1. Chapter 1

When Talla Shran is rescued she doesn't fully understand what is going on. She knows these people mean her ill but they are so stupid she can barely see them as posing a threat. So she isn't scared. Her father tells her that this is because she's brave, which is fitting because she'll be a warrior one day like all shen in her clan, but when she grows older and looks back on the whole thing Talla wonders if she isn't the stupid one.

They don't feed her so she complains constantly, even when one of them threatens her with a phaser. She just rolls her eyes

"You can't kill me, you need me for something. I can read your mind you know, though it's so boring I don't know why I bother"

This isn't entirely true. She can't read thoughts like her mother can but she does get feelings, impressions, she can tell when people are lying, and she gets ideas of a person's character. Her captor glares at her and asks one of his colleges why she needs to be kept alive. The other one says its because they can't get what they want out of her father if she's dead.

When she's rescued she's glad not only to get something to eat but to be in the presence of other minds. She likes the ones on Enterprise. She thinks she'd like to stay here for a while, they've moved around so much the past few years she doesn't see why they can't. The captain's is warm and welcoming, everything offers itself up to her, the security officer's is very guarded but once she concentrates she notices how delicate he is behind his defenses.

The one that intrigues her the most though is the Vulcan female's, it keeps shifting on her whenever she tries to get a fix on it. The woman, who is called T'Pol, catches her staring at her. "What is it little one?" she asks and Talla gets one consistent impression that children make her uncomfortable.

"They say Vulcans don't have emotions but you have lots, they don't get along either" T'Pol raises her eyebrow.

"They don't get along?"

"You know what I mean" insists Talla raising her antennae defensively. …like about the engineer, the blonde one with the…"

"I don't think what you are doing is very polite. What do you think your parents would say if she knew you were intruding on other people's thoughts?" Her antenna curl up on themselves a little guiltily

"I'm sorry Miss T'Pol" now she feels especially bad because her father told her that she shouldn't apologize to people (except him and her mother), especially not Vulcans or Tellarites.

"Apologizing doesn't change whatever you've done and it just makes you look weak" he's told her on more than one occasion. Though recently it seems like he's had trouble with his own advice. Because she hears him apologizing profusely to the captain about someone called "Commander Tucker". Something bad must have happened to him because she can feel the waves of sadness coming off of everyone on the ship, especially the captain and the Vulcan. She hopes it isn't really her father's fault since he already feels guilty enough about this whole thing.


	2. Chapter 2

Shortly after she gets back home the family's fortunes improve. Captain Archer comes to Andoria as the ambassador. He must have forgiven her father for Commander Tucker because he asks for her father to work for his office.

"Which means, as contradictory as it sounds your father is going to be a diplomat." Says Jhamel Shran. She means to be teasing but it just comes out bitter. She knew when she married this man that her life would no longer be straightforward or boring. But she could definitely do with a little less excitement in her life recently. She now realized she had been naïve in her assumption that he would be able to keep them safe.

"Hey, I can be diplomatic!"

"Just try and make this work Thy'lek. If you can hold this down, well I can find work of my own, Talla can get a proper education, we don't have to go around pretending you're dead…"

"You are never going to let me live that down are you?"

"Do you think you deserve to?" Her mother almost shouts.

"Talla, leave the room." says her father quietly while his antennae curl down into a defensive position

"You know I'm just going to listen to you anyway" she pleads. She's never heard her mother raise her voice before and she's frightened about what that might mean

"You've been told about that before…"

"Who can blame her?" cuts in Jhamel, surprising them both

"You're the one who…"

"She's lonely! Why do you think she keeps listening to everyone's conversations and going through their thoughts? She has no one to talk to and she's trying to make connections with people but she doesn't know how."

"So" thinks Talla later that night "This is what lonely feels like"

Her father does make good on his promise not to screw up and he and Archer work together well and seem to be getting a great deal accomplished. He comes over to their house, sometimes with T'Pol who doesn't visit as much as she'd like on account of the cold. He's there on such a regular basis that she asks her parents if he and her mother are going to marry them, all the other children have four parents after all. Her mother laughs and explains that where Jonathan and T'Pol come from families don't work like that.

"Still it would be an interesting arrangement, very cosmopolitan. An Andorian, an Aenar, a Terran and a Vulcan getting married." She says pensively

"Or kind of like the set up to a good joke" her father adds more skeptically.

Her little sister Tar'eah is born and two years later Sheneeva. They are both zhen, therefore not expected to join the Imperial Guard like she is. Though that is a matter of some debate between her parents. Her father begins teaching her how to use the ushaan-tor, which she takes to immediately. When she is twelve she accidently cuts one of her father's antennae off while they are practicing. She is horrified and her mother berates him.

"What did I tell you? What exactly sounds sane about giving a child a dangerous weapon? I knew something like this was going to happen. Jonathan, T'Pol please back me up here"

T'Pol says that Vulcans don't like to judge other cultures customs…but goes ahead and lectures them on the barbarism of the ushaan anyway. Her father and Jonathan both think this whole thing hilarious. They proceed to tell her the story of how they once fought each other in ushaan with a similar result, interrupting and occasionally contradicting each other. She looks at T'Pol to see what she thinks happened. But she isn't listening, she's just staring at Jonathan as if it was only the two of them there and Talla doesn't have to take her thoughts to see the exasperation and affection mingled together in her gaze. That evening is one of the last of the really good times.


	3. Chapter 3

Talla never really fits in at school, partially because as she gets older and her telepathic powers become more developed she begins to realize why her mother always told her not to wander into the minds of others. She always knew she and her sisters were different but she never really understood the amount of hostility both her mother and father's people had towards their intermarrying. She hears what they think about her father for working so closely with Humans and Vulcans, and some of the rumors about why he left the Imperial Guard. This makes her wonder what it will be like when she enters the service, or even if they'll let her in. She is still lonely but not because they're always on the move, staying still might actually be harder despite what her mother says. But then again she's pretty sure her mother is in denial, because she knows she doesn't get her wanderlust from her father's side only. Outside their own small worlds the Shran girls know something is going on, something important that makes adults whisper and look worried. Whatever it is makes Jonathan go back to his own planet, though he just tells them he misses temperatures above freezing. Whenever they ask their parents just say that the Coalition is having some trouble with the Romulans, though Talla can tell that her father wants to give her the whole story. They remember that these are the people who killed their mother's brother and sure enough Tar'eah (though normally averse to eavesdropping) overhears that several more Aenar have gone missing. Talla tries to find out things on her own but no one seems to know much of anything about these people, not even what they look like. She even tries to look at Vulcan sources; they've fought Romulans before. Apparently they were similar to the Vulcans before The Time of The Awakening. The exact nature of the similarity is extremely vague but she's not going to learn those stuck up pointy-eared bastard's language just to figure out what they meant. She's heard stories about what Vulcans used to be like before "logic" took over and if the Romulans really are like that, well no wonder they're butting heads with the Coalition.

The two older girls are in their room one night trying to concentrate on their studies when Sheneeva walks in.

"There's going to be a war, a big one. The whole Coalition against the Romulan Empire." She says clearly frightened

"Good" Says Talla and her sisters glare at her

"Shen always want to fight." whines Sheneeva "But I don't."

"Don't worry, no ones going to fight. We don't have big wars like that any more. People just get in skirmishes and argue for a long time and then resolve things." Says Tar'eah "Isn't that right Talla" she gives her older sister a meaningful look.

"You're right. There probably won't be a war. Mores the pity, if you ask me that's what Andoria needs. We are a warrior race and we're starting to lose that, that sense of who we are. We're starting to act like pinkskins or Vulcans."

Tar'eah rolls her eyes

"For starters war isn't like the poetry you read. It's nasty and messy and lots of people die for no good reason and then nothing gets resolved in the end. You know that right? You see there's this place called reality and there's this other place where you and father live…" She adeptly ducked out of the way to avoid the book her sister flung at her. "Also what's wrong with the way humans do things? I don't know about you but I like humans, heck I even like Vulcans. You of all people should appreciate them."

"Why me of all people?"

"Because of that whole kidnapping incident, you know the one that got T'Pol's bondmate killed." Talla should have seen this coming but she supposed part of her was assuming that her sister would never go there. She didn't even know how it would feel, like being punched in the gut.

"I don't have to take this." She snarls, tears forming in her eyes. Her sister calls after her as she rushes out into the snow.


	4. Chapter 4

Nothing could have prepared her for the heat of Vulcan, for the dry dust or the burning sun. But all discomfort aside she wouldn't miss this for the world, just as long as she doesn't get heatstroke during the ceremony and embarrass T'Pol. Hoshi Sato comes running up to her at this moment

"There you are Talla, have you seen the bride? We've only got about a half an hour and she promised she'd let me do her hair." She asks in flawless Andorian

"I'm afraid not, in fact I was just looking for her."

"Well if you find her direct her to my room, she's got a date with a curling iron." Talla nods and continues in the direction she was going. After ducking into a few different rooms she hears what sounds like T'Pol's voice. As she gets closer she realizes that no one else is responding. Talla thinks she must be talking to herself until she walks into the room and sees the photograph. T'Pol turns when she hears her enter and says very softly

"Talking to him after all these years is highly illogical. He can neither hear nor respond."

"What were you saying?" Talla's voice also comes out barely higher than a whisper

"That I was getting married and that the truly difficult part is just now beginning. I am not sure if I am at peace or more divided then ever before."

"You're not thinking of…I mean, you and Jonathan love each other…that's all that matters isn't it?" She can't look the other woman in the face when she says this, the amount of time she's spent around aliens has made her extremely self conscious about being "over dramatic" and "sentimental"

"That is the complicated part. I love Jonathan, yet here I am thinking of Trip." She sounds tired

"I know this is different for Vulcans but for my people…"

"You marry in fours, I know."

"So you'll pardon me for saying I don't see it as being complicated. My father still loves Talas, the shen…I mean the female he was with before he met my mother. In fact I'm named for her. And my mother is very attached to the other male in their group. I don't know him myself but…I'm trying to say it doesn't mean they care for each other any less, its just different." Talla finishes a little lamely

"Talas and Jhamel are different genders. I am afraid that from my perspective discussing Vulcan and Andorian mating customs is "like comparing apples and oranges", to use a human idiom"

"But doesn't Jonathan love Trip too?"

"He loves him like a brother. That bond is different" A silence descends between the two women and Talla realizes that if she doesn't say it now she won't be able to.

"Its all my fault. If you hadn't agreed to help save me he'd still be alive." T'Pol puts her hands on her shoulders rather violently and looks her directly in the face

"Do not talk like that, do not think like that. His death was a result of the actions of the people who kidnapped you and in all honesty I do not believe that he needed to sacrifice himself the way he did." Her voice broke a little but she kept going "And while I am being completely honest I still haven't forgiven your father for dragging all of us into that situation. The consequences of his mistakes are not your burden to bear. Besides I do not like to think about what would have happened if we had not rescued you." At that moment it dawns on Talla what T'Pol means, that if there was a choice between Trip dead and her sold on a Rigellian slave market she wouldn't necessarily choose the one to avert the other. It overwhelms her and she embraces the other woman even though she knows she's not supposed to. They break apart and though Talla wants to say how grateful she is all she says is;

"Lets go find Hoshi. She said something about a curling iron and I think she means business"

The bridal party finally comes together, Talla and her sisters, some of T'Pol's extended family, Hoshi, and the bride herself in flowing silver dress. At the last minute Ambassador Soval joins them looking extremely flustered, even for a less stoic species. T'Pol asks him what's going on but he just shakes his head and mutters something in his own language. They hear the sound of the gong and file into the courtyard where Jonathan is waiting. With him are Talla's parents, some humans from Starfleet in their dress uniforms who were introduced to her as Captain Reed, Commander Mayweather, and Admiral Hernandez , and a Denoulan doctor called Phlox. Officiating the whole thing is T'Pau, the priestess or minister or both, she's not quiet sure. Immediately after the ceremony Talla notices Soval taking her off to the side to confer. They speak to each other in Vulcan and all she can make out is that whatever it is is very serious. She doesn't wonder for long since T'Pau turns away from the ambassador and despite his protests addresses the company.

"Those of you assembled here I have a grave announcement. Ambassador Soval has just informed me that the planet of Weytahn has been attacked in direct violation of the Treaty of Jan'Tral. This means that as of this moment the Coalition of United Earth, Vulcan, the Andorian Empire, and Tellar Prime is at war with The Romulan Star Empire."


	5. Chapter 5

The whole family is rather subdued as they sit around the table for the evening meal. For a normally talkative family the silence has an unnatural quality to it. To Talla it feels like its telling her something, begging to be broken, letting her know that its now is the time to say what she's been resolved to do for these past two years, ever since the war started. So she stands up and just lets out with it;

"Mother, Father, I'm going to enlist…in Starfleet" Jhamel nods with a pained expression on her face. She knew this was coming after all. Talla has been chomping at the bit for two long and two hard for her mother not to be expecting it.

"You don't have to do this." Says Tar'eah with a tone of frustrated incomprehension she often took with her sister. But now there was fear and trepidation in her voice as well.

"I'll be drafted soon anyway"

"You're part Aenar that immediately makes you eligible to register as a conscientious objector." Says her sister, now beginning to sound a little desperate.

"But I'm not." Says Talla flatly

"I thought you wanted to join the Imperial Guard." Asks her father. He's been trying to get back into the Guard with no success since practically the beginning. He still has friends there but in days like this everybody and their sister is trying to get a commission for themselves or a family member. Though technically serving in the army she knows he's been stuck behind a desk, doing some horribly boring liaison work with the Terran government. Its not a proper job for a warrior, the kind of thing a chan might do.

His eyes stare right through her his antenna pointed towards her searching, probing

" I did but I changed my mind. First of all because I believe in the Coalition, that you helped to found, in the friendship between species. I also feel that I owe a certain debt to Starfleet because of the trouble I caused the crew of the Enterprise when I was a child. Finally…well your clan has a long tradition of service in the Imperial Guard and I want…I wish to make my own way in the world. As far as I know I'd be the first Andorian to serve on a human ship unless someone beats me to enlisting." Though she tries to frame this in neutral language she sees the immediate sad droop of her father's antenna. He knows that though these rationales might hold some sway for her, one of her main reason is that the name Shran will not get her far in the Imperial Guard. He hasn't left her a good name, he knows this and it grieves him. But he puts up a good façade, tells his daughter he's proud of her for being so unconventional, for her desire to find her own path in the world. Part of Talla knows this is true but she can also feel his hurt that she senses in spite of herself.

Tar'eah tries to protest but their father shrugs her off.

"Good for you Talla, volunteer that's the thing. Don't wait for them to demand that you go. This is no place for a brave girl eager to prove herself."

"No it isn't" sighs Jhamel


End file.
