TITLE: Facing the Past
AUTHOR: DramaLexy
SUMMARY: Eventually you have to stop running from the past and face it.
DISCLAIMER: If I owned them...oh, we won't go there. I don't, so don't sue.
AUTHOR'S NOTE: In the process of working on my other ST09 stories, I actually sat down and watched a handful of the TOS movies all the way through for the first time. And kinda fell in love with them. Especially ST2 & 3 and the character of Saavik. I decided that I wanted to pull her over to the alternate universe. For anyone not familiar with the TOS back story, Saavik is a half-Vulcan/half-Romulan with a traumatic past that Spock befriends and looks after. For anyone who IS familiar with the character, please note that I definitely changed some things in the timeline, namely the age gap between Spock and Saavik. The main reason for this was to allow Saavik and Amanda to have a relationship in the AU. This story mostly focuses on Vulcan characters (though all the main characters from the movie make appearances) and I got most of my inspiration from the novelization of ST3 and the books "Vulcan's Heart" and "Pandora Principle."
A/N 2: There were a few things about the original version of this story that I didn't fully like, so I've done some revamping and added some new material and now I'm reposting. (June 2010)
2247
A Vulcan science vessel, the Kah'Ru, sat in orbit of Barradas III, waiting while the last of her cargo – forty-odd archeologists, anthropologists, and other scientists – were transported up from the planet's surface. Three days earlier, the ship had brought a new team to study Barradas' ruins and now she would return the scientists that had been relieved.
"Captain Sulok?" one of the bridge officers asked. The ship's commander turned to him. "All members of the scientific expedition are aboard."
Sulok nodded. "We should be able to keep to our schedule. Set course for Vulcan."
The course was programmed in, and they were only seconds from departing when the computer system chirped. "A vessel has been detected on the edge of the system."
"Origins?" the Captain asked.
"It…it appears to be Romulan." Sulok's brow furrowed almost imperceptibly. Barradas (once the home to a now-dead civilization) was located very near to the edge of the Neutral Zone. If a Romulan ship was in the system, it was likely a very bad sign. To enter the zone was an act of war; to cross it, even worse. Was this ship the vanguard of an invasion force? The Kah'Ru was alone here; minimally armed and hours away from another Federation vessel that could lend assistance. The odds that the ship did not have aggressive intentions were…
"What is their course?" Precious moments passed as he checked his readouts and calculated, then checked again.
"The ship appears to be adrift. I am not reading any engine signatures."
"Life signs?"
"Only one."
To act on suspicion instead of fact is illogical. To not prevent death when presented the opportunity…
"Set a course to intercept."
The Kah'Ru had a small bay for storing transport vessels or supply loads. The Romulan ship was towed aboard and sat quietly in that bay. Vulcans were generally a non-violent race, but that didn't mean Sulok wasn't fully prepared to defend his ship if they had fallen for a Romulan trick. They had gone straight to warp speed after retrieving the vessel, hoping to catch any cloaked enemy that might be lurking by surprise. The three crewmembers that accompanied their captain to the bay had weapons at the ready.
One crewman toggled the hatch, and they all stood ready for a surprise attack. However, none came, except for a stench that poured forth. It was the smell of death. As the cabin of the small ship came into view, Sulok realized that its pilot was sprawled on the floor, his head turned at an odd angle and a pool of green blood around him.
"We were too late?" Sulok asked one of his crewmen, who had traded his weapon for a hand-held scanner.
The man shook his head. "Given his body temperature, he has been deceased for a long period…There is a fifth life sign in the vicinity." He stepped forward into the vessel, brandishing the scanner in an attempt to locate the source of that extra signal. He stopped beside a panel, frowning at the device. "I believe – "
He wasn't able to get any farther than that before a small being sprang forth from the storage space behind the panel. It let out a high growl as it attacked, and Sulok was momentarily stunned. As the crewman fell to the floor, the captain finally realized that his assailant was not a wild beast but instead a humanoid that could not have been more than seven years of age.
"We mean you no harm," he told the girl, having deduced from the child's long hair and facial features that she was indeed female. As he and another crewman tried to pull her back, she fought viciously against them, thrashing and clawing and emitting noises that Sulok would have expected from a predatory animal. Her tattered clothing was stained with blood, and the captain suddenly understood how the Romulan pilot had met his death.
The girl was strong, but they had her outnumbered. While the others struggled to contain her kicking feet and clawing hands, Sulok brought two fingers to the base of her neck and squeezed the correct pressure point. Almost instantly, the child fell quiet and slumped, unconscious, in their grasp.
"Savages from birth," one man commented of their Romulan 'cousins' under his breath before turning to help his fallen comrade. More green blood now stained the floor of the shuttle, but the wounds he'd received appeared superficial. He was fortunate.
Shifting the small perpetrator of the attack in his arms, Sulok couldn't help but contemplate where her strength had come from; she was barely more than skin and bones. Her pulse raced alarmingly beneath his fingers; had striking out against them been more than her body could withstand?
The captain reached to activate the intra-ship communications system. "A medical team is required in the shuttle bay."
The ship's doctor, T'Lana, brought two of her techs along to respond to the captain's call. Upon arrival, they saw an obviously dead Romulan on the floor, one of their crew members sitting dazed with a couple significant facial lacerations, and an unconscious child in the captain's arms.
"What has transpired?" she asked Sulok as she began to examine the child with a scanner while the others tended to the crewman.
"A preemptive strike," he replied.
"By him?" She indicated the dead pilot, but the captain shook his head. There were only so many other possible options. "By this little one?" she asked, indicating the girl.
"She is more like a hungry sehlat than a child when awake," he responded.
"You rendered her unconscious?" It was more of a statement than a question, and so lightly toned with disapproval that an outsider likely wouldn't pick up on it.
Sulok, however, was not an outsider. "There was little other choice," he defended his actions. The doctor did not respond.
When the child awakened an hour later, T'Lana was at her bedside, checking her latest scan results. Almost immediately, she sprang up into a defensive crouch, a small growl escaping her throat, but she did not make an aggressive move.
"Do not be alarmed," the doctor told her. "You are safe." However, the words only invoked a blank stare. Of course she would not understand, the woman chided herself. She had never gotten very far with a study of Romulan – only took it for a single semester out of curiosity – but remembered a few terms. "Welcome," she told the child, noticing that she stiffened upon hearing a word in her native tongue. "I am T'Lana. What is your name?"
The girl narrowed her eyes, but did not answer. Is she capable of speech?
"Do you want food?" the doctor tried. The girl was half starved to death; given her current levels of malnutrition and dehydration, she'd gone at least three weeks without eating, and meals had likely been scarce even before that.
That word registered and got a reaction. "Food," the child parroted, cautiously holding out a hand to accept what she would be given.
So she does speak, the doctor mused. "Where are you from?" she inquired in Romulan. The girl growled again, repeating the gesture of holding out her hand.
"Food!" she demanded, and T'Lana nodded.
"All right," she murmured in her own native tongue. "I suppose it would be illogical to expect your cooperation without first following through on that offer."
A few items that would be easy on the girl's abused digestive system were selected, and she was given her choice of what she wished to consume. She contemplated the little dishes for a moment before using her hands to feed herself. She ensured that there wasn't a morsel left in the first dish before moving on to a second.
T'Lana watched from across the room. The girl was incredibly gaunt and so pale. The doctor could only speculate as to what her past had held…and it wasn't a pleasant image.
"Report," the captain requested as he entered the medical facility and joined her.
"As you can see, she is awake and has an appetite."
"Have you learned her origins? Or even her name?" Sulok inquired.
"If she knows, she is not yet willing to share. However, I believe I have some answers, though they lead to further questions. You can see that she does not possess some normal Romulan physical characteristics."
The captain glanced over at the child. Her mocha-colored eyes were warily watching them from underneath unruly brown locks. She outwardly appeared to be Vulcan, with no trace of the brow ridges that most Romulans had. "Yes, continue," he told the doctor.
T'Lana turned to the computer terminal and showed him some test results. "Her DNA scans. Many markers would indicate she is Vulcan, but others…We do not have extensive knowledge of how Romulans have evolved since the division, but I believe this child to be a hybrid."
The Captain almost managed to mask his surprise. "How was her conception possible?" Vulcans would not voluntarily mate with Romulans. Therefore, force had undoubtedly been involved, but how had the opportunity arisen?
"I am uncertain. She is not genetically related to the pilot of that ship."
That was also of note; had she been abandoned – or orphaned? What kind of existence had she had to make her this way? "Was she mistreated?" Sulok asked, though was already sure of the answer. The doctor's eyes were fixed to his own.
"Her scans show multiple healed fractures – fingers on both of her hands, her right arm, and three ribs. I saw scars on her skin when we changed her clothes, and…there is evidence of sexual abuse."
A short growl came from the other side of the room and they both turned to see what had happened. Another medical tech had been attempting to coax the girl into lying down to rest, but she sprang from the bed and instead curled up in the corner on the floor. She had not used the spoon provided with her meal for eating, but she now clutched it in both hands like a weapon. Even in preparation for sleep, she could not let her guard down for an instant.
They have turned a child into an animal, the captain thought, and only made a weak attempt to suppress the sorrow he felt over that notion. "Is it possible to undo what she has suffered?" he asked the doctor, curious as to what kind of future this little being could have once they reached Vulcan.
T'Lana considered it. "I am uncertain…after such a period of time and so much trauma… It is not impossible, but it will not be easy."
TBC...