Hello everyone! It's me, Leyenar, back with another Star Trek story. I loosely based this one on the Chinese animated movie Ne Zha—I did borrow Nyara's demonic tendencies from the protagonist of that movie while some other bits are based on Megamind.
Summer, Earth, 2285
"Tell us a story!"
The children clamored around a certain middle-aged Meechan, who was sitting on the edge of a fountain. "Please, Admiral Pike?" one of them pleaded, and the woman nodded. She was always so popular with kids when she was off duty.
"Ask, and I shall deliver. What story do you want me to tell?" said the admiral.
"Your life story, pleeeeeeease?" pleaded a little girl with a prosthetic leg.
"But that's a very scary story." the admiral replied. "You think you can handle it?"
"Hell yes." said another kid.
The Meechan let out a laugh; the kids never got tired of that one. "Alright, alright. It all began on planet Madria, home to my people. Some called us, the scourge of the universe. Others, the intergalactic terror. And the truly surprising thing was, all of the rumors were true. We were, indeed, a warrior race and killing came naturally to us, and whether one of another race would talk about us, it would seem like they were bluffing but they were not. As of me, I had a fairly standard childhood, born into the Aurelis clan, the Holy Guardians of Madria. As my parents' only daughter and heir to the Aurelis name, it was my duty to eventually succeed my father as Chief Guardian...if they hadn't come."
"They?" asked a boy. "Who's they?"
"The Romulans."
Madria was under attack. Fire razed the skies as the battle raged on, and my father lost his life in the end. I was a child of five at that point, and to keep me safe, my mother had to hurry up and get me out of the house. She strapped me into an emergency shuttle filled with supplies and sent me on my way. It was a long road, but eventually, I reached my destination:Earth.
The shuttle kept plummeting towards the green planet until it crash-landed on one of the most beautiful locations on Earth. Vast mountains and valleys of greenery, magnificent trees and lush green grass, with snow patches here and there, the most beautiful rock waterfalls which, reflected by the sunlight, made rainbows in front of the waterfalls and crystal-clear blue rivers that sparkled in the sunlight like day-time stars, and a road leading out of this beautiful valley to the more normal fields of snow. Birds were flying freely and happily in the air. In the middle of it was a giant lush fresh green tree with flowery vines hanging from the branches.
The place was called the Valley Of Freedom, once a barren wasteland that became a paradise with the help of the various alien races of the United Federation Of Planets. Soon, it became home to the girl.
Time passed, and the five-year-old Meechan turned ten. One day, she was playing in the great tree when she spotted two people near it. Out of curiosity, she climbed further down to get a better look when she slipped and fell in front of the two. As she struggled to get back up, she saw their faces, looking down at her with worry and surprise. The woman knelt down to the girl's level and said "Oh, dear. Are you alright?"
"Me am fine." replied the girl, using the Standard she picked up from some previous visitors. "Who are you?"
The woman smiled. "Call me Number One." She then gestured at the man, and introduced him. "This is my husband Chris. Have you been living here...all by yourself?"
"Yes." replied the girl.
Number One suddenly hugged the girl. "Oh, you poor little thing. So far from home..." She then turned to her husband and said "What if we...adopt her?"
"What?" asked Chris, his expression shifting. "We don't know what will happen if we take a Meechan in!"
"But Chris!" said Number One, "We'll never know if we can have children of our own. Plus, it's a dangerous world out there. Somebody needs to take care of her until she matures."
"Alright. Maybe this is just one of the many trials the universe decided to throw my way..." muttered Chris, then asked the girl "What's your name, little one?"
"Nyara Aurelis." replied the girl, greatly surprising the two. They never guessed she could be an Aurelis! "My home. In danger. My mother send me here."
"How old are you?" asked Chris, and Nyara held up five fingers, causing both him and Number One to laugh.
"Five? Really? You're too big to be five." giggled Number One, then remembered Nyara could have been five when she landed on Earth and she had no idea how many time had passed since then. "Kid, what if you...live with us?"
"Really?" asked Nyara. "Me curious what outside looks like. Me been thinking this place is all, but me wrong. Me seen people from outside come and go. You really taking me with you?"
"Of course!" replied Number One. "We're amazed you managed to hold your own for such a long time, we would love to have a daughter as courageous as you."
Nyara's face lit up brightly at that statement. "Me always envied girls named Euanna. Euanna means courageous back home. Wanted to change name but could not. A thousand years bad juju for changing name."
Chris seemed to think a bit at that statement, he knew how important given names were to Meechans. "Well, here on Earth, you can have two names." he said. "How does Nyara Euanna sound?"
Nyara made a sound of joy, and on January 13 of 2243, Nyara Euanna Pike was born. (For some STRANGE reason, this day coincided with Nyara's actual birthday, and when she found that out later, she thought it was fate.) And so Christopher Pike, captain of the USS Enterprise, and his first officer-cum-wife Una "Number One" got an alien daughter and raised her with all the love they could give.
"Alright." said Number One, "Put your head here, scooch down, and...now you're five years old. Now you're six, and now you're seven, now you're eight, now you're nine...Ten! You're ten!"
Nyara giggled. "Yay!" she cried.
For three months, Nyara was taught the ways of the human race and also learned to communicate with other races across the universe. And she excelled in all of them, as Meechans were known to be very intelligent. During that time, she watched a lot of Earth movies and quickly fell in love with the ones of MARVEL brand, with the Avengers being her absolute favorites. She also learned to use the internet, and one day, stumbled upon videos labelled "DOOM"...which the young Meechan quickly took a liking to. She waited for her monthly allowance and once she got it, she high-tailed to the classic game store to buy all the games under the Doom name. Her parents had expressed concern over that for a while, but considering that she belonged to a race of predators to which killing came naturally, they allowed her to keep the games. It didn't take long before "rip and tear" became Nyara's motto.
A few more years passed, and Nyara grew up singing sea shanties with her parents, and listening to different kinds of music from her MP3 player. She especially liked those power ballads by some guy named Meat Loaf, as they reminded her of Madria.
One day, the Pikes returned from a mission to see Nyara playing Doom Eternal accompanied by Queen's Don't Stop Me Now. Immediately, the young girl perked up at the arrival of her parents. "Mother, Father! You're home!" she cried in perfect Standard.
"Welcome back, Captain Pike, Mrs. Pike." said her babysitter. "Your daughter, she can be quite a handful." She then revealed an ornate dagger, one that Nyara had been keeping with her since she was three. "I had a hard time confiscating this, she seemed quite...attached to it."
"Of course she is!" Pike laughed. "She told me, that belonged to her real dad. You know, the one who gave his life fighting for Madria."
"Now will you please return it to her?" asked Number One. The babysitter tossed the small weapon onto the clutch of pillows Nyara was sitting on, and high-tailed out of the apartment as fast as possible—apparently, it had been known that the only people able to handle Nyara Euanna Pike properly was Chris Pike and his Number One.
Meanwhile, Number One went over to Nyara who had just finished playing. "Wanna go out and play T-Ball?" she asked. "It's been a long time since we last did that."
"Yay!" cried Nyara, and so she and Number One went to the local anti-gravity-ball arena. As always, Nyara was Team Red and Number One was Team Blue; the first one to score ten goals was the winner.
Soon, the gravity went off and the ball dropped. "Here it comes!" declared Number One as she played with the ball for a bit before kicking it in Nyara's direction. The ball flew straight for the Red Team goalpost, but then it was caught by Nyara in the middle.
"Brace yourself, Mother!" Nyara called out, then kicked the ball real hard that it knocked Number One straight into the Blue Team goalpost. Nyara had scored a goal. "Oops," she said, "I'm sorry. I'll try and restrain myself next time."
"No, have fun!" laughed Number One, and it continued like that for about half an hour before the gravity came back on. Although Number One had lost, she was happy to see Nyara having fun.
Nyara is 15 when she attends a family friend's wedding—a human and a Bajoran. Wearing a lacy pink dress that blended in with her skin perfectly, she was one of the 51 dais-bearers. There were so many extravagant decorations that looked perfect to rip and tear but her parents had told her no, that would ruin everything. "Oh my God, Una! It's so good to see you!" a middle-aged human woman in a long white dress and a gossamer veil cried suddenly, wrapping Number One in a fierce hug.
"Hey, Kacy." said Number One.
"Aaaand Chris." Kacy said as she turned to Pike, who shook hands with her warmly. Nyara was the last to be addressed; that must be the bride, she thought as she stared at Kacy. "So how you been, little miss?"
"I'm not little anymore." Nyara groaned.
"Lemme guess, you're gonna rip and tear me apart if I call you little again? Oh, please don't, I'm getting married today." Kacy laughed. "Oh, and everyone, I'd like you to meet Leeta." she added as a female Bajoran swaddled in glittery blue-black fabric entered.
"So, she's the lucky lady, I presume?" asked Pike.
"Wait, isn't it bad luck to see the bride's face before the official ceremony?" asked Leeta. "I heard that's Terran custom."
Kacy giggled. "Oh, please, darling, we're way past that. Plus, we're both brides, so we negate that, sort of." She then gave her bride a kiss on the cheek, causing Nyara to go all "eww".
A few minutes later, the wedding took place at a garden area complete with a fountain, covered in a glass dome. Bajoran and Terran vows were exchanged, and in accordance with Bajoran traditions, Leeta and Kacy drank out of the same bowl. All the while, Nyara behaved modestly and played the role of dais-bearer perfectly. She was on her best behavior, nothing could possibly go wrong...until she stepped up for a song at the reception party.
"Uh...Ahem, in celebration of today's happy occasion, I picked out a song for the newlyweds." she declared.
"Awwwww!" went the others.
"My favorite, Bat Out Of Hell!" she cried, and everyone went "What?!" Immediately, she began singing.
Oh, baby, you're the only thing in this whole world,
That's pure and good and right,
And wherever you are and wherever you go,
There's always gonna be some light,
But I gotta get out, I gotta break it out now,
Before the final crack of dawn,
So we gotta make the most of our one night together,
When it's over, you know,
We'll both be so alone...
Like a bat out of hell, I'll be gone when the morning comes,
When the night is over, like a bat out of hell, I'll be gone, gone, gone,
Like a bat out of hell, I'll be gone when the morning comes,
But when the day is done,
And the sun goes down,
And the moonlight's shining through,
Then like a sinner before the gates of Heaven,
I'll come crawling on back to you!
Then like a sinner before the gates of Heaven,
I'll come crawling on back to you...
Yes, truth be told, everybody was surprised at the choice of a Meat Loaf song, but the bigger surprise was that the newlyweds loved it. Back when they were still dating, Kacy had told Leeta that if she were to be damned, she'd rather be damned with her one true love rather than alone, causing the Bajoran to blush and Nyara's outburst had reminded the brides of that day.
And that wasn't the only day Nyara would use Meat Loaf for a special occasion—those power ballads would be accompanying her through the trials and tribulations of life.