The Bracelets

Posted on Mon Jul 1st, 2019 @ 5:35pm by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox

Mission: Fractured Fairy Tales
Location: the Artan Family Fortress Promenade
Timeline: 2396 - Post Tribunal

The shopping promenade of the Artan Family Fortress was unlike anything that Lieutenant Mnhei'sahe Dox had ever seen before. It was not simply massive in scale, but it was jam-packed with a wide array of peoples from every corner of the Alpha and Beta Quadrants. It was an extremely busy hub of activity in the center of the orbital station.

Maybe a little too busy for the anxious Romulan pilot's liking.

But she had desperately wanted to get off of the ship and at least try and be by herself for a brief time. Her impending nuptials to her Miradonian bond-mate, Ensign Mona Gonadie, was only days away and she needed to think. And on the Hera, the family she had made there was making thinking and solitude extremely difficult to procure.

But she wasn't in the promenade for just for solitude. She was a woman on a mission. Walking among the crowds, she was out of uniform and off duty. Instead, she wore a pair of black hiking boots, snug black cargo pants, a tight black tank top and her favorite short green denim jacket. Her Starfleet comm badge was affixed to the top, mostly concealed under the jacket as she didn't want to stand out.

But she stood out nonetheless. The red-headed Romulan stood out, not as Starfleet, but as the Baroness, fifth class of the Princess Enalia Telvan. Now the acting Queen of the Artan Pirate family and owner of the mammoth station they were all occupying. So, as she walked, more than a few eyes slid her way which didn't make her any more comfortable.

But she ignored them for the most part, aside from maintaining a general level of alertness, being aware that her status made her something of a target to anyone still loyal to the former Queen Regent, Enalia's mother Arenara Artan. But she knew how to keep her eyes and ears open and had better than decent situational awareness and all seemed fine. So she continued to walk to her destination.

It was a small, cluttered jewelers shop on the lower level the shopping complex ran by an overly talkative humanoid man from a race that the fairly well-traveled Lieutenant didn't recognize. He was a short, slightly older gentleman with shoulder length grayish purple hair. His forehead and face had a radial pattern of plate-like ridges that flowed out from the center of his squat, flat nose. His eyes were deep set and shone like little black marbles behind the thick corrective lenses that were clipped to the ridges above his brow. Along his forehead, additional lenses we're flipped up, also affixed with small brass clips to his ridges in a perfectly useful display for a jeweler.

"Ahhhh, Baroness Dox! Good to see you again!" The rotund, gregarious older man bellowed as he waddled out from behind the counter to offer an overly familiar, four armed hug. Dox had learned on her last visit, a few days earlier, that the man was a hugger from a race of huggers.

"Good morning, Mr. K'Rwan." Dox replied with a slight smile, returning the hug before he released his grip. Two of his arms were placed on his wide hips while he clapped the top two hands together with a grin. "A VERY good morning, Baroness. I have two minor masterpieces for you, my dear. Come. Come, see. I am quite proud of these."

He waved her to his counter, covered in various bits and baubles of junk that he swept aside as he squeezed back behind it. "This was no easy task, but for you, I put in the extra effort. And they are magnificent, I think you'll agree. You helped out Princess reclaim her throne. That makes you something of a hero around here, I'm not too shy of saying."

Shortly after the Tribunal was finished and the crew was allowed some personal time, Dox had sought out a shop here that could do what she wanted done. She had considered using the ship's replicators to create what she wanted, but it seemed impersonal, somehow. And upon finding K’Rwan’s shop and seeing the wall and counters filled with hand-made creations of beautiful jewelery, Dox knew this was the way to go.

As she blushed a deep green at the praise she didn't feel she deserved, the purple-skinned older man reached down below his counter with a low grunt, a minor effort considering his girth, and came back up with a small wooden box. “Here we go. I think you’ll like these. Your ideas were exceptional and gave me a lot to work with.” As he spoke, he slowly lifted the lid back on it’s old, creaky hinges to reveal a velvet lined interior and two matching bracelets. “Not exactly traditional Romulan marriage bracelets, but you’re hardly a standard young Romulan, eh Baroness. I mean, you’re not dressed like my nana's couch cushions got mad at me, so there’s that, eh?”

Looking in the box, Dox’s lips tightened into a smile and her eyes went just a little wide. Sitting on the soft velvet pad inside were two bracelets. Each made of pearlescent black metal formed into two rings that linked with swirls at the ends. Gasping slightly, Dox’s eyes looked misty. “They’re… they’re perfect, sir.”

Gently, the skilled jeweler lifted the bracelets out of the box for the young woman to inspect. “Made to your specifications. Forged using the piece of metal from your ships hull you provided. In the center, the clear crystal wrapped braid you gave me. And the inscription on the insides should be correct. I can’t pronounce the Romulan, though. Please… let me know if everything is correct, Baroness.”

Taking the bracelets, Dox had a broad smile across her chubby cheeks as she inspected them. In the center of both, a multi-colored braid visible through a thin strip of clear crystal surrounded by the shimmering metal bands. Inside the crystal in each was a length of one of Mona Gonadie's brilliantly colored feathers. The purples, greens, and golds of the tailfeather her bond-mate gave her without question was delicately braided with a length of Dox’s own thick, auburn red hair. It was a tight braid showing the colors all blending together in a rainbow as one.

Looking at the insides of the bracelets, in each was engraved a phrase in Dox’s native Rihan that read. ’Dhael nnew nveiss Aen.’ Directly, it translated to say ‘Birds of same wing’, which was the closest translation to the old earth phrase, ‘Birds of a feather’.

Romulan ceremonial bracelets were a centuries-old tradition, analogous to the wedding rings of Earth culture, and something Dox desperately wanted to get right after her best friend, Doctor Asa Dael, suggested using one of Mona’s feathers. It was a brilliant Idea and she couldn’t wait to show Asa the result before the ceremony. After all, she was going to ask Asa to present one and the woman Dox had chosen as her sister, Rita Paris, to present the other during the ceremony. These were the most important people in her life and they needed to play an important part in this event.

With a slight tear glistening in her eye, she smiled over at the skilled artist that brought her idea to brilliant life. “Oh… I don’t have words. They’re perfect. They’re beautiful. Khlinae arhem… Thank you.”

The pieces had been paid for in advance with Dox’s own, personal account that she had kept from her own years as a smuggler. Credits and latinum set aside for just such an occasion. But the master jeweler didn’t seem to care as he smiled back. “My dear, you are very welcome. I am honored that a Baroness of our Princess… correction… our Queen… would have chosen me for such a task. I’m happy they make you happy and hope they will go over on the big day.”

Smiling like a child, Dox nodded. “I think she’ll love it. I can’t thank you enough.”

The stout man smiled back broadly. "You're happiness is thanks enough, Baroness." And after a few moments to repack them and place the box in a small bag, the two exchanged hugs and Dox made her way back out into the promenade, her prize in hand.

In the short time that she had been on the Hera, the emotionally charged young Romulan woman could hardly believe how much her life had changed. In a million years, she didn't think she would ever even have friends, let alone the family she now had. And she couldn't have even imagined finding someone like Mona Gonadie.

She stood for a moment among the throngs of passersby and closed her eyes. As she did, she thought of Mona with her hand in the box, holding on to the bracelets. In her mind's eye, she could see that purple glow return. That glow that was the fusion of her own energy with that of Mona's. Swirling together, her own red light mixed with Mona's brilliant blue to create something greater than what she was. And that light would be a part of her forever.

That piece of her bond-mate in her soul, forever entwined together