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Davlia does not join the Federation. In fact, Davlia is quite collectively outraged that the Federation would refuse them entry until they received kindly donated technological insight, and only then ask them to participate in the government that wanted to condemn their would-be benefactor to life in prison. Davlia decides that it's doing all right by itself; it uses what Isabella and Lalita can dump into the nets from their stolen ship's library, and their new warp tech, to make contact with other civilizations, and are presently trading merrily with non-Federation civilizations and scouting a possible colony site a few stars to the galactic east.
Isabella catches up with Lalita on the language, and by the time they've been living among Davlians for a year they're both fluent. Lalita has an easier time making himself useful to their hosts than Isabella does, what with his vast arsenal of variously practical skills, but Isabella manages to make a few PADDs from the ship take Davlian electricity and pokes around on the nets, contributing useful ideas in appropriately modest pseudonymous fashion. (Not under "polarbear". That wouldn't make her inconspicuous, here. She goes by the less than concealing "priv_sky"; if anyone, under all the careful not-prying, is curious about her identity, they may have it, but she's trying to be polite.) Occasionally she gets a Davlia-approved thrill of warmth when something she's suggested anonymously is put into practice and nobody knows it's hers except Lalita.
The ship doesn't have very good bandwidth for subspace access to the Federation nets - it's warp-capable, but it was mostly not intended for long-distance runs, it didn't need to send large packets of information through subspace when it was generally within fine range for radio. Also, the Federation knows where they are, or at least has a very strong hunch - it just can't scoop them up without annoying the Davlians, who they're still trying to court. They can restrict information flow to the Potomac systems (because wherever they think it is, they know it was stolen) and to Davlia's own nets. News of home is not nonexistent, but it is infrequent and probably filtered.
They've been on Davlia for almost six years when Isabella learns that their neighbors have been unobtrusively considering her and Lalita what amounts to common-law married since they landed. She tells him so.
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warpfairy
warpfairy
"Is there any reason not to outright accuse the Vulcan High Council of attempted rape? After suitable buildup?"
warpfairy
"I can't work out how involved that - what was his name - V'Ler, whether to hold him at all responsible or not. I probably wouldn't have double-checked his complicity if you hadn't been within arm's reach and they'd caught me when they did, so - but I don't know."
dream-me-up
"It seems to make a pretty big difference whether or not he knew what was going on beforehand. Or thought you did."
warpfairy
"Yes. Or even if he was aware that I was already elsewhere engaged. Meditation and medicine don't have such a high success rate that I could blame him very much for agreeing to something that he thought would safeguard both our lives."
warpfairy
"I suppose they're probably nobly motivated, in their own minds - endangered species, the youngest batch of surviving Vulcan children are coming of age soon, the survivors were mostly offplanet and the sorts to be more likely to consider xenophilia - and yet."
warpfairy
"I'm unsure how that factored in. I have no living close Vulcan relatives; perhaps they will accept some alien genetics in order to get diversely sourced Vulcan genes into the pool."
dream-me-up
"Maybe so. Or maybe they just think that half-Vulcans are bad but quarter-Vulcans would be worse."
warpfairy
"Quite possibly; perhaps they saw it as a decision between my great-great-grandchildren being humans with 'maybe a little Vulcan somewhere' and being Vulcans with 'maybe a little human somewhere'."
warpfairy
"Regardless, they saw it as their decision to make. They didn't even suggest it during a calmer moment in case I was open to the idea, they - Renée must have told someone the timing so Niamh would know when it needed a course of tehn-yamareen or when it would need to allow me to invite a conjugal visit, I suppose is how they knew."
warpfairy
Isabella sighs. She starts on her toast. She's really very hungry, what with the week of not bothering to eat.
"I'm so glad you were there," she says. "So glad you could beat him - that they didn't decide as long as they were screwing me over to deny me the right of challenge."
"I'm so glad you were there," she says. "So glad you could beat him - that they didn't decide as long as they were screwing me over to deny me the right of challenge."
warpfairy
Eventually their breakfast has been demolished.
Isabella leans her head on his shoulder.
"I'm considering opening my little speech by describing what happened in vague enough terms that everyone will think I landed on some anonymous pre-warp planet."
Isabella leans her head on his shoulder.
"I'm considering opening my little speech by describing what happened in vague enough terms that everyone will think I landed on some anonymous pre-warp planet."
dream-me-up
"That's one method," he says. "Might work if you can pull it off; might look cheap if you can't."
warpfairy
"I probably can't pull it off," she says after a moment's thought. "The fact that my - incapacitated state - was involved makes the specifics relevant. I'm going to have to explain pon farr, aren't I, it's kept quiet enough that most non-Vulcans haven't heard of it."
warpfairy
Kisses!
You'd think they'd had enough to last them a while, but you would be wrong.
You'd think they'd had enough to last them a while, but you would be wrong.
warpfairy
"It will be sufficiently embarrassing - and my status as a Vulcan, adulterated or otherwise, is sufficiently relevant to the story - that it might be worthwhile for me to suppress during part or all of the speech. I know Vulcans will take me less seriously if I display emotion, but perhaps they aren't the primary audience I ought to have in mind. Two versions, perhaps?"