<\/p>\n
<\u00a0\u00a0 previous\u00a0\u00a0<\/a>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 next ><\/p>\n <\/p>\n I stumbled stepping off the transport pad, and Jim grabbed my arm.\u00a0 I felt disheveled, disoriented.\u00a0 I barely registered his motions as Bones did a quick sweep with his scanner.<\/p>\n \u201cAre you okay?\u201d Jim asked.\u00a0 \u201cBones, is she okay?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ll need to do a thorough exam, but\u2026 she\u2019s good, Jim.\u00a0 Nothing a good night\u2019s sleep won\u2019t fix.\u201d\u00a0 Bones smiled at me and I smiled back, a little goofy at the warmth of his voice.<\/p>\n I wasn\u2019t quite honing in on the discussion.\u00a0 But here was Jim, again, taking me by the shoulders, with a consideration, a naturalness I knew he wouldn\u2019t ever have had\u2026 before.\u00a0 He put a hand to my hair \u2013 I hadn\u2019t done much good with it – and looked at me sharply, but tenderly, too; that\u2019s the only way I can describe it.<\/p>\n \u201cIf I\u2019m right, we\u2019re going to need you again, Hani, and soon.\u00a0 Can you do it?\u00a0 Can you face down the Magna one more time?\u201d<\/p>\n I was still in whiplash, caught between the afterglow of lovemaking – I couldn\u2019t possibly think of it as anything else, then or ever after – and our precipitous escape.\u00a0 His closeness still made my heart rise.\u00a0 I was only partly aware of Scotty\u2019s keen, curious gaze, or the transport technician, respectfully pretending not to stare.\u00a0 I could feel all the attention on me.\u00a0 It was a lot to handle in my state.<\/p>\n I nodded.\u00a0 \u201cI just need a minute to \u2026put myself together,\u201d I said.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on,\u201d Jim smiled.\u00a0 \u201cYou can use the facilities in my ready room.\u201d\u00a0 He gestured for me to lead the way, but it was Bones who realized I could use a little support, and whose arm came around my waist as we walked out.<\/p>\n These are the things they never tell you in the epic tales.\u00a0 Jim\u2019s private head just off his ready room had a hairbrush, a man\u2019s brush, not at all up to the task of my shoulder-length tangle.\u00a0 Still I did my best, and splashed a little water on my face, which only brought back the sense memory of the last time water touched my face so softly, a memory that already felt lifetimes away, and yet so real, so real.<\/p>\n No time to think about the state of my body beneath the gown I carefully smoothed out.\u00a0 No time to dwell on the scents that lingered on my skin. The only stab of regret I felt was when I realized I owed Uhura a new pair of earrings.\u00a0 Hers, I supposed, would float indefinitely on the floor of an abandoned escape pod in illegal orbit around the planet Ardros.<\/p>\n In the ready room, they were waiting for me, the three of them, and Scotty, ready to debrief me on the plan they\u2019d come up with.<\/p>\n I just hoped I could pull it off in my dazed condition.\u00a0 I thought about all those TV shows from the old days.\u00a0 How inevitably, impossibly, someone always claimed they could spot it; all those smirking accusations: You\u2019ve had sex!<\/i><\/p>\n I hoped the Magna wasn\u2019t that perceptive.\u00a0 It would really blow our cover story.<\/p>\n Jim was betting the Magna would follow up, especially after the explosion of the freighter, and he was right.\u00a0 She already had.<\/p>\n Scotty had already fielded the initial exchange, as the next in command, managing to come across as both angry at the tragic fate of his captain, and terrified at the cold-blooded power of Elder Surat, who had (so the story went) ordered the three infected men sealed away to die.<\/p>\n The explosion itself, he\u2019d explained to the Magna in deliberately tedious detail, was likely the result of the crew obeying a standing Federation order to destroy any site that was contaminated.\u00a0 There were protocols programmed for that contingency, which must have been set on a timing delay, only destroying the ship when no one was left to countermand the automated order.<\/p>\n Still, the Magna had demanded a final word with Elder Surat, no doubt to make sure her message had come through loud and clear.<\/p>\n Frankly, I\u2019d almost forgotten that we were originally sent on a diplomatic mission.\u00a0 Diplomacy had taken a real nose-dive, hadn\u2019t it, what with our hostess trying to kill off her male guests, and us beating a hasty and slightly unauthorized exit, covered by a whole web of lies.\u00a0 Listening to Jim\u2019s scheme as he unfolded it, I belatedly realized that all of this was going to have to be explained somehow not just to the Magna, but, more dauntingly, to Starfleet and the Federation.<\/p>\n I wouldn\u2019t want to be in Jim\u2019s shoes for that.<\/p>\n Come to think of it, though, I was kind of the one wearing the Big Girl shoes at the moment.\u00a0 Right now, it wasn\u2019t Captain Kirk, but Elder Surat who had to face the Magdena Magna for one more conversation. \u00a0I collected myself as Uhura petitioned for contact with the planet.\u00a0 I stood waiting, feeling myself weaving a bit, my head light, my body full, my heart\u2026 well, there\u2019s no way to describe the state of my heart right then.<\/p>\n But in the end, I managed to snap into character as the screen flashed the Magna\u2019s image, with a sense that I\u2019d somehow been imbued with the courage of my friends, along with everything else that had been exchanged between us this day, notwithstanding the fact that the back of the chair I was gripping would bear permanent marks from my dug-in fingernails.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t wait for her to speak but jumped right on the offensive.\u00a0 \u201cI am most unhappy, Magna,\u201d I said, not having to pretend that at all.\u00a0 \u201cAs my Chief Engineer explained to you, Kirk, Spock and McCoy have been ordered sealed off to suffer their fate alone.\u00a0 I can report that they are already feeling the effects of your weapon.\u00a0 I doubt they will make it through the night.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is a gratuitous waste of my resources, and I do not appreciate the fact that you made this decision without my express agreement.\u00a0 I could have easily provided you with\u2026 less highly functioning crew members on whom to test your skills.\u201d<\/p>\n She made as if to talk but I was on a roll.\u00a0 I held up my hand and glared at her.\u00a0 \u201cMake no mistake, I will relay your message, and report your \u2026 accomplishments\u2026 to Starfleet and the Federation.\u00a0 But I will also add my \u2026personal assessment of the situation.\u00a0 And I assure you my words carry weight there.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0 Where did that come from?\u00a0 I was really tired.\u00a0 I think I was getting a little carried away with all this method acting.<\/p>\n I paused for effect, then played our last card.\u00a0 \u201cNow, just what should I tell them about your dealings with the Klingons?\u201d<\/p>\n She was cool, I\u2019ll give her that.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t even blink.\u00a0 \u201cUnlike your Federation, the Klingons are open to dealing with us on our terms.\u00a0 They are not subject to the so-called moral qualms of your people.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou mean respect for life?\u00a0 For both genders, equally?\u201d I asked, not bothering to mask my disdain.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have honored for millennia the sacred tenets that dictate the functions of male and female.\u00a0 The Klingons do not judge us.\u00a0 They have proven their willingness to accommodate to \u2013 and respect – our culture.\u00a0 We, in return, respect their commitment to building a potential partnership.\u00a0 Where the Federation dissembles and makes excuses, the Klingons have shown they are willing to follow our ways.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cSo you prefer to deal with the Klingons because they\u2019re more\u2026 ruthless?\u201d\u00a0 I asked.<\/p>\n The Magna\u2019s smile chilled me, but not as much as her reply.<\/p>\n \u201cOur dealings are made possible by their ruthlessness, as you put it.\u00a0 We prefer to deal with Klingons, though, because they respect our cultural traditions of \u2026sacrifice. \u00a0And, I admit, there are\u2026 personal preferences as well, a, insignificant thing, I know, but still…\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMagna, surely a woman of your intelligence does not conduct negotiations on the basis of \u2026appearances?\u201d I asked sternly, thrown a bit by what looked to me like merriment in her expression.<\/p>\n \u201cElder Surat, your lapses in understanding would amuse me, if it would not show disrespect for your exalted age.\u00a0 The appearance of males of any species is of no interest to me.\u00a0 I have simply found that, all other factors being equal, we find Klingon males\u2026 tastier.\u201d<\/p>\n I felt my knees start to buckle, and steadied myself, gripping the chair back even more tightly.\u00a0 It was a final absurdity, a final bit of insanity in an impossible day.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t want to think about it, and yet, thinking about it made everything else fall horribly into place.\u00a0 There you had it, and she wasn\u2019t even sugar-coating it.<\/p>\n Oh, god.\u00a0 Really unfortunate choice of words, considering the message.\u00a0 My worst suspicions confirmed, the hideous truth of what the \u201csecond function of males\u201d really was.<\/p>\n They were dinner<\/i>.<\/p>\n I might have stood there indefinitely, stunned, had not Jim held up a tablet, just out of the Magda\u2019s line of vision.\u00a0 On it was written: \u201cWhat\u2019s their business with the Klingons?\u201d<\/p>\n I let the shock fall to the wayside \u2013 for the moment \u2013 and found my voice, which came out with an unfortunate choking cough. \u00a0I had to wrestle the force back into my words. \u00a0\u201cAnd just what business is it that you have with the Klingons, Magna?\u201d<\/p>\n She eyed me coolly.\u00a0 \u201cAh, Elder,\u201d she curled her thin, elegant lips.\u00a0 \u201cSurely you do not expect me to believe you do not know.\u00a0 Please tell your superiors our communications are complete.\u201d<\/p>\n The screen went blank.<\/p>\n If someone hadn\u2019t placed a chair behind me, I would have sunk right down to the floor.<\/p>\n Good thing I didn\u2019t have to be the one to face down the Klingons.\u00a0 I really didn\u2019t have it in me.<\/p>\n I\u2019m sure my best shot, on my best day, wouldn\u2019t have been enough to intimidate those guys, anyway.\u00a0 But I was more than happy to hand back the charade to Scotty, who played his part brilliantly, with even a kind of perverse glee.<\/p>\n The next step in Jim\u2019s plan was to hail the Klingon ship on an open frequency.\u00a0 Sure enough, the Klingons responded to the hail.<\/p>\n The story Scotty spun was more or less what I\u2019d told the Magna.\u00a0 The ranking officers of the ship had been poisoned by the Magna, and were even now dying a horrible death.\u00a0 He left out the part about Elder Surat.\u00a0 Jim had decided it was an unnecessary complication, and I was more than happy to remain unknown to those scary looking dudes, though no one thought to dismiss me from the far corner of the room, where I\u2019d more or less collapsed, out of view.\u00a0 I couldn\u2019t believe I\u2019d once been scared by Spock\u2019s comparatively benign alien appearance.\u00a0 Then again, I was looking at him now through vastly different eyes, wasn\u2019t I?<\/p>\n \u201cThe Captain of the Enterprise<\/i> was Kirk, correct?\u201d\u00a0 The fierce Klingon asked with some evident enjoyment.\u00a0 \u201cHis death will not be mourned by our people.\u00a0 But tell me, Mr. Scott, do you think we are foolish enough to believe that the Federation will simply leave Ardros alone, that your precious Kirk\u2019s death will be enough to distract the Federation from the prize at hand?\u201d<\/p>\n Scotty, playing for time to draw him out, said, \u201cThe Federation has officially placed Ardros off limits, with the specific exception for our diplomatic mission here, which has ended so tragically.\u00a0 We are prepared to leave orbit immediately.\u00a0 I will personally file a report to recommend the quarantine of the planet be kept in effect.\u00a0 I suggest the Klingon Empire do the same, for your own protection.\u201d<\/p>\n The Klingon snorted derisively.\u00a0 \u201cThe galaxy\u2019s biggest source of dilithium, and in purer structure than anything yet discovered elsewhere, and you expect me to believe you will simply turn and run because of the deaths of three men?\u00a0 Even Starfleet cannot possibly be so faint-hearted.\u201d<\/p>\n There it was. The hidden agenda.<\/p>\n Scotty didn\u2019t blink.\u00a0 \u201cYou do know they find Klingons\u2026 delicious?\u201d<\/p>\n The Klingon commander smiled a savvy, chilling smile.\u00a0 \u201c My crew has learned to regard that fact as an object lesson for the unmotivated.\u00a0\u00a0 Safe voyaging, Scott.\u201d\u00a0 And he terminated the connection.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" <\u00a0\u00a0 previous\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 next > I stumbled stepping off the transport pad, and Jim grabbed my arm.\u00a0 I felt disheveled, disoriented.\u00a0 I barely registered his motions as Bones did a quick sweep … Continue reading