Cerulean Stars - Chapter 129

Chapter 129 - Family Part 1

Stardate 48532.7 - July 14, 2371 - 10:27:07

The combination of heat and humidity all but slapped Saya in the face as they materialized making the Asari instantly thankful she’d changed into the crop top and shorts her dad had provided for her.

“This isn’t so bad.” Jake muttered, looking around the stone paved courtyard they were in with a frown. “Reminds me of the summer we vacationed in Florida.”

“Spring only started two weeks ago, kid.” Jellaa quipped.

Saya hadn't exactly been on a lot of actual planets in her life. Earth, Bajor, Risa, a day or two's worth of shore leave with her mother on a handful of others. And out of all of those she had never seen a home as gaudy looking as the white stone and gold embossed castle she was currently standing in front of.

Lifting a hand up to her mouth, Jellaa turned to one of the nearby guard towers and yelled out. “Hey Syraa! You still hanging around up there!?”

A green head popped over the side of one of the parfaits to look down at them. “Sis? That you?”

Jellaa rolled her eyes. “You got any other sisters that look this good!?”

The green head disappeared for a moment before reappearing on the side of the parfait closest to them. And Saya was left staring dumbfounded as the person grabbed a rope and literally swung down to them.

“Big sis! And…” He trailed off in confusion as his eyes flicked from Jake to her. “Other people?”

“The short blue one’s Saya.” Jellaa said as she jerked a thumb at the Asari. “And the human’s her boyfriend.”

“He’s not my boyfriend. She’s not my girlfriend.” They both protested at once, causing Jellaa to let out a sharp laugh.

“Huh.” Syraa muttered, taking a few steps forward before looking Saya up and down with a critical eye. “Thought she’d be green.” He turned back to Jellaa. “You sure she’s yours?”

Saya frowned at that, sure, she clearly took after her mom more than her dad given she was an Asari. But she’d run a computer comparison, and had totally been able to detect Jellaa’s genetic influence in her facial structure.

“Yes.” Jellaa deadpanned, glaring at Syraa in a way that made the man cringe slightly. “So go com the old bat and tell her we’re coming in.”

She leaned towards Saya and whispered conspiratorially down to her. “Shona’ll take it out on him if she can’t make a big show of things.”

Letting out an almost defeated sigh, Syraa turned and jogged back to the guard tower leaving the three of them once more alone.

“Comeon kids.” Jellaa motioned for them to follow her as she began walking towards a pair of large ornate looking golden gates. “No sedan for the branch families, so we gotta walk.”

Saya didn’t know what a sedan was, so she said nothing and followed along.

“Why do they need such a big house?” Jake muttered under his breath as they passed through the gates.

“Cause castles are cool.” Saya said, glancing in confusion at Jake as she tried to work out how he couldn’t see it. “Haven’t you ever played WorldCraft?”

Jake shot her a mild glare. “You know dad doesn’t let me go to holodecks without him. And what’s even the point of playing games like that when Deep Space Nine’s public network is practically dead?”

“The point’s having fun.” Saya spelled out for him. “And most games like WorldCraft have a two-d mode, so you can play them on a padd too.”

“Heads up kids.” Jellaa interjected as they entered a garden ringed courtyard. “Keep your mouths shut, cause the show’s about to start.

As if on que the large double doors at the end of the courtyard swung inward, and four burly men carrying a platform with couch on it hustled through.

“Jellaa.” The fancily dressed woman reclining on the couch greeted as the awkward looking transportation came to a stop in front of them.

“Shona.” Her dad returned with a somewhat weak smile.

Saya didn’t need to be a Betazoid to tell that the two women didn’t like each other. And given the circumstances she really wished she could tell if that dislike was personal, or something more.

“I see your sense of style hasn’t improved any.” Shona put forward, smiling down at the other Orion in an overly sweet manner. “Still that same lowbrow brigadoon look as always.”

“At least I have style.” Jellaa shot back, her earlier look transforming into a more confident grin. “You on the other hand seem to still be wearing great-grandmother’s hand-me-downs.”

“That’s called class, cousin.” Shona drawled. “Something you very clearly don’t know much about given the circumstances of your return.”

That felt like a jab at her, and Saya frowned.

“Yeah well, wouldn’t want to ignore custom.” Jellaa grabbed Jake by the back of his tunic and pushed him forward. “And look, I even brought a gift. Son of a Starfleet commander, so I’m sure we can ransom him back for something good.”

“Jellaa dear, Federation diplomats contacted us about that six days ago.”

Shona clapped her hands and the men set the platform down, allowing the Orion woman to rise to her feet and step onto the ground. “J’ohn, D’an. Take the two to the nice hostage rooms.” She paused to shoot them a considering glance. “Make sure it’s separate rooms, they’re Starfleet kids, and nobody wants that trouble.”

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Stardate 48532.8 - July 14, 2371 - 11:19:40

Glancing up from the stream of sensor data running over her tactical console, Raine met Sisko’s eyes and shook her head. “I’m only picking up Orion signatures on board, so it looks like they must have already beamed down.”

“I guess we couldn't be that lucky.” Sisko frowned, turning back to the main viewscreen to stare at the overly green planet being displayed. “Can you locate where they are on the planet, Dax?”

The Trill shook her head. “Too many scattering fields. Maybe if we decloak and run a full scan I could narrow things down. But as it is now I couldn't tell the difference between an Orion and an Ornalope.”

“Those scattering fields also mean we can't just beam down.” Raine offered before Sisko could ask. “And no, I don't have any codes that would get us through those either.”

“It would not matter if you did.” T'Rul put forward in a smug tone. “The Orions do not utilize scattering fields with coded exceptions. The only way to beam in or out is with a manual deactivation of the local field emitters.”

“Wow.” Dax muttered, sounding moderately impressed. “Talk about paranoid.”

“It's Orion.” Raine deadpanned. “The families are in a constant state of low level conflict with each other. So it's probably the only way they can get any security at all.”

She would love to be able to use a system like that on Deep Space Nine, but there were just too many practicality issues that made the option a nonstarter.

“Getting down there however isn't really a problem.” She continued, bringing up a random visual of the somewhat busy orbital space. “Pull out one of our shuttle transponders, paint the hull green, and shoot it a couple times with a phaser and the Orions won't be able to tell it apart from any of the thousands of other stolen small-craft flying around out there.”

That was the problem with having your whole planet basically be a pirate port, so long as the infiltrator had a common enough ship type to throw at the problem there wasn’t a lot you could do to keep them out.

Jadzia squinted as a recognizable form flew by the viewpoint. “Is that a Class F?”

“Starfleet has been having its shuttles stolen for a very long time.” Raine deadpanned.

Sure the turnover rate for small craft was why they were built to be easily replaceable via vehicle replicator, but that didn’t mean they should just accept the general loss ratio for the things without even taking more than the minimal level of security precautions needed to prevent theft.

“Anyways, the Tendi family doesn’t have that many properties on world, so it shouldn’t be too difficult to track them down unless Jellaa is hiding out somewhere unassociated with the family entirely.”

Which was unlikely in the extreme since Jellaa wouldn’t have even needed to come back to Orion if her reasoning didn’t involve the rest of the Tendi family in some manner.

“All right.” Sisko said, pushing himself out of his chair before turning to Raine with a determined look in his eye. “You and O’Brien can handle getting the shuttle ready, Bashir and I will meet you down there when it’s done.”

Raine winced, catching the distinctly amused look on T’Rul face from the corner of her eye that told the Asari the Romulan was absolutely aware of the problem with that particular idea.

“Sir.” She put forward, her tone easily showing just how uncomfortably she found what she was about to say. “Any human on Orion is going to stand out more than a Vulcan at a comedy club, doubly so if those humans are men. Which means we’re going to need to go down under full cosmetic disguise for this.”

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Stardate 48532.86 - July 14, 2371 - 11:51:12

“Oh my god!” A high pitched voice suddenly exclaimed, causing Saya’s head to whip around to see a short haired Orion teen standing in the now open door of the room the Asari had been sequestered away in. “Are you really Aunt Jellaa’s daughter!? I mean, I know mom said she had one with an alien, which is really rare cause we’re not usually cross compatible with other species, but I always thought you’d be green and not blue!”

It took Saya a moment to work through the rapid string of words, after which she offered the clearly excitable teen a cautious nod. “Yes. I’m Saya.”

Clasping her hands together in clear excitement, the Orion teen rushed forward to stand in front of Saya. “Oooh! I knew it!  Or well, I didn't since mom never really mentioned your name. But I knew you had to be who I thought you were because the only other non-Orion here is the human locked up in the other room. And while I haven't met a lot of humans I’m pretty sure he's male. Which means he couldn't be you because everyone I asked said you were female!”

“Mono-gendered technically.” Saya corrected, feeling distinctly overwhelmed by the other teen’s energy.

The Orion paused, her eyes going wide as her excitement somehow seemed to increase. “Really!? Does that mean…” She trailed off, her brow furrowing as some question seemed to break her train of thought. “Hold on, is Aunt Jellaa your mom or dad?”

“Dad.” Saya answered simply. “My mom's like me, only a little bit darker blue.”

She was just glad she wasn't purple like her mom had told her some Asari had apparently been. Because she'd used a holosuite to see what she'd look like in purple once, and it had been more than enough to know it absolutely wasn't her color.

“Ooh.” The Orion murmured as some understand seemed to light up her eyes.. “That makes a lot more sense.” 

“It does?” Saya asked, tilting her head as she tried to work out whatever logic the Orion teen might be following.

The Orion nodded happily. “Yup, because Uncle St'eve likes to tell stories about how Aunt Jellaa was so much of a lesbian she once had to be rescued from a pheromone den.”

Saya blinked, and then blinked again.

“I've always been pretty sure he was just being rhetorical about that last part though.” The Orion continued with a slight frown. “Because pheromones affect people via biochemical reaction, so sexual attraction doesn't really factor into it.”

“I… See...” Saya said, her tone no doubt making it clear that she absolutely didn’t. “But, um, who are you?”

“Oh…” The Orion teen gave an embarrassed cringe. “Sorry. I’m just so used to everyone knowing me that I forgot you wouldn’t.” She offered Saya an awkward looking smile. “I’m your cousin, D’Vana.”

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Author’s Notes: It’s amusing just how easy teen D’Vana was to write, though to be fair she’s not putting on her “Mistress” act at the moment.