Well my lovelies, University has started up again, and I am swamped with languages, homework, and occasionally friends with alcohol. So I apologize for the severe alterations made to my updating schedule. You'll notice I pump out oneshots and drabbles fairly quickly, but it seems that I just can't be satisfied with the chapters I've written for this story. It is rapidly becoming my favorite story, even not compared to the early stories I have that make me ashamed to put my name on them. Haha, but I suppose everyone has those stories in their queue.
POV: Mr. Sulu. The sexy, sexy beast he is (Takei or the new one ;3 )
Chapter Five: Audience with the King.
Sulu was panicking. He struggled to keep his feet underneath him, he'd lost his calm, even breath, and the sweat was stinging his eyes along with the dirt and blood. The girl Keladry just came at him, all steel and calm hazel eyes. Her blade was a molten flash of silver that never stilled long enough for him to get a bead on her movements, and the solemn stillness to her attack was unnerving to his very core.
Tripping backwards Sulu flailed with his sword. It was so much heavier than any fencing blade had a right to be and that weight dragged him off-balance. Even so he didn't think he would have faired even marginally better with a proper foil. He couldn't even spare a glance toward the fence to see what his Crew thought of him scrambling away from Keladry like a frightened tribble.
With a grand flourish the girl snatched his sword away and sent the dull practice steel spinning into the air and halfway across the training area. His breath left him in a hard whoosh as he landed solidly on his backside in the dust, staring dully at the slightly pointed tip of the blade resting squarely on the bridge of his nose. He wheezed, looking up at the girl who'd so thoroughly trounced him. Her eyes sparkled with a well disguised humor that made him think of humans who had lived too long within Vulcan colonies. Her hair was barely mussed and she'd not even broken a sweat whereas his uniform was soaked through and his hair was plastered to his damp forehead. She withdrew her sword and offered him a hand. She easily hauled him to his feet and he was acutely aware of how much taller than him she was.
Sulu gasped and wheezed, trying to force an intelligible word past his swollen lip—he'd bitten it at some point, but he still hadn't .
Chekov scrambled over the fence and ran to his side, screeching in high-pitched Russian. He tried to calm the younger boy, but all that came out was a strangled gasp. Sulu cleared his throat and tried again, this time managing a feeble "I'm okay".
"Ya mayo! Hikaru, what happened?" Pavel's fingers flew over his upper body and arms, checking for wounds. When the youth's fingers came away bloody, he uttered a frightfully loud shriek and screamed for the Doctor.
Bones came running, followed swiftly by the rest of the crew. As well as, though at a much calmer pace, the two Knights in attendance.
Sulu pulled back his sleeve to investigate the long shallow gash Keladry's practice sword left on his arm. It wasn't as severe as Pavel's flutterings indicated, but it hurt like a bitch. He felt queasy, thinking about the infections and bacteria in this world, his immune system was already fairly bolstered from working in his botany lab and all the exotic pollens he encountered, but this was a new world.
Bones was fussing with his tricorder when Sir Nealan leaned over his shoulder, a bored expression on his handsome face.
"Is that all you're squawking about Yamanai?" He reached out a hand that glowed bright emerald green. When his cool fingertips brushed against Sulu's arm he gasped and Bones yelled at the man to stop.
"Fool! I don't know what's on your fingers; don't go prodding around in an open wou…" Leonard trailed off when the cut also began to glow. Coolness spread through Sulu's forearm and the flesh itched a bit. Quickly the scrape began to heal, scabbing over and then all that was left was a shiny patch of new skin.
"How did you do that? Where's your dermal regenerator? Why didn't you clean the wound first?!" Bones seethed at Sir Nealan, gripping the younger man by the front of his shirt.
Neal closed his hand around Bones's wrist and the glow brightened until Leonard released him with a bitten back shriek.
"Neal!" Keladry admonished the man and slapped the back of her hand against his shoulder.
"Relax Kel, I only gave him pins and needles," Neal turned his slightly patronizing gaze upon the EnterpriseCrew, "Now, don't think that all Knights are as easy going as me. Take hand against another, Sir Merric mayhaps, and you'll most like loose the hand. I'm an accomplished Healer, trained under Lady Knight Alanna. And if you think for a moment that she would suffer to hear I let an infection fester before closing a wound, I would be walking to the Realm of the Dead with my—," Keladry clapped a hand over his mouth and the rest of his drawling speech was lost into her boiled leather practice glove.
Raoul shot her a grateful look and turned to Kirk, "Your man is fine. Do you not have Healers where you lot come from?"
Kirk shook his head, "At least not like that, without medical instruments and all. Mr. McCoy here is our Chief Medical Officer," Kirk motioned to Bones, who was still scanning and rescanning Sulu's arm, "He is our 'healer' I guess."
Raoul nodded, "And I can tell you are their Leader, no? If I didn't know better, I'd say you were a Scanran, and the thing is, I don't know better. What do you know of the recent events here, new comer?"
Kirk looked at him bewildered, "Is Scanran another land? If Miss Alanna and Mister Numair didn't tell you, well, we're interstellar travelers for the Federation."
Sulu watched with growing alarm. These people were too different. They obviously spoke Standard, but none of them had heard of the Federation. They had massive power, that was clear from Numair and Alanna, and now this green eyed man, but there was little higher technology to speak of. The people they'd been discovered by were obviously well know and respected, after-all they referred to the King like an old friend, but none of his fellow Officers had ever heard of them. Even if it was odd that these people had never heard of the Enterprise itself, for them to have no inkling of the Federation at all was disturbing.
"Inter…stellar travelers?" Raoul repeated as he watched Neal parry words against Leonard, "You mean you are from the Realm of the Gods?"
Now it was Kirk's turn to stare, "Realm of the, No. We come from a real place outside of this solar system."
Spock leaned forward to intercede, "To be perfectly honest however, we do not know precisely where we are; therefore we might still be within the proper solar system, but not on the correct world. Likewise, we might be within another galaxy altogether,"
Scotty and Uhura scowled at the Vulcan who merely shrugged as if to say, 'what? Kirk was being inaccurate. Again.'
Raoul laughed at the Vulcan, actually laughed, "Hahaha, that's rich. So, yes, obviously you lot are not Gods, and Alanna said Daine doesn't think you're Immortals… Are you lot some sorry experiment Orzone preformed before the War?"
"Och, please, Sair, nothing you say makes verra much sense," Scotty rubbed his eyes, "Ah'm just a lug-head from Engineering. I just wanna get back to mah engines. If you say we're from O' Realm o' the Gods, well, Ah think we'd be best inclined to smile and agree with yeh,"
Raoul and Neal both laughed heartily, Keladry hid her smile behind a hand, "Now here is a man after my own. Not a word misspoken, and no risks taken in that answer, now was there?" Raoul slung an arm around Scotty's shoulders and steered the group toward the castle proper.
The group was just being led toward the kitchens, much to Scotty's pleasure, when a young boy came running up to them. He skidded to a stop and bowed low to Raoul and Nealan, and then blushed a bright shade of red when he turned to bow to Keladry. Sulu was amused to see that while Miss Keladry was oblivious to her admirer, her male friends were not.
"His Grace says to tell you he is ready to receive the, the travelers," the boy squeaked, "His Grace is in the Council Room off of the Eastern Solar, if it pleases m'Lord,"
"No it does not please m'Lord!" Raoul glowered at the page who cowered even more, "The Eastern Solar is clear on the other side of the castle!"
"Hence this being the Western side, that would be where the Eastern Solar'd be," Neal drawled.
Sulu watched the tall man turn an alarming shade of red and mutter dangerously. In all the years he'd been a part of Star Fleet he had never come across a culture so intense in its appearance as a feudal monarchy, but so different in the way it actually operated. These people obviously bowed and paid allegiance to a King, but they discussed him as one of his crew might discuss the Captain, or the way Kirk and Spock acted with Chris Pike. There was little of the fear they usually encountered with feudalistic civilizations, but there was also no room for defiance for the Crew themselves. Sulu had little doubt that were they able to slip their guards for even a moment, they would soon find themselves back in custody. And that time, there would be no kid gloves nor genial treatment.
So far Kirk's Crew had been treated very well. They'd been feed a quick, but good lunch, and would have been treated to dinner had the summons not come. For all that he had been thoroughly trounced by the dream-eyed girl Keladry, there had been no malice in her attack. It had been a genuine sparring match against an opponent Sulu was sure none of his peers could match. Despite the fact that this Sir Nealan and the Doctor were busy arguing medicine and appropriate patient healer/doctor conduct, he didn't feel as ill at ease as he knew he should. At his elbow, poor Chekov looked ready to keel over and with each step closer to this King, the boy seemed to turn an even worse shade of pale green. He tried to bolster the Navigator's courage with a smile, but the crackling twist of lips he got in return was terrible. Sulu twined his fingers around Pavel's and squeezed which at least got him a better smile and a softly whispered 'thank you'. Sir Raoul and Scotty seemed to be talking quite amicably with Jim or Spock butting in periodically with questions and corrections respectively. Uhura however continued to look puzzled and disturbed.
Sulu watched her continually fiddle with her universal translator device, and spared a look down at his. He didn't immediately see what would be causing the lovely brown skinned beauty to look so confused, but after a moment he realized his device wasn't being activated. He watched sharply for the blinking lights on his fellow crewmate's, but their's too seemed de-activated. He caught the woman's eye and nodded down to her translator with a question on his face. But her frown and the shake of her head held little answers.
So instead he put the niggling concern from his mind and studied the Palace as they walked through. It was a beautiful old thing, covered in tapestries that depicted races of all colors. Here seemed to be a history of conquest, there a detailed ocean scene with distinctly oriental barques heading toward islands. On another tapestry there were hundreds of fanciful beasts from dragons down to horrible looking silver birds with human heads. On that tapestry a girl who looked remarkably like the one who'd turned into an eagle stood with a glowing badger, grasping her large bow and aiming at one of the silver harpy-like creatures. Beside her a tall man in black robes seemed to be lighting an apple tree on fire.
He thought back to that morning, 'was it only this morning?' and felt a shiver pass through him, 'If that girl has anything to do with these tapestries, I'm happy she went on ahead of us,'.
Another thing that disturbed him was the familiar way these people spoke of their gods. On most other worlds he'd been to, the people's gods were either similar to that of the Earth's with no concrete evidence for or against, or were fake gods. These people spoke of the gods doing things in the present, as though just last week a deity had, if he was eaves dropping on Raoul's conversation correctly, caused a giant golden statue to come to life. Surely these people had been visited by a more advanced, space emergent race and fooled into think the new comers were actual gods. But these people didn't seem to have the same fearful, fanatical worship of them that normally accompanied that sort of situation. Again, as with their talk of the King, these people acted familiar with and fond of their gods.
After an impossibly long walk that went by far too quickly, the group found themselves outside an immense oak door decorated with elaborate cartouches and guarded by two men in plate armor and spears. No, not spears, Sulu realized,
'Naginata,' the long staves were capped with heavy, wickedly sharp looking blades. The bright blue tassels at the bottom of the teak staves were silken and seemed to flutter by themselves in the slight breeze of the corridor. Keladry greeted them with a bow very similar to what he knew politeness dictated in Japan, and a handful of distinctly Japanese sounding words. He didn't understand any of them, and a quick look at his translator revealed little more than a cursorily greeting and something about a calm pool.
Uhura looked up sharply, and made eye contact with him. She mouthed something at him, but before he could figure out what it was the heavy doors flew open and Lady Alanna swept out to usher them inside.
Terrifyingly, she instructed the guards to let no one but the Queen disturb them until otherwise instructed.
He felt Pavel begin to tremble on his arm, and he suddenly agreed. Queer, ice cold fear slide down his spine as he took in the richly furnished room. Weapons decorated the walls, thick carpets covered the floor. A roaring fire heated the room to just the point of discomfort, and there, behind a massive mahogany desk covered in heavily pinned and marked maps, stood a tall handsome dark haired man. His clear blue eyes flashed over their group and a strong hand stroked his black beard.
"Ah, welcome to Corus," The man walked around the desk to stand next to Numair, who despite towering over the man, began to look much less fierce than this lion in rich blue and silver velvets,
"I am the King,
"And what are you doing in my Realm?"
Da-da-daa-daaaaaa! And another chapter finished. Next up is Kirk and Jonathan gettin' all sass-say with each other. Okay, maybe there won't be sass. But maybe there will! Mwahaha. This is too fun to write. I hope you all enjoy it as much as I do :D
~Sano