AN: So, this, my readers, is what happens when your plot bunny evolves and mutates into a freaking Plot Dinosaur. I already have another three chapters in the works. Enjoy!
"There, do you see her?" Kirk is saying, pointing to the screen at a rapidly moving figure. They were hovering just above the gravitational pull of a hostile class M planet, having dropped out of warp. Kirk, being the captain that he is, had immediately commandeered the life force detectors, and they were following the rapidly moving figure of a female, who was evidently running away from something. But something was definitely wrong. This female, she was classified as a human or human hybrid on the screens, but the natives and most of the population on this planet were of an alien race similar to the Andorians.
"Yes Captain." Replied Sulu, who was seemingly tracking the female's movement, which was growing increasingly faster. Kirk grinned at the answer.
"Beam her up. She doesn't belong down there."
Spock stepped forward at that with, "Captain. Are you certain that this is the most logical course of action?" Kirk looked almost offended at the question, and he filed it away to think over later.
"Yes Spock, I'm certain. You saw how hostile the aliens were on that planet. They most kindly informed us that they would kill us and sacrifice us to their gods, and how they detested humans. Either she's running from certain death, or she is escaping slavery or something. I'm saving her." Kirk moved around Spock toward the landing pad.
"Captain!" Called Mr. Sulu. "There are eight more hostile aliens after her. They are close by and gaining ground."
"Right. Send the coordinates of the girl's life force. We'll beam her up."
"Yessir." He tapped a few buttons, and then the commander at the beaming pad said, "Energizing."
We all looked toward the pad, and Spock wisely pressed a button, making the glass shields come up around the pad where she would land. It was quite possible that she would be hostile and react violently. The lights symbolizing the energization came through, and a figure appeared in the light, but it was nothing like anyone had been expecting.
A young woman, about the age of 22-24, her hair long, black, and shaggy, her clothes tatters and rags appeared on the pad. She landed down gently, Spock began noticing the details. She was hostile, and clearly very frightened, her deep brown eyes wide in horror and anger, and, he noticed, her feet were bare. She was covered in dirt, the shaggy strands of her hair covered in thick ropes of dirt and other unidentified substances, and she was crouched in a fighting position, ready to flee at any given time. She stood on her toes.
Kirk stepped forward, his palms open in a gesture of trust and friendship. The girl reared her head back and darted backward a few steps, despite the fact that she was safely protected behind the wall of glass between Kirk and herself.
"I am captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. I rescued you off the planet below. Who are you?"
She barked out a harsh laugh. And she spoke, her voice low, harsh, and cracked, almost as if she hadn't had anything to eat or drink in days. Which she probably hadn't, given her horrendous state.
"Why bother with just a worthless slave, Captain?" Her voice was accented, almost as if this were her first time speaking standard in many years. Given the alien world we had rescued her from, it most likely was.
Spock's eyebrow flicked up in surprise. She must be in a state of mental trauma to be this dark and cold to someone who had saved her from certain death.
"Maybe I thought we could help you." Kirk said, the surprise clearly in his voice. He hadn't been expecting that. Maybe something like tears or thanks, but not hostility.
"Why so surprised? Expect the unexpected, or expect nothing. There is no good where you pulled me from." Then her head jerked away and her eyes rolled in terror when Bones came racing in.
"God Jim, you couldn't just call me first?" Bones was already eyeing the girl, and muttering medical details under his breath. Spock stayed calm, taking in more details of this girl's behavior, and trying to understand what mental trauma she had, other than the obvious. After piecing together the information available to him, Spock moved to the Captain, pulling him aside.
"Captain, she is undergoing immense Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, and I have reason to believe that she is going through a flash back of the horrors she experienced on the planet we rescued her from. I need to communicate with her."
Kirk eyed Spock carefully, and then pulled Bones back, telling him the information. Meanwhile, he watched the girl, who was shaking her head slowly, eyes closed. Calmly, he lifted the glass shields, and lowered them again after he walked through. Kirk eyed him in shock and Bones just watched, his eyes dark and apprehensive. The girl didn't even notice his approach, but she did notice when he crouched down to be level with her curled up form. However, she didn't move away, just went limp and helpless. His brow furrowed in confusion, and he placed my fingers on her face on her meld points.
Pain. Agony. Torture. A will that was being crushed in her immensely powerful mind. These are the first things that Spock is aware of as he enters the realm of her mind and memories. Her mind screams for help, trapped in the painful memories of years on that awful planet. He quietly enters and he notices several things. Her mind is a desolate wasteland, not so much a positive thought that he can find here, not one that she is readily aware of. He gently touches her broken form, and her beautiful eyes open.
"Please. Help me. Ease the pain." And he can't help but notice how small she is. How young she is. How broken. No one should feel this much mental agony, no one should. He gently touches her face.
"I will never hurt you little one. I will help you. Who are you?" He can't help but notice how she presses her face into his hand, the first gentle touch in years. Her mind begins to relax, and she remembers, some of the little things. Several images start fleeting across his vision, and he notices several things. Torture, mental torture, no food for days, starvation, thirst, rape, embarrassment.
"I don't know anymore." She says, and he looks at her. Her form is glowing in a soft blue light, her hair spread around her, and her wings broken, the feathers falling to the ground. She is chained to the ground, unable to fly about. The pain is all she is stuck in. She's dying.
"Little one. Think hard, remember who you were before all this. I am here, you can do this." Her brown eyes meet his, the orbs beginning to shine with just the slightest soft glow. A glow that he recognized as hope.
And he can see it all. She remembers, sifting through the agony with her last shred of strength, the strength he had given her with the hope. Tears fall down her gaunt cheeks with the pain, but she doesn't stop, and he can see it all. Then she stops, and the single image rests in both of their minds. Emrys.
"My name…" She chokes on tears, coughing harshly. "Is Emrys." Her voice is nothing but a whisper, but it was enough.
"Come back to us, Emrys." He whispers gently, both hands on her face. She looks up.
"But if you leave, will I see you again?" Never before had he seen another being so broken. He vowed to fix her, to allow her to fly again, right there and then.
"I will always be here, little one. Now come back to us."
He opened his eyes first, and removed his hand from her face. Her eyes opened seconds later, and they focused on him. He looked at her, steadily, and he could see that she was clinging to that strand of hope like a life line. She was clutching it to her heart, and she refused to let it leave her again. He held out his hand, and he caught Uhura looking on with interest, along with Kirk and Bones eyeing each other and the scene before them in utter amazement. Their eyes widened even further when her dainty, dirty, and much smaller hand shook, but took it. Spock pulled her gently to her feet, and caught her when she fell into his chest, collapsing in exhaustion.
He scooped her up into his arms with the ease that one has with picking up their own child, and turned to exit the pad. The glass doors silently came up and he exited, heading toward Dr. McCoy. "She will need medical attention. It is best to do it now while she is unconscious." McCoy just nodded, and he turned and lead the way to the medical wing. Kirk followed them, calling over his shoulder.
"Sulu, you have the Con."
"Aye Captain."
Kirk jogged a bit to catch up with Spock, but he did reach him and studied the girl curled into Spock's chest. "Damn Spock. Who is she?"
"Her name is Emrys." He responded, and entered the medical bay after Bones. Kirk's eyebrows rose in interest.
"Did you learn anything else?" He backed up a few steps when Bones came around the corner with several hyposprays and a tricorder in hand.
"She was tortured in several ways over a period of several years. She will require several months or more to recover fully. She was also severely nutritionally deprived and will need to regain weight."
Bones looked up at him in a way that practically breathed, 'Well duh.'
"She is lucky to still be alive, that's for sure." Bones muttered, "She's got infected wounds, is suffering from PTSD, starvation, and she is dehydrated." He proceeded to tsk in annoyance, and then muttered, "And has suffered through several incidents of rape and forced abortion. She's a complete mess."
She muttered something under her breath, and rolled, and then her eyes opened, widening in horror. She yelped, and rolled off the table, and right into Spock's arms, who had somehow managed to get there at the last possible moment.
"You must be still, you are injured. Allow Dr. McCoy to treat you." She shivered, and moved the slightest bit closer to Spock's chest, not willing to get down from the only safe place she knew. Spock looked up from the little thing in his arms to meet Kirk's and the doctor's wide eyes. He narrowed his eyes in a slight glare and raised a brow, almost as if daring them to say a word. They wisely kept their mouths shut. Bones stepped back from the table, and pulled Kirk back with him. Spock stepped back up to the table, and gently set the unwilling girl back down, but he stayed close.
Her eyes never once left Spock, but she did allow Bones to gently examine her, running the tricorder over her chest, recording her vital signs, and examining her via a small machine to check and see if she was pregnant. She shivered in slight fear when his hand barely brushed her hip, but didn't move away. Spock placed a gentle hand on her shoulder and she relaxed slightly.
Bones stepped back after another minute of examination. "She's in a fair state of health considering what she's been through, but she's definitely going to need to be rehabilitated for the next year or two." Spock nodded, and after Kirk caught his eye for a second, he nodded. Kirk left the bridge, and he went back to make sure there were no complications in dealing with the hostile planet they were still hovering around.
"What needs to happen to bring her back to a physical state of health?" He asked, after a second of thought and mental vow to be her caregiver. After much careful thought while he had stood there with her during the examination, he still hadn't figured out what his feelings were toward her. Protection, anger at those who had hurt her, sorrow. He wanted so much to help her, and he was going to do, by bringing her back to life. Emrys looked at him in astonishment, almost as if she had been expecting him to leave her here. The first thing he needed to fix, was her inability to trust. He needed her to trust him, and he knew that she was dying for contact, gentle contact of any kind.
Bones considered his question for a short minute. "She will definitely need to rest, and for a good long while after she gets cleaned up. She needs to rehydrate herself, and definitely needs to bring food back into her world. She's about thirty pounds underweight for her size." He looked her over, and she crossed her thin arms over her chest in self-consciousness. Bones went over to a small replicator he kept in the corner, and after some fiddling, acquired a blanket, sweat pants, and thick shirt that would be baggy on her, but would keep her warm. He draped the blanket over her shivering form, and she wrapped it around herself gratefully, thin hands clutching the black fabric tightly.
Spock accepted the clothes from Bones. "Try to get her cleaned up. She needs it, and she trusts you more than us." And with that, Bones turned, and he quietly left the medical bay. Emrys looked up at Spock, her brown eyes dark, cold, and tired. Her dirty hair hung around her face, partially covering one eye. He touched her face gently, and her eyes widened when she felt the gentle warmth stream from his fingers into her mind at the touch. Her eyes warmed slightly, and he nodded.
"Come along. You need to bathe." She stood slowly, wobbling on her feet, but she gained her balance, and moved toward him slowly. And so they went down the halls and up the lift to his quarters, and he discovered that she was a curious little thing. If she was close to him, she looked around her, eyes taking in the modern, white walls of the humming starship around her. They reached the door to his quarters, and he keyed in the entry code, and he noticed her intent eyes watching his fingers. He raised a brow, but the door swished open then, and he beckoned her through. She slowly entered, and took in the Starfleet issued quarters that everyone had on the ship. His bunk, neatly made with several blankets, his meditation cushions, neatly stacked at the foot of the bed, and it was all made of a soft, dark fabric from Vulcan.
Her eyes flickered around, and rested on the door to his private bathroom, one of few luxuries allotted to those who were high in command, as he was First officer, he was second in command. He led her through, and she looked around, before her eyes settled on the sonic shower with something akin to fear and desire. Her eyes were conflicted, but when he handed her a towel, she accepted it. He instructed her on how to operate the shower, and left quietly, but he did leave the door open, knowing she would appreciate the safety measure.
He could feel the slight waves of gratitude, but definitely registered the feelings of trepidation as she opened the shower doors and looked inside. He heard the sounds of the blanket she had around her shoulders hitting he floor, and the sounds of the rags she had been wearing hit the floor. He heard the shower turn on, and the gentle sigh of Emrys as the heat encompassed her tired, aching, and tiny frame.
Spock busied himself with setting out his meditation cushions, and taking off his blue science tunic and boots, setting the boots neatly beside the door and the shirt folded back into his clothing receptacle. He heard a slight whine of pain from Emrys, and he went still, but nothing else happened. After another four minutes, a beep was heard a his comm through the door. "Enter." He called, and Bones came in, carrying a small plethora of objects.
"You're gonna need these." He began to tell Spock what hypospray was which, and then handed him another hypo. "If worst comes to worst, and she won't eat, inject her with this. It'll provide the nutrition she needs. Don't rely on these though. She needs actual food." Spock nodded and gathered the hypos, and tucked them away in his bedside table drawer.
"Thank you doctor." Bones nodded in reply, and left swiftly, and Spock heard the shower turn off. He waited a few minutes, and the creature that stepped out was a far cry from the one that had went into that bathroom.