Chapter 30: Caution

A/N: Thanks for your comment, romulanlover! "Team tosha" made me smile :-D Letant possesses far more of a fun-loving side than the dour and grim Vreenak. As you'll see…!

The Romulan name generator was very useful when I was mulling over a name for Vreenak's aide.


Merken tr'Vreenak moodily pushed away his glass of kali-fal. Delon tr'Letant swivelled a shrewd eye in his direction.

"The Human...Ihhei t'Darak...she was most charming, wasn't she?"

Vreenak threw him an irritated glance. "Please get to the point, Delon."

"You would like to mate with her, wouldn't you?"

"No! How did you get such a disgusting idea?"

"My friend, we have known each other before we could walk or talk. She is a delightful woman and the opposite of disgusting. Married, true, but..." he shrugged, "we live in modern times."

"Delon, are you completely insane?"

"Naturally. One has to be insane to choose a politician's career." Letant winked at him.

Vreenak crossed his legs. "She has proved to be far more interesting than any of those asinine Starfleet officers I have had the misfortune of meeting. And because of that, she could be dangerous."

"That is the Tal Shiar in you speaking, Merken. Besides, you're not afraid that she might be dangerous to the Empire. You are afraid that she might be dangerous to you."

"Really? In which manner?"

"A politician's life can become rather lonely, can it not? We are very similar to Humans in that we regard our families as our stronghold, provided they are not too dysfunctional. Though, I would say that everyone is dysfunctional."

"I am waiting for you to get to the point."

"How much time do you reserve during events like the spring festival to speak to members of the public?"

"Approximately five minutes."

"You spoke to Asha t'Darak for almost twenty minutes, excluding your conversation before you were interrupted. By which fact I surmise that she arrested your interest considerably with her charms."

Vreenak raised a chilly eyebrow but did not comment.

"Now, tell me frankly, Merken. If she were unmarried and you did not have a profession which would be jeopardised by intimate liaisons with a Human…What would you do?"

"Ignore her."

"Oh." Letant leant back, satisfied, and grinned a crooked grin.

Vreenak rose. "Enough of this foolishness. From what I witnessed about her interactions with her husband, they seem very affectionate towards each other."

"Indeed, I share your impression. But I know you, Merken. When you want something or someone, you won't let go."

"Enough of this absurd matter. Already this conversation would cost us both our positions and maybe even our heads."

"A headless Senator. I like the sound of that. A headless Senator present during our next Senate meeting," Letant mused. Vreenak ignored him, but he suppressed a smile. It was precisely because Letant and he were such opposites that they had always got on well. Letant tempered Vreenak's paranoia, and Vreenak would encourage Letant to come down from his frequently high-spirited speeches and manners during political meetings and matters. Where they refused to agree was the position of the Romulan Empire as an isolated force. Letant insisted that the Empire step out of its isolation, and Vreenak argued that it was isolation that gave the Empire its power.

Letant had never married or had a family, but Vreenak had been in a happy marriage with a cousin organised by their respective clans decades ago. She had died during a Klingon raid – she and their unborn daughter. Letant had helped Vreenak through the worst of his grief, and this had cemented their friendship more than ever.

"Another glass of kali-fal, my friend?" Vreenak offered.

"Certainly," Letant replied.

Three weeks after his conversation with Letant, Vreenak he called one of his most trusted aides and handed him a PADD.

"Rovuxo, I wish to be informed of this Human's movements when she leaves her home on weekends."

The aide took the PADD impassively.

"Very well, Deihu."

"Kindly send me a weekly report."


Asha was walking cheerfully through the woods, Lilou whisking beside her. The set'leth had grown to be double the size and although still a cub, a formidable-looking one. Asha felt far more secure with Lilou's company, and she didn't have to worry about Lilou becoming restless or shuffling her feet when she took pictures of the fauna and flora around her or studied a plant for several minutes. Thorek and Kihika had never shown any signs of impatience, but Asha could not imagine anyone enjoying stopping every ten minutes and tramping through mud just to get a better picture.

On this day, she was studying the growth of caterpillars and their dietary habits. As she was taking pictures of them, with Lilou lying comfortably in the shade, she heard a soft rustling near her, and she turned her head, distracted. Maybe it was another hiker? Or an animal? Another set'leth? Lilou cocked her fluffy ears. Asha listened for a few moments, shrugged and turned back to the caterpillars. She rose from her kneeling position and continued her excursion. As she did so, the rustling started up again. Asha glanced at Lilou. The set'leth, too, seemed uneasy, and in fact moved closer to Asha. Asha stopped abruptly, and so did the rustling. She continued and stopped again. The same thing happened. She saw a bench and paused. She placed her bag on it and rummaged for a small disruptor Thorek had given her. It was forbidden for citizens with limited rights to carry weapons unless their spouses allowed it with permission from the local security office, which Thorek had obtained from the very officer who had done his best to catch Asha's almost-murderers.

Asha took out the disruptor, her heart beating rapidly. Lilou growled softly and went into a prowling position, back stretched, stomach almost touching the ground. She laid back her ears. Again something or someone stirred near her location.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" She made her voice sound stern and arrogant.

Lilou bared her teeth. Then, silently, she stalked slowly towards the bushes and disappeared inside the foliage. Asha waited, her muscles tense. Suddenly, there was a loud bark. The bushes trembled violently. She heard a ripping sound and a yell followed by profanity. She instinctively raised the disruptor. A Romulan man bounded past her with bare legs and underwear half exposing one buttock. He disappeared out of her sight, and Lilou trotted out of the bushes, a pair of torn trousers in her mouth. Asha knelt down and hugged her. Lilou nuzzled her affectionately and barked in a rather muffled manner.

"Thank you so much, Lilou." She took the trousers and began to laugh, shaking her head, thinking of the Romulan rushing around the woods in a pant-less state. Then, as she examined the trousers, she muttered, "What the hell?" And she packed them into her bag.

"Come, Lilou, let's go home," she said, and they went back to the flitter.

When she arrived, Thorek looked up from his work and rose to greet her, noting her breathless and excited appearance.

"You are back early, my ailhun. Has something unusual occurred?"

"Yes, someone was following me in the woods. Lilou is wonderful! She de-trousered the stalker."

"De-trousered?"

Asha opened her bag and handed him the torn trousers.

Thorek cleared his throat. "And what did he do?"

"He ran away as fast as he could with half his bottom showing. I had no idea you had trained Lilou in this, uhm, discipline."

Thorek's mouth quirked. Then he threw back his head, guffawed, and stooped to pat Lilou, murmuring praises to her.

Asha grinned widely while her husband, still laughing, examined the trousers. Then he frowned.

"Romulan aides wear these."

Asha's expression became serious, too.

"That's what I also thought. And now you've confirmed it. My deyhhan, why on earth is a senatorial aide following me around the woods?"

Thorek took her hand.

"Ashaya, you are unaware of your charms, especially around jaded politicians like Deihu tr'Vreenak."

She blushed. "I don't have charms. I'm just me. Thorek, what are you trying to tell me?"

"That is your charm, Asha. Modesty and candidness are poorly ingrained in our society, especially among prominent and wealthy Romulans. And in this supervised and controlled society, Romulans have to watch every word and step until it becomes second nature. You have little experience with men, especially with Romulans from the higher echelons, and you have mated with only me."

"I am not naïve because I have mated with only you."

"You are young from both a Human and Romulan point of view. Humans live to be about hundred-and-twenty in today's modern times. You are still new to Romulus. If you were a Senator's wife, there would be so many opportunities for you."

"I don't care. I already have more than enough opportunities," was her stubborn response.

Thorek smiled. "A woman whose company was sought by two Senators would be vying for marriage to one of them, seeing that both are single. Maybe even at the cost of divorce. You could rise very high in Romulan society and politics as the first Human. You are restricting your options by staying with me. As a Senator's wife, you would know luxuries you can hardly imagine, the biggest one of all being elevated to a social status where none would dare to insult or injure you."

"I originally come from a country with a history of maharanis and maharajas, of Mughal emperors and nawabs, steeped in monarchy, luxury and hierarchy, not unlike yours in times long past. And what would I do with all that luxury?"

"Use it to make your life rich and full on Romulus. One of the most powerful Senators is interested in you. He would hardly set his spies on you otherwise."

"That is speculation, and even if it were not, I wouldn't care. Why are you trying to push me away when you don't want to?"

He smiled at her perceptiveness. "I want you to live your life as fully as you can on Romulus, my wife."

"I don't care about being some prominent Romulan's wife! I know what I want for myself. I am happy being with you. Unless you feel differently?"

"I don't." His voice was low and passionate. He gathered her to him. "And this is what you truly want?"

"Yes, and if you ask again, I'll train Lilou to sit on your head." He studied her face and saw the love and determination in her eyes.

"Then if this is what you want, my wife, I will take no other woman to my bed."

She looked at him, startled. "Thorek, now it is my turn to ask if that is what you truly want. I know you enjoy meeting other women a lot...?"

"Ashaya, you are the most remarkable being I have met. You will be keeping me on my toes, to use your Human expression, for as long as I live."

She smiled. "But just in case you do meet someone, tell me. You did say that in matters of the heart, things can be most unexpected."

"Such as this," Thorek said, kissing her on the mouth. "Love is sweet when unexpected, Ashaya, and all the sweeter when mutual."

"Yes! Oh yes!" she agreed enthusiastically.


Vreenak's eyebrows shot up as he watched his aide descend from the flitter.

"The weather is fine today. I hope the breeze around your knees is refreshing," he observed acridly.

Poor Rovuxo turned bright green, terrified that Vreenak might dismiss him from his service on the spot. He was a single father raising three children. His wife had been serving on one of the Romulan outposts in the Neutral Zone when it had been destroyed.

He apologised profusely and told him what had happened. When he had finished, Vreenak observed:

"While she is a Human, she possesses ears and a set'leth. Hiding in the vegetation strikes me as a particularly asinine idea. The military seems to be doing a very poor job of recruiting the newer generations. I am dismissing you for ten weeks and I will make an entry of your failure and put it in your log."

Rovuxo went pale. His lips quivered for a moment as if he wanted to protest. Then he hung his head.

"Yes, Deihu," he whispered.

"Leave."

He left, humiliated and almost in tears.

After the death of his wife and unborn child, Merken tr'Vreenak had become a harsh man with a cruel tongue. People respected him out of fear, and hardly anyone truly liked him except for his Senator friend Delon tr'Letant, who had known him since childhood.

Later, Vreenak stood at the window of his huge villa with his hands clasped behind his back. He was thinking about Asha t'Darak. Of course he knew that she was not a danger to the Empire, and his explanations that Asha might be a Human spy were excuses to hide his fascination with her. She had upset his mask with her gentle ironic manner, so reminiscent of the wife he had lost, and it was quite probable that she knew that it was he who had set a spy on her due to Rovuxo's clumsiness. Moreover, from what Rovuxo had told him, she knew how to handle a disruptor; she had been holding one in her hand when he had burst out of the bushes in order to shake off the set'leth.

Vreenak was tired of visiting brothels and if the Human hadn't been married, and it would seem happily so, he would have considered courting her secretly with rich gifts and making her his consort; but having conversed with her, he had the feeling that she wouldn't be in the least impressed with glittering little dainties or perfectly formulated sentences. Asha t'Darak had sparked something in him.

There were other ways, naturally. It would be so simple to get rid of her clanless husband and claim her by force, for example. This kind of method struck him as brutal and disgusting. He knew people were loyal to him through fear, and he was sick of that, too. Vreenak paced around his room and stared at the walls which were covered with medals, awards and decorations he had accumulated during his career.

Long ago, he had served as aide to a Senator and admired the power and respect which came with the role; and his parents, Senators themselves, had groomed him for his career path. Now that he himself was a Senator, surrounded by every luxury and adulation he could think of, he realised how thankful he was for Letant's non-conformist ways.

As a public figure, he coveted privacy the most. He would wander around the woods in disguise with brown lenses hiding the blue in his eyes, a wig, and an earring in one ear, such as frequently worn by farming folk and Romulans with simple means. No one, not even Letant, knew about this habit. A handful of hours away from his aides, political entourage and media had become his favourite luxury; but it was a lonely luxury, with no one to share it with him or liven up with stimulating conversation.

Asha gave back as good as she got, and it impressed him. She was practically a nobody on Romulus, and her marriage to a Romulan without a clan, ancestral reputation or ties to an elitist profession did little to elevate her. And yet her tenderness for her husband was obvious. She was cautious around Vreenak, and she did not get flustered or simper in his presence. She had the manners of a high-born Romulan, and she had pride. Romulans and pride were inseparable, though his kind of pride verged on arrogance and hers on upholding her dignity in the face of a mostly disapproving society.

Vreenak sat down at his marble-topped desk and consulted his calendar. And an idea occurred to him. He was known for his brilliant ideas.