Davlia does not join the Federation. In fact, Davlia is quite collectively outraged that the Federation would refuse them entry until they received kindly donated technological insight, and only then ask them to participate in the government that wanted to condemn their would-be benefactor to life in prison. Davlia decides that it's doing all right by itself; it uses what Isabella and Lalita can dump into the nets from their stolen ship's library, and their new warp tech, to make contact with other civilizations, and are presently trading merrily with non-Federation civilizations and scouting a possible colony site a few stars to the galactic east.

Isabella catches up with Lalita on the language, and by the time they've been living among Davlians for a year they're both fluent. Lalita has an easier time making himself useful to their hosts than Isabella does, what with his vast arsenal of variously practical skills, but Isabella manages to make a few PADDs from the ship take Davlian electricity and pokes around on the nets, contributing useful ideas in appropriately modest pseudonymous fashion. (Not under "polarbear". That wouldn't make her inconspicuous, here. She goes by the less than concealing "priv_sky"; if anyone, under all the careful not-prying, is curious about her identity, they may have it, but she's trying to be polite.) Occasionally she gets a Davlia-approved thrill of warmth when something she's suggested anonymously is put into practice and nobody knows it's hers except Lalita.

The ship doesn't have very good bandwidth for subspace access to the Federation nets - it's warp-capable, but it was mostly not intended for long-distance runs, it didn't need to send large packets of information through subspace when it was generally within fine range for radio. Also, the Federation knows where they are, or at least has a very strong hunch - it just can't scoop them up without annoying the Davlians, who they're still trying to court. They can restrict information flow to the Potomac systems (because wherever they think it is, they know it was stolen) and to Davlia's own nets. News of home is not nonexistent, but it is infrequent and probably filtered.

They've been on Davlia for almost six years when Isabella learns that their neighbors have been unobtrusively considering her and Lalita what amounts to common-law married since they landed. She tells him so.

Author: warpfairy	Davlia does not join the Federation. In fact, Davlia is quite collectively outraged that the Federation would refuse them entry until they received kindly donated technological insight, and only then ask them to participate in the government that wanted to condemn their would-be benefactor to life in prison. Davlia decides that it's doing all right by itself; it uses what Isabella and Lalita can dump into the nets from their stolen ship's library, and their new warp tech, to make contact with other civilizations, and are presently trading merrily with non-Federation civilizations and scouting a possible colony site a few stars to the galactic east. Isabella catches up with Lalita on the language, and by the time they've been living among Davlians for a year they're both fluent. Lalita has an easier time making himself useful to their hosts than Isabella does, what with his vast arsenal of variously practical skills, but Isabella manages to make a few PADDs from the ship take Davlian electricity and pokes around on the nets, contributing useful ideas in appropriately modest pseudonymous fashion. (Not under "polarbear". That wouldn't make her inconspicuous, here. She goes by the less than concealing "priv_sky"; if anyone, under all the careful not-prying, is curious about her identity, they may have it, but she's trying to be polite.) Occasionally she gets a Davlia-approved thrill of warmth when something she's suggested anonymously is put into practice and nobody knows it's hers except Lalita. The ship doesn't have very good bandwidth for subspace access to the Federation nets - it's warp-capable, but it was mostly not intended for long-distance runs, it didn't need to send large packets of information through subspace when it was generally within fine range for radio. Also, the Federation knows where they are, or at least has a very strong hunch - it just can't scoop them up without annoying the Davlians, who they're still trying to court. They can restrict information flow to the Potomac systems (because wherever they think it is, they know it was stolen) and to Davlia's own nets. News of home is not nonexistent, but it is infrequent and probably filtered. They've been on Davlia for almost six years when Isabella learns that their neighbors have been unobtrusively considering her and Lalita what amounts to common-law married since they landed. She tells him so.
Author: dream_me_up	"That seems reasonable," says Lalita.
Author: warpfairy	Isabella laughs. "I suppose I can see why they'd assume it!" And then she taps her foot; she's been going barefoot since her only pair of shoes wore out, since the commodity is scarce on a planetful of hoofed people. "Do you want to get married? Engaged, I mean, to start?"
Author: dream_me_up	"Sure."
Author: warpfairy	"Depending on which planet's customs we use we could consider it all sealed up, er, in five months."
Author: dream_me_up	"Fine by me," says Lalita, kissing her nose.
Author: warpfairy	She laughs, and kisses his mouth. It is two months after this conversation when Viv - who is grown up, now, most of the way, and considers herself a special friend of the sky people - visits with some news from the Federation of Unfriendliness. It has gotten - unfriendlier. In spite of Isabella's private trial, word has gotten around about what she was doing; she inspired a handful of less-competent copycats, all quickly rounded up, and they inspired still more, two of whom are still at large. Some less directly practical support for her philosophies is also underway. In response, the Federation - as married to the Prime Directive as any government ever was to an ideal - has tightened the restrictions. They will not interact with just any old culture that has produced a warp signature. Any world that shows signs of "contamination" from an advanced people will not be recognized by the Federation for a five-decade probationary period, however much the civilizations may scratch at the door of utopia and claim no-fault-of-their-own. Work of Isabella's sort has been rendered worse than useless. Isabella is not pleased.
Author: dream_me_up	"I don't think they're going to get through even one full five-decade probationary period before that little stunt comes down around their ears," says Lalita.
Author: warpfairy	"Maybe not," she allows. "Still, it's - they're such - ugh. Signs of contamination!"
Author: dream_me_up	"The Federation is full of reasonably decent people. It's a good step when the higher-ups publicly embarrass themselves by forgetting that."
Author: warpfairy	"I suppose the President is up for reelection in two years and this may provide some worthy opponent a good platform," she sighs.
Author: dream_me_up	"There is that."
Author: warpfairy	"And at least they aren't trying to withdraw from the recent admissions to the Civilizations That Can Fly Really Really Fast Club."
Author: dream_me_up	Lalita laughs.
Author: warpfairy	There's more news, a few weeks later. Isabella's sort of crime has been rendered "unmotivated and harmless". She was never under suspicion for anything else. She is offered amnesty, and also, they want her to appear on New Vulcan for a repatriation ceremony of some kind, which isn't exactly an apology, but sounds like something that might be produced by someone who feels obliged to offer something in the same neighborhood.
Author: dream_me_up	"Well, that's... vaguely suspicious."
Author: warpfairy	"It is. Do you think it's a trick?"
Author: dream_me_up	"It might be. Hard to tell what the catch is, though. Do you want to go see?"
Author: warpfairy	"I'd suggest that I could go alone and if I don't tell you in a timely manner that everything's clear you could rescue me again, but - based on the timing I don't want to be across the quadrant from you."
Author: dream_me_up	"There is that," he says. "I'll go with you."
Author: warpfairy	She leans on him. "I love you. I don't suppose you know how to use our teeny subspace bandwidth from the Potomac to hack into the necessary things to discover if the amnesty is legitimate?"
Author: dream_me_up	"Not easily. I could do it, but it would take a while. Or I would have to go somewhere that had better bandwidth."
Author: warpfairy	"We could stop - somewhere. I don't want to try paying Ferengi for subspace bandwidth, but someplace where it would be easier to pop back here, or where we couldn't be snapped up if it turned out that's what's waiting. Breen, maybe? I don't know much about the Breen except that they're not Federation and don't tend to shoot on sight."
Author: dream_me_up	"Hmm," he says. "I don't know much about them either. What I can tell you for sure, though, is that if the amnesty isn't legitimate and the announcement reached us all the way out here anyway, there's going to be hell to pay, politically speaking. Want to risk it?"
Author: warpfairy	"You suppose I could accomplish much by getting recaptured if that's what they have in mind?" she asks. "Concretely, I mean, not just inconveniencing someone's speechwriter."
Author: dream_me_up	"Well, you can't know how the dice are going to come up before you throw them. But it'll be a push. Especially if you manage to put out some kind of public statement about it that uses words like 'betrayal'."
Author: warpfairy	She smiles slightly. "Looks like we should pack, then, and I should get repatriated." She laughs. "And if everything works out, in a few weeks we'll be on the books married in the Federation, instead of retroactively recognized at some time who knows when."
Author: dream_me_up	"That'll be cute."
Author: warpfairy	They pack. They fly to New Vulcan; they are not interrupted on the way by any Starfleet vessels cackling "gotcha". They dock; they shuttle down; their hotel room is comped; off goes Isabella to her repatriation ceremony. It takes a little longer than expected. She's not back in the morning. This morning is circled, in her calendar.
Author: dream_me_up	... Lalita goes looking. Early.
Author: warpfairy	He can hear shouting, when he approaches the room. One of the voices is Isabella's, and there is a familiar tension in her voice, if you happen to have an augmented memory and can remember that far back. "- would have been betrothed regardless, if your father had -" "I said no - I am - I am spoken for - I have a sa-kugalsu -" "He is not a Vulcan, T'Mir -" When he gets to the door, he can see Isabella backed into a corner, shaking, face drawn and pale, and she sees him, and she screams at the top of her lungs, "Kal-if-fee!"
Author: dream_me_up	That is a word Lalita knows.
Author: warpfairy	"T'Mir, be serious," says one of the Vulcans. He's probably not the one Lalita may be about to fight; that's probably the young man over there in the corner, who isn't in as bad shape as Isabella is but appears to be coming up on his own little problem. It's not entirely clear whether this was how he'd have chosen to resolve it. "V'Ler is -" "It's my right, I am claiming it," Isabella hisses through gritted teeth, "if my sa-kugalsu will champion me against your - your breeding program."
Author: dream_me_up	"Of course I will, darling."
Author: warpfairy	Isabella sinks to the floor and hugs her knees and shakes. "This backfired," murmurs one of the elder Vulcans to another, "V'Ler could wind up dead instead of married, I told the High Council -" "There's nothing for it now, and if he lives it will break the fever, at least," the other mutters. They probably don't intend to be overheard, but no one counts on Lalita's ears. V'Ler, the young man in the corner, is now visibly sizing up the challenger.
Author: dream_me_up	Lalita smiles slightly. "I'll try not to kill him. He is a member of an endangered species." He doesn't look like much, all together - tall, lithe, human. But he is entirely too confident for a human who speaks Vulcan this well, who apparently understands exactly what is going on, who is betrothed to a half-Vulcan, and who is about to fulfill a combat challenge for her right to deny her Vulcan suitor.
Author: warpfairy	V'Ler notices this, but he's - distracted; either his own conveniently timed hormonal issues are in full swing now or he finds something attractive about crying, life-threateningly desperate women who have been surprise-engaged to him as part of recovering said endangered species. He shifts his weight, takes a step forward. "T'Mir, your display is unseemly, even at this time," hisses one of the elders. "I hate you so much," she hisses back at him through the tears.
Author: dream_me_up	It is upsetting to watch Isabella cry. He doesn't like it. "I'll just be a minute, darling," he says gently. In the event, once the challenge has begun, it takes him forty seconds to put V'Ler on the floor. He is not fucking around. Not with this.
Author: warpfairy	V'Ler makes some sort of noise. He's definitely not eying Isabella anymore. The elders are - surprised - but they don't get between Lalita and Isabella, who uncurls from herself enough to hold out her arms towards him, trembling.
Author: dream_me_up	He hugs her. "C'mon back to the hotel, my love," he murmurs in English.
Author: warpfairy	She can walk. It's a little hard to remember that particular use of her limbs at the moment, but if she can lean on him, head on his shoulder, tearstained face tucked against his neck, she can follow him.
Author: dream_me_up	He leads her back to the hotel. He scoops her up and carries her to bed.
Author: warpfairy	She appreciates being carried, very very much, because then she doesn't need her arms to hold herself up with him as support, and her hands can creep up to his face, and she can reach out -
Author: dream_me_up	Oh. Oh. Well then. They are about to become very married.
Author: warpfairy	The very marriedest.
Author: dream_me_up	So married. So, so married. So fucking married.
Author: warpfairy	Emphasis on one of those words. Pon farr isn't always contagious, especially interspecies, but it happens, syncs up Vulcan couples - he won't drop into his own cycle without her present, if they should be separated, but she can pull him into hers per occasion, it would seem. And this time she isn't a desperate, confused virgin and he isn't a near-stranger. They will be extremely fucking married.
Author: dream_me_up	He does not bother to pretend to need any more sleep than he actually requires in order to keep on marrying her. It's a very long week.
Author: warpfairy	Best week. Best fucking week. At the end of it they sleep on each other. And are married.
Author: dream_me_up	So very married! Married and snuggly.
Author: warpfairy	Eventually, Isabella wakes up.
Author: dream_me_up	Lalita is snuggling her.
Author: warpfairy	"T'hy'la," she sighs, nuzzling him.
Author: dream_me_up	"Darling," he says, nuzzling back. "Good morning."
Author: warpfairy	"Is it morning?" she wonders vaguely. "...Also, I wasn't - thinking clearly - should I apologize for establishing the link when I was still, ah, contagious?"
Author: dream_me_up	"It might be morning. I'm sure it's morning somewhere." He laughs. "And could you not tell I liked it?"
Author: warpfairy	"It might not have been a welcome surprise," she says, but she kisses him.
Author: dream_me_up	Kisses! "It might not have been, but it was." More kisses.
Author: warpfairy	She loves him. And can't believe she almost - that they - Now she's thinking about the circumstances immediately prior to this escapade and she's pissed off at the "repatriation" again; the amnesty was real, the ceremony was a ruse, and the timing was all too... convenient.
Author: dream_me_up	Lalita snuggles her.
Author: warpfairy	She snuggles. "If Vulcan hadn't been a founding civilization of the Federation, the Federation wouldn't admit it without demanding an update on the practices they invoked," she mutters.
Author: dream_me_up	"Probably not," he agrees.
Author: warpfairy	She's about to say something else on that subject, but then she sighs, returns her attention to more immediate needs, and says: "I don't know about you, but I need about a gallon of water and a shower and breakfast."
Author: dream_me_up	"Sounds like a plan," he says, kissing her forehead. "Water, shower, breakfast. Let's do it."
Author: warpfairy	They drink large amounts of water, and they do not bother discussing who should shower first, and the hotel provides free breakfast, of which they take about six times their share. And then she says, "I might be the only person pardoned for a felony in order to entice me into trapping distance, but I can't be the only person who's been surprised with an engagement."
Author: dream_me_up	"Let's raise a fuss, then."
Author: warpfairy	She nods grimly, and sets about work on her eggs. "I suppose I'm well poised to become a public figure; I may as well campaign about more than one issue." Fruit salad, om nom.
Author: dream_me_up	"Sounds good to me," he says, sneaking a kiss in between fruits.
Author: warpfairy	Kiss! He makes it hard to stay pissed off.
Author: dream_me_up	Yes, yes he does.
Author: warpfairy	"I love you so much," she murmurs.
Author: dream_me_up	"I love you too."
Author: warpfairy	"Will you help me write up a speech to record and distribute?"
Author: dream_me_up	"Of course. And I'll help you distribute it."
Author: warpfairy	"You are," she declares, "the best."
Author: dream_me_up	He laughs.
Author: warpfairy	"Is there any reason not to outright accuse the Vulcan High Council of attempted rape? After suitable buildup?"
Author: dream_me_up	"None that I can think of."
Author: warpfairy	"I can't work out how involved that - what was his name - V'Ler, whether to hold him at all responsible or not. I probably wouldn't have double-checked his complicity if you hadn't been within arm's reach and they'd caught me when they did, so - but I don't know."
Author: dream_me_up	"It seems to make a pretty big difference whether or not he knew what was going on beforehand. Or thought you did."
Author: warpfairy	"Yes. Or even if he was aware that I was already elsewhere engaged. Meditation and medicine don't have such a high success rate that I could blame him very much for agreeing to something that he thought would safeguard both our lives."
Author: dream_me_up	He nods.
Author: warpfairy	"I suppose they're probably nobly motivated, in their own minds - endangered species, the youngest batch of surviving Vulcan children are coming of age soon, the survivors were mostly offplanet and the sorts to be more likely to consider xenophilia - and yet."
Author: dream_me_up	"And yet," he agrees. "Besides, the results of xenophilia evidently count."
Author: warpfairy	"I'm unsure how that factored in. I have no living close Vulcan relatives; perhaps they will accept some alien genetics in order to get diversely sourced Vulcan genes into the pool."
Author: dream_me_up	"Maybe so. Or maybe they just think that half-Vulcans are bad but quarter-Vulcans would be worse."
Author: warpfairy	"Quite possibly; perhaps they saw it as a decision between my great-great-grandchildren being humans with 'maybe a little Vulcan somewhere' and being Vulcans with 'maybe a little human somewhere'."
Author: dream_me_up	He shrugs.
Author: warpfairy	"Regardless, they saw it as their decision to make. They didn't even suggest it during a calmer moment in case I was open to the idea, they - Renée must have told someone the timing so Niamh would know when it needed a course of tehn-yamareen or when it would need to allow me to invite a conjugal visit, I suppose is how they knew."
Author: dream_me_up	"Probably, yes."
Author: warpfairy	Isabella sighs. She starts on her toast. She's really very hungry, what with the week of not bothering to eat. "I'm so glad you were there," she says. "So glad you could beat him - that they didn't decide as long as they were screwing me over to deny me the right of challenge."
Author: dream_me_up	He kisses her cheek. "So am I, darling."
Author: warpfairy	Eventually their breakfast has been demolished. Isabella leans her head on his shoulder. "I'm considering opening my little speech by describing what happened in vague enough terms that everyone will think I landed on some anonymous pre-warp planet."
Author: dream_me_up	"That's one method," he says. "Might work if you can pull it off; might look cheap if you can't."
Author: warpfairy	"I probably can't pull it off," she says after a moment's thought. "The fact that my - incapacitated state - was involved makes the specifics relevant. I'm going to have to explain pon farr, aren't I, it's kept quiet enough that most non-Vulcans haven't heard of it."
Author: dream_me_up	"You're probably going to have to explain pon farr."
Author: warpfairy	"That is going to be embarrassing."
Author: dream_me_up	He kisses her.
Author: warpfairy	Kisses! You'd think they'd had enough to last them a while, but you would be wrong.
Author: dream_me_up	Lalita is fully in favour of more kisses.
Author: warpfairy	"It will be sufficiently embarrassing - and my status as a Vulcan, adulterated or otherwise, is sufficiently relevant to the story - that it might be worthwhile for me to suppress during part or all of the speech. I know Vulcans will take me less seriously if I display emotion, but perhaps they aren't the primary audience I ought to have in mind. Two versions, perhaps?"
Author: dream_me_up	"If you release two versions, everyone's going to see both," he says. "No point."
Author: warpfairy	"There might be some point, if Vulcans will give me more credit for being able to suppress and if others are moved by sincere displays. It's not a secret that I can do either, but most people don't know me. Perhaps I should just suppress for the portion of the video in which I explain pon farr; that might accomplish all the requisite goals."
Author: dream_me_up	"That works better, I think."
Author: warpfairy	"Most full Vulcans can't drop in and out at will as fast as I can," she adds. "Maybe that will help."
Author: dream_me_up	"Maybe so."
Author: warpfairy	"Or it won't, but I may as well hope. Do you suppose there is sufficient attention span in the audience to segue from my accusation to a more general agitation for the dismantling of the Prime Directive? It would be loosely topical, since my amnesty for its violation is why I was here at all."
Author: dream_me_up	"No. You have two different things you want to reach people about, and you can do both, but not at the same time."
Author: warpfairy	"Maybe I should release something about this and the first in a series about the Prime Directive at the same time, separately, though - catch spillover attention."
Author: dream_me_up	"Sounds good to me."
Author: warpfairy	Isabella fetches a tablet - she switched from trying to maintain PADDs a couple of years ago and is now accustomed to writing on a Davlian device, with programs hacked together to make it tolerate English and Vulcan alphabets - and starts drafting her essay, leaning on Lalita.
Author: dream_me_up	Snuggle.
Author: warpfairy	"...I find the idea of finding and speaking with V'Ler unpleasant, but his level of involvement is - salient," she says, after she's drafted a few paragraphs.
Author: dream_me_up	"I could go talk to him."
Author: warpfairy	"Thank you. I would appreciate that."
Author: dream_me_up	Hug. "Now?"
Author: warpfairy	"I think so - unless you have another idea?"
Author: dream_me_up	"Well, I could keep snuggling you for a while. That is an option with major attractions." Nuzzle.
Author: warpfairy	Isbella laughs, and kisses his head. "I will be here to be snuggled whenever you like, but I have no idea where V'Ler is likely to go after he gets out of the hospital, and I don't think you managed to put him there for much more than a week."
Author: dream_me_up	"You make a compelling argument. Fine." He kisses her cheek. "See you later, darling."
Author: warpfairy	"I love you, my t'hy'la."
Author: dream_me_up	"I love you too." Off he goes.
Author: alicornucopia	V'Ler is, in fact, still in the hospital - Lalita was not fucking around - although he looks ready for discharge at any moment thanks to the wonders of Federation medicine.
Author: dream_me_up	Lalita enters the hospital room and closes the door behind him. "Hi."
Author: alicornucopia	V'Ler startles. He looks at Lalita, but doesn't say anything.
Author: dream_me_up	"My wife wants to know how exactly you were roped into the surprise engagement scheme."
Author: alicornucopia	"I - one of those two men came to me a few days beforehand, and told me I wouldn't have to take my chances with - with meditating and tehn-yamareen again even though my ko-kugalsu was on Vulcan when it was destroyed, that they'd found someone and were betrothing me in loco parentis."
Author: dream_me_up	"Well, that much was true, I suppose," says Lalita.
Author: alicornucopia	"Yes," agrees V'Ler, warily.
Author: dream_me_up	"And I don't think you were in much shape to wonder about her side of the story by the time the moment came."
Author: alicornucopia	"No."
Author: dream_me_up	"Maybe next time you'll look into it a little harder. Glad to see you're feeling better," he says, and he turns to go.
Author: alicornucopia	"Thank you for sparing my life," V'Ler says abruptly.
Author: dream_me_up	"You're welcome."
Author: alicornucopia	V'Ler appears to have nothing else to say.
Author: dream_me_up	Then Lalita will go back to the hotel room.
Author: warpfairy	Isabella is there, writing; she puts down her device to hug him hello.
Author: dream_me_up	Hug! "Basically a patsy," he summarizes. "He had no reason to think anything was especially more wrong with this arranged betrothal than usual until he was already too far gone to care."
Author: warpfairy	"Thank you," says Isabella.
Author: dream_me_up	Snuggle hug. "How goes the speechwriting? Let me see the latest draft," he says.
Author: warpfairy	She hands it over; there are conspicuous blank spots where what she wants to say is dependent on whether V'Ler was complicit.
Author: dream_me_up	He cuddles up and reads it, then hands it back and kisses her cheek.
Author: warpfairy	She returns the gesture, and sets about splicing in references to V'Ler, who she opts to leave anonymous.
Author: dream_me_up	Lalita snuggles, and reads over her shoulder, and comments on her work.