Surefoot 26: Who We Are

USS Surefoot-A, Deck 3 Mid -- Sickbay Suite:

Kitirik flushed a darker than usual green around his mottled skin and throat wattles as he sat on the biobed. "Well... this is certainly embarrassing."

Standing in front of the cadet, passing a sensor wand over the Qarari's head, Doc Masterson grinned. "It can happen to any of us, pardner." But then he amended that to, "Well, it could, if we're studying mycorrhizal fungi without proper respiratory filters. And also if we're reptoids who are particularly susceptible to mycorrhizal fungal infections." He shrugged. "Okay, so maybe it's just you."

Beside the biobed, Delta Squad's Medical cadet Hafsa Al-Samra's almond-coloured eyes widened with chagrin. "It's my fault, Doctor, I should have gone to get the proper equipment! I could have killed him!"

Masterson glanced at her with amusement. "Let's not go that far, little lady. He just suffered some minor neural failure related to his particular biochemistry, that's all, and it's all been cleared up with a shot of chloradizine."

"Still," Kit quipped. "It's humiliating at my age to suffer from... reptile dysfunction."

He looked expectantly to Hafsa, who guffawed with him, both of them laughing until she snorted -- and then they continued laughing.

Masterson grinned and looked to Eydiir, Alpha Squad's Medical cadet, currently assisting him. "Think we should check for intoxication as well?"

The dark-skinned Capellan girl grunted, her face remaining stoic as if in deliberate contrast to the merriment on display. "They have been suffering from these particularly annoying symptoms for weeks now. And we have been suffering as well."

Hafsa stopped and beamed unapologetically at her. "Kit can't help it... he's a fungi."

Kit got it, and began laughing again, before stopping and regarding his unresponsive squadmate. "Do you see, Very Good Friend Eydiir? 'Fungi' is a play on 'Fun Guy'-"

"Yes, Kit, explain the joke, that will assuredly make it funnier."

Masterson was putting away his equipment. "Alright, you two jackasses, vamoose and pester someone else with your hee-haws. But keep an eye for the next 24 hours for any reoccurrences of symptoms."

Kit hopped off the biobed, pausing to bow slightly to Masterson and return to his customary etiquette-driven behaviour. "I thank you sincerely for your assistance, Respected Doctor." Then he slipped an arm around Hafsa's, declaring loudly, "Come, we shall find my Very Good Friend Neraxis! She is more appreciative of our sophisticated humour!"

As the couple departed, Masterson chuckled. "It always amazes me to see folks from such different backgrounds connecting like that."

Eydiir nodded. "Yes, friendships can cross many boundaries."

He grinned. "You think that's just friendship they got there?"

*

Deck 2 Mid -- Alpha Squad Quarters:

Kit and Hafsa entered, their giggling subsiding as he glanced around. "It appears that we have the place to ourselves."

"Ooh," she teased, grinning. "Bet you planned this all along, hoping to win me over with more fungal puns!"

His round bronze eyes widened with humour. "I fear I might have exhausted those, Very Good Friend Hafsa." But then his throat darkened. "There is not... mushroom in my head for any more."

She stared in astonishment, before laughing again -- and then moving in and kissing him.

He froze, feeling her lips on his mouth, her hands around his waist, before she drew back, suddenly looking shocked and embarrassed. "Um... wow. Uh, Kit, I, ah, hope you don't- um, I didn't plan that-"

He blinked, smiling -- as his webbed hands reached out and held her by the forearms. "That was my first kiss. I suspect it would be more intense with lips, but it was still very enjoyable. I believe I am... lichen it."

But instead of appearing amused by his additional pun (the lack of success he assumed was from lichen being not technically a fungus in itself but the result of mutualistic symbiosis between a fungus and an alga or cyanobacteria), she looked alarmed. "That was very rude of me! I'm sorry! You might have cultural restrictions or something against affection-"

"May we do it again, please?"

After a second, she complied -- this time, making sounds as his hands moved up her arms to the back of her head, gently stroking her sable hair, in a way he saw his Very Good Friends Sasha and Giles do when their relationship had intimate physical parameters.

When they parted again, they remained closer than before, and he saw the changes to her expression, her pupils, felt her pulse quickening and her hot breath on him as she asked huskily, "K-Kit... have you had sex with anyone before?"

"No. I met a fellow Qarari some months ago, a female and fellow expatriate, who asked for it, but only for the purposes of conception. I refused. May I respectfully ask you if-"

She shook her head. "Never." She swallowed. "But I'd love to remedy that... with you."

He smiled. "I think that would be most enjoyable."

She grinned -- but then she gasped. "Oh crap, I don't even know if we're- you know, compatible!"

Kit smiled at her, already knowing the answer from his studies and his observations of his female squadmates, but keeping it to himself as he slipped his hand down into hers. "Shall we find out?"

Twelve minutes later, Sasha Hrelle entered the quarters, still licking sticky barbecue sauce from her early lunch as she stopped and checked for messages, before moving to the bedroom, hoping for a quick nap before her next Counseling session with Kami- "WHOA! SORRY!"

She returned to the common room, feeling herself turning seven shades of red.

Kit burst in, barely covering his groin with part of his uniform. "Very Good Friend Sasha! We are most egregiously sorry for not scheduling our coitus more appropriately!"

She held up a hand. "No, no, Kit, it was all my fault- I don't know how, exactly, but I'm sure it was... wow... I cannot unsee that..."

Hafsa entered, also dishevelled, sweaty and barely covering herself with more than a hastily-commandeered pillow and a smile. "Um... it's not what it looks like?"

*

Deck 1 Fore -- Command Quarters:

The door chimed, and a voice replied with, "Enter!"

Commander T'Varik entered, hands folded behind her. "Captain?"

From a doorway in the far end of the quarters, Hrelle's voice echoed, "In here! Misha got filthy in the Arboretum so I'm giving him a bath!"

She approached. "Apologies for the interruption, Sir, but I thought it would be..." She paused, at an unaccustomed loss for words.

The bathroom had been expanded recently to accommodate both the Captain's wife and their cub, and included a bathtub, currently filled to near-overflowing with water, frothy suds and bubbles, colourful floating bath toys... and Hrelle and Misha, the pair of them wearing black tricorner hats with white skull and crossbones symbols on the front. Hrelle was dabbing suds around the infant's chin to give him a foamy beard, before looking up and explaining, "We're pirates!"

"Of course you are."

"You should hop in, it's fun! Kami and I play Pirates in here, too." He grinned. "And afterwards when I want to bury my treasure-"

"I believe I get the gist of the innuendo, Sir."

"Aye, and so ya should, ya scurvy dawg!" Then he began singing a sea shanty to his son. "Yo Ho Ho, and lots of luck / Taking a bath with our rubber duck / Because my cub got caked in muck / If his Mom finds out then I'll be fu-"

"Misha is eating the suds," T'Varik informed him.

The cub was spitting them out now and blowing a raspberry, as Hrelle cleaned him up. "He needs something to wash down those worms he found in the Arboretum."

"Naturally. Captain, we've received a transmission from Starfleet Command: an urgent holomeeting has been arranged for 1130 Hours Ship Time with Admirals Tattok, Goldstein and Trenagen."

"Trenagen? Oooh, we are honoured!" Hrelle was pouring cups of water over Misha to wash off the suds, before wiping the water from the cub's eyes and asking him, "Can you say, 'Admiral Trenagen has a massive, massive stick up his ass about Daddy'?"

Misha gurgled.

"My godson is gifted," T'Varik conceded, "But perhaps not that gifted. Captain, the meeting will commence in 8.6 minutes-"

"Understood." He rose, lifting up Misha in his hands and facing her, both Caitians nude, their fur matted and dripping. Hrelle grinned. "You can dry him, or you can dry me. Make your choice."

She kept her eyes fixed firmly above Hrelle's waist as she accepted the cub.

"You... have chosen... wisely," he intoned in a deep dramatic baritone -- before shaking the bathwater and suds from his body, making his belly shake, Misha squeal and T'Varik turn away and depart, grabbing a towel along the way.

*

Sasha was moving down the corridor distractedly when a familiar voice called after her. "Hey."

She stopped. "Kami."

The brown-furred Caitian female drew up to her, smiling -- and then frowning. "You look like you've seen a ghost, if you believed in them."

"Um, no. Not a ghost."

Kami regarded her, before leading her inside her office, smiling. "So, who was it?"

"Who was what?"

Kami grinned. "I know that look. You caught someone having sex! Tell, tell!"

"Um, maybe I shouldn't-"

"Of course you should! I love gossip, and I'll treat it as Confidential." She moved to the replicator and ordered some scented Caitian tea, but withheld Sasha's cup and saucer expectantly. "Well?"

Sasha blinked, wondering if her face had returned to normal yet. "It was Kit and Hafsa."

"Really?" She handed over the tea.

"Really! They were on the bedroom floor in our quarters! At it like nobody's business!"

Kami laughed, taking a seat on the couch and inviting the girl to join her. "I recall a few times catching you and Giles in unusual places, when young lust had overtaken you-"

Sasha looked to her as she settled down. "But that's just it! Kit doesn't get lust! He told us sex for his people is no more a passionate act than his liver filtering his blood! Why would he want to do that?"

Kami shrugged. "He might not feel the same things males in our races feel when they have sex, but that doesn't mean he can't enjoy the intimacy with Hafsa. He's always been very tactile."

Sasha rolled her eyes. "Well, when I walked in on them he was so tactile I thought he was going to pound her down into the lower decks!"

Kami laughed again.

"It's not funny! He shouldn't- shouldn't be doing that!"

Now the Counselor sobered again. "Why not? He's an adult. So is Hafsa. They get along together extremely well."

"Has he talked with you about having sex?"

"That's none of your business if he has."

"Yes, but... isn't it deceitful or something? Does Hafsa know he's not feeling what other males feel at the time, that he's just... going through the motions?"

"Who says he's doing that? Just because he's not driven to sex like a human or Caitian male doesn't mean he's going through the motions." She tilted her head. "Do you know what your father does for me sometimes?"

Sasha held up a hand, paling. "I don't want to hear about your Fluttertail adventures, thanks!"

"He gives me pedicures. He'll sit there on the floor, take my feet and buff them, doing my claws, removing callus, soaking and massaging. It's incredibly relaxing, especially when I was pregnant with Misha." She grinned. "And, lacking a foot fetish, he gets nothing physically from it, but he does enjoy that I enjoy it. It's a bonding moment, as legitimate in its own way as sex." She looked slyly at the younger woman. "Intimacy can be enjoyed without climax. As my people say, 'Enjoy the prowl as well as the pounce'."

Sasha grunted.

Kami leaned back. "When we associate with others over a period of time -- family, lovers, friends, colleagues -- we build up a certain profile about them in our minds. We think we know who they are. But they can surprise us with who they really are."

Sasha grunted again.

"You're missing having sex with someone else, aren't you?"

"Shut up."

*

Elsewhere:

The four holograms stood in unreal space, arranged so that three of them -- Hrelle, Tattok and Goldstein -- faced Trenagen, who addressed them as if holding a lecture. "The Federation Diplomatic Council is in the midst of negotiating a treaty with the government of the Qarari Union, a non-aligned power with whom an alliance would be strategically valuable to us."

At the mention of the name, Hrelle instantly divined the reason for his presence in the lecture, and felt his hackles rise, but let the head of Starfleet Intelligence continue.

"It has been mostly successful," the snowy-haired British man proceeded, "To the point where both parties have agreed to provisional extradition procedures, to be first applied towards a Qarari fugitive currently serving as a cadet on a Starfleet vessel-"

"No," Hrelle cut in sharply.

"A cadet?" Goldstein echoed. "Who are you talking about?"

"I think Captain Hrelle knows," Tattok pointed out, looking to the Caitian. "Care to fill us in, Esek?"

Hrelle never took his eyes off of Trenagen. "His name is Kitirik Abyss Zu- um... he has a long, long surname, we just call him Kit. And he's not a fugitive. He's a refugee."

"Continue."

"The Qarari have one female gender but five male ones. The male genders are distinctive, physically, genetically and socially, and their genders define their roles in their society: Warrior, Chancellor, Seeker, Worker and Creator. They live segregated lives, and they never question if they were born into the right roles.

Except that Kit, and others like him, did question. He was born a Warrior, but had always felt he was a Seeker, someone who studied medicine or the sciences. His society condemned him as Aberrant, and tried to 'cure' him through intimidation... and violence.

Kit made contact with a Starfleet captain who granted him sanctuary and transported him off-world. His Refugee status and residency in the Federation was approved, he had corrective transgender surgery and was sponsored into the Academy."

"Kitirik..." Goldstein said the name to herself. "Wasn't he one of the cadets wounded in the Vlathi attack?"

"Yes, Ma'am, wounded helping to keep my wife and cub alive. But even before that, he has been an exemplary cadet and crewman." His expression tightened as he looked back at Trenagen. "And I'll repeat myself, Admiral: he's not a fugitive."

"How we perceive him is irrelevant," Trenagen replied coolly. "Compared with how the Qarari government does. They are currently at war with a neighbouring planet, a war not unsurprisingly being fought by their Warriors. And though the cadet might have altered his gender, legally the Qarari government still consider him a Warrior, and thus a deserter. They have demanded his return, so that he can perform his duty."

Hrelle grunted, folding his arms across his chest. "They can demand all they want, they're not having him."

Trenagen eyed him. "It's not up to you to decide that, Captain."

"No," Tattok agreed. "But he is a refugee, protected under Federation law." But then he asked, "Isn't he, Ian?"

"No longer, Tattok. The Qarari government has provided evidence to the Federation Refugel Linn Council that the cadet has been repeatedly visiting his homeworld since first departing it, thus proving that it is in fact safe for him to return and leave, that he is not subject to persecution and thus does not qualify for refugee status."

Hrelle frowned. "What? He hasn't been back to Qarar! They beat him there! They beat him, bullied him, pushed him to the brink of suicide! The very thought of the place terrifies him! He's been with me for the last two years!"

"The evidence they presented was considerable, Captain."

"Any evidence the Qarari provided will be faked!"

"Undoubtedly." Tattok looked to him. "But it seems like a great deal of trouble to go through for one deserter, Captain."

"That's because it's not just about that with them, Sir. Kit's been anonymously publishing accounts of his experiences to public news sites on his homeworld. It's apparently become popular, with many identifying with his plight, and others not realising the extent of suffering people like him undergo."

Tattok looked mildly alarmed by this. "You mean he's been violating Starfleet's Non-Interference Policy? How long have you known about these accounts?"

"I discovered it several weeks ago, during our Counseling session following the Vlathi attack. I had Commander T'Varik and Craig Whitham, Attaché with the Federation Legal Council, investigate. They concluded that his activities didn't violate the Policy."

Goldstein nodded at that. "That Vulcan could find a stray quark down the back of the couch. If there was anything wrong, she would have brought it to light."

Hrelle grunted. "The Qarari must have discovered his identity, and now they're dragging him back to serve in their military in order to silence him." He looked to Trenagen again. "Am I right, Admiral?"

"I'm hardly in a position to confirm that, Captain."

"It doesn't matter anyway," Goldstein said. "Captain Hrelle will provide proof that Cadet Kitirik has not visited Qarar, we'll speak with the Council and end this matter before it begins."

Trenagen looked to her again. "I'm afraid that it has already begun, Ruth; the decision to revoke the cadet's status and residency has already been reached. The Qarari delegation will arrive at the Surefoot in 3.7 hours to collect him."

"WHAT?" Hrelle roared.

"That is completely unacceptable!" Tattok declared.

"He's not going anywhere!" Goldstein snapped. "I'm not in the business of letting some cockamamie foreign government press-gang one of my cadets!"

"He is technically no longer a cadet," Trenagen informed her. "His sponsorship was predicated on his refugee status, and on his having no criminal record. Now he is classed as a military deserter from a power with whom we have established a provisional extradition treaty. However, you can of course still appeal on his behalf, and should it prove successful, he will be returned."

"You really believe that?" Hrelle growled. "If they've gone to this much trouble to silence him, they're not going to let him go!"

"We have been assured that they have his best interests at heart. Once he is retrieved and restored, he will be reassigned to military duties-"

Hrelle raised a hand to cut him off. "Wait- what do you mean 'restored'?"

Now Trenagen looked distinctly uncomfortable. "As I understand it, the Qarari have plans to... reverse the gender modification Federation doctors applied-"

"That's barbaric!" Goldstein declared.

Hrelle bared his teeth and claws, feeling like he was under physical attack. "These are the people you want us to ally with? What in the Seven Hells is wrong with you?"

Trenagen shifted, his discomfort now eclipsed by indignation. "You need to see the larger picture, Captain. This is about more than just one individual. We need the Qarari; they occupy a strategic sector of space among several non-aligned worlds, as well as the Cardassians. In addition to the potential for intelligence gathering, they may become valuable military allies."

"But he has rights!"

"As it now stands, Captain, legally he has fewer rights than the millions of Federation citizens who might fight and die should the current cold war with the Dominion turn hot -- and you're as responsible for their welfare as you are for your cadet's."

"Admiral-"

But now it was Trenagen cutting him off. "A diplomatic courier, the USS Coventry, is en route with the Qarari party, along with Galactic High Commissioner Franklin Burnsworth, overseeing the transfer; he will be acting with the full authority of the Federation Council. Captain Hrelle, you are formally ordered to maintain your present position and provide your full cooperation in handing over Cadet Kitirik to them. And you will do so without delay; the Qarari are apparently very sensitive about precision and protocol-"