CHAPTER SIX:
THE REAL HEROES

"Who ordered the decaf?" Pleakley chirped, struggling to keep his voice light and a smile on his face as he set the tea tray down on the coffee table.

"That's mine," Leera answered, planting herself on the sofa between Gidgel and her husband. "No one else asked for it and you know caffeine's not good for the baby, Wendy."

"Of course," Pleakley mumbled, blushing a little as he handed her a cup and a sugar cookie.

Jumba took his cup and a handful of cookies, leaving the others with only half the amount they had started with. "I am thinking this vill be time for Pleakley family discussing of things. Pleased to have been meeting you, Mister Pleakley's father. Now if you vill all be excusing me, I vill be taking leave to lab for remainder of afternoon. No calls." Jumba bowed to the group before disappearing out the back door. Stitch followed.

Once they were out of earshot Vay, who was sitting on the adjacent sofa next to Kirk, gave her ex a slight nudge for encouragement. Kirk read her signal and picked up his cup, taking a very long sip and then making a great show of clearing his throat before addressing his son.

"So, Wendy, I uh, I hear that you're a decorated war hero of sorts. Well, actually, I didn't just hear it. I did happen to see the award ceremony a few months back. But then, how could I not have heard? Victory celebrations kept me awake for three weeks straight. No surprise, though. After all, with those damn Kaizaxx prowling about the universe for the past few decades, who wouldn't have celebrated? And for all your trouble, a Supernova. Well, it doesn't get much better than that, does it?"

Pleakley sat there silently taking his words in. But the moment Kirk stopped talking, he groaned inwardly, knowing full well that this meant that he would have to reply to the man he despised. He took a sip of tea, then a deep breath, steadying himself.

"Yes, well, actually it wasn't only me. Mom and Leera got Supernovas, too. I hardly did anything. They're the real heroes, not me. I didn't even deserve that medal, but the grand councilwoman insisted on giving it to me."

Kirk chuckled. "Boy's not only a hero, but a modest one at that. You raised him up good, Vay." He patted Vay's hand, which rested on her thigh. Pleakley saw this and tensed.

"Mom's a real hero," he blurted out. "And Leera, too. Really. What I did was nothing compared to them."

"But you must have done something admirable in the eyes of the Federation," Kirk argued. Pleakley shrugged and looked away.

"He doesn't like to talk about it," Vay explained.

"Ah, I see," Kirk nodded sagely. Yeah, it wasn't a pretty sight being around the Kaizaxx those last few weeks they were in control of things. I know. I was there, too. But I bet you were lucky enough to never come face-to-face with their leader, Horsthar Le'Kruune!"

Pleakley's head snapped up at the mention of that name and Vay cleared her throat loudly.

"Yes, actually, we have had the displeasure of meeting him." The careful enunciation of her words concealed the heavy truths behind them, though Kirk did not seem to have picked up on them. Instead he was looking around the group in shock.

"Are you serious? All of you met him? Or just you and Wendy?"

"All except Gidgel," Vay answered. "But it really wasn't anything worth bragging about — "

"Are you kidding?" Kirk interrupted. "That's a pretty big deal, considering the fact that very few Federation members have ever met him and then lived to tell about it! Well, you guys are very lucky then. You remember several years back when he hijacked that Federation flagship — the Quasar, I think it was called…"

At the mention of that name, Leera's teacup clattered loudly against its saucer, spilling hot tea in her lap. She gasped and hastily traded her cup for a napkin from the tray to dab at her wet skirt. Kirk took little notice of this and continued.

"Yeah, that was it. The Quasar. You all remember that, don'tcha? 'Bout twelve years ago, I think it was. The Kaizaxx commandeered the ship and took everyone aboard into custody. That was about three dozen prisoners, and about half of them were women. Anyway, Le'Kruune raped 'em all and tortured all the men. Then he just dumped them all off on a desert planet in the Sunhd System. Made the news big time 'cuz everyone was so surprised that he did all that and then didn't bother to finish 'em off like he usually did. You remember that?"

"Yes, we do," Vay said stiffly, glancing over at Leera, who was now looking very pale as she sat staring into her teacup with a poker face. Beside her, Pleakley looked horrified. One hand rested on his wife's back, put there for emotional as well as physical support.

"Such a shame, though," Kirk was saying, and all eyes were immediately glued to him. "What he did to all those people. And then to let them live! I dunno. Maybe it's just me, but they all probably would've been better off if he'd just killed them. I mean, can you imagine what those poor people went through onboard his ship? Being raped, and tortured. Who would even want to live after that?"

A very heavy silence fell after his words, followed seconds later by the shatter of china. Leera had jumped to her feet, slamming her cup and saucer down on the table with such force that they fractured and then crashed to pieces on the wooden floor. Then she fled sobbing into the bedroom, bolting the door behind her. Back in the living room, four Plorginarians stared in utter shock in the direction she had gone.

"What was THAT all about?" asked Kirk, and all eyes turned to glare at him in contempt. "What?" he asked again.

Pleakley stood up and opened his mouth to deliver a universal curse on him, buy Vay interrupted.

"Rape is a very sensitive subject in this household," she explained. "Particularly with Leera."

Kirk's eye widened in the shock of sudden understanding. "You mean she — ?"

Vay nodded solemnly. "She was a member of the Quasar crew when that happened."

"Oh, good Lord. I had no idea." He shook his head and looked at the floor. When he looked up again, Pleakley and Gidgel were still glaring angrily at him. He gulped. "Well, how was I supposed to know that?" he demanded.

"You weren't supposed to know that," Pleakley growled, his eye burning into him with utmost hatred, before going to check on his wife.

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Ooh, tension! Sorry for the slow update, folks. I think I'm back on track now, so I'm going to work really hard to bring you at least one new chapter a week, even if it's a short one like this. BTW, I am always open to suggestions. Also, I am in the process of posting my original character fan art on an all-access site. As soon as they're up, I will post a link to it so all can see what Vay and Leera and the rest of the gang look like. Please review! Remember, reviews fuel the story!