Off-Duty Damage Control

The second day of the journey was so far the toughest. At least on the third it would feel like they were making some kind of progress, since they should be arriving then. But this day, when they were in warp for what seemed endless hours, T'Pren was struggling to keep her calm. She meditated instead of eating. She exercised. She practiced mok'bara. She did more work and wrote more unnecessary reports than Rai would probably know what to do with. It was a grueling day.

And now that she'd run out of work, the half-Vulcan was in the holodeck in the pants and tank top of her uniform, dripping water because the computer had it pouring rain. Her hair was braided tightly back exposing her ears and she was scrabbling for control over a weapon with a Cardassian who was easily twice her size and weight. Three more guards lay where she'd dropped them, incapacitated and unconscious.

She fought somewhere between human and Vulcan. The techniques were Vulcan, but the resourcefulness, the scrappiness, the fierceness...those things were all very human.

Dealing with briefing the ensigns had left Tal'Ara exhausted and annoyed. She walked to the doors of a holodeck and entered.

She was surprised to see a program already running. And T'Pren. And the rain.

Tal'Ara stood there, starting to get throughly drenched, and cleared her throat.

"Nice weather we are having," she joked.

Tal'Ara's voice was the distraction the thick-necked Cardassian needed to slam his weapon across the side of T'Pren's face and she went arching backwards before crashing to the ground. She lay there in the mud for a moment, trying to get her bearings, but the guard was already out for more. As he moved on her prone form, she called out hoarsely, "Computer! Freeze program." The rain, the Cardassian. It all paused mid-action.

"Target practice? Or perhaps this is a bit more personal?" she asked, cautiously.

"Just restless," T'Pren admitted, sitting up with a grunt and rubbing at her jaw. She'd have to see Zima about that before tomorrow. Before really looking Tal'Ara's way, she opened and closed her mouth to make sure the hinge was working properly and wiggled her jaw back and forth a little. "And making sure I'm desensitized to being attacked by Cardassian guards." And to taking them down.

Finally, she glanced at the Romulan at the door and slowly pushed to her feet. "Did you need me?"

"No," Tal'Ara frowned. "I was just looking for a holodeck to... decompress in. Didn't realize you were in here. I thought I had this hour blocked out."

She shrugged.

"Must have been a computer error or something."

"Oh," T'Pren replied with a mirroring frown. She was still worrying her jaw as she made her way to the wall panel to check the schedule. "It said it was free," she explained by way of apology. After some digging, she made a soft 'ah' sound. "Found it. Someone must have been tinkering with the interface today."

The willowy lieutenant squeezed water from her braid and gave the frozen holodeck program a deeply reluctant once-over. "I'll, uh. I'll leave you to it then."

She was already trying to come up with something else to do to keep herself occupied.

"You don't need to leave. There is plenty of room in here for the both of us," she said cheerfully. "But would you mind if, perhaps, we didn't have a combat program running?"

She needed to relax. Not work up a sweat.

The look of relief that passed across T'Pren's face was obvious. "Thank you. I'd love some company, actually." She gave the Romulan a wry smile. "It's your hour. Run whatever you'd like."

"Holodeck, run program Tal'Ara 2: Valley of Chula," she commanded.

The Holodeck instantly rearranged itself to the Valley of Chula, one of the most beloved areas on the Romulan homeworld which cut straight through the heart of the Kae'raktar Mountains.

The temperature was perfect - not too hot, not too cold.

Various colorful plants peppered the grey-green fields of grass. The beautiful mountain skyline surrounded them.

Tal'Ara breathed the familiar air in.

"This is one of the most beautiful places on Romulus. My father used to take us here on vacations when I was a child."

The half-Vulcan immediately took in an expansive breath, stepping forward to let herself be surrounded by open space, even if it was just a poor substitute. "It's gorgeous," she decided, her voice soft. "We were supposed to go to Romulus once when I was a child to help a couple conceive, but we couldn't get clearance."

"Too bad you didn't know me back them," she said jokingly.

She paused.

"I like to come here and just relax. Set out a blanket and have a snack."

Tal'Ara may have been joking about T'Pren knowing her then, but it peaked the lieutenant's interest. She grinned and lowered herself onto a flat stone, once again wringing water from her hair. "I doubt you'd have been interested in knowing me. I was only nine." After a pause, she asked earnestly, "What were you like? Before the Tal Shiar."

She paused to think about this.

"Well, there wasn't much before the Tal Shiar, honestly. I was pretty young when I was recruited. And besides that, my father was in the Tal Shiar, so it has always been a part of my life."

She smiled, "But if you mean, what was I like as a child? Precocious. Driven. Mischievous. Loquacious. I was in trouble a lot."

The idea of Tal'Ara as a child getting in trouble made T'Pren grin even more. "In trouble for what?"

Tal'Ara laughed.

"Oh, wouldn't you like to know?" she teased. "I was a master manipulator and liar from a young age. And a bit of a kleptomaniac. Never listened to anyone. Argued constantly."

T'Pren laughed at Tal'Ara's description of her child self. "No wonder the Tal Shiar recruited you." And then, with a sheepish smile, she admitted, "I definitely wouldn't have interested you back then. I don't think I ever told a lie until I was fourteen."

"What was your first lie? Do you remember?"

T'Pren took a deep breath at the question and picked up a stone. She studied it carefully and steadied her heartbeat and her respiration to make sure she stayed as disconnected as possible from what she was about to say. "Members of the Obsidian Order boarded my escape pod and told me to surrender without a fight. I told them I would. That was the first lie. The second was after they'd subdued me. I told them I wasn't afraid of them."

Tal'Ara frowned.

"Lying can be a necessity for survival."

"Well," T'Pren replied with a sideways smile, "there are very few better teachers when it comes to lying than the Order. Although I never did develop much of a stomach for it." After a little more studying of the stone in her hand, she pulled her arm back and chunked it half-heartedly, watching it bounce off the other rocks and finally land in a patch of grass.

Tal'Ara definitely had the stomach for it.

She sat down in the grass and took her shoes off, letting the gras get between her toes.

"Oddly enough, I kind of prefer the holodeck version of this place..." she sighed, "Allergies."

"Was that ever a problem?" T'Pren wondered with amusement, following Tal'Ara's example and stripping out of her shoes. "A Tal Shiar operative with allergies. Did you ever sneeze at an inopportune time?"

Tal'Ara laughed, "Sure, but I always found ways to use it to my advantage. Undercover, making a little blunder as insignificant as a sneeze can be important. Someone may see it as a slight sign of weakness, and therefore will instinctively let their guard down around me, even if only a little bit."

The half-Vulcan gave Tal'Ara an amusedly wary look. "I'll have to keep that in mind the next time you sneeze around me."