by Leslie Lee
against his thigh.
Captain Rhel laughed as some of the other staff smirked. “You show much optimism, Human. I now remember you. Your Romulan is perfect.”
“Thank you,” Kari said, bowing her head. “Your attention to duty those many years ago, reluctant or not, brought me great sorrow. Although I still hold that cup, I believe it to be empty. I will no longer drink from it. May the Stars of Wisdom always bring you home.”
He nodded. “I understand.”
“If you decide to go to the funeral, I would be grateful if you could deliver a personal message to the family and supporters of the Beloved Nephew from me. If it is not too inconvenient.”
“I can but hope that I will be invited to what can only be a tremendous outpouring of grief. Your message?”
Kari turned her back, bent over and pulled her pants down.
“Kill communications, computer,” Kari said.
“Such eloquence, Human,” Syll sniffed.
“Darksend is firing!” Kari yelled, looking at the scanners.
“That cannot be. We are nowhere near in range.” Syll examined the console. “Just one burst. Not even in our direction. Interesting.”
With the warbirds holding their position in front and the warbird chasing them, their little ship had nowhere to go. They shared a chair, watching the glow outside the windows, and waited, holding each other.
“Our plan is unlikely to work, Human.”
“I trust in your plan, Romulan.”
“If it works, it is my plan. If it does not, then it is your plan.”
“If it doesn’t, then we will find each other in the Stars of Wisdom.”
Syll kissed her lightly on the mouth.
“We’re almost in range,” Syll said. “In range now. Our plan is good given the circumstances. Let us hope it is good enough.”
“Computer,” Kari murmured. “Cloak and full reverse.”
Their surroundings glowed a moment as they cloaked. The warbirds around them became visible immediately. The white ship spread its wings to use the deflector profile to help slow them. Their momentum pressed them forward as the inertial dampeners compensated. Three pursuing warbirds zoomed past them so close they could almost feel them. All the Romulan ships started firing in patterns trying to guess where they had gone.
“Computer,” Syll said. “Follow that lead ship. Do not encroach on its shields. Stay close on its stern.”
The white ship accelerated to catch up with the slowing warbirds. Syll’s hands flew over the controls making minor adjustments in their position until satisfied the computer would automatically keep them positioned in what she described as a warbird blind spot.
“Shut down all non-essential services, computer,” Kari ordered. “Keep our energy signature to a minimum. Your plan is excellent, first officer. They did not suspect that we would have a cloak. My congratulations.”
They saluted each other, laughing, then kissed.
The Romulan warbirds laid down a massive spread of firepower then turned and fired into the Neutral Zone.
“We appear to have attracted Starfleet interest,” said Syll.
“A ship?”
“Three. A gathering of warbirds will do that. Especially considering the political climate on Romulus. More Federation starships arriving. We must navigate closer to transport over.”
Syll composed herself relaxing as best she could.
“No.”
“Do you wish to contact them, captain?”
“No.”
Syll frowned. “We have done well to avoid the warbirds thus far. It would be a great shame to be destroyed by someone with a nervous trigger finger on the Federation side.”
“Let’s go back to bed.” Kari got up and pulled on Syll’s arms.
“I beg your pardon, captain?”
“That’s an order, first officer Syll. We’ve a little time I believe.”
Syll rose and tried to get the dress to cover more of her legs. “As you wish. I should warn you. I am...” She paused to gather herself. “I am still not functioning at full capacity.”
“Me neither. We’d best be gentle with each other.”
Syll groaned coming fully awake and looked around. Sleep had stolen many hours from her. She gathered a blanket around herself and moved to the main cabin.
“You call that gentle, Human?”
Kari lounged at the console enjoying the view of the stars through the two large round windows of the bridge. The giant warbird beneath them navigated slowly on thrusters. “You call that not functioning at full capacity, Romulan?”
Syll found another dress tossing away the rags that Kari had made of the first one.
“Why is there even female clothing on board?” she scowled at her reflection.
“I am sorry, first officer,” Kari called down to her. “But you really don’t want to know.”
She shuddered and tottered over to sit next to the Human watching the screen and the console.
“They’ve given up, see,” she said pointing out how widespread the ships had become. “The Federation ships are paralleling them but I think everyone is out from crisis mode.”
“I confess,” said Syll examining the star map. “I had some concern that we would precipitate the very war that we were seeking to avoid. That would have been an irony even the Stars of Wisdom would find painful.”
Kari hugged her.
The ship they were shadowing started to move off. Their little space yacht followed along.
“We should disengage from this ship,” Syll said.
“Computer, when this warbird goes to warp, disengage. Do not follow. Keep adrift. Minimal systems.” She turned to the Romulan. “How’s your appetite?”
“I’ve been tortured, shot at, and had some strange alien inflict her odd sexual rituals upon me. I am now starved.”
Kari laughed and hugged her. “I believe that the weird alien sex stuff was being done to me. I think the little bastard has some actual food here.”
“Little bastard?”
“I think Beloved Nephew is no longer apropos.”
They set out the fine delicacies the little bastard had stocked his yacht with.
The dim interior lights allowed the stars to shine through the windows. The big Romulan ship beneath them maneuvered along, firing randomly.
“The warbird is preparing to go to warp,” the computer intoned. “Disengaging.”
“Thank you, computer,” Kari said.
Their ship drifted when the big ship warped away. A couple more warbirds lingered then they too abandoned the area.
“Woo hoo!” Kari cried. “Computer, fire all torpedoes.”
“We have no torpedoes, captain.”
“Fire all phasers.”
“We have no phasers, captain.”
Kari laughed. Then stopped to sit, staring at her half eaten food.
“We should cross while there are still Federation ships in the area,” Syll said, putting her cutlery down. “The military probably believe we have crossed already and are now under Federation protection.”
Kari neither answered nor looked at her. Syll recognized her behavior. The Human would withdraw into herself when the memories of the little bastard’s attentions overwhelmed her.
“Kari, it is all good. Matters will proceed as they should with the Federation. You will be home again. Amongst your friends.”
She still didn’t answer.
Syll moved closer to her. “I accept this. I am grateful for it. You have saved me. I will always be thankful for that.”
The Romulan sighed at the Human’s silence. “Computer, plot a course to the nearest Federation starship. Warp one.”
“Belay that, computer,” Kari barked out.
Syll pulled the Human against her. She rocked the almost limp woman slowly. “It will be fine, Kari, you will see. You can show me all around the Federation. After they realize I will divulge no secrets, they will release me. It will not be long. I promise.”
K
ari finally looked up and into the Romulan’s eyes. The lack of tears surprised Syll. Whatever memory plagued Kari would usually leave her in shreds. But this time, nothing.
Instead, she smiled at Syll her eyes bright, exultant, and asked, “Have you ever heard of The DrearGyre?”
She had not. And neither had the computer. They had to research the name to find the official Romulan designation which were just coordinates. They spent most of the long journey there sleeping, healing and, sometimes, just being silent with each other.
On arriving at The DrearGyre, they found that it negated the cloak. And most of the sensors. They piloted manually.
“Captain, we must decide on a name for the ship,” Syll said, guiding them with quick touches of the control panel as Kari kept a visual lookout.
“I’m surprised, first officer,” said Kari. “The Great Yacht of the Beloved Nephew does not fill you with joy?”
“No.”
“You’ve already named her I think.”
Syll cocked her head. “I did?
“Yes, when you spoke with Captain Rhel. You said we were on vacation. We shall call her Vacation. When we want to take a trip on her we will just say we’re going on Vacation.”
Syll shook her head. “You are the strangest Human, Kari. Vacation it is.”
“Computer, the name of this ship is now Vacation.”
“Affirmative, captain. Ship designation has been changed.”
“And, computer, do you have a Federation voice, a female voice, called Majel?”
“Affirmative, captain.”
“Then please change your voice.”
“Is this correct, captain?”
“Perfect.”
“You did not like the Romulan male voice?” Syll said, as she went back to fully concentrating on the space around them.
“A beautiful voice for our beautiful ship to match our beautiful first officer.”
“How do you know of this