Casual Contact
A/N: Finally got the next one done - thank you for all the favourites, reviews and follows! Glad you're enjoying this - hope you feel the same for this chapter :)
L'Den!
Desert – death…
Children… they don't know – innocent
My duty
Not one of you – hide… hide
Stranger… kindness – don't deserve
Stranger…
Stranger…
"Jim."
"Yeah, he'll be back soon enough," A familiar voice grumbled, fading as the owner moved further away, "For goodness sake, whispering his name – when's the wedding."
Katina – no, Spock – hesitantly opened his eyes; confusion hit him at the sight of the Enterprise's infrastructure rather than the crowded and bloodied hospital ward, thoughts, memories, feelings that weren't his but still were crashing throughout his mind.
As a child at the academy they were taught a mind-meld should only be attempted with peak health and focus, without these factors the thin barriers that maintain the distinction between two minds become blurred and all control over the action is lost. At the time Spock questioned this teaching, wasn't the purpose of a meld to make the participants one in thought – if all barriers were retracted wouldn't this create further potential in the use and benefit of the practice.
Now he understood.
On opening his mind the girl's entire essence had flooded over him, it was with what little strength he had that he clung onto the strands of his own mind; memories became mixed, he saw his tenth birthday when he had to switch his colourful child's attire for the drab shade of a typical Kandrian and remembered how he'd cried, shouting curses at his father as he threw the beautiful clothes on the fire, yet he also remembered his mother tying a blue ribbon under the cuff of his academy uniform, telling him it was okay to be different as she ushered him out the door.
He remembered his parents grabbing him from his bed and attaching a mask to his face, whispering that they were leaving, no he couldn't say goodbye to his friends, their new home was where they belonged; then the cut of heat on his skin, the cramped cave where they slept before the metal houses were built.
He remembered explosions, he remembered pain… he remembered… oh he remembered –
Folding her body into a doorway as two elderly men strolled by, her hand stroked the leather bag at her waist again, whether this was for reassurance or out of fear it was hard to tell; although having a dozen explosives bouncing by your side even if they were fingerprint activated didn't exactly lower nerves.
She had been waiting for this chance since she was a child listening to stories of the controlling power the Keeper of Halls held over them, how they were nothing more than slaves to the system and had no individual freedom. The movement had begun their active protests about ten years ago; before then focus had been establishing the headquarters and building up supplies, yet she had never witnessed this history – they had arrived once the attacks had already started.
The men had disappeared around the corner so with a second glance she slipped out of the shadow and continued down the street, ensuring her gaze remained fixed to the floor.
Originally she hadn't been scheduled for this one; however the previous mission had seen more injuries than expected so she'd been bumped up, this was just a throw-in attack anyway, the risk was very minimal.
A weight suddenly pressed against her leg and she spun around, hand clenched over the gun hidden under her coat but there was no threat, just a small ball faintly vibrating from the impact. She knelt down and scooped it up with one hand, rolling it between her fingers then gently throwing it up in the air a couple of times; she couldn't remember ever having such a toy, anything she had played with always had a second motive – facial control, target practice, muscle building – this flimsy ball gave no such benefit… yet the whisper of a smile stroked her face as the soft material passed through her fingers.
"Sorry!" A child's voice shouted down the street, the energetic patter of feet accompanying the voice, "I didn't mean to hit you."
"No problem," Katina smiled at the young boy, momentarily forgetting to keep her gaze fixed down as she raised her head to return the ball.
She realised her mistake as the boy's face twisted into an expression of terror and a shaking finger pointed at her with accusation, "You… your eyes! You –"
His mouth opened wider in preparation to scream when suddenly his body jerked forward and he slumped to the ground.
Katina had to restrain her own cry as she watched L'Den pull the syringe out of the child's neck and throw it back in his bag with a casualness that scared her, "What did you do that for!"
The pitch black eyes that echoed her own flicked down to rest on her, hiding any indication of how he really felt for his action; even his tone remained the epitome of neutral, "He was going to blow our cover – then what use would we be rotting in a prison?"
"He's a child!"
"Hence why I gave him the minimal dose," A hint of the sarcastic tone she only heard when he wasn't training or on duty slipped through, "In a couple of hours he'll wake up with full health and by then we'll be long gone – now help me hide him behind this statue."
Once they'd ensured all his limbs were out of view she gently laid the young boy's head against a brick that was partly jutted out of the wall and without thinking, found her fingers softly sweeping his hair out of his closed eyes. He looked so small, so vulnerable… how many more innocent children would be running, laughing and playing in the streets they were about to attack; how many were going to be soon laying in this position but with no hope of waking again.
Soft skin traced the nape of her neck and she lifted her head to the face of the man she had fallen in love with; not the soldier who only thought of the cause and snapped to attention at the bark of an order… but the friend who could sense her emotions even with the black glass that hid the colours of her eyes, who snuck her out of the main headquarters to an isolated cave where she could weep for her dead friends and scream abuse at their leaders for starting this fight as he held her shaking form firmly in his arms, the boy who however much he hid it – was also being torn with guilt for the children they may catch in the crossfire.
"They play in the fountain on the other side of the square at this time of day," He whispered.
"This one wasn't," She replied with a faint breath.
The pressure of his fingers hardened in a show of support and her eyes closed as his lips stroked her hair; she allowed herself a second to capture the moment, pretend they were back in the camp and not facing the harsh realities of war.
"Come on," His sharp tone regaining control as he took her elbow and lifted her away from the child, "The others will be wondering where we are."
She focused on the grip on her arm as they hurried down the street, taking strength from L'Den; sometimes it seemed like that was all he did – stand as her rock and protector.
"What do you call this!" Scratchily barked their mission leader as they ducked behind a large plant ornament.
"Sorry," Katina sliced in reply, she'd never bothered to find out this guy's name however she'd witnessed enough of his tantrums about how people were stupid enough to get themselves killed on missions and how it just made his job harder to hold a strong dislike for the man.
"Try that answer again," He spat, leaning into her personal space.
Per usual L'Den was ready on her defence, "We had a couple of by-passers, or should we have just strolled over and let everyone know we're here?"
The Kandrian clicked his jaw and his hand twitched as if to strike, but fortunately for the leader, since Katina had a thin dagger primed for his neck, the device attached to all of their earlobes started to beep signalling to begin the attack.
Settling with a supposedly threatening snarl which resembled more of a grunt he sprung from the ground and lobbed the first explosive, diving behind a parallel house as the blast rebounded and the screams began.
They grasped each other's hands before sprinting in opposite directions to unite their own weapons with the anarchy that had erupted; it was an unspoken fact within the movement that if you were on a mission with someone you cared for, never remain together on the field as it caused distraction and vastly lowered the chance of you both surviving.
She'd always thought throwing that first explosive, seeing buildings shatter and crumble and knowing it was her who had caused it would be a momentous moment; in reality she had already released four before she realised what she was doing.
Screams, vibrations, brick soaring through the air, blood painting the surroundings, it was all too much to contemplate; the only thing that was there was the natural instinct to protect yourself – throw the weapons to stop anything approaching you, cause explosions so they know you are a threat to not come near.
She wasn't lobbing the devices to promote their cause; she was doing it to save her life.
Her name was screamed through the smoke and her gaze snapped up in time to dive out of the path of a stray wall; a crack sounded in a part of her body and her sight disappeared as thick liquid rushed down her head.
She tore the end of her jacket and harshly scrubbed the blood off, gritting her teeth as a stabbing sensation tore through her on running to a new vantage point; the red covering her hands made them slippery and she fumbled with the next device, cursing as it failed to recognise her fingerprint.
Katina spat on her hand and scraped it against her clothes, eventually clearing the skin enough for the explosive to accept her print; she chucked it behind her head without looking, by now it wasn't like it made a difference where it landed anyway, only a few minutes had passed and already the area was a pile of rubble.
Just about to release another one she took a second to poke her head up to survey the activity… and her blood ran cold.
Frozen in the middle of the street, tears gushing down her cheeks, was a little girl clutching a soft toy and screaming for her mother.
Yet before Katina could think to move her legs to reach the child an overly familiar figure emerged from the smoke, flinging the bag off his back and swinging her into his arms.
Suddenly everything seemed to slow down; her eyes flicked up and she saw the silver glint of an explosive trailing through the sky, her gaze followed the trajectory and landed on where L'Den was beginning to run with the little girl.
His name tore from her lips and for one fleeting moment, those black eyes found hers, with no way of knowing if under the glass his expression of love was shining… and then he was gone.
She didn't move as the blast sent a torrent of rubble in her direction, she couldn't utter a sound as a brick cracked against her head and she felt the glass over her eyes fly out, she didn't care when her voice instinctively screamed as the side of a house crushed her legs, there was no relief when a medical assistant assumed she was a victim and took her to the hospital.
L'Den was gone – why would she feel anything.
"His heart rate is all over the place, give him another dose."
"If I give him anything else it'll knock him into a coma and you promised the Captain you'd leave him conscious."
"That was before the damn Vulcan went haywire – ideally I'd want to let him fall into a natural sleep but that isn't happening so I'm left with knocking him out and hoping it doesn't cause permanent brain damage and that he'll actually wake up again."
"Wake up again? How is that worth the risk!"
"Because if I don't do anything his body is soon going to fail on him and he'll die anyway!"
Spock gasped as he was flung from the memory, his body jerking against the restraints; he recognised the voices this time, he had to tell them… they needed to know.
Through the Kandrian's mind he had seen where the headquarters were, he knew the route – if they could make contact then negotiations could be organised and the attacks would cease… he couldn't let more die – not for that, not for this.
"Doctor! He's seizing!" Nurse Chapel exclaimed, unable to make the injection with the Commander's flailing limbs.
Bones rushed over and clamped down on his body, practically lying on top of him due to the Vulcan's vast strength, "Christine!"
Spock tried to shout, if they seeped him into an unconscious state it would be too late, it couldn't be stopped – his mouth twisted in numerous positions, he strained his vocal cord willing it to work but a guttural screech was all that was achieved.
Whispered plans he - she – had eavesdropped, words she had refused to believe and had forgotten to not deal with the confusion of mixed loyalties whereas he understood… it was all in danger, they were all in danger.
He felt the coolness of the hypo touch his arm and he managed to swing his head to lock eyes with the blonde nurse; through the gaze attempting to convey the definitive need to remain active, lives were at stake, Jim needed to know – her blue orbs locked to his for a millisecond and in that gaze he thought he saw an agreement.
Then the pierce of a needle pricked his skin.
It was over… his body fell weak at the defeat and stopped fighting against the restraints allowing the doctor to slowly climb off the bed; he heard the clatter of the hypo on the tray and the footsteps of the two medical professionals retreating to the office, the uncharacteristic soothing mutters of the doctor as he comforted the nurse that her favourite Vulcan was resilient and of course he'd pull through.
Spock lay in silence, waiting for his mind to shut down under the influence of the drugs, the dull pounding in his head refusing to let him use any last effort to devise another method to inform the Captain of the coming attack… however after the delegated time that a dosage for his body mass should have taken effect his brows drew together and he lifted his head.
He was still conscious, or so much in the terms his current health allowed.
Ignoring the dizziness, he assessed he was still alone so with a struggle managed to break out of the leather cuffs strapped around his wrists and feet; luckily the doctor hadn't tightened them to their maximum extent but his skin still felt scrubbed of a couple of layers.
He slowly positioned himself upright on the bed – how had the medication not fulfilled its purpose? If he had full health it would be possible, yet in his current state the probability was… was… it was small.
The Vulcan picked up the hypo he had been injected with, bringing it closer to his face the realisation washed over him – Nurse Chapel hadn't actually pushed the liquid into his body.
He was going to attempt adequate conversation with that woman whenever he saw her from now on.
Yet at this moment, he needed to find Jim.
He was the only one who would listen, the second the doctor spotted him a hypo would jab his neck and this time it would actually enter; the nurse would have no advantage.
By stumbling against the wall and grasping onto any item in close proximity he managed to make it to the door; dark patches blocked his vision but there was the general picture that he was now making his way down the corridor leading to the medical bay.
He was sure he had a memory of the Captain sitting by his bed, then going with someone to check on something – so the board room would be a fair guess… although it was hard to tell which of the three corners that were swaying in front of him was the right way to go.
The images wouldn't stay still and his head kept pounding, so he went for the one on the left – a hard surface greeted him and he went stumbling backwards, however a pair of arms grabbed his waist before he lost his balance.
Shakily he turned his head to see who had helped him, only to witness a pair of large black eyes and a device he didn't recognise before he was submerged by darkness.
Having quickly explained the very little he knew of the rebel attacks that were taking place on Kandra, Jim stopped pacing to take place behind his chair and spread his gaze across the room's occupants, "I realise this isn't much to go on –"
"All've yer said is there's some fightin' going on and people are getting' hurt."
"Yes thank you Mr Scott," He replied with an ineffective glare, "Yet as I was about to say, I think I may have worked out who's behind the attack."
Sliding a handful of files across the table that he'd had Uhura make up in record speed, he picked up his own copy and flicked through it as he spoke, "This is O'Kal, the leader of Kandra's first off-world mission; he and the other eight people in this file were sent twenty-five years ago to visit Earth who the planets had strong relations with since establishing the treaty signing with the United Federation."
"Which we've still had yet to re-sign," Sulu muttered under his breath.
Whacking the pilot over the head with his file, Jim then dropped it and spread out the clip pictures of the nine travellers in front of him, "Now they stayed there for approximately four months in which the proper reports were relayed back and our side can confirm the guests were fully cooperative and pleasing even if a bit too honest, basically nothing out of place there – however finding out what happened when they returned home was a bit harder."
Unlike normal briefings, Uhura looked to him for indication that she should take over the explanation; he gave a small nod – he may be angry at her for her treatment of Spock but that didn't mean it was going to intrude with their jobs.
"Right, well the files the Kandrian's system has on hand stops after a report submitted two days before the team was scheduled to return, so I had to do some hacking, which actually had more complicated algorithms than I would have assumed," Her lip twitched at the refreshing challenge it had presented, "However eventually I got through and although it seems they completely destroyed most reports in relation to the return there were bits and pieces left lying around."
"A large ceremony had been organised for the ship's landing, as planned the craft docked and the Keeper of Halls at the time stepped forward to greet the travellers; but when the freeze ladder was lowered nobody came down. Some guards were sent on board to investigate yet they didn't return," She ran a hand through her ponytail, "Then the information gets skewed but the gist is the travellers caused a lot of injuries and killed a handful of people, that must be the destroyed area you found Chekov, before fleeing – and there's no indication to where they went."
"But vhy would they do zat?" The young scientist piped up, looking to the Captain for an answer.
But unfortunately he didn't have one, "I don't know – however it does mean we're aware who started this rebel movement and it seems from the extent of attacks I saw on that map they've been recruiting over the past quarter century, so at least now we have something to throw at K'Son to try and get him to accept our help."
"Oh because if ve know their hidden history anyvay there is no need to deny our assistance to try and protect their secret."
"Exactly," Jim grinned, resisting the urge to ruffle the kid's hair, "Despite all their 'we have no privacy' routine no form of politician wants to admit they've got civil unrest which is likely why he doesn't want us getting too close. Okay you and Sulu come with me – we're going to go have another chat with K'Son."
"Yer need anything from us?" Scotty called out.
"Keep an eye on the scope of the area," He replied, "And send down help with as much discretion as possible, we want to help but retain political niceties with the planet at the same time."
The engineer rose from the table with a toothy grin, "Nuthin hard then."
Jim winked and slid from the room; if there was one man he could trust with the task of being invisible it was Scotty, he may appear loud and boisterous but he'd found him in plenty of unauthorised places with security cameras and guards who had no evidence of him entering.
The three men had jogged down a collection of corridors when Sulu took note of the coloured line on the floor and aimed a confused eye on the back of the Captain's head, "Um – the transporter rooms in the opposite direction."
He didn't receive a reply, so he turned his gaze to his friend.
Chekov's mouth twisted into a sympathetic line and he rubbed a finger to his ear; understanding hit the pilot, the Captain was visiting the Commander before they went on planet.
However before they could turn into the medical bay the doctor came sprinting out and hit Jim full on, sending them both flying to the floor; pushing his body off the soft landing Bones opened his eyes to the sight of the mother hen he'd been hoping to avoid, "Dammit."
"Where you rushing to? Is Spock okay?" The fact Jim didn't make a joke about the man being pleased to see him as he crawled out from underneath his friend showed the extent of worry he was attempting to hide.
There wasn't really an option to lie since there'd be no chance of stopping the kid from trying to see the Vulcan, so he took a breath and tensed his hand in preparation for the fist that would instinctively take path for his jaw, "He's missing."
Bones caught the punch and twisted his friend's arm behind his back, gripping his other arm around the man's chest and angling his head to whisper for his ears only; it was a stance he'd had to do a lot back in the academy as Jim was prone to emotional outbursts.
"He wasn't in a state to get far, most likely he went off trying to find you in his confused condition so I'll search the ship, escort him back and let him rest," There was no point causing further panic by informing him the Vulcan was on the verge of death, "Now go and do whatever you guys were heading to do before you redirected them here and leave the patients to me."
Jim sighed and tapped his friend's hand, signalling that he was calm enough to have the grip released, but he turned and kept the same small distance so to maintain privacy of the conversation, "If he left looking for me then I'm staying to find him."
"Dammit you're a Captain; your duty is to the safety of the galaxy first and foremost!"
"Well sometimes my crew ranks higher priority."
"Letting emotions guide you – that's a slippery slope you don't want to go down Jim."
"That's not what this is! You don't even know where we were heading, Sulu and Chekov are fully capable of handling the task we need without me, however ensuring the ship's First Officer doesn't go and get himself killed is something that requires just a bit more focus!"
"Look," Bones softened his tone, placing a hand on his friend's arm, "I know you have this… affection for Spock – but he's probably just a few corridors away right now and perfectly fine; these attacks, that hospital ward - you have to put the lives of thousands of Kandrians first.
Jim's gaze hardened at the implication he'd purposely endanger lives and a heavy silence fell over the two men; he sharply pulled his arm from the man's grip and turned his back on him, switching to Sulu and Chekov who were awkwardly shuffling their feet a few meters away, "Go down to the Shanma and find K'Son, politely re-request that he accept our help then when he refuses inform him of our knowledge of the situation – push him for an agreement as much as you can without him demanding to break alliance."
"Are you not coming with us Captain?" Sulu asked.
"Originally I was going to wait on hand in the transporter room however now we have Spock to find, I'll conn Uhura to make herself available if you need any advice," He threw a pointed look at the doctor, "After my near punch up with K'Son earlier we'll have a greater chance of co-operation if somebody else talks to him."
"Good thinking," The pilot agreed, clapping his friend on the shoulder, "Let's go then."
Chekov hesitated, taking a small step forward to catch the doctor's eye, "Is ze Commander in danger?"
Bones internally sighed at the kicked puppy face but managed to throw on a reassuring smile, "He'll be fine – the robot just doesn't know when to take a break."
The answer seemed to satisfy the kid and he returned the expression before jogging off in Sulu's wake.
Once they were out of sight Jim suddenly spun around and leaned into his friend's face, his words released as a sharp hiss, "I care for my friends and will always do everything in my power to protect them – but don't you ever accuse me of putting innocent lives at risk for my own personal needs… if you were on a meteor heading to destroy a civilisation, I would try to save you until the last possible millisecond – but if it couldn't be done and there was no other alternative I would push the button to destroy the meteor myself," His tone dispersed to a hollow breath, "However much it would kill me… because that's the deal you sign up to when you become a Captain."
Bones gaze dropped to the ground as the young man stepped back, keeping it fixed as his friend continued speaking, "Now you go and search the labs while I scan through the places I can normally be found – conn me if you find him."
Jim didn't wait to see if the doctor was going to give him some form of apology; they could sort that out later – right now he needed to find Spock and make sure he got better, because what he'd just told Bones was true… however he'd only made up the idea of planning to stay in the transporter room anyway when he heard the Vulcan was missing, his mind had just been focused on remaining on board to ensure his friend's safety not whether or not he was needed to talk to K'Son…
And that truth scared him.
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