Spock and Christine had both fallen into a restless sleep. Samandak, however, found herself unable even to attempt meditation. Though she was sure they'd slept in perilous situations before, she simply didn't understand how they could just sit back with their eyes closed and pass out, and she was wholly envious. Having spent the past fifteen or so minutes awake alone, she'd had a few minutes to really think about their situation, and found herself replaying the day's events over and over, no matter how hard she tried to push them from her mind. It was frustrating to have Spock laying right there, to see his wounds, and know that she could fix it for him in moments, and not be able to do anything.
Of course...
He couldn't stop her if he wasn't aware that she was doing anything.
No! She told herself. Spock trusted her, enough to sleep while she was still conscious, she couldn't just--
In his sleep, Spock had no way of masking the pain that he was in, his face drawing into a wince and his hands clenching at the hard floor.
Controlling her breath carefully, Samandak crept across the room and leaned against the wall adjacent to Christine. She wasn't sure why, but it made her feel better to be nearer, to sense their minds in a far-off peaceful realm. At least the taint of fear had left the room. She was about to move again, when Christine stirred. At first, Samandak was sure she was just turning to get more comfortable, but after a few seconds her eyes flitted open and she rubbed at them wearily.
Samandak put a finger up to her lips, motioning toward the sleeping first officer with her eyes. Christine glanced down at him, then nodded at Samandak.
"It still hurts, even in his sleep." Samandak said, rubbing her cold arms.
"How do you know that?" The nurse asked, glancing at Spock worriedly.
"My grandfather is from Betazed. I don't have the same telepathic abilities, but I can still sense him."
"What do you mean 'sense him'?"
"I don't know...I can sense you, too. Your presence, your feelings...oh don't worry, it's not much more than what I would get from a facial expression." She assured her, upon seeing the slightly surprised look on her face.
"Oh." She looked back down at Spock. "Then you...?"
Samandak nodded, and Christine reddened.
"It's not something I share with a lot of people."
"I know." Samandak switched walls and scooted closer to the pair. "And I promise you, I would never betray a confidence."
"Well...thank you." Christine's facial expression seemed to say 'I think?'.
"Friends?" Samandak extended her hand, and Christine took it.
She broke a smile. "Yes, I suppose so."
Samandak gave a relaxed sigh. "Good. I needed to know that I had a friend."
"Captain Kirk is your friend."
"Captain Kirk is the captain of his ship," Samandak corrected. "A very good captain, who does his job just as he should, but a captain none the less."
Christine nodded her agreement.
"Even a captain must have friends."
Both girls startled at Spock's voice, as he sat up and turned to face them.
"Spock!" Samandak exclaimed. "How long have you been listening to us?"
"Not very," He said. "I simply did not desire to interrupt your conversation. However, I could not go back to sleep."
"You're lucky you're hurt already, or I'd sock ya!" Samandak laughed.
"I do not believe that my injuries have anything to do with luck that is 'good', however, I do believe that it is fortunate to be on your good side."
Christine laughed too, shaking her head. "And I was sure you'd hate each other."
Spock glanced at her wearing a quizzical expression. "You are beginning to sound like Dr. McCoy."
"If I am," She said. "It's from sitting in that sickbay with you two for the past week."
"It would suit you well not to take after his mannerisms." Spock informed her.
"Oh, you're one to talk, Spock!" Christine replied.
Samandak cleared her throat and raised her eyebrows. "Mr. Spock? Nurse Chapel?" She motioned toward the door. "Does anyone have any ideas about how to get out?"
-----
"That's the last of 'em, captain." Scott reported, wearing a sullen expression. They'd just watched their last stack of phasers disappear from the transporter room.
Kirk nodded. "Send the first group of five in. You, Dr. McCoy, and I will beam out last, see if we can't devise something in that amount of time."
"Aye sir." Scott gave some orders to a few ensigns and lieutenants, who ran off to round everyone up. Kirk felt rigid with regret, those were the last words he'd wanted to say, to give his crew a command to display obedience to a Klingon battle cruiser! It wasn't just, and it was highly undesired. Nevertheless, he'd given the order, and he wasn't about to back down off of that unless he saw his people beamed back into the room at that instant. Of course, it was going to take more plotting than that.
Oh yes, he knew they were going to reverse the situation, turn the tables. The hard part was figuring out how. Spock would come up with something eventually, of that he was certain, but eventually wasn't good enough. He didn't want to be doing this right at this instant! Beaming his crew over to the control of a group of brutes...it just didn't seem right. Someone with the wit and manpower to stalk a Starfleet ship for days, kidnap some of it's most important personnel, and actually make an intelligible threat.
-----
Finding himself coming slowly out of the dream realm, Spock sat up, balancing himself slightly with his hand against a wall. Something felt odd, but he couldn't put his finger on it.
"The first of our crew has arrived." Samandak said, coldly. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor with her back to the bars, eyes closed, hands on her knees. She must be concentrating very hard on whatever it was she was doing.
"Am I to understand that Captain Kirk has not yet discovered a solution?"
"That is correct." She opened her eyes and turned to face him. "Sleep well?"
"I did, surprisingly." He glanced into the corner opposite him to see Christine, her knees against her chest, head lay back, eyes closed, breathing steady. She had that same, peaceful look on her face that she'd had earlier that day. Before the bad chain of events went off.
"She just got to sleep." Samandak said. "She's far out, though."
Spock nodded, and leaned against the wall. That was when he figured out what felt different. His head snapped so that his eyes met with Samandak's.
She seemed to read his mind, an apologetic look crossing her face.
"Why did you do that? I told you specifically--"
"It was my choice!" Samandak retorted, sitting forward. He noticed a thick green welt traveling about her shoulder up to her neck. "Besides, it will heal faster on me. The marks will only be there for a couple more hours, and then the pain will subside completely."
"You still should not have taken it," Spock scolded, but his voice was gentler now. "I did not desire for you to experience that level of pain."
"Well it's done now." She replied, crossing her arms. He had to admit, she did show great strength. Her eyes betrayed total self-confidence, same as her posture, and she was bearing intolerable pain—to humans, at least. He had to remind himself now of her extraordinarily mixed blood, that she was most likely able to bear a large amount of physical stimulation.
"Perhaps if--"
"Shh, someone's coming." Samandak interrupted his sentence, putting a finger to her lips and staring at the wall in the back of the cell.
Spock raised an eyebrow, but moments later he heard footsteps. Later still, a guard came into view. He glanced into their cell, made a sound that was like a cross between a grunt and a scoff, and summoned to someone out of sight. They uttered a few unintelligible phrases back and forth in Klingon, and then the first guard took a key ring out of goodness-knows-where and unlocked the cell. The other guard kept two phasers trained on Spock and Samandak.
"Wake up." The guard, now inside their cell, shouted at Christine.
Samandak stood up. "Please, she just managed to--"
"Silence!" Before either of them had time to react, the guard smacked Samandak, sending her into the electrified bars behind her. She fell to the floor, and for a moment Spock thought she might be unconscious, but she moved up off of the floor onto her knees, looking nauseated.
"You know, you guys have a bad habit of telling people to shut up in the rudest way possible." She groaned.
Spock was amused by how much she sounded like the captain, a defiant tone underlining sarcastic words, even in a dire situation. It showed just another one of her strengths.
The guard glared, then walked to the back of the cell and grabbed Christine by the shoulder and shook her. The moment her eyes were open, he yanked her up by the wrist. "The captain wants to see you." He growled.
For a moment, Spock was hit with a sick feeling that he might be planning on fulfilling his threat of killing her, but then the guard chuckled.
"Don't know why he fancies you," He looked her up and down. "But you're to come with me to...spend a special evening with 'im."
Spock glanced at Samandak, who was on her feet again looking shocked. It took him a moment to realize why; the captain was deprived of female company, and he planned on spending the night with a pretty blond.
Not on his watch.
Spock stood up, and in a flash, he had an arm around the guard's neck, threatening to squeeze the breath out of him if he moved. "I do not believe that Captain Torak will be having his pleasurable evening."
Christine was just coming to, beginning to understand what was going on, and she looked slightly frightened. Spock's grip on the man tightened.
Samandak's hand was on his arm. He glanced behind him, and saw that the other guard was pointing the phasers at them, and realized he was yelling. He released his captive.
The guard shoved him back, and then was out of the cell in a heart beat, with the door locked once again. He looked more frightened than Nurse Chapel. He mumbled something in the Klingon language, and both guards disappeared around the corner.
"They lied," Samandak whispered. "The captain gave no such order. But I just came up with an idea."
Spock took a moment to recompose himself before speaking. "Explain."
"It's something I've never really thought to try before, though quite a number of people in Maneria are quite capable of such a thing." She glanced at him. "Extrovertial empathy."
He raised a quizzical eyebrow. "How will sending a guard pain cause him to open our cell?"
"Not pain," Samandak said. "Security. If I could impose on him the idea that we are not a threat to him or his ship, he might open the door."
"How do you intend on doing that?" Spock asked.
"Did I not tell you? I am also part Betazoid."
No, she hadn't told him, though he wasn't surprised, that would explain quite a bit. A lot, actually...like the reason that she seemed to experience random moments of sorrow, joy, anger, so on. It wasn't just her human emotionalism. And how she knew that the guards had lied, though he couldn't figure out why they would--
Oh, wait.
Yes, he could.
"Do you think it will work?" He continued looking at her, attempting to appear unmoved by her statement, though by this point he knew that she could probably read his intrigue like an open book.
"I don't know," Samandak replied. "But it's definitely worth a shot."
Author's Note: Haha, looks like I finally caught up with myself! Now I actually have to WRITE in order to post more...the whole extrovertial empathy thing was brought to my attention by a friend on deviantART. Okay, we're off to write more fanfiction...XD Dude, I hear Don Knotts in the other room...and...is that Gary Shandling? ~gigglesnort~ Okay, bye bye now...
