TLP #001 Introduction

NOTE: Since I'm doing more than one 100-theme challenge, I'm going to use three-letter tags along with their numbers to help keep their titles distinct. This one will be the "TLP" challenge, short for "tulip," since that was the image the list's creator put on its thumbnail: organiclife4me.deviantart.com/…. I'll be using the TLP challenge for the continuing adventures of Scotty (from Star Trek) and my OC, Orin (his adoptive daughter).

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001: Introduction

Scotty coughed nervously, feeling the tiny grip of the little Dinarian around his leg, for the most part hiding there. At least Korrd's granddaughter was doing much the same, so that made them even. Only one little eye and the tiniest bit of mini-ridged forehead was showing from behind that larger Klingon cloak and stocky, angular boot opposite him and Orin.

It could have been a lot worse. The Federation was negotiating a cease of hostilities with the Klingon Empire, after the Enterprise's battle with the rogue General Chang and the events of the peace summit at the Romulan camp. It was hard to think of the Klingons as anything but the barbaric enemies they always had been, but maybe now... things would get a little better. And besides, this was just General Korrd, retired veteran and now limited ambassador, paying some of the Starfleet representatives a visit on Earth. Korrd wasn't a bad sort, as Klingons went--though once a famous general, he had been celebrated simply for his tactics rather than for any unnecessary cruelty or ferocity, which his warrior race normally prized so highly. And he had helped the Enterprise crew pacify the other, younger Klingons and rescue Captain Kirk during the incident on Sha-Ka-Ree. General Korrd wasn't an *evil* man, Scotty would grant him that much. And in his old age, well... he'd become a rather mellow sort of fellow, after all. Scotty grudgingly admitted to himself that he and Korrd did have their similarities. Like him, the old Klingon was a chubby, humorous sort of veteran with an enjoyment of food and drink (though Scotty was not the outright drunkard Korrd once had been, before the general had regained his confidence and good standing with his people)... and now it appeared they had one other thing in common. Korrd apparently had a young granddaughter who was the apple of his eye, just as Scotty had his own little girl now--Orin, the Dinarian perpetual child he'd adopted and cherished for over three years now. And General Korrd had brought this Klingon granddaughter along for his little ambassadorial trip around Earth and a few of the nearby starbases.

Perhaps for this reason, Scotty had been encouraged by the other officers to bring Orin along. Scotty would never have placed the little dear in a room packed with dangerous Klingons, but seeing as it was just Korrd and his granddaughter, and there were plenty of other Starfleet officers around... there was no real danger to worry about. It was more just the awkward explanations that were the problem. The night before, Scotty had sat Orin down for a little talk, bending gently down to eye level with the wee mite on her bedspread.

"But... b't Klingons're mean 'n' scary! You always said dey were bad! Dey fight us!" Orin was almost crying. To her, Klingons were either frightening monsters, or at least the big growly bullies that her brave "Unca Scotty" had laid flat in several brawls and barfights, over there in the land of once-upon-a-time (a certain famous incident on a space station packed with tribbles was still one of her favorite bedtime stories).

Scotty bit his lip. "Aye, Dairlin', Ah know... th' Klingons've not been... *friendly* t' us an' the Federation fer a long time. But now their planet is dyin', an' they want t' try to make peace an' live nearer t' us, an' maybe no' fight wi' us anymore."

Orin's big brown eyes furrowed slightly, in concern and concentration. "But... but how c'n they make peace wi' us if they're bad?"

Scotty heaved a sigh, and smiled quietly in spite of himself--still having to come to terms with the very logic he was now explaining to his adopted child. "Klingons are a fierce race, Lassie. They've been brought up t' think that might 'n' glory an' fightin' an' all that is the best thing... but they're *people*, Dairlin', still people like us, underneath it all... just maybe a bit more aggressive an' less gentle by nature, an' certainly by th' ways they've been taught. Some of 'em are bad as bad can be, aye! But others arenae so much... some of 'em are tryin' t' be a bit more... open-hearted noo. So 'tis our job t' set a good example fer 'em, aye? T' show 'em that t' *really* be strong, ye have tae be carin' first. If they start tae see us as friends, mayhap they'll also see that a world where only th' fiercest live isnae as good a world after all."

Orin nodded hesitantly. "So we... we need t' be nice to 'em?"

Scotty agreed, to a point. "Aye, give 'em a big smile an' show 'em ye're friendly, tha's the ticket--" he suddenly grimaced--"that is, *unless* they're tryin' tae punch ye in th' nose, or shove a blinkin' bat'leth up yer..." suddenly remembering he was in the presence of an innocent "wee lamb," the old engineer winced and left his statement unfinished. Orin had one item to add, however.

"Or insultin' th' Enterprise, right Unca Scotty?" she beamed.

Scotty could not help but grin at that. His resulting chuckle carried a strange mixture of nervousness and immense pride. "Aye, Lassie, or insultin' th' Enterprise." He patted her head.

Orin blinked for a few moments, still taking it all in. Then she started to smile again, though still hesitantly. "Unca Scotty?"

"Yes, Bairnie?"

"...What's th' Klingon word for 'friend?'"

And now here the two of them were, staring down--well, up (Korrd was a head taller than Scotty, though of a similar stocky build)--at the roundish but impressive general and his granddaughter. Pok, hadn't her name been announced as? A tiny thing, by Klingon standards, not even quite six years old. She would not be a perpetual child, like Orin the Dinarian nelneer, but at this age, she was almost the exact same size as Scotty's "bairn," and her personality at much the same stage--simple, childlike, though probably much fiercer and sterner, Scotty reminded himself. Still, he almost had to chuckle kindly at the little alien girl, clutching her grandpa's leg with one arm and hugging a plush jackal mastiff (an intimidating Klingon guard dog breed, though in this case with a fuzzy mane and large stuffed cloth fangs) tightly to her chest with another. Scotty's eyes traveled down to his own little girl in much the same position, her plush Loch Ness monster wedged protectively under her arm.

Korrd made the first move, grunting, thumping a fist to his heart, and jerking his head slightly towards Scotty, completing the traditional Klingon salute. Scotty mirrored this acknowledgement back to Korrd, though minus the grunt. Then, more to his own style, he chuckled awkwardly and managed, "Er... how've ye been, Gen'ral Auld Lad?"

"Well, Master Scotsman, well," Korrd nodded solemnly, and began talking about his trip to Starfleet headquarters. But then the scene was interrupted by Orin gathering her courage, peeking further out from her guardian's leg to the still-almost-invisble Klingon girl, and beaming, "Hiii!"

Pok inched out a bit more from her grandfather's leather cloak, and looked enquiringly up at him. She was dressed in a similar leather outfit, and wore her long dreadlocked hair pulled back in a low ponytail with metal clasps. Her eyes were large, and the same shade of gray as her grandfather's. Korrd smiled with a gruff chuckle and explained, "Pok does not understand much English yet. Pok--" here he bent down and whispered something to the little Klingon in guttural "shnnr"s and clucks. Pok nodded meekly, then stared at Orin again. "Nuqneh?" she coughed. Literally translated, this meant, "What do you want?", but not necessarily in a rude way. The Klingons simply had no words for "hello"--they saw it as a waste of time. If someone walked up to you, they apparently wanted to talk, and so "nuqneh" was what you said to get them to begin.

Orin didn't really know the word "nuqneh," but, pleased she had been acknowledged, she set about introducing herself in what she felt would be a suitably Klingon way. "Orin! Jup!" she barked out cheerfully, pounding her chest the way she had seen General Korrd do. "Jup"--it was the Klingon word Scotty had taught her last night. "Friend."

Pok brightened. "Pok! Jup!" she grinned, thumping her own chest in return. Then she surprised everyone by holding out her canine doll and adding, "Snurk!"

Orin laughed with delight--this simple language was universal. "Nessie!" she answered, holding out her Loch Ness souvenir plush for Pok to view more clearly.

The little Klingon almost got carried away then, smiling and babbling out something enthusiastically, pointing at herself and Orin and their dolls, "Snurk" and "Nessie's" names figuring once or twice in the statement.

Korrd chuckled good-naturedly but rather nervously again as he translated. "Er... she says that Snurk challenges Nessie to a sparring match... Orrr-in," he nodded down to the tiny Dinarian, not sure if he should call her "wee" in the way Scotty did. What an odd language the Terrans had.

Orin hesitated, as did Scotty, but they were reassured as Korrd suddenly bent down to Pok and whispered something again, apparently rather sternly. Scotty assumed that the old general was warning his granddaughter to be relatively gentle--Klingon toys were likely made of rougher stuff than those of Terran children, after all, and it would not do to tear the stuffing out of a new friend's plush animal. No, that would not do at all, *especially* on a diplomatic mission!

Pok smiled and nodded again, showing she understood. Then she launched Snurk (gently... sort of. For a Klingon.) at Nessie, making enthusiastic jackal mastiff noises. "Gurrr! Gurrr!"

Orin laughed and gave as good as she got, pecking at Snurk with Nessie's plesiosaurus-like head and making her own monster noises. "Rawrrr! Rawrrr!"

Scotty and Korrd's smiles both grew as they watched their little charges. Though as a nelneer, Orin would only live the same amount of time as her guardian, she could still be taken as a symbol of the future, in a way, an innocent child like her--and Pok certainly could be. Here were hundreds of years of animosity melting before their eyes. Maybe there really *was* hope for peace...

"Gurrr! Gurrr! Gurrr!"

"Rawrrr! Rawrrr!"

The Klingon and Starfleet veterans both looked at each other wryly and chuckled again. *Well, peace of a sort, anyway.*

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Yay, the new challenge has finally begun! I'll hopefully get the first drawing and story for my other challenge (the one I'm taking for all the other fandoms) done soon, too.
For those who don't know about General Korrd, he was the older, kind of nice Klingon (not a real villain, at any rate--in fact, he was possibly the first TOS Klingon to be put in a non-antagonistic role) from The Final Frontier (movie V). Here's where I got my Klingon language info for this story:
www.angelfire.com/ga3/ikavneme…
en.glosbe.com/en/tlh/friend
And yeah, I know that upper and lower-case letters are used sort of differently in Klingon, to indicate slightly different pronunciations... but seeing "nuqneH" on the screen was just making my inner English major shudder as I wrote this... so I hope nobody minds terribly that I went ahead and spelled it "nuqneh." Also, hopefully "Pok" and "Snurk" neither one mean anything offensive in Klingon--I just made those names up off the top of my head. ("Poq" with a "q" instead of a "k" unfortunately means "indigestion," when I looked it up... but hey, maybe the Klingons name their kids like the Vikings do in "How to Train Your Dragon," so Pok could be a sort of "Hiccup!" ) Oh, and the guard dogs with giant fangs on Rura Pentae in the sixth movie (The Undiscovered Country) are apparently called "jackal mastiffs," according to the Star Trek wiki. I figured a Klingon child might have a plush version for a "security blanket" toy.