February 2366

Chapter 6

B'Elanna stared down at the pipius in the bucket. It looked back up at her. "You want me to what?" she asked, breaking eye contact with the octopus-lobster hybrid and looking up at her grandfather.

"Grab it and cut its head off!" he called from the stove, where he was sautéing some fragrant roots. "But watch out for that claw! I nearly lost an eye to one of these ghew'Er back when I was a cook in the Defense Force." The old man laughed. "Wounded in battle with a pipius… I never lived it down!"

B'Elanna looked back at the creature in the bucket. It was trying to climb up the sides, but the combination of the slick surface and the force field over the top kept the tentacled creature from making a quick escape. Over the last two months, B'Elanna's kitchen duties had been of a more benign variety: fixing broken appliances, washing dishes, chopping vegetables. Occasionally she'd had to cut up meat… but never the kind that could cut her back.

"VavnI'…" B'Elanna's voice sounded whiny even to her ears. "Why can't you do this?"

"Because I'm busy over here!" Ma'Leth added something liquid to his hot pan, causing a cloud of steam to rise. "And I need that pipius in just a couple minutes. So, get the tongs, grab it by the claw, put it in on the block, and chop its head off."

B'Elanna groaned as she reached for the tongs and a blade that looked something like a machete. Taking a deep breath, B'Elanna mentally counted to three and shut off the force field.

It was like the damn thing knew it was now or never. It hissed at B'Elanna, moving its claw into a defensive posture. B'Elanna lunged with the tongs, but the creature evaded. B'Elanna tried again, this time getting a piece of the claw. The pipius shot a stream of liquid, writhing as B'Elanna lifted it from the bucket to the chopping block. On the counter, the animal rolled around as B'Elanna lifted her blade, aiming for the head. B'Elanna struck. But it was a miss – and in her excitement B'Elanna had loosened her grip on the tongs.

Free, the pipius plopped off the block and onto the floor, skittering around the kitchen. B'Elanna chased after it, snapping her tongs as the pipus waved its claw. First left, then right, it danced closer and closer to the door between kitchen and the seating area of the restaurant.

"Get back here, you motherfucker." B'Elanna tried to herd it away from the exit, but it was too quick. "No, no, no," B'Elanna breathed, as the door swung open.

Krel'Tah stood in the entry way, taking in the scene. Before B'Elanna could say a word, the woman snatched the pipius by the claw. She then took the knife out of B'Elanna's hand, slammed the creature onto the block, and chopped its head off.

Without a word, Krel'Tah handed the knife back to B'Elanna, grabbed a pitcher of blood wine, and walked back out into the restaurant.

Stunned, B'Elanna stared at the defeated creature – until she heard laughter from the other side of the room. Turning, she saw her grandfather doubled over. "Are you laughing at me?" B'Elanna snapped.

"Yes!" the old man gasped.

B'Elanna could feel her annoyance rising with each of her grandfather's snorts. "Maybe if you'd helped me that wouldn't have happened!" B'Elanna snarled.

"PuqnI'be'," Ma'Leth set down his spatula and approached, taking her shoulders in his hands. B'Elanna refused to meet his eyes. "You have to learn to laugh at yourself! Don't be so angry! This was funny, you chasing that pipius across the kitchen, dancing just like him. Laugh!"

A smirk pulled at the corners of B'Elanna's mouth. She tried to fight it.

"I see that smile." Ma'Leth released one of her shoulders and tilted her chin up, forcing her to make eye contact. "Sometimes you'll make a fool of yourself – this can't be avoided. So, either you can get mad and lash out or you can laugh about it and move on." He released her, turning his attention to the pipius on the counter. "It's your choice."

B'Elanna watched as he picked up the creature and threw it in the pot he'd been tending earlier. He then sat down on his stool next to the stove.

"I'm sorry," B'Elanna murmured, as she slowly approached the old man.

"I know," Ma'Leth replied, leaning back. "But you do this often: lash out. Especially with your mother."

B'Elanna folded her arms tightly across her chest. Things had simmered to an uneasy détente since their blow out over B'Elanna's schooling - although Miral was still dropping hints about the stupid exams.

"Maybe if she listened to me, things would go better."

"Maybe you need to have more patience – give her time to understand and listen to her position."

"Why are you blaming me? What about her?"

"I'm not 'blaming' anyone," Ma'Leth rose and checked on his boiling pot. "Lanna, your mother loves you and only wants the best in life for you." He turned, facing B'Elanna square on, his face serious. "And we all know this isn't your path. I enjoy having you here, but you don't want to be a cook or own a restaurant. You get much more pleasure out of fixing my broken equipment. Miral is just trying to get you back onto your path."

"What if I don't want to get back on it?"

"Then you don't. But you're an adult now. Act like one. Don't pout and snipe at your mother. Listen to her suggestions, take them as such, and then act. You don't have to live the life Miral wants for you, but you do have to live the life you want. And that life isn't in this kitchen."

B'Elanna wanted to object, to tell Ma'Leth all the ways in which Miral was the problem… but she couldn't. If she had just been able to keep it together at the Academy, she wouldn't have had to come back to her mother's house. She would be on her 'path', and Miral wouldn't need to constantly chide her. In the end, it was all her fault.

"You're right," she replied, her eyes lowering to the ground. "I'll try harder."

"Good, now, get me - "

The doors to the kitchen swung open, interrupting her grandfather's words. "B'Elanna," Krel'Tah said, standing in the doorway. "There is an alien in the dining room. Her translator is broken, but I think she was trying to tell me she speaks Standard. Go talk to her. If you can understand her, take her order."

"Okay," B'Elanna replied, glad to leave her grandfather and his lectures behind in the kitchen. Walking out into the faux-torch lit dining room, B'Elanna took a deep breath and enjoyed for a moment the relative coolness of the space. Only a few diners peppered the room – mostly older couples sharing an early dinner. Scanning the patrons – and in the back of her mind wondering who'd ordered the unruly pipius - B'Elanna spotted the only non-Klingon face in the restaurant.

The woman – who appeared a bit older than B'Elanna - looked human, apart from a set of ridges on the bridge of her nose. She wore an elaborate earring on her right ear, its silver color bright against her dark skin; her tightly coiled hair was pulled back into a bun. As B'Elanna approached, the woman looked up, a welcoming smile on her face.

Normally, B'Elanna didn't like interacting with customers. They were demanding; more than a few had questioned her about her race. B'Elanna was typically reluctant to leave the safe, if hot, confines of her grandfather's kitchen.

But this woman's smile… it put B'Elanna at ease. She wasn't staring at B'Elanna's forehead. If anything, she looked relieved to see B'Elanna approach.

"Standard?" the woman asked in one of the worst Klingon accents B'Elanna had ever heard.

"Yeah, I speak Standard."

Relief washed over the woman. "Thank the Prophets. I can't believe my stupid translator decided to give out on me now." The woman spoke in a smooth alto that was accented in a way B'Elanna couldn't quite put her finger on. However, she'd also never seen this woman's species before, so she wasn't surprised she couldn't place the accent.

"What's wrong with it?" B'Elanna asked, distracted from her original mission by the sirens call of broken technology.

"The translator?" Her furrowed brow caused additional creases on her nose. B'Elanna nodded. "I don't know. It just stopped working."

B'Elanna wondered if she should just take the woman's order or… "Can I see it?" The words were out of her mouth before her mind fully made itself up.

"Um, sure." The woman dug into her pocket for the piece of technology in question as B'Elanna slid into the seat across the table. "Are you a technician or something?"

"Not really," B'Elanna murmured as she turned the contraption around in her hand. There was no latch to open it up – she'd need a spanner. "Can I take this in the back and see if I can fix it?"

The woman chuckled, gesturing at the useless translator. "Be my guest. It's no good to me the way it is."

A smile broke out on B'Elanna's face. "I'll bring it back once I've figured it out." She rose and started back towards the kitchen. Fuck, I forgot to get her order! Skidding to a stop, B'Elanna pivoted and went back to the woman's table. "I, uh," B'Elanna began.

"Forgot to get my order?" The woman wore a bemused expression.

B'Elanna let out a short laugh. "Yeah. As you may have guessed I'm not actually a waitress."

"It doesn't really matter to me what your official position is. If you can fix my translator and get me food, you'll be my favorite person on Qo'noS."

"I'm sure I can get you the food… we'll see about the translator. What will you have?"

"The thing is," the woman replied, gesturing to the menu. "I actually can't read this. Do you have any recommendations? Something without meat? Or at least cooked?"

"It sounds like you and I have similar tastes in Klingon food," B'Elanna remarked as she scanned the list of options, trying to make sense of the Klingon letters. Maybe Mom is right about sending me to language classes.

"Well, then I'll just take whatever you normally have."

"I don't eat here often," B'Elanna confessed. "But when I do, my grandfather makes me a vegetable dish that's pretty good. But I don't think it's on the menu."

"Do you think he'd make it for me?"

"I can ask."

"Great, thank you. I really appreciate it."

"No problem. My aunt will bring it out to you. Just ask for me if you need anything else… that is, until I fix this." B'Elanna said, waving the translator in her hand before turning back towards the kitchen.

"Wait."

What did I forget now? B'Elanna turned back towards the woman.

"I don't know how to ask for you." The woman smiled apologetically. "My Klingon isn't good enough to say 'the nice woman who is fixing my translator and doesn't like raw meat either'."

B'Elanna had a hard time meeting the woman's eyes, feeling a blush creep into her cheeks at having been called 'nice' - not a word that had been often used to describe her. "My name's B'Elanna."

The woman gestured to herself. "Tevi."

=/\=

"I really can't thank you enough," Tevi said, leaning against a bollard outside the restaurant.

When B'Elanna had come back to Tevi's table to return the now functional translator, the dining room had been transformed by the large and loud dinner crowd – exactly the kind B'Elanna liked to avoid. She had intended to just return the translator and slink back into the kitchen, but Tevi, done with her meal, had asked if she could personally thank B'Elanna's grandfather.

"Don't worry about it," B'Elanna said, taking in a breath of air, enjoying its lack of smells when compared to the kitchen – although it had nothing on the ocean breezes in San Francisco. "The connection between the power source and the amplifier had just come loose. That's all."

"Still, you didn't have to do that. So, thanks."

"You're welcome." A moment of silence passed between the two. B'Elanna knew she should go back in – she was scheduled to work another hour – but she didn't feel like going back into the hot kitchen just yet.

"May I ask you something forward?"

"That depends. How forward?"

Tevi laughed. "Well, I wasn't going to ask you out on a date or anything… unless you'd like me to?" Tevi's eyebrows waggled.

B'Elanna smiled, though a bit unnerved by the attention. "I typically go for men."

"That's probably for the best. You're cute, but I'm a little old for you. But actually - and please tell me to go to the Fire Caves if I'm being rude," Tevi paused, trying to find the right phrasing. "Your grandfather and aunt look Klingon…"

Well, at least she was nice about asking. "I'm half Klingon. My father is human."

"That explains why you speak like you're from the Federation."

B'Elanna's mind flashed back to Kessik – it may have been a backwater world, but it was home. "I grew up there, on an outer colony in the Beta Quadrant. I moved to Qo'noS a few months ago – to be with my family." B'Elanna cleared her throat. "You know, turnabout is fair play. I've never seen your species before…"

"I suppose you got me there. I'm Bajoran."

"Ah," B'Elanna replied, trying to sound like she'd at least recognized the name of Tevi's people.

"You've never heard of us, have you?"

B'Elanna chuckled. "No. I'm sorry."

"It's okay - most people haven't. My homeworld," Tevi paused, her eyes trained on the ground. "We've been occupied by the Cardassians for nearly fifty years. So there aren't many of us out among the stars anymore."

B'Elanna could remember, as a child, seeing news reports about the Cardassians attacking Federation territories. At the Academy, the depth of their war crimes and methods of torture had been described in one of her required classes in her first year. To have one's home world overrun by those monsters… "That's terrible. I've heard stuff about the Cardassians…" B'Elanna shifted. "I'm really sorry."

A shroud fell over Tevi's expression, even as she managed a smile. "Well, what can you do?"

B'Elanna knew what a Klingon's answer would be: fight the fucking bastards. B'Elanna pursed her lips. "I don't know."

A beeping emanated from Tevi's pocket. She pulled out her PADD, thumbing it on to view the message. "Shit," she muttered, before flicking it off and stuffing it back into her pants. "I completely lost track of the time. I have to run."

"Yeah. I should get back to work, too." B'Elanna gestured towards the door to the kitchen.

"I'll drop by next time I'm on Qo'noS. Your grandfather makes the best food I've had on this planet." Tevi flashed B'Elanna a wide grin. "And it was really nice to meet you, B'Elanna."

B'Elanna couldn't help but return the smile. "It was nice to meet you, too."

=/\=