Happy
Finale (Chapter two)
Two Years Later–Vralex Five
After completing the survey on Vralex Five, the Federation initiated colonization of the planet in small groups. The survey mission revealed what they were hoping for–compounds that could be used for various things, from fuel and shield generation to ship construction materials. While it was on the outskirts of Federation territory, Starfleet considered it a strategic point for expansion and resupply. The crews of the Enterprise and Cayuga had returned to Vralex Five after the colony had gone quiet for a few weeks. Disruption in communication wasn’t necessarily unheard of this far out in the galaxy, but it was nearing in on a month and something wasn’t right.
When the vessels arrived, they found war. An unknown alien fleet had parked itself on the far side of the planet and was attempting hostile takeover of the planet. The colony, which had grown to be 500,000 strong, was in duress. The Enterprise and Cayuga found themselves fighting the battle alone, the communication back to the nearest starbase taking four days to reach. But the planet didn’t have four days of no action left in it.
“Pike to Chin-Riley”
“Go—-ead, Capt–” The communicator cut in and out, the boosters Uhura programmed faltering.
“How are things down there Una, you’re breaking up.”
“We are doing ok, Cap–rebel—ces have held th–but–the hosti—Batel and I—its risky bu–”
“What? Whats risky, Una you’re cutting out.”
The crews had decided to send one Captain and one Number One down to the surface with two away teams to resupply the Federation city and help regroup. Blasts could be heard beneath her transmission. Chris feared the worst.
“We’re ok–Chin-Riley out.”
Pike ran his face over his hands, stress tensing in his neck and shoulders, his heart rate high.
“Uhura, get that communications booster to work better, please.”
“Yes, sir. I’ll do what I can. The alien tech is…different. The jammers they’re using–I can’t even get a focus on them, Captain. This may be as good as it gets for a while. Unless someone on the surface can send one up.”
Pike opened the communication channel to Una again,
“Una”
“Yes?”
“Try to find their communication jammers, a communicator, anything. Any alien tech that might help us fight this thing.”
The other line was silent.
“Una?”
All he could do was hope she heard him.
“Can we get life signs on the surface, please? Target our people and monitor. I’m headed to my quarters. Away team rotation at 1600.”
“Yes, Captain.” Spock replied.
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Vralex Five Surface
It had been sometime since Una had entered a war zone. Her time in Starfleet hadn’t been as colored by the Klingon Wars as some of her colleagues. She was privileged in that way. But she knew her fair share of battles, of war, and certainly, of loss. To her surprise, visions of her upbringing on the Illyrian colony are what rose through the fog to haunt her the most. Visions of her own broken leg, the feeling of dying. Visions of her friends and family. Visions of the violence, the riots, and the fear. She and Marie had maintained their budding friendship since the whole fiasco during their first trip to Vralex Five. Both of them skirting around the bubble between them, simultaneously begging for it to burst and to hold. Now, among the blasts and phasers, the dying and dirty, they felt an odd kind of tension beneath the shock–the disconnect…the odd presence that comes with crisis.
Una was leaning up against boxes of supplies, thinking about the plan she and Maria had hatched, and how Pike wouldn’t like it at all. She studied the maps on her PAAD, looking for anything they might have missed. She heard food falls approaching, but didn’t look up, knowing they belonged to her partner in crime.
“Here” Marie nudged her. “Gotta eat. They didn’t have any strawberries.” She smiled coyly, just like she had at the counter in Pike’s quarters making her a cocktail, putting a brightly colored umbrella in it. Una took the apple and grinned, chomping a bite. Her senses were more acute, awakened by battle. An apple in vigilance tasted sweeter, she found. Felt wetter. Seemed redder. She felt hyper aware of how hard it was in her hand, the slight waxy coating, the soft skin. The sticky juice as it rolled down her chin. She wiped it off.
“Thanks.”
“Gotta keep you honest out here, Chin-Riley. I notice you waste away!”
“Well, technically, I don’t have to eat as much as you all do.”
“Ah, Ilyrian curse, that sounds like.” Una laughed at her friend.
“Yeah, I don’t know what they were thinking with that one. Probably famine.”
“Right, right.” Marie said, laughing.
“So, you think Pike is going to kill us for this?”
“Not if the hostiles don’t first!”
Una rolled her eyes. The two had planned to take a black-ops team to infiltrate the enemy base and take them from the inside out. The Federation forces didn’t have enough to hold them back. The Cayuga and Enterprise had to remain hidden until help arrived. There was no way for them to take the fleet. The two women surmised that it the best way to buy the city time was to infiltrate the base, take prisoners, board ships, and break them from the inside out. Pike wouldn’t take that, they knew. So they decided he could find out the hard way and would know what to do to help. He wasn’t stupid. They just had to force his hand. They took the best close-combat and stealth officers they had on the ground. M’Banga reluctantly accepted, along with La’an, three from the Cayuga and four from the city.
“We have four hours until rotation. I think we need to get going.”
“I’ll go round up the troops.” Batel replied, brushing her hand down Una’s arm and pausing a moment, looking into her blue eyes. Una searched them, surprised by the action. She moved her hand to cover Marie’s.
“We’ll be alright.” Una reassured her. Marie nodded, squeezing Una once more before walking away to group the others.
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The ops team had been wandering across the fiery red plains of Vralex Five for a few hours now. The spiky grass-like plants were rigid, but still waved in the wind. They clawed up out of the ground, blood red, browing at the tips. Some had begun to peel, the strips lilting off, a verdant green, revealing a papery pink blossom at the top of the plant. Una watched as Marie brushed the petals with her fingers, both of them perhaps remembering the Bridal Orchid, the blossoms, the time that had passed between them…the chances.
“You shouldn’t touch that.” Una finally said.
“I know, I know. It could be poisonous or carnivorous or worse. But it could also just be beautiful.” She removed her hand, rubbing it together and spreading her fingers out toward Una to show her she was ok.
“See?” She smiled mischievously.
“You got lucky.” Una smirked. They all continued to walk forward toward the hostile outcamp. Marie and Una fell in step next to each other, silent a while until Marie broke the reverie.
“Did your Orchid ever bloom? Or have more blooms?”
Una looked over at her, a little shy. She gripped the straps of her backpack more tightly and rubbed them, nervous.
“Oh. Yeah, actually it did.”
“What co—” Before she could ask, they were interrupted by the sound of phaser fire. They all dropped down under the cover of the tall red grass. The green strips hung in Una’s face. They all held their breath, waiting for action. She gripped her phaser and felt her teeth clinch in anticipation. By now, Pike and the others had probably come down for the rotation. They probably found poor Chapel sitting in the recovery tent, holding the PAAD with the maps outlined. Her heart sunk. This wasn’t a mistake. I won’t let this be a mistake.
The phaser fire continued, but it didn’t appear to be hitting the grass. M’banga gave a low whisper.
“They aren’t firing at us.” La’an shook her head in agreement. La’an motioned that she would check things out. Una felt her heart pound as her family approached a boulder rising up out of the prairie. La’an edged herself around the side until she could look over toward the rocky outcropping where the prairie rolled into scrubland. They watched as she dropped back down and crawled through the grass toward them.
“They’re firing at each other.” She said, stunned.
Una felt a smile that only glowed in her eyes. Relief.
“That’s good for us.” M’Banga said.
“What else could you see”, Batel whispered back.
“There is some sort of glowing purple plant webbed across the dirt until the rocks where they were. Could be problematic..”
“If it glows, it goes. An old saying on the MLK.” Una divulged.
“Exactly.” La’an confirmed, remembering Una’s off-the-books training during their time together after the rescue.
“Not all plants, guys.” Batel chimed in. Una rolled her eyes, but felt a small smile tug.
“Fair.” La’an continued, “Their tech looks pretty standard. They have uniforms which look a little more archaic, in terms of cultures we’ve encountered before. But it was a good distance away. So hard to say. Their fighting technique prefers distance, as we’ve observed, so I would still argue close combat is not preferred for some reason. And now with a mutiny in tow? Definitely stand by our plan.”
The others nodded in confirmation.
“Let’s lay low until phasers stop. We don’t want to waste ourselves on a skirmish before we even get to the outcamp.” Batel instructed.
“Agree.” Seconded Una.
They all settled against their packs, La’an crawling back toward the boulder for easy look out.
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Hours passed, a dusk budding on the horizon as the suns drooped in sky. It was as if they were being sucked down, one and then the other, like a cat at the edge of the planet was slurping egg yolks out in the solar system somewhere. One glowed red as the grass, the other purple as the strange glowing pattern splaying for miles along the cracked dirt. Una reflected on how the ways of land and life still followed the same general template no matter what planet they seemed to land on. Thinking of the prairies and scrublands on earth–not glowing, not often so red, but grass to ground and back again. Waving in the wind all the same.
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Back in the city, Chris had Spock and the others casting wide scans and aggravatedly trying to come up with a support plan from the surface and beyond. They were entering day 3. Day 4 not coming fast enough. And that didn’t even count how long it would take for a ship to get there. Worst case, it could be weeks. Pike fumed, anxiety pulsing under his skin.
“Captain, it would be logical to send communications to nearby civilizations with warp capabilities, regardless of if they are Federation citizens.” Pike nodded a moment.
“Too risky. We don’t know who we are fighting. What if we accidentally call on them for help? It would give away our position.”
“Uhura could do cultural and linguistic analysis to see if they match.”
“What if they’re allies? The only information we have on them is what we see. What people here might have had the off-chance to hear. They’re not coming in close enough, Spock. And if we scan, they’ll know we’re here. No, we stay the course.”
Spock nodded, returning to the PAAD.
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Night had finally fallen. The ops team pulled down their night vision bands, and moved through the grass on La’an’s signal. No lifesigns on the rocks. They crossed the prairie, stumbling out onto new terrain, the flat ground, the glowing purple.
“Careful,” Una said. “Best to avoid it to be safe. Unless someone wants to volunteer.” Marie took her foot and dramatically flopped down on a purple strand, feigning shaking her body in distress.
“Hilarious.” Una said flatly, pursing her lips. Marie laughed quietly.
“You’re laughing now, but I lost three crew to a glowing plant on Lithop.” Marie settled and rested her hand on Una’s shoulder in apology.
“You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just–”
“Good to break the tension. I know.”
They moved forward for what seemed like half the night before they saw the peaks of tents brush the skyline. As they neared cautiously closer, they heard the muffled sounds of alien language, surprisingly lilting on the flattening night breeze. They smelled what must’ve been food, or the bodily musk some species produce.
Eventually, the team began to belly crawl, viewing from scopes in the sandy ground.
They saw the encampment sprawling along in an open clearing. They could see the alien vessels hanging low in the sky. Interesting. Una thought. Odd for the ships to stay so low-orbit.
La’an tapped Batel, motioning with her arm for the group to look wide to the left. Bodies lay stacked, bodies of what seemed to be, their own. Ops team brows furrowed in confusion.
“How do we want to do this?” Batel hushed.
“Charge them?” A Cayuga officer suggested.
“Too stupid.” Una said, side-eyeing the young man. “La’an? Tactical?”
“I say we split. Three groups. Tricorder says the tent openings are all facing us.”
“Two side, one back.” M’Banga suggested.
“Batel?” Una asked.
“Good enough for me. M’banga, you take four and hit the back. La’an, you take three and hit the left, since there are more that way. Una and I will go right and weave inward, so M’banga, lean right. Sound good?” Everyone nodded.
“Captain, I do recommend you all take at least one more.”
“No,” Batel replied. “Crew comes first as much as possible. Two bigger groups and one small.”
“That’s an order, Lieutenant.” Una added, resting a hand on her back.
“Understood.” La’an conceded, under a glare.
They all belly crawled toward their entry points. Each group going wide to give space for them to go unseen. They knew it would take M’banga’s crew a little longer, having to stretch around the back of the tent grouping. The right and left groups lay on the ground, waiting and hoping the ships didn’t run a scan and find them before they could act. Mostly, they lay silent. Not wanting to call attention to themselves. Not wanting to say what they were all thinking.
Eventually, they received the signal they rigged in the tricorder. Marie and Una looked over at each other. Hands having slowly intertwined, neither acknowledging. They squeezed. Marie brushing a strand of hair out of Una’s face. Visions of Marie’s couch, Una singing, the taste of strawberries faint in the back of their throats. Una glanced at Marie’s lips. Pink as the soft inside of the strawberry. Marie swallowed, and, remembered they weren’t camping under this two-sunned sky. They weren’t on some planned vacation picking blush pink flowers from the tall grass and putting it in one another’s hair. They weren’t laughing and singing.. There were no drinks with paper umbrellas dancing along the edge of a replicated glass. There was war. There were tents. There was a species they'd never met. Glowing purple below, dark black above. She glanced down at the tricorder at the thought. She looked back at Una. Her eyes glinted with worry. She glanced at Una's mouth, licking her lips. She looked back up. Her eyes said, We don’t have time.
Una rose, answering. They moved toward the tent until they could hold the phaser rifles with their noses up at the sky, leaning toward the edge of the tent, at the ready. La’an’s signal blinked. Marie hit her tricorder sending the order and they charged around the side of the tent opening fire.
The creatures shrieked, stumbling over tables and fumbling for phasers. They were slick-skinned and seemed to have a glossy transparent layer of skin a half-inch thick that lay over a purple tint with lower opacity. Their eyes–some yellow and some red–shook in the night as they phasered back in haste. Una felt shock riddle her bones as she took her first shot and the creature burst, liquifying, its body painting her face. She looked briefly at Marie who shook herself.
“Keep going.” She ordered. I guess this is why they’ve kept their distance. She felt herself reach toward the memory of the pile of them near the tents’ entrance in further confusion. If they burst on impact, how come those were intact? She felt hesitant. Like they were missing a piece to this that would change everything they were doing now. She felt a rose of regret bud in her chest as she heard fighting break out across the tentsite. They won't stand a chance at this rate. A small blast and they burst.
“Marie. Something isn’t right.”
“Una, just because they die easily in close combat doesn’t mean they’re not a threat. The colony was 500,000 strong. Now it's 350,000. We have to keep going before they notify the ships.” Una glanced up at the ships hanging in orbit above, readying her rifle, and frowning.
“Don’t you think they would know by now? Something isn’t right.” She finished, suddenly feeling warmth fill her center. She looked down, seeing the blood spread across her stomach. She’d been hit. She heard Marie call in response as she plugged forward into the group.
“They probably just don’t want to destroy their own, Una.” Then a pause and phaser fire continued. She heard M’Banga’s voice as the two groups intersected. “Let’s try to take the rest into custody. We want to avoid death if we can help it.” Una heard Batel say, wondering if her comments shifted her mind. She looked around, realizing at some point she must’ve slumped to the ground. She saw the armor of the creatures pile on the ground, purple-blue glowing on around them. If it glows, it goes… She found herself think, as she began to drift into unconsciousness. “Una? Una? Una! Where are–”
Marie’s panicked voice trailed into Una’s ear. “Shit! M’Banga!” She yelled. The doctor came over and pressed a hand to Una’s stomach. “La’an, hold here.” He said, calling the younger woman over. La’an felt her heart stop, pressing her palms into Una’s blood, thinking of strawberries. He opened his pack, revealing scant medical supplies. He began to treat as he could, everyone silent as he worked.
“She is stable, and this should wake her up, but she needs to be treated. Not even Una can survive this untreated. We have hours.”
“Her modifications–”Marie began to say, but the doctor interrupted, repeating, “Not even Una.” Marie felt her throat catch, panic rising as fast as the two sun’s had set. She looked to the horizon for daybreak. It remained dark. “Una!” La’an breathed, in small relief as the Commander woke up.
Her eyes rolled, glancing around at everyone and landing on Marie.
They stayed that way, watching each other breathe…Marie’s subtle and caught, Una’s shaky and rattling. “The plant.” Una said finally, pointing back out toward the scrubland, glowing purple. The team looked over at it. Una rolled her eyes over toward the puddled bodies of the aliens. “Something–it's not right.” She pushed out. Marie looked around and felt her heart race and her stomach drop. Una was right. Something wasn’t right. Marie stood up, moving fast toward the middle of the tents where the other crew was holding the remaining aliens captive.
“What’s going on?” She said abruptly. The crew looked between each other in confusion.
“We are holding the—”
“No, not you” She said, positioning herself in front of the wide-eyed aliens. They said nothing, made no motion.
“Fuck.” She whispered. “Fuck! We made a mistake.” She pushed past her crew, turning toward the scrub. She took a left down toward the pile of bodies. When she reached them, she saw they were dark. Dull. Not bright like the other’s. She took her hand and pressed it to the jelly flesh of the nearest. A yellow glow scattered across it–rippling from where she touched. She took out her tricorder and scanned the being. They’re alive. She continued scanning. And pregnant. “Fuck!” She paced back to the tent where Una and the other Enterprise crew sat over her. “Una is right. We fucked up.”
“What do you mean?” La’an said.
“This is a breeding planet. They’re pregnant. They’re protecting themselves. We’re invading them. It was a mis–it was a miscommunication. Thousands of lives. Over a fucking miscommunication. We need to get back to the ships. We need to contact the Enterprise and get Uhura down here. La’an, you take three and head back to the city. When you feel safe, try the communicator system. The rest of us will follow behind you before they beam down more. We will have to carry Una until we can find somewhere to hide. Tell them they’re confused. Tell Pike he needs to figure out how to talk to them.”
La’an stood from where she sat next to Una and ran to grab a few officers to take along. She found herself ordering them to run, trying to get back to the city as fast as possible, trying to save Una.
M’Banga and Marie waited in the odd glow of the tent, surrounded by the jelly of the aliens, looking at the glow of the plants on the land in the scrub. Guilt rising. Fear rising.
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When La’an arrived back at the city, her throat burned from running. The air racing in and out. Her crew slumped, hands on knees as they caught their breath. One straggling 100 yards behind.
“Captain!” She yelled, shuffling to a stop, out of breath.
Pike paced toward her, hope in his eyes.
“La’an, what happened?”
“We need to be able to talk to them. This is a mistake.” She relayed the details of the breeding planet. The mistake Una and Marie believed they had made. “Get Uhrua.”
Pike looked at Spock, eyes sinking. “Let’s contact those other planets. Like you said before. Let’s see if we can find any that match this description.
“The fighting, it must’ve been something else. We thought they were fighting each other. But–” La'an continued, between breaths.
“They were breeding.”
“Maybe so. Or a ritual. Something with the plants.”
“And this plant?”
“It must be integral to their survival. They must require it to reproduce. Or else they wouldn’t be doing this. The look on their faces, Captain. They’re not fighters. The ships are in low-orbit.”
“They’re using them to strike.”
“I think so.”
“Where are the others?” He said finally. He saw La’an’s eyes drift down, her hands grip tightly on the bench she found herself on.
“Una. She was hit. It’s not good.” She said finally.
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Marie found herself sitting against the boulder in the tall grass. She had pulled Una’s head onto her lap, instructing the doctor to take the others and gather supplies to come back and help her. The two of them lay there, Una’s breath shuddering softly in her chest. They had made a tourniquet around her middle, holding just tightly enough to stop the bleeding, but not too tight to do more damage, they hoped. She ran her hands through Una’s hair, absentminded, not noticing the dried blood on her hands. Una’s blood. She froze, suddenly realizing. She rubbed her fingers together a little, feeling it brush off. She stopped, continuing to brush through her soft hair, sighing deeply.
“White with gold.” Una struggled to get out, startling Marie.
“Wh–what?”
“The orchid.” She replied. Blinking her eyes with the struggling of swallowing. Licking her drying lips.
“You asked. The anthers, they were gold.”
Marie felt tears well at the bottom of her eyes. Her arm drifted down, resting on Una’s chest.
“Oh.” She said. Not sure what else to say.
“Happy marriage.” Una tried to smile, it dusting the bottom of her eyes. The sun’s rose inch by inch. Purple, then red. Una brought her hand to reach Marie’s.
“Happy.” She uttered once more, her eyes shifting shut. Marie felt the tears slide down her cheeks.
“Una? Stay awake. Stay awake, I want to be…I want to be happy with you.” She said in a whisper. Afraid to admit it too loudly. “Stay awake.” She said again, leaning close over Una. Winds rose with the rising suns gusting through the sharp grasses, plucking the pink blossoms now drifting down around them like falling snow. Marie found herself picking them up and placing them carefully in Una’s hair, begging the universe to spare them both from the loss.
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Two weeks later, USS Cayuga
“Captain’s Log, Supplemental: Uhura had reached a nearby planet–the planet where the bulk of this species, now referred to as the Violetia, spent most of their lives, save once every four years, when those who are of breeding age can reproduce. They did, in fact, require the glowing purple sprawl to reproduce, using its spore to activate their own reproductive organ. The two species endemic and entwined. The communications systems between them and the Federation were completely incompatible, hence the “jamming”. So it required beaming down to the planet to get things sorted. The Violetia had hailed the Federation only to be met with scientists going out to analyze both the plant and the ground beneath it. An act of war. They were a peaceful race, not interested in the fight or the Federation, weary of the battle to come. The Federation city was allowed to stay conditionally, but Starfleet removed the station to a nearby moon, solely to maintain the territory and help protect the Violetia, rather than mine the planet's resources. Thankfully, M’banga was able to revive Un–Commander Chin-Riley, we got her to the Enterprise where she recovered swiftly.” Marie told the empty room before her, brushing her fingers along the pressing of a few little pink flowers from the prairie on Vralex Five, the page of the book also holding the white orchid petal, one pink anther branching off next to it. She stood there looking at them, regret panging in her stomach.
The bell to her quarters chimed.
“Enter,” She called. The door whooshing aside to reveal the owner of the white orchid, herself.
“Hey.” Una said softly, smoothing her uniform with one hand, Orchid in the other.
Oh. She wants to return it. Marie thought immediately, the pit growing in her stomach, threatening to engulf her.
“I wanted to, um–”
“You can just set it over there.” Marie said, turning away from her and pointing at the counter. She walked over to her couch where they had sat and brushed hands and hair two years before. Avoidance building a wall between them.
“What? Oh. No, I was just–I wanted to show you.” She said, holding the pot out toward Marie and striding over. She dipped her hand behind the soft petals and tilted one of the flowers upward, revealing the striking, twinkling gold fuzz tipping little gold stems.
“See? Gold.” Una continued. Marie felt her shoulders drop and her heart soften. A blush rose to her cheeks and she smiled.
“Happy marriage.” She muttered gently.
“Happy marriage.” Una smiled.
“Beautiful.” Marie said, looking into Una’s eyes.
“I know. I am so glad i’m actually getting to see one. I had always imagined, but, this is really special.” She said, tilting her head back down to the orchid between them.
“No,” Marie said, reaching her hand out and cupping Una’s chin as gently and tenderly as Una had cupped the white petals, “I meant you.” She drew closer, eyes flickering, glancing between Una’s eyes and her mouth. She stopped shy of Una’s lips, both their hearts pounding, pounding faster than a heart pounds in a battle, pounding with love, strumming and aglow. “I mean the flowers are pretty too–” Marie began, breath warming Una's lips. Una ended her sentence, hastily closing the gap between them. The hot touch of lips electrified their whole bodies. Una sat the orchid on the coffee table and moved closer, both of them longing to end all space between them.
They pulled back for breath, laughing. Both of them breathing strong, the breeze blown by a love shared. Una ran her hand through Marie’s hair.
“Happy?” She questioned.
“Happy.” Marie grinned. And tumbled forward pushing Una on her back, kissing and kissing and kissing.