssa Wallace, my Wife and stepmother to my child and grandmother to my grandchildren. Consider this, to be my last request of you? Protect them, protect our family for as long as you live and tell them of our family, please can you do that for me?"
"I would have done that anyway. Before she died, Amanda asked the same question. I miss her…"
My husband, my human husband whom had known and hidden my identity, for sixty years died in my arms, two hours later. As had my oldest Human friend, Amanda Wallace-Shaw, three years prior in that exact same room and bed. I continued to live and to protect my extended family, for the rest of my life as I had also served the United Federation of Planets and Starfleet Command, as an Analyst and Expert on the secretive, Romulan Star Empire. My former people. I had witnessed the expansion of the Federation and Starfleet, witnessed the ever increasing level of technologies and the launch of Starships which had been based on just one, captured Romulan vessel. I lived through the Federation war with the Klingon Empire, even witnessed the launch of what I knew would one day become the most recognisable starship in Federation History, the USS Enterprise NCC-1701.
What few had actually known, was that it was I whom had ordered the USS Enterprise, to capture a Romulan vessel and if not, then a Cloaking device. Which Captain Kirk and his crew had succeeded, with the capture of a new Cloaking device along with a female Romulan Officer, the commander of that very vessel. I wanted to see just how far, Romulan technology had come since Captain Kirk's first encounter with a Romulan ship and the Empire had seemingly exited their exile from the galaxy.
Upon the recover of the Cloaking device and the Romulan Commander to Earth, as the Federation's leading authority on the Romulan Empire? It was my job, to debrief the Commander. I had not seen another living Romulan, in the flesh since I had defected to the old Coalition of Worlds, to her? I was just another Vulcan. Eventually, she was sent back to the Empire with a warning from myself, 'Do not, challenge the Federation again. Stay on your side of the Neutral Zone and we will do the same. Until you are ready to talk'.
I know, that I will not live long enough to see the Federation and the Empire, work together as I had always believed that could. But then, who knows? Maybe they can work together. This morning, I received news of a devastating incident in the Klingon Empire, the Moon orbiting their home world, has been destroyed in an accident and the planet, is slowly dying. Maybe, just maybe? We can bring both Empires to the negotiation table for talks to create a lasting peace in the galaxy. I still have a few good decades left in my life. Maybe, just maybe I can finally repay Amanda for saving my life and giving me a new one by doing what she had always wanted, but could never achieve in her own lifetime. Create a galaxy of Peace and Co-Operation between the three major powers in the quadrant.
This, is Our story.
My late friend Amanda Wallace-Shaw and my own.
I am Laryssa Wallace.
Born on Romulus, became a Federation Citizen. Wife to a Human male, mother, grandmother and great-grandmother to Humans and their own families.
My last Will and Testament is that, upon my death? There is no Autopsy which will discover my identity, I merely be cremated and my ashes buried on my family land, next to my husband and close to my oldest friend in the universe. Amanda Wallace-Shaw, my saviour.
The End, or the Beginning.