I still don't own Star Trek. I still do own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck. This fic comes between Ain't No Rest For the Wicked and The Beginning is the End and covers plot points from the new movie's timeline and the Prime timeline from the original canon. It's rated for language and violence, mostly. Enjoy.
Intermission.
Chapter One: Recovery.
Vulcan Settlement, New Timeline.
The planet didn't have an official name yet.
Some of the unofficial names it was being referred to as included New Vulcan and Vulcan II, but the human currently walking across the landing zone just called it Hell, because it was hot.
"Damn it," Alianna Lordeck cursed as she came to a stop in front of the elderly Vulcan who was going to be her mentor or whatever. "Fuck. Why the hell did I agree to this? I'm going to melt! What was Bones thinking? What was Spock thinking? What was Kirk thinking?" She grumbled for a moment. "I'm not going to heal here. This is ridiculous." She huffed and wiped her hand across her brow, wincing as she moved. After having been nearly cut in half a few days ago on an exploding Klingon vessel, even very small movements hurt. "God damn it," she growled as she grabbed at her side.
Spock Prime reached forward and placed a hand on her forearm, stopping her from touching her wounded side. "Ms. Lordeck, I have spent enough time around Doctor McCoy to know that if you want your injuries to heal properly and quickly, you will have to refrain from touching them."
Alianna blinked and stared at the grey-haired Vulcan for a second. She knew this was the Spock from what was being referred to as the Prime Timeline, but she still found it difficult to wrap her head around the idea that he had met and lived with everyone she had and he had seen them all die. It was hard to focus on the fact that he had already lived a full life. "Riiight," she finally said. "Can we get out of this heat? This is insane." She wiped at her face again and took a deep breath, the hot air highly unsatisfactory.
"Of course. Follow me."
The security officer nodded and complied. Spock Prime led her through the temporary settlement, which consisted of buildings that looked like metal bunkers. Through open doors, Alianna could see bunk beds, all neatly made, and piles of belongings the remaining Vulcans had managed to save from their original home planet. Most of the surviving Vulcans were either the elder members of the Vulcan High Council that Spock had saved from the Katrik Arc, or Vulcan children, all of whom were settled around in small groups, meditating or being quizzed by the older Vulcans. Alianna took the young faces in and, even though she wasn't very surprised that there were no smiles, it was still disturbing. Children should smile, even if they were Vulcans. Alianna frowned.
Her mind wandered to Sage, the boy she'd saved from the U.S.S. Intrepid. The crew of the Enterprise would be taking him back to Earth, but she wondered what kind of shape he was in. Sage had asked to see Alianna, but with her injury and his, she had never got around to seeing him.
"Ms. Lordeck?"
Alianna realized she'd stopped walking. She shook her head slightly and pushed herself forward again, wrapping her arms protectively around herself. She fell into step beside Spock Prime and they continued through the settlement in silence until they reached the last bunker before the desert took over the planet.
"This is where you will be staying."
Alianna stepped up to the door, which sighed open, revealing a sparsely decorated room, and a room that was several degrees cooler than outside, thanks to the environmental controls. Her bag had been brought out by the shuttle pilot while Alianna had been waiting for the medical personnel to help her out of the shuttle, and was sitting on the floor by the low table. Two grey cushions provide seats around the table. There was a replicator on the far wall, and, at the other end of the bunker, a wall dividing the bedroom and bathroom from the main room. It wasn't much, but Alianna didn't mind; she had lived on a starship for most of her life. She stepped inside, followed by Spock Prime, and the door slid closed.
Carefully—so she wouldn't do any further damage to herself—Alianna moved her bag into the bedroom, and then returned to settle herself on one of the cushions, which were far more comfortable than she would have thought possible. "So how are we going to do this?"
"I'm assuming you are referring to me teaching you how to control your emotions." Spock Prime rearranged himself slightly and adjusted the robe he was wearing. "I believe the best place to start would be for me to perform a mind meld to determine where your anger lies." Picking up on the unasked question, the older version of Spock continued speaking. "A mind meld is a psychic connection Vulcans are capable of creating between themselves and a recipient. It allows for the transfer of complex information and emotions."
"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," Alianna said, subconsciously rubbing at her side. She didn't trust Spock Prime, not yet, and she didn't think it would be prudent to let him root around in her head. Her mind went first to that night with Kirk and she knew it would not be good to have someone find out about that.
"Alianna," he said, using her name for the first time. "I cannot help you if you won't let me."
"I don't know if I even want help," she snapped.
"Then, may I ask, why did you agree to come?"
Alianna looked across the table at the Vulcan, closed her green eyes, and put her forehead on the tabletop. She sat right back up though, as something pulled in her side. Wincing, she said, "Jim talked me into coming."
Spock Prime nodded and got to his feet, surprisingly agile for someone of his age, even a Vulcan. "I will leave you alone for a while to settle in, Alianna, and I will send T'Leia in to introduce herself and see if you need anything. She will be your nurse while you are staying here," he added at the questioning look on the young woman's face. "I will return after I check on things in the settlement."
Alianna opened her mouth to protest the assignment of a nurse, but she realized it would be a fruitless endeavour at the last minute and shut her mouth. She waved Spock Prime out of her bunker and, as soon as the door was closed behind him, she pushed herself slowly to her feet and hobbled into the bedroom, surprised at how much her side still hurt. It had been almost two weeks since the incident, and the pain had subsided a great deal, but she would still get moments when she thought she might fall apart, quite literally.
A moment after Spock Prime had left, the chime at the door sounded. "Come in," Alianna said.
The door opened, revealing a young-looking Vulcan with a severe face and brilliant blue eyes. Her black hair was pulled back in a tight bun at the back of her head and Alianna, who normally wore her hair the same way, was a little taken aback by the similarities between herself and who she assumed was T'Leia.
"You must be T'Leia."
"And you must be Alianna." The Vulcan flashed a bit of a grin and Alianna rose an eyebrow, unused to Vulcans showing emotion. "I'm half Romulan," she admitted.
"Right."
"Spock Prime thought you would fare better with someone more in touch with their emotions."
"He's probably right." Alianna sighed and leaned gingerly back against the wall, sweeping her long ponytail over her shoulder and running her fingers through the end of it.
"Do you need anything?" T'Leia asked, putting her hands in the opposite sleeves of her robe.
"No, it's just my back is stiff. It hurts my side to move too much, so my muscles have started to tighten."
Without saying anything, T'Leia pulled the other cushion over and knelt beside Alianna, turning the young woman gently so she could reach her back easily, and she started massaging. As she worked, the women asked questions of each other, and it was in this position that Spock Prime found them when he returned almost twenty minutes later. T'Leia excused herself, informing Alianna that she could reach her via the communicator on the wall beside the replicator, and left. Spock Prime returned the cushion to its place on the opposite side of the table and settled back in a cross-legged position after replicating two mugs of tea—a Vulcan blend for himself and a cup of Orange Pekoe for Alianna.
"Have you put any more consideration into the offer of a mind meld?"
"A little. Look, I'm still really reluctant..."
"I understand."
The pair fell into silence as they sipped their tea. As she drained the last of the sweet liquid from her cup, Alianna turned her green eyes to the older humanoid. "What do you want?" she snapped.
He turned a calm and level gaze to her. "To help."
She frowned at Spock Prime, but kept her green eyes locked to his dark ones. For a long moment they stared at each other, Alianna trying to find something in the Vulcan's face and the Vulcan giving her a steady gaze in return. "Did you... did you know me in the..." Alianna screwed up her features, trying to decide if the question she was going to ask would be appropriate. "Did you know me in your timeline?"
Spock Prime took the question in stride and nodded. "I did. Would you like to hear something about the you that I knew?"
After a moment of silent deliberation, Alianna nodded. Anything to get them off the topic of the mind meld. Plus, she really was curious about what her life could have been like, what it had been like in the Prime Timeline.
"Where would you like me to start?"
"Well... the beginning, if you know it."
"I do." Spock Prime got up and replicated two pots of tea and brought them back to the table. "You and I were friends in my timeline and you told me much about your childhood."
A little surprised, Alianna blinked. She was definitely not friends with the Spock she knew.
"Your mother left your father when she was pregnant with Sindari and you lived in California while she worked at Starfleet Academy, in the hospital. She was one of the professors responsible for teaching field medics." A slightly faraway look took over the Vulcan's face as he remembered. "You once told me how you and Sindari used to run around the Academy's campus when you were young, and once, you ran into a meeting of the Admirals."
Alianna found herself smiling. It sounded like the life she'd always wanted. "What did I end up doing?"
"You and Sindari held the same positions on the Enterprise in my timeline; you were still head of security and Sindari was in charge of weapons."
Her smile grew. However, it faltered when she realized she was happy at the idea of working with Kirk, even in her other life. "So... it really wasn't that different?" she asked, floundering for something to get her mind off the young captain of the Federation's flagship.
"It is hard to judge, as we do not yet know the outcome of events and relationships in this timeline. If you are asking me to make an educated guess—and I am assuming you are doing just that—I would say things may turn out very differently. I have witnessed deep relationships that never formed in my timeline, or didn't form for years. I have also witnessed the lack of some relationships which became very common place to me."
"For example?"
"Details of the future should not be revealed, and I have already meddled."
"But it's not my future, Spock. It may never be my future." Alianna bit back the snarl she'd tasted and settled for screwing up her features in displeasure.
The older Vulcan sighed, a barely perceptible noise. "Your relationship with Jim Kirk. By the time I had met the two of you, you were already very close and rarely were you two separated until the late stages of your careers."
"What?" Alianna breathed, thoroughly shocked.
Seeing an opportunity that may not arise again, Spock Prime said, "Let me perform the mind meld and I will tell you."
Alianna narrowed her green eyes. "I thought Vulcans were supposed to be peaceful and kind, not manipulative," she muttered.
"I am only half Vulcan, Ms. Lordeck."
The young Starfleet officer sighed heavily and then winced as the motion hurt her wounds. Seeing that moving would be unwise, if not incapable for the patient, Spock Prime rose to his knees, moved the cushion across the floor, and settled himself, cross-legged and facing Alianna, his knees almost touching hers. He held her gaze as he stretched weathered hands towards her face, the tips of his fingers coming to rest lightly on her skin, one finger on her temple.
"My mind to your mind... my thoughts to your thoughts..." he whispered.
Alianna gasped as a physical force shuttered through her body. Her eyes remained open, but she wasn't seeing the inside of her bunker anymore, she was seeing her memories, reliving her life at the speed of light and she wasn't alone it witnessing the years. Spock Prime was along for the ride, his presence warm and comforting at the back of her mind. Alianna saw herself as a young girl on Andoria, reading curled up in a chair; building a model of a ship; being yelled at by her late mother; being beat by her late father while her mother stood by and Sindari cried in the corner. She saw herself at the Academy, sitting in class; doing research in the library; watching older students wander around campus; going to the bar by herself. She saw memory after memory and felt feeling after feeling and by the time the images of the night her and Kirk had spent together flashed in front of her eyes, she had had enough.
Summoning all the will she had, Alianna pulled out of the mind meld, the mental connection severing abruptly, causing intense pain, physical and cerebral. The already injured woman doubled over, tears streaming down her face, and then shot back up, the contracting of her middle causing even more pain. She howled, clutching at her sides, and fell back against the wall.
Spock Prime nearly leapt forward to keep Alianna from scratching new lacerations in her side and from slamming her head into the wall. "Alianna!" he said, his voice louder than normal to cut through hysterics.
The Vulcan knew what Alianna was feeling, but she was feeling it so much harder than Spock ever could, even through a mind meld. The memories he had seen had all been very personal and very hard to watch; she had been through so much, but she kept fighting. At least it explained her anger and her reluctance to share what was in her head. After experiencing the anger and sadness in Alianna's life, Spock Prime had tears on his face as well, but with centuries of practice, he was much more in control.
"Alianna!"
"HOW COULD YOU DO THAT TO ME?" she screamed, her hands now in a vice grip on her dark brown hair; clumps had come out of the loose ponytail and her appearance had begun to echo the shrieks coming from her mouth.
"Alianna, breathe!"
The shrieks had turned into strangled breaths as she began to hyperventilate. "How... What..."
"Take a deep breath," Spock Prime said in the most soothing voice he could muster.
Alianna's wild eyes finally locked on Spock Prime's and she managed to inhale deeply, the purple tinge immediately leaving her cheeks and the tears slowing as she calmed. Sobs still racked her body, but she stopped thrashing, and moved her hands from her head to Spock Prime's arms, the contact seemingly anchoring her. "I... I'm sorry."
Spock Prime moved his arms back so he could take her hands in his own. "There is no need to apologize, Alianna. Mind melds can have unpredictable effects."
"Have you ever seen something like that before?"
A small grin lifted the old Vulcan's lips as he pulled his hands from her grasp. "I have not. No one handles their first mind meld experience well, but I have never seen someone driven to hysterics. But then again, I have never shared minds with someone as angry as you." He offered another small grin as he wiped the tears from his cheeks with the sleeve of his robe; Alianna did the same with the heels of her hands. "But your suffering was not in vain, Alianna. I have determined the source of your anger and we will be able to deal with it."
"This is the weirdest therapy I've ever had," she said with a bitter laugh.
Spock Prime nodded his agreement as he returned to his side of the table. He poured Alianna another mug of tea and slid it towards her waiting hands. "Did Doctor McCoy give you anything for the pain?"
"Yes, but I can't take anymore for another couple hours."
"Finish your tea and I will tell you about the Jim Kirk and Alianna Lordeck I knew and hope it will take your mind off the pain."
Alianna had to fight the urge to drain her tea in three gulps. Not only would it have hurt her stomach, but it probably would have given her indigestion. After what seemed like an hour, the cup was finished and she was nearly calm; the anger had all but retreated back to its normal dull roar in the back of her head and all that remained of the sadness was a slight burn at the back of her eyes and a slightly hollow feeling in the middle of her face, where her sinuses were. She placed her cup on the table and leaned back against the wall until she was semi-comfortable and gestured at Spock Prime.
Starfleet Academy, Prime Timeline.
Alianna Lordeck stood on the expansive lawn at the centre of the Starfleet Academy campus, her green eyes pointed towards the Administration Building and one hand tight on the strap of her bag. She was nervous about starting her training, which was something she had not been expecting. Excitement, yes. Nerves, no. Her mother was a professor and she had spent most of her life on the beautiful campus, but now that she was about to begin her education... She shifted nervously from foot to foot and ran one hand back over her hair, newly cut to shoulder-length and bound at the base of her skull in a short tail; she pushed several stray strands behind her ear.
She inhaled deeply and started towards the shining white building, her hand flexing on her bag strap, even as she began digging through one of the pockets for the ID chip that would let her in. Halfway up the steps, she dropped the thin black device and it clattered back towards the ground. She didn't notice.
Not until she got to the door, anyway.
"Damn it," she muttered. Alianna turned around, eyes locked on the ground, looking for chip. A pair of boots appeared in her vision. Her eyes rose, following the lines, until she was looking into the brown eyes of a very handsome young man, who was smiling broadly and had her ID chip between two fingers and held out towards her. "Uhm, hi?" she stammered, flustered by the sudden appearance of the stranger.
"Did you drop this?" he asked in a smooth voice.
She reached out and took the chip, wrapping her hand tightly around the little thing. "Thanks." Alianna flashed a small smile and turned back towards the door.
"Uh, I don't think you're going to be able to get into the Admirals' Offices with a cadet chip," he said.
"What? I'm not at the Admirals' Office. This is the Administration Building."
"No it's not." The smile on the stranger's face turned a little mocking.
"I know this campus," Alianna snapped, getting a little defensive. "This is the Administrative Building!"
The stranger stepped back and tapped the identification plate on the wall with his knuckles. As Alianna took in the engraved words that very clearly said "Admirals' Offices" and her face flushed deeply, the handsome young man smiled and wrapped his arm around her elbow. "Come on, I'll show you the way." Alianna wrenched her arm from his grasp and tried to glare, but followed him anyway as he led her along one of the paths. "It's okay," he said, falling back so he could speak quietly; there was another devious almost-smirk on his face. "Everyone gets lost on their first day."
"Oh yeah? Did you?"
The young man laughed and stopped walking. Alianna stopped as well, but nearly ran into him. He kept smiling at her. "I took a walk around campus yesterday to find everything and got very lost."
Alianna stared at him for a moment, took in the smirk and the slight leer. Something in the man's face made her feel calmer; made her want to smile. "You just wanted to find everything to impress all the girls," she said, her own smirk breaking out across her lips.
"Is it working?"
She scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Not even a little." Alianna mentally cursed herself as her cheeks flushed, exposing the lie. She was attracted to the stranger. He took it all in stride, flashed an even bigger grin and started walking again. Alianna fell in step beside him, her hands still wrapped around the strap of her bag and the ID chip still clutched in one of her palms. "I'm Alianna Lordeck," she said.
"James Kirk—call me Jim."
"Okay Jim."
"This is your building," he said, coming to another sudden stop.
Alianna nearly ran into him again. Fighting back the urge to say something about the second near-collision, she climbed up the stairs. "Thanks. See you around." Jim waved and Alianna approached the door, realizing that she wasn't nervous at all anymore.
Several hours later, student status activated and schedules and books in her possession, Alianna found herself a comfy patch of grass under a big, old tree and settled with her back against the trunk. Her morning classes had gone well—mostly introductory stuff, but informative nonetheless—and she had just finished lunch, so she was perfectly comfortable. She crossed her legs underneath her and pulled a well-worn novel out of her bag and opened to the marked page, her green eyes flying quickly over the printed words.
"Are you studying already?"
Alianna looked up and found herself smiling at Jim. "What makes you think I'm studying?" When he gestured to the book in her hands, she tilted it forward so he could see the title: Gardens of the Moon. "It's a novel."
Jim dropped to the ground beside her, back against the trunk of the tree and his shoulder just a fraction of an inch away from touching hers. "Why aren't you reading it on a handheld?" he asked. Something in the tone of his voice had changed. Much of the flirting and joking was gone. He sounded genuinely curious and actually interested in hearing the answer.
"I like books."
Jim gave her a bit of a stunned look. "Really."
"Yeah. What's the big deal?"
"I collect books."
The two cadets turned to look at each other, both a little stunned. Slow smiles crept over their faces and both of them let out short bouts of laughter. Alianna slipped her bookmark back into place and closed the novel, putting it back into her bag before turning to her unexpected companion. "I guess we shouldn't be too shocked that we have something in common," she said.
"I'm just shocked that we both like something so outdated."
Alianna laughed a bit and nodded, awarding the point. "So, why did you join Starfleet?"
Jim raised an eyebrow. "Do you really want to know that, or are you just asking to make conversation?"
She laughed again, louder, and Jim joined in.
Author's Note.
So, this is the mini-sequel that comes between Ain't No Rest For the Wicked and The Beginning Is The End. Huh, I never realized that both my main Star Trek fics have really doomy titles... Anyway, hopefully you enjoy this, because I really like it. This fic came from me wanting to write Alianna in the original canon, but not wanting to write a whole new fic.
Just to clarify, the "New Timeline" is the universe of the new movie and the "Prime Timeline" is the Original Series, so adjust all perceptions accordingly, and if you don't know the Original Series... just except my word, okay? No, I'm just kidding. If you're curious about something, you can look it up or ask me or something.
Anyways, enjoy.
Next Chapter: Reluctance.