The 7 Wonders

Posted on Sun Feb 3rd, 2019 @ 9:44pm by Lieutenant Commander Mnhei'sahe Dox & Commander Rita Paris

Mission: Earthly Visitation
Location: Planet Earth
Timeline: 2396, after 'Reuinion'

The turbolift ride had passed in silence, as had the exit through the lobby, which they walked the centerline to avoid the banks of transporters on either side of the vast lobby of Starfleet Command. Rita Paris walked rather briskly through the lobby, her desire to avoid the transporters legendary to those who knew her, despite the assurance that her 'allergy' was now 'cured'. She'd heard such assurances before, and they had proven to be wrong before.

Right now her concern was her charge, young Miss Dox. It was abundantly evident that the meeting with her mother had not gone well. While this raised certain overprotective feelings in the old-school officer, she also knew what boundaries she should and should not cross. So instead of focusing on the moment, Rita Paris changed course. Calling for a type 15 shuttle, the friendly first officer loaded her pilot into the transport when it arrived, programmed in the coordinates, and took her up into low orbit to cover distance quicker using the rotation of the planet to get them where they were going.

From her seat, Dox looked out the window, not particularly concentrating on what they were doing, instead lost in thought of how poorly her reunion with her mother had went.

Thus when the shuttlecreaft alit in Egypt, as the sun was going down despite it having been morning in San Francisdo. Landing the worker bee, Paris stepped out onto the sand and called with her customary good humor, "Time for the tour, Miss Dox. Step lively now, hm?"

Initially, Dox thought that they were heading back up to the starbase in Earth orbit until the worker bee descended back down. "Uh, why are we in Egypt, Commander?"

"The Great Pyramids of Giza, one of the ancient wonders of the world, Miss Dox! Also known as the Pyramid of Khufu or the Pyramid of Cheops, it is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza pyramid complex bordering what is now El Giza, Egypt. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact." As they had landed to the southeast of the great pyramid, the Sphinx was close beside them to the north, and the Pyramid of Menkaure was between the Pyramid of Khufu and the Pyramid of Khafre. "Wonders of Earth, Miss Dox. Constructed five thousand years ago, the still stand. And you can see the astronomical coordinates used for the placement, which is pretty impressive for a society who performed it's math on an abacus."




Looking around at the sights she had studied about in her few years of School in Ohio, Dox was still a little too lost in her own head at the moment to take them in. "I remember from school. They line up with Orion's belt, I think."

After a moment of just staring up at them, however, Dox became just a hair less distracted. "They're... bigger then I imagined them."

"It's a little different to see them in person, feel that dry desert heat. So five thousand years ago before mankind learned to work in steel and change the course of human history, they built monuments that can be seen from space. Pretty impressive for some jumped-up monkeys, hmm?" Paris maintained her cheerful tour guide mannerisms as she hustled Dox back into the shuttle before taking to the skies again, showing just how clearly they could be seen from high altitude before plotting the course and winging her way to their next destination.

Still Dox brooded, and still Paris let it be. She'd come to know Melanie Dox well, and she'd talk when it was time, and she'd come out of her shell when she was ready. Rita no longer had to cracking that shell of insecurity to go in after her- Mnhei-sahe Dox knew she was safe with a friend, and she'd come round when it was time.

It took a bit of time to arrive at their next destination, but the mid-morning sun was a glorious site over the Peruvian mountaintops, as they arrived at an ancient city of stone nestled atop the green and lush mountaintops.

"Welcome to Machu Picchu, a 15th-century Inca citadel situated on a mountain ridge 2,430 metres above sea level. Built as an estate for the Inca emperor Pachacuti around 1450, but was abandoned a century later at the time of the Spanish Conquest. Machu Picchu was built in the classical Inca style, with polished dry-stone walls. Its three primary structures are the Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, and the Room of the Three Windows. Most of the outlying buildings have been reconstructed in order to give tourists a better idea of how they originally appeared." The long line of stone steppes leading up the mountain to reach it told the tale of how difficult it must have been for the builders of the era to construct it, yet the quaint stone city still stood, a millennium later.



This time, the distracted young part-Romulan, part-Human pilot wandered a bit as Rita talked, taking in the information and looking around a bit more. "It's beautiful."

The statement was sincere, if still a bit twinged with distracted sadness. Dox knelt down to to touch one of the stones gently. "Have you been to these places before?"

"I have not," Rita admitted. "It's an infodump sightseeing tour that I booked. I wanted to see the sights and show them to you... help you connect with some of your ancient history and know of mankind's great works. Which," the ancient astronaut admitted again, "so far are old ruins and old ruins, which I can honestly say I've seen on alien worlds that were more interesting and more impressive than this. Although the view up here is breathtaking. I see why the selfish bastard who made all of his subjects lug all of those rocks up that mountain to build this place chose the locale. Up here you do kind of feel like king of the world."

There was something about Rita never having visited these sights on her own gone planet that pulled Dox a hair further out of her head an into the moment. Perhaps it was simply that it was a new experience for the both of them to share. But whatever it was, she was seeing the site with fresh eyes.

"Yeah, I can imagine as much. It is... certainly something to see." Dox had let the slightest of smiles crack through. It was tiny to be sure. But it was there enough for Rita to likely notice it, Dox thought.

"C'mon. We have another destination to get to," Rita hustled Dox back into the type 15 shuttle, and started reading from her PaDD in one hand and calculating coordinates with the other. Before long they were airborne again, launching into the sky and chasing the sun back around the horizon once more. More and more of the watery surface of the primarily blue world passed by beneath them, until they turned and dropped from low orbit, as a small string of islands became evident below them. Aiming for the largest of the, Rita landed the worker bee in a parking lot next to a long cove with white sand beach flanked by grasslands and trees. The seam was beautiful, the sunshine warm and the breeze kept the skin cool. It felt somehow welcomingly pleasant.

"Welcome to Ho’okipa Beach, Maui. This is one of the prettiest spots on the planet if you like the beach. Which, I'm assuming you are not that fond of, being a redhead, although I think the copper blood makes you a bit more solar resistant. Sonak would know for sure. But... this is one of Rita's wonders of Earth. I adore this place, and it's where I would have taken my honeymoon on Earth. But we weren't here, so I found a nice beach. But this..." Rita leaned back, spread her arms wide and took in the warmth of the sun on her face, the sound of the crashing sea and the tang of salt in the air. "This is my planet. This is one of the things I think of when I think of home."



This time, the distracted depression Dox had been caught in seemed to have released it's hold on the anxious aviatrix. She bent down and ran her hand through the warm, white sand for a second and smiled. "I've... never been to a beach before. Not really. Not like this."

It was the first real smile that had cracked the red-headed Romulan's cheeks in hours. Looking over to Rita, it seemed for all the world like she was created to stand in this place. And in spite of the reservations and contempt she had always held for the planet of her father's birth, she was beginning to understand more and more why Rita loved it so much.

In her heart, she didn't know if she would or could ever feel that way about any one planet, in the moment she could feel it through her friend. Rita's joy was infectious standing on the white sand beach in her anachronistic gold minidress uniform.

"It's... amazing," was all Dox could say.

"I quite agree," Paris responded, breathing in deeply of the salty sea air. "Vulcan doesn't have oceans, not like Earth. Sonak has always been fascinated by the interplay of the seas and the shore. He sees it as analogous of our relationship- I am the emotional surf that crashes against his impassive and rocky shoreline, seemingly immutable and unaffected by the sea, yet changed by it over time. I love the ocean and the beach... on Earth we have deserts and tundra, jungles and forests, plains and mountains. Every type of terrain is represented, just as there are every type of people. But this is where I feel fulfilled, and this is what I think of. Yes, I love the fog of the bay, and I love the city of San Francisco, but these beautiful beaches..."

Tilting her head, Dox smiled with that slightly knowing half smile she had when she was feeling comfortable. It was well over a month since Sonak had mind melded with the young Romulan pilot, but she retained a surprising chunk of the experience that stayed in her mind like a particularly vivid dream. As such, she couldn't help but smile at the description of the two lovers that felt so true.

With a satisfied sigh, Rita grinned broadly, taking it all in. "Risa earns its reputation for beautiful vistas and vacation destinations. But to me, there's no place more beautiful in all the galaxy than terra firma."

"I think I'm starting to see what you see in it here, Rita. Of course, I've never been to Risa either, so I have no point of comparison." Dox chuckled lightly, now no longer stuck in her own head.

"I know you grew up in space, so it's different for you. But this is my home, this is where I come from... and I love it here." Pausing, Rita knelt on the beach, running her fingers through the dry white sand, then picking it up to let the sea breeze blow it away. "It isn't on the list of seven wonders of the world, but I didn't really think you'd get that much appreciation for Earth just seeing broken down old ruins all day, even if we do have a habit of placing them in exciting locales."

"Yeah. It's hard to get homesick when you never really had a home. Not really." Dox walked a little closer to the breaking surf. "So it's more... a feeling of being homesick for the idea of a home. So this here... it connects for me better then the ruins. This is connected to you. It's not abstract, if that makes any sense."

"It does," Rita rose, gently brushing the sand from her hands. "You never knew anyone from Machu Piku, and it's hard to connect to desert dwellers from 5,000 years ago who crafted some impressive architecture. But this is a beach, and you know I love the beach. So when I share one of my favorites with you, and explain its significance, then you get it and can see it more as I do. By seeing it through my eyes you can appreciate it a bit more. I get it, I honestly do."

Taking one more deep breath of the unique scent of the salty air, Rita turned to head back to the shuttlecraft. "C'mon Miss Dox. The human tour of the sights isn't over yet, but we can come back for this one when we're done."

It took a lot to get there, but Dox was finally engaged in Rita's world tour of the planet that represented half of her heritage. Following behind while still looking around at the vista, Dox replied. "Lead the way, Commander." While she used her friends title, the tone was just a little playful as she was relaxing at last.

Once more they boarded the shuttle, though somewhat reluctantly in Rita's case, and they once again chased the sun around the planet, making their way to the dark side, crossing over the rest of the vast Pacific ocean, across Asia even as Rita pointed out the Great Wall of China, visible from 80 kilometers above the planet quite clearly. Pressing on, eventually she circled a brightly lit city, distinctive for the ironworks tower that dominated it's skyline. Finding a parking space to the east and a bit north of the famed Eiffel Tower, Rita stepped out of the shuttle to point to the glass pyramid, that, like so much of the city at night, was brightly and tastefully lit.

"Paris, the city of lights!" Rita smiled, spreading her arms in a showman-like gesture to encompass the legendary city of her home planet, and her namesake.



Walking out of the cramped shuttle and stretching her legs, Dox looked around with wonder. Even her cynicism was no match for the beauty of the glittering cityscape before them. If she had to be on a planet, Dox preferred cities. Cities were alive. Cities were where you could lose yourself and escape your thoughts.

"Any stories from here? I mean, it's Paris, Commander Paris. There's gotta be something." The no longer nervous pilot grinned as she spoke.

"Any stories from here? I mean, it's Paris, Commander Paris. There's gotta be something." The no longer nervous pilot grinned as she spoke.

“The city itself is fine wine, fine cuisine, culture and history,” Rita explained as she began walking briskly to the south. “For me, it’s one of the greatest of the cities on earth because they have refused to surrender their individual identity as the world around them changed. Paris has always been the center for European culture, fashion and food, and of course, the Louvre is here.” Which was apparently where Paris was going in that brisk military stride of hers. “The greatest repository of art history on earth, it houses some of the greatest works of my people from throughout history- well, what has survived, at least.”

“My family left France in 1792, and west out for America, the next continent over, because there was opportunity there. By the 1850's they had come west to California to seek their fortune in gold mining, and they settled in California after realizing there was more money to be made selling supplied to the prospectors than mining themselves. My family stayed far away from the city that had named them and their line. But me, I will always have Paris." Rita paused long enough for Dox to see the merry twinkle in her eye. “This too is someplace that I think of when I think of home, of earth. This big beautiful Paree, La Ville des Lumieres!”

The twinkle was infectious as a broad smile now rested on the chubby cheeks of the red-headed Romulan woman walking briskly behind. "We're supposed to get out middle names from where we're born. Romulans, I mean. But I don't have one, I have no idea where exactly I was born. So, there's no real connection to anything. Not like this!

The statement might have been a melencholy one on any other day. But in that moment, it was simply a statement twinged with no sadness as Dox was still lost in Rita's experience.

“Well, if ‘space’ is your middle name, it certainly would suit you,” Paris batted back. “My middle name’s a joke my mother thought would be funny that I’ve been stuck with ever since. But this, my friend… this is my second favorite city in the world. It’s dark now, but you can see how the air and the cloud cover and the lights all tine the environment, and it makes the city look as though it is trapped in amber, like a piece of another time in the modern day.”

“Never really thought of it that way, but I guess there’s another connection the city and I both share,” Rita chuckled. “It’s night time now, so it’ll still be a few hours until the cafes and restaurants and the Louvre open up, so we can walk the rues of Paree or we can hop in the shuttle for another stop on the tour, then come back for crepes and coffee at dawn. Your call, Miss Dox… it’s your tour, after all.”

The city itself was, as the ancient astronaut had advertised, filled with warm amber light, not the clean harsh lighting of Starfleet Command and its surrounding environs, And despite the new touches, the vehicles and signs, the city held its dignity from centuries past, her impressive architecture and love of life evident in the shops and cafes they passed, which all somehow seemed fitting to the Romulan pilot being guided by her human companion, the native of the planet who had come from so long ago herself.

Dox looked around and thought about it for a second. "Honestly, we can just keep walking. It's a beautiful night and I... I could actually stand to have my feet in the ground for a little bit." She smiled up at Rita as she spoke.

"Besides, it would give me a chance to ask you about that middle name.. I admit I don't remember it from your file." She followed up with a grin. "Though, if I did just go with 'space', for me that would make me... Mnhei'sahe i-Aeleir Dox."

Dropping into step beside the part-human pilot, Paris walked the sidewalks of the vast and grand city whose name she bore, guiding them toward the great edifice of the Louvre, as the courtyard at night was a beautiful sight she wished to share with her half-alien shipmate.

“Helena,” Rita explained. “In Greek mythology, the Trojan War was waged against the city of Troy by the Achaeans after Paris of Troy took Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta. The war is one of the most important events in Greek mythology and has been narrated through many works of Greek literature, most notably through Homer's Iliad. Thus, as our last name is Paris, my mother thought naming me Helena would be hilarious, like Helen of Troy but Helena Paris. Hilarious, right?” Rita sighed and shook her head. I never use it because it’s a silly joke, and frankly I’ve always thought my first and last names sum it up. Two syllables each, four syllables total, and I’m easy to remember. Or at least, so I am told.”

“It never worked for me. Even Sonak stopped using it a few years ago because it isn’t a part of my identity. It was assigned to me, but I can choose not to have it be a part of me. Does that make sense?” Walking the warmly lit streets, they were now passing the brilliantly and elegantly lit palace that served as the museum for many of the planet’s historical and cultural artifacts. “More than a thousand years old, the Louvre has been a museum for 800 of those years, and is far and away one of the most interesting places on the planet. At night like this I’ve always thought it looked quite beautiful… living up to the City of Lights to be certain.”

"Helena. Yeah, it's not you." Dox smiled as she tilted her head slightly with a quizical look on her face. "But it's not like it's something you're stuck with. If it bothers you, lose it. Maybe ask Sonak what name he would give you. Maybe just look inside yourself and see what you find."

Dox turned around as she walked, stepping backwards. "Another thing about Rihannsu culture... Romulans... we take on family names, names from where we were born... but ultimately... when we finally know who we are, we choose our true name."

Then Dox simply tilted her head and smiled as she turned back around.

“I like that… as a tradition it seems sensible to me,” Rita replied, considering as she walked. “As for me, I know who I am. I’m Rita Paris, the First Officer of a mighty starship. Bride of the kolinahr, whom he calls t’hy’la. I’m the last Starfleet Academy graduate still active from the class of 2255. Explorer, adventurer, executive, diplomat. I am she who never belongs, yet is there making it work all the same. More than they ever gave me credit for, yet less than the legend surrounding me. A terrible daughter, a good friend and a decent human being at the end of the day. Adding another name is unnecessary for me, because I’ve known who I am for a long time.” Glancing over to her compatriot, Rita cocked her head slightly in a very Vulcan expression.

“How about you, Miss Dox?”

Smiling back warmly, Dox replied. "Friend, Brother or Lover. A beautiful word to be sure." She referred to the Vulcan word 't’hy’la' Rita had mentioned. "Fits you to a tee. As does the rest, except for 'terrible daughter', because I could not believe that for a second. Not even a little."

Then, the still very young Romulan woman looked up at the lights of the city. "As for who I am. Really. I'm still figuring that out. But once I do... once I know my true name... you'll be the first to know." She smiled warmly.

“I look forward to it, Mnhei’sahe,” Rita leaned in to bump the hip of the smaller woman. “You’ll figure it out, I have nothing but confidence.”

Walking along in silence for a moment, Rita decided to tug at the thread. “So… do you want to talk about it, or is this one of those times where you’d rather not dwell on the past but move with perspicacious prudence into the future?”

The young pilots head sunk for a moment as she thought. "She did the one thing she said she'd never do to me again. That was enough." Dox knew Rita would understand what she meant as she continued. "But I still want to somehow make it work. Which is probably stupid, but I'd rather be stupid on the side of hope then smart and hopeless."

Then Dox brought her head back up. "That said, no more dwelling. Future, it is."

The explanation made Rita’s teeth grind, as that meant the woman had lied to both of them. The first officer had held out so much hope that the reunion would go well and it would give the uncertain young woman more stability to proceed from, not less. But apparently old habits died hard, and in the heat of the moment, Mnhei’sahe must have put her mother on the spot, at which point she had lied, likely reflexively. The one thing guaranteed to hurt her daughter more than anything, which filled Rita with rage. She would give anything to have a relationship with her own mother, yet here was a parent who had made inroads back toward rebuilding that relationship, yet had blown it because she simply couldn’t be honest with the one person in the universe least likely to judge her negatively for her choices of the past.

While she worked at bottling and swallowing, said anger, her hands balled into fists, her head lowered as she looked out from under her brows and her stride elongated. It did not take an empath to realize that Rita Paris was furious, despite her best efforts to keep it to herself. Subtlety was not her strong suit, and Paris wore her heart on her sleeve, always. It made her a terrible liar, but that much easier to believe her when she was being forthright.

Speeding up to keep pace, Dox knew exactly what Rita's body language meant. She hadn't seen her friend this angry before, but she knew it all the same. "I'm... I'm guessing she said something like that to you, too. That she would never lie to me again. She probably meant it then, too."

"It's... just her default setting. She lives up to every Romulan stereotype that's been hung on me my whole life. Sometimes I don't think even she knows when she's lying." Mnhei'sahe put her hand on Rita's back as she walks, not knowing what to say to help.

"Rita. You tried. I tried. I'll keep trying, probably until the day I die with her. I have to." The words came so fast to her that she didn't even know she was saying them. "It's my fault she's there."

That brought the tall tactician her up short, and the first officer of the Hera eyed her friend with one upraised eyebrow as she put it together. “You got sick of the smuggler lifestyle and turned her in?”

Stopping in her tracks, Dox's jaw clenched tightly. The secret she had never told another living being was staring her in the face. She nodded gently as her eyes began to tear up. "I... Never told anyone that. My... my official record is only clean because she took a deal. She... she would tell Starfleet everything she knew about cloaking devices and in exchange, I wouldn't be charged as a smuggler."

Looking back up at the night sky into the space she saw as home, she choked back her tears to continue. "But, yeah. I... I used to..." Then she paused as she decided just how far she was willing to go.

"I... I used to sit in the airlock. I'd sit for hours with my hand on the control pad." Dox held a half up as if she was holding the pad then and there. "And for a long time, I wanted to push that button. Until one day when I didn't. We were on the Federation side of the Neutral Zone making a delivery. They were off the ship making the deal and I was alone."

Taking a deep breath to compose herself, she continued. "A Romulan Cloaking device is beyond delicate. One system is off in your engine and you're spotted on sensors. And I knew both systems inside and out. I... Replaced a clean exhaust filter on the impulse drive with an old one... a broken one. A federation patrol ship came by and we cloaked, but once I started moving the ship, we showed up on their sensors."

A tear escaped and ran down her cheek. "We got caught because of me, Rita. I betrayed her and she doesn't even know."

At this point, her resolve broke in front of her First Officer with a hoarse whisper. "I proved everything they say about us true."

“Hey hey hey hey hey!” Paris stopped dead in her tracks and whirled on the young woman, an upraised finger now pointed in her face. “We’ll have none of that Romulan shaming. One of my best friends is Romulan and I’ll be damned if I’ll hear that kind of talk!” Realizing that her anger was being misplaced and redirected poorly, Rita Paris took a deep breath to calm down and lowered the accusing finger of reprimand.

“If I had thought for a single solitary second that betraying my father would get me a better life at that age, I would be far from tempted, I would be hard pressed not to have done the same.” Voice softening, she draped her arm around the shoulders of the shorter woman. “If you sat thinking about the airlock that much, it tells me all that I need to know about your life in that place and time. I’m very glad you didn’t pull the plug, Dox. I would have missed you terribly had I never met you and I wouldn’t even know why.”

But Dox just stood there silently, numb past the point of tears. "I... recorded a message for her. One In the event of... something happening. But... I need to tell her. I can't blame her for her lies while I'm still... I have to tell her."

"Hold on a tic," Rita interjected as the walked the streets of Paris at night, although in well-lit areas. "Lemme see if I have this straight. Your mother- who, upon finding out your ears had been butchered and your blood tampered with, takes you immediately to a doctor to OH WAIT no, she spends the next few decades just ignoring the truth of the matter and pretending 'it has always been thus'. Now, to be fair she does come clean when you confront her with it, but apparently had you not then you might have finished out your stunted lifespan because she couldn't bear the pain it would cause you. I'm not going to bother with the usual 'am I right, we'll just move on."

"So she kicks him out over this, and while she may have had her Mallory Archer dalliances from the age of four she basically made you her copilot, assistant engineer, cleanup girl, nurse. No such thing as a free ride, hold her steady, I have to prep the cargo. And you live like this for a decade. From five to fifteen you were press-ganged by birth to indentured servitude upon a forager, of which making do with what it could find is the definition I believe." Rita was on a roll, and she wasn't really giving Dox time to digest any of it because Dox knew it thoroughly.

"So instead of spacing yourself- and, sweety, I am so glad you didn't but no, no. That's an ugly immortality and an awful way out. You only leave the boat in the worst of circumstances and even then only if you are able to get to another boat. I'm lecturing, sorry, anyway, the point is after all of this, you," Paris nudged the shoulder of the portly pilot, "you freaking mutinied! Not even with open rebellion, no, not our Miss Dox, you worked out a way to do it that she wouldn't notice and you timed it so Starfleet would catch you. You mutinied and you defected. Ship was impounded and forfeitured, you went to Earth to be an angry teenager from space on the mudball. The background nose of the natural world must have driven you nuts."

"But you mutinied against your captain and captor, pulled it off with style and panache, bloodlessly, never spoke a word about it, because you hadn't told her and ya' just told me so I imagine I'm the first, thank you, honored," Paris curtsied a bit, plucking at the hem of her miniskirt. "So this pirate thing isn't really something new for you. You already started as a mutineer. Bravo, Baroness Dox."

The full-figured first officer was getting where she was going now. "In short, my friend, you officially owe your mother jack all after she lied to you AND me. I went ahead of you because if she was going to do damage to you I wasn't going to allow a meeting. Sorry, command prerogative. I went in hat in hand, used my nice parents manners and she genuinely seemed... good, you know? And she told me she'd never lie to you again. What does she do? First chance she gets, she lies to you. I say in the truths that are owed column, the fact that you're the reason she's in Starfleet custody teaching them Romulan secrets is something she ought to thank you for over a shank in her sleep."

By this point Rita had talked and walked them to the Arch de Triumph, on their way to the tower, still quite some ways distant.



While they walked, Dox simply listened. Emotionally, she felt empty. Numb. As though there wasn't anything more that she could take in. Instead, she just shrugged. "Nothing you said is wrong, Rita. So why does it still feel like hnave?"

Rolling her eyes, Rita explained. "Because despite the fact that you are justified and owe her nothing you still cling to the principle of the noble Rihannsu, you said, right? In order for your honor to remain unblemished so that you can condemn her for it you have to confess. Which is all just part of you not able to handle being angry at your mother so somehow you have to punish yourself for it, so you dredge up the one secret you've held onto, which is about the only thing you've done her wrong. Although I'd still argue that getting her taken into Starfleet custody probably saved her life."

"I guess I really want my name to mean what it's supposed to. If only to me. And I want to sleep through the night again." Dox hung her head as she talked.

Lifting her head back up, she took a deep breath and sighed. "I don't want to be angry at her anymore. But more than that, I'm just exhausted being angry at myself. I think maybe I've held on to this for so long so I could just keep using it to punish myself with it, ya' know?"

"Mmmmm, seems pretty reasonable, actually," Rita admitted. "So, what course do you set, Miss Dox?"

Staring up at the stars above them, Dox didn't force a smile, but her heart didn't feel quite as heavy as it had earlier. "Honestly. That breakfast you mentioned sounds good. Then, I think I'm ready to go home."

Cacatching the eye of an approaching pedestrian, a middle-aged civilian walking his dig, Rita turned on the million watt smile and stepped into his line of sight, placing her hands on her knees and looking innocently demure in the mod minidress she wore.

"S’il vous plaît?" she opened respectfully. "Cafe, mon ami et moi cherchons le petit déjeuner?"

The local took a second to blink and take it all in, then he took a few seconds to take her in. "Eh... oui, oui! Le Sunrise Cafe est au coin de la rue. Tres excellent!" he emphasized with three finger to his lips, then he kissed them and splayed them out like a firework.

"Merci, merci beuacoup monsieur. Bonjour, chiot!" Rita waggled her fingers at the little dog as she rendezvoused back to her companion. "Little cafe called the Sunrise up the street about two blocks, and he recommends it. Breakfast in Paris, Miz Dox. Crepes to die for, french toast unlike anything you've ever experienced, pastries beyond imaging..." Noticing that none of her sales pitch was getting through, Rita dialed it down. Walking the rest of the way in silence, she had to knock on the door of the cafe, as they weren't quite open yet. Splaying out the fingers of one hand, he indicated that he needed 5 minutes, and she nodded, turned and retrieved two of the folded chairs. Snapping one open she silently set it down in front of Dox, then snapped one open for herself, and sat down on it.

Taking about a second too long to notice the chair, the distracted young pilot turned with a start before sitting down. "Huh... oh, I'm sorry, Rita. I'm just... It's just a lot to try and put away and not think about, ya'know. I'm not trying to ruin what you're doing for me. I really do appreciate it."

Then Dox slapped her hands on her knees and sat up straighter. "Okay, my drama will be here tomorrow. Breakfast in Paris today."

Without a word, Paris pointed over to where the sky was becoming brighter, in front of the cafe. Raising her eyebrows, she pointed out, "It is tomorrow. I still want to know what you're going to do, Dox. Tell her and get it off your chest, have it out? Do it in person or through holo, or just write her a letter and send it, because you can't argue with a letter..."

Clearly, Paris wasn't going to let her put this decision off any more than she already has. "A letter would feel like a cop out, I think. I'll Holo if I have to. At this point, would it even be possible to go back?"

"Oh yes," Rita nodded enthusiastically before she began talking with her hands. "Captain gave me a carte blanche on leave, provided the Commodore doesn't come a-calling, and apparently being very classified grants some amazing clearance. Although more than likely it's the Captain pulling strings. Either way, oh yes. You let me get two cups of coffee, a blueberry scone and a strawberry crepe inside me and I'll fly you right back up there. Over there... around the same latitude..."

"Not exactly a fun, relaxing shore leave for you. Dealing with my family nonsense." Dox lamented. She was emotionally exhausted, but she knew Rita was right. This had hung around her neck like a chain anchoring her to her past. And the young part-Romulan, part-Human woman desperately wanted to move forward at last.

"Melanie?" Rita deliberately used her human first name, despite the connotations, because in the moment it seemed right to her. "I spent time with my husband on a beach. I visited with my own relatives and the places of the past that mean something to me. I helped wipe out a splinter timeline and nearly got the Captain killed. I've been to Ohio- TWICE- and now I've flown around the world to see the sights and show them to the girl who doesn't know what it means to be human. So you let Rita worry about how she spends her shore leave. Because I don't think any of what I have been up to is nearly as important as helping my friend learn a little about where she's from, how she got here and getting her in a good place emotionally, so that she can be all that she can be without the ties that bind pulling her down."

Without thinking about it, Dox let out a light chuckle. "My shore leave has been a lot of crying and moping around ancient ruins."

"That said, with what's ahead today, I hope the French make some strong coffee," Dox smiled over at Paris.

"They do. And don't put yourself down so inaccurately. You went and dealt with your grandparents and got in touch with a little of your Earthling heritage. You inherited a past, in the form of that stuff in storage, which you shared with me in a genuinely wonderful gesture, thanks again. You agreed to come see Rita's wonders of the world, which means less if you don't qualify the world in question, otherwise it's a very earth-centric thing to say- planetist?"

"Point being, you are going through A LOT," Rita emphasized. "Give yourself a break, nobody expects you to be Superwoman but you. It's a lot to process when not compounded by your mother failing the first test of trust you give her. Trust me, I'm an experienced explorer. Sometimes it comes at you like this, and you have to have faith in yourself that you'll find the best way you can to deal with it."

"Be surprised how often that works, actually. Sonak calls it 'statistically unlikely' in the short form- in the long form the crystalline structure of his logic supporting the statement is as irrefutable as it is elegant. I can follow it but I surely couldn't have thought it all up. Anyway," Rita rose as she'd spotted the shopkeeper arriving at the door, while Mnhei'sahe's hearing had detected the pattern of creaking floorboards as well.

"Oh, good. I'm starving." Dox proclaimed, looking forward to the food Rita had described so wonderfully.

Thus the two officers on shore leave, the earth girl and the Romulan who was learning what it was to be human, sat in the Sunrise cafe, and had their breakfast with the sunrise, the dawn of another glorious day in Paris shining through the windows of the eastern-facing shop. The coffee was strong and fresh, the food was delicious and as the locals filed in to join them, so too was the company.

It was a good memory of Earth, that both would treasure. Producing a small data device from inside her top, Rita snapped a selfie of them in the cafe, catching the top of the Eiffel Tower in the background. It was her steadfast theory that pictures captured memories, and in a career that spanned the stars, sometimes the pictures really were one of the greatest wonders of all.