Work Text
It was another, miserable, drab, horrible day in space. Well, according to Doctor McCoy anyway.
If you’d asked captain Kirk it was a particularly fine day indeed, as he’d woken up that morning on Hydregia completely naked with a rather well-endowed alien and with the mission over they’d both been more than happy to part ways with each other and never see each other again. He’d had a great time of course, and certainly she had too, but there were just too many attractive women on far-off planets for the young captain to tie himself to just one.
If you’d asked Uhura, it was quite a good day as well. Since almost no one on Hydregia spoke standard she’d had quite little time for herself during this mission. All the translating had been very tiring, but nothing could be as tiring as translating captain Kirk’s very unsubtle flirts. Though now they were heading home, something she was quite happy with. Although she enjoyed her job in Starfleet very much she would enjoy it even more if she’d never have to find a suitable translation for: ‘Your parents must be thieves because they stole all the stars from the sky and put them in your eyes’ ever again.
If you’d asked Scotty, it was a particularly important day, with many important engine checks and some quite major tinkering that had been planned for this day. All very important for his fair lady.
If you’d asked Sulu it was a particularly boring day, not much else to do but take the ship straight back to earth through a route that was quite far but sadly very straightforward. The only thing besides that was listen to the new navigator, who’d replaced Martin Petit, now retired. He’d been quite fond of Petit. Strangely enough quite often flying through space could be quite dull. Simply waiting for the navigator to find the quickest and safest route, bring it up to warp and then just keep the ship on course. That’s why him and Petit had, had quite a lot of time to simply chat amongst each other while they flew. Petit had been with starship for a long time, had had many stories to share and a lot of tricks to teach Sulu. But now the man was retired and had been replaced by Tirmo. Tirmo was an adequate navigator and more than capable but surely no pleasure to be around. For one the enterprise had been the last ship he’d wanted to be assigned too. The enterprise had quite a reputation for their spectacular results. But also a bit of a reputation for having a young and largely inexperienced crew. Many people at Starfleet claimed that Kirk, Sulu, McCoy, Scott and Uhura had only been lucky to get their position in the ‘heath of battle’ and should have been stripped of their positions when they’d returned after their first mission. After all many Starfleet officers spent years developing skills and climbing the ladder, earning their promotions through hard work and never even got close to being on the Alpha shift, let alone anywhere near the captain’s chair.
Tirmo was one of these people, he also wasn’t shy about admitting this. He’d been one of these people who took many years to get his title as navigator and was very unhappy with the prospect of working under with a bunch of inexperienced toddlers. Especially Kirk the young prodigy who’d gotten in the captain’s chair without even one day’s experience on an actual spaceship had quite ruffled his feathers. Luckily for all of them the only person he seemed to hold genuine respect for was Spock, who in his eyes had more than enough experience (even as a teacher) to sit in the chair of science officer. Still it wasn’t enough to make him be quiet about his displeasure with the others.
So yes, hearing Tirmo complain about starfleet regulations and ‘the good old days’ was quite boring.
If you’d asked Spock it was- Well there was no point in asking Spock about his opinion of that particular day, as he was not very likely to answer you, and even if he would the answer would most likely not be really what you were looking for.
So everyone had their own personal feelings about this particular day but to Doctor McCoy it was simply just another miserable, drab, horrible day in space with plenty of risk for trouble, death or worse… adventure.
There were no injuries on board at least, no officers who needed attending too. He’d had quite enough time to keep up with his regular appointments and checkups while Jim was traipsing off planetside with aliens, flirting, chatting, drinking, feasting, fucking and whatever else counted for making nice with the locals these days.
So he was simply hanging around grouchily on the bridge, glaring at the dark space and stars visible and also cherishing a special little hatred in his heart for Tirmo’s increasingly annoying whining.
He was just thinking longingly about this small room that he had assigned to him on base at earth, where a particularly good bottle of bourbon was waiting for him.
That’s of course when they received a call from Starfleet headquarters.
“Bring it up on the big screen.” Kirk said immediately.
In front of them appeared admiral Higgs. A stern looking man with grey hair and a short military-style hairdo. He was stiff and stern. The last person in Starfleet you wanted as your enemy but he was also a good officer with firm moral fiber which had earned him several medals in his career and had helped him to climb to the title he held to this day.
“Captain Kirk, I’m afraid you and your crew won’t be coming home just yet. I have an important emergency mission.”
“Okay,” Kirk said, immediately serious. “What kind of mission?”
“A sensitive one. So I would appreciate some discretion while you are briefed.”
“Of course, everyone clear the bridge.”
Everyone besides McCoy, Spock and Kirk got up and stepped into the elevator. It was quite common for the captain to be briefed first and then there was a message sent out for the general crew. Only the head of the medical wing and the second in command would stay for the uncensored version, as it was important for them to know the whole story.
“Have any of you ever heard of the planet Terano?”
Both Kirk and McCoy immediately looked at Spock but there were more than billions of planets in the galaxy and it was more than impossible for anyone, even Spock to be familiar with them all.
“I’m familiar with the name but all the information I have regarding the planet is that they are a part of the federation and thus our allies.”
The admiral nodded. “Indeed. Well I’ll start with a little history lesson then. Terano is a quite small planet, about one third the size of earth. More than 90 percent of the planet is barren however and depending on the season either nothing more than uninhabitable desert or iceplanes.”
Some photos showed up on screen now of the planet with some general information and satellite photos of what almost seemed like three bubbles on the planets surface.
“The planet wasn’t always like that. A very long time ago it would look similar to earth. With several different species of animals, water, vegetation and a much milder climate. This all changed very rapidly several hundred thousand years ago for reasons that are frankly to tiring to explain. What it comes down to is that in a few short decades time the planet went from fertile and prosperous to one hell of a shitdump rock in space. The sentient species that lived there at the time, a humanoid race we know as Teraniens barely managed to survive. Their numbers had decreased so rapidly and completely that they came very close to extinction, at their lowest point we estimate there couldn’t have been more than a two thousand. However the reason of their near extinction wasn’t so much a sudden lack of food and water as it was their too sudden change in way of life. They’d taken to living in caves, in the mountains where they had access to water and shelter, however they lived mainly of insects and their struggle to survive in the harsh conditions and without sunlight was very intense. They might have had the base necessities of food and water but they were hardly living in the Ritz. The reason they almost went extinct is because their new way of life was so harsh and sudden that many of them fell in deep states of depression. This caused all kinds of problems such as infertility, lack of libido, mass suicide, you name it. The only reason they did survive was because they adapted to their environment but only in the freakiest way you could imagine.”
“What manner is that?” Spock asked, almost seeming intrigued now.
“Well unconsciously we look to other humans for signs of health in their appearance. Youthful appearance, clear and healthy skin and hair, red cheeks, all indicators that a human is fertile and thus would make a good partner. Over the thousands of years that followed their sudden climate change though these Teraniens weren’t necessarily looking for the healthiest individuals rather the most stable and less likely to fall into depression. And as such this showed in their appearance rather than the signs of health we generally look for.”
“Wow, wait a second I don’t think I’m following here.” Jim interrupted, scratching a hand through his hair.
“It is quite simple captain. In order to survive these Teraniens were looking for mates that were not only physically but also mentally healthy enough to reproduce and carry on the bloodline and produce offspring. In order to distinguish these more desirable partners who were in possession of these traits rather than less desirable partners who might all together lack these traits they developed their physical appearance to reflect their mental wellbeing.”
Kirk was still frowning.
The admiral sighed. “Basically kid, the happier these fuckers are, the better looking they are.”
McCoy lifted an eyebrow. “So you’re telling me they somehow shift their appearance depending on what kind of mood these flakes are in?”
“Not exactly.” The admiral huffed. “During their childhood and early adolescence the body reacts to the chemicals that are released in their brain when feeling emotions such as serotonin, endorphins and all that other bull chemical babble.”
Spock’s face twitched a bit in what could be interpreted as ‘making a face’. But he stubbornly kept quiet.
“So basically the wellbeing and happiness of these people in their childhood determines how they will develop during their puberty.” McCoy guessed, trying to look at this from a medical point of view.
“Exactly.” The admiral said. “They still inherit traits through the DNA from their parents such as hair color, facial features, height and so on but as they grow the chemicals in their bodies can greatly influence their appearance over time. So if your kid throws a tantrum one day he won’t wake up butt ugly the next. But if a child is abused or neglected they will hardly make the right chemicals their body uses as magic pretty dust. Then they’ll grow up butt ugly.”
“So you can pretty much tell immediately which girl has some severe daddy issues by checking out her ass?“ Kirk asked, seeming fond of this idea.
“More than likely it’s much more likely that children from a troubled home continue on in life as being undesired, thus limiting their chances for reproduction as nature’s way of weeding out the ones to damaged or unsuited for parenthood or those who simply had bad examples of parenting that may influence the way they would raise their own.” Supplied Spock.
Kirk winced. “Ouwch. Harsh.”
“Not that this isn’t incredibly interesting or anything but what is the point to all this?” McCoy asked. “It hardly has anything to do with us how these people happened to have evolved several hundred thousand years ago.”
“I was getting to that Doctor.” The admiral grouched impatiently. “So that is their basic biology. Of course in the hundred thousand years since the climate change they have developed a civilized society of their own and as a people have conquered the battle against the elements. A lot of this was because of trading with other planets and becoming part of the federation of course. So a major milestone five hundred years ago was the building of the three major and only cities on the planet.”
The pictures of the bubble like things on the planet surface expanded to show they were in fact big glass-looking domes with buildings inside that oddly reminded McCoy of some kind of snowglobe.
“As you can see these three cities are covered by domes to protect from the harsh climate. The cities are called Trandalia, Exos and Murandios. They are connected by a number of covered roads to travel from one to the other. Every single living thing on this planet lives underneath these domes and it’s because of this that now every single person lives in comfortable and humane conditions. Their entire population of only ten million lives divided under the three domes. There is no way in or out of them to the outside because there is simply no need for them. Everything they need, they have. You can understand that these have been critical to their way of life and have brought on a lot of change. This is what I’ve been getting too.”
“Finally.” McCoy sighed, louder than was strictly necessary.
The admiral glared but continued on with his story. “So ever since the domes things have been going much better for these people. Their quality of life has gone up and it is no longer a daily struggle for them to survive under hostile conditions. Of course this has also brought on several problems along with it. There have always been two groups amongst the Teraniens. One are the normal people who struggled to survive and suffered through their hard lives and a small percentage who thrived even before the building of the domes, living in relative wealth and happiness. Since the building was complete everyone has been living in far better conditions. Meaning that life for the normal people has become increasingly good and for the rich and powerful it has become increasingly dull.”
“And this isn’t a good thing?” Kirk asked, incredulously.
“You’d think so. But as before the rich have had their easy way of life they have now become bored and complacent. Their easy way of life used to give them an advantage that meant they were not only wealthier and more powerful but also more beautiful. They married their children off to each other and thus kept their money close to their chests. Now however the rich have become bored, dull and they find that their life of plenty has left them unfulfilled. In order to continue to have beautiful children that for them to marry off they give their children whatever their heart desires. Becoming their friends and doing whatever they can to keep them as happy as possible. This however has backfired. In the last five hundred years this has resulted only in whiny-spoiled-undisciplined brats who are grateful for nothing. Meaning that the rich hardly have a monopoly on beauty anymore. The poor however have lived much better, they have thrived and as such their children enjoy better childhoods and thus fairer looks.”
“Still not seeing the problem.” Kirk supplied.
“Well there wouldn’t be one of course. Except that there’s one big problem now and that is that we have a whole bunch of rich, spoiled brats married off to ugly hags who have nothing to desire or spend their considerable fortune on except young good-looking people. It’s become a big part of their culture in these last five hundred years. The rich buy off poor families for their good-looking kids. The chemicals they need only have effect until they are about fourteen after that they of course still get older and more mature but their emotional state does not influence their looks anymore as it has done before. They’ve become as pretty as they are going to get. So it’s been a custom that many between 14 and 16 sign a contract, or their parents do anyway for what they call Trudandors. Which basically means pretty common folk bound by contract to serve some rich guy in any way they want. It seems pretty sick but it’s very common. It would provide financial security for both the child itself and the family it left behind. Many parents raised their kids only for this purpose for financial security in a society extremely divided between either poor or rich. No controversy about it at all until recently.”
“Until recently?” Spock said. “So there has been a change in their behavior.”
The captain shrugged. “Yes and no. The difference between wealthy and poor had lessened considerably in the last fifty or so years. Meaning that less and less parents found it necessary to sell their child and instead were able to provide for them themselves. But as I said it was quite common practice, nothing to be ashamed about, nothing bad, even a great honor and something to be strived for and something many longed for. There was certain pride to be had if you raised your child well enough and made it happy enough that a wealthy man would pay for it. So even though their poor aren’t as poor as they used to be it wasn’t this that changed the behavior as much as the new turn their newsstations have taken. Fifty years ago they started reporting every time one of these kids died and it isn’t even so very rare. More and more cases come to light that these Trudandors show up dead. There’s all kinds of reasons, sometimes they were just starved to death as punishment for bad service, sometimes they were beaten as punishment but also often they died because of some perverse sexual game gone too far. After all as soon as a Trudandor sings a contract their freedom is gone, their life over. There is no way out and for some contracts no time limit. They are not unlike property to be sold or handled as desired by their buyer. They relinquish all rights when they sign the paper. Their only purpose in life is to do as their master tells them or suffer the consequences that follow. All perfectly legal of course. But as more and more of these cases have come to light in the past fifty years. Many now refuse to have their children be Trudandors anymore and the job has taken a hard blow. This would be a good thing of course except that because of the lack of ‘new recruits’ there have been more and more cases of families being threatened, coerced or even children being kidnapped.”
“So this is where we come in?” Kirk said, sounding more than pleased to go down to this planet and give them a piece of his mind.
“Sadly, no.” Said the admiral. “Between you and me Kirk. I’d love nothing more than to get these bastards castrated and hang their severed dicks as Christmas decoration on my christmastree but as there is no law against Trudandors and there is not much the federation can do about the customs of a people. ”
“So you’re telling me there’s no one who has a problem with this? No one who’s trying to put a stop to this?” Kirk said angrily.
“Well everyone with enough political power on Terano to actually do something about this is not really very keen on changing anything. After all these are powerful people so of course they have Trudandors of their own or can’t afford to lose favor with those that do. If they’d make laws to outlaw this or grant a Trudandor more rights they’d be shooting their own foot. No one wants to see the Trudandors go. Even most people themselves don’t see a problem with it. They were raised in these conditions and are used to it. It’s their culture and Trudandors have always been a very important part of it. They’ve developed their own solution to the problem of child abduction.”
“And what’s that?”
“Mutilation. It’s become quite popular in the last few decades. To make sure kids aren’t abducted on their fourteenth birthday they either get scarred or wounded in some other way.”
Kirk saw red. “Surely we can do something about that! We can’t just let them cut up fourteen year olds.”
The admiral shook his head. “No parent forces their child into this. The child can chose their own wound or even inflict it themselves if they have the stomach for it. They can also choose not to do it. Some of them want to become Trudandors or decide they want to take the risk, or their looks are unappealing enough and do nothing. There are no laws against self-mutilation and there is nothing we can do about it. No matter how much we dislike it.”
Several photos showed up on screen now. Kids, all in their teens, there was no difference to be seen between them and regular earth kids except that they wore one or several scars on their face, as if someone had drawn a line with a knife, it wasn’t too horrific for most of them but others had gone much farther, missing pieces of nose of ears, missing teeth, burns on their face that looked like they could have been from a tire-iron. McCoy had seen many crazy things in his medical career, wounds far more gruesome than these but for some reason the casualness of the photos were what got to him. Some were just family photos other just photos that were made of several at once, making faces and smiling. Other simply seemed as if they were on some schooltrip or maybe a vacation. These weren’t scientifically documented pictures in hospitals, no, merely everyday photographs of kids having fun and spending time with family and friends. If it hadn’t been for the mutilations it would have seemed like any other picture a young person might keep in an album or post online.
“So why are you telling us this?!” Kirk now snapped. “If this is such a big part of their culture or whatever and we can’t do anything about it! Why are we even talking about it?!”
“Because-” The admiral started. “Because we can’t afford to turn these allies into enemies by attacking their laws, beliefs and traditions. Not without anything solid to pave the way for us. Such as definite proof of illegal activity indorsed by people high up. Something of significance that makes it our business and finally something has showed up that might actually give Starfleet something to work with.”
Jim looked intrigued now.
“Like what?”
“This is a video sent to us by the Starfleet base on Terano. This was caught on video in the university in Mirandios.”
Immediately a film started on the big screen, replacing the admirals’ head. It was dark in the video and first McCoy didn’t quite understand what he was seeing then suddenly a small stream of light seemed to illuminate a wall.
A girl popped in to view dressed in black. She was young, maybe early twenties and she was very beautiful. Long straight blond hair, round, pleasant face and wide blue eyes. She smiled mischievously at the camera, squinting a bit at the light shining in her face.
When she smiled McCoy noticed her front teeth were missing when she spoke in hushed tones and when she turned her head he saw she was missing an ear.
He couldn’t understand what she was saying. It certainly wasn’t standard. Sounded almost Russian but on the bottom of the screen there were subtitles.
“Maybe we shouldn’t.” Someone whispered and it took a while for McCoy to understand that it was in fact the person holding the camera. It was a male voice but it sounded young as well, couldn’t be much older than the girl, probably about the same age. He sounded nervous and spoke in hushed whispers.
She snorted at him and laughed. “Don’t be a baby Alexis. Where’s your sense of adventure?”
“I just don’t see the point.” The boy, apparently names Alexis, responded.
“This is about pride.” She said. “They can’t just come to the academy and wreck our statue. This means war.”
It wasn’t until then that McCoy noticed she was wearing standard issue black Starfleet apparel. She wasn’t wearing a colored shirt on top but he’d recognize those black pants and undershirt anywhere.
The two of them were running now through the dark, the girl snickering gleefully until they got to a fence. They climbed over sneaking around what was no doubt a campus. They didn’t really seem to know where they were going, just sneaking in between buildings that were obviously empty for the night and avoiding any paths or open spaces.
“Shhhhh- Shhh- Wait! Wait! I think I hear something.” Alexis said suddenly.
The girl held still for a while until she too heard the noise.
She turned to him with a dry look. “Yes that’s a car. You’re going to hear a lot of them. If you hear a parade than you can tell me about it.”
She pulled something from her pocket. Something McCoy couldn’t see very well in the dark until she started using it to spraypaint the Starfleet symbol boldly on the wall of building they were hiding behind.
Kirk snickered. “It’s a prank war between the Starfleet academy and this university.”
“There’s not supposed to be anyone here this late.” Alexis hissed again. “Let’s go Lara, before we get caught.”
She shrugged his worried comment off. “Probably just a maintenance guy, let’s sneak around and do a couple more. That’ll teach them.”
The boy whimpered but followed her around the corner of the building until they had a good view of what seemed to be a courtyard. There was a noise and both of them quickly ducked behind some shrubbery.
Carefully the camera maneuvered so they could see what was happening on the other side of the hedge. A man was sitting on the front steps of the building, early to mid-forties. He checked the time before he perked up when someone approached.
“I really don’t see why we have to meet here, in the middle of the night, surely-”
But the man was cut off as a phaser went off, hit him square in the chest and he collapsed on the ground immediately. Both kids let out a sound of surprise and ducked behind the shrubbery again before they could be seen. The camera shook for a moment and they could only see leaves and the boys hand clutching at the grass under his fingers.
They could hear a soft sob-like sound and the camera caught only a short glimps of Lara, the girl sitting crouched behind the bush, hand covering her mouth and eyes wide open in shock and horror.
The camera peeked over the shrubbery again.
“Alexis stay down.” The girl squeaked. They were far enough that it couldn’t be heard, luckily. Two men were examining the fallen body now, they looked generic but through the dark, the shaky camerawork and the distance there wasn’t much of them to be seen.
They nudged the body once or twice with their foot and seemed satisfied enough when it didn’t move anymore.
Then they heard one more pair of footsteps, high heels. Coming from somewhere out of sight. Suddenly a scream and the high heels went from steps to full out running.
“Out of the way! That’s my husband! That’s my husband!”
But before she’d even reached the body one of the men had aimed and fired and the woman went down just as she entered the view. Unlike her husband she still seemed to be alive. Her hand grasped at the ground a little bit. She softly muttered something but it was faint and no translation was given.
It only lasted for two seconds before one of the men approached her and shot her twice in the head.
There was a long silence after that, the kids both huddling behind the shrubbery, not daring to move or make any sound. After what felt like forever, they both crawled slowly back behind the building where they’d spraypainted the Starfleet logo than ran full on to the fence they’d climbed over earlier to get in. Both of them scrambled to get over as quickly as possible. The camera fell in the grass during their attempt to get away as soon as possible. The girl had already almost disappeared from view but the boy stopped mid-run. He hesitated for only a second before he turned back and started to climb again.
“Alexis! What are you doing?!” The girl asked urgently in her hushed voice. “Leave it! We have to go before they know we are here! Just run!”
But he still climbed over once again, picked it up and then the camera cut off.
The admiral appeared back on screen. “This footage is from one week ago. Shot by two Starfleet cadets in training Lara Rytin and Alexis Utyosov. They had planned to simply sneak on the campus and vandalize it as revenge for a similar incident four days before. Instead they witnessed a double murder. They immediately brought this footage to the attention of the headmaster of the academy.”
“So who were they?” Kirk asked.
“Andrei and Larisa Chekov. Two professors at the university of Muranios. They were found later in their home after it was set on fire. A gas leak and an accident claimed local authorities but obviously to this footage only staged to look like one. To cover up the real circumstances surrounding their deaths.”
Spock looked at the Admiral calculatingly. “The loss of these two lives was no doubt tragic. But I fail to see what it has to do with Starfleet, except that two students brought forth the evidence. Starfleet is hardly in the habit of solving murder cases. The local authorities would be the more obvious and more qualified choice for these circumstances.”
“Agreed, Mister Spock.” The admiral admitted. “And normally we’d be more than happy to leave such investigation to police officials. No reason for us to get involved. But there was a reason the headmaster forwarded this and all the information to go along with it to me. Namely it is of importance to this boy.”
Another picture showed up of a starfleet ID card.
“Pavel Chekov.” The admiral said. “Graduated one month ago from the Starfleet academy on Terano. Went on one mission for his final evaluation. Word is he’s a navigator with much promise. Yet he failed to show up a week ago now and hasn’t been seen since.”
“Their son.” Kirk said softly.
“Exactly.” Said the admiral.
“Hold on a second.” McCoy said as he inspected the badge shown on the screen. “This kid can’t have graduated from the academy. This says he’s seventeen. He’s not even old enough to be in the academy.”
“Ensign Chekov was a genius, incredibly gifted. He joined Starfleet at 14 after he finished high school. Brimming with potential and a star pupil.”
“So if this all happened a week ago. Why are we only hearing about this now? If this kid is such a genius whiz kid than why did nobody raise the alarm bells as soon as he didn’t show up?”
The admiral frowned. “He disappeared the same night his parents died. His superior officers thought he was simply staying with family, roaming the streets, camped out somewhere with a girl. They simply wrote it off as a young man grieving his loss. They didn’t believe the two were in any way connected.”
“But you do?” Kirk asked.
“The circumstances of Chekov’s parents deaths is very suspicious to say the least. The timing of his disappearance very disturbing. My superiors fear he might have been kidnapped as a Trudandor. The local headmaster and officers don’t support these suspicions, after all, never before has anyone been kidnapped of off the Starfleet base before. It seems too far-fetched. They are more than convinced he ran off to grieve. But we have to see this for what it is. A disappearance off base needs to be handled by Starfleet officers. If he has been taken as a Trudandor than this could be a chance for Starfleet to finally get involved. We would have a solid base for our arguments and instead of meddling foreigners we would be demanding justice for one of our own and we could work towards laws so that something like this will never happen again. It could finally give this savagery the interplanetary pressure and attention it deserves.”
McCoy felt more and more uncomfortable the more this admiral seemed to get excited. As if nothing would please him more than to have this kid snatched and sold on the black market like some ancient rug or some custom made vase just so it would give Starfleet an opportunity to pressure some dusty old politicians into action.
He peered at the picture on the screen. The kid was only shown shoulders up but his gold-command shirt was clearly visible, he was pale and his hair was blond and curly. He was beautiful, that was certain, even if McCoy didn’t know these people grew up beautiful if they were happy kids than he still would never have suspected anything else. It was very clear in those bright eyes that seemed to look straight at him.
When he snapped back to attention the admiral was gone, as was the picture. Kirk was calling everybody to get back to the bridge, they were heading for Terano.