10.
"Captain," Spock said slowly, "Please remain still."
Kirk rolled his eyes upwards and tried to get a look at whatever was behind him. "What is it," he asked out of the corner of his mouth.
"A shadow," Spock replied, eyes fixed above his left ear.
"Very helpful, Mr. Spock," Kirk said, sarcastic. "What kind of a shadow?"
"It's a face," Uhura supplied, looking thoroughly amazed.
"What," Kirk said, instinctively making a turn.
"NO!" The crew hissed in unison, and Kirk froze. "Okay," he breathed. "Okay. What's it doing?"
"It's shushing us," Chekov said, eyes wide.
"While pushing a dagger-shaped shadow against your neck," Sulu added.
"It's — expanding now," Uhura continued, "Like a cloud..."
Kirk closed his eyes, heaved a long sigh through his nose, then opened them again."I am going to turn around," he said. "Slowly. Okay?"
"Jim, don't do anything stupid," McCoy warned. "Whatever it is, it's not showing up on our tricorder scans."
"Well I'm not just gonna sit here while you guys point phasers at my face!" Kirk hissed, irritated. He inched his shoulder backwards, little by little. "This is me turning, okay? Watch."
"Slow. Slooooooow." McCoy demanded, steadfastly ignoring Kirk's annoyed glare. "Just — hold your breath while you are at it, kay?"
"I got this, Bones, will you just..." With painstaking care, Kirk rotated his upper body, until his eyes became level with the wall.
Nothing.
"Well this better not be a prank," he said, flummoxed. "Where is it?"
"It's — still behind you," Sulu said.
Kirk whipped back round. "What?" He said, feeling dumb for the number of times he had to repeat himself. "It's following me?"
"It's perched behind your shoulder," Scotty said, eyes wide. "It's — ho! No, Captain, don't lead 'em around — "
But it was too late. Kirk already made another instinctive twist, trying to get a glimpse of his back. He heard Scotty yelp, then something — a thousand somethings — fluttered against his neck, coming to life.
"Holy shit! Captain! It's growing!" Scotty cried, "Oh my god, it's those things again! Their wings!"
Out of the corner of his eye, Kirk saw the wisp of a shadow solidifying into one of the spiky creatures that they saw down at the lake. Under the bright light, however, its wings shimmered, soft and willowy, looking nowhere near as frightening as it did before. He stared at one of the creatures straight in the head: it was translucent, wings shaking slightly as if it had just hatched from its egg.
The creature's wings fluttered as it struggled to keep afloat, then faltered, landing on Kirk's lap.
"Captain!" Scotty exclaimed loudly.
A pause.
Kirk could see the exact moment their minds all clicked: Uhura's eyes widened, Chekov made a face, McCoy rolled his eyes with a silent groan, and Sulu made an instinctive grab for his sword. Spock raised a swift hand to silence Scotty, but it was too late: with a faint zzzzziiiing, every single one of those creature's wings hardened into razor-sharp edges.
"Oh, I am sorry," Scotty breathed, baring his teeth in a grimace, watching helplessly as the creatures made a charge towards Spock's unprotected front.
Kirk made a lightening fast plunge. He knocked over and covered Spock's body with his own, hands over his head, hissing as the skin on the back of his hand split open. Their gaze met briefly — just the fraction of a second — and Spock pulled out his phaser.
"They appear to draw strength from loud noises," Spock declared, narrowing his eye and taking precise aim over Kirk's shoulder.
"You don't say!" McCoy hissed, covering his face with his medi-kit and ducking around awkwardly, "And here we thought we disturbed their nests when we pushed that rock!"
"It's not gonna make any difference!" Sulu yelled, swishing his sword around in a complicated move to create a virtual vacuum around himself, Chekov, and Uhura. "This place is too small! There's no way we can fight them once they're fully formed!"
"Where did 'ell did they come from?!" Scotty yelped, jumping around on one foot. "I thought they couldn't follow us in the dark!"
"They came from the friggin' dark!" McCoy countered, "For all we know, they are the dark!"
Sulu laughed rather manically as he swiped down a row of creatures with one strike. "That's a good one!"
"Oh, I'm glad you are still finding the funny side to this shit storm of RAZORS!" McCoy roared.
"They are the dark," Kirk muttered to himself, staring at Spock unseeingly as the Vulcan blew apart a small horde of creatures just above him. An insane idea formed in his head. "They are the..."
Spock's lips parted slightly as he caught on to Kirk's thought process.
"Captain — " he began, but was cut short, startled, by Kirk's sudden lean towards him.
"The command is yours, Mr. Spock," Kirk said softly, letting his cheeks touch Spock's forehead fleetingly before pushing off.
"Jim — " Spock struggled up right behind him, but Kirk was faster. He grabbed two light sticks off the ground and banged them against the wall, loudly, drawing the creatures' attention.
"Hey! Over here!"
A brief, ominous pause, during which McCoy groaned audibly, then the swarm of dark creatures turned in their frenzied flight paths. The entire corridor shrank into a single point of focus: Kirk.
"Dammit Jim, no — "
Kirk didn't bother to respond. He dropped the light sticks, took one step backwards, then another, until the familiar muffled, hazy feeling of darkness began to envelop around his shoulders.
"Captain!" "Jim!"
The creatures zoomed towards him; their dark wings obscuring the pale, shocked expressions on his crew's face. Kirk smiled.
"Spock, get them out of here."
He turned and sprung into the darkness.
This time, it felt like wading through water. The darkness was the sea, deep underneath the star's surface, the entire weight of the planet bearing down on him, with no escape.
Kirk stopped running as soon as the buzzing faded, bending down with his hands on his knees, panting. His hands were wet with blood, the pain pulsing steadily with his every breath, but it was nothing compared to the overwhelming pressure of loneliness, crashing down upon him in the dark.
Just as he had expected, the creatures dissipated once they were back inside the shadow, leaving him alone somewhere that was probably outside of conventional time. Kirk groped around until his hands touched the wall, then slumped down against it.
"Hello?" He called, out of sheer perseverance. "Guys?"
No reply.
"Spock? Bones? Scotty! Uhura. Sulu! Chekov." Kirk began to recite the name of his crew, just to drive away the silence and keep himself company. "Oh, Great." He heaved a long sigh and thumped his head against the wall, dejected. "Captain's Log, supplementary. Stardate whatever the fuck it is now. In an attempt to distract killer wings from my crew, I am now suspended in a completely dark corridor, which is in the middle of nowhere and goes absolutely nowhere." He paused, then quietly cursed under his breath. "Worse than fucking solitary confinement."
For a long moment, Kirk stared unseeing into the blank darkness, the only sound being the blood rushing through his ear. His mind started to drift, the faces of his crew flashing across his consciousness. Bones was probably throwing a hissy fit right now, he thought, and Spock...
Curving his lips in a small, sad smile, Kirk allowed himself a moment of weakness, and breathed the Vulcan's name. "Spock."
The air around him fluttered.
Frowning, Kirk moved his head to the side, then felt the flutter again; it was as if a gentle wind rippled through the whole of his body, making hairs stand on their end. He strained his ears, then froze at the sound of faint voices.
"... to leave these behind is if they were beamed out..."
"...of scattering for the torches would indicate..."
Kirk snapped his head up. He recognised that voice — both voices, actually — and scrambled to his feet, mind racing.
"... sign of the Vulcan Science Academy..."
Kirk listened intently, heart thumping painfully against his throat. It felt like a puzzle was assembling itself in his mind — but the implication was so vast that he could not yet grasp it fully. If he remembered correctly, however, they took off soon afterwards —
"...nor do I deem it safe..."
Kirk bolted towards the direction of the sound, just as his own tinny voice yelled, " — RUN!"
He reached out his injured hand and made a grab blindly, fingers brushing against warm skin. A tingle of familiarity ran through his palm, and Kirk's heart constricted: he realised, among other things, that this could very well be the last time he touched Spock, across an impossible bend in time.
An iron grip suddenly descended on his elbow and Kirk yelped, whirling around. Blinded momentarily by a sharp, bright light and instinctively swiping for his phaser, Kirk struggled against his assailant, until a torrent of feelings rushed up his arm and nearly knocked him backwards —
"— Spock?" Kirk breathed raggedly, feeling like he was about to drown.
The torch waved aside and Spock's face appeared in the pale, unforgiving light. "Jim," he said, tone urgent. "Are you well?"
"I — " Kirk stared, swallowing against the sudden lump in his throat. "Yes," he said finally. His heart seemed to be having trouble finding its rightful spot. "The crew?"
"They are unharmed," Spock said, his voice strangely tight. "Although they are, understandably, displeased with your penchant for self-sacrifice."
Kirk smiled weakly. "Perks of being their favourite Captain, I guess."
"Be that as it may," Spock enunciated, his expression of mild disapproval no more different than the ones he gave when they disagreed on the Bridge, "I do believe the popularity of your Captaincy will be better served if you could consult with your crew before placing yourself in danger."
Kirk lowered his head and smiled to himself. "How did you find me?" he asked.
Something indecipherable flitted across Spock's features, but was soon smoothed back into neutrality. "I followed an intuition," Spock replied.
Kirk's eyebrows rose. "You followed your gut," he repeated, surprised. "What, no careful calculations specific to the third decimal place?" he said, teasing.
Spock regarded him with a level look. "If you must know, the statistical likelihood of my — finding you, was one in three thousand, six hundred and seventy one."
Kirk opened his mouth, dumbfounded, then closed it again. "Wow. Spock — wow." A slow smile stretched across his lips, despite the shock. "Those weren't very good odds."
"We have overcome worse scenarios before," Spock said. "It was not yet a mathematical impossibility."
Kirk beamed at him, feeling warmed from the inside. "Thank you," he said, sincere.
Spock softened his gaze and gave a short, acknowledging nod. Smiling, Kirk searched Spock's face, taking a selfish moment of comfort in the Vulcan's composed features, a familiarity he had very nearly lost. "You know, I think I just made a grab for you," Kirk noted distractedly, almost unable to tear his eyes away.
To his mild surprise, Spock merely nodded again. "I believe you have just completed a predestination curve, Captain."
Kirk blinked, refocused, then the puzzle that had started to piece together slammed to the forefront of his mind, fully formed. "A time loop," he said, turning and staring into the darkness. "Yeah. I thought it might be that."
"It would explain several key anomalies that we have encountered," Spock confirmed.
Kirk nodded, then remembered the spark that danced across his fingertips. "Wait, did you know? I felt something when we touched — did you pick up anything back then?"
"I did," Spock replied, his tone strangely avoidant for a brief second. "However, I did not attribute the anomaly to the possibility of a predestination paradox until recently."
Kirk closed his eyes, mind rapidly going over every mysterious abnormality they had encountered since entering the cave. If they were being dropped in and out of time warp at random points, then it was likely that there were no disembodied aliens after all, only —
"It still doesn't make sense," Kirk said, frowning and making an abortive gesture. "Even if this is just a convoluted time curve, and the verses on the wall were just warnings we would give ourselves — remind me to take points for the obscurity and uselessness of those haikus, by the way — why would that paper shimmer like that back there? Is should either show the logo of the VSA, if we were yet to complete the loop, or the Starfleet insignia, if we went back in time." He stared at his own hands, then up at Spock, surprised. "Unless — "
Spock inclined his head in quiet confirmation. "As I surmised I would be the one to change the symbol, I tested my hypothesis by deliberately choosing inaction," he said.
"The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle," Kirk breathed. "But — even when a choice hasn't been made, when we are given a glimpse into the future, it is always one future or the other, thereby certain by themselves," he said. "I've near seen, or heard the Uncertainty Principle being demonstrated like that before!"
"Theoretically, it should not be demonstrated as such," Spock replied. "That part I am unable to explain. I did, however, complete the loop by adding the VSA symbol onto the paper, shortly after you left."
"Right," Kirk said, concentrating hard. That was probably why he was able to hear his own voice, carried across a time bend — the next chain in the loop was set off when Spock changed the symbol on the paper, allowing his past self to discover it. Yet...
His eyes roamed over Spock's face. Under the harsh lighting, the Vulcan's features looked even paler than usual, his eyes dark, a slight green flush above his cheekbone from the previous exertion. It was mesmerising; yet it reminded him of something nagging at the back of his mind, something he had tried very hard not to think about over the relentless scramble he found himself in.
" — should close every pre-destination loop to rectify the anomalies in linear time flow," Spock said. He paused when it became obvious that Kirk was not listening. "Captain?"
Kirk refocused his attention; the picture was crystal clear now. He knew what he had to do.
"— No," he said, the single word falling like a domino, setting in motion a cascade of decisions. He took a deep breath, and locked onto Spock's inquisitive gaze.
"I think we should break the loop, not complete it."