at KaffeKonsum: Danke für's Mut-Machen :)

Chapter 30 – Luna

Irina was relieved when they were back in the runabout and on the way home, her home – Luna. Her relatives and neighbours at home might be curious and surely their questions about her marrying a Vulcan would get annoying at some point, but she won't feel so tense and scrutinized like on Vulcan with Soltek's family. The ceremony on Vulcan had been nothing like she would have wanted for her wedding, but she was relieved it was over and she snuggled up to Soltek who was sitting next to her in the back seats, laid her head on his shoulder and closed her eyes to relax and maybe sleep a little. She could feel that he found that comfortable and put his arm around her, leaning his head against hers and also closed his eyes. He was relieved that his family had found this compromise with their clan head and they avoided another shunning which would have made more people suffer than just Soltek. He was even grateful for how his parents negotiated that with T'Fera. Irina felt a short pang of sadness when he remembered how his aunt had been shunned and he was forbidden to contact her and how guilty he had felt about his 'betrayal' of her.

You were only sixteen years old, Irina interjected through their bond, you wouldn't have stood any chance against your family.

Thanks, my wife, he answered.

And remember, that you never betrayed her, Irina added, you are so curious about other cultures and you're also able to make compromises with them, you still carry her legacy, nephew of Ambassador T'Kala.

She felt him kissing her on the cheek, but she knew he was only doing that telepathically, so the others wouldn't see it.

Olga was rapidly chatting with Lamira while her parents were making calls about the last minute party on Luna they were organizing. The only silent person was Hedak who was piloting the shuttle. Maybe his wife Abby called at some point, Irina lost track of all the conversations because she was so exhausted and kept falling asleep. It was comfy in Soltek's arm who was also using the flight to catch up with lost sleep and she was so relieved that she could much more easily communicate with him through the bond – and not everything had to be put into words.

Her mum had to wake them both when they arrived at home. They made a quick stop at her parent's house to change into different clothes for the party. Olga was borrowing dresses to Lamira and Irina. Lamira got a deep red one which looked good with her dark curly hair. Irina had a light green one while Olga put on a light blue one. When Olga wanted to do Irina's hair, her mother came in wearing an orange colored dress with flowers and told them they don't have time for that. Soltek had a beautiful ochre colored traditional Vulcan tunic with golden idic embroidery.

When they walked into the gym hall the neighbours had booked for the party, Irina couldn't believe her eyes what they had managed to organize on such short notice. The decoration's motto was astronomy. The floor, the tables and chairs were in a deep blue. Everything was lit by beautiful lamps in the shape of planets, suns and moons. They had different colors, some even had accurate continents and ring systems. She could make out Vulcan and Luna prominently in the center of the hall touching each other (the scales were wrong of course because Luna was in reality much smaller than Vulcan.) The wedding cake was looking like a model of jupiter station. The walls and ceiling were also deep blue and they had stars and nebulae projected onto them. And a long asteriod belt stretched across the room. Irina felt Soltek look for the holo emitters and find them hung up on each wall, type fives.

Impressive, he said through their bond.

They couldn't admire the decoration for long because everyone hugged Irina and some took Soltek by the shoulders or tried to shake his hands while others did the Vulcan salute with more or less elegance. Irina couldn't believe how many relatives, old friends, neighbours and collueges from Jupiter station were actually here.

Then there was this young Vulcan man with jet black hair standing in front of them. Something was weird about him, he wore a light grey tunic with darker grey triangle shaped ornaments, it didn't look exactly like the clothes Irina had seen around Soltek's family on Vulcan, maybe he was from a different region or clan. He was also smiling slightly, that was the weirdest part of his look. Then he introduced himself as Jalok, Soltek's cousin. Irina felt comprehension dawn on Soltek and he quickly started to look for his aunt after welcoming his hitherto unknown cousin. There was a Vulcan woman in Soltek's parent's age across the room. Her clothes looked somewhat similar, but a bit more female and elegant with blueish-slivery ornaments. When she saw him they hurried to meet each other and his aunt put a hand on his arm. Irina felt how happy Soltek was to see her agin after so many years. When Soltek introduced them to each other Irina found her much warmer than his family on Vulcan. She left Soltek alone with her after a few words because they must have much to catch up on.

When she mixed with the crowed she also saw Abby again and a cute Vulcan boy was standing next to her and Hedak. He had dark skin and hair like his father, but it was just long enough to reveal the curls of his mother. When she asked about their daughter, Abby pointed across the room and Irina saw a little red-headed girl running and laughing. She was playfully chased by a young Romulan woman with jet black hair wearing a tunic somewhat similar to T'Kala. Must be another cousin of Soltek, Irina thought and found Jalok again, he was standing at a table with his father, a Romulan with the same jet black hair. They were testing alcoholic beverages and arguing if scotch was better than vodka.

'That's nothing,' the Romulan looking woman said, 'wait till you've tried tequila with salt and that sour yellow fruit.' She introduced herself as Velara. Then Soltek and his aunt joined them. (Soltek wasn't drinking the alcohol though.)

Irina would have never thought that Romulans could be so nice and funny. After a while they learned why they were here. T'Kala, Velara & Jalok should have returned to Romulus the day Velara's & Jalok's visas expired. (T'Kala didn't need one as still being a Vulcan citizen.) When they wanted to cross the border, the border guards didn't let them back in. Apparently another ice age of diplomatic relations between Romulus and Vulcan / the federation had just begun because of some incident. When T'Kala's Romulan husband had figured out what was happening he had managed to pilot a small shuttle in front of a Vulcan ship and requested asylum for himself to join his family. They had decided to meet Soltek on Luna as to not cause a family fight with T'Kala's clan on Vulcan because she was still shunned by them and bringing her Romulan husband plus their half-Romulan offspring to Soltek's wedding wasn't a good idea. So T'Kala had asked around and they had arrived on Luna and found the gym hall shortly before Soltek and Irina had arrived there. They were planning to find a new home on Vulcan, but not near T'Kala's old clan. Later that evening Hedak offered to help them and also Soltek had a few connections with Vulcans from other regions on the planet.

As Irina watched all those people - Hedak trying to help that Vulcan-Romulan family, Olga introducing her fiancé to Lamira who was holding hands with her Bolian boyfriend, the little red-headed girl Annie arguing with her brother...she realized although life often seems like a puzzle with several pieces missing, sometimes a piece isn't really missing, but it's just invisible, unspoken. If you can feel it, then it's there.

I'm so glad I managed to finish this story after all these years (and I hope I didn't commit more continuity errors than I've found already ;) )

I have some ideas for two new stories (with different characters), but I think I'll finish writing all the chapters before publishing any of it. So it might be another while till you see anything new from me. I think I'll also do some traveling to Vulcan for research ;) (There's actually a Vulcan travel guide in paper back and ebook format.) Till then:

Live long and prosper! \V/