Chapter 20 – Facing Consequences
The next evening her incoming message alert sounded in the middle of a deep kiss.
She groaned, 'that's probably my family about their visit tomorrow,' and went over to her console.
The call came from her mother. She hastily ordered her hair before activating the screen. Soltek remained where he was, giving her a look that said something along the lines of 'shall I leave?'
A short moment of astonishment dazzled her as she realized he understood her look saying 'no, but stay in the background.'
'Hi mum, hi sweetie!' she said as her mum and her sister appeared on the screen.
'Hi honey!' 'Hi sis!' they greeted.
'So, when can I pick you up from the shuttle bay tomorrow?' Irina asked.
'At 1900,' his mother said, but her tone wasn't fully cheerful for some reason. 'You're father can't come, he has to work, some technical problem has come up and they have to do a complete overhaul of the primary and secondary refinery systems.'
Irina sighed for a moment. 'I'm still happy to you see both of you, tell him I understand.'
'I will,' his mother said. Then Irina heard their door chime. 'Oh, that's Tina,' her mother said, 'she's early!'
'Okay mum,' Irina replied, 'I'll fetch you up at 1900! Which shuttle bay?'
'Oh, I forgot' her mother said, 'I'll text you later, buy honey!' and she hurried to the door.
Olga worked quickly on a padd, 'shuttle bay 6,' she said looking up, 'mum and Tina have started to do low gravity jumping.'
'What?' Irina asked flabbergasted.
'Yeah,' Olga grinned, 'I think they're having a midlife crisis.'
Irina laughed, 'gosh, I hope they don't break their bones.'
'So,' Olga asked still grinning, 'how are things with Soltek?'
'Um...fine,' Irina said and felt blushing. Then she looked at Soltek, who rose up from her couch and walked over to the console sitting next to Irina.
'Soltek,' she said, 'that's my sister, Olga - Olga, that's Soltek.'
'Hi!' Olga beamed cheerfully at him.
'Greetings, Olga Paranov, sister of Irina Paranov,' he said raising his hand in the Vulcan salute, 'I am honored to get acquainted with your family and I respect her, who is your sister, in all her abilities, accomplishments and all her relatives. Live long and prosper'. Irina noticed the green tips on his ears and wondered if Vulcans have strict protocols for introducing family members to a spouse and she had just broken some Vulcan rule by introducing them so casually.
Olga smiled in a way at his formal greeting Irina knew she would throw a fit of laughter once they terminated the call. 'I'm also very honored to finally meet you,' Olga said grinning in delight, 'Irina has told me so much about you.'
At that Irina gave her sister a stern look.
'She has told me what a skilled engineer you are and how she admires your logical abilities,' Olga said.
Soltek looked at Irina obviously not knowing how to react to Olga. Irina put her hand on his shoulder and said, 'Olga is an artist, she paints and draws and has her own workshop on Luna, she also instructs kids and adults.'
Soltek raised his eyebrows, 'interesting, does this artistic talent run in your family?'
'Not really,' Olga said, 'Irina draws and paints sometimes too, but no one else in our family does, our dad has an ore refinery and our mum works in terraforming.
'Which type of pictures do you draw and paint?' Soltek asked both of them curiously.
'Mostly just playing around with colors and abstract shapes to relax,' Irina said smiling, 'I'm not as serious about it as Olga.'
'Some of your work is really original, give yourself some credit,' Olga replied, 'I draw and paint mostly people, a part of it are just portraits people want as a present or memory piece, that's sometimes a bit boring, but I often get requests like that. What I have more fun with is more original stuff, less naturalistic paintings and people in interesting situations or moods, but those are the ones which need more time to find a buyer. And I also have lots of fun with the workshops for kids and adults I've recently started. That's a great diversion to working alone on just one painting for a whole day.'
'That sounds intriguing,' Soltek answered honestly.
'I can show you my atelier, if you visit Luna someday,' Olga replied.
'I would be very honored,' Soltek said.
Irina grinned, happy they seemed to get along in their own way, 'but first I'll show you our artistic creation,' she said to her sister.
'Yeah, I've been looking forward to that!' Olga replied rapidly, 'I suck with any kind of holo controls,' she said looking at Soltek, 'but what Irina has told me about the program sounds terrific...and I don't get that much into space apart from the occasional trip to an exhibition on earth.'
'It's a huge station, there's a lot to see here,' Irina said, 'you'll love it.'
'Can't wait!' Olga replied, 'but I've got to get some dinner now and I've disturbed you two long enough,' she grinned with a cheeky twinkle in her eye.
Irina gave her another stern look. 'See you then, honey.'
'See you,' she replied smiling, 'and Soltek, it is good to get to know you...and you can call me Olga! Bye bye, sweethearts,' she waved and terminated the link.
Irina rolled her eyes and then laughed. Soltek stared at her in some kind of shocked fascination.
'Yeah, that's my sister,' she said having another laugh at his reaction, 'better don't take her too seriously.'
'You have informed your sister, but not your parents...about the situation...between us,' he stated and Irina could tell he was bothered by something.
'I didn't plan to inform Olga, she called me when I was upset and weaseled it out of me,' Irina said carefully, 'I know Vulcans prefer privacy in relationship matter.'
'It is I who is to blame,' Soltek said, 'I should have informed my parents of my wish to become your mate and they should have submitted a formal request to your parents.'
Irina was shocked for a moment at how things were obviously done by Vulcans, but then wondered how to comfort a Vulcan, who was obviously deeply upset by failing to behave according to Vulcan protocols.
She took his hand. 'From what you have told me about your family they would not have given us their blessing,' Irina said softly.
'That is to be assumed,' he stated, 'but as an adult widower I can still inform them of my choice and bring my request directly to your parents.'
'Please don't,' Irina said sharply, 'if anyone informs them, it's me.'
'I will respect your culture's protocols of course,' Soltek said.
'You have a bad conscience about what happened Sunday night,' she said.
'Vulcans don't have a bad conscience, I am simply analyzing my transgressions,' he stated.
'Don't,' she said fiercely, 'it's not logical, what's done is done...and it's also my fault, I wanted you so badly, but I was also very scarred by all those Vulcan rules...so I took advantage of you...while your hormones were acting up.'
He looked at her shocked about this confession, then softly said: 'I'm fully responsible for my own conduct regardless of any...biological circumstances.' He started to caress her face with his outstretched index and middle finger. 'You are correct, it is not logical to dwell on what is done and we will find a new protocol to face the consequences together.'
She hugged him and just wanted to be in his arms for a while, which he seemed to understand because he started caressing her back.
'Soltek,' she whispered, 'you're amazing, you're sure you're a Vulcan and not a Betazoid?'
'There's no reason to insult me,' he said.
After a while he said, 'I will inform my parents about the situation this evening.'
'What will you tell them?' she asked.
'That I have requested koon-ut-so-l'ik of you, that means a proposal to marry you,' he explained, 'and that you are considering my request while you get better acquainted with me which is the protocol for the people of your planet.'
At that point she was on the verge of saying yes to his proposal, but couldn't get out any word because her skin on her face suddenly prickled where she was in contact with him and a wave of joy suddenly flooded her.
'Sounds like a reasonable thing to say,' she babbled light-headed a few seconds later. Soltek suddenly started to kiss her face like crazy nibbling down to her chin and neck, but then he broke away from her panting, 'we have to stay logical...so I don't commit more transgressions.'
'I'll keep that in mind,' she said, quickly caressed his hand and walked over to the replicator wondering what had just happened.
After handing him a cup of Vulcan kiasha tea and nipping on her chai latte, she asked, 'what will your parents do?'
'They will most likely apprise our clan head of the situation and she will call your clan head or your parents, if you don't have a clan head, to inquire about you and then she will either decide to accept you into the family and make a deal with your parents or she will shun me from the family like she did with my aunt,' he stated without pause.
Irina spit part of the tea on her couch. 'Your clan head will call my parents?!'
'That is most likely,' Soltek replied.
'Oh my god, please let me warn them before you inform your parents...' she said.
'That is most wise,' he replied, 'however we should not wait long because my parents have already made inquiries about my situation 3 days and 21.4 hours ago.'
'That was when you hit your console,' she asked.
'Affirmative,' he said in a low voice and a blush rose to his cheeks.
'I'll call them in two hours when dad's home and mum's likely back from bouncing up and down the surface,' she said wondering how to break this kind of news ('mum, dad, I've incited an interspecies conflict between a Vulcan clan and our family because I've seduced their son...'?!).
'Then I will inform my parents at the same time,' Soltek said neutrally like they were going over some mission plan.
'Could you please be present, so I can introduce you to my parents?' she asked in a tone which clearly told he wasn't to say no.
'Of course,' he said, 'I am not familiar with the human protocols...regarding a situation like this...you have to explain them to me.'
'Don't worry, that's not complicated, my sister probably didn't even notice any difference from a human guy except the ears,' she said smiling.
'Irina, you are not telling the truth,' he said gravely.
'Oh gosh,' she said, 'I'm sorry, she's probably laughing her ass off about your formal greeting, but that doesn't matter...and I think I have to teach you the difference between lying and humor...but that can wait.'
She was glad he seemed to accept that for the time being and reminded herself to be more careful about saying things different from what she was thinking because he seemed to take that very seriously.
'How is an introduction to the parents of a potential mate conducted among humans?' he asked.
'First,' she said, 'you're not my potential mate, you are my mate and they have to accept you.'
She realized she had said something quite significant to him because his eyes glazed over for a second.
'They might be skeptical about you,' she went on explaining, 'but the worst they could do about it is nag me with questions if you're really good for me and if I really want to spend the rest of my life with you, yadayada, but in the end it's my decision and they will respect that even if they don't understand...and my sister already likes you and she can have quite a grip on them...so they'll not stand between us if they realize we're serious.'
'Fascinating,' he said, 'what is expected of me?'
'Just say hello, but without the formal speech you gave to my sister, answer their questions and...convince them somehow that you really care about me,' she said.
'That is no problem, I can provide them with many logical arguments on my ability to care for you,' he said.
'No, that's not necessary,' she said slightly alarmed, 'they don't have any experiences with Vulcan logic, it's enough if you just hold my hand while we talk to them.'
He looked at her barely disguising his shock and blushed violently.
'Okay, no hand-holding in front of my parents...just be yourself,' she said remembering the improperness of skin contact between unwed people.
'I'm always myself,' he answered.
She smiled at him.
'I have one question about your sister,' Soltek said.
'No problem,' Irina replied.
'What is the significance for humans to dye their hair green?' he asked seriously.