What had been intended as a day of touring Shi'Khar instead became an intense debriefing by Vulcan Security. It was not every day, even in the somewhat disreputable Alien Quarter, that several Romulan spies were gunned down using an ancient Earth machine-gun, and a surveillance vessel boarded and captured practically in Vulcan orbit. After Vulcan Security had finished, Starfleet Intelligence began. By the time the debriefings were finished, it was very late at night on their first full day on Vulcan.
Sotok and Tiyanna got the better of the deal: after a brief questioning, they were allowed to go on their own recognizance. They spent that day touring the city's famous Botanical Gardens. Tarik, Kassia, and Sikal arrived home to find Tiyanna practically asleep in Sotok's arms, holding a huge red Vulcan sunflower.
"Young Mistress Tiyanna has taken an affinity to flowers," Sotok said matter-of-factly. Tarik and Kassia looked at each other and smiled, both of them feeling the contented hum that was Tiyanna's subconscious when she was at peace with herself and the world.
The trip did not last long enough, not nearly. Sotok and especially Sikal were thoroughly charmed by Kassia and Tiyanna, and both promised to visit the station at the earliest possible opportunity. Tarik canceled his solo land yachting trip on the plains below Mt. Selaya so that he could properly introduce Kassia and Tiyanna to the Alien Quarter. He showed them everything: his old school, the recruiting office where he first signed up to enter Starfleet Academy, the scrap yard where he used to salvage old parts for his boyhood engineering projects. Kassia was charmed by it all -- especially charmed by Tarik's old sleeping quarters in the household, lovingly preserved by his parents (and later Sotok) exactly as he'd left it when he entered the Academy. Right down to the dozens of model starships; the pictures from Earth, Andor, Tellar, and Rigel III; and volumes of old-fashioned pulp science-fiction novels that had somehow survived the centuries to end up in the hands of a young Romulan boy who dreamt of the stars. A rather worn stuffed sehlat sat next to his old bed. She wished that she could share her home with him, but what little she remembered she wouldn't have shared with anyone...
News had spread of Tarik's and Kassia's handling of the assassination team -- so much that reporters hounded their steps even on Vulcan. Very rarely could they step outside the family compound without being besieged. The cruise line, as compensation for their poor security on the outbound leg of the family's journey, upgraded their quarters for the return trip to first class.
Despite the larger and even more luxurious quarters and the allegedly better seating in the dining room (where they were regaled by superficial and self-important bluebloods every night), all three of them were relieved when the station came into view.
~There's no place like home!~ Kassia thought.
~No truer words have ever been thought,~ Tarik replied where only she could hear.