(Notes: things said about the shuttle are real. I will talk specifics at the end.)

USS Enterprise, Bridge

The first Romulan Commander Kirk saw had told him, "I regret that we meet in this way. You and I are of a kind. In a different reality, I could have called you friend."

He could tell Rhinar began to think that way of Sarek. A different reality where he could sit and debate with the Vulcan as respected equals over technology, principles, and the universe.

But unlike the Romulan Commander, Kirk felt no sympathy for Rhinar. He chose this reality; no one else.

Instead, the captain asked Uhura for her status and something clicked. He unexpectedly spun around to Scotty. "Communications."

"Aye, Captain. We're helping Uhura's people trace the problem."

"No, something else, something we discussed before. You said it had to do with poor communications between design and actualization. How far it can carry through even though it's clearly an issue. Wasn't that about the hangar deck?"

The engineer's eyes darted around as he tried to remember.

"It was a while ago, Scotty, but we said something about – the shuttles! Not the deck, the shuttlecrafts! Bring them up on the main viewscreen." All six of their shuttles came up. "Copernicus only." The craft Rhinar had stolen took over the screen and rotated to show all angles. He knew he looked right at it, but it still hid in plain sight. "Bring up an overlay of the schematics."

Kirk's eyes ran over it; something about two halves not going together – but built anyway. Where?

"Captain!" Sulu found it. He zoomed in on the aft section. "Is that what I think it is?"

"Aye." Scotty shook his head. "That's it. Poor communication at its worst. Don't anybody worry about not recognizing it. Most people take it as part of the frame."

His captain grabbed the communicator. "Saavik! Listen!"

Rhinar's voice broke in. "A third channel!"

Kirk pounded a fist on his chair arm as the other man kept talking and cursed vividly to himself. "Uhura! How did he get hold of a Contact channel!"

Her mouth parted, her head shook no as in she had no idea, until realization came over her. "Bimojigar and I slaved our stations together so I could use it as a filtering junction. He must have found it through that way."

"Uhura!"

"Yes, Captain. We're doing everything we can." She swung back to her station.

Yes, they were. He knew that. Enterprise and its systems were just so massive and involved. It meant her staff had a lot to go through painstakingly.

He got out of his chair and up to the older Spock. "This is where you knowing everyone involved has to pay off. What do I say to Saavik to tell her that?" as he pointed to the screen.

Spock stared at the schematic himself and what it was Kirk would have to pass on without Rhinar understanding it. His head came up and he turned. "Say this to her."


"Saavik, you have to learn why things work on a starship. Or you'll never get in, not with that force field around the compartment."

Kirk did not mean the prefix code this time; shuttlecrafts didn't have them. He would also not mean something exactly like that situation because he did not know of that situation.

Saavik's people looked to her for a translation, some even appeared offended by what sounded like an insult to her abilities.

She reassured them, "Spock told him to say that to me as a means of stating there is something we can use, something unclear because it is not the original function. Perhaps created as a defense or an innocuous detail that we may use offensively."

She unknowingly did what Kirk had: pulled up the Copernicus at the nearest station. "He does not refer to the main hatch. It is the object we must ignore for all the noticeable reasons. He refers to something else, another way in."

"There is no other way in, ma'am," Olivia Trujillo insisted. "Frankly, it would be great if the whole back opened like ours do, but they don't. He can't mean the windows either because Imre's already fighting that front. And right at the force field."

"No, Captain Kirk did not mean for us to take such an action." Saavik flew over the image, spinning it around.

Trujillo wished they could just ask and another guard, the youngest there, wondered out loud why their captain and Mr. Spock didn't just talk in Old High Vulcan to each other since Rhinar probably didn't speak it. It was halfway out of his mouth when he remembered the shuttlecraft had a Universal Translator. He turned a brilliant red.

Saavik stayed focused on the screen and Kirk's message. "He said the compartment. But there are two-" She snapped at the station to bring up schematics. There.

She pushed off running and snatched a night vision headset from one of the guards. "Trujillo! Tran still inspects the Observation Deck?"

"Yes, ma'am. I'm coming with you."

"No, hold this position. Mr. Imre, I am coming in."

Rhinar said jauntily, "I look forward to seeing you, Saavik."

You should not. This time, my son goes free whatever the cost to myself. It is you or me now.

She found the emergency steps and took them three at a time. The stairwell was contained, not opened to the deck, and therefore lit like the corridors. Saavik slid down the night vision headset but didn't stop at the flight deck, despite her people thinking she would. She only confirmed her thoughts with a quick glance inside the blackened bay. Her enemy wasn't stopping here on the turnstile. No, he meant to escape and would lift off from the deck any second now, out of reach by the time she got there.

He would also be able to see her coming, through sensors at least. In fact:

She kept running. "Imre, I have missed my opportunity!" Her crew – and Kirk's – would know to ignore that. She would never stand around, doing nothing but lamenting a lost chance.

Rhinar sniggered. "A shame. However, I do not judge you harshly by it."

Her boots hit the step on the next flight when Uhura exclaimed, "We have it! Auxiliary Communications Juncture on Deck 4 is repaired. All personnel have been moved to this new secure channel."

"Saavik!" Kirk immediately began.

"Message received. Imre, prepare for the lights again. Lead a frontal attack on my mark. It must appear to justify a large movement on the stern and you must also take out the sensor array."

He returned, "I know this makes sense somehow, so I'll save questions for later."

Saavik burst through to the Observation Deck, startling her people. She never stopped running, but slung her rifle into her hands.

"Tran! Shoot it out!" She showed him which window by taking the first shot. By the second, he fired with her. The windows were meant to withstand a great deal of force to protect observers if the shuttlebay had an accident with flying debris and open to space. It splintered instead of breaking; that was fine. Unlike Imre's frustration with the shuttlecraft windows, Saavik expected this.

She took off the rifle and tossed it to a guard; it'd be in her way now. A glance at the shuttlecraft through the first window showed it hovered a few feet in the air, still moving, and she rapidly made her calculations.

"No one follows me and shield your eyes!" She picked up speed.

And leaped.

She rammed into the collapsing window and it exploded. She plummeted down. "Now!" She squeezed her eyes shut.

Light blasted the deck again from one side like widespread phaser fire. Imre and the others had their backs to it while Rhinar would take it full in his unsuspecting eyes again. The noise by Ssaalz and the others meant they attacked the shuttlecraft for effect if not actually getting inside.

Saavik caught the starboard nacelle in her chest. She threw her arms around it before she fell.

She pulled off the night vision visor, yanked the aft panel open, and quickly scanned around the walls of the station component. "Bridge, I will need time."

"Spock's taking care of that," Kirk answered.

She grabbed her hand phaser from her belt. She pictured the schematics in her mind and began cutting through the back wall and sides of the station. Rods running across in the front blocked her; she cut the ones that served to hold the station's containing shape to give her more room. The others she must leave while she kept the ruse that no one could breach the shuttle.

But I am coming for you.

In the next second, the Copernicus shuddered hard. She grabbed hold, wedged herself in, and kept cutting. The shudder slipped into a constant tremor as the shuttlecraft strained.

Tractor beam, she identified. Shuttlebays had them to help bring crafts inside. This time, they held Rhinar here.

Her husband confirmed it. "Mr. Rhinar, did you believe I would simply allow you to escape with my son?"

"Be very careful, Spock."

"I am. You must be as well."

Dangerous.

Sarek handled it. "You were leaving with Setik before you have Coridan. You play another gambit. Why?"

Imre whispered, "Can someone tell me what's going on?"

Fortunately, the older Spock answered, saving her the trouble. "When designing a Class F shuttle, engineers envisioned a separate entrance hatch for the aft compartment. However, when the design became a reality, the stern on the craft was not built to accommodate it. And yet, the hatch exists, appearing as part of the frame. Your captain attempts cutting through to that hatch by way of the thinner walls of the aft station."

"You had me take out the sensor array," Imre thought out loud, "so he doesn't see you're back there now that the fog is gone. Captain, that hatch…"

"Yes, I know."

Saavik never would try to cut out the full hatch on the stern. Several dangers lived there – the inertial systems modulator, antigrav sequencer, ion thrusters – that could kill them all through an explosion or send the shuttle crashing into the deck.

But the most dangerous of all, the main reactor was above her head. Instead, she looked to cut about a third of the way up, enough so she'd get in and attack Rhinar from the rear.

Kirk joined them. "You still have something else, Saavik."

Why did they feel the need to point out what she knew? "The force field. I have ideas for it as well. I require Mr. Scott's assistance once more."

"Here, Captain."

He listened to her ideas and told her the greater odds. Saavik reached through the side wall and began on the stern itself to the hatch.

Imre spoke up, "Captain, I'm going underneath after the power transfer conduits."

"You cannot reach them externally."

"I know, ma'am, but the noise will cover what you're doing and Rhinar can gloat over supposedly being smarter than us. And you never know, we may pick up on something."

The older Spock came back on. "Saavik, Torpedo Control reports all missiles accounted for."

"That's something," Kirk muttered. "But why try flying away? He had to know about the tractor beam."

Scotty added, "He's got to be redlining those engines to fight that beam. Where can he go with burnt out engines?"

Copernicus strained; if this tractor beam were as strong as its main counterpart, the fight would be over. But Starfleet envisioned the one in the shuttlebay be for gentle guidance, not a full out fight.

"If we let go," Kirk started, "he-"

Saavik froze and then pushed on. "That is the strategy. Copernicus is his torpedo."

He must have planned on crashing into the hangar doors, but he could just as easily fly full throttle with the tractor beam's pull and smash into the bay walls.

Kirk finished the thought. "The shuttlecraft's main reactor and each of the nacelle's warp core will explode on impact. It's big enough and close enough that it'll get to the Enterprise's warp engines. We'll all go up with them."

Saavik didn't stop. "Ambassador Sarek, I suggest it is up to you. I need a few more minutes."

She trusted in her father-in-law although she had no idea what he could do. He lived up to her confidence. He boldly asked Rhinar point blank if Kirk's theory was true.

"It is. I will be making a rather large explosion. I give all of you credit; I didn't expect you to figure out each – gambit as you aptly put it - so quickly. I thought I could stall you until Babel at least. But you have my back to the wall, so I must play my last hand. You know what this will do to the Coridan vote. Without you, Sarek, they never get into the Federation. I win. Endgame."

Yes, it was. It meant Saavik had another duty to be done. Sparks caught in her bangs and a few fell around her eyes. She calculated she was halfway there.

Rhinar spoke again. He sounded… somber. "Sarek, out of respect, I will let you die with your grandson. Therefore, Spock, I promise, your boy lives until the end for all of us."

Hearing that about her son… How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn't you say?

Saavik answered the memory, Then I fail the damned test again, because she would not accept the idea of Setik dying here. "Kirk," she called.

"Jim, please."

"Of course. We both know the order either of us needs to give."

He paused and she imagined he looked down at his chair arm, at the shuttle controls. "The ship comes first."

And for that reason, we order people to their deaths. Even our own. "Allow me what time you can and then open the shuttlebay doors."

What did Spock do when he heard all this? Saavik wished she could see him.

Kirk's voice sounded grave. Grave… and respectful. "You have every second I can give. Captain."

She heard her crew gasp in different ways and the same from the bridge – if they understood.

McCoy hollered, "Jim, that'll kill her! It'll pull out the atmosphere down there and throw her out into space! She'll die!"

Then Spock, her Spock, and a little part in the back of her mind warmed all over again that she was the one who could make that claim to him. His voice sounded… deadened. "She knows, Doctor."

Husband. Adun.

Saavik burned her hands as space grew tight and she plunged them heedlessly even deeper. Her sensitive nose flared at the smells of burnt metal and flesh. Copernicus shuddered again as Kirk changed the tractor beam to forcing it out of the bay.

McCoy again: "What about the boy?"

Her husband answered, "Saavik must shut the opening she has made, an action of which she is well aware. However, he will still be exposed due to the shuttle's windows being destroyed. Unless… Mr. Rhinar." He must have opened the channel. "You stated my son will live as long as the rest of us. If you hold that as a truth, close the blast shutters."

Saavik would offer the man anything if he would do at least that much, but she knew she had nothing to give that he wanted. She called to her ship. "Mr. sh'Shytral. You are to lock on this shuttlecraft with a tractor beam in the event of the hangar doors opening. Your priority is the Enterprise. Draw the shuttle away quickly and, if possible, at a distance that will protect our own ship if our enemy chooses to detonate. Simultaneously, you will beam out all members of the landing party to the Contact. Excluding myself."

"Captain!" several people shouted at once.

"The Armstrong Limit," she reminded them firmly. "I will have a minimum of fifteen seconds to thirty seconds of effectiveness. Perhaps ninety. Even the fifteen may be all the difference."

I will not leave without my son.

Rhinar came back at last. "I did make that promise and I'm aware that at least Kirk is attempting something. No doubt, he has his thumb hovering over the button to open the shuttlebay doors while I watch Imre and friends attempt bringing Copernicus down. …All right. I'm putting you through enough and I still have the force field which prevents you doing anything. In case Kirk pushes his button, I will close the blast shutters. And Spock… Sarek. If the child wakes up before then, I'll keep him awake so you can talk to him."

Saavik knew exactly what Spock's reaction to that would be because she was the same.

"I will not thank you," her husband said at last.

Imre called to her. "Captain, I'm coming back there to take your place."

"No, Mr. Imre, you will not. Remain with your team. We are not done yet."

"Captain! Starfleet regulations and logic state-"

Saavik pictured his expression when she said, "This responsibility is mine and I will keep it. …I had a larger duty, after all, Imre." To my family. "And I failed it. Bridge, I know you are listening. Take care of these people, Captain James T. Kirk. It was my role to do so. I ask that you do it better."

"Saavik, you know you did everything you could. You still are!"

"Captain," Imre said at the same time, "nobody thinks that of you!"

Both men argued but without her response, they petered out. The bay doors loomed behind her, waiting.

"Commander Imre." Her Spock again. She could tell the difference. His voice sounded no better than before. "One of your team must reach your captain. Now."

Yes, of course.

"Sir?" Imre asked, not understanding. She had just told him he could not take her place.

Saavik's hands faltered for less than a second and then she started cutting around the internal Atmospheric Recycling Tanks. She knew Spock's next words. They were roughened.

"In the event she is lost when the shuttlebay is opened to space."

Imre did her proud. ("Make you proud, Captain.") Whatever exclamation he thought, he responded with dignity and professionalism. "Yes, sir. Of course. One of us will go now."

She heard Kirk and McCoy on the bridge asking what was going on, since Spock never told them about Vulcan katras before the Khan battle and his death. She heard her husband touch on the truth without changing history, something that must make Sarek and the younger Spock curious.

She idly wondered who her first officer would send. In a second, scratching sounds grew closer and over the roof came Ssaalz with Imre himself a step behind. Saavik nearly smiled.

"So. Imre chose you."

"On the contrary," he said, leaving it open ended for the Carreon.

"I insisted." She hopped down to stand on the nacelle. "I'm sorry I'm not the ambassador. He should be here."

Saavik couldn't take the time to look at the young Carreon. "Ssaalz-"

"It's all right. I told Commander Imre why it was important to me. Even my mother's bad joke."

"It is not a bad joke. It is that Rrelthiz tells it too frequently." She has green stripes, Friend Saavik. She was born to be named after a Vulcan! "You are my namesake, Ssaalz. I am honored if you take me to Mount Seleya. Imre." She moved her elbow up, so her first officer had a little more room to see and move in. She shoved out as he took the phaser. "Here, continue cutting on that line," and she drew an imaginary one.

When he did, Saavik moved her fingers to the points on Ssaalz' face. She made the mental anchor that her katra would follow if her body died here. Take this message to your mother for me as well. She let her thoughts on how important Rrelthiz was to her flow through; her friend's daughter gave a low, poignant little quaver in her throat sac.

She eased the mental touch away and then took the phaser back; a couple seconds had passed. Ssaalz lightly rubbed at the side of her face.

"Are you all right?" Saavik asked.

Ssaalz nodded. "I thought it would bother me, but it doesn't. I don't even feel it."

No, she wouldn't. Not unless she received Saavik's katra.

She spoke heavily. "Mother will want to be there."

"Of course. Spock will arrange it." If you return to our time. Otherwise, Ssaalz would take her to Mount Seleya here.

"Ma'am," Imre said, "I'm sorry, but what about Setik's?"

"Unnecessary, he will survive." He stared at her, but he wouldn't like the answer. "If the worst happens, there will be a katra bearer nearby. I will get him to you."

"Him? Wait, you don't mean – you can't be serious!"

"I am." Forcing a meld was the worst crime on Vulcan, equal to murder. All telepathic species looked on it the same way and the Federation now treated it as such in their laws. The consequences for it on Vulcan were severe.

Saavik had seen the wreckage in Valeris. She herself once created memories in a Romulan praetor but left him unharmed.

But for her son, she'd violently rip out Rhinar's mind to put in Setik's katra, if it came down to it, and willingly surrender herself for punishment. "Now, you must leave, Commander. I will have you beamed out."

Imre cut that off. "No, you will not. We're back here, make use of us."

Saavik glanced under her arm to see how far away they were from the doors. "Agreed. Bimojigar."

Sarek suddenly burst onto the comm channel. "Mr. Rhinar. You must listen to the following."

Saavik was buried up to her feet when the first voice spoke:

"I am Ambassador Csala and I am the principal Caitian representative. I vote for Coridan to join the Federation."

The next voice said, "I am Ambassador Rayfh of Earth. For the official record, I vote for Coridan to become a Federation member."

Saavik wasn't sure what was happening, except it wasn't surprising to hear Sarek's allies vote with him. But then:

"I am Trorv, the senior ambassador for the Tellarites. I give my vote for Coridan to be a member."

On his heels came, "I am Jyart of the Wuc'Ul and I am voting in favor of the Coridan systems."

One by one they spoke and Saavik realized now that it was recordings. Sabina Leclercq, also of Earth; Vulwadar, Shras, Veothur, Seluban, Taxeer, Sudav… each one spoke and unanimously, they voted with Sarek. No abstentions and no dissensions.

History had happened differently; Sarek had carried the day, but a minority had voted against Coridan. And they had not voted until after a long battle at Babel.

Sarek talked over their voices after a handful were heard. "A unanimous vote, Mr. Rhinar, with each one verified through their diplomatic credentials. For Coridan. These recordings are an accepted way to log our votes. They are being loaded into a probe and if you attempt destroying the shuttlecraft and this ship, the probe will be launched and will survive our destruction. The Federation will receive it and record our vote. You will fail. Endgame."

Imre ducked to look into where Saavik tore her way into Copernicus. "Did you hear that! That was brilliant!"

Shras had warned Rhinar about entering the arena with Sarek.

At last, she could let go of the phaser trigger. "We're in." She pulled herself through the narrow opening, reaching up for the hatch, and breaking its seal.

Sarek continued, "Endgame, Rhinar, if that is what you choose for your people. You can, however, still work with me and together we can save your world. Land the shuttle and release Setik. I will then delete the recordings from the probe and the Coridan issue goes to Babel to decide. With my advocating for your people as part of the vote."

Saavik got to her feet while Imre, Bimojigar, and Ssaalz came after her. She leaned over the Sozon and spoke in a volume that barely registered as a breath. Her communications officer yanked open a hatch in the floor and disappeared inside what Scott had called, "a space that makes an access tube look roomy."

Saavik quickly looked out the stern: those clamshell doors appeared close enough to touch. But that was an illusion based on their size in relation to her. However, it changed her plan.

Imre came up with a strategy to work around the force field in the main compartment. One that Ssaalz and he embraced.

"We'll go first, Captain," he said. "Stay on our other side. We'll be a shield for you. We're still going to get burned at the door, but if what Mr. Scott says is true, it'll be weakened."

Sarek had kept speaking. "You state I chose Coridan over my family, Mr. Rhinar. You are wrong. I sought a way to protect your planet along with the Coridan systems. However, you cannot do what you have done to my grandson and succeed by it. Choose this ending instead and you obtain what you desire most. As do we."

Bimojigar popped up from underneath the deck. "The force field emitter is where we thought. At the controls, center, and stationed under the floor. He's hard wired it to the power conduits. I can take the emitter down but it will bring down the shuttlecraft too, Captain."

"All right then," Imre said and pulled his phaser. "That obviously changes things. We go with an old-fashioned plan at this point. Ssaalz, you need to hang back. You can't be in the same danger as the captain. Not when you're her katra bearer. Ready?"

"Mr. Bimojigar," Saavik whispered. "Exchange phasers with me." Hers was drained from getting inside. "You did well, all three of you. I commend you and thank you."

"One does not thank logic," Imre responded warmly. "On your mark, Captain."

She knew they still hadn't realized the full implication of the force field not extending to this compartment. "Contact, transport Commander Imre's party back to the ship."

They wanted to shout but knew they couldn't, and as they protested, they were gone.

"Contact, can you find Mr. Imre's tricorder reading?"

Thalla answered. "Yes, ma'am. We just need that force field down."

"If we have no other option, lock on to the tricorder and beam that section of the shuttle out."

"…Aye, Captain."

Saavik didn't need to look outside again to know how much time she had left. It's why she had her people transported out. She shut the aft hatch to protect Setik.

"Saavik, I am here."

She had been crouching by the door to the main compartment. "Spock… not on the flight deck?"

"No, outside its entrance. I want to be in there, but I accept at last that I cannot. The twins… Simply know, if the worst happens, I am as close as I can be to you… and our son."

She very slowly slid open the door halfway, letting it shield her from Rhinar's sight and the force field. "Not Setik. I will not allow it. He will come home. …Spock, you said our son."

"I told them I needed a private channel to speak with my wife. Contact is managing it. They have also allowed me to stand here alone so no one overhears us."

"Then…" What to say that could ever possibly summarize them and all they were in a second? "T'hyla," she whispered and then his private name, his ahtiá name, even more softly.

He said it back to her with her self name, like so many times when they were alone to be simply her and him and them.

She took it with her as she set herself at the door, stashing the earpiece in her belt. The energy of the force field did as Scott predicted: it filed through the door opening and flowed along the walls of the aft compartment.

But it also went straight back, boxing her in. She held her phaser, ready, as she went to the edge of the doorway and moved out the slim amount so she could see without, hopefully, being seen. Rhinar was at the controls, his back to her. Silently, she slipped into the main compartment; just as Imre had warned, she crossed a measure of the force field where it struck the door and made a barrier. It burned, but it was weakened by a portion of the energy wrapping around the aft compartment. She could move through it and she was Vulcan. Her controls put the pain aside automatically and rushed healing measures to the damaged areas.

Her lunge took her behind Setik's chair. Again, she looked out to make sure Rhinar hadn't noticed and saw her son's right arm hanging lifelessly. She touched his hand: cold, more than his lower body temperature. She tried finding his pulse, but couldn't. The neural paralyzer, she made herself remember; it was not that Setik had died. She would have sensed that.

Her mind went through one option after another.

"What if," Rhinar said to Sarek, "I-"

He spun in his chair and Saavik rose to her full height. She kept the phaser lowered for right now, but her finger stayed on the trigger.

In the face of his total shock at seeing her, he managed to ask, "How?! It's impossible! I worked for years- How?!"

"Accept what Sarek offers you," she only replied. "You will have what you want."

"What if I decided that to win, I can't be in your prison?"

She heard Kirk call for her. "Saavik... We're out of seconds."

A rumble sounded around them: the shuttlebay doors opened. Saavik took a closer step to her child, which wasn't much because she was on top of him already.

"You know your choices," she insisted. "That is not one of them."

He glared at her, coldly. "I still have the upper hand over you." And hit a control.

Saavik aimed her phaser at him before his hand was off the button; he raised his too. And then:

The blast shutters opened. Saavik's eyes narrowed behind the phaser. Their air rushed out the open windows to be replaced by vacuum. Her hair whipped into her eyes and the pull from space tried dragging her feet away from her.

He got up; he was out of plans, each one taken down by their countermoves. But she was no idiot: the force field was still his; he still commanded the shuttle, and they had little time to live.

"I have the upper hand because I still control his life." His phaser moved to aim at Setik. "Mine is set to kill. Although a stun shot would kill him at this point. We're headed for the vacuum of space, Saavik. This is my choice. Death before prison. It sounds grand, doesn't it? A Vulcan will never let a world suffer, so Sarek will save my people."

One move left for either of them. Or both.

"Stalemate, Saavik. You have no-"

She shot him.


Note: Some tech fans found original blueprints where the shuttlecraft had a rear hatch. The director even had McCoy move around in "Galileo 7" as if he comes in from the outside through the rear hatch. Of course, you look at the Galileo and it obviously has no rear hatch and no place for one. That rear door was removed from the blueprints; I only saw them in the one, old drawings. But it gave me an idea. :)