Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or any of its characters.
Ellara was promptly woken up by someone shaking her shoulder. "Counsellor. Counsellor!" cried a female voice.
Waving off her waker, Ellara mumbled out, "Five more minutes." before attempting to turn over…
…and promptly falling out of her chair. She sat upright and looked around, wiping the drool from her chin with a groan. Ellara had fallen asleep in her office. She spotted Lieutenant Uhura holding back a laugh standing next to her. "Hey." she mumbled as she slowly got to her feet. "Am I late for something?"
The Lieutenant shook her head before calming down. "No, I'm early. But I just came by so we could walk to the rec room." supplied Uhura.
Thinking back on what she had planned, Ellara realized that she was supposed to teach Uhura some Rendorian today. Dusting herself off, Ellara began walking towards her door, PADD in hand. When Nyota realized that Ellara was aware of what they were doing, she quickly caught up and the two began a slow trek.
"No, no, no. It's more like the french 'tu'. You're pronouncing it more like the Italian 'te'." said Ellara calmly.
Uhura groaned, putting her face in her arms. "Rendorian is so difficult. I think it might be worse then Klingon."
Ellara chuckled at that statement, admitting that Rendorian was hard. It was considered to be the third most difficult language to learn. The Lieutenant and her had been in the rec room for two hours, and so far Uhura had learned half of the alphabet. Not bad for a xenolinguist, but to Uhura, it was disastrous.
"Maybe we should call it a day." suggested Ellara.
Uhura nodded, and the two began packing their things. "I'll make some worksheets for our next lesson." Ellara said, glancing towards the door as Ensign Chekov and Lieutenant Sulu walked in.
"Counsellor Lat'toy, Chekov and I were looking for you." called Sulu, walking over to the two girls.
Ellara merely raised her eyebrow in confusion, "What for?" she asked.
Chekov and Sulu looked at each other with a bit of excitement, and Chekov began explaining. "Vell, Sulu vas telling me about how you and him ver planning to spar at some point, and I vas vondering if you could teach me?"
"Speaking of which," Lieutenant Sulu interjected, "we really do need to set a date to spar. Especially after seeing you fight back on Rendoria."
Ellara turned her head away slightly at hearing the man's words. That was not an experience she would be telling to any possible future children. Thinking on it, Ellara decided on a time. "Now." she said quickly.
Sulu looked taken aback, not expecting that answer. However, he was not fazed, and grinned at her. "Alright. Let's do this."
Waving goodbye to Lieutenant Uhura, Ellara began the trek to the gym with Sulu and Chekov. This would be interesting.
—
When they arrived, Ellara began a quick stretching routine she had devised for herself. Sulu began stretching as well, and Chekov sat off to the side, eager for them to begin. Once they were both properly warmed up, the two moved over to one of the giant mats and got in position. "You ready?" asked her opponent, grinning slightly.
Ellara merely hissed in reply before pouncing. Rendorian fighting was pretty animalistic, focusing equally on attacking as on intimidation. So while scratching, punching, charging and kicking, Ellara would growl and snarl and roar, her teeth bared. Safe to say that the intimidation work, but Sulu managed to hold his own. He was a skilled fighter, however the 150 pound woman who was stood in front of him like a panther proved to be enough to scare him into making a mistake, and Ellara finally tackled him to the ground. Sulu tapped out, and the Counsellor's demeanour completely changed. She began smiling, and offered him a hand. Sulu took it and clapped her on the back. "That was really good. I saw a few moves there that don't resemble anything I know; could you teach them to me?" asked Sulu, handing her a water bottle.
Ellara drank greedily before saying, "Without a doubt. Maybe not today, though. It's been a while since I've fought for long, so I'm a little tired right now."
And it was apparent. There was sweat rolling down her face and she looked slightly ashen. She was panting heavily, and both of her hands were shaking. Sulu agreed, and Ellara turned towards Chekov. The young man was smiling wide, the sight he had seen exciting him. "Counsellor Ellara!" he said, running over to the two.
Ellara smiled at him, running a towel along her brow. "Yes, Ensign Chekov?" she asked.
"Do you think you could teach me to fight like that? It vas wery good." he said excitedly.
Ellara nodded, chuckling slightly, and she set up a time and day to teach the two men in front of her. She quickly bid them adieu and walked back to her room for a shower. She needed it.
—
Over breakfast the next morning, cautious glances were sent towards Ellara from the rest of the crew. Her table was laughing as usual, so it wasn't them. Ellara guessed that the news of her actions on Rendoria had spread to the rest of the crew. As one Ensign passed, she hissed "Murderer."
Ellara heard, and simply raised her eyebrow at the brave woman. "Ensign Burrow?" she called before she could get of earshot.
The Ensign stood stock still, and slowly turned back around. Her face was bright red, and she clearly regretted what she had said. "Do you have an issue with me?" asked Ellara slowly, clearly enunciating every word.
Ensign Burrow shook her head rapidly, saying, "N-no Counsellor."
"Really? Because I could have sworn you had called me 'murderer' not a minute ago. Did I hear incorrectly?" Ellara replied, teasing the Ensign.
Burrow looked down in embarrassment, refusing to meet Ellara's eyes. "If you have a problem with me, Ensign Burrow, I suggest you come and see me in my office rather then hiss out insults." scolded Ellara. What she did on Rendoria may have been wrong in the eyes of humans, but it was 100 percent legal and encouraged on her planet. She would gladly explain it to anyone who had trouble understanding that.
Understanding that the conversation was over, Ensign Burrow and her friend scuttled off and Ellara turned back to her food. The entire table was looking at her in shock. This was not the friendly Counsellor they had come to know. This was a woman who could hold her own, and who was pretty sassy. Thankfully, Ellara did not detect any fear in the eyes of her crew-mates. Good. She understood that fighting was not tolerated anywhere else, and the case on Rendoria was a special one. She just hoped they got that she knew this.
"Ellara," called Scotty from the other end. Ellara leaned forward to see him, and nodded. "You said back on Rendoria that that man had killed your girlfriend."
Ellara raised both eyebrows, taken aback. Remembering the events, she realized that she had, in fact, said that. "I did, Scotty. What's your question?"
"I was just wondering what relationships are like on your planet?" he asked, the crew turning to look at Ellara.
She blushed slightly, not used to that much attention. "Well, before we're born, our parents go to the leader of our town to learn about us. Our gender, when exactly we're due, things like that. But, that is also when are parents are told who we're supposed to marry." Ellara paused to allow the information to sink in.
"Your planet has arranged marriages?" asked Spock, curious.
Ellara nodded, wondering, "Why do you ask?"
"I was also engaged. However, my betrothal to T'Pring occurred when I was seven years old." answered Spock, shocking the Counsellor and most of the table. Uhura was not fazed, however, considering their past, this made sense.
"Oh. Well, I believe the situations are much different. On Rendoria, once you know who your child is to marry, you immediately join a house with their family. From my birth, I was beside Lywa. She was more than my girlfriend. She was my soulmate." said Ellara, looking slightly wistful. However, at the 'awww's from the women at the table, Ellara shook her head. "Not like that. We are put together by our ancestor's, our Gods. They have the power to see how we will turn out, and can then decide who will end up together. We are literal soulmates. Up until the day she died, I had not spent a day without her."
"Why would they do that?" demanded Uhura. "That sounds horrible. You don't get a break."
Ellara chuckled, a familiar feeling stirring with her words. "Most children think so too. After about ten, we start to resent our constant time together, but around thirteen, that's when we really appreciate the law."
Her table mates' eyes widened when she said the word 'law'. "It's a law?" cried Kirk, slightly outraged.
Ellara nodded, taking a bite of egg. Swallowing, she continued on. "Yup. It allows us to learn everything we can about our partner before marriage at twenty."
"What if you hate your soulmate?" asked Chekov from the other end.
"It rarely happens, but there are cases. I don't know what they do, however. After twenty, it is very difficult to separate." answered Ellara, finishing off her toast.
"Why would that be?" asked Spock, who had finished earlier.
Ellara smiled. "Because when we're married, one of the High Priests or Priestess' will connect our minds. We will see what our lover can see, and hear their thoughts. It can only be broken by a very painful process with one of our Priests, death, or being separated by at least one planet for a year."
"Well that's oddly specific." commented Scotty.
Chuckling, the Counsellor nodded. "It is. Absence may make the heart grow fonder, but too much is dangerous. A very popular quote on Rendoria."
The table laughed, understanding the humour in her phrase. "So vhat vould that make you?" asked Chekov, and everyone silenced.
"I'm a widow." answered Ellara solemnly.
At her words, everyone's plates suddenly became very interesting. "Well, that's enough learning for one day. I gotta get to work." Ellara stood up abruptly and walked off. That was more awkwardness then she cared to handle.
Chapter 12! Right? Yes? Yes. Sometimes I forget. So, a little bit of learning about Rendorian dating that you already knew about because prologues. I think. Let me check... ok yeah. You already knew some of this. Also, more of that cultural clashing that I enjoy so much. Also someone shoot me because I have no clue how to write Chekov's accent properly. And then I don't even try for Scotty... Sorry. But yeah, that's that chapter. The next one should have an interesting relationship development for Ellara and Spock AND someone else. I apologize if you don't like the pairing, don't necessarily ship it, however it is necessary for plot reasons. However it also might not have that because I've officially passed the point where I wanted the events to go in an exact order, so now I keep checking my guidelines to reference what exactly it is that I wanted to write, heheh. But, all in all, thank you so much for reading, I really appreciate it so much. Leave a comment if you have anything you'd like to say or any constructive criticism, and I shall talk t you all next week!
booklover1798: I really enjoyed writing that. :)
AwesomeFangirlOtaku01: Omg I have to restrain myself when reading fanfics so often otherwise I'll go aw or laugh or start raising my eyebrow. It's nice to know I made you laugh, though. Yeah, Ellara can be rude sometimes. Bruh, love ya too!
LifeIsASacrificeWorthMaking: Thank you so much! I look forward to writing more! :D
- fangirl0012345
Updated September 29th, 2016