Season Two

211 Communications
Stardate: 54362
Petersen: I can't believe you married him!

Ashok is released from hospital. He soon tries to hack into the Starfleet computer facility, in the hope of finding evidence in Petersen's communication record of involvement in the attack on him. To help overcome basic Starfleet security checks, he uses circuits from the TOS-era communicator that belonged to Lyranna's grandfather. The attempt is detected, and Reinhardt goes to Lyranna's office to discuss what to do. He then materialises with a team of civillian security officers to arrest him red-handed.

Reinhardt gets an uncharacteristically accurate explanation from Ashok. He decides not to take him into custody out of consideration for his recent trauma and his confession but confiscates the equipment used - including Lyranna's heirloom - and tells him to be available for future questioning.

Stadi arrives at the cafe in a state of exhaustion. She has been awake most of the night studying Ashok's condition. She has avoided Ashok since he explained his background to her. She explains she needed some time on her own and rebukes Ashok for attempting to breach Starfleet security. She then adds in despair that perhaps Q was right in calling Ashok a 'slime ball'. Ashok is confused by her explanation of what a slime ball is, but he does find out the full story of how and why Kal Orioli was brought to New Lhasa. Stadi says that she 'fell in love with a lie'. Ashok hotly disputes this, he has not been anything other than himself with her. She takes comfort from this and asks him to promise to stay out of trouble in the future.

Kath'lar receives a reply from Qo'nos. It is from Kahl, the son of the Klingon-human hybrid McKinnon. He agrees to meet K'ral in a duel and addresses Kath'lar as 'Kath'lar of the House of Duras'. Kath'lar picks up the message pad and hurls it across the room in a rage. Her heritage is something she prefers to remain secret. She informs K'ral of the duel and they book a fast transport to Qo'nos for themselves and their son Vok. Meanwhile, M'Kress asks the Captain for leave to attend her fathers fiftieth birthday celebration on Qu'onos.

Lyranna meets with Valesus. She asks him questions about links with the pro-Psi terrorists, which he evades. She senses anger, which she asks about directly. Valesus objects to what he calls scanning, and she considers natural Betazed empathy. She realises the anger is coming from people in his inner office, asks equally directly about them, but gets no answer. He claims that Stadi's goal for the New Lhasa syndrome project is to cure people of the syndrome. She tells him that her goal is one of helping people cope with it and that she is against forced treatment. The meeting ends in acrimony. After the meeting, Lyranna receives Reinhardt's report on the incident.

After her shift, Ashok asks her about the meeting and tells her that he has been making enquiries about the New New Lhasans. She advises him to stay away from them because they are dangerous. They discuss what has gone on between them and exchange life histories. Ashok learns that Stadi's parents died when she was very young in an accident. Stadi learns that Ashok's sister might well be a threat to his life. On Ashok's insistence that he is nothing like as amoral as many other Orions, Stadi again asks him to stay out of trouble, telling him that if his record becomes any worse pressure will be put on her to give him up. Ashok promises to reform, and muses on how this is his longest relationship. He wonders what he should do now he has reformed and then makes a sudden decision. 'Will you marry me?' he asks.

Lyranna asks whether he meant it, and agrees. Ashok asks whether she meant it. Lyranna wants to marry that very day. "I want to marry you, I want to settle down with you and I want to have children." They agree on a Betazed wedding and for Lyranna, despite her matriarchal home, to take the surname Quayn. The couple go to meet the Betazed priestess, but she refuses to marry them when she discovers, in the mind that Lyranna opens to he, that Lyranna has abandoned the man who was both bonded to her in childhood and her Imzadi. They consider other options, and decide not to risk asking Captain Horah-Morash to marry them. The couple transport to a different timezone to find an open registry office, and are married.

Q appears to the Captain and hands him a PADD with the report on Ashok's failed attempt to compromise Starfleet's computer network. So when Lyranna meets tells Horah-Morash at the start of the new day, he is concerned at her judgement. He manages to wish her well, but it is clear to the empathic Lyranna that he is not happy about it.

George contacts Lyranna when he sees the report of the hack, and first hears of the weddding when she says "Quayn here" in reply. They have an awkward conversation in her office, during which she blurts out that he can't believe she married him, and then apologises for doing so.

Later, Lyranna Quayn requests of the civillian authorities that seized the communicator from Ashok that they return it to her. The couple begin to invite their friends to the reception. The USS Darwin is out of contact at the moment, so invitations for Lyranna's friends on the crew are left with Starfleet.

(In the original RPG, there was a week-long cliffhanger between the proposal and the agreement to marry. But this is much closer to an episode-sized chunk. I've only just realised writing this up how silly a Klingon 50th birthday party would sound.)

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