Stardate 2239.168
USS Lovelace, Alpha Quadrant
By the time someone began to worry about Ravi, the paint on her face was gone and with it her grief. Beldan was not forgotten, but it wasn't the Romulan way to grieve and lament over someone for any longer than the paint lasted. Therefore, when Commander Lemaire came to check on Ravi two days after the paint had faded, he found her immersed in the movements of the Romulan soldiers she'd never managed to perfect. When the door chime rang, Ravi's concentration was broken. She let the commander in and immediately resumed her previous posture.
"What's that?"
"Martial arts," Ravi responded, letting out a breath of air as she lowered her arms.
"I've heard Romulan and Vulcan martial arts are quite difficult," Elias said, taking a seat at the desk. Ravi wobbled and fell to her knees. "Guess that answers that."
"My arms and legs are too short," she explained, aimlessly playing at her toes. "I'll be able to do them when I'm older."
"Sounds like a plan." Elias paused for a moment and aimlessly shook the PADD he was holding in his hand. "I've got some news for you."
"What kind of news?"
"About where you'll be staying while on Earth."
Ravi rose her head and gazed wide-eyed at Elias. There was a sparkle of anticipation in her green eyes.
"Someone's willing to foster you."
"Where!?" the girl said excitedly.
She stumbled to her feet and glanced down at the PADD in Elias' hands.
"Wales. It's in—"
"The British Isles. Gained its independence from England in the year 2028 after the phenomenon called "Brexit" gave them too many problems. Scotland followed their example in 2031."
"You've been reading," Elias chuckled, and he handed the PADD to Ravi.
"I've been reading about places I wanted to see when I got to Earth," Ravi explained, perusing the contents of the PADD. "Wales was in my top ten."
"Well, you're headed to Caernarfon. I heard most of the old architecture is still in place. Protected by some old preservation laws adopted in the 20th and 21st centuries."
Ravi suddenly stopped pacing the room and stared at the PADD.
"What is it?" Elias asked.
"I just realised I can't read half of this."
The commander let out a loud laugh. Ravi looked around sheepishly and handed him the PADD again.
"Your guardian's name is Sian Isaacs," he began. "She's been fostering kids for a long time but stopped when her husband died. This is her first fostering since then."
"And she wanted a non-English speaking Romulan?"
"Well," Elias chuckled. "She said, and I quote, "wants a challenge" to get her back into it."
"She's crazier than people who willingly eat plomeek broth," Ravi muttered to herself. "Is there a picture of her?"
Elias nodded and waved Ravi over. She came up behind and looked over his shoulder at the picture on the PADD. She couldn't have been older than her mid-thirties, from what Ravi had observed. Her hair was a sandy brown colour and her eyes a very similar shade of green to Ravi's. She had a kind face and a gentle smile that put Ravi at ease.
"I think I'm going to like her."
USS Lovelace, Starbase 1, Sol System, Alpha Quadrant
The stars lit up the darkness of space like little lanterns showing the USS Lovelace the way home. They twinkled in varying degrees of brightness, and some shone white while others gleamed a vague shade of blue. Once in a while, Ravi spotted a glittering dot of red amongst the white and blue stars, and she hoped to see a spec of yellow shining at her soon. But in the distance, far beyond the USS Lovelace, something was glittering blue, white and green all at the same time. Starbase 1 was a giant sphere made to mimic Earth, and its lights that shone white illuminated the blues and greens of the decor and plant life inside. Great Federation ships were docked there—six to be exact—and Ravi watched as a seventh flew in, in glowing nacelles dimming down as the ship came to a full stop.
Ravi was part of the civilian population to take up residence on the USS Lovelace. However, unlike the others who were escorted out by their families, Ravi was led out of the Lovelace by Commander Lemaire. She held onto his hand as if life depended on it, desperate not to get lost in the sea of people leaving the ship for the starbase orbiting Earth. Ravi watched the people go past her. Children clung to their parents and partners held each others' hands. Blue-clad science officers walked out with patients due for extended stays, red-clad engineers met up with others donning grey and red starbase suits to discuss problems within the sensor arrays, and the captain, clad in his golden uniform, walked out to the Starbase and looked back, smiling at his crew and his ship.
"Come, this way," Elias said, tugging Ravi to the left.
Ravi followed the commander all the way to what looked like a dining area. There were several stands with people serving food and hundreds of tables filled with people of kinds. Elias took Ravi to a few food stands until she found something that smelled good, then they sat down to eat and wait.
"Sian is due to arrive in 30 minutes," Elias said after swallowing a few frites, as he'd call them—Ravi had come to learn that this man was Belgian and spoke many more languages than English and Romulan. "That should be enough time for you to clean that huge plate of yours."
"What is it, anyway?" Ravi asked, taking a bite of her food. It was wonderfully spiced. "I think this is my favourite Earth food, so far."
"It's a Punjabi dish called Tandoori chicken."
"I want to Tandoori all my food from now on."
Elias watched, amused, as Ravi ate so enthusiastically that several people began to stare, obviously intrigued by the Vulcan looking girl eating Earth food with such fervour and with her hands. After a short while, Elias had to shoo them away as Ravi began to notice them, but she shrugged it off and cleared her plate in under twenty minutes.
"Jeez, you'd think we've been starving you," Elias chuckled.
"I didn't eat breakfast," Ravi said with a shrug. She looked over at the food cart she'd gotten the tandoori chicken. "Can we try some of that ja... lebi? Jalebi?"
"I don't think you'd like it, kid. It's very sweet."
"Oh," Ravi said, pulling a face. "Anything sour?"
"There's probably some kind of candy store here that'll have something sour enough to rip the skin off your palate."
Ravi seemed delighted by that idea and waited excitedly for Elias to finish his meal so they could go hunt for the candy store before Sian arrived. However, just as they stood and brought their trays to the nearest disposal area, a woman called out for Commander Lemaire. He and Ravi turned around, and the sight of Sian Isaacs suddenly made Ravi very nervous. This was the woman she'd be spending a great number of years with, the woman who chose her over hundreds of other children.
"Ah, Mrs Isaacs! You're early," Elias said jovially. He took a few steps forward and shook Sian's hand. "This is Ravi."
After Elias had taken a step forward, Ravi immediately hid behind his legs. She wasn't typically someone who got scared, but the prospective rejection Ravi feared would occur overwhelmed her. What could this lovely Earth woman want with a Romulan like her?
"Hello, Ravi," Sian spoke. The girl poked her head out upon hearing her own language and noticed there was a device in her right hand. "Commander Lemaire gave it to me. It's a translator. That's how you and I can understand each other, right now. Of course, once I learn Romulan and you learn English, we won't need it at all."
"Hello, Ms Isaacs," Ravi said quietly. "Are you really going to learn Romulan?"
"Oh, please, it's just Sian. And of course, I'm going to be learning Romulan. I learn all the languages of the children I foster."
"How many languages do you speak?"
"Oh, give or take a dozen."
A sparkle of amazement shone in Ravi's eyes.
"Now, I heard you wanted to hunt for something sour?"
Ravi couldn't hide the excitement in her face at the mention of sour candy. She nodded her head enthusiastically then followed Sian and Elias through the Starbase halls in search of the right shop. Eventually, Ravi emerged with a large bag of absurdly sour confections from Betazed—her palate was nearly in pain after just three pieces and the sheer amount of citric acid present in the candies.
"Come on kid, you'll kill yourself eating so many of those."
"As the Klingons say, "today is a good day to die," Commander."
As Sian and Elias gave a chuckle, an announcement rang through the Starbase. Several shuttle pods were leaving for Earth within the hour.
"Oh, that's us, Ravi," Sian said gently.
"Really?" the girl said a little surprised. "Already?"
She looked to Commander Lemaire. He smiled and knelt down.
"Grown fond of me already?"
"No," Ravi lied, looking at her feet.
"Don't worry, kid. You'll be seeing me around. I plan on taking a nice cushy job in a fancy medical office on Earth by the end of the year," he said. "I'll be able to visit every week."
"Really?"
"Really."
Ravi smiled a little and extended her hand. Elias looked at it for a moment before chuckling and shaking her hand.
"Then, I will... see you around, Commander," Ravi said in English.
"Yes, you will."
Elias ruffled the girl's hair and then watched as she walked towards the shuttle pods alongside Sian, a fond smile on his face. Now he really needed to take that job at Starfleet medical.
Sian and Ravi made it just in time for check-in. It felt strange being addressed as Ravi Isaacs, but she supposed that it was something she'd get used to the more she heard it. The two of them sat at the back of the shuttle, and they both looked out, amazed as Earth slowly got closer and closer. One of the children on the shuttle was eyeing the sour candies in Ravi's hand and, with a glance at the parent to confirm it was all right, she extended her arm towards the child. He snatched one of the candies immediately and delightfully smiled upon sticking the sour confection in his mouth. Ravi couldn't help but quirk the corners of her mouth upward. It confused the mother sitting across from Ravi, and the others who were watching the interaction, but they thought nothing of it. After all, the woman she was with was human. Perhaps she too was, in part, human.
However, that conclusion soon came to be abandoned. As Sian and Ravi shared conversation about one another, the other passengers realised that this was the Romulan child taken in by the Federation. The atmosphere changed immediately. The air of pleasantness that grew from the two children sharing sweets vanished in an instant the second the mother realised, and she pulled her son's hand away and gave Ravi a strange look.
Ravi had seen that look before and, being human, it was easier to pinpoint the emotion on them than on Vulcans. It was fear and distrust—pure and simple. Other people in the shuttle, however, seemed even more curious now that they'd figured out she was Romulan. They had been so used to seeing Vulcans that it was inconceivable to see even the shadow of a smile upon those features. And yet, here it was, a small and shy smile brought up by Sian and a simple mispronunciation of a Romulan word.
London, Earth, Sol System, Alpha Quadrant
The shuttle pod dropped everyone off in London and workers directed passengers to the correct transporter pads in order to be transported to cities within range. Several people kept walking, with London as their final destination, but most people were heading towards the pads. Ravi could hear many people speaking English, every single one of them with varying accents. She suspected that some were Scottish, others Irish, and Sian pointed out that one family was even speaking a nearly extinct Manx variant of an Earth language called Gaelic.
Cardiff, Earth, Sol System, Alpha Quadrant
Sian and Ravi were one of two families headed to the Wales transporter pad and, once again, their molecules broke apart and resequenced themselves, Ravi could have sworn she felt her body both in London and Cardiff for a split second.
"All right, now it's the train."
"Train?"
"Oh, yes. Caernarfon is way up north," Sian explained. "We have to take transport there. Unless you want to use another transporter?"
"No!" Ravi said excitedly. "I want to see all the landscape!"
Sian took Ravi's hand and led her through the busy streets of Cardiff. Like Elias had said, most of the old buildings had been preserved for historical purposes. Great walls and castles of stone stood majestically between modern glass buildings, and plentiful flora lined the streets with their colours. The sound of waves from the bay reached Ravi's ears, mingling with the sounds of hundreds of people speaking to each other, and just when Ravi thought she couldn't hear anymore, someone in the distance was singing in a language far stranger than English.
The train was a top of the line bullet train which cut the usual travel time by nearly half. Sian picked up a snack for herself and Ravi before getting on the train, and they took their seats near the middle of the train. The second it took off, Ravi's face was plastered to the window. For two and a half hours, Ravi watched the Welsh landscape fly past. It was beautifully green, with mountains and hills rolling along the landscape as if they were sculpted by gods. Once in a while, Ravi saw a collection of white dots fly past and Sian identified the blurs as sheep. The train made a stop in a city called Aberystwyth, and Ravi awed at the crystalline waters of the coast for a few minutes before the train started again. On the last leg of the trip, the train sped through Snowdonia national park on tracks that replaced the road that used to run there. Ravi's mouth hung open as she looked at the beautiful painting of greens, reds and whites that draped over the mountains.
Caernarfon, Earth, Sol System, Alpha Quadrant
Once again, among the modern glass buildings of Caernarfon stood the ancient castles of kings. As Ravi and Sian stepped off the train, the girl's eyes didn't know where to look. Habituated to the darkness and flatness of Remus, a vibrant coastal city like Caernarfon was almost something out of a folk tale her father used to tell her. She could smell the ocean air and feel the salt on her skin and taste it on her tongue. When several children running past Ravi spotted her, they all gathered around, curious, asking things that she didn't understand. However, Ravi understood their gestures.
It was the first time that many of them had seen something other than a human, and they approached Ravi with an innocent curiosity. They pointed to her ears, smiling, and Ravi nodded, flicking her ears to make the children laugh, and she even wiggled her slanted eyebrows and gestured for the kids to imitate. They tried, unsuccessfully, but they all had a great laugh, and those who were holding confections and sweets from local shops held out their bundles to Ravi for her to get a taste of the local snacks.
"All right, everyone, we have to get home and settle in," Sian said, as Ravi reached for a second Welsh cake. "We'll be back tomorrow for the festival if Ravi is feeling up to it."
Ravi waved at the collection of children and they ran off, smiling and laughing. Sian took Ravi's hand once again and she looked down to find a soft smile on the girl's face.
"Is everyone so friendly here?"
"Usually, yes," Sian said. "And I'm sorry if they were a little too curious about you. There's never been someone who looks like you here."
"It's okay. It was nice to be stared at for a reason other than to judge me."
"The Vulcans really did a number on you, huh?"
"I was only there for about a week, but I'd never experienced something like that before," Ravi said quietly. "I've been surrounded by people like me my whole life and I was never picked on by others for being half-Vulcan. Mind you..."
"What is it?"
Ravi looked back towards the park. The children were still there, running around and eating their snacks.
"I've never interacted with someone my age," Ravi explained. "Maybe if I was with people my age they would have made fun of me for it, but an adult ridiculing a child for any reason isn't a practice Romulans engage in."
"I don't think they would have. You're part Romulan," Sian reasoned. "Well, in my book you're more Romulan and Vulcan."
"And that... doesn't bother you?"
"Why should it?"
The girl shrugged.
"The Romulans have lots of enemies and we don't like outsiders."
"Well, no Romulan's ever done me any wrong and I love outsiders," Sian said, smiling. "My enthusiasm will be enough for the both of us."
"I think I'm more Vulcan than I'd like," Ravi sighed. "I'm not as closed off as the rest of my people."
"There's nothing wrong with being Vulcan either, dear."
"I know. But they took me away from home and locked me in a room just because I didn't want to follow their stupid rules. I don't want to be like that. But when I say that I'm Romulan... People don't like it."
"Hey."
Sian stopped and knelt down before Ravi. There was a kind smile on her face, but Ravi could see a hint of sadness in her eyes.
"Who cares what anyone else thinks? If you're happy with who you are, then no one else's opinion matters."
"But—"
"No "buts," Ravi. If you're happy and proud with who you are, then you just gotta show the world. If you show everyone just how proud a Romulan you are, then no one's going to dare make fun of you. Plus," Sian said, a mischievous grin creeping up on her face, "no one can understand what you're saying."
"Are you encouraging a young child to speak ill of others?" Ravi asked, an eyebrow raised. Sian shrugged. "The Vulcans would call that poor parenting."
"Eh," Sian said, waving her hand. "Who cares what those guys say. They're always cranky."
"That's because they eat tasteless plomeek broth for breakfast."