Into the Wild Black Yonder
Chapter Eleven - Alarms
On the Enterprise
Early August, 2258
Nyota
It was so good to be back on the bridge again, back to full duty, back to feeling normal again. Spock was still hovering over her like a mother hen, though. She glared at him and he turned away from her, busying himself with the instruments at his console. She was FINE! She projected that at him for all she was worth and, unexpectedly, saw him flinch, ever so slightly. Had he actually felt that? Something tickled in the back of her mind, vaguely apologetic. Now what was that? She gave a little shake and settled herself down, checking a sudden red light on her board. What was going on now?
Spock
It was very nice to have Nyota back at her station beside him, but he really was not sure that she was completely recovered from her injury. He kept turning his head to check on her, to be sure she wasn't tiring. The next time he did that, she looked over, saw him and glared back. He turned quickly away, definitely not wanting to anger her. He flipped some switches, tried to look busy with his console. Through the link between them there came a flare of indignation, very strong and unexpected. He could almost hear words - she was telling him she was fine, he was sure of it. And she was angry about it, as well. He tried to suppress the instinctive tightening of his shoulders, ducking his head just slightly. She was not aware that she was projecting that so strongly. He was not even sure that she was aware that she was projecting, that he was hearing.
Even though he was not happy with the content, he was greatly encouraged by the contact. The bond was getting much stronger now. Soon he was going to have to explain it to her, he really needed to figure out how he was going to do that. He sent her his apology, softly, trying to soothe her without disturbing her.
From the corner of his eye, he saw the red light flashing on Nyota's console, saw her flickering fingers, heard her hushed questions to someone. What was happening? He checked his board to see whether there was any clue there.
Sulu
One minute everything was fine, the next there were red lights all across his board. What the hell happened? His fingers flew across the controls, trying to stabilize helm functions. Where had the steering controls gone?
Scotty
Well, now, ever'thing looked good. All the nice little red lights were lit up. He sat back in his chair, sandwich in hand, and waited for the fun to begin.
Jim
He looked about in confusion. Several of the bridge officers were exclaiming over red lights on their consoles, fingers flying, trying to ascertain status of systems suddenly fluctuating for no obvious reason. What had happened to his ship? He swiveled his seat around to look at Spock, who was now standing over Uhura's shoulder, watching her fingers flying, listening to the rapid fire questions she was directing to people in other areas of the ship.
"What's going on? Why is everybody having problems? Spock, report!"
"Captain, we seem to have lost power to the steering thrusters, among other things. There are several unrelated systems of the ship that are not functioning correctly. Assessment is under way in several locations."
He punched buttons on the arm of his chair. "Scotty! Report! What's happening with the power?"
"Scott here, sir. Engineering's all fine. No problems."
"What do you mean, no problems? We don't have any steering up here!"
"Wha's that, Captain? No steerin'? Are you sure man? Ever'thing looks fine down here."
"Well, it's not! Now get someone on it immediately!" He fumed in his chair, tension filling his body. He wanted to run and fight someone, something. He was full of energy with nowhere to direct it. "Somebody find out what's going on - RIGHT NOW!"
Spock turned in his direction, one eyebrow lifted. "I hardly think that is helping, sir."
He swallowed indignation, hard, struggling to control himself. He breathed deeply. Counted to ten. Started station by station to question the bridge officers, department by department requesting information.
All over the ship, teams ran checks, tested systems, reported back. Spock correlated all the information and eventually came to stand beside him. "Someone is running a drill, Captain. There is nothing actually wrong with any of the red-lit systems. Everything in the ship is actually functioning perfectly. I believe that it is Mr. Scott."
"SCOTTY! What the fuck have you done to my ship! FIX IT RIGHT NOW!"
"Aye, Captain, certainly." The was a wide smile on the Chief Engineer's face as he flipped a few switches.
All over the ship, red lights went out, consoles displayed perfectly functional systems.
"Mr. Scott, to the Captain's Ready Room IMMEDIATELY!"
"Aye, Captain, certainly." The smile slipped just a bit - maybe he had gone too far?
Jim stood up, stomped his feet. "Spock, with me." He strode off the bridge, heading for his Ready Room, his First Officer right behind him.
He paced back and forth across the room, furious beyond belief. What had that man thought he was doing?
Scotty entered the room, bravado failing in the face of his captain's wrath. "Sir? I was just doin' what we was ordered to, sir. You said we was all supposed to run drills and simulations an' such." His voice trailed off as he watched the captain with some trepidation.
"Why didn't you tell me what you planned to do?"
"What kind of drill would that be, sir?"
Spock cocked his head, looked from one man to the other, cleared his throat to get their attention. "Captain, sir, while this particular drill does seem to have been perhaps more than was expected, it did accomplish its function. It only took 10.75 minutes to determine that the ship was actually functioning correctly. Since we are trying to determine where we might be lacking in preparedness, this drill did successfully target that objective." He kept his voice calm and level, trying to get the other men to settle down to a normal level of discussion.
Jim fumed some more, gradually settling down. Finally he turned back to face Scotty. "Well done, Mr. Scott. But I think you may have given me the start of an ulcer."
Scotty grinned. Then he pulled a small flask from his hip pocket. "I've just the thing to settle that right down, sir."
Jim watched Spock's eyebrow raise almost to his hairline, laughed at the comment that came from the half-Vulcan's mouth. "Captain, I do not suggest that you partake of the contents of that flask if you wish to keep the lining of your throat and stomach intact."
The Usual Cast of Suspects
In the following days, the most common thing that happened was that everything that could go wrong, did. All over the ship, systems failed, doors closed and would not open, turbolift cars jammed, com systems either were totally silent or else spewed loud noise or violent music without stopping, often in the middle of the night. The whole ship was on alert. Response time got better and better as the crew became more efficient, more attuned to the systems under their control, worked better with their crewmates. It wasn't until they held the lifeboat drill that they encountered a real problem.
They were in the Captain's Ready Room, going over the results of all the drills, simulations, and inspections held during the previous week. But it was the 'emergency evacuation of the ship' drill held the day before that perturbed everyone. It had taken 19.5 minutes for everyone to reach their assigned escape pod. Much, much too long. Now they were trying to analyze the data, trying to figure out what had gone wrong and how to fix it.
Sulu spoke up first. "It appears that there were thirty-two crewmen who did not even know which escape pod they were assigned to. Was that just stupidity or were they overlooked when the assignments were passed out?"
Uhura's fingers flew over the small keypad in front of her. "Assignments were definitely sent out. They're here in the system. Three of them were never opened. The others were read."
The captain's face was thunderous. "Send me the info on those three." Reprimands would definitely go in those personnel files. "Send the other names to their department heads for action."
Chekov was the next to voice an opinion. "Keptin, it looks like many assignments vere made that vere wery far from a crewmate's vork station. This vould take much time to get to the right place."
There were nods all around the table. Scotty added something. "Ya can't always take it that an emergency would be durin' a person's work shift. Can ya correlate the escape pod assignments to crew quarters?"
Chekov did some more manipulations of the data. "Still many assignments vere made that vere not close to quarters, either."
The captain passed his hand over his face. "Okay, everyone examine their own department personnel. Be sure everyone's assignment is in a good spot cross-referenced with their normal work assignment and their quarters. We're liable to end up with a bunch of pods over-assigned and an equal number under-assigned. But let's get the first cut down and then address that problem next week. Good catch, Chekov."
The young Russian blushed and ducked his head at the complement, grinning widely.
The captain continued. "Anyone else got anything? Spock, you haven't voiced anything yet."
"It appears that some crew members remained at their stations and attempted to complete actions which were underway at the time."
"What? Surely not."
"Yes, Captain. I have detailed listings of commands issued from various consoles well after the emergency klaxons sounded. I can provide you with a copy."
"No, send them to the relevant department heads for action. That's got to stop!" He sat there a moment, pondering. "People ought to know better by now. I guess I'll have to issue a ship-wide bulletin on the subject."
There were nods all around the table.
"Okay, folks, anything else? Dismissed then. Let's go eat."
Everyone filed out of the room, heading for the turbolift, chatting idly with each other, glad the long day was almost over. Most of them choose to shuffle through the line, selecting items from tonight's menu, but a couple walked over to the now available food synthesizers and selected something different. They all settled in around a table and talked together while they ate, going their separate ways afterwards.
Spock
He followed Nyota out of the mess hall and discretely guided her in the direction of his quarters. There was something he wanted to show her tonight. They settled down on his couch, PADDs in hand, and wrote up their logs. When they had both finished, Nyota snuggled up against him, relaxing into his warmth.
"I will admit I am tired, okay? It would probably have been easier on me to take another day or two off, but I just wanted to get back to work. All these drills and simulations have just made it so much harder." She sighed and snuggled closer, head up under his chin. "And I thought I could sleep all day yesterday and it didn't happen. I'll be glad when all this activity levels off."
"But then we are likely to encounter something else that will throw us off. That is the nature of things."
"Yes, I know you're right." She pulled his arm around her middle, playing with his fingers, causing little sparky jolts down his nerves. "But having a normal routine back would certainly help." She lifted the hand between hers to her mouth and sucked his fingers in between her lips, running her tongue over the soft tips.
He gasped, overwhelmed with sensation. "Nyota!" He felt desire rising swiftly, control slipping. With no warning whatsoever, she began biting his fingertips. He growled loudly at her, but found he could not force himself to withdraw his hand from her grasp. He felt himself rising hard against her back, where she leaned against him. "K'diwa, you are making me lose control." His voice was low and heavy.
"Lose it then." She murmured around his fingers. "You've been treating me like I'm made of glass ever since I was injured. I want MORE!." She bit his fingertips again, causing his whole body to vibrate.
His other hand closed on her shoulder, not hard enough to leave bruises, but very close. He threw his head back against the couch, trying so hard to maintain his control. He moaned loudly, wanting, needing.
She released one hand from his and grabbed the one on her shoulder, pulling it towards her mouth as well, forcing those fingers into her mouth along side the others. He shuddered beneath her, so enflamed that he dared do nothing else. She sucked on his fingers, then began to withdraw one finger at a time from her mouth, popping them through her pursed lips. He bucked beneath her, lost in a delirious haze, feeling what she wished him to do to her, through the touch of her tongue and lips and teeth upon his fingers.
"Nyota, k'diwa, ah, ah, stop. Leave me some control so I do not injure you." He panted out the words, on fire everywhere.
She turned within his arms, rising over him. "You promise you won't treat me like I'm made out of glass?"
"I do promise." With great relief, he realized that she had removed all his fingers from her mouth.
"All right then." She climbed off of him, stood up, pulled on his arm, leading him to the bed, pulling his clothes off, pushing him down on the bed. He laid there, still so aroused he could barely function, and watched as she slowly undressed, teasing him with twists and turns of her body, blocking his view of her until suddenly there she was, lovely and bare, climbing onto the bed, draping herself over him, soft cool flesh and against hot, touching everywhere, desire and lust and love flowing out of her everywhere. And then she was straddling him, drawing him in, and her hand was pulling his to her face and ecstasy was everywhere, enfolding them, pulling them together until they were dahkuh-terau-veh.
***
Much later, when he could think again, he found himself still wanting to show her what he had meant to show her earlier. Her face was against his neck, he could feel her soft breath there. "Nyota, are you awake?"
"Umm, yes. Why?" She did not so much as wiggle. He could feel how relaxed her muscles were. All that jumpy tension that had been there earlier was gone.
"There was something I meant to show you this evening."
"Okay." Still she did not move, laying there so relaxed.
He smiled into her hair. "I will need to get up for a moment."
Mumbling, she rolled off of him, over onto the bed. He rose and crossed the room, opening the second dresser drawer and drawing out the small book. He crossed back to the bed, sitting down, drawing the pillows up to the head of the bed, leaning against them, drawing her up against him. He kept the book down on the bed beside his leg, where she could not see it.
"Do you remember when you put the gold belt on and I told you that Gaila had done something for me?"
"Yes. You said you were going to tell me what, but you haven't."
"She came to my office and told me she had a present for you that she wished to give me."
"Wait - she had a present for me and she gave it to you?"
"Yes. She said she loved you very much and wanted you to be happy. So she gave me this. She said she thought I would find it interesting." He brought the small book up where Nyota could see it. She took it from his hands, looking at the cover, opening the book, reading the contents, flipping to the illustrations. She turned her face up to his.
"She gave you this? In your office?"
"It was in a plain cover. She told me not to open it until I was in my quarters. Having already gotten one item with very similar instructions, I was very careful to do just that."
She looked back at the small book. At the very worn corners of some of the pages. She smiled. "Gaila did love me. She was my very best friend. This is just the kind of present she would give." She rolled over, buried her face against his chest. "Oh, thank you, Spock, for telling me about this." She laid the book back down on the bed beside him and hugged him tight. "Oh, thank you so much."
He bent his head down to hers, and wrapped his arms around her, holding her close to him, silently thanking the girl who had been a friend to them both.
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dahkuh-terau-veh = two joined as one
Author's note : If you don't know what book Gaila gave Spock, read chapter 8 of 'You Had Me From Hello'.