Disclaimer: I do not own Star trek.
Chapter eleven:
Lenore grins, as she notices James slowing down ahead of her, but as he comes to a stop, Lenore's grin fades.
"James?" She questions, as she halts beside him.
"Something's wrong," James answers. "Something's not right."
"What do you mean?" Lenore frowns.
"Listen." James answers.
Lenore does. "I don't hear anything."
"Precisely," James answers. "Look around, the fields are empty… The farmers should be out here by now."
Lenore looks around, the fields, just as James had said were empty. Lenore couldn't believe she hadn't noticed, every morning when she and James headed out the colony, to Hoshi Sato's house, the farmers always greeted them; yelling a cheerful 'good morning' as the two of them sped past, racing towards Hoshi Sato's home.
"But there were farmer working in the fields when we left the colony," Lenore points out. "Maybe no one's made it this far out yet."
James shakes his head. "I don't think so…"
"My father is holding a meeting today!" Lenore suddenly remembers. "I saw him and some his men planning it when I left this morning… About a thousand people will be in attendance. Maybe that's where the farmers are."
James nodes. "Maybe."
"What do you mean 'maybe'?" Lenore demands. "My father is a good man."
"I never said he wasn't." James answers.
"But you and Tom don't bother hiding your distrust of him." Lenore snaps back.
James turns to face Lenore. "How can you trust a man who never shows his face in public? A man not even half the colony know what he looks like? Nobody even knows his true name! He's hiding Lenore, and I don't believe for a second that it's for a good reason."
"Don't talk about my father like that!" Lenore screams. "He's a good man. A far better man than you'll ever be, James."
James stares at Lenore for a moment, before shrugging and turning away. "If you say so."
"Yes," Lenore growls. "I do say so."
Suddenly James jumps. "Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Lenore questions, glancing round as an uneasy feeling sweeps over her.
"I could have sworn I heard a scream," James answers. "Come on."
James carries on cycling and Lenore quickly follows him, she suddenly had no desire to be left alone. As she follows James she couldn't help but think about what he had said. There was something different about this morning, when she had gone to say good bye to her father, he'd quickly hurried her out of the room, before she had a good chance to see the meeting he was planning. He never did that, he always let her look at his plans, he had told her it was his home one day she'd run the colony after him.
Ahead of her, James turns through the gate leading to Hoshi Sato's house, but he suddenly turns off the main path leading towards her house and cycles along a narrows footpath, hidden from view, which led to the rear of the building. As she turns and follows him, she notices a group of people gathered outside Hoshi Sato's house.
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Spock stood beside Uhura bed for a moment, before moving and sitting in tone chair beside it. After a few moments, Spock reaches out and takes Uhura's hand in his. Lowing his mental shields for just a second, Spock checked Uhura was not in any kind of distress. Spock refuses to acknowledge the relief that washes through him, his emotional control had already been tested enough today.
Glancing across the medical bay, Spock's gaze lands on Montgomery Scott, the chief engineer. Spock's first encounter with Montgomery Scott had been when he beamed aboard with the captain, well cadet at the time. Spock could see why the chief engineer and the captain had become such good friends. Mr Scott and Jim had only just meet, but Jim trusted the engineers' judgement, that itself Spock had noticed was unusual as Jim was slow to truly trust anyone and in return Mr Scott gave Jim his loyalty.
Spock glances back at Uhura. Uhura herself has shown a great deal of dislike towards the captain, Spock knew they were never close at the academy. Uhura would never admit to it, but Spock knew Uhura had deemed Jim unworthy of her friendship. He had been too arrogant and too full of himself for Uhura taste, she had seen him as a spoilt child, who wanted to be centre of attention all the time.
But both now knew that wasn't true, Jim had always been centre of attention, not because he wanted to be, but because he was forced to be. Everyone who saw him, knew him because he was born in the wake of the Kelvin disaster, everyone knew his name because of what his father had done. Spock had long ago worked out, the way Jim acted, the way he behaved around people was just a way to shield himself, to stop people getting to close.
There were a great many things Spock still didn't know about the captain. There were things even Doctor McCoy didn't know about the captain and McCoy was by far the closest to the captain. As if summoned by the mere thought of him, Doctor McCoy appears beside Spock, frowning at the PADD in his hand.
"It's strange." Doctor McCoy mutters.
"Doctor?" Spock questions.
"The sedative used to knock out the landing party was the same dosage for everyone." McCoy explains, glancing up from the PADD to glare at Spock, who on turn raises an eyebrow.
"And how do you find that strange, Doctor?" Spock questions.
"Jim was knocked out with it." McCoy answers. "Yet he has been conscious for at least an hour while none of the others show any signs of waking and by my calculations, will not regain consciousness naturally until at least the gamma shift."
"Fascinating." Spock replies, Beta shift had only just started.
McCoy glares at Spock before throwing a hand in the air and walking off, mumbling under his breath about useless Vulcan's and their inability to help. Letting go of Uhura's hand, Spock gets to his feet, he needed to speak to the captain.
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James quickly climbed off his bike and hide it from view of the house, before quickly moving forward and hiding behind a large cluster of plants Hoshi Sato had in her back garden. Lenore quickly does the same, trusting James enough to follow his lead, even though the people gathered in front of the house, she was sure, were her father's men.
"Wait here." James whispers, before getting up and running towards the open patio doors leading into Hoshi Sato's house.
Ducking behind the desk not far from the patio doors, James glances round the study. He couldn't believe be was doing this, but he knew something was really wrong and the feeling just wouldn't go away. Moving slowly, James crossed the room and headed towards the main room. Suddenly the smell of smoke filled the air, glancing up James saw the ceiling was quickly being engulfed in thick, dark smoke.
Running along the hallway, ducking down to try and avoid the smoke, James came to a sudden stop. Lying in the middle of the hallway was Hoshi Sato. She was facing away from him and didn't appear to be moving. Kneeling down, James begins to crawl towards her.
"Sato-sensei?" James calls.
James reaches Hoshi Sato's side and shakes her shoulder, her head roles to face him and James scrambles back in shock. In the centre of Hoshi Sato's forehead was a bullet hole, blood was still oozing from the wound. The sound of a gunshot sounds outside, shortly followed by the sound of a vehicle pulling away at high speed.
Coughing, James gets to his feet and runs back the way he came, pulling his top over his mouth and nose in an attempt to stop inhaling the smoke. Running outside, he darts back over to where he'd left Lenore hiding, only to find her gone.
"Lenore?" He hisses, his voice rough and waspy.
James turns and looks back at the house, smoke was billowing out of all the windows and flames could be seen crawling there way through the front of the house.
The front of the house.
That's where the gun shot had sounded from.
"No, no, no!" James mutters, as he runs back along the path he'd used to get here. Tuning as he reaches the end of the path, he runs back towards the burning building and crashes to his knees beside the still form of Lenore.
"Lenore?" James whispers, pulling her into his arms.
Lenore blinks up at him, blood spluttering over her lips. James quickly glances at her midsection, which was covered in crimson blood. He knew even with his medical knowledge there was no way Lenore was going to survive this even if he could get her back to the colony in a second, but he treats the wound the best he can, knowing it may make Lenore's last moments more comfortable.
"Why?" She gasps, coughing up more blood.
"Shhhh," James whispers, as tears stream down from his eyes and his voice thick with distress. "Try not to talk, save your energy."
"Why…" She gasps again. "Why… Did my… Father… Order this?"
James shakes his head unable to answer.
"I'm scared." Lenore suddenly gasps, tears running down her face, mixing with the blood leaking from her body.
"It's going to be okay," James cries. "I promise."
Lenore smiles weakly. "Just… Hold me… Please."
James nodes and pulls Lenore closer, he feels the moment she stops breathing and her body goes limp in his arms. Reaching up, he closes her eyes before resting his forehead against her rapidly cooling shoulder and he cries.
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Hey, I hope you enjoyed that chapter. Until next time,
Blessed be,
TreeOfLife1997.