AN/ re posting with a bit of editing, chapter three will be up later this week
He'd seen this place a thousand times before, but now it was different. The old gray church rose like a ghost out of the swirling, whispering fog as he walked from the edge of the oppressive foliage that marked the border between the wood and this ancient clearing. The stone cobbles beneath his feet were cracked and worn with age as he had never seen them before. As the mist parted enough for him to see the soaring archway that led into the ancient temple horror wrenched his gut; the glittering temple had been reduced to nothing more and a wraith like ruin. Still he took each step reverently, bowing low as he passed through the entrance.
Inside the walls ascended in graceful waves and met in the foggy eddy that obscured his view of the splendid mosaics he knew should be there. It was strange how real it seemed. He wrapped his arms around himself trying to chase off a shiver that he knew had nothing to do with the icy mist chasing his hollow footsteps. The statues recessed into the walls watched him silently, intently praying to some ancient god long forgotten. His fingers curled in the golden fabric of his tunic, it was cold so…cold. A deep spiritual sort of cold that curled around his soul in the same way it closed in on the dark granite alter at the heart of the temple. A piercing beam of golden sunlight shot down from a crack in the ceiling alighting on the altar. As the chilling cloud parted She turned her face to him. Her golden hair flowed down her slender form blending with the watery shimmer of sunlight. Her sapphire glimmered with pain. Her flawless alabaster features etched with concern. She opened her mouth to speak; only silence came forth. She slid from her perch on the great altar; a soft swish of her flowing gown.
"Jim." Her voice called but her sakura-blossom lips never parted. "Jim…" The thought-voice was week and strained.
"We need you Jim."
Raven's breath hitched in her throat as she ran. Sweat mingled with blood from earlier battles ran in rivulets coating her pale skin thick with grime. The sidhe pride in her blood told her to turn and fight—in the dark of the corridor she would have the advantage. A shower of sparks from the overhead caught her in the side of face, hot brilliance blinding her keen night-hunter's vision. She blinked, dazed. She could hear the Inquisition soldiers behind her; smell them, the fetid reek of human unmistakable.
The siren song of blade and battle rang in her mind, the voice of her sword as real as the feel of its weight on her back. Still she ran on. Her heart pounded painfully letting her know the poison of cold iron was seeping into her veins, already beginning to take hold on her battered body. She knew she had to get away. There was no time. If she died…then so would they.
Time seemed to freeze for Raven as her cloak caught on a jutting snatch of broken conduit. Stupidly she tried yanking the fabric free pulling the chunk of steel along with it. It hit the deckplates with a horrific clang. Her heart froze. They knew where she was now for sure. There was no way she could make it to the fighter bay now.
The inquisition soldiers she had managed to evade earlier came crashing down the corridor bearing plasma rifles stolen from her people. The stink of them assaulting her, she knew there was only one escape now. She tore her cloak free and summoned all that was left of her chakra and jumped. It registered to the soldiers as a flash of brilliant witch light.
"All primary systems offline—Auxiliaries are holding for now but—" the ship shuddered and groaned. A brilliant dagger-bright light filled the bridge for an instant. Suddenly all was still except for the hiss and sputter of damaged consoles, flaring sparks and smoke. I hot chunk of metal skittered across the wildly tilted deck. Jim Kirk's mind could not escape the comparison to an old-time sailing ship half capsized in the aftermath of a hurricane.
"Report." He ordered, his voice barely rose above a whisper—as if speaking any louder would call the wrath of the ion storm back down upon them.
"Auxiliary systems, failing, shields are gone. But the storm seems to have disappeared."
"Correction," came a sturdy Vulcan voice. "The storm has not dissipated, we have been relocated." Jim's eyes widened.
"How—When?" he demanded, but Spock had no answer to give him.
James braced himself against the arm of his chair pushing himself to his feet.
"Engineering Report!"
"Scot here." The engineer's voice was fuzzed and mangled by static.
Raven's feet hit the unfamiliar deckplates and slid out from under her; a sudden impact with the bulkhead forced the air from her lungs. The lights around her were bright—too bright.
Oh no, She thought, Oh GODS NO! Only a human ship would have lights that bright. She shrank back against the wall, trying to catch her breath, the ship trembled almost imperceptibly beneath her and the lights flickered out. She blinked trying to clear the spots from her vision and crawled backwards along the bottom of the wall until she hit a corner. Her heart hammered and her breath came in ragged uneven gasps. She curled into a ball, pulling her knees up to her chest and burrowing her head in her hands.
"Amok'zet." She whispered his name like a prayer to the mother. She had to stay alive; she had to save him--he was just a childe. A trickle of blood ran down her forehead and into her eyes. When she blinked it away she realized she could see clearly again. The crown prince lifted her head up slowly realizing that some—not all—of the poison sting had left her. She felt the exhaustion that she had been fighting forever sweep over her she was safe here for now until the humans who owned this place found her. The sink was absent. Perhaps this portion of the station…or ship was derelict for the moment. She closed her eyes. Weaving a spell of protection, she was forced to depend on the weakness of human minds to succumb easily to her telepathic suggestion.
I'm not here her mind whispered. you see nothing Then to exhausted to fear what would become of her were she discovered she collapsed in on herself.
"How are the repairs going?" Jim asked his chief engineer—just glad to be able to stand on even deckplates again.
"Inertial Stabilizers are back—we've got auxiliary power but I cannae get main power or propulsion back online until I've got the parts and I cannae see where we'll get them."
"What about impulse power? Thrusters?"
"Aye, you'll have thrusters in a few hours."
"No impulse?" Worry etched itself across Kirk's features.
"No Sir, the dilithium crystals are all but shattered." The young captain heaved a great sigh and turned to Uhura,
"What about communications?"
"Damnit Jim! What's the point? We've got no one to communicate with. We're dead in the water in the middle of no where!"
"We're not dead yet, put out a general distress call as soon as we've got communications back online. Have anyone who can help with repairs working. Dismissed." He marched out of the briefing room trying not let his unease flicker to the surface.
Three hours later a distant thumping could be heard throughout the Enterprise as the thrusters kicked in. Everyone cheered, some like the Vulcan, did so silently. Spock knew, however that they could not go anywhere until they had sensors operational and the hull breaches repaired at the bare minimum. Sharp Vulcan ears caught the sound of a more subtle clunking—the main generators trying to come back online. They strained and failed again. The sound was becoming a perpetual background feature—like the smells of escaped coolant and charred plastic. Like the sight his captain and friend, running in every direction at once trying to be as useful as possible everywhere a spare hand was needed. If he had let himself, he would have smiled at that dedication and unfailing love of ship and crew.
The lights sputtered back on with a final –clunk- of the generators. Spock's nictitating membranes flipped across his eyes briefly giving his eyes a chance to adjust to the light. As he turned to enter the turbolift something caught his eye. And his mind.
Something just outside his 'normal' range of perception, an idea, a suggestion—after that it only took him a fraction of a second to recognize the telepathic Suggestion for what it was, and only a second longer to overcome it.
The lights coming back on shocked Raven awake; for an instant she thought she didn't know where she was, than like the breaking of an ice dam the disorientation vanished replaced by frozen dread. And she knew she didn't know where she was.
Poisoning must be getting to me she thought to herself I'm starting to think like a human. Suddenly she froze, hearing light footsteps walk passed her hiding place, suddenly stop and begin approaching. She tried to repeat her suggestion but it was to late, nothing short of a cloaking device could conceal her now.
Amok'zet she thought I'm sorry The footsteps stopped in front of her. Raven pulled herself tighter in trying to put as much distance between herself and the human as possible in the cramped corner. She inhaled sharply fearing it would be her last breath—all they had to see was her gracefully pointed hears and she was dead.
When no blow came she sniffed the air carefully. The scent that whispered to her like a caress was not the putrid stench of humanity. No it was something different; clear, smooth like the dry tundra winds of the homeworld she had never known. She opened her large sapphire eyes slowly, looking not into the face of a human but another sidhe. She blinked, no that wasn't possible. Although… it would have been an easy mistake for a human to make. Not for her—his hair wasn't worn long in deference to the goddess Mother, his clothing drab and his scent, while pleasant, calming and stabilizing—was utterly alien. She squinted her eyes closed against the bright light, feeling the ache in her head return. And return with a vengeance it did, she clutched her head and whimpered.
Hot brightness clouded her vision again everything fading into a blaze of nothingness.
Captain James T. Kirk was currently looking at one of the most—no the most beautiful woman he had ever seen. (Of course, a nagging voice at the back of his head that sounded suspiciously like Bones, that's what you always think, and you never are satisfied are you?)
"Who is she?" he asked Spock,
"Unknown."
"Not one of the crew McCoy decided. "I'd recognize her if she was, she's far too young anyway." That was true enough; her grubby, pale skin did have an extremely youthful caste to it. She doesn't look much older than sixteen…seventeen at the most. He thought guiltily.
"Do we know anything about her? Race even?
"No, she is however, a telepath of sufficient—if limited capability." Spock reported. "When I first encountered her she attempted to conceal herself using a rudimentary telepathic suggestion."
"Humph, I wouldn't have done that if I had known there were any real people here not just night-blind human vermin." The trio turned to see the young woman attempt to sit up.
"I'm sorry you feel that way about us humans." McCoy said, moving to the bedside. She seemed to take this as an act of aggression and tensed. Silvery-pale nictitating membranes flashed over her stormy gray-blue eyes, her pupils had narrowed to cat-like slits.
"How come you didn't kill me?" she looked nervously from Kirk to McCoy and back again. Time for the old Kirk charm. Jim thought stepping closer to the sickbed. He held up his hands to show that they were empty. She eyed him warily. "I've heard what humans do to their prisoners. I don't care if you torture me I won't tell you anything." Her tone was short, clipped but otherwise lent the illusion of utter calm. Only her tensed muscles betrayed her agitation. Jim almost took a step back in horror—torture?
"We have no intention of hurting you. Whatever you've heard about us isn't true." She seemed to relax a little but he couldn't be sure.
"I want to believe you." The girl said flatly. "But…I just escaped from a horde of Inquisition soldiers—humans who's ships are built with the sole purpose of hunting down Sidhe adepts." A vicious snarl curved her cherry-blossom lips. "For sport."
