—- Nirvana —- 

The Nrivana approached Andorian territory and dropped out of warp establishing a stable orbit around the moon that had been a founding member of the Federation and Starfleet. As she was finishing up her checks before leaving the ship in orbit, Pr’Nor turned, “We are being hailed Captain.”

“On screen,” Captain Cruz said, as the crew fastened up the buttons on their uniforms preparing to beam down to the moon’s lunar surface. They had decided on dress uniforms, since they were unsure of how formal the ushaan process was. A woman in a normal Starfleet uniform was on screen, her rank pips identifying her as a Lieutenant Junior Grade. She was human, not Andorian.

”Ma’am,” the Lieutenant said, “I am Lieutenant Junior Grade Diya Acharya of the Starfleet Diplomatic Corp, and I’ve been assigned to ensure you do not cause an incident here.”

“We’re doing our best to stay out of trouble Lieutenant,” Cruz promised. She felt sympathy towards the woman, remembering when she was tasked with corralling captains and rogue commodores as a junior officer. While the Andorians were founding members of Starfleet, there remained the very real possibility to a diplomatic incident if they did something wrong trying to intervene in Shraa’s ushaan.

”Yes, well I’d feel better if you remained on your umm, ship,” Acharya said.

”Better yet accompany us to the ushaan, and ensure we don’t break any local laws,” Cruz said, “You know keep us in line.”

The woman looked pained, she definitely had other work planned for the day, but keeping a Starfleet Captain from getting herself arrested was more important. She nodded reluctantly in agreement with Cruz’s plan, “Yes ma’am. I’ll send you coordinates for Commander Shraa’s ushaan and meet you there.”

The screen went dark.

”I like her can we keep her?” Tashai asked.

”We don’t have a diplomatic officer,” Cruz mused, considering the request.

”We should inform her before adopting her like a pet,” Pr’Nor said.

”As always Pr’Nor’s right. We’ll have to see if she wants to join the ship, given our last diplomatic mission ended with half the crew being incapacitated, I think we need the help,” Cruz said as she took the team toward the transporter pad. 

”Let’s go get out new first officer,” Jara said.

—- Andoria, Arena —-

“Will you marry me?” Cruz asked former Captain Shraa.

The Andorian smiled, “No, but I know you read somewhere that if we got married I wouldn’t have to figh a ushaan until we had a kid. So thank you but if we got married I’d want it to mean something.”

”Jara could fight for you,” Cruz said, a proxy fighters were allowed.

”She’d lose,” Shraa said, “Look I need to do this, once it’s done if I’m still alive we get to be together on the Seattle. You know how I first caught a crush on you? It was when we fought when you came in to the dorms and saw me making out with your boyfriend. You didn’t dance around and try to wear me out like most humans do when fighting Andorians. You just tackled me and started trying to pound the living snow out of me.”

”And you broke my arms,” Cruz said.

”Yeah well it was a fight and you started it. But I was still figuring myself out then, and you doing that helped. I saw a woman could be strong and brave and dumb too,” Shraa said.

“Excuse me ma’ams,” Diplomatic Officer Acharya said, trying not to sound too meek, “Commander Shraa needs to go to the fight now.”

“It’s Commander Th'risris I’m taking back my last name now,” she said and kissed Cruz headed to the main field where her opponent was waiting for her.

”Your girlfriend is very scary ma’am,” Acharya said.

”Yes she is,” Cruz agreed.

Cruz made her was into the stands which were sparsely populated. She did not know enough about Andorians to be able to spot Shraa’s family, if she had any there. So she sat with her crew members as Shraa was bound to the other fighter, an older Andorian woman.

”What’s this about anyway?” Cruz asked Acharya.

”I understand that Commander Shraa had an affair with the woman’s husband some years ago,” Acharya said in hushed tones.

”Sounds like her,” Cruz said.

Cruz watched as Shraa was tethered to a woman who was larger and at least a decade older. The two women were given what Cruz recognized as ushaan-tors or ice miner’s blades. The two then broke and moved as far as the tether would allow from one and another. They then rushed one and other, their blades colliding. The second woman seemed physically stronger, and twister and tossed Shraa to the ground, stabbing at where she had been. Shraa however seemed to be agile, rolling out of the way, and then using the tether to trip her opponent. 

Cruz watched anxiously as the fighting continued. Andorians tended to have less stamina than humans, hence a human would generally dodge and weave until they tired out the Andorian, yet both women seemed to get only stronger and more fierce as the fight went on.

“I like our new First Officer,” Jara said, even though she had met Shraa previously.

”Shhh,” Cruz said, shushing her and trying to focus on the fight before her. 

The ushaan-tor was a small blade. A cutting tool for mining, but also something that required close quarters to do its work. It made the tools that Klingons used seem distant and impersonal, which was hard to do since killing someone with a bat’leth was not exactly surgical. Yet as the fight wore on it was Shraa who won the upper hand, knocking her opponent down and then cutting into her foe’s neck with her blade.

There was a verbal exchange that Cruz could not hear between the two combatants, and then Shraa rolled off and fell to the ground to catch her breath.

”What happened?” Cruz asked.

”I assume her opponent is too injured to continue or stood down and conceded the fight,” Acarya said.

”Andorians remain difficult to understand,” Pr’Nor said, clearly not that impressed with the fight. Cruz was pretty sure that the female Vulcan would extend that to humans, even if there was not any ritual combat that humans engaged in the way there was for Andorians.

Cut free of her tether Shraa made her way over to the others, and Cruz hugged her sweaty, and bleeding self.

”You okay? Cruz asked.

”I will be, before we leave, I need to visit my parents. If I’m reclaiming my name, I should see them. You can all come,” Shraa said.

Cruz smiled, “We will, also this is Lieutenant Junior Grade Acarya she’s out chaperone.”

”Well the ushaan is done so I am done. You should be fine from here on out,” the junior officer said.

”Actually, I was going to put in a request to have you transferred to the Seattle, if you want,” Cruz said.

”We’re adopting you,“ Tashai said.

”But not like a puppy,” Pr’Nor pointed out.

”Exactly like a puppy,” Tashai said.

”I don’t want to unpack what that means, but I would like to see more of space. I’d be happy to serve onboard the Seattle,” the human said.

”Perfect, I’ll put in the transfer, we’ll leave in two days,” Cruz said, “Tashai, get her quarters aboard the Nirvana and work on getting her a room on our ship. Nice to have you on board Lieutenant.”

”Lieutenant Junior Grade,” she corrected Cruz.

”You’re my new Chief Diplomatic Officer, so Lieutenant,” Cruz said.

—- Th’risris Family Home —-

“So you’re the girlfriend? A bit skinny,” Shraa’s father said sizing up Captain Cruz as the pair entered the house.

Cruz who was wearing a puffy jacket did not feel skinny, but knew that this was more a judgement on her apparent strength.

”I beat Shraa up at the Academy,” she said feeling defensive. She had never ‘gone home to meet the parents’ before.

”I broke both of your arms,” Shraa said.

“Whose side are you on here?” Cruz whispered to her.

“At least you finally did your ushaan. You’ve had that hanging over you for a lot of years now,” her father said, nodding approvingly.

”It was very exciting watching her fight,” Cruz said.

”Go easy on her, you know Shraa’s liked her since the Academy,” her mother tutted swatting her father with what seemed like a tea towel, though likely had another name. 

The domestic nature of everything seemed foreign to Cruz who had never been close to her own mother, or known her father until after his death. It was different, more confrontational, than a human family may have been (or not she did not know) but it was loving in its own way. The crew that had accompanied her had decided to see the rest of Andoria and then return to the ship, so she was on her own with the three Andorians.

The father made an harumph sound but did not press it. 

“You can stay here tonight, both of you, we have your old room Shraa and the guest room,” her mother said.

”That would be lovely thank you Mrs. Th’risris,” Captain Cruz said.

”Anything for a real Starfleet Captain,” Mrs. Th’risris said.

”Shraa was a Starfleet Captain, until she hit an ambassador,” Cruz said.

”Really, well if he couldn’t deal with getting hit why was he on a starship,” Mr. Th’risris said.

”Exactly my point,” Shraa said.

Cruz felt both that this was not a very good point, that just being on a starship should not get you punched but that there was no point in making the counter argument, and so she just was quiet.

Finally Mr. Th’risris eyed Cruz, “Heh, for a human she could have done worse. Even if you’re Starfleet and not Andorian security services.”

Cruz decided to take that as a compliment.

—- Nirvana, Open Space —-

Two days and some hours later she lay beside Shraa on the bed, watching the other woman fix a few bandages. Pr’Nor had offered to use a First Aid kit to heal the wounds, but to an Andorian wounds should be healed through time. Scars were badges of honour, and if she had to have fought an ushaan, then she was going to display her badges of honour.

”I don’t think your parents liked me,” Cruz said.

”Are you kidding, they loved you, trust me. When I’d bring home boys from military school they always hated them, they thought you were great,” Shraa said.

”Well now I’ll just have a swollen head for the next few days,” Cruz said.

Shraa finished affixing her last bandage and climbed into the bunk next to Cruz, “So Captain. This is going to be odd, us living and working together all of a sudden.”

”Not quite how I planned it, but you had to hit an ambassador,” Cruz said.

”You kept me from being sent to some weird science station on the edge of nowhere. So if this gets a bit awkward, well I’m thankful for that,” Shraa said.

Cruz kissed her, “Just keep telling yourself that as you get used to a Rhode Island-class accommodations.”

Shraa smiled and turned off the room’s lights.