Eclipse

by Aconitum-Napellus

Spock is blinded in an explosion on the Enterprise. Was it an accident, or terrorism?

10. Chapter 10

10

Spock sat down in the command chair with mixed feelings of confidence and apprehension. While he had complete faith in his ability as a commander, he was also aware that he had spent only one full shift at his own station since being released from sick leave, that he didn't seek command at the best of times, and that if confronted with anything abnormal or unusual this would be his first test of how capable he really was, perhaps even put his place as first officer in jeopardy. But hopefully nothing abnormal or unusual would happen, and all he had to do was sit in the chair and command.

Spock pushed aside his worries, folded up his cane, and put it on the arm of the chair. He reached out to his left to feel the small control panel that was set into the other arm. Here too, the little braille labels were clearly marking the controls. He closed his eyes briefly, bringing the duty roster into his mind. It was best to avoid names at first though, rather than make a mistake in his first minute on the bridge.

'Helm, confirm course and speed,' he asked.

'We're headed straight to Pernicia,' was the reply from the helm. 'Warp seven, sir.'

'Seven,' Spock nodded. That was just above cruising speed - and the voice matched the name on the roster. 'Thank you, Lieutenant Hill.'

He slipped his ear piece into his ear, ignoring the short intake of breath at the helm as if the man thought it astonishing that Spock could recognise him by voice alone. Spock closed his eyes and listened to the computer's description of the viewscreen, and wasn't surprised to hear that the view comprised several thousand known stars of varying magnitudes, no unexpected anomalies, no ships and no other hazards. He began to update himself on the night's occurrences. His first command shift since becoming blind thankfully had all the signs of being quiet and trouble free.

A crewmember entered the bridge and stepped down to his chair.

'Sir, the fuel consumption report,' the hesitant voice said at his shoulder, and Spock removed the ear piece and automatically held out his hand. Immediately he realised his slip, and clenched his fist, lowering it back to his lap.

'Please read the report, - ' Spock hesitated, then asked, 'Your name?'

'Lieutenant Giles, sir,' the woman said softly.

'Lieutenant Giles,' he nodded evenly, and sat listening to the reel of figures, concentrating to be sure that everything added up and there were no mistakes. 'Quite satisfactory,' he nodded as she finished. 'Would you give me the pen, and show me where to sign?'

Her nervousness felt even stronger through the contact as her hand touched his and guided it to the line at the bottom of the pad. Spock signed slowly and carefully, hoping that the signature wasn't as sloping and spiderish as it felt. As the woman took the pad back he heard his cane clatter to the floor, and she stepped back, effusing nervous apologies.

'I - er - I - '

Spock waited patiently, until the cold end of the cane touched his hand. He took it and replaced it on the arm of his chair.

'Lieutenant, you need not be afraid of reference to the fact that I am blind - it would be vastly illogical for me to take offence at your reminder of something of which I am very well aware.'

'Yes, sir,' she said softly.

'I do not bite, Lieutenant,' he added. 'I am vegetarian by choice.'

'Yes, sir,' the woman said, a little more brightly. The cheerfulness fitted her much better, and the memory of her appearance flooded into Spock's mind. 'Thank you, Mr Spock.'

'You may go, Lieutenant,' he said.

He listened to her turn and climb back up the steps to leave the bridge, then replaced his earpiece and retreated back into his contemplation. The shift passed in almost total silence, broken only by the occasional update from the surrounding stations, and once by the almost obligatory visit from Dr McCoy, who stood at his shoulder talking while Spock replied with noncommittal answers, with his attention on the noises around him rather than McCoy's prattle. When McCoy left it was immediately easier to hear what was happening around him. Because of this he heard the soft blip from Lieutenant Uhura's console, the noise of her putting her earpiece into her ear, a recording disc into the slot, and could sense her firm attention as she listened to what was being said. Therefore he wasn't surprised when she called softly, 'Mr Spock?'

Spock went up to her station before she could come to him and her chair creaked as she turned around to face him. He could smell her perfume evaporating warmly around him. That voice and that perfume were as familiar to him now as her face had been.

'What have you found, Lieutenant?' he asked.

'An intercepted transmission from a non-standard communicator, not tied into the ship's system. If you tune in your earpiece I'll play it back to you, sir.'

Spock nodded, and put a hand to his ear to hear the message better. There was a short burst of static, then a voice, cold, businesslike, female. 'Rendezvous in six hours. Beam from these co-ordinates, then disable.'

'I guess there's no need for me to tell you where I pinpointed the beam from,' Uhura said as he removed the earpiece.

'The Pernician quarters?'

'Yes, sir.'

'And directed toward the unknown ship?'

'Yes, sir.'

'I see,' Spock said. 'Lieutenant Bryson, has the alien ship changed course?' he asked, turning towards the science station.

There was a pause, then, 'No, sir. Still running parallel to us. There have been no signals sent from the ship, but it did receive the communication from our ship.'

'Thank you.' He exhaled slowly, then said, 'Take command, Lieutenant Uhura. I shall be with the captain. Keep monitoring for transmissions, and call me immediately anything alters. Lieutenant Bryson, keep an eye on that ship.'

'Aye, sir,' both women said simultaneously.

Uhura slipped something square into his hand. 'This is the disc with the message on it, Mr Spock.'

'Thank you, Lieutenant.'

Spock closed his hand around the hard disc, and made for the elevator. He would never have spoken the illogical thought aloud, but it felt good to have a situation like this to deal with, after weeks of doing nothing.

******

Spock moved along the dark corridors swiftly with one hand out to the wall, counting his paces carefully, and sensing rather than knowing that crewmembers were moving out of the way for him. Kirk answered the doorchime immediately, and Spock went through as the door slipped away from under his fingertips.

'Come in, Mr Spock - I'll be out in a second,' Kirk said as the Vulcan entered. Spock waited by the doorway - the voice was coming from Kirk's sleeping area, and he didn't want to intrude if his captain was only half dressed.

'Were you lying down, sir?' Spock asked.

'Just reading.' He came through into the living area, and said, 'Sit down, Spock. Chair's a metre in front of you, by my desk.'

Spock went forward to the chair, remembering carefully that this room was a mirror image of his, not identical.

'Captain, we have a problem,' Spock said as he sat.

'I can take command if you're finding it hard,' Kirk offered.

'Not of a personal nature, sir,' Spock corrected him. 'Lieutenant Uhura just intercepted an alien transmission from within our ship, directed towards our shadow. I have the disc here, but I can repeat the message verbatim.'

'And?' Kirk asked, leaning forward across the desk.

'Rendezvous in six hours. Beam from these co-ordinates, then disable. The voice was that of Ambassador Necuhai. The transmission came from her quarters.'

'Give me the disc.' Kirk took it from his hand and dropped it into the computer slot. He played the message twice, then leaned back again in his chair, and breathed out slowly. 'Disable? Disable what? Us, the thing to be beamed?'

'I do not know, Captain. Whatever it is, we have six hours to find out.'

'Who did you leave in command?'

'Lieutenant Uhura. I have ordered her to keep scanning for signals.'

'Good - I need someone reliable up there.' He flicked the intercom open, and said, 'Kirk to Uhura.'

'Uhura here.'

'Uhura, deal with everything as normal. Keep your channel scanning discreet. I'm going to find out what this is about. Can you locate the ambassador for me?'

There was a short pause, then Uhura said, 'Scanning, sir. It might take a few minutes - I have to separate her readings from the other Pernicians.'

'Call me when you locate her, Lieutenant. Kirk out.'

'Aye, sir,' she said. 'Uhura out.'

The channel went silent. Spock counted a minute before the intercom whistled again, and Kirk reached out to answer it. 'Kirk here.'

'Uhura, sir. The Pernician ambassador is in Recreation Room Nine, with four of her entourage. There's no one else in there.'

'Thank you, Lieutenant,' Kirk replied, and cut the channel. 'Spock, would she have time to get to that room after sending that message?' he asked curiously.

'It is possible.' He cocked his head to one side, indicating a joke. 'I find travel times are considerably speeded up by long legs and eyesight.'

Kirk laughed softly, then said, 'Well, Mr Spock. I think I should pay Ambassador Nechuhai a visit.'

'I think that would be wise, sir,' Spock nodded, getting to his feet. As he did, Kirk put a hand to his arm.

'Not you, Mr Spock,' he said gently. 'I want you to stay here. I don't know what might happen.'

'Sir, we have been through this argument many times, even before I lost my sight. I am your first officer,' Spock replied, stepping away from his hand.

There was a long pause, then Kirk said, 'Then take my arm. But, Mr Spock, be careful.'

Spock's eyebrow rose slowly. 'I would never be anything but careful, sir.'

******

As Kirk turned into the corridor he almost bumped into the blue-clad figure of Lieutenant Laughlan. She looked breathless, and held something in her hand in a small plastic bag.

'Captain, Commander Spock! I have something to show you,' she said.

'Lieutenant, we're on urgent business,' Kirk said impatiently. 'Can this wait?'

She shook her head, holding up the bag. It seemed to have some kind of a plastic fragment in it.

'Captain, I have new evidence relating to the phaser room explosion.'

Kirk gave her new attention at those words. 'Report, Lieutenant,' he said sharply.

'Sir - I found a piece of the pipe that Mr Spock saw in the console. It was half embedded in the wall, in the corner of the room up at the ceiling, which is why I didn't find it earlier. It could not have come into contact with any Pernicians after the explosion, but I found partial imprints of Pernician fingerprints on it, and this, sir.' She held up the bag to him, and he could see now through the plastic that it was a tiny fragment of pipe. She turned the fragment over in her hands. 'Here, sir.'

Kirk stared at the tiny piece of pipe, wondering what she was trying to show him.

'Lieutenant?' Spock asked. 'Please describe.'

'It's a fragment of the pipe, sir - roughly three centimetres in length, split in half, quite jagged. There's a dark stain running down what was the outside of the pipe. Here, Captain,' she said, running her finger down a thin mark that looked like a dried trickle of liquid. 'I haven't been able to match it yet to any one person, but it's Pernician blood, and it was deposited two days before the explosion happened. I'd say whoever it was nicked their finger while cutting the length of pipe, or getting it into the workings. There's no way the blood could have got in there two days before the explosion unless a Pernician was there.'

'It is confirmation enough,' Spock nodded.

'If we need more, I've begun reconstructing the wall where the pipe led through. There was a crudely cut hole leading through to the coolant pipes behind, and the same glue around the edges to fix the pipe as there was on the edges of the hatch.'

'And this took almost two months to find out?' Kirk asked sharply. 'Commander Spock has managed things like this in half the time!'

'Seven weeks five days is not an unreasonable amount of time for a human when extensive damage is involved,' Spock told him. 'Captain, remember the urgency of our mission.'

'Yes. Lieutenant, make sure all your findings are logged and backed up.'

'Of course, sir,' she said, sounding slightly surprised that he should think he had to tell her.

******

Kirk could hear Pernician voices before the door to Recreation Room Nine slid open. He led Spock through, and the door shut after them. The Pernicians were seated around the table, the ambassador, three other Pernician women, and a man. As the door closed the ambassador looked up, and Kirk saw impatience and anger sparking in her eyes.

'Captain, if you have brought your Vulcan here to harass me - ' she began dangerously.

'Madam Ambassador, Commander Spock and I have come here to ask you a few questions,' Kirk said tightly. 'No, don't get up,' he said as she began to get to her feet.

She ignored him, and rose up to her full height. Kirk's head was barely level with the ends of her deep blue braided hair. The other Pernicians rose up behind her, spreading out subtly, giving Kirk a feeling of unease.

'Ask, Captain,' she said.

'Tell me about that ship, Ambassador,' Kirk said plainly. Hopefully he would get some plain answers.

'Give me a clue as to which ship you are talking about, and I shall try to answer your question.'

'I have been monitoring a ship which has been running parallel to the Enterprise for some 15.3752 hours,' Spock said smoothly. 'It is a Pernician vessel. Recent events have confirmed that.'

'Your Vulcan is able to watch ships without his light?' the ambassador asked, not even looking at Spock.

'Ambassador, there is a Pernician ship out there, we heard the message you sent to it, we've found the evidence that Pernician hands set up the explosion in the phaser room. There's no point in you denying anything,' Kirk said impatiently. 'We know your plans.'

Her expression set, and her eyes bored into Kirk's head. 'Captain Kirk, my husband was killed. You are now telling me that I killed him?'

Kirk could see that if he was not careful her anger was going to erupt, and that would be dangerous for everyone. His own anger was barely sheathed beneath a relatively calm facade. He glanced at Spock, who was standing quietly listening to the conversation, then back at the woman, and the anger burned stronger. Spock would not be standing there with that cane in his hands and those deep brown eyes cut off from the world if it was not for this woman's selfish, war-provoking actions.

'Ambassador, I am going to call a security team, and you are going to go back to your quarters,' he said flatly. 'I'm sure that a Starfleet team on the nearest starbase will be able to get some answers.'

He turned towards the intercom, but he was brought up short by a long grey weapon pointed straight at him. The four attending Pernicians had slowly circled around until two were by the door, one was standing near Spock, and the forth was standing in front of him now, her slim, grey, alien weapon pointed unwaveringly at his chest.

'What?'

Kirk had not had the chance to express his own surprise. That exclamation had come from the lips of Ambassador Necuhai. She was staring at her attendants as if they had gone mad. Her shocked eyes finally fell on the woman who was threatening Kirk.

'Jliel?'

'Charia, your mind is not so slow,' the woman, Jliel, said in a cold, precise voice. Kirk flinched at that voice, and one of Spock's eyebrows slowly raised in surprise. The tone was almost identical to that of the ambassador. The message had been sent by this woman, not by Charia Necuhai. 'Come over here, Charia. You'll be in the way if we have to shoot.'

Spock's eyebrow climbed even higher. 'Captain?' he asked.

'You?' the ambassador asked, not giving Kirk a chance to respond. She moved slowly across the room to face the woman. 'You, Jliel, killed my husband?'

'No. I helped to keep our world a warring world,' Jliel said flatly, and Kirk shuddered at the sincerity in those words. The woman's hair braids were scraped up on top of her head to increase her height, and her eyes burned dark red in her light purple skull, giving her words a fanatical edge. The ambassador stared at Kirk, at Spock, then at each Pernician in turn, then she went back to her chair at the table and sat down stiffly. She would not allow herself to slump.

'Continue, Jliel,' she said flatly, with a deep resignation.

'So,' the woman said. She pointed one purple finger at the door, and said, 'Sevaln.'

The tall, muscular male Pernician moved to the door and pushed onto it a small round device which held in place as if it was magnetic.

'Captain, please explain,' Spock pressed, taking a step towards Kirk.

'Put that stick down,' Jliel said flatly.

Spock said nothing, but the slight raising of one eyebrow was enough of a question.

'Do as she says, Spock,' Kirk said. 'They have weapons.'

Spock bent very slowly to put the folded cane on the floor, then straightened up again. The woman beckoned the male, he picked the cane up and laid it on the table. She pulled out two chairs and set them a few metres apart.

'Kirk, sit down,' she said, pointing to one of the chairs.

Kirk stepped slowly over to the chair and sat down on it, alternating his glance between the Pernician ambassador and Spock's face. His hands were wrenched behind the back of the chair and clipped together in a pair of slim, grey cuffs. He tried to pull his wrists apart, not because he had any hope that they would break, but because of the frustration he felt at having walked into this trap and at being helpless to assist Spock if he needed it.

'Captain?' Spock asked.

'My hands are tied. Don't try anything.'

'No,' the woman said coldly. 'Tell him nothing that his eyes should tell him. Communicate nothing.'

As Spock stood in the middle of the room his hands too were cuffed together behind his back. Jliel moved around to stand in front of him, and she slapped his face hard.

'Arrogant, interfering, pestilent Vulcan!'

Spock took a half step back at the slap, but he only raised an eyebrow slowly at the odd verbal abuse. 'I have done nothing that was not in the performance of my duties,' he said flatly.

'You should have died in the explosion. You should have seen nothing.'

She wheeled him around, pulling at the fabric of his top, and pushed him back to the empty chair.

'Sit down,' she said, and Kirk was amazed at the contempt that she could pack into just those two words.

Spock did not move a muscle - instead, he said coldly, 'I am blind - that is your doing. My hands are bound - that is also your doing. Show me where the chair is.'

The woman impatiently manhandled him backwards and pushed him down into the seat. Spock leaned back into the chair without a word, seemingly unaffected by the awkward position of his tied arms behind him.

'So, Jliel,' the ambassador said from her seat at the table. 'I assume you have worked out a plan?'

'Of course. I ordered a ship as soon as I found they knew of the pipe. We will leave as soon as it becomes possible. We must be close enough to Pernician space to warp into its protection.'

'Very well,' she nodded. She stood up, seeming to pull together her dignity as she did, and folded her arms across her chest. 'Meanwhile, I am still ambassador, Jliel. You are under my command.'

'Of course,' the woman nodded, and Kirk was rather surprised at her simple acquiescence. 'You are the wife of Sheval. His authority over me is now yours.'

'As long as you remember that,' she said firmly.

******

Kirk sat and looked across into his first officer's face. The last thirty silent minutes had seemed more like an hour. If Spock could see, a hundred subtle expressions could be sent and interpreted across that silent gap, but Spock sat motionless as if he was alone in the room. All Kirk could do was sit and wait. He could do nothing when occasionally the bored guards decided to aim a kick at the Vulcan's legs, or when they swiped at his head with his own cane or taunted him for their own amusement. Spock barely reacted to the abuse other than trying to avoid the blow if he heard it coming.

'How long is this going to go on?' Kirk asked at last, levelling his gaze at Jliel. She was standing stiffly at the end of the table, alternating her focus between him and Spock.

'Until we can leave this ship. I am not about to let you arrest me, Captain Kirk, and put me in one of your cells. Once we're back in Pernician space, and your ship is limping out here with no warp engines to move with, nothing can be done.'

'What makes you think we're just going to let you beam out of here?' Kirk asked incredulously. 'As soon as your ship comes into transporter range, we'll raise our shields, and you'll be trapped in here.'

'We have weapons, Captain. We are capable of weakening your shields enough to beam out.'

'So why don't you just blow us up?' Kirk asked with a black recklessness. 'Then you'd get your war.'

'Captain, I do not want peace, I do not want to be forced under your Federation law to stop our people warring against each other, but neither do I want my entire race slaughtered by Federation ships as we would be if we destroyed a starship. I am not going to destroy something quite so important. One life should be enough to ensure your Federation never asks for peace again.'

'One life?' Kirk echoed. He glanced across at Spock, aware for the first time that the Vulcan was in serious danger. 'Whose life?'

'Well now, let me see, Captain,' the woman said in an intensely patronising tone. 'If I killed you, your Vulcan would accept it logically and go back to his studies. If I kill your Vulcan, as he should have been killed two months ago, you will rage and grieve, and insist that the Federation never again allows a Pernician into your space. You are an influential man, Captain Kirk.'

Kirk bit his lip, angry that he could not simply deny the truth of what she had said. He could never accept peace from a race who had deliberately killed his friend to prevent that peace.

'And then, Captain Kirk, we will be left to ourselves, and our wars, and your immoral, irreligious Federation citizens will never be brought together with pure Pernicians and be allowed to taint their minds.'

'She appears to be a fanatic, Captain,' Spock observed.

He had not reacted to the death threat other than by a minute lift of one eyebrow. Kirk was suddenly struck with the chilling thought that perhaps Spock did not mind death as an alternative to blindness - but all of those feelings seemed to have been confined to his time on Earth. If anything, Spock was coming out of that dark time. Kirk had seen less of the sudden dull silences or shocking outbreaks of emotion. He could not let Spock die now, just when he was beginning to live again.

******

Lieutenant Uhura glanced at the chronometer again, taking in the time. It had been almost forty minutes since Spock had left the bridge - plenty of time for him and the captain to speak to the Pernician ambassador and put her in a security cell or confine her to quarters. By now Kirk should be up on the bridge taking command, giving orders to close on the shadowing ship and investigate its purpose.

'Lieutenant Bryson, what's that ship doing now?' she asked, turning her chair towards the science console.

The woman straightened up and pushed a strand of blond hair away from her pale face. 'Still out there - but it's not running parallel any more. It's closed by a thousand kilometres. It still doesn't show any signs of confronting us though.'

'Okay, Jen,' Uhura smiled. She looked out at the viewscreen - the ship was still barely visible except as a tiny white dot on the screen - although perhaps it was a little larger than it had been. 'Sulu, how long before we reach Pernician space?'

There was a pause as he checked his instruments, then he looked up and met her eyes as he said, 'Five hours, twenty-three minutes.'

Uhura nodded, oddly glad that the shift had changed and now Sulu and Chekov were at the helm rather than officers she barely knew. It was reassuring to have them there.

She flicked open the intercom. 'Uhura to Captain Kirk.' She waited a few seconds for a reply, then tried, 'Lieutenant Uhura to Recreation Room Nine... Uhura to Mr Spock.'

She waited long enough to be sure there was going to be no reply. Sulu glanced over his shoulder at her, exchanging a worried look.

'It looks like Ambassador Necuhai set up the explosion,' she explained softly. 'The captain went to confront her. I guess Mr Spock went too.' She turned back to Bryson, and said, 'Jen, run a scan of rec room nine. See who's in there.'

'I can go down there,' Chekov offered, half rising from his chair.

'Not while you're on duty here, mister,' she said firmly, half amused at his enthusiasm. She had heard Chekov grumble a few times at being asked to act as Mr Spock's unofficial helper since he returned to the ship, but she had also heard him in a recreation room one night when one of the other ensigns had questioned Spock's competence. All of his defensive hackles had raised and he had soundly told the ensign exactly how bigoted and prejudiced her views were.

'The captain's down there too, Pavel,' Sulu said with an amused smile. 'If Mr Spock needs help he's not alone.'

'Jen, have you got that scan?' Uhura asked, becoming slowly more anxious as time ticked on.

'Y-es,' she said slowly, bending over the scanner column. 'Five Pernicians, one human, one Vulcan.'

'Can you tell where they are in the room?'

'One second,' she said. 'I'm just overlaying the plan... Two Pernicians at the door, one at the end of the table, one standing by the wall at the back, one a metre out from the wall at the end of the room. The captain and Mr Spock are in the middle of the room, two metres apart.'

Uhura grimaced at that. The captain and Spock were circled by Pernicians, and not answering the intercom.

'I'm not sure,' Bryson said hesitantly, turning from her station, 'but I think they might have weapons.'

'Weapons should have been picked up the moment they beamed onto the ship!' Uhura said in shock.

'They're shielded somehow, but just barely readable.'

'How many?'

'Four, held by each of the aliens excepting the one at the table.'

She flicked open a channel, and ordered, 'Lieutenant Uhura to Security.'

'Security. Lieutenant Shriver here.'

'Take a team down to Recreation Room Nine,' she ordered. 'But be discreet. There are five Pernicians in there, four of them armed, and the captain and Mr Spock may be in danger. If the door doesn't open, don't bang on it and let them know you're outside. Send another team to apprehend the rest of the Pernicians on the ship. Put them in a holding cell and don't let them communicate with anyone.'

'Acknowledged. We're on our way.'

The time it took for a team to reach the room seemed like hours to Uhura on the bridge, but she knew it would take them only a minute at most. Finally the call came back;

'The door won't open, Lieutenant. We didn't make a sound - they shouldn't know we're out here.'

'Okay, Shriver,' Uhura nodded, then closed that channel and opened another. 'Uhura to Engineering. Mr Scott?'

'Aye, lass?' came the prompt response.

'Mr Scott, how are you at cutting through doors?'