Star Trek Hunter
Episode 27: The Sword of Destiny
Scene 20:
chal
“You know this planet is under a death sentence. Before my grandchildren grow old, a gamma burst will kill this forest and everything in it. Why are you fighting so hard to kill this planet before its time?” Davoga, the romulan forest manager, was pacing in the small one-room building that served as her office. The klingon guard, l’SaH was in a simple, rude cell in the back of the building.
“I’m not fighting,” l’SaH said.
“Your people are,” Davoga responded simply. “Tell me why.”
“I don’t think I know anymore.”
“That’s a very good answer,” said Captain Geordie LaForge. He was sitting by the door in one of the only two chairs the office afforded. “Don’t you think that’s a good answer, Davoga?”
Davoga turned her irritation toward her unwelcome guest. “What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be looking after your friend? That bark fellow?”
“Commander Barclay,” Geordie corrected. “He’s fine. He’s just faking it now. That romulan engineer has been spoiling him and he’s letting her do it. Honestly, I think he has a thing for her…”
“You humans, you act like you own everything…” Davoga groused.
“Well… we do…” LaForge teased.
“Even when the klingons are taking it all away from you.”
Geordie leaned his head back. “Just wait until we get our second wind, you’ll see…”
Davoga made a disgusted noise. She started to storm out, then paused, crept quietly toward LaForge and tapped him sharply on the forehead, startling him. “But you won’t, blind man!”
“Hey! That wasn’t nice!” Geordie called as Davoga slammed the door on her way out. l’SaH was laughing raucously.
“You know this is your fault,” Geordie said.
“I was not the cause of this war…”
“My eyes…”
“I had no idea you would be so delicate, human.”
“You know, wine and flowers work a lot better than hitting on me. Good food, laughter… gentleness…”
l’SaH looked about furtively. “There is erotic literature like what you speak of,” she said, quietly. “Gentle caresses, kissing…” her voice lowered. “Holding hands. Lots of eye contact…” She took a breath, shook her head. “It is very taboo. People don’t talk about it openly. They don’t like to admit to even fantasizing about it.”
“Sounds nice to me,” Geordie mused.
“I suppose we’ll have to hold off on the eye contact thing,” l’SaH said in a low voice.
“Well, we seem to be doing okay with the conversation thing,” Geordie replied.
“You can’t be serious, human,” said l’SaH. “You’ve never even seen me.”
“You know, these prosthetics are fairly rugged,” said Geordie, pointing at his eyes. “They’re designed to repair themselves.” He looked at l’SaH. “I like what I’ve seen so far.”
“You can see me? Wait… You tricked that romulan…”
Geordie was laughing. “Yes… Don’t tell her… I have yet to pay her back for that…”
l’SaH laughed again, then: “So you like what you see?”
“Well, my eyes haven’t completely repaired themselves. At the moment I see four of you and all of you are a little blurry,” Geordie laughed again. “But yeah, I think we can move on to wine and flowers…”
“It will have to be blood wine…”
“Blood wine’s not so bad,” Geordie mused, “once you get used to how salty the stuff is…”
“We klingons consider flowers to be a very romantic gift as well,” said l’SaH. “But you must be very careful with the flowers from my homeworld.”
“The flowers on Qo’noS are delicate?”
“They’re carnivorous.”
*chal (thlingn Hol - flowers)
