I do not own anything other than Yamada Seiko and the plot (as it takes place after the Narada Incident). Thank you to all that have reviewed or added this story to their favorites.
I'm sorry for the tardiness and unusual quality of this chapter. I hope that those of you that have been, or are currently enrolled in school can understand. Please forgive me.
Chapter Ten
The bed was bouncy, much different from what Seiko had expected when Spock asked her if she wanted the room beside his own. The warmth and a full stomach were making her a little drowsy, but she had to keep her eyes open. Spock wanted to speak to her before she was gone for the night.
"Wake up!" she yelled at herself, smacking her face lightly and shaking her head. Jumping up, she started to jog in place, making sure to keep her eyes focused on the door. "Gotta stay awake."
A few minutes later, the doorbell rang and Seiko pressed the button to unlock it. In the doorway was Spock, an eyebrow disappearing into his hair from the scene before him. "Seiko, may I ask what you are doing?"
Still running in place, Seiko looked up at him and smiled sheepishly. "Trying to stay awake. Between the warmth in here and the food, I'm about to pass out, but you wanted to see me, so I have to keep myself awake so that you don't get mad at me, because I'm sure you want to talk about the mission tomorrow, and I don't want to look like a newbie, and-"
"Seiko, please stop running and breathe. You are exhausted, I'm sure, so please sit," he said, amused and moved to sit in the chair next to the bed. When she sat, her eyes immediately closed, but she shook herself awake. "I am astonished that you are able to keep yourself conscious, Seiko. After recent events as well as the warmth in your quarters, that is."
Nodding, Seiko smiled and lulled a bit before she patted the seat next to her. "Would you like to sit here? That chair probably isn't too comfort…"
With a short nod and a quick movement, Spock sat beside Seiko and caught her. "I believe we should discuss this in the morning, Seiko. I only wanted to let you know that I will be here early to awake you. I also wanted to see what you retained from your readings, though I'm unsure whether or not you'd be able to answer my inquiries."
Seiko didn't answer as her head fell sideways onto Spock's shoulder, causing him to tense. When he looked down, he saw that her eyes were closed. The edges of his lips turned up slightly as he started to lean with Seiko onto the bed. Before she could fall from his shoulder, he grabbed her shoulders and rested her onto her pillow. She didn't even stir.
"Perhaps we shall speak in the morning," Spock said in a low voice, brushing her hair from her face. He would only admit to himself that he wished he could stay, but he had many things to do before they landed on the comet in the morning. He'd let her sleep for now.
Moving to stand up from the bed, the Vulcan felt a hand on his. When he looked down, he saw Seiko's fingers wrapped around his and a small rush of contentment ran through his hands. She was comfortable with him around her, and he could say the same. Sitting back down at her side, he watched for a moment or two longer before a small push in his mind forced him forward.
Without thinking about what exactly he was doing, Spock's lips brushed against the sleeping girl's cheek, a rush of warmth spreading through the both of them. Spock's eyes had slid shut while his lips searched for a new target. Seiko's lips were just that, and upon touching them, the Vulcan jumped away from her and covered his mouth.
Wiping his mouth, Spock left the room, hoping not to turn back. Nevertheless, it couldn't be helped.
Pulling on her boots, Seiko heard the doorbell ring and pressing a button, she saw someone she hadn't be expecting that morning. "Oh. Hey, Hikaru!"
"Hey, Akuma-chan."
"My name is not Akuma-chan, jerk."
"Oh, relax. At least you aren't Chibi like Pavel. He doesn't understand what that means," Sulu said as he leaned against the doorway and laughed.
"Poor guy. What are you doing here anyway? Shouldn't you be licking whipped cream off of said Russian right now?" she asked, looking up at her male counterpart.
"Should be, but Spock asked me to come get you."
Seiko stopped for a moment and looked at him. "But… He said he'd be coming himself."
"Seems he's a bit under the weather. He wants to just get everything done with so that the two of you can have the rest of the day off."
She could feel her heart fall slightly at the news that Spock just wanted to get everything done so that he could disappear, most likely into the lab. With a short sigh, Seiko stood and followed Sulu to the transporter room where the Commander was already on the pad with a blue suit on. His eyes rested anywhere but on her.
"Here ya go, lass," a man in red told her while handing her a red suit, one that would proclaim her cadet standing, had she been one. Her eyes narrowed and her jaw clenched slightly as she pulled it on. It wasn't his fault that she had to wear it, but she wondered why Spock wasn't going to bother correcting him.
The suit was a bit snug for Seiko's tastes, but once it was zipped up, it felt just like a second skin. Pulling on the helmet, she picked up a bag that Spock had left waiting for her. She joined him on the pad.
"Alright, guys. If you can call me before the time limit ends, that would be fantastic. I don't think Mr. Sulu would like to dodge asteroids as I attempt to get a lock on ya. I'll give you guys fifty-five minutes, then I'm beamin' ya back up."
"Of course, Mr. Scott. Energize," Spock said behind his mask. Rings of light appeared around both crewmembers and they were gone.
The first glimpse that Seiko got of the sky beyond the comet was indescribable. Her heart leapt in her throat at the sheer beauty of being hurled through space on a small chunk of rock while staring at the billions of stars beyond it. "Wow…"
"Miss Yamada, we have a job to do," Spock's low voice said to her, pulling her out of her stargazing. She glanced at him for a moment before taking out her PADD to begin retrieving her items.
The list was quite short, two items in fact. She knew that they had written more on the list and she was appalled that Spock would only give her things that a security office could manage.
-Any Plant Life (If Applicable)
-Anything of Distinguishable Colour
"You've gotta be kidding me," she hissed and started to stamp around the surface of the comet, looking for what she had while Spock was kneeling a few feet away, collecting his samples.
What the hell happened after I fell asleep that he won't talk to or look at me? She asked herself as she looked on the ground. Did I say something that made him uncomfortable?
Seiko couldn't focus on what she was doing as long as Spock ignored her. She was walking towards a few craters when she noticed something she hadn't been expecting. Plant life, maybe. Something of colour, sure. But a stark white skull was definitely not on her list.
"Spock?" she called out, staring at the empty pits that once held eyes full of wonder and possibly intelligence. Bending towards the item and kneeling beside it, her gloved fingers trained over its polished surface. It was human, or at least humanoid. Though the canines in front were a bit too long.
"What is it?" Spock asked, appearing by her side. His boots didn't move an inch when he saw what Seiko was touching. "Please remove your hands."
"But…"
"Remove them." Pulling out his communication device, Spock stared at the stars. "Mr. Scott. Please beam Ms. Yamada on board. I must finish something here and will contact you."
"Yes, sir."
"Wait! Spock!" Seiko yelled as she tried to grab him. He pulled away from her reach and the light around her swirled and took her back to the Enterprise. Reappearing, Seiko yanked off her helmet and threw it across the room. "Damn it!"
"What's wrong, Yamada?"
"Spock's a bastard, that's what's wrong!" she yelled, dropping the bag that Spock hadn't taken and stomped out of the room. Upon her departure, she only heard a sigh and then more communication between the engineer, Spock, and most likely the bridge.
Seiko wasn't paying attention to where she was going in the least, so when she banged into someone with her shoulder, she was caught off guard, but she didn't stop. She was too frustrated to bother.
"Ya know, you could say sorry. You better be lucky that I'm the Chief Medical Officer here, or else you'd be thrown off this ship for unnecessary roughness with a co-worker!" Bone's voice drifted to her, though the further away she got, the louder he became. "Hey! Are you listening to me or not?"
She wasn't listening. The only one that she would listen to at this point was Jim, and not by choice. He was the captain. Seiko couldn't really deny his superior position, as much as he irritated her sometimes. But she sure as hell wasn't going to be listening to her "master" anytime soon.
Punching in the code for her room, Seiko rushed in, let the door close and leaned against it, her eyes tearing up. This had been the first chance that she could actually put her knowledge and abilities to use and that stupid skull had gotten in her way. Whatever died on that comet had better have a good reason for it, in Seiko's opinion. Otherwise, she was going to find out what happened, find a way to resurrect the being and then kill it again.
It felt like hours that Seiko leaned against her door, her tears streaming silently down her cheeks. She wasn't entirely sure why she continued to cry after the initial outburst, but she did know that it involved Spock. Had he been offended by her inviting him to sit on the bed last night? Or worse, did she make a move on him in her tired state?
Seiko was horrified with the possibilities and sobbed into her knees at the prospect of making a fool of herself. If it had been anyone else. Whatever I did, why couldn't it have been with someone else? she groaned in her skull, making her heart lurch in sadness. Now that she had done…whatever it was that she did, Spock was going to treat her as any other member of the crew. She wouldn't be his… favorite?
"That's usually the word," she whispered to herself and dragged her body towards her bed. She didn't actually work on the Enterprise, and she wasn't getting paid to be here, so she might as well take advantage of the rejection that Spock had sent her way.
"What do you mean you can't do anything about it? I thought you were Admiral Pike of Star Fleet! You are one of the most profound men that I've seen take over in the Federation! We can't just leave a few dozen skeletal bodies out on the comet to burn up like nothing happened! It's our job to find out why they were there!" Jim yelled at the screen in disbelief when the man he had come to admire told him to leave the skeletons alone and leave them out of their reports.
The older man sighed from the Captain's outburst and shook his head. "Yes, it is our job, Kirk, but those skeletons could have appeared at any time in the comet's journey. Hell, those things could have been buried before and the comet's constant disintegration and restoration brought them to the surface. Hell, they could have come from someplace outside of Federation territory, something we haven't explored yet."
"Then shouldn't we at least take samples, Admiral? If this is the case, wouldn't it be better to study these anomalies for the sake of science?" Spock asked, having stood relatively quiet next to the Captain's chair up until now.
"Fine, do whatever you want. Take samples, get the things on board. Keep them locked up until you get back to Earth. I don't want anyone getting into these and believing that we were part of some conspiracy to destroy the other life forms in the universe," Admiral Pike said with disdain. He couldn't argue with either man, having too much respect for their points of view. "By the way. Spock, you said that Cadet Yamada found these skeletons. Where is she now?"
"I am unsure, Admiral. I had had Mr. Scott beam her aboard after her discovery and have not seen her since then."
Bones grunted and shook his head, while Jim was telling the science crew to suit up as quickly as possible to retrieve the bones. "I can tell you that. The little pan face-"
"Excuse me?" Sulu growled, turning in his seat to stare at the disgruntled CMO. The older man's eyes widened and then looked down.
"I apologize. I fear that my ex-wife is getting to me after all this time." Though he continued to glare, Sulu nodded and Pike motioned for him to go on. "Well, she rammed into me earlier, wearing a red space suit. Must have come from the transporter room, I guess. She wasn't happy, and looked to be going towards her room. She wouldn't listen to me."
With another sigh, Pike leaned back in his chair and shook his head. "Spock, I told you to watch her. She has high emotions, being a teen. If you piss her off, she'll likely storm off or end up blowing someone up."
"I believe that Cadet Yamada has found a stability in which her emotions do not render bystanders as targets. After the rape, I believe she's found a unique balance that will keep her in check."
Everyone on the bridge winced when Spock mentioned the rape as casually as he did. Even Jim looked up at him in distress. The whole ship knew that something had happened and that the security officer that orchestrated the attack had a broken arm, even when the Commander had attempted to take his life.
"Spock, I want you to go see that she is stable. I don't want some teenager to be in control of the ship just because she has some anger issues."
Sulu piped up and shook his head. "Sir, with all due respect, you have no idea the sort of person that Seiko is."
"And you know her so very well, do you, Sulu?"
"All I'm saying is that don't judge her so harshly. She was terrified of what she did that day, and probably lives in fear of what happened to her. Show some damn sympathy. She's a kid. Imagine if that happened to your daughter. Would you blow it off as some surplus of emotion? No. You'd go out and do what you could for her before you slaughtered the men that did it to her. That's what Spock had attempted to do, because he cares about her, and –"
"That is enough, Mr. Sulu," a voice said, surprising everyone. The voice came from none other than Bones. "Just let it go. I'll go see to her." With that, the CMO was gone to check up on the part Mari that was probably blowing things up in her room at that very second.
Spock's eyes travelled with Bones until the doors to the lift closed and cut him off from view. Sulu noticed and sighed quietly. A look from Chekov made his eyes narrow in warning. It was going to be a very long day, and it was only 1000 hours.