Jim can't wake up. He's rolling around in his bed, screaming the word 'no' over and over again. It pounds against the sensitive ears of a Vulcan and the drums of a Southern Doctor.
Then they hear their names. "Don't hurt them! Don't hurt Spock or Bones, please…please don't hurt them! Kill me! Don't hurt them! No!" And the pattern of No's is once again repeated. His voice is tearing away the silent air, ripping violently through it, thrashing like it's trapped in a box that it must escape from.
He must escape from this dream.
McCoy and Spock exchange their glances, sweat beading the doctor's brow. It has been about four hours of sitting there, watching pained expressions dance across the face of their dear friend.
Watching their friend in a secret world, suffering.
The hours were incredibly slow, but neither wanted to leave.
There had been other outbursts. Moans, whimpers…but this is the worst. And considering it involved the pair of officers it seems like it was most urgent and there is the most they could do to help.
McCoy leans in to shake him.
"It has not been the required time, Doctor." Spock said quietly, more as a reminder than as a hidden command.
"He's yelling for us. Spock, what's more important? I'm waking him up." Spock does not argue. He merely nods.
The hands of a surgeon, soft, steady and almost empathic, are laid on the shoulders of the captain. The shoulders quake, but with the touch they stop almost instantly.
But he still doesn't wake.
Trying again, he shakes a little harder. About six seconds after, the eyes of the captain are open.
"What was going…to hurt us?" Spock asked. It didn't come out mockingly or doubtingly. It came out like a genuine question, small stitches of fear attached, if that was possible for a Vulcan.
"He's coming…I don't want to lose you…" Jim's voice is quieter than the whisper of leaves, gently sending the air through the trees to the grass, where it had the smallest sound, but still sound.
His eyes flash from the Chief Medical officer to The science officer, and back again to the wall in front of him. "He's coming…I don't want to lose you…" he repeats again, even more soundless then the words before. '
"We're here. We'll always be here for you, Jim." McCoy's baby blue eyes are shining in the dim light in the room, dashed with concern and affection for his friend.
There is a silence as these words set in, but they are only words. Promises are like glass. So easily broken.
"Spock…can you do the mind meld now?" Bones asks, trying to exterminate the desperate note searching for a place in his voice.
"Four hours I am not sure is enough, but it seems I may have to take the risk." Spock said. If Spock was willing to risk something, it must be dire measures.
Spock and Jim meet eyes. Him and his first officer. One of his two closest friends in the universe is here. He will fix him. He will help him.
"Thank you…" Jim whispers.
Spock looks into his captain. Through the eyes, the window to the soul. The soul he will be entering. The Vulcan gently raises a hand and tenderly spreads it across his cheekbones, forehead and upper neck, ginger touch of a telepath connecting with something that is so dear to him.
Their eyes, one minute a window, the next moment an open gateway, and the one immediately after, a closed door. It's as if they are inside themselves, the look in the eye that is not present. In a different life time. A different dimension.
A barren wasteland stretches out across infinity. It looks like a room. Almost. If the floor wasn't forever it might be, but this isn't a room. Because half of it is covered in the essence of emptiness of agony, half of it is lined with the familiar spirit of a captain.
Where ever it is, there is a man by the name of Jim Kirk sitting in the dead center of it. Emotions, weighing heavier than the entire enterprise, hang in mid air above him. Grief. Pain. Anger. Sadness. Care. Guilt. And Fear. Intense, overwhelming fear
"Jim?" Spock asks, his voice reverberating from everywhere. But there is no sound. Him asking this is just a fact.
"Spock? Spock? You're here?" The man who was sitting in the center of this landscape seems to ask, searching around and joy – and concern.
"Yes…I am here." He says, but again there is no mouth that this comes from, it simply is. "But I must see what it is that has been troubling your dreams."
"But he'll see you…Spock…he'll hurt you…I can't let him…" he seemed to say. But as their two minds combined, it was evident a part he would have liked to hide that made more guilt for the captain, was the part of him telling Spock he did want him to go in…the part that knew he wanted help…but it was so selfish.
"I will proceed. I am sorry if this goes against your wishes captain…" he said this in a fully apologetic manner.
The tear, where the other Kirk went, on the farthest side of the barren white room, is poorly stitched together. The presence that is Spock gently reopens it the slightest bit and can now see the dream.
The thoughts and feelings of Jim flood into his head. Memories and emotions are transferred. And he knows why. He knows that Jim has seen his friends being hurt and almost killed. And understands.
The events in the dreams are vivid.
Chekov, Sulu and Uhura choking.
Scotty trapping him.
And McCoy and himself mindless to…
To Jim.
But he knows this is not the captain. This is a duplicate. An evil other that appears like the captain. And the tensions that are spread across the room are so tight. The threads of emotion tying themselves from an unknown place inside the tear and wrapping…no, tangling his friend. They are visible and an echoing laughter that pounds on the ears of the Vulcan. They laughter that sounds like a demon, so hellish, horrific. But Jim hears it too. And he hears himself.
The knots tie themselves tighter.
Spock, desperate to free his companion, opens up the gash in the wall more. And he sees something disturbing.
Something that frightens you all the way down from your spine until every last bone is covered in frozen, frostbiting fear.
He sees reality.
And an ever distant figure that looks distinctly like the captain running off in to it.
Sorry for the wait – again. Hope you liked this chapter! It's getting juicy! PLEASE REVIEW!
