Chapter 4 – Three in One
Kirk flew to his feet, grasping the arm of his chair for support as he balanced on the balls of his feet on the platform. The others—Uhura and Sulu, Scotty and Chekov—either clambered back into their chairs and resituated themselves or rushed to regain control.
"Why the hell didn't they tell us there would be turbulence?" Kirk shouted over the din of metal twisting and screeching beneath them.
"It's not turbulence, sir!" Sulu bellowed, glaring intently at the screen before him. "We're under attack!"
Not a moment of hesitation crossed through Kirk's expression or mind, and he was in control once more.
"Sulu, fire up the phasers! Get the front and starboard shields up! Uhura, try to reach whatever the fuck is out there shooting their goddam missiles at us!"
Like a well-oiled machine, the crew fell into familiar crisis patterns, disregarding the red hue that tinted the light around them and the whining siren that had gone off the instant of collision. Dorthea remained where she fell, too scared to move. While the others blustered around her, fighting off this unforeseen enemy, she kept still as a statue and gaped openmouthed at the commotion. If the Tarkans were behind this…. She shuddered in the same moment that the ship gave a tremendous quake, throwing her against the wall. Kirk slammed into his chair and grabbed the arms for dear life.
"Shields are down to eighty percent power!" Sulu informed him, gripping the edges of his desk so he didn't fall.
"Find the ships and fire!" Kirk snarled. "Uhura, forget about making contact. Chekov, find a safe area and get us out of here now!"
"Yessir," the boy nodded and turned to his desk.
Another tremble rocked the Enterprise, rolling Dorthea ruthlessly across the room, her vision a blur of white, red, and chrome.
"Sixty percent!" Sulu cried.
"Captain, we've locked onto our targets!" Scotty yelled, twisting from one spot to another in his swiveling chair, each time adjusting something out of Dorthea's line of sight.
"They have a cloaking device," Uhura supplied unhappily. "I can't contact them."
"Didn't I say forget it?" Kirk growled. "We don't have time to play nice!"
A third quake shook the ship as if to reinforce his words. Dorthea slid roughly past Kirk's chair as Sulu shouted out "forty percent". Tumbling uncontrollably did nothing for her already damaged body, and Dorthea gave up on restraining herself, let the boat rock how it may. She crashed into a pair of legs and, blinking in the brightness of the light, looked up at their owner. Spock stared down at her, face stoic and expressionless. She cringed away from him, hoping for another impact that would send her to the other side of the room again. At the involuntary movement, Spock's hard features softened and he bent down to her level.
"Are you in need of assistance?" He spoke only loud enough to be heard.
"I-I—" She didn't seem to be able to finish a sentence today. Her tongue felt too dry and big to fit in her mouth and she stumbled over the words that tried to form on it. When she didn't answer, Spock carefully slid his arms under her neck and knees and lifted with his legs, holding her body like an infant's. She felt his body tense next to hers, bracing itself against the shaking of the ship so he didn't lose his balance.
"Target destroyed!" Sulu's triumphant yell instantly silenced the bridge, except for the rumbling that still echoed through the metal body surrounding them. The red tint and crisis siren died slowly until there was no more.
"Captain, there are other ships coming to their aid," Scotty warned, all traces of perkiness evaporated, gone.
"Chekov, that safe haven?" Kirk demanded.
"The nearest we can reach is the Bajoran wormhole. It should take us directly to base."
Kirk scowled, displeased. "Is that the best option?"
"The best we have to survive, sir." Chekov's accent made his grave announcement a little less so.
"How long?" A vein in Kirk's temple throbbed purple.
"Two hours, sir."
"Two hours—!" Stuffing his middle knuckle in between his teeth, Kirk bit down. Hard. He inhaled deeply and exhaled, his chest rising and falling drastically. "Fine. Sulu, get us there. In one."
"Warp speed seven, then." Sulu shook his head but turned to the controls in front of him.
Uhura spoke into her headset and her voice rang in their ears as she glanced around at them all, her eyes lingering on Spock's. "We are entering warp speed seven in three… two… one."
The bridge kept totally silent for an unbearable five minutes, no one moving so much as an inch. Dorthea kept her body light, trying to evenly disperse her weight so Spock wouldn't have to work to hold her. Not one foreign thought crossed her mind, though she stretched out to hear.
"Who the fuck was that?" Kirk snapped.
"I was trying to communicate with them," Uhura growled. "But they had a cloaking device—which, if you were paying attention, you would know."
"I'm sorry, I was trying to keep us from dying. Next time I'll just let you chat while we get blown to pieces."
Dorthea's mind rejected the vehement thoughts that poisoned her mind through theirs, causing her body to react and squirm farther away. Her back thumped into Spock's chest and she scooted up again like she'd been electrocuted. He seemed to remember that she was still curled in his arms and gently set her down on her feet.
"Thank you," she mumbled to the floor.
When he didn't respond she glanced up for a split second, then diverted her eyes, only to check his thoughts. Oh! Which reminded her….
"You—!" she piped abruptly, lifting her face to stare directly at Spock. "You were the one…." Again, she felt rude. Discussing one's thoughts—or tone, or structure, for that matter—was considered personal and very private. She'd just about shared his mind with the entire room.
"Yes?" He didn't seem offended, or shocked, or anything at all.
"Um… n-never mind." That clear tone intimidated her. Even one simple word sounded completely, perfectly constructed.
He only looked at her for a second longer, and then returned his focus to his colleagues, who had entrapped themselves in a heated discussion.
"Are you joking?" Scotty yelped. "Go back? After what those morons did to us? We weren't even half-way near their territory—"
"The Federation wouldn't have sent us there if they didn't have a reason," Kirk countered.
Scotty's voice only managed a low, indistinct mutter. "Yeah, well, I'm not too sure the Fed-er-ay-shun isn't defective…. Go back, my arse… why don't they go back, huh?"
"I agree with Captain Kirk," Spock announced, and with that stone-cold perfection Dorthea couldn't understand how anyone would be able to argue. "We have a mission to complete at Qo'nos. One obstacle should not stop us from achieving our goal."
"Either way, we have to get back to base soon and get some serious repairs done or we're SOL." Sulu's assessment shut them all up.
One by one they filtered back to their posts, leaving Spock, Kirk, and Dorthea in front of the Captain's chair. The two males exchanged another quick glance. Out of respect for their privacy, she turned her back to the conversation and focused instead on Chekov, watching him work.
"What do you think this is all about, Spock?" Kirk sighed under his breath so that the rest of the crew couldn't possibly hear. But with Dorthea so close, she couldn't help but pick up the gist of the conversation with their spoken words. The rest she gathered from the shadows of them in their thoughts. "I mean, sending us into an obvious hostile environment with no warning and no directions? I'm half tempted to go along with Scotty's idea."
"I am… unsure… at this moment." Spock met Kirk's gaze with a fierce determination. "But I trust your instincts, Captain Kirk."
The way Spock emphasized the word your had Dorthea probing his unusual mind, because it sounded like he was doubting the Federation as well.
"That makes one of us." Kirk dropped back into his chair, rubbing his eyes with the heels of his palms.
"Perhaps you need to sleep?" Spock suggested, taking in the purple bags forming under Kirk's eyes.
"I need to sleep," Kirk repeated sarcastically, lifting his eyes over his hands. "Look at her. She must be exhausted."
Dorthea only realized they spoke of her because of the direction Kirk's thoughts had taken. And once she heard the word exhausted, her vision swam. Her legs trembled unstably and she rested her shoulder on the wall for support.
"Yeah." Kirk stood up and stretched his arms wide, yawning. "Come on, DeVult. I had a room prepared for you. I'll show you the way."
"I think I will accompany you," Spock allowed.
Kirk tucked his arm around Dorthea's waist and steered her toward the door, calling over his shoulder at the remaining crew.
"I'm gonna call it a day, you guys. When you're done, call in the night shift."
"Yessir." Chekov was the only one that responded.
Once the door slid shut behind the three of them, signified by the hiss of hydraulics, Kirk seemed to relax. Spock remained the same, just as tense as before. But his tightness didn't look unnatural, just a part of who he was.
"Good kid," he approved, meaning Chekov.
"Yes," Spock agreed absently.
They walked on—Dorthea stumbling every once in a while in a near-sleep—for what felt like hours to her legs, eyes, brain, and wrist. They'd all been through so much in the past twenty-four hours. Finally they reached a parting of ways. Spock stood to the right, while Kirk and Dorthea hesitated in the left.
"Good night," Spock said in customary dismissal, nodding his head to them each in turn before turning his back to them and continuing down the hall.
"'Night, Spock," Kirk yelled after him.
When Spock and his strange, tripled mind capacity had disappeared from view, Kirk pressed further on, his arm guiding a Dorthea that had almost gone numb from lack of sleep. Almost.
"He… Spock…. He's not… human—" her sentence ruptured with a sudden yawn "—is he?"
Kirk chuckled before responding. "Half. And half-Vulcan. Like you, but different species."
Dorthea nodded to show her comprehension.
They spoke no more while Kirk showed her the way to her quarters, wasting no energy on nothing that wasn't absolutely necessary. Once they arrived, Dorthea considered just collapsing on the floor in front of the door and sleeping there. But when she tried, Kirk just laughed and wearily held her up.
"Not quite yet," he said apologetically. Taking her hand in his, he pressed it palm-side down to a green pad in the wall and waited for a bright green light to scan across her skin. The door slid open with the familiar whish and Kirk lugged Dorthea to a small, twin-sized bed. "There." He dropped her onto the mattress with nowhere near the grace that Spock had and scratched the back of his neck.
Curling up right on top of the blankets, Dorthea could barely sigh a quick "g'night" before falling victim to the black behind her eyelids.
A/N: goodness gracious, i'm tired. lol. and i really have to stop saying lol. wow. but i just had to finish this because i'm getting so freakishly into it. woo! so i'm just gonna leave it with that because it's currently 1:11 a.m. and i still have to clean my room. okay. read and review, please and thank you!