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Winning a name

Posted on Tue Nov 30th, 2021 @ 6:46am by

3,291 words; about a 16 minute read

I was trotting out of the space port of the capitol city Leth’kanna on my home world. I was on all fours because my hip was still giving me trouble with shifting to walking on my hind legs, despite the best efforts of Star Fleet medical to help. The buildings in this neighborhood were all immaculately grown and perfectly groomed and trimmed. An elegant mix of plant and animal growth clad with ceramic and glass tiles passively absorbing solar energy to feed the buildings and power their various functions. The buildings must have been difficult to grow and maintain. They were all far, far better than the plant based buildings I was raised in.

I trotted up to the personal transport I had reserved for this brief trip home. The door opened for me, indicating that this particular unit not only looked to be in good health but was well trained as well. It was a standard plant based transport with some antigrav units built in. Linking with the neural node on the dash was an experience that I had missed for far to long. How I had missed the faint tingle of the neural networks used by my people to control our living technology. Star Fleet tech was advanced, more so in some areas then ours but it was far, far behind in others and it was so dead and impersonal to use. Typical of this sort of organic machine it had next to zero intelligence on it’s own but did have access to a rather thorough local database via a built in organic computer. Most of it was public addresses and tourist type info. I quickly selected the correct address and set the transport on it’s way.

I took a moment to take the pack off of my back. I was traveling light and didn’t anticipate staying very long. I stood out here, far more than I stood out on the bridge of my last assigned ship. I was wearing my Star Fleet uniform still and it had attracted more attention then I had thought it would. I was already trying not to be frustrated by the looks and disrespectful body language people were sending my way. The giants of the universe had proved far more welcoming to me despite my small stature than my own people had.

I had been rather pleased at the stir that the Runabout I’d been issued temporarily had caused at the station though. The look on the flight crew’s face when the USS Gila NCC-75018 landed and I walked out was priceless. It was rather more spacious than a standard shuttle craft and had a significantly longer range. By my standards it had well more space then I would ever need but having the run of it to myself for the trip was great fun. The head engineer on my last ship had even installed a modified chair for me to sit in while I piloted it and had made sure that a custom control layout was loaded into the computer before I left. I had to hand it to Harold… he did good work.

The neighborhood I stopped in wasn’t as well tended as the one around the space port. The buildings were all plant and many of the solar tiles were cracked and old. It had been my home for years before I left for Star fleet though. It was still the home of one of the few friends I had on this world. Kya’ana. She was a little larger than me but still a runt by our standards.

She was waiting by the side of the road when the personal transport pulled up to a stop. I disengaged the neural link and the door obediently opened for me. I was greeted with purrs and affectionate body language. Sub vocalizations communicating clear pleasure at seeing me again. To be fair, the sentiment was returned. It had been forever since I’d seen her. She was orange with some light white stripes, what humans would call an orange tabby.

“Mell! It’s been far to long! It’s good to see you! I’m glad to see that the giants of the universe haven’t stepped on you!” she said as we greeted each other warmly.

“Oh I’ve been stepped on a few times but always by accident.” I laughed. “Even had my tail broken at the academy. I still get the occasional apology letter from the guy!”

She had avoided using my surname. Those of us who had “ana” as our surname tended to not use it when among each other. We knew that the world thought we were nothings or zeros. We didn’t need to remind each other all the time. My people’s names are typically two parts. The first part is our personal name, the second is our pride or family name. Some people’s pride name changes regularly depending on their job and who they are working for. Others keep the same pride name regardless of who they are working for. Especially if it’s a larger more prestigious pride. Then there was the “anas” The literal translation of ana was the number zero. It meant we are nothing. That we have no family and are barred from joining or forming a pride or family. Though in theory a family could allow you to join and give you their name so long as your reduction to ana wasn’t a legal punishment. Theft or dishonorable actions could get you stripped to ana for instance for set periods of time or for life. I was a runt, that meant that I was forbidden from starting a pride of my own but in theory could be accepted by a pride. In practice though no pride with any respect would have a runt in their ranks so I was stuck. Forever reduced to zero, or nothing. That is what I hoped to change with this return to my home world.

On the way back to my place I caught up on all the gossip I’d missed out on since leaving and I tried to explain just how friendly and welcoming that most of the giant races of the Federation were. Especially if you could excel in any of the sciences or engineering. Sure, our people wouldn’t let you anywhere near the Federation’s liaisons if you were a runt but the Federation themselves really did not care and in fact being smaller than normal could be used to brutal advantage in some social situations… so long as you weren’t to proud to be “cute”.

I stashed my pack in Kya’s private locker and noted that there was already a sleeping pile in the central napping room. While it wasn’t legal for zero’s like myself to be part of or form a pride, it wasn’t uncommon for common tenants of any given building to form their own unofficial pride. One that I would probably be welcome in for the short time I would be here on world. As much as a nap would do me good I had a meeting to get to. One I was not looking forward to.

I had established myself quite firmly as a successful Star Fleet officer and had recently established my self as a successful warrior in hand to hand combat on board my last assigned ship, something I was still trying to not think about too much really. If I never saw another Orion pirate I would be very happy about it. I was here to see if I could use that to win the right to change my family name. I had no hope that my old family would take me in but… having the right to change it to something other than ana would mean that I could be part of a family again formally. Hell… there were a few non Leth’aan species that I was considering for possible pride mates. T’ral’s family for instance had indicated they might find it logical to welcome me. Then there was a few close human friends who also indicated they might entertain having me as a family member. I know that most of the giants held family names differently than my people. I’d even spoken with a Klingon or two who said they would be honored to have me in their families based on my performance in the fighting and on observing my hunting skills. Of all the giant races Klingons tended to hold their family names the most similarly to the pride names of my people. Though to be honest… they scared me. Giants who are as warlike as the warrior cast of my people. Though they tried to hold themselves to a stricter sense of honor, individuals always could be wild cards on that front.

Nuzzling a good bye to Kya I headed back out to the still waiting personal transport. I linked up again and directed it to the Council building. The building was an ancient growth building. Massive and rounded like a giant tree. All plant with thickly grown walls. It was old enough that it still had leaves on it. The leaves were all above the first story and they were grown out to massive sizes. The building was also supplemented by modern solar tiles as the modern power requirements of organic computers couldn’t be strictly supported by older organic power collection methods and I knew that there were even geothermal taps in the lower levels under ground and wind collectors hidden up in the canopy.

I could feel the ambient neural network buzzing around me comfortingly. How I had missed this living tech. I touched a neural node at the entrance and linked up to the building’s network. Security systems probed me briefly if a bit invasively and determined I was not a threat. The old building had a very passive formal sort of personality to it’s AI. It hadn’t ever reached the threshold for sentience but I knew it came close. Though given the amount of bureaucratic stupidity that passed through the minds and organic computers here, I didn’t wonder at times if it was staying “non sentient” deliberately. Honestly if that was the case, I didn’t blame it.

It was rare that any of the tech we used reached full true sentience but it had happened on occasion. Especially with older animal grown tech. Engineered before the relevant genomes had been fully understood. It was even rarer that a plant growth reached that level but this building was old enough and had a large and advanced enough neural net that it was a possibility.

I shook myself from my thoughts as I approached the counsel chambers. I had ignored all the rude looks and comments about a runt trying to rise above their proper status but… the people beyond those doors would not be ignored so easily.

I poked my mind into the neural network and checked the time and the door indicator. I was a little early and the council wasn’t ready for me yet. Typical of the level of respect accorded to runts the council made me wait an additional hour or so before the building’s AI signaled to me that they were ready for me.

I was as nervous as I had been in my first physical evaluation for Star Fleet, training among giants who could maim or kill me with little effort by accident. I took a deep breath and purred for a moment’s meditation to help calm myself. This wasn’t a city level council I was going before. The truth about who my father was before I was reduced to “ana” or “nothing” and my reclaimed status from my successful Star Fleet career among the giants meant that I would be facing THE high council. Though it was mostly non warriors at this point, the remaining warrior prides on the council were still very much in control of most council meetings.

When the doors did open I was standing on my hind legs, having managed it some what painfully a few minutes before. I walked into the council room with pride in my step. Regardless of the result of today’s meeting, the fact that the High Council had even agreed to see a runt and adjudicate my request for full formal rights was a big win for all of the “nothings” that in theory enjoyed full citizenship but in practice still were very much second class.

I stood there before a selection of the elders of my people. Right there among them was him. My father. Graying with age and showing the scars of many battles fought he stared at me in a way that made me want to curl up and vanish. I still remembered the blistering disdain with which he’d declared me ana in the first place.

The council was silent as I approached. They would have already deliberated my request with out allowing me any input in the deliberations beyond my submitted evidence. I also understand that they interviewed my former commanding officers and several of my fellow officers regarding my career and performance in the pirate raid.

Dra’Callan stood, looking at me with his mismatched eyes, one of them having been replaced years ago after a particularly brutal fight. Pride had prevented him from hiding his injury by having the cloned eye grown a matching color. His coat was the same shade of gray as mine with white indicating his advancing age. It had taken me years to get here. I was a STAR FLEET OFFICER! I had faced down threats that he could only dream of and yet here I was, fighting for the self control not to shake with fear as my former father started talking.

“Mell’ANA” he said, with emphasis on the “nothing” part of my name. “You stand here to claim the right to form or be part of a pride by right of combat. I would not have believed such a thing was possible if not for proof that one of your fellow warriors presented to this council on inquiring about those events.”

I was shocked, though I narrowly managed to avoid showing it, his tone wasn’t the disdain I expected… He had said “my fellow warriors”. He had called me a warrior! I was also shocked when he opened a box in front of him, revealing two slightly shriveled green left ears. I blinked stupidly for a moment. I hadn’t collected trophies from my kills because that wasn’t what Star Fleet did. It would seem that Lieutenant Kelrok really had studied my people’s culture. His ship, the boQ'a', had come to our aid when the Orion pirates attacked and I fought beside him for a good portion of the combat. He was instrumental in my taking out at least one of the pirates when he had expertly thrown me at my prey’s throat. The other one had been stupid enough to discount me as a threat when I was standing on his shoulders watching his back during the fight.

We had become fast friends during the battle and after it was all over his praise of my efforts despite my size won over his cousin and captain of the vessel. It is their family that would likely welcome me should I choose to join up… did I mention though that Klingons scare the hell out of me, friend or not?

“Toral, captain of the starship boQ'a' personally attested to your killing two Orion pirates and send these by way of proof. I understand that Star Fleet disapproves of trophy collection. It would seem that the Klingons though understand our warrior culture a bit better.”

I was still in shock, barely able to maintain my composure… I know that my superiors and co-workers in Star Fleet had given statements but I had no idea that the Klingons we fought along side had spoken so highly of me.

“It is the decision of this Council that you be awarded the right to take the full name of a family. You may take your trophies and go.” he said crisply.

There was another note though, well hidden in his voice and eyes. A note of pride? Was that the barest hint of approval I saw in his eyes? I’ll never know really… I would still never be welcomed back into the Callan pride. Not after being rejected by it. I had no formal status or rank to speak with him to find out how he felt. I could only hope he reached out to me at some point.

I managed some how to narrow my eyes and lower my head in a salute before taking the box and walking out of the room numbly. I honestly had not really expected this result. I COULD be part of a family! I could start a pride if none would have me! The damn implant preventing my heat cycles could be disabled at some point in the future.

I had a career in Star Fleet to think about and not enough of my own race to warrant disabling it and disabling it would be… distracting… far, far to distracting to even consider while I was in Star Fleet but… after my time in Star Fleet, in the future, I had hope.

I spent the whole trip back to my friends apartment house in shock. Partially wondering how I would explain to my next captain that I had the ears of two Orion Pirates as trophies of formal kills and that maintaining a collection of such trophies would be necessary for me now.

“So, how’d it go?” Kya asked as she greeted me warmly. You’ve got a trophy box… do you have a family name now?”

“Not yet” I replied, “but I have the right to take a family name. That’s more than I ever had before.”

I had done it. I had proven that runts COULD be more than peons. Proven that given the right circumstances and dedication we COULD stand among the giants of the universe as equals. I had never expected to see direct combat like that. I had figured that Star Fleet would try to keep me away from that sort of thing given my stature but… it’s not like you can plan pirate attacks. I had expected it to take years longer to prove to my people my worth, and by extension the worth of our people to the universe at large in their minds. I had expected to manage it with out taking a warriors path, because I’m not a warrior but fate it seemed had a different idea. While I’m still not a warrior, not really, I can stand among them with claim to trophies that no one else dares claim. I took out two male giant warriors in hand to hand combat and lived to tell the tale. I’d also made enemies of some of the warrior cast whom I embarrassed by doing as a runt what they were afraid to do. That however was something to tackle later. For now I needed a good nap and over the next day or so I’d head out to my new assignment. The orders should arrive either tomorrow or the next day. In the mean time I joined the communal sleeping room and probably annoyed the crap out of everyone with my incessant purring.

 

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