There will be some minor spoilers from Into Darkness in this chapter: I am introducing Admiral Marcus and meshing things to mix that movie with this story.
This story is only fanfiction. I own nothing Star Trek, I just play with it for fun.
Chapter 26 – New Character Enter
OoO
Amanda waited anxiously at the spaceport for her son and his husband. They had been gone for a month and she missed them. Spock had sent her a comm before they left Veenu a week ago with the information about their flight.
At that moment they were at customs and there seemed to be a problem where none should exist…
Jim was pissed; the entire situation he found himself in at the moment was stupid and entirely unnecessary. He had been incarcerated at customs for bringing a perfectly legal quantity of a perfectly legal substance, treforn. It had passed Federation quarantine regulations on Veenu before they left. He purchased it there because it was significantly less expensive than having it shipped. It would be the only intoxicant he could consume for the foreseeable future because of pregnancy and then breast feeding. Thinking about the reason for that, however, warmed him and made it only a minor inconvenience. So, he sat there rubbing his still tight belly, and waited for his other half to spring him.
Spock had immediately contacted Captain Pike who thought the situation was ridiculous and highly suspicious, and said that he would be right there. When Spock walked back into the room with the two customs officers, the smell of burnt treforn hit his nostrils which widened. Taking in the room he saw that Jim's box was open and he saw one of the officers smoking.
They had not noticed when Spock re-entered the room, so they were taken by total surprise when the joint was taken from their hands as it was passed between them by an irate Vulcan.
Almost simultaneously the two customs officers began to stand and yell, "what the fu…" but were effectively stopped by 'the eyebrow of doom.' Spock stared them back into their seats as he smashed the joint on the desk next to the open box of treforn. He continued to look at them as if they were vermin, not saying a word.
The two customs guards began to squirm like fish out of water.
Spock felt shame because he allowed himself some brief pleasure in watching them squirm; 43.4269 seconds to be exact. He growled, "you have detained my mate under spurious circumstances. It seems you have decided to either use his treforn for yourselves or sell it." Their eyes widened when he said that, but he went on as if he did not notice. He did, of course. "You should know that it is perfectly legal for him to bring that quantity of treforn onto Earth if it was quarantined on the other end. This package was. I demand the immediate release of James Tiberius Kirk."
They stared at him with their mouths open for a couple of seconds before the one to the left, a sergeant spoke with a cringe, "uh, we can't do that."
Spock leaned forward, nailed him with eyes that pointed like lasers, and asked in words which would have been polite had they not been growled in a voice even deeper than the previous words, "and, why would that be?"
The sergeant finally seemed to realize who he was and what he did and got his balls back. He stood up and got into Spock's face saying, "we have our orders."
Spock stood looking down at the impertinent sergeant and found himself opening and closing his fists. He could feel his rage building, face heating with blood. How dare they keep his mate from him! He growled between clenched teeth, "orders, from whom?"
That was the scene that Captain Pike walked in on. He needed to diffuse the situation quickly before the idiot sergeant got himself hurt. "Sergeant! Commander!" Pike barked, Captain's voice not to be denied, "back off immediately!"
During questioning Captain Pike had been unable to find out anything about what orders the sergeant had been talking about. There were no written orders to be found. The other officer had seen no written orders, he had only received vocal orders from his sergeant that Kirk was to be detained for any reason, no matter how spurious.
Unfortunately, the sergeant had a stroke during questioning; something that was becoming an all too familiar pattern. Days later, during the autopsy the brain was removed and sent to Dr. McCoy who, unsurprisingly, discovered a xi parasite. That officer had been in a department that was very far removed from Admiral Komack's sphere of influence. That made them all realize that the xi infestation was much wider spread then they had previously thought.
Amanda had been happy to be able to see Spock at several points throughout the wait. It helped knowing the basics of what was happening. She was sure there was a lot more to this than Spock was telling her; for one, he was very angry. He was her son, she could tell when he was angry.
She had planned on having them come to her suite at the embassy for dinner, however, with all of the commotion of the afternoon she decided to call her assistant, T'Lara, and have everything moved to Jim and Spock's apartment instead.
The food spread was beautiful; a selection of both Vulcan and Terran fruits and salads, plomeek soup, lentil stew, a stew like beef soup and fresh bread. Amanda noticed that Jim looked at the beef soup like it was personally offensive and took bowls of plomeek soup and lentil stew.
The reason Jim had looked at the beef stew like that was he had a very disturbing experience with meat. The morning after leaving Carol in Umseta, Jim and Spock decided to get breakfast at the spaceport in P'tar. Their flight would not be leaving for three more hours and Jim was feeling ravished. He decided to eat eggs and bacon for breakfast. Spock had not thought it wise because the babies would naturally require a vegetarian diet. Jim had laughed. The eggs went down alright. It was the bacon that did it; after the first several bites his skin tone began to look more like Spock's and Jim had to run to the fresher. He told Spock it felt like he vomited everything he had eaten in the last month. Spock had quietly hovered over him, washing his head, keeping others out and never once said, 'I told you so.'
Amanda was extremely curious as to the whole reason why they had needed to go to Veenu in the first place, but she kept her mouth shut and waited. She was good at waiting, she was the wife a Vulcan ambassador after all; over the years she had found that garnering information from Sarek without an argument required extreme patience. So the entire time they were eating Amanda watched Jim like a hawk, making small talk. Jim tasted the lentil stew, turned his nose up at it and pushed it away. Then he tasted the plomeek soup and Amanda watched as his eyes slid closed as he licked his lips and dipped the spoon back in the bowl. He quickly brought that spoon back to his lips and when he opened his eyes they were not focused.
Amanda laughed to herself as she watched Jim then devour four bowls of plomeek soup and half a loaf of soft bread. While he ate he was very devoted to his food and when he contributed to the meager conversation between Spock and his mother it was in monosyllables.
When Jim pushed back from the table he found Spock and Amanda staring at him. "What?" he asked shrugging his shoulders, "I was hungry."
Spock raised a brow and said, "in the past you always found plomeek soup to be bland to your pallet. Yet you bypassed the lentil stew, spiced more to your palate, in favor of it. I must admit to being puzzled."
Jim shrugged and acted obtuse. "It tasted especially good tonight," was his only comment.
Amanda snickered, she knew something neither of them did and it, along with the way he looked at the beef soup, made her suspect that Jim may have become pregnant during their trip to Veenu: Plomeek was extremely high in copper and she had craved it during her pregnancy with Spock. Then again, maybe she was just being hopeful that she really was going to have grandchildren.
"Comments from the peanut gallery?" Jim asked, looking at her pointedly, raising one of his caterpillars.
Spock cocked his head quizzically and said, "peanut gallery?"
Jim looked at him and pointed to Amanda and said through the bond, "another idiom, means the cheap seats, in this case it's your mother."
Spock looked even more confused wondering how his mother could be compared to 'cheap seats' and Jim could see the look in his eyes so he clarified aloud for Amanda's sake. "Spock, I do not think your mother is a cheap seat, that's just the origin of that idiom 'peanut gallery'. For several centuries now that one has been used for comments from someone not directly in a conversation. I guess Amanda never used this one when she gave you your Human lessons."
Amanda giggled as she said, "No Jim, I never had the chance to use peanut gallery on Spock because he never said anything when he was not supposed to. I'm sure you were totally different, weren't you?"
Jim looked at her and gave her a 'who me' face and laughed as he said, "me, never. I was a perfect little boy." He shrugged, doing his best to look innocent. That innocent look lasted for several seconds before he began to laugh.
Amanda looked Jim hard in the eye and said, "Jim, there's only one other Human I've ever known of that has eaten plomeek soup like they had just died and gone to heaven."
Jim raised a caterpillar and shrugged giving her a pointed look, "and who was that?"
Amanda smiled brightly, light shining in her chocolate brown eyes, "me," she said. "When I was pregnant with Spock."
Jim looked down for a minute, then looked up. He had a sly smile on his face and he directed his gaze into the eyes of his mother-in-law and said, "got it in one! Congratulations how would you prefer to be called, Grandma or Ko-mekh-il."
Amanda couldn't help but get excited when Jim confirmed that she was right. She popped up, moved in front of them and held out her arms for a hug.
As soon as she had popped up Jim stood and pulled Spock up with him; he was pretty sure that they were about to be enveloped in her arms and he was correct.
Holding onto her son and his bondmate, Amanda allowed tears to flow as she whispered to them, "thank you, thank you," repeatedly for several minutes.
OoO
Alexander Marcus sat in his plush, ergonomic desk chair at his antique real mahogany desk, in his home office in his penthouse San Francisco condominium with a 360 degree view. The windows from his office overlooked the bay and the Golden Gate Bridge. He could easily pick out the tiny island of Alcatraz. On clear nights, he imagined he could see the lights of vehicles passing over the Route 580 bridge that connected San Rafael and Richmond. If he looked more straight down he could see a good part of Starfleet Academy spread out below his feet.
That was the view sans fog. It was when the fog rolled in that Alexander really appreciated the view. In the ten years he had owned the condo Alex could only remember one time when the fog had surrounded him. Other clouds had, but only once in all that time had the clouds of mist that typically rolled into San Francisco from the salt water reach the height of his condo. When that happened, and his condo sat on a bed of clouds the atmosphere became one he loved because it connected him directly to space. He had missed going into space since being promoted to Admiral, but now that he was a Fleet Admiral he could stretch his wings a bit. And being in charge of Covert Operations didn't hurt either; his Section 31 was in the process of building a top secret ship yard hidden among Jupiter's moons and the least he could do was commandeer a private shuttle to fly out to see the progress being made.
Alexander was the first male Veenan to enter Starfleet. For a Veenan to even think of entering their space academy, you needed to be a male or a s'treu and have an empathy score of at least five. If you were female or empathy blind, you were not welcome. Alex had been the Marcus family freak, born with an empathy score of less than one; if he concentrated really hard, or had physical contact with someone he could feel their emotions, but not otherwise. So, if he wanted to go into space the only place for him was Starfleet. Jan, his now ex-wife, had stayed on Earth with him until Carol, their oldest, reached puberty when her psi talents went a little haywire. By that point she was interested in Starfleet herself and most of all, sciences. But she needed the guidance of a Shanquat, as would their other children during their early teen years, as they all scored high on their empathy and would need to be in control. So they had returned to Veenu.
With his next thought, he broke the stylus that was in his hand: it had been in school, studying science, where she met the mass murderer, James Tiberius Kirk. It had been bad enough when he found out, after the fact, that they had already formed a bond, but when he found out he had gotten her pregnant… Well, to say that Alex had been enraged when he found out that Carol was pregnant with Kirk's child would be an understatement of galactic proportions. After her Deep Reflection, Carol had realized that it was his enraged reaction which had been the trigger which led to her assaulting Kirk empathically through their bond, immediately after their conversation. Carol wound up being punished under Veenan law because the bond was a sacred thing. However, before she underwent her Deep Reflection with the Ha'Tshi, Alex made sure that Kirk would not have access to Carol's child. His wife had been very strongly against that idea of him going through the courts to invoke ancient law against Kirk. And when Alex did it anyway she divorced him, citing it having been the final piece in a very tall pile of straw. She had screamed that it had been his, "Captains, now Admirals ways," that had driven their family apart. Once Carol had realized that she had been mad at Jim, but she had also been mad at herself and she let her father's tirade push her over the edge into a dangerous rage where she hurt Jim, she cut her contact with him. It had been so bad that she still had not introduced him to his grandson.
The whole reason that was on his mind was because several hours earlier he had been informed by the network of people (he preferred that euphemism rather than to call them spies, which they really were, since Carol didn't know they were there) that he paid to keep watch on Carol that Kirk and his Vulcan ran into her at the Multi-Cultural Center where said Vulcan demanded that she allow Kirk to see David. What followed had been an extremely emotional scene in front of David's school, witnessed by several hundred people. One of the more intriguing pieces of information came from Kale Bax, who reported clearly hearing Kirk introduce Commander Spock as his Ama. Alex raised an eyebrow and snorted at the thought. Ama did not exist. It was a ridiculous romantic concept in Alex's eyes; just a legend told to children to give them hope that they could one day find a soul mate.
He slammed his fist onto the desk top, succeeding in doing nothing other than bruising the side of his hand and, possibly mollifying a bit of the anger he felt at the thought of beautiful Winona Brook, who had never given him a second glance, marrying that Human, George Kirk. Alex remembered thinking that Winona Brook was the prettiest girl he ever saw when he first saw her in primary school. She had always ignored him like he didn't exist because of his empathy blindness. He moved to secondary school after one year, but he never forgot her.
He shook the thoughts out of his head and looked back down at the PADD in his hand where he had schematics for power plant of the station but his mind was not really on it. There was something wrong with the calculations of how to use Jupiter's radiation as the power source. It wasn't something that he could put his finger on yet, but he could feel it in his bones. His biggest fear was that if he didn't find it something catastrophic would happen as a result.
Alex sighed and put the PADD down on the thin layer of Fleximer that covered the rare wood of the antique desk and stood, looking out over the bay when the door chime sounded. He looked at the chrono and realized that it must be Jim Komack. "For a man of his rank he sure can be an idiot. If I wasn't already sure he got his job because of his mother's connections, I'm sure now," grumbled Marcus as he walked to the door.
Alex had had some emergency business to take care of on Veenu so he put Komack in charge of things while he had been gone. If there was one person who hated Kirk as much as he did it was Jim Komack. Two of Komack's cousins had been among Kodos' guards that had been killed by Kirk. So, he had let him handle the kidnapping while Alex had made sure that the torture equipment was still in place at the governor's place on Tarsus IV. All Jim had to do was make sure that Kirk got there. And there Komack had failed: spectacularly. Alex had given the idiot a formula for a chemical that would dampen the kids ability to use his telekinesis, but along the way some dolt had mixed it with another drug, something Alex made sure Komack had been instructed not to do, which nullified its properties.
Alex had returned to Earth when the meeting was held that had concluded in Komack going under surveillance. Before cameras had been installed in his office, it had been Alex who had removed any incriminating evidence and warned Komack of what was coming.
Jim Komack had been his friend since shortly after meeting him when he was his advisor at the Academy. The only real thing that used to bother Alex about his friend, besides his occasional stupidity, was his xenophobia; so far the only Veenan he had turned it on was Kirk and, since he couldn't stand the little punk himself, he never said anything. Alex could admit to not liking certain races, especially Xindi. There was no Veenan who held a friendly bone in their body toward the Xindi who had almost subjugated their people. And because of political tensions he wasn't very fond of Romulans either. He did not hate any of them, he just didn't trust them.
However, there was one race of beings that he actually hated: Klingons, Alex hated Klingons with his heart and soul. He knew that he shouldn't hate them for doing what they did. In the minds of the Klingons they were doing the correct thing by destroying the ship with his first true love and her family. It had been contaminated by an unknown organism and they had, in a way, threatened the Klingon ship by trying to beam over, so the Klingons did what they thought logical and destroyed the ship. He would never, ever forgive them.
One thing Alex had been known for since he was a child: his ability to hold a grudge. He had two grudges he held very closely to his heart: Klingons and James Tiberius Kirk.
Upon granting him access Jim Komack entered, dressed in casual clothes, with a paper drawing pad under his arm.
Alex gestured toward the pad as he walked over to greet his friend and quipped with a wry smile, "planning on drawing portraits today Jim?"
As they shook hands Komack replied with a smile, "anytime Alex, anytime." Jim Komack did have significant talent in the area of art. Alex had always thought that his friend would have been more suited to being a museum curator than an admiral while painting or drawing on the side.
Komack shook his head and said, "I need to show you this image. I received it along with the message to find him; that he is The Cunning One. He is the one that is supposed to be able to defeat The Warlord."
They had worked their way into the dining room and sat down at the table. Jim set the pad on the table and opened it.
Alex sucked in his breath and scrutinized Komack. Alex sat back in his chair in shear amazement. How could people be oblivious of such a monster from their own not so distant past! Oh, he had been cunning all right: Khan Noonien Singh and his followers had killed hundreds of thousands for not fitting into his mold. It hadn't been that long since they had been in the academy. The Eugenics Wars were required study. How could Komack not have known who he had drawn?!
Alex scratched his head and squinted his left eye, giving Komack a look that asked plain and clear 'are you as stupid as you look?' as the words came out of his mouth, "Jim, you really, really don't know who it is that you've drawn do you?"
Komack shrugged looking confused, as he shook his head.
Alex's expression morphed into one of those that parents have forever reserved for when they are very disappointed in their children and shoved back his chair abruptly, standing and said, "I need a fucking drink and I don't give a damn about how early it is."
Alex walked over to a wall and pushed a button. A panel opened revealing a lighted bar area complete with a small sink, refrigerator and its own lounge chairs. He waved Komack in while he pulled a very potent Veenan liqueur from the refrigerator. Not only did it contain alcohol, but there were other herbal components as well, that gave it an extra kick. Not only that, it tasted good. It was a favorite of anyone who visited with Alex who always kept some chilled for himself and any guests he may entertain. In some ways, he supposed it was akin to Romulan Ale, except it was legal. One of his favorite things about it was that it would loosen peoples' tongues much better than just alcohol. It was one of the tools he had used to become a Fleet Admiral so quickly once he had entered their venerable ranks.
Alex brought the liqueur and two glasses with ice into the lounge and they both sat. He poured them both drinks then downed his, promptly refilling it and downing it again.
Komack had never seen him drink like that and was amazed. He just sat there with his eyes as wide as saucers and his mouth open while Alex downed a third drink and refilled his glass one more time before shaking his head and turning to him.
Alexander Marcus looked James Komack dead in the eye and said, "Jim, I don't get how in the hell you could forget this time in your own history. I guess that's why Human history has been so repetitive." He shrugged and shook his head, "since I'm not Human I suppose I could never understand your propensity to forget your own history. But it's since you forgot it's time for a little lesson.
"I don't know what the fucking xi want him for, but you drew a picture of one of the worst Humanity ever spawned. It all started with some misguided scientists 'fixing' the genes in Humans so that they would be perfect, The Chrysalis Project. For the small number of perfect children that they actually produced there were dozens of rejects. It was sick. When an infiltrator discovered what was actually happening inside the Chrysalis Project it was stopped and all the children were fostered out with normal parents hoping that they would lead normal lives. But the first perfect child, Khan Noonien Singh, and the other older children knew they were special and were problematic. Eventually Khan got them all together and began a Eugenics program of his own which spawned the Eugenics Wars."
Komack was confused. Why would the xi send him a picture of a person from several hundred years ago, he had to be dead?
Alex continued, "one of the scientists was able to infiltrate the program involving the newly developed cryogenics and deep space travel and when things got bad for Khan and his 'family' she was able to assist him in getting them into that sleeper ship and sent them into space. That ship could be just about anywhere in a general heading. They named it the Botany Bay."
Alex took another drink and let its warmth settle in his stomach before he finished, "if these squids need him I don't have a clue how to find him in the billions of cubic kilometers of space out there. It could take years!"
He looked at Komack and they both shrugged. Alex crooked the corner of his mouth in a wry smile, shook his head and poured them both another drink. They clinked glasses and downed them knowing that they had some serious work to do for their masters.
OoO
Pavel Chekov felt like he might burst at the seams before his shuttle landed in San Francisco. While he had been home he had been talking to his sister about Jim and Spock when he was hit with a "most exciting" idea for a gift for them. Between himself and his sister they had been able to complete it before he had to return and he couldn't wait to present it to them.
While he was at the baggage hub he extricated the gift from his suitcase and hailed an aircab. In his excitement the young genius forgot to call ahead to determine if they would be at their apartment when he arrived. Pavel didn't even think that it was odd that he had not gone home before going anywhere else; he had a goal to accomplish and nothing was going to get in his way! If they were not home he would wait, days if need be.
Luckily Jim answered the door when he rang. Another thing that Pavel didn't take into account when he rushed over was the hour, 0335. Jim had just gotten up to up to eat something when he heard the doorbell. He was glad that his mother had explained some things about being pregnant to him while they had been on the shuttle home. Things like the increase in appetite he had experienced. It amazed him that at such an early stage the babies were already making such physical demands on him. She had assured him it was because his body was also still undergoing changes to accommodate his current biological state and referred him to a couple of pieces of reading about being a pregnant s'treu.
So when the doorbell rang, Spock opened his eyes and was treated to the view of his mate's back as he stood and put on his robe. As he cinched said robe, Jim looked over his shoulder and said, "go back to sleep k'diwa, I've got it."
Jim checked the security feed and saw it was Chekov, bouncing on his toes with a huge smile on his face carrying a fancily wrapped box and towing a suitcase. He sighed and pulled his robe closer around himself. He made a valiant attempt to make his hair presentable but failed miserably, only succeeding in creating that spiked look. Opening the door he spoke as quietly as he could, "um, hi Pavel, what can I do for you at 3:30 in the morning?" The last came out as a moan but he wanted to growl.
Pavel stopped bouncing and his smile dimmed slightly as he whispered, "I haf a geeft for you and Meester Spock. I made it special for you with zee help of my seester." He held out the package.
Well, what could Jim do then but invite him in after that? He would have much preferred to have told him to come back in six or seven hours then gone back to his bed and cuddled up next to his warm Vulcan. Because, it was a rare thing that once said Vulcan got up for the day that he would be willing to return to the warmth of the bed. Jim knew the odds were not in favor of his Vulcan sleeping through the upcoming encounter. So, Jim led Pavel into the living room in the hope that he could get him to rest for a while so he could go back to his Vulcan.
Spock heard Jim let someone into the apartment. Thinking that it had to be important if someone came calling at 0336 he got up, donned his robe and slippers and headed toward the living area. However, as soon as he turned the corner and saw Pavel with Jim he decided to get tea before he joined them.
He heard them discussing the box on the table as he walked from the kitchen to the living room. Evidently it contained a hand painted gift.
Jim was saying, "I get it Pavel, but Spock's… sleeping?" his speech petered out at the end because he could see Pavel watching something coming.
"I am here James," Spock said, knowing full well that Pavel had seen him coming and that Jim had not, nor had Jim heard him.
Jim spun around so fast he thought he was going to get whiplash, "sometimes I think I should put a bell on you. Quiet as a cat when you want to be. Well, get your butt in here and sit down. Pavel has a gift for us and you brought a pot of Vulcan Spice Tea. I swear if anyone else comes over in the middle of sleep time, they will be sitting with their backs to the rest of the apartment! You scared the living daylights out of me Spock!"
Spock cocked his head to the side and drew his eyebrows together in genuine confusion before he said, "I am unfamiliar with these 'living daylights', but we will have to find them and return them to you as soon as possible."
Jim and Pavel watched Spock as he revealed his unfamiliarity with human idioms once more and only because of the hour, Jim burst out laughing. "Sorry Spock, living daylights is one of those idioms and it goes back to boxing references from the nineteenth century. The daylights are your eyes and when you got knocked out you got the daylights beat out of you."
"Fascinating," Spock replied and Jim rolled his eyes.
Spock proceeded to insert himself on the sofa between Jim and Pavel. Jim rolled his eyes again with a slight shake of his head wondering if Spock would be like this for the duration of his pregnancy.
"Yes k'diwa, I will be very protective of you while you are pregnant. It is instinctive to protect ones mate and children." Spock informed him through the bond.
Jim looked sidelong at him and returned in his mind voice, "I love you too Ashaya."
He then looked past Spock to Pavel and asked, "so, Pavel, what have we here?"
"Ah, open eet please Jeem, um Commander," Pavel said nervously as Spock reached for the box and began to methodically unwrap it starting with the untying the home made bow.
"Eet ees a tradeetational Russian geeft," Pavel said, waving at Spock to remove the gift from its box.
Spock's eyebrow rose as he was greeted by a caricature of himself painted on a wooden doll complete with his instructors' uniform and over-sized ears. While he was attempting to understand the purpose of the object by examining it, he was also listening to Jim and Pavel speak about it. He had turned the dolls and was staring at the ear when he raised an eyebrow and said, "my ears appear to be out of proportion to the rest of my head."
Jim chuckled and said, "well they are caricatures, and your head is out of proportion to the rest of your body. That's the nature of a caricature Spock."
Pavel nodded as he verbalized his agreement, "zat is correct Meester Spock. Even Jeem's ears are beeg." He was very animated as he spoke further of the gift, "my seester and I painted them to be you both and some prospective cheeldren. Open eet Meester Spock."
Spock had found the line that divided the top and bottom while he ran his fingers over the object which Pavel had called a 'Nesting Doll', so when he was told to open it he twisted the top which came off in his hand revealing a similarly painted caricature of Jim. His eyebrow, which had resumed its normal position on his face, once again climbed toward his bangs.
Jim started laughing and held out his hands to Spock who passed the inside doll to him, keeping the one that looked like himself, in his cadet uniform. Jim quickly took the remaining dolls apart and lined them up, his smile grew with each one: inside of his doll were four others made like children that were meant to be theirs. The first one had blue eyes and brown hair; next was blond hair and blue eyes; the third had brown hair and brown eyes; the fourth had blond hair and brown eyes. They each had pointed ears and had been painted as toddlers wearing pants, and there was no gender determination to any of them.
As Jim woke up more as he picked up the largest of the 'children' to admire the paint work. He noticed a small glyph painted in the same place where a Starfleet logo would go on a uniform. When he focused his sleepy eyes enough to see it clearly he was shocked to see that it was almost identical to the one he had seen T'Lena wearing in his vision. He put the doll down and picked up the next one to look for the mark; it was there.
The way he did that caught the attention of Spock and Pavel in time to see him put that one down. He was panicked as he picked up the other two to check them out. His eyes widened as they passed from one to the other, seeing the mark.
"Um… Uh… Pavel, um, how, where did you see that glyph?" Jim asked tentatively, looking at Pavel over the tops of the dolls.
Pavel thought Jim's eyes looked haunted and he didn't like it. "Zee gleeph? My seester painted zee gleephs Jeem. She does calligraphy. She has been vorking vith zee Vulcan language lately. She said zees one vas High Vulcan. I forget vat she told me eet means. Sorry." He shrugged.
Spock had seen the look on Jim's face when he saw the glyphs, so he picked up a doll and his eyebrows both raised in surprise when he saw it. He waited until Pavel was finished speaking and said, "this is a combination of two Vulcan glyphs that were used frequently in the pre-Surakian era. They translate as s'vohk meaning protect and fosh-tor meaning defend."
Spock could feel something niggling in the back of his mind, in that place where he kept the bond with Versat's clan so he closed his eyes and concentrated. He was not surprised when got a response which he passed along. He opened his eyes to find them both watching him. He felt his cheeks and ears warm as he flushed with embarrassment. If it had just been Jim it would have been no problem, however Pavel…
He cleared his throat in a very Human manner before he began, "in pre-reform society there was a society of warriors dedicated to the defense and protection of the upper echelon of the clans. That symbol was always worn on their uniforms. That society of warriors was formally called the Shila'es-ahn'vahr or the Society of the Double Edged Sword. I do not think that this configuration would be found in common calligraphy texts. I, too, am curious as to how your sister would know how to put the glyphs together like this." He looked at Pavel with a brow raised in curiosity.
Pavel checked his chrono and saw that it was nearly 0400 hours meaning that it would be close to 1500 hours in Saint Petersburgh. He got all excited and crowed, "I can comm my seester now!" He pulled out his personal communicator and began to babble in Russian.
Jim and Spock tuned him out and looked at each other. "If he says she saw it in a dream I will scream!" Jim said into Spock's mind. The image that accompanied the thought was of a petulant Jim stomping his feet, hands balled into fists as he screamed his frustration to the universe at large.
Spock drew his brows together and pursed his lips in disapproval which caused Jim to snort. "I would very much prefer that you do not." Spock replied, giving Jim a pointed look that caused Jim started to laugh out loud, which was cut off when Pavel snapped his communicator closed.
Pavel looked up from his communicator and noticed both of them staring at him and smiled meekly, color rising in his cheeks. He dropped his head so fast that his longer than regulation curls bounced, then looked up through his eyelashes as he relayed what his sister told him. "Ah, eet seems my seester ees a fan of Vulcan calligraphy, and has done much research eento eet. Liking zee vay zee language eez written she began to read zee stories and found a couple of books of pre-reform Vulcan warriors and romance to be favorites. Von story about zees 'sheelas-awhanfar' she peeked up because of the gleeph on zee cover; zat gleeph!"
Jim felt Spock's slight cringe as Pavel murdered his language, and placed a hand on his knee to keep him from saying anything. It was a good thing too, because Spock was just about to correct him. Instead he changed his ploy.
"Where did she come upon a book of pre-reform Vulcan on Earth?" Spock inquired, eyebrow raised.
Pavel perked up when he replied to that question, the answer was easy, "zee book vas on Vulcan, not Earth. Three years ago she vent zere on a treep vith her communications class zat vent to seex Federation planets, including Vulcan!"
"That explains a lot," Jim said, letting out a breath he didn't even know he had been holding. When he did he relaxed and his body took over from there, trying desperately to put him back to sleep.
Spock could feel Jim suddenly struggling to stay awake beside him and said, "thank you for the gift Mr. Chekov. However, it is normal sleeping hours."
Chekov ducked his head and blushed bright red, as he stood up.
"Pav, don't be embarrassed," Jim mumbled, eye lids drooping, as he pushed himself up to walk him to the door, "you were excited. I know the feeling. The nesting dolls are really cool, but, I'm having a hard time staying awake, so I think it's time to go now. We'll talk more when I'm more awake. K?"
Chekov nodded and said, "okay Jeem." But he was remained as red as a cardinal.
As they reached the door Jim grabbed Pavel's shoulder to reassure him that all was alright and said, "good night."
Pavel replied, "good morning." He was still blushing but he had smiled as he closed the door behind himself as he left.
OoO
A/N: Please, please, please leave me a review! I know that a lot more people read than leave reviews, so if you wouldn't mind, just take another minute and let me know what you thought… please! :D