Amanda placed another synthetic fire block into the fireplace and sat back against the pile of pillows that served as furniture in most of the rooms in her new home. She pulled her quilt, the one her grandma made her when she graduated high school, up around her shoulders. She wasn't particularly cold, the old stone walls held the day's heat quite efficiently, but she was alone and lonely, and to her own gall, somewhat scared.
Sarek was away on a diplomatic mission, his first since their move to Vulcan, and a quick one, he assured her, so she agreed to remain behind and get herself settled in and acquainted with their new home and neighbors.
'Fat chance,' she thought morosely. After getting lost twice in her illogically large, but traditional, fortress of a home on the first day, she restricted her movements to those few essential rooms she required, and the only pathway she knew to reach them. No one, not family or neighbors, had stopped in to see her - despite Sarek's words to the contrary - and her one venture to the market showcased her overestimation about her grasp of the Vulcan language and etiquette.
So here she remained, not imprisoned and yet a prisoner just the same. She thought fleetingly to the comm numbers Sarek had left her of people she could call if she required anything, but she couldn't use them. She *wouldn't* use them. You can't call someone on Vulcan just to chat, and she barely knew most of Sarek's friends and coworkers. She knew his parents, but she'd fight a le'matya with her bare hands before she asked his mother for anything. She could call Soran, or even Silek, but if she admitted her troubles to them, it would get back to Sarek, and she didn't want him to think of her as some child who can't be left home alone…even if she was.
Amanda picked up her PADD and just as quickly put it down. She'd been studying her Vulcan all day and even if there was virtually nothing else to do, she just couldn't look at it anymore. Oh, what she wouldn't give for her 58" tele-comm unit on Earth! Alas, it was left at home, along with several of her other technological luxuries that would be nothing more than expensive paperweights on this planet, where actual paper hadn't been used in centuries.
Amanda pushed off her blanket and moved to the small comm unit desk, opting to check her messages for the twentieth time today. She cried out in glee, clapping her hands together happily, upon seeing three new messages had reached her inbox in the last thirty minutes. She took her time reading through a newsletter from her alma mater, and a spam email suggesting she enhance her breast size to improve both her career and her dating life through a new miracle cream, then she feasted her eyes upon the pièce de résistance…an email from her parents. She slowly ingested the pleasantries and news of her other family members and the animals on her parents' ranch until she zoomed into the last paragraph:
Now, kitten, I'm not saying I told you so about being utterly bored and out of touch on that rock your husband calls home - and I'm sure you'll insist the seven emails you sent us today alone are indicative of no such thing - but in case you're looking for something to do, or maybe just would enjoy a piece of home, I've attached some files of some of our favorite movies we used to watch together.
Amanda's eyes lit up as she scanned the files attached to her email. "Titanic, The Godfather, On Golden Pond, and - oh!" she exclaimed, tears pricking her eyes, "Lady and the Tramp." She permitted herself a moment of utter emotionalism before turning back to the comm to click that file. "Please play…please…" She jumped from her chair excitedly when the old Disney title page flashed upon the small screen. Clicking pause, she ran to the kitchen to brew some tea. Amanda eagerly opened the beverage-server menu screen and began browsing the selections in hopes there were some earth blends to round out her night of human delights. "Hot chocolate!" she exclaimed excitedly. Sarek must have stocked the server before he left, after she had repeatedly complained about the lack of anything but tea and juice to drink. "Bless him," she murmured, sliding her mug out of the server and onto the counter before going to the dry-server to look for a snack to go with it. She halfheartedly searched in hope of popcorn, knowing it would be too good to be true, and it was. "Beggars can't be choosers," she murmured as she scanned through the goods available to pick from.
Scratch, scratch.
Amanda stopped, turning her head toward the faint sound she heard.
Scratch, scratch.
She turned, pinpointing the noise was directly behind her, but saw nothing out of the ordinary. She waited but the sound did not repeat, so with a shake of her head she turned back toward the server.
Scraaaape.
Amanda jumped; spinning toward what was unmistakably a noise coming from the cabinet under the sink. "Just a mouse," she murmured, pressing her hand against her racing heart. "A Vulcan mouse." Picturing a comical brown Earth mouse with Vulcan ears and eyebrows, Amanda reached for her mug and scampered back toward the living room.
She set her mug down next to the comm unit, picked her quilt up off the floor, and made herself as comfortable as possible on the small desk chair before gleefully clicking play. Just as Jim-dear was racing Lady back to the house and noticing her brand new collar, Amanda became aware of a soft thudding noise from somewhere in the house. She paused the movie, listening intently, then heard it again. She gasped upon realizing it was the kitchen cabinet door thudding against its frame…the cabinet that was part of the original stonework of the house from the land before time, or some such thing Sarek droned on about when they had first arrived at the house. The cabinet door, like all the doors in the original part of the house, was likewise made of some sort of stone, and very heavy. Amanda gasped upon imaging how large a creature must be in order to push against the cabinet door like that. "Oh my god," she gasped, looking around frantically for some sort of protection.
Hearing the noise again, and louder this time, she ran for the only thing she could find…the lirpa hanging on the far wall between a couple of tapestries. She grabbed the weapon around its shaft and pulled. "Oof!" she grunted as the heavy rounded end of the device banged loudly against the polished stone floor, putting a small chip into its surface. She straightened, leaving the rounded end resting on the floor and carefully holding it near the blade end as she stretched and rubbed her strained lower back. Hearing more noises from the kitchen, Amanda hefted the weapon up and slowly made her way toward the source.
She stopped near the open doorway, resting her arms, and peered around the jamb for any signs of movement. She startled when the cabinet door opened just a little before falling back closed. She watched in horror as the door moved again, a little further open this time, then yet again, but fell closed before she could get a glimpse of the critter inside. Taking a deep breath, Amanda took a step through the doorway. "Shoo!" she shouted, her voice quavering slightly. She heard some scampering, then silence. Amanda waited, breath held so she could hear better.
The door suddenly burst open, and something hairless with beady, lustrous eyes peered out at her before the door closed once again. Amanda shrieked, picking up the lirpa and slamming the blade against the cabinet door, leaving a noticeable scratch across the surface. She heard more scrambling, and banged the lirpa against the cabinet some more, hoping to scare the creature away. She stopped, breathless, and listened some more, wondering if stone walls had hollow interiors of any sort it might get into.
Another noise came, but not from under the cabinet. It was coming from another room. Hefting the lirpa so it didn't scrap along the floor, Amanda slowly made her way back toward the living room, listening. There! She heard it again…coming from the foyer area! She crept across the room toward the foyer, stopping at the doorway that separated the two rooms and listened some more. The front door! She heard some sort of shuffling noise, then the door jostled as though attempting to open.
"What the f-" Amanda's breath hitched as the door jostled again. "It's trying to get in the door," she whispered to herself. She frantically tried to remember if she locked the door when she returned from the market yesterday, but couldn't, and the door itself did not have any indicators on it. She'd have to check the electronic panel next to the door. She crept closer, lirpa in hand, envisioning the creature crawling around on the pedestal that holds the door panel and accidentally pressing the portion of the screen that would open the door just as she was approaching the door herself.
Amanda brushed her fingers across the screen, "waking" it, then glanced down at the alien symbols. The door jostled again, startling her, and she accidentally pressed against the panel. She heard the locking mechanism disengage, and frantically tried to relock it, but her panic made translating the symbols impossible. The door started to slide open, and some primal force within took hold, causing her to scream a wordless battle cry as she hoisted the lirpa and charged the doorway.
Skon jumped back defensively, nearly knocking his wife over in his haste to protect them both from being sheared by the sharp blade. Recognizing it was people at her door, Amanda stopped, gaping at three wide-eyed Vulcans who stared back with unrestrained surprise on their faces.
The first to recover, Silek cleared his throat softly. "We could come back another time."
Amanda shook her head silently.
Skon straightened from his defensive stance and adjusted his clothes. "I am going to take the lirpa from you, if you do not object."
Again, Amanda could only shake her head and released the weapon into her father-in-law's hands. Skon stepped past her and into the house, followed by his wife who refused to take her eyes off the disheveled human. "Barbarian," she murmured as she passed.
Silek waited until his parents were out of ear shot, then approached his former colleague-cum-sister and placed a finger beneath her chin to lift her head and make eye contact. "Keeping yourself busy, I see."
"What are you doing here?"
"My father is here to bring you this tele-comm unit," he gestured to the boxed device on an anti-grav unit behind him, "and set you up with the outworlder services. Sarek requested it, knowing you would miss such things, and it can only be purchased in the tourist section, which I presume you do not yet know how to find. My mother is here to disapprove, of course."
"Of course," she murmured. "And you?"
"I am here to…how did my brother phrase it…'run interference' between you and Mother."
Amanda blinked at him. "How long does it take to set this baby up?" she asked, snapping out of her daze and eagerly inspecting the device.
When they pulled it into the living room the lirpa had been replaced on the wall and Skon was on bended knee inspecting the damaged floor. He glanced up and raised an eyebrow at her questioningly.
"It was heavier than I expected," Amanda said sheepishly.
"Perhaps it would be best to leave it upon the wall," Skon suggested, standing and retrieving the tele-comm from his son.
"This fortress has stood for eons through Vulcan's most violent history, and this little q'uomi will see it to rubble," T'Lara groused as she straightened up the room.
"Will mounting your entertainment device to the wall above the fireplace be acceptable," Skon asked, ignoring his wife.
"Oh, yes, thank you." Amanda enthused as she watched Sarek's father get to work.
"Why did you take the lirpa off the wall?" Silek asked casually inspecting the floor himself.
"There was something in the kitchen!"
He watched her, slowing raising an eyebrow.
"An animal," she clarified.
"Ah." He glanced toward the lirpa, then back to her. "Did you…" he stepped closer, lowering his voice, "kill it?"
"No," she assured him. "It was under the sink; I was just trying to scare it away."
Silek headed toward the kitchen, Amanda in tow. "Did you see it?"
"Just a glimpse…it must be pretty large though, to push open that cabinet door like that."
"It cannot be any larger than the hole through which the well pipe comes into the house," he pointed out. "What did it look like?"
"It was gross."
"Can you be more descriptive?" he asked, bending down to brush his fingers across the gouge in the door. "This is also new, is it not?"
"It was…hairless…scaly…with glowing eyes!"
"Sounds like a chuk'ra." He opened the cabinet and looked inside, then closed it and stood to face her. "A nocturnal carnivorous scavenger that at times will enter a home in search of warmth and food. Traditionally it was deemed fortuitous to have one choose your home."
"Fortuitous?! Ugh…I find that hard to believe."
"They kill and eat other types of pests that might be in the home, but are harmless to people, unless cornered. Sort of like the Earth cat."
"It was nothing like a cat!"
Silek tilted his head to the side in a shrug. "As you wish. It appears you were successful in scaring it away."
"How do I keep it away?"
"I will see if Sarek has any materials I can use to close up the space further." He glanced toward the living room, then back toward her. "Skon is calling you."
"He is?" She listened briefly. "I don't hear anything."
Silek just shook his head. "He is calling. I suggest you go to him before he comes in here and sees the cabinet. I will tend to this matter." Silek called to her just as she was walking through the doorway. "When this is done, I am anticipating hearing how you thought a chuk'ra was attempting to open the front door." She left, and he headed toward the flitter port, wondering if Amanda realized just how much the color of a chuk'ra and a human blush had in common.
The End