Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek or any of its characters.
"We've been summoned." the voice behind her made Ellara jump about a foot off her seat.
She'd been enjoying a relaxing evening meal in the cafeteria, deeply invested in the novel on her PADD. It was a cute romance story that Ellara had read in her teen years. She would have been eating with Spock, but he had come to see her earlier in the day, explaining that he had a lot of paperwork to get through and that they would have to put off that night's meal. Ellara completely understood, appreciative that he had decided to tell her rather then let her go off searching for him in worry. It was as she was finishing up that McCoy had appeared and startled her.
"Mind explaining?" she asked, pulling her satchel off of the bench to let him sit. Bones declined, preferring to stand.
"Well, specifically, you have." Ellara rolled her eyes before getting his message and getting up. "Jim's waiting for you."
Scoffing at this formal summons, Ellara threw out the remainder of her food. "Any reason why you're involved?"
"I was trying to give Jim a vaccination, and he sent me off to get you."
Ellara chuckled, thinking of the last time she had seen Bones attempt to stick a needle in the Captain's neck. That did not end well, if the bruise on her hip was any indication. By this point, they were walking into the transporter room. "He's gonna get killed one day. And not just because of his outrageous hero complex. He'll go down on a planet, catch a very preventable illness, and then I'll have to console Nyota, and Spock'll become Captain…" She trailed off, seeing the familiar purple stripes standing beside the subject of her speech.
"Uh." was her extremely intelligent response to the men and women dressed in formal garb. Purple shirts and pants, accented with gold stripes clarified their status. Once she realized, her shocked face turned to one of anger, and she growled out "Machi."
Bones had to stick out an arm to keep her from charging them, completely shocked at her rage. "Ellara, what the hell?" cried Kirk, stepping in front of the officials. He didn't understand how one of his… albeit usually calmest workers had turned into this person of pure fury.
"They're in my territory, I can fight them if I want. It's the law!" she snarled, still trying to get past the two security guards who were now restraining her arms.
"Miss Lat'toy, we come on official business." one man with a shaved head spoke up, stepping around Kirk to approach her.
Seeing his steps, Ellara backed off quickly, hitting McCoy's chest as she did. She let out a hiss, clearly frustrated. "Don't think that that means I won't get you once your work here is done."
"Alright will everyone just calm down?" demanded Kirk, stepping between Ellara and the others once again. He looked at his counsellor, raising an eyebrow. "Who's macki?"
"Machi." she clarified. "It's the name of the leader of Rendoria. And he's a tyrant!" she shouted to the government officials. "He's been stealing our land and our money, he doesn't do anything when we're invaded, and we've been getting attacked more and more since he made the stupid decision to put all of the Priests in our territory."
Kirk looked irritated, upset that she was still riled up. "Jesus, alright, calm down El. Listen, they just need to know about what you saw of Rendoria Four."
Ellara blinked, not expecting that. She'd thought that they had finally found out it was her that had staged the rebellion five years prior. "Oh. Well, it was just sort of populated, and there were tons of cargo ships flying around, and it looked ridiculously colonized." she supplied, shifting around in silently contained anger.
"What'd you say?" Kirk whispered, not understanding the quick Rendorian.
"Just the truth." Ellara answered, watching as the government officials spoke amongst themselves.
Kirk was silent for a moment before speaking up again. "What was that about Spock being Captain earlier?"
Bones, who had heard, prepared a hypo to use. "Well, I was just saying that if you didn't get your vaccines, you'd get sick and die one day." With perfect timing, McCoy planted one in his friend's neck, a snicker escaping his throat. "And now that won't happen."
"Goddamnit Bones!" Jim called to his escaping friend, mad laughter being heard from down the hallway.
Ellara saw a man look up and then turn back to the others, the discussion becoming slightly animated.
Finally, after about five minutes, they broke apart, and a woman began speaking this time. "Ellara Lat'toy, we thank you for your information. We don't trust these humans as much as we do our own, and although you clearly have a distaste for your leader, we appreciate your willingness."
As they turned to leave, Ellara stopped them. "Listen, these humans aren't that bad. Maybe if you guys tried to fix the rebellion, you could spread out among the stars to see for yourself."
With that, she turned around, grumbling about "stupid Machi and his stupid worker bots".
Kirk looked back and forth between his retreating friend and the group staring in shock at her. He shook his head, placing it in his hands for a minute before shooting it back up and instructing Scotty to get the transporter pad ready.
Ellara walked back into her room, only to be startled by someone wanting to start a video stream. She clicked accept, and her father's face filled up the screen. "Oh, hey father." she said, surprised.
"Ancestors, Ellara. I've been trying to get in touch with you for almost half an hour." her father replied, slightly teasing.
Ellara blushed, embarrassed at being reprimanded. "Sorry. I was just… nothing. Anyway, what's up?"
Nalli grinned, pulling up a book to show her a page. "The connection is definitely not good enough for me to read that fancy script." sassed Ellara.
Nalli rolled his eyes, dropping the heavy tome onto his desk. "Let me read what I found." He cleared his throat, adjusting small reading glasses he had put on. "So, this is the good part. 'Fire. It is the staple of our culture. It lights our nights, and signifies a change in personality. There are those who are so passionate, though, that when angered, become a living fire weapon. They are our greatest warriors, and are the leaders of our culture. They can bring great change.' And there you have it." Nalli slammed the book shut.
It took a moment for Ellara to fully comprehend the meaning of the words, but once she had, she let out a huff and sat back in her seat. She slowly spun it in a circle, her toe pushing the carpet to move herself. "El? What do you think?" her father asked tentatively.
She finally came back to where she started, facing the screen. Ellara slowly looked up, rage clouding her vision. "I think it's complete bullshit, and that I shouldn't believe some stupid book that tells me I'm a leader. I'm not. Thanks for the help, dad, but I think I'll just forget about it." With that, she rapidly clicked the 'end call' button and stood up, her chair rolling across the room.
She breathed heavily for a few moments, trying to calm herself down. It didn't work, however, and she let out a yell of rage as she picked up the object nearest her and chucked it at the wall. This triggered a chain reaction of fury, and she began tearing everything in her room apart. Thank god they were soundproof. By the end, Ellara was standing in the middle of the room, staring at the wreckage around her.
Her mattress was half off the bed, her lamp tossed to the ground, and her desk and dresser were on their sides. Most of the papers that had been pinned to her walls were ripped or crumpled.
She tilted her head to the side, letting out a 'huh'. That was more satisfying than she thought. With a resigned sigh, however, she began to clean everything up.
About twenty minutes later, as Ellara was looking at the torn up papers and thinking about how to fix them, her door rang. She stood up, walking over slowly.
Opening the door. Ellara found Spock standing on the other side. His mouth gaped slightly as he saw the disaster that was her room. "Ellara, what has happened?" he asked, stepping in.
Ellara chuckled, giving her response. "I, uh, I got a little upset."
Spock turned to his partner, raising an eyebrow. "A little?"
"Ok. A lot." she looked down in shame.
Spock examined the room, trying to piece together what had happened. Unfortunately, nothing clued him in. However, he noted that a few parts of the room seemed singed, almost as there had been… "Was there a fire?" he asked.
Ellara flinched, finally noticing the blackened areas. "Uh, not exactly."
The Vulcan could tell that the woman standing across from him wasn't telling him the whole truth, however he knew Ellara, and figured that it would be safer to keep his mouth shut. "I was going to invite you to join me in my room for an evening meal, but I see that it would be more helpful if I aided you in cleaning."
"I would appreciate it."
Spock nodded, and moved to pick up the overturned furniture.
Woot woot! Chapter twenty five. Ooooh-la-la! We learn more about the stuff going on on Rendoria, and we get to hear some things about Ellara herself... :) I actually had to speed write this chapter because I've been hella busy with summatives and stuff, and in fact, I have a message. I might not be able to update for the next two weeks, seeing as I'm going to be finishing up my summatives and studying for exams. I will try, though. I actually should have time if I decide to stay after school once I've finished writing my exams, so... maybe just for next week. I will do my best, though, but it might be a bit late. I completely ignored creating two entire projects due Wednesday and Thursday next week... It's ok. I'm a queen at finishing things the night before. :) So, without further ado, adieu.
booklover1898: Great to hear.
Love. Fiction. 2016: Nice comment.
- fangirl0012345
Updated January 13th, 2017.