Title: The Legend of t'Ai, 2/?
Author: Amiroq. the KiTfox
Email: fitchett@netaccess.co.nz
Size: 15K
Rating: G
Codes: F, T/m
Summary: Torres' away team meet a new race, a race that spreads across thousands of lightyears -- but their language won't translate. The answer seems to be taking on a very willing translator. But what is the crew getting themselves into?

Disclaimer: Paramount owns Star Trek, I own t'd'Amya-faroae.

Author's Note: This story took over a year to write and survived major crises - notably the time I accidentally deleted it and had to translate 20K or so of a made up language, surprisingly complex (do you have any idea how hard it is to translate slang?), back into English... what can I say but 'whoops'? Anyway, if the story survived all that, surely it's worth some feedback!


t't'd'Ai-lene, 2/?
Amiroq. the KiTfox


~~~

B'Elanna glanced around as she stepped into Aeryj's quarters and spotted him in the bedroom, lying on the bed. He looked up as she walked in, and grinned. "Too soft."

"Don't tell me you sleep on the cave floor back home."

"No, but I have always hated softness. Our beds are softer than this, I teared the stuffing out when I was younger."

She laughed, imagining a child-version of him pulling a bed to pieces while his mother tried to stop him. "I feel sorry for your mother," she said, sitting down next to him. He pulled himself up and crossed his legs.

"She called me 'enfav-baedroan' - daemon-child. Soon everyone called me that, or just Favbae for quickness."

"My mother called me something of the sort. Just when she said it, it wasn't meant nicely."

"Your mother was not nice."

"No."

He hesitated, then asked, "Do you miss her?"

"No," she said again, then, "Maybe. A tiny bit. My sadistic side, I think."

"Sadistic?"

"The side that hates me and life in general."

"So it isn't all of you that does?"

She grinned at him. "No, or I wouldn't be here now."

"Was that a complement?"

"Compliment. And yes, it sure was."

"I like your in-sadistic side."

She smiled again. "Unsadistic," she corrected. "How much?"

"How much I like it?"

"Yeah."

"Lots;-This much." He kissed her, shifting his position so he could get closer, and, after a moment, sliding one hand to her neck. 

~~~

"B'Elanna!"

The aforementioned turned midstep as she exited Aeryj's quarters to see her best friend leaning on the wall. He straightened up and folded his arms. "Do you realise I can hear every single word you say in there?" he asked. She blushed slightly.

"You can?"

"Fluid conduits," he reminded her. "My quarters are right next to his."

"Everything?" The tone in her voice begged him to say he was just kidding, and he imagined that if it had a face it would look like a puppy-dog right now.

"Right up to when you asked how much he liked your in-sadistic side. That's when I left."

"Oh," she said, relieved. What *had* happened after that? he wondered, then answered himself, I *really* don't want to know. "I'll remember that."

He shrugged, and headed back to his quarters.

~~~

Kathryn leaned on the bulkhead next the the turbolift on the bridge, listening to Tom's anecdote, the one she probably wasn't supposed to hear, quietly so he wouldn't realise she was there. She'd come in just before he started, and decided it was probably the same one he said he was never going to tell her and she'd never get another chance like this. By now, Tom was the only one left who didn't know she was there - Ensign Lang in particular kept glancing over, and she wondered how Tom could be so oblivious to her presence. He reached the end with a terrible punchline that left her wise as to why he wouldn't tell her it. "Now I know what I'm missing out on," she commented. Everyone turned around, and the look on his face was classic. She wished she had a holo-imager on her.

"Uh, Captain, um, ah, well I.. hi." Intelligible word count, forty two percent. Not bad, considering the circumstances. She walked around the railing and sat down - no, lounged was a better word - surverying him coolly. Unfortunately, her reply was cut off by a beeping on the Ops console.

"There's a ship approaching, Captain; unknown design," Harry reported.

She nodded. "Is it close enough to hail?"

"Not yet. It looks like some kind of warship."

"Aeryj, are you familiar with the ships in this area?"

"Some. There is only about six peoples here with ships."

"Have a look."

Harry stepped back stiffly to let him get a proper look, digging steel blades into his back with his eyes. Kathryn didn't see it, but noticed Tom backing away - as much as you *can* at the conn - and he was at least five metres away. "It looks like bad news. k'd't'd'Drien-faroae^kund-cien."

She recognised *part* of the word - was it one word, or more? -, at least, but he was going to have to learn to speak in English. "Translation?"

"A warship."

"All that meant 'warship'?" Tom commented.

"How bad is it?" Kathryn asked quickly, knowing Aeryj was going to tell them a literal translation - normally she'd want to hear it, but right now she just wanted to know if that ship was going to attack them.

"They attack our ships on sight, but they have not seen this one. They will probably speak first. Their weapons are not *too* bad, they have phasers and torpedoes."

"We're in hailing range, Captain," Harry added.

"Open a channel." She stood up, hands on hips, and felt rather than saw Aeryj coming back to sit down next to her again. The viewscreen blipped, and a man that looked like a cross between a human and a snake appeared in replacement of the normal panorama of stars - she recognised him as a d'Drien-faroae from Tom's description. "I'm Captain Kathryn Janeway of the Federation starship Voyager. I--"

"You have no business here, Captain Kathryn Janeway. *Essspecially* not with one of *them* on board." He spat out the word 'them', lifting a scaly finger to point at Aeryj. "Leave."

"We're just trying to get home, we mean no harm. If you want, you can provide an escort while we pass through your space."

"Give him to us, and we may *consssider* it."

"That isn't an option. We--"

"No! You can not be here with a Weak!" The screen went black, leaving the channel and the bridge both silent. Not even the consoles beeped, as everyone stared at the Captain, Aeryj or the screen. Harry was thinking things that probably wouldn't be appreciated if he dared say them out loud, secretly, subconsciously, pleased, as it just proved his point that Aeryj was nothing but trouble. Really, he couldn't believe anyone liked him, but to all appearances, everyone adored him except him - especially B'Elanna. What did she see in him? It was crazy. In Harry's opinion, he was pulling some trick, maybe he was going to call up some reinforcements and take over the ship. And now this. It was crazy.

"Well, that could have gone better," Tom observed eventually.

"They're still here," Harry said. "About 50 kilometres to our port."

"Hail them again."

"No answer. Shall I keep trying?"

"Yes."

Finally the beep of the console changed tone, higher now. "They're answering," he confirmed.

The man appeared once more, and Kathryn lifted a hand to stop him speaking. "I'm going to tell you something, and I'm only going to tell you once. I don't abandon my crew. I have been alone all of this voyage, and I'll be alone now. I don't like threats, I don't like fascists, I don't like bullies, I don't like you. I beat the Borg alone, I beat Species 8472 alone, I'll beat you alone. I've come 20,000 lightyears by myself, and I'll go the rest of the way too. Janeway *out*."

"I'd hate to meet you in a dark alley at night, Captain," Tom commented, and she turned her attention back to him, still simmering slightly.

"Just remember, Tom, what you were doing when I came in *before* you say things like that. Aeryj, my readyroom; Chakotay, you have the bridge." She stood up and strode off, Aeryj following almost meekly, but not quite.

Tom looked after her, then said, "I'd hate to meet her in a dark alley *any* time!"

~~~

War was taking its toll.

B'Elanna was in Engineering; had been for the last thirty-two hours. The only thing she was sure of was that the ship was trying to kill her. Whenever she fixed something, it broke again, or something else on the other side of Engineering did. She couldn't count how many times the shuddering of the ground that even the inertial dampeners couldn't fix had nearly thrown her into dangerous chemicals that burned, or large falls that she would surely come out of with at least twenty broken bones and half her organs failing. Of course, as she had two of every vital organ, that wouldn't matter so much, but the pain of it, and the fact that she was the only one on the *whole entire DAMNED **STAFF*** who could keep things breaking long enough to keep them alive for another two days or so, was what really worried her. So she didn't know when it stopped. Her mind was a blur

(coffee tired mierda pain OW)

and all she wanted to do was go to sleep, preferably somewhere in her quarters on her bed in the middle under the covers. So she didn't notice when it all stopped.

About half an hour later, she looked around and realised there was nothing critical left to fix. That was when she realised the ground wasn't shaking anymore, and there was no rumbling, the kind that indicated a space battle. She looked at the time. She'd been called to Engineering by the red alert siren thirty-four hours ago. Hopefully, the shower and replicator in her quarters would both be working when she woke up.

~~~

On the bridge, things were taking a better turn than they had been. Instead of the previous  d't'd'Drien-faroae^kund'o-cien, the triangle formation of ships in front of Voyager now were larger, less maneuvorable vessels that had a slightly different name - d't'd'Amya-faroae^kund'o-bien. While B'Elanna slept, Aeryj was proving his worth in negotiations with his kinsmen from a nearby planet.

"Jzula'o-liuwre bien dui tsei faroae, Captain," Aesrifliend^Di-welano smiled. She was a slight woman with long mottled hair that fell almost to her waist when not tied up. Now, it was in many different braids, coiled up on top of her head with shimmering threads twisted in that seemed to change colour as she moved. In actuality, they just reflected the light at different angles, like the feathers on a common duck's tail, and so appeared different hues of blue and green and purple.

"We would welcome peace with your people," Aeryj translated quickly. He noticed that while Harry hated him, he didn't seem to mind the company of Aesrifliend at all, casting her glances every so often. Although he sounded naive with his not-so-perfect English, Aeryj wasn't, and he knew what that meant, and knew Aesrifle knew it too.

Kathryn smiled back at her. "Right now we could use a few more bones in our structure."

Aeryj hesitated, and she gave him a Look. He didn't stop to point out the fact that the Di-welano would see it in a different light, but changed the sentence slightly before translating it. "Werasal hacera'o con-jiuwre peki yudare." Right now we could do with some support. The conversation continued with him hardly able to take a break:

"Unfortunately, the d'Drien-faroae haven't quite learned the meaning of friend yet," Aesrifliend said.

"We've met a few people like that before," Kathryn answered with a chuckle, "but I must admit, none quite so determined as these."

"Our peoples have been at war for two millenia. I'll pass the word along to our other wizui'o that you're a friend. It will help that you have Enfav-baedroan with you." She smiled at Aeryj, and he grinned back at the pet name. He and Aesrifliend had played together at meetings when they were younger, and he remembered her vivacity well.

Kathryn nodded, working out from the exchange that she was referring to Aeryj. "Exactly why we needed him. I'll let our first officer show you to the transporter room, shall I?"

"If you would. Maybe the job would be better served by your Ops officer, though." She slid Harry a sideways glance full of meaning, and Aeryj translated the message with a little less enthusiasm than was required. Kathryn hesitated, then nodded again.

"Alright. Harry," she gestured to the door of the conference room, and he didn't protest at having to accompany the attractive captain of the lead ship. As the other senior officers followed, Aeryj paused.

"Captain? I think you should know that telling someone you need more bones is a good way of making them think them you are interested in.. something else. Our culture puts a certain kalna on bones."

"I hope you changed it, then."

"Yes. I knew Srifle as a child, I would not want to cause a problem."

"I'll remember that, thank you. It could have been an embarrassing situation."

"B'kalna." With that he left, glancing at the time, and wondering if B'Elanna was still working.

END PART TWO
2B CONTINUED IN PART THREE