Disclaimer: Paramount owns everything except Tia Anlor (pronounced Ahn-lore). I'm keeping her all for myself.
Rating: PG13 for frank discussion of adult themes.
Perspective: This story takes about three days after 'What do I do now?' and is the seventh story of this series. Earlier works are 'Golden Girl', 'A Few Words', 'Glistni, 'Small Time', and 'Acquisition'. Tia has been aboard for some 7 weeks.
Much of the conversations that involve Auran words can be enhanced by reading the second story in the series: 'A Few Words'.

For Want of Kilyiis
by JMK758
Chapter One
Yearning

Ensigns Hoshi Sato and Elizabeth Cutler entered the Mess Hall at 0700, speaking of the events of the previous night. The Enterprise had made planetfall two days before; there were many bio samples for the Life Sciences Department to investigate, categorize and report upon; and work had gone well into the night. For Elizabeth, it was a combination of the joy of discovery mingled with the exhaustion of overwork and fatigue, and she wouldn't trade a second of it for any other career.

She had just finished regaling Hoshi with the details of a particularly active spore when they entered the room. There were not many crewmembers present; it would be a few minutes more before the room started to fill, but they did notice one person in particular. Tia Anlor was seated at their usual table facing the portal and the slowly changing vista of stars as they orbit, an untouched portion of eggs, sausage and orange juice before her. It was her favorite viewport for her meals and Hoshi, who saw it every day and minute from her station, was content to have her back to it.

Liz and Hoshi continued their conversation as they selected their own breakfasts, and when they reached the table they found their friend had still not taken a bite of her food, or looked away from the stars, seated back in the chair with a dreamy expression on her face. They sat down on either side of her, aligned with the bulkhead and still she did not look at them.

"Selis tuy pon yintis?" Hoshi asked her in Auran. The golden girl blinked, coming back to the room and looking at them in surprise. Perhaps to her view her friends had appeared out of nothingness.

"Selis kuur pon yintis?" she asked, completely mystified, her tone musical. "Sual lis 'selis' owu muq 'yintis' miir al?"

"Anston, li kaai –."

"English, please, you two," Liz reminded them. "Have pity on the verbally challenged."

"Sorry, Liz. It was my fault, trying to be smart this early in the morning. I said to Tia 'penny for your thoughts?'"

"And asked I what a 'penny' do with my thoughts has to."

"All right, I get it." She glanced to Hoshi. "That'll teach you to show off." Hoshi shrugged and reached for her glass of juice as Liz turned back to Tia. "So, what were you dreaming about so intently?"

"Shar-les' ourlak," she said dreamily.

x

Hoshi, drinking the juice, gasped and choked, dropped the glass, upsetting much of the table and drawing concerned looks from all about the room as she coughed, trying to clear her throat and stinging eyes even while waving off concerned friends and seeing her juice mingle with breakfast. It was quite a few moments before she could recover her composure, using the last dry corner of her napkin to clear her tearing eyes.

"You o.k.?" Liz asked.

"Yes. My own fault," she admitted, her voice raw, hating to make that admission twice in the same meal. She looked at Tia with mild accusation. "I should know better than to eat or drink around you."

"Anston! Sorry I am. Cause this I mean did not."

Hoshi waved it off. "I'm not mad. It's o.k., I just wasn't ready." Her throat was still burning, however, and she kept coughing to try to clear it.

"What happened? What's Trip's 'ourlak'?"

Hoshi, unable to answer, signaled to Tia to do so.

"An ourlak, well … a male insert the ourlak into the female sulyas does when –"

Liz held up her hand. "Never mind, I get it."

"Wish did I do," she said wistfully, sitting back in the chair.

"Huh?"

x

She sat forward again. "Liz…" But whatever she was going to say got cut off. She tried again. "Hoshi, may I …" She again turned back to Cutler. "Liz, may I …" She could get no further.

"May you what?" Liz prompted. "Ask us something?" She looked down, closing her eyes and nodding sharply. "Honey, you know by now you can ask us anything at all."

The Auran shook her head, unable to look up. "Nyas. Too … too kalriis it is!"

"Perverted?" Hoshi asked, surprised. Tia nodded sharply, eyes still closed, blushing an intense gold, unable to look at them. "Come on, Tia, we've been through this already." But the girl was blushing too heavily. "Tia, look at me."

"Nyas," she whispered.

"Tia, it's considered very rude not to look at someone you're speaking to. Now look at me." Tia blushed even more brightly, gulped, very slowly raised her head and reluctantly forced her eyes to slowly open. "I –." Hoshi got that far before her mouth fell open and nothing more came out.

Cutler, seeing her friend's surprise, leaned forward to see Tia's face as well, and found that beyond the expected golden iris, the thin, normally almost invisible vessels that suffused the white sclera stood out in sharp relief, as if her eyes were shot through with golden lightning bolts. Tia, unable to bear it longer, turned away, covering her eyes with her fingertips. "Tell not. Qualsia! Please! Tell it not!"

x

Liz and Hoshi exchanged concerned looks. Now they knew why Tia always hid her eyes when she was embarrassed and something made her blush, but they still didn't understand. "We promise." Liz assured the humiliated girl.

"We didn't see anything."

"Terrible shame it is," she whispered. "Could the embarrassment from recover never."

"We won't tell anyone," Hoshi promised. Gradually, as the blush faded, Tia felt safe that she could lower her hands, and when she did her eyes were normal, only the white sclera surrounding golden irises and black pupils. "But Tia, have you ever thought that since you're not on Aura, that maybe you should … well, not be so … I mean, people are going to see, eventually. It can't be helped. But if they don't know that you're embarrassed about it, maybe it won't be so … bad?"

"Think you that humans … they would mind not?" Tia tried on the new thought. She wasn't entirely sure she liked it.

"I think they wouldn't see it as something to be ashamed of."

"Yeah," Liz assured her. "It was kind of …" she shrugged, "attractive." Tia gasped, pulled back from her, staring speechless with horror. "Or maybe not," Liz concluded in a small voice.