Jewel in her fathers eye

Chapter One

“I wonder what her favourite colour is” Trip wondered.
It had been three days since Elizabeth Reed-Joherah had come aboard and for those three days she had been all Trip had thought about.
The entire crew had had to admit that they were in complete and utter shock that Lieutenant Reed had ever been married, let alone had a 16 year old daughter. His marriage and subsequent divorce had been kept a closely guarded secret by both Starfleet and the Captain, but when his coal haired smart alec daughter had been assigned to Enterprise as the ships counsellor the whole story had been released with minimal detail.
The official story on the ship was that at 16 Malcolm had married Dreyla Joherah in secret to annoy his parents. Nine months later, Elizabeth had been born. Two years later the final divorce papers had been signed and Malcolm had joined Starfleet. The rest, as they say is history.
Despite constant reassurance from the Captain that the crew had the whole story, rumours were still circulating about the mysterious new counsellor. Of course, the fact that after her tour of the ship she had gone straight to her quarters and stayed there didn’t help any. Her quarters had sparked a rumour. A bedroom larger than the captains with adjoining sitting room and kitchen with ample closet space interested the crew no end. The rumour was that she was having a relationship with the married Admiral Forrest, hence the extravagant quarters. Even Trip was questioning the Captains better judgement at the sheer opulence of the quarters.
Her lack of emergence was explained to the crew by the Captain as a moving in period but any fool could plainly see Doctor Phlox flitting in and out of the room at all hours of the day and night. The rumour for that was that she had some horrible disease from the alien ship she rode in here on and she was in quarantine.
The alien ship too provoked a rumour too: the girl wasn’t human. Well, not fully human. They guessed that she was a half-breed of some kind, the result of an unauthorised interspecies relationship on Lieutenant Reed’s part.
All in all the girl was a half-breed recluse with some horrible alien disease who was having an affair with a married Starfleet Admiral. The crew couldn’t wait to meet her.
Little did they know that the real story was just as complicated and just as unique.
“I wonder if she’s anything like Malcolm. God help us if she is”


Chapter Two

“Actually, Mr Tucker, I have a form of epilepsy. The three days were my adjusting time. My epilepsy is triggered by warp engines, the doctor was kind enough to develop a medication to control my fits.”
Counsellor Reed-Joherah smiled at the amused Chief Engineer.
Trip was reeling off the now lengthy list of rumours that had been circling about the girl over dinner in the Captains dinning room with T’Pol and the Captain. The Captain was smiling at having finally found some one who talked as much as Trip, and T’Pol was listening intently to Elizabeth’s explanations.
“Ok, what about the sheer extravagance of your quarters, huh? Explain that.” Replied Trip with a triumphant smile on his face.
“Simply put, when I have a fit it is really bad. I need the space so I don’t hit things when I fall. And before you ask, the sitting room will double as my office and the kitchen is for my dietary requirements, which I won’t go into while we are eating.”
For the first time since Archer had known Charles Tucker the third, Trip was speechless. The new Counsellor was certainly going to make life around here much more interesting, especially when she and Malcolm revealed the truth about this girl.
“You’re catching flies Mr Tucker” the Counsellor told the Chief Engineer, indicating to his open mouth.
“Are you just making this up because you don’t want to tell us the truth? Because if you had epilepsy then I would have been informed.” The Captain interjected.
“Ask me no questions and I’ll tell you no lies, Captain. I admit, I’m very much like my father when it comes to my past and my personal life. I was always told that the reason it’s called a personal life is because it’s personal.” Answered the black haired she-Malcolm. Trip looked scandalised.
“You mean you made all that stuff about epilepsy up?!” Trip grilled, looking like he had just been cheated out of the last slice of pecan pie.
“Maybe, maybe not. You’ll just have to wait and see.”
The Captain pondered for a moment. Elizabeth Reed-Joherah, her father, Admiral Forrest and his doctor all seemed to know the mystery surrounding this girl. Everyone but his crew knew. He couldn’t even read her personal file. It was encrypted and seemingly impenetrable, except to Elizabeth and her trusted two. He decided to change topic.
“So, Elizabeth….”the Captain began.
“Jul, or Beth, please. No one calls me Elizabeth except my father when he’s angry at me.” She interrupted.
“So, Beth, what was your upbringing like? Any siblings, pets, stuff like that? And the truth this time please” the Captain asked.
“Ok, truth time. I have five brothers all older than me. See my mother had just been widowed when she met my father. She needed a shoulder to cry on. No pets. What else do you want to know?”
“Why did you become a counsellor?” Trip enquired.
“I guess you could say I have a natural talent for listening to other peoples problems. I didn’t choose the profession, it chose me.”
“Why did you decide to take a posting on Enterprise?” Archer asked.
“Are you kidding?! The first warp enabled star ship in the fleet needs a counsellor and I don’t put my name down, I would want my head examined. Plus, it has the son of Henry Archer, designer of the warp five engine, at the helm, an ex-boomer at the steering wheel, the Hoshi Sato, best ear in Starfleet, at the mike, a Vulcan science officer, a Denobulan doctor, and the best engineer on Earth. Oh and my father to protect it. What’s not to like?” she reeled off this list very fast, with great enthusiasm. The Captain and his best friend were smiling. Speechless, but smiling.
“Ensign Sato to Captain Archer” came in over the com.
The Captain stood up and answered the call. “Go ahead” he replied, still smiling.
“Captain, there’s an alien ship hailing us. Their captain is demanding to speak with Counsellor Reed-Joherah. He claims to be her husband.”
All faces round the table had dropped, except T’Pol, who had retained her usual composure. Trip looked confused and the Jonathan looked outraged.
Beth, however, looked furious. She looked so angry it seemed as if she was a tiger about to pounce on this prey called husband.
“We’ll be right there.”


Chapter three

The Captain walked determinedly onto the bridge, closely followed by Trip and then T’Pol. The Counsellor stormed onto the bridge, moments after them, looking like a Klingon war party.
“Oh boy.” Breathed Lt. Reed. “Batten down the hatches, here comes hurricane Jewel.” He said quietly to Commander Tucker, recognising the signs of pure rage in his daughter. Trip looked at him with a smirk, which faded when he realised the Lieutenant wasn’t joking. He watched with an expression of dread matching Malcolm’s as the Counsellor took the seat newly installed next to the captain.
“On screen” commanded the Captain.
A worried male face appeared on the view screen. Relief spread across the face as it recognised the Counsellor.
“Jewel, thank Ctari you’re safe! I felt for sure you had been harmed when I herd you had boarded a ship full of humans!” The voice was stressed, as if he was lying, and carried with it an accent that even Hoshi couldn’t place.
“I am Captain Jonathan Archer of the star ship Enterprise. And you are?”
“Captain Tailar Shiran of the Antaran ship Viscre. I am the husband of the woman sitting next to you.”
Archer turned towards his new Counsellor with a look of amusement and concern. “Counsellor?”
“Permission to speak very clearly, Captain?” the counsellor asked, not taking her eyes off the viewer.
“By all means, just keep it in English” answered the Captain jokingly.
Beth stood up and started speaking, near yelling her response.
“Let me make this perfectly clear, Tai, because I’m only going to say this once. Our divorce papers were finalised three months ago. I am no longer your wife. Go home and move on because I have nothing left to give you. I had everything to give but you didn’t have to take it all. I gave you my heart body and soul and you trampled on them, literally. I hate you!” the Counsellor announced, rising in crescendo. As she spoke the same accent as the blue haired man on the screen crept into her voice.
“FINE!” the view screen snapped off leaving the glittering view of stars.
“The ship has left at warp seven, Captain” T’Pol informed the captain.
“Thank you, T’Pol. Now, Counsellor, you can either give me the access code to your file and I will keep the details private or you can tell the entire bridge crew. You can decide.” The Captain said very calmly. The entire bridge crew were staring at the Counsellor curiously.
She took a deep breath. “My mother is Antaran. Antar isn’t like Earth, it’s a patriarchal society. Husbands own their wives, fathers own their daughters, brothers own their sisters. A woman cannot own property or earn her own money. I grew up there. I was married at nine. It’s why I joined Starfleet, like my father. On Antar, I am worth less than the other women because I am half human. My blood is ‘unpure’. My quarters have to be that way because I do have seizures. My DNA doesn’t mesh the way yours does. My brain chemistry doesn’t work properly, neither does my digestive tract. I had to have a room away from others because I invade people’s dreams. Antarans are mentally powerful. Because of my DNA I am more powerful than them. I feel emotions, I hear thoughts. I’m basically an all round biological sensors array. My quarters had to be so far away from other people because I can dream walk.”
“Dream walk?” asked the Captain.
“I invade other people’s dreams, walk through them. Humans have a tendency to be very protective over their dreams.”
“What’s wrong with your digestive tract?” asked Travis.
“Because of her DNA, she cannot digest any food.” Answered Malcolm.
“So how do you eat?” puzzled Trip who was always thinking about his stomach.
“I have a special medication which gets added to everything I eat. It is flavourless and looks a lot like Tabasco sauce. Anything else?”
“Just one more thing.” Said Trip. “Why Jewel?”
“I have two names, an Antaran name and a Human name. My Antaran name is Jultemara Akari Joherah, my human name is Elizabeth Mary Reed. I hyphenate the two surnames and Jul is the shortening of Jultemara.”
“Oh, I get it.” Replied Trip.
“Why was all of this kept a secret? No one on this ship would judge you.” The Captain asked.
“Really? You really think that of your crew? What if I were to tell you that Antarans are a Xindi species? What would you think then, huh?” The girl yelled.
The whole bridge crew looked from Jul to Malcolm, the captain slowly beginning to comprehend the secrecy surrounding this girl. All children are special but this girl was unique. There were no other interspecies children produced by a human. And hated. Earth wasn’t safe for her. The captain found himself empathising with both her and Malcolm.
“Thank you for your honesty. I’m sure you have things to be getting on with, Counsellor, as do all of you. As I understand it, you were all off duty. Dismissed. Malcolm, in my office please.” The captain announced as Malcolm started to move.
The captain turned to get a better look at the girl, this half-breed Xindi child, but she was gone.
I guess when you grow up a secret you learn to disappear.

Chapter four

“Why didn’t you tell anyone your ex wife was a Xindi?”
The Captain was sitting in his office staring at his head of security standing before him. Malcolm stood very stiffly, as if waiting for a firing squad. At this question a look of disbelief spread over is face.
“With all do respect, Captain, do you really think the crew would have trusted me to protect them while we were fighting the Xindi if they had known about Dreyla? And if they had known about Jewel, what do you think they would have said? ‘Oh look there goes the Xindi lover. Is the Captain really expecting him to protect us against his daughter’s race’? You can imagine what would have happened sir.”
“Yes, I suppose I can.” The Captain looked pensive for a moment. “Is she going to be alright?”
“Would you be?” Malcolm replied quietly.
“Probably not."
"She spent most of her childhood being hated by Antarans because she was half human."
"Malcolm, I understand that things are going to be difficult for her for a while but, given the circumstances, I think she would be safer here. After all, the Xindi killed 7 million humans.”
“The Xindi killed 32 thousand Antarans and that planet is alot smaller than earth. Two of those were Jewels brothers. She knows what the Xindi are like. Xindi hate Antarans. There has been a blood feud going on for centuries. If that’s all, Captain, I would like to go find my daughter now”
“Dismissed”
Malcolm exited the room and ran straight to the Armoury. There she was, sitting atop the phase cannon, tears streaming from her electric green eyes. Her markings had reappeared and the pink streaks had reappeared in her hair.
“I’ll be hated within a week.”


Chapter five

“She hasn’t been seen by anyone in two days. I’m worried about her.” Malcolm confided in Trip.
“With all do respect, I know she’s your daughter and you care about her but…..” Words failed Trip. How could he tell Malcolm that all he could do was wonder how she was doing? They were in the armoury discussing the Counsellor.
“You would rather she left?”
“I’m just saying that I can’t get past the fact that she’s Xindi. Before you start,” Trip said seeing the outrage in Malcolm’s face “I know you care about her and I know what the Xindi did to her people, but I feel that not a lot of people on the ship are gonna be willing to pour out their problems to her. Her job and her life on this ship are going to get increasingly difficult when this all gets out.”
Malcolm pondered for a moment. Trip was right. She didn’t stand a chance.
“What about you? How do you feel about her?” Malcolm blurted accusingly.
Trip was at a loss. How could he explain to Malcolm, the girls father, that he was having feelings of more than just friendly concern.
“It doesn’t matter either way to me if she stays here.” Trip replied nonchalantly.
“I gotta go. I’m late for my neuropressure with T’Pol” Trip said hurriedly, exiting the room before Malcolm had a chance to question him further.


Chapter six

Trip hurried down the corridor, away from T’Pols room.
Why did I just lie to him? Like he would care where I was going. But he would care, that’s the problem. He would care so much that he would insist on coming with me. I have to talk to her. Alone.
Trip near ran to engineering, Jul playing in his thoughts. He entered the crowded room and retrieved the skeleton key from his desk drawer. He exited and ran determinedly to the Counsellors extravagant quarters.
He used the key to jimmy the lock she had personally encrypted and pass worded. He entered the room silently, holding his breath.
There she was, headphones on, bopping to the music. She stood before an unfinished painting of a landscape with fuchsia skies and red seas and three moons. She was painting in an amethyst mountain to the right side of the canvas.
Trip couldn’t breathe even if he wanted to. She was breathtaking, standing there in a pink summer dress that had no sleeves, was damn near transparent and hit her mid thigh. It was about a size too big for her and just skimmed her curved form. Her hair fell down her back in a waterfall of black streaked with electric pink. All down her arms and legs were a pattern of birthmarks that resembled leopard print. They fell in lines along the side of her, Trip could see through her dress, along her shoulders and down to a point where her collarbone met, then down her stomach, skirting round her navel and splitting into two lines that ran to her hips to meet the lines down her sides. Trip was most intrigued by the straight neat line that ran down her spine.
She spun and looked at Trip, an instant understanding running between them: she had been having the dreams too.
She removed her headphones and put down her paintbrush. She took his hand and led him to the couch where they sat together, bodies turned towards each other.
“I never thought I would experience the dreams. See, on Antar, they are used as an indicator of a good marital match. They’re supposed to be a sign of true love, the two souls finding each other and sparking a connection. They’re rare, really rare. I never knew that it could happen with a human.”
“My dreams could have easily been my fantasies.” Trip whispered. They looked at each other, a silent realisation coming to them both. Jul vocalised it.
“My father, Starfleet, my family and the Antaran counsel will never allow us to happen.” She looked at Trip with an almost guilty look. “I’ve just come out of an abusive marriage; I don’t think I can let myself be intimate with a man. No offence but I don’t trust you yet.”
“I understand.” He replied with a disheartened look. He paused. Where do we go from here?” he replied.
“Friends? For now at least” she said with a small half smile.
“I can do that.”