Chapter Three

Dikluss tisre, kasra!

"It's called 'Daasii'." Hoshi told them about three hours later on the Bridge, emphasizing the Auran pronunciation 'Day-ah-sigh-ee'. Archer, Tucker, Phlox and T'Pol were assembled to listen to her report. Reed and Mayweather were on break, their posts covered by relief crew, but she could tell them later. Right now, she wanted to have whatever significant parties she could on the Bridge, and had asked the Captain to call Phlox up for that reason. He was involved because of his extensive work in bringing Tia back nearly from death's door, and for the reconstructive work which had removed the scars and evidence of a lifetime of hardship as a slave to the Silurians.

"It's a religious observance of particular importance to Aurans, and I understand it started at midnight ship's time. That is, that's when Tia started observing it, as she has long lost track of the local time in her own city. The information we recovered from the databanks of the Krontis does not go into much more; most of what I have comes from a brief conversation with Tia this morning.

"It seems that each year a person must do something for those who have done good for him or her, and that good must be of corresponding importance."

"Sounds like a fine system for keeping harmony."

"Yes, Captain, it does. And it stays in effect until the social or religious obligation is fulfilled."

"Then why the long face?" Tucker asked.

"Because, Commander, we rescued her from a crippled ship and saved her life; Dr. Phlox healed her and removed the scars of a lifetime of abuse; the Captain saved her from the Silurians when they came for her and set her free, giving her a place on this ship and a future free from slavery; and you have… well…"

"In other words," Archer broke in to save both of them, "we have done more than a former slave could ever return the favor for."

"Far more."

"What can she do?"

"Well, sir, she has two choices. She can do something for each of us that is correspondingly significant or –."

"Lieutenant Reed to the Bridge." The voice of the Tactical Officer and Chief of Security burst in through a speaker. Archer touched a control on his chair.

"Go ahead Malcolm."

"Sir, I need you and Ensign Sato down in the brig immediately."

"What's wrong?"

"Sir, I have just had to arrest Tia Anlor. She attempted to assault Ensign Mayweather."

"We'll both be down." He headed for the lift, the Communications Officer in pursuit.

"Sir, request permission to accompany you!"

"Come on, Trip. T'Pol, you have the conn."

xxx xxx

Travis Mayweather entered the galley for lunch, feeling like his eyes were crusted over from staring for hours at the viewscreen and his console. It was not like there was much to see; the Enterprise was presently at a steady warp 3, traversing a void between star systems. They would not encounter one for 19 hours; but his post was on the Bridge and on the Bridge he would remain. Maybe tomorrow he would be called upon to change course.

He had taken about five steps into the room when from his right approached a familiar figure, that of the young Auran biologist he did not see nearly enough of. She came up to him with a bright smile, and surprised him immensely by throwing her arms about him. "Happy Daasii!" She exclaimed.

"Happy Daasii to you too!" He said, hugging her as enthusiastically. He was not sure what was going on, had no idea what a day-ah-sigh-ee was, but when a beautiful woman came up and hugged him he was perfectly capable of going with it! She leaned back, looking up at the tall dark man with shining golden eyes.

"You the ship that rescued me flew!" He was not sure why she was so enthusiastic about something she had known for about two months, but…

"Yes, ma'am, I did." She broke away enough to lead him over to a table and seat him. She stood before him.

"For Daasii, what I you for may do?" He shrugged, not quite sure of the question.

"Well, if you're getting something, I'd love a glass of water." He missed the point at which the bright smile froze on her face.

"A glass of water." She repeated through the smile, her voice utterly toneless.

"Yes, thank you. I'm very thirsty." He closed his eyes, resting them. It felt like he had not closed them in hours.

xx

Malcolm Reed walked into the galley, thinking about a large turkey sandwich, but he took just a few steps in when some indefinable but often useful sense alerted him that something was wrong. He did not know what, but there it was. He could sense it, and with the finely tuned awareness of a Security Chief he searched the room, looking for the source of it.

Seventeen people were eating, chatting, paying him no mind; but to his left was something unusual. Ensign Mayweather sat leaning back in a chair, and before him stood Tia Anlor. Neither was moving, but where Travis' was a relaxed, eyes closed posture, Tia's was rigid. He could see, even though she was smiling, that it was a false smile. Her eyes, her manner, were angry. No, not anger, but a mounting fury. As he watched, the normally joyful girl was clearly building to a volcanic rage!

Just as he thought he was going to have to step over, she broke away with a sharp motion, turned and stalked toward the dispensers. She moved with a purposeful gait, and as she crossed the room she seemed to send out waves of fury that stopped conversations all around her, drawing everyone's attention.

She reached the refectory and grabbed a large glass, filling it with cold water, her motions sharp and forceful. She carried the full glass back across the room, stopping where she had begun, in front to the oblivious Mayweather. "Ensign Mayweather?" Her face again held a false smile, but there was nothing friendly in her tone. Malcolm took a step closer, but he was far too late. Travis opened his eyes, and Tia flung the water into his face.

x

The stream splashed into the astonished helmsman's face, splattering in all directions, and Tia threw the glass down, shattering it at their feet. Everyone nearby moved away quickly as Tia screamed something the Universal Translator could not render.

In a white fury Tia yelled at the astounded man, and Malcolm was behind her barely in time to grab her as she launched herself at him. He grabbed the slight young woman, who weighed little more than 60 kilos, and could barely hold on! She was yelling at the man in unalloyed Auran, not an English word in the entire tirade, and for all the difference in their sizes and weights Malcolm could barely hold on!

He was actually relieved she was so insensate; six weeks ago she had put him on the deck in less than a second, and had him out of commission for many minutes, but this time she was not fighting him. She was actually dragging him forward in her furious determination to reach the helmsman. She was clearly stronger than the Chief had ever anticipated, judging her by her size and build, and he knew that if she slipped out of his grip she would tear into Travis before anyone could stop her! She continued yelling furiously at Travis, dragging the much larger Armory Officer forward as the astounded Helmsman drew back from the enraged young woman.

Then there was another man beside him, reaching around to grab her; and he spared enough of a glance to recognize the big guard as one of his own. Tia's voice rose to a screaming pitch as they got a firm grip about her body and started to drag her back. Tia was not fighting them, just trying to break away by main strength alone to reach Travis! Where a human would be red or purple faced, she was a bright gold as she raged, now losing ground as they dragged her back to the door.

She continued to scream at Travis, and Malcolm had no idea what she was saying, so insensate in her murderous fury that he doubted another Auran would have even understood her. They dragged her out and the door slid shut before them.

Tia shrieked, a shrill sound of frustrated murder, and in a practiced motion the other guard released her to Malcolm's grip and bent, scooping her legs up and trapping them under one brawny arm. She tried to struggle, but deprived of traction and leverage she could do nothing as they carried her down the corridor.

xxx

When the Bridge officers arrived at the brig they found Malcolm and Travis waiting outside the door. The front of Travis' uniform was drenched. "What happened?" Archer demanded.

"We're not quite sure." Malcolm said. Together they gave a concise report of what they had seen and heard up to the point where Tia Anlor had been dragged out of the Mess Hall. "When we got her out, she went from furious to hysterical, sobbing as if … well, we had little difficulty in confining her. But prior to that… She's small, but she's strong. It took Roberts and I and we could barely hold her!"

"Travis," Hoshi asked, "did she happen to mention any connection with 'Daasii'?"

"Yes, twice. She wished me a happy Daasii, and then asked me for Daasii what she could do."

"And?" Archer prompted.

"Well, I had no idea what she was talking about, but I was thirsty, so I asked her to get me a glass of water."

Hoshi buried her face in her hands. "Oh, no." Charles Tucker's words were considerably earthier.

"I'm sorry, sir. I had no idea it was this significant for her." In fact, he still did not know, but felt this was not a good time to confess more ignorance.

"Open it up." Archer ordered.

When the outer door opened, he, Tucker and Sato entered the small anteroom to join the huge guard already there. Behind a transparent aluminum barrier cut with holes in an irregular pattern sat Tia Anlor, looking very small seated in the corner of the bunk, shoulder pressed to the right wall. She looked up, her eyes filled with shame when she saw the Captain, her beloved Shar-les, and her friend and instructor enter. But through the still open steel door she saw the dark helmsman and the shame in her eyes was replaced by naked loathing. She had not believed she could hate anyone worse than a Silurian, but this man who had so belittled her most cherished faith…

"Tia…" Charles called softly, and it was only then that she realized the silence had drawn on. "Talk to us."

"Yi quili locar!" Archer looked at Hoshi.

"A glass of water."

"For that he as Daasii asks!" She said bitterly, staring at Travis.

"He didn't know." Tia's hateful glare faltered as she looked at Hoshi, surprise winning over rage. "I didn't have chance to tell him."

Tia looked up in mounting horror, slowly uncurling off the bunk and standing, stepping to the clear barrier. She stared at Travis, barely able to whisper. "You knew Daasii nyasi!"

"I still don't. But whatever it is, I am sorry that I offended you." She took a half step back, the memories of the things she had said, and the way she had behaved, flooding into her. She stared at the clear barrier as if seeing it for the first time, shaking her head in mounting horror. She backed away from the barrier as if it was all that she could now see, until her legs bumped into the cot. She fell, sitting down hard onto it.

"O Aura!" She gasped. "Nyas! Qualsia Uclerli! Edali nyas! Dikluss tisre, kasra!" She whispered with trembling voice. Archer glanced at Hoshi.

"'No. Please don't let it. It cannot be. Destroyed everything, I have.'"

"Elli sabiton daskre singilre Ierilsnu tu li!" She gasped, her control breaking.

"'Fit only for … Perdition am I'."

"Turn on the UT." Archer ordered. He had had enough of working with translations and broken English.

"Nyas, please!" Tia exclaimed when she had the control unit half way out of her pocket. "I you shall tell."

Archer considered, then nodded to Hoshi, who put the control back. He turned to Tia. "Now, talk to us."

"Destroyed everything, I have." She said miserably. "I my liberty have lost. I your trust, your faith have lost." She looked at Trip, tears glistening in her eyes, tears she was too shaken to hold back. "I your love have lost!"

"Now wait just a minute!" He exclaimed. Turning to the guard, he commanded "Open this damn door." A touch of a control, and the barrier slid aside, letting him enter the cell. But she drew away from him, huddling into the corner.

"Touch me not!"

"Why!"

"I … unclean am!"

"Garbage!"

"Yes, that also. Unfit for any, and cast out!" She could not speak, fighting for control lest she shame herself more by crying. Finally she trusted her voice enough and looked past him at the large guard. "Is it he to be?"

"What?" She tried again, her voice trembling.

"Your love have I lost…" She looked up at Archer, "…and your trust…and my liberty…" She turned to Hoshi, "…and your friendship! Gone from my world am I, cast out now from this …Place is there for me not, save Ierilsnu … perdition." She met Trip's eyes, tears starting to trace down her cheeks despite her efforts. "May I goodbye say?"

"Damn it, Tia, what in God's name are you talking about!" She gulped, desperately searching for the words.

"The Daasii a … whole is. Once begun, ends only when complete." For a moment her voice broke as her control almost gave way, but she wouldn't … couldn't cry! Not in front of…

"Broke it I did, when caused I harm to one … I owed. Cannot re-begun be. For nothing is there me. From Aura I gone am, but now I cast out from Aura am! Broke Daasii I have; can nyasi return even if..." She could barely continue, reduced to a strangled whisper. "Unworthy of life am I. Ask if I you may say goodbye to."

"No! Tia, what the hell is this?"

"Punished I am to be. Leave I must."

"Leave? Where?"

She shook her head sadly, realizing he did not understand. "Leave nyasi, 'where' nyasi. Is for me to go where nyas. To break Daasii, forgiveness is there nyasi. Stay can nyasi. Go can nyasi. Continue … can nyasi." She looked up into Trip's eyes. "Do you understand nyasi!" With a stab of cold horror, he thought he did.

"But I you love too much to you it let see." She looked past him at Archer. "A shuttle may I borrow? Outside the ship I would go. Exhaust the air …"

"Wait a minute!" Travis asked from the doorway. "Are you saying that because you threw a glass of water in my face you have to die?"

"Outcast am I. Place to go to nyas. Can recover my honor nyasura - never! Over my life is, if no where to live."

"That's crazy!"

"Travis!" Archer did not need him worsening the situation by belittling her deeply held beliefs. But it was another voice that spoke from the doorway.

"And illogical." Sub-Commander T'Pol stepped through the doorway into the now definitely crowded anteroom. "To anticipate death when you have already completed the terms of the Daasii is not logical."

Tia stared at the calm Vulcan in disbelief. "Suur!" She tried to remember the word. "What!"

"Captain Archer, through his reports to Starfleet regarding yourself and your planet, as well as information that he has been able to transmit regarding the Silurian race, has garnered considerable fame and reputation in Starfleet as well as on his home planet. What has been learned about both races has considerably improved Starfleet's position as a defender and as an exploratory arm of his world. To Captain Archer goes the credit.

"Lieutenant Reed's determinations of the relative capabilities of both your ships have allowed him to improve both the offensive and defensive capacities of this ship, increasing our chances of survival considerably in any eventual encounter.

"Doctor Phlox, through his studies of your physiology and biochemistry, has been able to make considerable advancements in his medical treatment of both you and this crew. Furthermore, the discoveries he has made, transmitted to Denobula, have greatly increased his reputation and standing within the Medical community and, consequently, in the Interspecies Medical Exchange Program.

"Ensign Sato's experiences with you, both professionally and socially, have made a significant impact upon her. She has learned a considerable amount of information on your social life as well as your language, which have improved our knowledge. Further, her work with you has improved her own social standing aboard Enterprise. And the skills which she has learned and will soon master will carry her well in her career for decades to come.

"Many of these same factors also apply in your relationship with Ensign Cutler. The benefits of interacting closely with a representative of a species, having a unique biochemical nature, have broadened her knowledge and experience.

"Commander Tucker's relationship with you has had a drastic impact upon his personality. The improvements in him over the past month have been incalculable, and are a direct result of your personal association. He is literally not the man he was, and believe me; that is an improvement."

"But Ensign Mayweather – it is he I hurt!"

"Not so. The extremely complex flight requirements needed to dock with your ship, which was rotating erratically along all three axis, have been the final aspect in a long review that has proven to the satisfaction of the Board of Pilots that he is worthy of the rating of Master Pilot A1; a rating that he has coveted for many years." She looked to the surprised Helmsman. "Your certification was received several hours ago. I found it when downloading the day's messages from Starfleet, and it has been logged."

"But – But all that you do say before Daasii happen did. It does bear upon it not."

"Incorrect. In your calculations of the dates in relation to your planet's dawn over your home city, you neglected to include the relativistic speeds and changing positions of Enterprise. Daasii begins at dawn over the city you are in; ergo its commencement is determined by your present location, not by your former. The light of the dawn of Daasii some 267 years ago reached our present position 17.58 weeks ago. It has therefore been Daasii for some five months, and regardless of the fact that you are with us for only two months, you have been in Daasii and, with the logging of Ensign Mayweather's promotion, you have fulfilled the final term of its parameters."

Tia stared at Trip, speechless. He looked up at T'Pol. "You know, I know we don't often see eye to eye, but right now I could just kiss you!"

"Please, you will both fulfill any possible indebtedness to me if you will confine your romantic activities to one another."

Epilogue

Trip and Tia hugged close under the thin red sheet, simply savoring the moment. The past few hours had been difficult indeed, but they had ended with a most revealing late day conversation. It had taken Trip much time and patience to draw her out, but in the end he felt he had learned more about her than he ever had in any one conversation.

There was so much he had learned, and not all of it pleasant. That something so simple, so basic, could lead to so horrible a misunderstanding, and to come near to ruining so much – or costing Tia her life … it was a horror he did not want to think about, but realized he had to. For all their feelings for one another, he realized there was so much he simply did not know.

Of course, much of the revelations he had received recently, on a completely different if even more private subject, had come from an equally private conversation he had had with Hoshi Sato about four hours before, not long before the golden girl had come to his quarters.

Now he thought was a good time to broach the subject, now that their fears had been gotten out of the way.

"Tia, darling, I don't pretend to understand everything you say; half the time it's an adventure just talking to you, but I am trying. I just want you to understand something."

"What that is?"

"We're not on Aura, as you well know, but you are also no longer under the Silurians. We do things differently here; a lot differently. No one here is ever going to hurt you."

"Daai. I know."

"No you don't. You know, but you don't know! Not really, not deep inside, or you would not be afraid of being hurt." She could not meet his eyes, looking no higher than his bare chest.

"A slave all I know is to be. Sometimes to stop myself from kneeling to you I have to. To look in the eye your Captain a hardship is. But please, tell him nyasi!"

"I won't."

"Adjusting I your culture to am, but leaving mine I want not. Confused I become when to do both I try."

"Of course you do. But I don't ever want to have you give up anything of Aura. None of us do. I told you that already, remember?"

"Remember I do." She was silent for many moments, as if weighing whether or not to speak. Trip, from his conversation with Hoshi, had a pretty good idea what she wanted to say, so he would say it instead.

"I spoke to Hoshi earlier; she filled me in on the conversation you three had in the galley." She looked down, blushing, hiding her face in his bare chest. He tried to get her to look up, but she would not until the heat faded from her golden face, and she could trust herself enough to let him see her eyes.

"Among Aurans discussing what we do there is nyasi. Need there is nyasi." She looked up, meeting his eyes, her golden ones shy. "Since knowledge there is, need to discuss there is not. Thus is considered wrong the doing of it.

"But Auran you are not, and with Hoshi I talk do. Says she we should talk." She found she couldn't speak aloud, reduced to an embarrassed whisper. "When used her words today, almost fainted I from embarrassment did! When purple your face got, frightened I became did. Forgot I did that hurt me you would not."

He drew her closer. "I will never, ever hurt you."

"Know that I do." She whispered into his chest. Then she drew back enough to look up at him again. "Believe that I do. But Hoshi does say 'talk to him'. She does say 'if you want something, tell him. He will be happy to know'."

"I will. I want to know what you want."

"Among Aurans wrong it is! Since know we do, to speak of it dirty it has become. But Hoshi and Liz; introduce me to things they do. Make me talk they do, even if want to I do not. Like a 'slut' I feel, but get me to talk they do." She smiled ironically.

"'Slut' have today I learned, when Liz Hoshi did tease. But they me introduce to something today did, a concept that know of I did not."

"What's that?" She closed her eyes, fearing an embarrassed blush that thankfully did not come.

When she could trust enough to meet his gaze again, she asked shyly. "Do 'play' humans do, when sex they enjoy?"

"Oh, yeah."

"Teach me to play?"

"There's millions of ways to Play. What did you have in mind?"