Like a bat out of Hell

With the scanned signals complete, Syntron swiftly moved over to activate the transporter.

After engaging the bioscan lock and boosting the signal, he moved the three sliding controls to immediately activate the site-to-site transport.

The shimmering effect of the transporter commenced.

Vincent had not expected to see the inside of the Pride when he opened his eyes after a long blink, so it took him a second to realize what had happened. After quickly accepting the fact that he may yet make it out of here alive, he grabbed on to the nearest wall to brace himself for the explosion that was to come.

Graalthrii looked at the two officers in their soot and grim-streaked spacesuits with a forced sheepish smile and a deep frown on his wrinkled, leathery face.

"Welcome back, Captain Gould... Mister Vincent... Now, can we go... please?"

Beneath the composed veneer of his cool Vulcan physiology, Syntron surreptitiously breathed a quiet sign of relief as he released his grasp on the transporter controls.

Gould, startled by the sudden deliverance "How did.. No, Moor! I set the.." But Moor cut him off

"Were on top of it sir, you might want to hold on!" and his fingers flew over the controls.

The shuttle reversed and spun in place in one fluid motion, so fast in fact the inertial dampeners couldn't keep up entirely and anyone not seated either stumbled or swayed in place for the turn.

Moor reengaged the armor and set the impulse engines to full power and at first the small craft sped away at breakneck speed from the doomed Artemis, but the overall speed dropped quickly as the pull from one of the subspace fractures began to effect them.

"When the Artemis' impulse drives ignite, it should create a caustic wave that will temporary defuse the effect from the fracture.." Gould relayed while strapping himself in.

"And blow us out of the area?" Moor finished and grinned "Let’s go surfing..."

Just then, on the now deserted auxiliary bridge, panels sparked and the already distorted walls buckled even further under the stress of the failing hull. Only the voice of the computer gave it any feeling of life, as it gave out its final words to a crew that was no longer there to hear it.

"Critical systems failure in 10 seconds... warning, critical systems failure in 8 seconds...7... 6... 5... 4... 3... -sheich- 1..."

The effect was instantaneous, the overloaded impulse engines shattered what was left of the once massive starship and ripped the saucer section into three parts which very quickly became swallowed up by the nearest of the subspace fractures.. the Artemis was gone.

Four seconds later the shockwave struck the Pirates Pride, the turbulence was incredible but the ship held as Moor kept its nose ahead of the wave for another 10 seconds before the shaking subsided.

"That was not fun!" growled Graalthrii still gripping hard the edge of his seat.

Now free of immediate danger, the aeroshuttle was again able to fly within the altered anomaly. Where they were, most of the plasma reaction had subsided to mere dense pocket of inert gases left by the remaining trilithium emitters, the eerie golden-hued tranquil area surrounded by distant rings of raging fire and of the chaos of floating planetary debris that marked the edge of the Azimuth Horizon.

Syntron looked up from his station and reported in a typical matter-of–fact manner.

“All systems functional… no appreciable damage noted.”

Easy for you to say," shot back Graalthrii rubbing his behind. But regardless of his own bruises, he was glancing at the aft section of the shuttle. "But what about Lieutenant Tyvya and the Captain?"

Gould let out an exhausted sigh "I'm not sure how you pulled it off, but thanks everyone."

Moor seemed quite pleased with himself "It was Graathrii's idea sir... in a roundabout way at least" and patted the console "With a lot of help from the Pirates Pride of course."

Gould gave him a stern look "Before we get back to the Lotus you’re going to need to explain that.. but not right now" and stood up "Right now I need to get out of this suit and check on our passengers, come on Vincent." and he moved towards the rear of the shuttle saying "Set a course back to the Lotus, engage when ready"

No sooner than the words came out of his mouth than the ship was on its way "Aye Captain" Moor said with a smile.

After Vincent and Gould geared down Gould stopped outside the medical kiosk. Tyvya was awake and attempting to watch the doctor work on her captain, but she was obviously exhausted from the prolonged heat exposure.

Gould said softly "Doctor?"

The Doctor didn't look up from his work. "I don't know yet captain." and checked his reading again. "I have complete medical files for Andorians from some of the greatest physicians in the know galaxy, but Captain Kheren was genetically modified and as such difficult to adjust for. It would seem he was affected more severely than a normal Andorian would have been... it may be the best we can hope for to stabilize him until we get back to the Lotus."

"If... When we get him back to the Lotus... will his chances improve?" Gould said with an eye on Tyvya.

The doctor went silent for a second then glanced at the captain "We'll have to see." Gould nodded in understanding and walked back up to the bridge.

"Tyvya is doing ok, she should be up and about in no time." he said smiling. "We should be hearing about captain Kheren shortly, but I thought you deserved to hear some good news at least."

"Hey.. I think we’re looking at a bona bonafide successful rescue mission" Moor said with a grin, then looked at Graathrii "Hey, don't you owe me a life debt or something now? I could use a good engineer for this baby."

"Do you see antennae on my head or what?" half-laughed, half-growled Graalthrii. "I'm a Tellarite! I'm not bound and blinded by archaic and stupid concepts like honor! You saved me by saving yourself... and even that, because I was here to provide the brains to it you lacked! And speaking of honor, it was your Starfleet honor and duty to save me and all of us! Ha! life debt..."

The portly officer went aft shaking his head with genuine, or pretty well faked, disbelief.

As he came to the medical kiosk, he grinned at Tyvya, his immediate superior, as she sat slowly on the wall-mounted bed where she had laid until revived by the EMH.

"You okay?"

"I just treated her for her radiation poisoning and the dermal regenerator took care of her burns and abrasions," answered the medical hologram as she only nodded, visibly still quite groggy. "The short term minimal life support of those... whatever they are that they were wearing was just enough to prevent any irreparable damage. She's strong and her semi-osmotic circulatory system will make the shots I gave her work pretty quickly. She just needs time to recuperate."

His grin faded looking at the grim expression on the holographic doctor's face floating over his still unconscious captain.

"And why is the captain not up and dancing?" he asked pointedly. "He's strong as a Gorn."

Suddenly, the EMH took Graalthrii by the arm and led him to the very end of the small room, purposely behind where Tyvya sat as much as possible. Even then, his voice dropped to a whisper.

"Well that's exactly the problem, Lieutenant. Captain Kheren's mutated physiology made him much stronger than even the usually high Andorian norm because his metabolism his even more hyped up than usual with abnormally high levels of testosterone. This means that he does heal more quickly, yes...but also that systemic damage like heat and radiation trauma work faster and deeper within his cell structure..."

"Computer; connect universal translator to EMH program," grumbled the Tellarite, blinking incomprehensibly at the artificial doctor.

The EMH gave out a sigh that was not just one of annoyance.

"It means, Lieutenant, that, like someone with a severe allergy, the heat and radiation he was exposed to reached critical levels sooner for him than the others."

"He's dying!"

That was the voice of Tyvya from the other end of the room, trembling with both anguish and anger on the edge of her bed, her eyes burning towards them both.

The EMH let his own eyes rose to the ceiling.

"Those antennae certainly can't hear anything rearward... but Andorians do twist their heads around as much as anyone can..."

He went to the Andorian giantess as she stood, wobbling on her feet, her four oculars now straight at Kheren's unmoving form on the other side of the kiosk.

"Calm down, Lieutenant. This shuttle is pretty fast. When we'll get back to the Lotus..."

"He will be dead!" she cut him off angrily, rising to her full intimidating height to look down on him with blue eyes like steel flashing under the sun. "Look at him! He's grey all over... he's getting almost as white as an Aenar!"

"Lieutenant, there is no stasis pod in such a small craft and I've used all the medicines we have on board to repair the dermal damage, slow down the cellular decay and dull the pain as much as possible. The discoloration is due to his own body struggling to heal... but his immune system is too sensitive to that type of damage to fully compensate for so much suffered so quickly. I can keep him in an artificial coma to try to slow down that crazy hyped-up metabolism of his to prevent the damage from spreading too fast... But there's nothing more we can do for him right now..."

"Yes, there is!"

With a purposeful stride that even a level 10 forcefield would not have stopped, the towering woman went to the lying form of her captain. She bent over him, her eyes suddenly going misty and wet, her face drawn with deep lines of anguish and sadness as she brought it close to his while her long, thin fingers went deeply and softly into his thick white hair on each side of his head.

Quietly, the EMH came behind her, making obvious effort not to roll his eyes.

"Lieutenant, I doubt very much that a kiss will help him much."

"Because you are not Andorian, Doctor."

As soon as she finished speaking, Tyvya's brow touched his and her antennae lowered to slip between her fingers, deep into the snowy hair of Kheren, and buried themselves into the top of his skull... where his own antennae had reflexively retracted in their own unique, mutated manner as he had fallen unconscious.

Her eyes closed, she just laid there on top of him, unmoving, breathing deeply. For a moment, her breathing then seemed to become more difficult and she paled visibly, almost matching the greyness of Kheren's ailing skin. And then, slowly but noticeably, her breathing eased, colors came back to her face and hands. The worried lines on her face softened... and slowly, very slowly, a smile spread on her lips.

And slowly, very slowly, Kheren's breathing rose higher from his thick, muscular chest under her, until it matched her own, breath for breath. The taunt lines on his own face also smoothed out... and slowly but perceptibly, his skin started to return to a bluer color.

Eyes wide, the EMH had immediately brought up his medical tricorder over the two, staring alternatively at his readings and at them.

"Amazing! His metabolism has stabilized! Their autonomic and synaptic signals are matching one another's... somehow... fusing themselves from two distinct signals into one that is both and neither... Like you would find in... their progeny? I... I don't understand..."

"I do, Doctor," then said Graalthrii as he came up to him to also look at the embracing Andorians. "That is how Andorians kiss; by touching antennae. But this is more than just a kiss. They call it the Shelthreth... the Bonding... I think this is the first time any outsider ever witnessed it."

The holographic medical officer of the Lotus looked once more at his tricorder and then kept his eyes on them, obviously recording the whole scene through his own data storing matrix as he mumbled to himself.

"Fascinating! I have of course in my files the peculiar telepathic rapport established between Andorian mates, which goes much deeper and farther than even the Vulcan Koonut Kalifi... so much that, when one of the mates die, the three others will often die as well, even parsecs away... and quicker than Pon Farr would an isolated Vulcan male... That means psychosomatic sympathy is built and strengthened through psionic contact... But I had no idea it could go that deep and so completely..."

"They are a most passionate people," the Tellarite whispered with a grin. "That's what makes them so utterly crazy."

"Love conquers all... love cures all ills of the body, the heart and the soul... I know the proverbs, Lieutenant. But ... I am a doctor, not a philosopher. I never saw... passion... as an effective cure... until now. She is saving him with a kiss!"

"You're not Andorian either. Your matrix is obviously based on limited Human parameters."

The EMH turned to the Tellarite with a visibly insulted expression.

"I'll have you know, Lieutenant, that I am programmed with the combined total medical knowledge of a hundred inhabited star systems and six thousand years of healing practices, from Human Voodoo and Tellarite mud cures to Deltan laying of hands and Vulcan healing trances. I am fully competent in the physiology of most sentient lifeforms..."

His voice then lost its edge when he looked back at the two unmoving, embracing officers.

"But these Andorians... these Ghelnoids, half-mammalian, half-insectoid, they are so... alien... they make it look like even Vulcans come from New Jersey!"

Meanwhile Syntron worked industriously attempting to establish communication with the flagship, but with no success. He retraced the process and found they were no systematic errors. He turned to the commanding officer.

“Captain Gould, I am unable to establish communications with the Lotus. It could be a residual effect of the explosion from the overloaded impulse engines on our systems… or perhaps our proximity to the Azimuth Horizon anomaly. As we continue to move further away from this region I will continue to work at resolving this situation.”

Gould looked at the controls over his shoulder "Well, we expected some difficulty, keep on it." then sat back down in his chair.

"Alright Mr. Moor, let's hear it." and swiveled his chair to look at him.

"Sir? oh! right.." checked the controls quickly then turned to face the room. "Well, it's not that complicated really. After the last refit I went to pick up the shuttle from the maintenance bay with a friend of mine, ensign Simmons and we had been talking about a hollodeck novel called 'Pirates Sunset' where you take command of a Spanish sloop called the 'Poisoned Blade' during the end of the 18th century, it's mostly about running from the British navy and how.." But the look on Gould face suggested he get on with it "well, it's a great story captain"

"And the Pirates Pride?" Gould said patiently.

"Oh, well when I arrived to pick up the aeroshuttle My friend said "Nice looking ship you got there Bobby" that's my first name by the way, Robert Moor.. anyway, There was a Tellarite dock master there and he asked me what the ships registry name was and I.. kinda.. ignored him long enough to finish what Simmons and I were talking about and said "Aye, she's ah Pirates Pride." He did this with a bad English accent.

"Well, Tellarites aren't well known for their patience.." At this he glanced at Graathrii "Or their sense of humor, by the time I looked around the dock master was gone."

He shrugged his shoulders "I didn't find out until after I'd returned to the Lotus what had happened, the same way you did sir, I saw the lettering"

Gould just sighed "Ok, but that was over a month ago Moor, why is it still called the Pirates Pride?"

"Well to be honest sir, I checked the shuttle mission log and sense it was commissioned its been put into service zero times.. I figured no one would even notice the name change, ever. And next time we were in port, I'd just get it fixed." Then smiled slyly "And I rather like the name as well"

Gould got a quizzical look "It's never been on a mission? ever? but you said you had used it before."

Moor smirked "No sir, I said I was the only with any experience piloting her.. From the Lotus to space dock, and back again."

Gould sat back in his chair. "You know what? fine, keep it. Consider it a reward for above the call."

Moor smiled broadly "Thank you sir! I'm sure my surly engineer and I will take good care of her."

From the back cabin, they could all hear Graathrii snorting out.

"I-am-not-an-engineer!"

Moor just laughed.

"You do know I'm referring to the name, right? not the ship." he said with a skeptical eye.

Moor just looked away "As you say sir."

Syntron was still monitoring the science station, if this story meant anything to him at all, he didn't show it. "Still no contact with the Lotus captain Gould, we should be well clear of any communication hazards by now."

Goulds smile faded. "ETA to Lotus?"

"27 minuets.. if it's where it's suppose to be, sir." Moor said after checking his readings.

Gould just nodded, there was nothing to add really. Any number of problems might have occurred, Romulans, Klingons superstructure failure's, problems with the Azimuth Horizon itself.. the list was just to long. He didn't want to get bogged down in speculation.

"Keep an eye out for traffic Mr. Syntron, these are not friendly waters." Moor practically giggled when he said 'waters.'

25 minuets later Syntron located the Lotus, it was adrift and running at minimal power, making its signature difficult to spot.

Syntron looked up from the console and reported.

“Scanners are operation Captain Gould. At this moment, there are no hostile vessels found in proximity within this region. I have located the Flagship. It is adrift just ahead of our current coordinates. However, even though the Lotus is registering only minimal energy levels, I am noting that our scanners are detecting the biosigns of the Lotus crew… in addition to the remaining members of what was the crew of the Artemis. They are alive Sir, but I would venture that something is preventing their transmission or reception of communication signals.”

"Well.." Gould thought it over "At least their at the rendezvous point, that should mean they completed their mission. Fortunately the Pirates Pride has it's own docking port and should automatically cycle when we lock in, Mr. Moor take us in."

"Aye sir." and maneuvered the shuttle underneath the saucer section. It was harder than Moor thought it would be sense the ship was adrift and had no docking beam to follow. This made the hook up take much longer, making some of the crew irritable from the wait.

"Take you time Moor, I doubt more than a handful of shuttle pilots have tried this maneuver." Gould said reassuringly. Moor swallowed and thanked him for his patience.

"Lucky for us you're a pilot, not an engineer..." commented Graalthrii with a sly grin. "You are a pilot now, aren't you?"

Several minutes later the ship locked into place and everyone started scrambling.

"Vincent, Graathrii and Moor your with me, watch for targets but be mindful of friendlies, we'll head to the bridge. Syntron and Tvyva secure captain Kheren for transport to sickbay, but for now hold the landing bay. we might have to fall back to the shuttle." He set his phaser to heavy stun as he talked. "Keep in mind we had at least two Undine's onboard that might be free now, so don't completely trust anyone and do not split up."

Syntron didn't had time to do anything more than walk aft before he saw Tyvya bodily lift the inert form of Kheren against her own towering frame, their antennae still intertwined and swaying softly. Then, in a slow, trance-like manner, she turned with him in her arms to walk out of the aeroshuttle with the EMH opening the way, thanks to the holographic grid spread out throughout the Lotus as was now the standard on all Starfleet vessels.

"I'm sorry, Captain," the holographic doctor then said, " but I must exercise my medical authority here. Don't ask me how... yet... but this... bonding between them is fusing their metabolisms. We must bring Captain Kheren to sickbay at once to treat him fully if we can, or put him in stasis if we can't, before we find ourselves with two Andorians dying here."

And so saying, he guided the giantess to the nearest turbolift with a weary eye and a beeping medical tricorder in hand., but as soon as his arm passed outside the shuttle, his tricorder dropped nosily to the ground as his armed disappeared, stopping him short with a surprised look on his face, he drew his arm back and it reappeared.

"You forgot doctor, you were technically relived of duty, the ships computer no longer recognizes you." then went over to a comm panel "Command functions are still on line, what ever's happening the ships still under our control" then typed in a set of commands. "Computer, reinstate clearance for the emergency medical holographic program." the computer shot back *Clarence code required* He cleared his throat "Gould, 777 alpha 79" seconds passed "Code accepted, reinstating program*

"OK doctor, your clear.. but for the record you do NOT have medical authority to countermand my authority in this sort of situation. Try that again and I'll have you transferred to a garbage scowl. Next time.. you suggest a course of action, now get them to sick bay." It was fairly obvious the doctor managed to annoy him.

"Fine," sighed the EMH with definite annoyance in his own voice that matched the captain's " next time we'll let them die while you drag me before a court martial to debate Starfleet rules regarding medical precedence in the chain of command."

He kept his stare on Gould as he started for the turbolift.

"Doctor, If I didn't agree with you I never would have let you back on the ship." But he was starting to feel foolish about all this, arguing with a hologram in front of the men.

"Well... you,re the captain... Captain," finally admitted the artificial medical officer and, with a fleeting smile, nodded to him before going into the turbolift, guiding in the zombie-like Tyvya and the comatose Kheren.

As they moved through the halls crew members could be seen strewn about the deck, as if they simply dropped on the spot, Vincent recognized it right away from security training classes.

"Anesthizine, Captain." He said after checking one of the downed crew. "They should be fine when it wears off, no long term effects."

Nodding Gould motioned the team to keep moving. Shortly they reached the bridge to find it in the same state, everyone was unconscious at their posts or near by them.

"Moor, Vincent, to your stations; lets get the ship back up and running. I don't see Sainthill in here." and moved to the captains ready room.

He and Graathrii approached the door cautiously and Gould opened it. They could see Sainthill laying across the desk. Graathrii moved in first checking for any hidden intruders while Gould backed him up, but the room was otherwise empty.

"Gould to EMH, what's your status? did you arrive at sick bay?" he noticed that his personal viewer had a message waiting for him, from commander Tomah.

"Sickbay here, Captain; my... patients just settled down again and I am monitoring their status as we speak... "

There was a short pause before the voice of the EMH was heard again, somewhat distant, as if he was talking to himself rather than reporting to the ship's commanding officer.

"Fascinating... According to the xenological database, Andorian bonding requires four mates, one of each of the four Andorian genders, a unique reproduction mechanism unknown anywhere else in all of known space but on Andoria. But... here, Captain Kheren already provides the two male elements all by himself due to his genetic mutation... Lieutenant Tyvya registers as a Shen, the fertile female part of the bond... but... they would still need the fourth and last, gestative female member to complete the bond... Yet, they are bonding..."

Another moment of silence went by.

"Captain... please check on ship sensors; according to my readings, there is a strong neurogenic field in contact with them. Not the one generated by the bonding process; something coming from elsewhere... from outside the ship."

((OOC: See Bringing up the Shield's today's post for details))

Graalthrii nodded to get approbation from Captain Gould and went to the science station to look at the sensor readout.

"Confirmed; neurogenic emission coming from... Hey, these are the same coordinates as those given by the USS Alsea's distress call! Where the Aegis, the Artemis bridge module, was sent to answer it!"

On the intraship channel, his voice then regained all it's usual firmness as he now fully and clearly addressed the flagship captain.

"Captain... it is... over."

An ominous silence followed for what seemed to be a second of eternity before the EMH reported:

"Lieutenant Tyvya has... disengaged herself and is regaining full awareness. Captain Kheren's vital signs... are still weak but fully stabilized and rapidly recovering. I should be able to revive him safely in a few minutes, once I complete my examination."

Listening to the message voiced from Sickbay regarding the condition of the Andorian captain and his security chief, the brow of the Vulcan science officer involuntarily raised angularly as he quietly commented “fascinating.”

"Capstans Log: The last couple of hours were spent reviving the crew and settling in the crew of the USS Artemis for the trip back to starbase 10. After a careful check of the ships systems and key equipment areas no sabotage from the departing Undine infiltrators could be discovered, with the exception of a single missing warp capitable shuttle everything is as it should be. The lost of the USS Artemis will be a blow for Lotus fleet but she served as a key example of the dedication and resolve of her captain and crew and her sacrifice will be not in vain. It is also with a high hart that I add that there was no loss in crew personnel do to its destruction, all hands are accounted for."

Gould sat back in his ready room chair and took a breath and rubbed his forehead.

"Tomahs escape came as nothing of a surprise but it was a risk we had to take in order to retrieve captain Kheren and all relevant data on his 'experiment' although I had hoped he could be held long enough for me to return to the ship, but any responsibility for his escape I claim for myself, the crew acted by the numbers. My orders to observe Tomah in order to track down his superiors was optimistic to say the least, but I find myself wondering at many of the orders I have been given of late.." the shook his head "Computer, strike that last remark" and it did. "..but I'm sure Starfleet intelligence had it reasons."

Tomah had his escape well planed out in advance using of all things, one of Kherens old security counter insurgency programs that he was suppose to have deleted along with Kheren's access. Instead he modified and used it to distribute the Anesthizine without so much as an alarm going off as well as cut power to the brig force fields. The ex chief of security made many such programs and many were truly inspireing but outside standard code, this was one such program.. Gould made a mental note to continue using it if he could.

In the days that followed it would be discovered that Tomah managed to trick one of his guards into setting off the program by asking them deliver a data storage device to one of his contacts in exchange for a hefty reward, knowing full well the man would turn in the information to his superiors, accessing the module triggered the program taking out most of the crew before anyone knew what was happening. He then signaled the Artemis's command module and told them that a we would be running silent due to the detection of a Klingon Dreadnought in the area and to stand by until further notice. The shuttle would be found later still adrift, with no indication of its crew.

With that Gould got up and closed his log, returning back to the bridge.

""ETA to star base ten Mr. Moor?" while standing behind him.

"About an hour and 10 minuets sir, barring Undine, Romulans Klingons and the occasional act of God of course." he said with a grin.

"No promises" he said more to himself. "I'll be down in sick bay, I like to speak with captain Kheren before we arrive.. keep a weathered eye helmsman." and walked to the turbo lift.

Flashing a big smile and a bad accent Moor responded "Aye aye captain sir!" as the doors closed.

As the Lotus moved away from the storm outside, another one was raging inside, within the confines of sickbay.

"DO YOU REALIZE WHAT YOU HAVE DONE?"

It was an astonishing, if not frightening thing to behold; Captain Kheren was up beside a biobed, propping himself up with it as his silver eyes shot lightning bolts towards the giantess Tyvya standing tall in front of him, his voice growling in an almost animal-like low rumble and yet with the bellowing power of a thunderstorm. it was a sif he was about to jump at her throat like a savage predator, only held in check by some remnant of self-awareness, obvious confusion and disbelief and definite weakness and dizziness.

Doctor Jolie Bindo herself was beside him, not daring standing between them, wincing slightly as her telepathic senses were overwhelmed by the sheer fury pouring out like lava from the Andorian captain.

"She saved your Life, Captain..."

"By forfeiting her own!" he cut the Betazoid doctor's attempt to mollify him.

"I have chosen freely," Tyvya then said with unerving calm.

But she said it in Graalek, the Andorian language, too low for the universal translator to pick it up. Only kheren heard and understood... and he paled visibly, as those were the final words sealing solemnly and irrevocably what she had done.

Kheren almost fell back on the bed, reeling, his callused hand going to his sweating, scarred brow.

"Captain Kheren," then said Bindo with all the official atitude she could muster, "this is my sickbay; here i am in command. I will not tolerate further outbursts like this, even less any threat..."

The dark-skinned Andorian looked at her with blinking eyes. Jolie didn,t need any betazoid sensibility to know that he was repressing tears.

"You... you do not understand. I am not threatening her... I am pitying her."

It was now Tyvya's turn to shout in anger.

"How dare you! I made the choice! We made the choice! All of us! Even you! The bonding could not have been made without your consent, even in a coma! I know who you are, what you are and what it means fo us, for all of us... and so does she! "

Kheren was now silent, eyes closed and shaking his head, his antennae waving weakly in every direction.

Doctor Bindo already had some priviledged experience with Andorians, especially regarding their unique mating physiology. A year ago, she had even helped successfully in a difficult Andorian delivery back on Starbase 10, something very few offworlders had ever done or even witnessed before. And so, she understood all that was implied behind those words.

She also knew the source of Kheren's anger... and despair. As a genetic mutant, the product of secret, illegal genetic engineering fusing both male genders of his species, he was called an "abomination" by his own people, much more feared and despised than the ancient Augments of the horrible Eugenic Wars on Earth ever were. All his life, he had been rejected and ostracized because of his very nature. And so, under the rigid, millenia-bound traditions of Andoria, any mate of his would be so damned as well, as accomplices in this terrible crime, if not as avowed perverts and declared revolutionaries trying to destroy all that had been the defining nature of the Andorian people.

It was a terrible burden to bear, one that he had chosen to bear alone, that he could and had bared alone.

But not anymore.

"Lieutenant... I know from his medical file that the captain is... rather unique. I know Andorians require four mates; the captain by himself fills up the two male parts of the quad; you obviously are the fecund Shen from the female part... but, who is the child-bearing Zhen?"

"Lyrya... my ship's chief counselor."

Kheren's voice was so low, it was barely audible. It was filled with regret, sadness, confusion,.. but at the same time, full of some definite resignation and something much deeper, like... a new and bewildering sense of fulfillment, completness, of belonging long sought after.

It took a moment for Bindo to recall the name and the officer. But it was hard to forget individuals as medically distinctive as captain Kheren or his ship counselor.

An Aenar... Now that will prove very, very interesting in the times to come... she thought not without some slight amusement along with the wonderment it brought to her mind.

Kheren was now again looking up at the towering Tyvya beside him.

"I would never have damned anyone, especially you, or her,like this... I could never have done this to you..."

His voice was now soft, so soft it felt like a gentle snow falling in a clear night. Tyvya's own voice became like a gentle breeze blowing soflty over a snowy landscape sparkling under moonlight.

"I know... We know... That's why we chose to do it... for you... for us."

He sighed heavily.

"Your lives on Andoria will be..."

"Over," she cut him gently, taking his hard, darker hands in hers. "We are Starfleet officers now...and together... for ever."

They were still touching hands and looking at each other when Captain Gould entered sickbay.