“Is this really necessary?“

“Yes, I think it is necessary,” Counselor Lee replied as the doors to hangar bay 2 opened. “You, Doctor, can do with a vacation and there is no reason for you to spend it on this ship. We have been through this before, but if you like we can discuss the finer points of my authority over the crew again.”

Catherine Lee stopped and turned around to the Valkyrie’s CMO. “But even if you want us to go over it again, we will not do it on this ship. And that,” she added with a small smile, “is an order.”

Theron sighed and clenched his fists. “All right, you have won. I will take a few days of.” He sighed again, much more softly this time. “If only I knew where I would spend those days. Going back to Jupiter Station may be an option, but...”

“But that may remind you of too many things,” Catherine finished the sentence for him.

When Doctor Jascar just grunted in reply, she added: “In that case, why not come with me? It’s a good time of the year to visit Hong Kong and some of my family are well versed in traditional Chinese medicine. Perhaps that would make it easier for you to look at this as a working vacation and not just some idle time?”

Theron Jascar looked from the Counselor to the waiting shuttlepod and back again. “Fine. I’ll go to Hong Kong with you and try to take it easy for a few days, but if that doesn’t work out you should not insist on me staying any longer than I like. Deal?”

“That’s all I am asking for.” Catherin started to walk towards the shuttlepod again. “Take it easy for a while and we see where that takes you.”

*****

Catherine slowed the shuttlepod almost to a standstill. “Look, that’s where I lived before I signed up with the Valkyrie.”

Theron Jascar craned his head to glance out the starboard window and Counselor Lee turned the small craft around, so they could both look through the forward windows at the building she had pointed out. What Theron saw was a collection of skyscrapers rising from a sprawling foundation of shining glass and gleaming metal.

“Looks like a nice place to live. Is that were you are staying the next few days?”

“No, I was hoping we could stay at my family’s place. I gave up that apartment when I left Earth on the Valkyrie.” Catherine carefully checked the sensors and landing telemetry before she pushed the shuttlepod to the northeast, in a gentle curve around the building she had been admiring. “Not that it looked like much when I left,” she added in a low voice.

Doctor Jascar still heard her, but he was not in a mood to add the Counselor’s problems to what she perceived to be his own. “Where does your family live?” he asked.

“Over there.”

Catherine activated the autopilot before she replied and pointed out the forward windows at a jumble of old and new buildings to the east of the Kowloon peninsula. “Kai Tak. Four hundred years ago there was an airport there, but now it’s just like the rest of the city. Malls, residences, temples, small parks, the usual.”

“That’s hardly what I would call usual,” Theron snorted. “Especially the temple part.”

“Well, there is an old saying in these parts.” Catherine shot a glance at her colleague and forced a smile on her lips. “Sometimes you need all the gods you can get.”

Not waiting for a reply from the Doctor she turned to the controls again. In a few months the city had changed considerably. Rebuilding was going even faster than she had expected. The city of her birth looked more proud, more splendid, than she had ever remembered it, but there were a few things that were not likely to change, a few things that were not likely to improve as time went by.

‘Why did I even come back here? At least I brought Theron along. I can always hide behind him and Starfleet when I need to. What a great Counselor I am. Helping people I have never met before, but I can’t help myself!’

*****

The house was not what Theron had expected. A small two-story building, nestled between skyscrapers and malls, the last vestige of a time long gone by in a neighborhood that, even in the modern day and age, looked like a futurists dream.

“So this is it, huh?”

“Yes.” Catherine didn’t bother with a more detailed reply as she walked up the three steps to the open door and into the wooden structure.

Following her in Theron was taken aback. The room he entered reminded him of a doctor’s waiting room more than anything else - people sitting alone or in small groups around low tables, a sense of patient waiting and urgent needs he knew quite well. He stepped to the side and waited right behind the door for whatever would happen next, as Catherine Lee crossed through the waiting area and called out: “Uncle, are you here?”

A few moments later a rotund Chinese man stuck his head through one of the open doors of the large antechamber. To Theron he looked like an Asian version of Santa Claus. His hair was black and his beard short and neatly trimmed, but the jovial smile that filled his face left Theron Jascar with no other analogy to draw.

“Ah! If this isn’t a surprise!” The man stepped forward and embraced Counselor Lee in a swallowing-up hug. “Mei-Hsin, how have you been? I hope you will stay with your family for a few days, will you not?”

Without waiting for a reply he crossed the few meters to Theron and grasped the Doctor’s hand. “You must be a friend of Mei-Hsin. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Pang Chia, at your service. Please, come in. Make yourself at home. Any friend of my niece is more than welcome in my humble abode.”

“Um,” Catherine Lee interrupted. “Uncle, is my sister at home?”

“No, no she isn’t. Mei-Pai is running some errands for me. I expect her to be back in time for dinner.”

Pang Chia turned to his waiting patients. “Now, I know you all have troubles of your own, but my niece has returned home after a long absence and I would like to make time to great her properly. Of course I will treat anyone with a serious problem immediately, but perhaps you could help me work out who needs my attention immediately and who can wait a day or two, please?”

A few moments later most of the people had cleared the room, nodding and smiling at both Catherine and her uncle.

“Well, that seems to help narrow it down,” Pang Chia beamed. “Perhaps you could show our guest to one of the rooms upstairs?” he asked Catherine, before he added: “Your old room is still available for you if you would like it.”

Not waiting for Catherine’s reply he turned to his patients. “Now let’s see what we can do about your problems.”

*****

After a little nap and a shower Theron felt more refreshed than he had in a long while. Maybe Catherine had been right and he just needed a little vacation, a change of place. Dressed in dark blue trousers and a white shirt he felt like a tourist as he made his way down the stairs. Despite the ancient look of the building, the guest room and the sonic shower had surpassed  all his expectations and Theron was wondering what surprises dinner would hold.

Halfway down the stairs Theron stopped dead in his tracks, hearing a loud female voice from downstairs that dispelled all the calm and serenity he had felt a second ago. When the universal translator picked up enough of the Chinese for a translation, Theron Jascar was already wishing he had never agreed to accompany Counselor Lee on her trip back home.

“How could you invite her to stay here!?! She is no longer part of this family!”

“Yes, she is.” Pang Chia sounded as calm as Theron recalled, but every trace of joviality had vanished from the forceful voice drifting up the stairwell. “You may no longer consider Mei-Hsin your sister, but she is still my niece. This is my house and I decide who stays here and who does not.”

“I will not stand for this. Entertain her as much as you like, but I am out of here!” The anger in the young female voice was like a snake that wound its way around the house, poised to strike at everyone and everything.

“You will stay here. Like your sister you are a guest in my house. Never forget that. If you go now you will come back only once and that will be to pick up your belongings as you move out of my house.” The calmness Theron heard in Pang Chia’s voice was the calmness of an iceberg – strong, cold, an unhurried force of nature. “You will not force me to choose between you two. If you try you will bear the consequences.”

The ensuing silence lasted for an eternity before it was filled by the creaking of the steps behind Theron.

“For what it’s worth, I am sorry I dragged you into this, Doctor,” Catherine Lee said without inflexion. “I thought my little sis would be over it by now, or perhaps I was just trying to convince myself of that. I don’t think my uncle would insist on you staying here if you wanted to move to a hotel.” She took the last two steps down to stand at the doctor’s side. “There are quite a few good hotels I could recommend.”

“No,” Theron slowly replied after thinking about the offer carefully. “No, I think it’s time for me to return the favor you did me and offer what little support I can.”

He took a step down the stairs and looked over his shoulder with a half-smile. “But whatever happens today, you owe me, Counselor.”

*****

The dinner was one of the most somber occasions Theron had ever witnessed.

Mei-Pai Lee was an attractive young woman, or she would have been if her face had even suggested that she was capable of smiling. If her uncle’s voice had reminded Theron of an iceberg, the young woman’s face was colder than space itself.

Apart from a curt formal greeting only directed at Theron she had remained silent during the whole dinner and her mien only changed when she couldn’t avoid looking at her older sister. On those rare occasions Theron was astonished to see how fast icy cold turned to a burning fury that was only held in check by the stern gaze of Pang Chia. That Catherine - Mei-Hsin – remained so unfazed was even more of a surprise for Theron and for the first time he realized how little he knew about her. 

The interaction, or lack thereof, between the Lee family members almost made Theron Jascar forget about his surroundings, even if at other times he would have been astounded by the exquisite ancient Chinese furniture and delighted by the variety of food on the table, ranging from simple rice to the most elaborate sea-food imaginable.

At least Pang Chia turned out to be as gracious a host as his initial demeanor had suggested, jumping from one topic to the other effortlessly and making small-talk with Theron whenever he was not shooting menacing glances at his younger niece.

“... the speed rebuilding of this city is proceeding at is most astonishing, even to me.”

“I am not sure I understand that,” Doctor Jascar said.

“Well, you see, we Chinese have always prided ourselves on being quite industrious, but after the war half of this city was depopulated and many of the buildings destroyed. But so many people from the mainland turned up here to help us that everything got back to normal during only a few short months. What we had not reckoned with was that many of those people who had helped us rebuild would decide to stay here. Nowadays Hong Kong is almost back to the population we had a year ago.”

“I see,” Theron replied between two bites. He had some trouble getting use to eating with chopsticks, but he just imitated his host’s manners and thought he slowly got the hang of it.

“Catherine told me some of her family are well versed in traditional Chinese medicine,” Theron changed the subject. “I take it she meant you by that?”

“Saying that I am well versed in the simple treatments I apply would be too much to say, but I try to follow a tradition that has been handed down in my family through the centuries, yes. Than again, my niece here has been an invaluable help to me.”

He nodded at Mei-Pai who fleetingly touched her lips with a napkin and rose. “Thank you, uncle. I have some work to do. If you will excuse me.”

She rose and threw her napkin on the table, but before she could leave the room, Pang Chia stopped her in a voice that was level and yet brooked no objection. “Perhaps we should give our guest a day to explore the city on his own, but I would suggest that the day after tomorrow we all take a trip to Lantau and visit the Po Lin monastery together.”

Mei-Pai gave the curtest possible nod and turned on her heel, not so much walking but storming out of the dining room.

*****

Two days later Theron sat in the small garden behind Pang Chia’s house and thought about the time he had spent in Hong Kong. While the city was an impressive edifice to modern construction techniques and ancient traditions, his thoughts always went back to his first evening in the house behind him.

Shortly after her sister had not so much excused herself but stormed out, Catherine Lee had left and since then Theron had not seen her. Wherever she had gone, Doctor Jascar was quite certain she had not met her sister again any more than he had.

Than again, on that evening Theron had found little time to think about it, as Pang Chia had kept him busy, explaining most of the traditional Chinese remedies he administered to his patients, from herbal ointments to acupuncture. Once they had been embroiled in a discussion of old versus new medical remedies, Theron had almost completely forgotten about the Lee sisters and their quarrel, focusing all his attention on his host and his vast knowledge of traditional and modern medicine.

On the next morning Theron had accompanied Pang Chia to the Wong Tai Sin temple and discovered to his surprise that his host was not just a healer to his community, but a priest as well.

But with the relaxed, easygoing view the people of this city apparently had to religion, that was perhaps the smallest of Theron’s surprises. What had surprised him most as he made his way across the city, from ancient temples to modern high-rises to small parks, had been the very feel of the city and even more the people around him.

Theron had seen quite a few large cities all around the Federation, but nowhere else had he found such an active place, such a sense of purpose in everyone crossing his path on the streets. Everyone seemed to be going somewhere specific, taking no time for leisure, even when appearing idle. In Hong Kong everyone seemed to have a purpose, a destination, they were moving towards. Only in the small parks and sprawling temples that attitude suddenly changed like it had been wiped away by a force beyond Theron’s comprehension. In those places everyone seemed calm and relaxed, but it was something Theron had a difficult time sharing.

He was an outsider, both to this city and the Lee family. Here he was someone who could only observe without ever being a part of what he observed.

Hong Kong was a world all to its own, open to the world around it and yet grounded firmly in traditions that had endured for a thousand years, absorbing what it found useful and discarding everything that would change it beyond recognition.

But today he would visit a place that had endured for centuries without change. A place that had been restored to its natural beauty after the Lantau airport had fallen out of use after World War III. Hills rising steeply out of the ocean, small fishing villages that were kept running as much for the tourists as for their inhabitants sake, an ancient monastery – it would be enough to keep any tourist busy for a day.

But as a guest of the Lee family, an old Chinese curse came to Theron Jascar’s mind. ‘May you live in interesting times.’

Today would certainly be an interesting day.

*****

The weather was not the best to visit Lantau, but it kept the tourists away. The air was wet and warm and even after midday a heavy mist clung to the hillsides.

Theron had admired the largest open-air Buddha statue on Earth, enjoyed the best vegetarian dinner he had ever tasted. Life was good, but noticing Catherine’s forlorn expression and the glances her sister shot her, Theron knew the serene mood could not last forever.

“Perhaps we are boring you with our conversation about medicine and medical traditions,” Pang Chia suggested and waved towards the door. “Why don’t you girls take a stroll and leave us old men to ourselves?”

“Not that they will take a walk together,” Theron said after the Lee sisters had left without a word.

“They better should,” Pang Chia remarked slowly, reaching for his cup of tea. “If they do not work out their problems on their own, I may be forced to knock some sense into them, and they both know that just as well as they know that they would not like me knocking some sense into them.”

He took a sip of tea and shot a sympathetic glance at Theron Jascar. “Than again I did not want them gone to get them talking to each other. I wanted to talk to you in private.”

“You did?”

“Yes.” Once again Theron caught a hint of the jovial, caring personality in Pang Chia’s voice. “Catherine would not have brought you to me if you didn’t need my help, however strongly she may be convinced of the contrary.”

Theron Jascar carefully placed his chopsticks on the table and looked around the room and the empty tables. “I don’t think there is anything I need help with. A while ago my life was thrown off track, but Catherine and a few others did a lot to put things into perspective for me.”

“For you as a person, or for you as a doctor?” Pang Chia asked.

Theron snorted. “I see no difference. What is this gonna be, some lecture in ancient Chinese wisdom?”

“Only if you need it.”

*****

“This is silly,” Mei-Pai, remarked, before she feel silent again, striding up the mountain slope three steps ahead of her sister.

“Yes, I think it is,” Catherine said and noticed with some small satisfaction that her agreement made her sister stop dead in her tracks. “We will never see eye-to-eye, whatever uncle tries to get us together.”

“Damn right you are!” Mei-Pai spun around, her fists clenched, her face a mask of fury. “You left us, and left me all alone. Starfleet was more important to you than your family!”

“That is not true,” Catherine meekly replied.

“Shut Up! You have no idea what it was like for me!” Pai took two swift steps forward, staring down her older sister. “You were not there. You left me all alone. You always were father's favorite and you just left him alone! How do you think I felt carrying all that weight, trying to live up to the expectations father had placed on you?”

Catherine Lee looked down and swallowed hard. When she looked up to face her sister her features were contorted in a mask of anger and regret. “What do you know about it? You were too young to realize how much father smothered me. I could never have lived up to his expectations however hard I tried. He always demanded the impossible from me and you got off easy. Do you know how much I envied you?”

“SHUT UP! Father was not like that! He cared about us and you let us both down!”

“NO! He did not. All he ever cared for were traditions and himself!”

Catherine found herself flat on the ground before the searing pain on her cheek registered on her mind, before she realized where the blow that had struck her down had come from.

“Get up on your feet! You will not talk like this about our father! I will not allow it!”

*****

“You see, I am not some sort of medicine man. I use tricorders, biolectric resonators, and several other modern instruments in my treatments. What I think sets us apart is that I try to treat both my patients body and soul at the same time. But in the end we are both trying to help people.”

“You know, you are a lot like your niece.”

“Why, thank you, that is very kind of you to say. So I would like to think that she is a little like me as well.”

“Yes, ...perhaps she is.” Theron Jascar thought about all he knew about Counselor Lee, but not everything added up. “I wish I could have met her father too.”

“Oh, I think you would have liked him. And he might have liked you. He was a very disciplined man, at least when it came to his work. When it came to himself he was maybe a bit too disciplined, a bit too hard working for his own good.”

“And you say we would have liked each other?”

“I do.”

Theron tried to imagine the man who had just been described to him, but quite couldn’t, so he replied more on instinct than anything else. “You are quite perceptive.”

“Why, thank you, again that is very kind of you to say. Then again you are not making it very difficult for me. Since you came here I have not seen you smile once. And you seem only to be enjoying yourself when you speak of medicine, or should I say your work? It has not kept you from being a polite and pleasant guest, but at the same time you are not living in the here and now.”

“Well, this vacation did not turn out quite the way I expected, to say the least. I thought Catherine would show me around, play tourist guide for me, but instead I have hardly seen her since we arrived. How could I live in the here and now as you call it, without intruding in things that are not my business?”

“Ahh, but you are her doctor, are you not?”

*****

“Pai, please don’t do this.”

“And why not?” Mei-Pai shot back. “You were always father’s favorite, but I have learned a few things of my own. What’s wrong with you? Afraid I could beat you in a fair fight?”

Catherine slowly got on her feet  and took a step back. “Is that what you want to do, beat me in a fair fight?”

“Yes.”

“And do you know how long it has been since I took any serious Tai Chi lessons?”

“No, but I don’t care. If you have forgotten what father taught you that’s not my business.”

Catherine sighed as she shifted her feet to a stance she only half-remembered. She didn’t want to fight her sister, but if she had to do it to defend her past decisions... “I suppose there is no way of talking you out of this silliness?”

“Not if you call it that!”

Mei-Pai lunged forward and Mei-Hsin fell back in a defensive posture that came to her without conscious thought.

Hands flashed through the misty air, feet kicked out, but after a few seconds Catherine knew she would win, if only she remembered who she was – something her sister had yet to learn.

*****

“Yes, I am her physician, but as you said, we are different. It’s not my place to intrude in my patients personal affairs, but I take it you don’t agree with that attitude?”

“That is hard to say, knowing little about what you call your attitude.”

Theron Jascar stroked his beard for several minutes without realizing it, his eyes narrowed in concentration. Pang Chia was on to something, but whatever it was, thinking alone would not let Theron get to the bottom of it. ‘What would Helena say about this?’ he asked himself, a question he often asked himself in the past, but never about himself.

“You know,” Doctor Jascar slowly said as he stared into the haze outside the monastery’s windows, “I thought I had dealt with the death of my wife and I thought it was enough.”

He turned to Pang Chia and reached for his teacup. “In many ways you remind me of Catherine, but in many ways you remind me of my wife as well. Helena deeply cared about people and when she was around I always paid attention to my patients mental, as well as their physical, needs.”

He took a sip of tea and let Pang Chia refill his cup before he went on. “After Helena’s death I went back to being who I was before I met her – an efficient doctor, more concerned with treating wounds than caring for the more... spiritual needs of my patients.” He took a deep breath and reached for the teapot to refill Pang Chia’s empty cup.

“I may have accepted that she is no longer with me, but perhaps I haven’t done as much as I could to keep her memory alive.”

The Chinese man only nodded and left Theron to his own thoughts for a while.

As he finally took the word, Pang Chia pushed his chair back from the table and made ready to get up. “Perhaps we should check on the girls.”

“Maybe we should give them some more time. I think they may have to work this out for themselves.”

“You do? Well, so do I, but I am glad you came to the same conclusion. But that aside, once they have worked out their problems they might require our professional attention.”

*****

Catherine dropped to her knees and just tried to breathe.

It took almost a minute before Pai found her speech. “You...  beat... me. I can’t... believe it. I trained... so hard.”

Catherine’s voice was equally labored, trying to get a word in between burning breaths.

“You... always tried... too hard.” She slumped down on the ground next to her sister and tried to force her breathing to a more steady rhythm. “You always were father’s favorite, but you always tried too hard.”

“I wasn’t.” Before the fight Mei-Pai’s voice had been cold and condescending, but now it was just exhausted. “You walked away and I could never make up for that, however hard I tried.”

“I never walked away,” Mei-Hsin replied after a long moment. “All I did was chose my own way. As soon as I took the first step on that road father ignored me and turned all his attention on you. He always tried to turn you into what I would not become and you let him do it to you.”

Mei-Pai lay there breathing heavily as the memories of her childhood and adolescence washed over her. Old traditions, martial arts training, the passing-away of her father, the difficulties she had adjusting to her uncle’s more relaxed way of life. Always trying to fill the shoes of an older sister who was no longer there, trying to think of her father’s obsession as the grief over the loss of his oldest daughter to a life in Starfleet, yet always knowing it wasn’t true.

“I am sorry,... sis.”

“Don’t be,” Pang Chia said as he stepped from the mists, Theron Jascar two steps behind him.

“If you have both learned your lesson today there is nothing to be sorry about.”

*****

Theron waited patiently at the shuttlepod as Mei-Hsin and Mei-Pai said their farewells.

“I hope these two are not the only ones who learned their lesson,” Pang Chia remarked as he leaned against the hull of the shuttlepod.

“I am not yet certain how to deal with what I learned, but I am glad those two apparently learned a few things, too,” Theron replied and broke into a wide smile as he watched the two sisters embrace.

“That may just be enough,” the Chinese man said after shaking his head to himself with a whimsical smile. “Well, take good care of yourself, Doctor.”

Pang Chia extended his hand to Theron Jascar who enveloped it in a fierce grip.

”Thank you for your hospitality. If I ever get the chance I will return it in kind.”

“No need to.” A smile split Pang Chia’s features in half. “I have found my place in live and Starfleet does not hold any fascination for me, not even a visit to your world, but perhaps my younger niece will come to see things differently, given time.”

****

Catherine reluctantly let go of her sister and took a step back towards the shuttlepod. “Goodbye Pai-Pai. Take good care of yourself.”

“I will,” Lee Mei-Pai replied, the first honest smile in years slowly taking hold of her face. “And take care of yourself and your new family, Hsin-Hsin.”

“I will,” the older of the two sisters promised as she turned away with a smile and headed for the shuttlepod that was waiting to take her back to the life she had chosen for herself.

As the small craft lifted off the pad Pang Chia placed an arm around his niece’s shoulders and asked, “shall we go home?”

“Yes, yes, we shall, but only so I can collect my belongings.” Mei-Pai looked up at her uncle and smiled warmly.

“You were right when you said that once I decided to leave your house on my own volition I would be coming back only once, to collect my belongings. I think that day has come. It’s time for me to find my own way.”

Back to Politics (Chapter 12)            Back to short story index