Commander T'Kota circled Spock like a sa-te kru. She did not return his phaser.
She stopped in front of him abruptly.
"Thanks for protecting me from your crazy captain…." She spun the phaser in circles around her finger but did not concentrate on this action. She favored Spock with her observation. "Why did you?"
"I would protect any member of my own crew from the Captain's actions." He fixed his look at the door. Beyond it, somewhere on the ship, was his "crazy" Captain. Spock would offer a different adjective, if she directly requested a description of him, but he let her supply the negatively connoted word as it aided their plan.
"I get it. You're not showing me any favoritism. I take it back." She moved into his eyeline. She would not allow him to avoid her. And then she grinned.
She was playing a game. Jim often played games of subtext and banter with Spock. He could continue on this tact. As he often did to show Jim he was open to the idea, he turned a corner of his lip up, slightly.
"He came to spy on us, didn't he?"
"If those were the Captain's private intentions, he did not execute them well. Usually espionage requires some amount of…"
"Of not being completely obvious?"
"Affirmative, Commander."
She sat back in her chair and put her feet up on her desk. Her legs were well-defined, muscular, and- empirically- attractive. "So why is he in charge of the Enterprise? Why not you? Clearly you'd be able to run the ship better than he would. Your passion would never overtake your orders, would it?"
Spock considered this. She did not realize that a majority of the Enterprise- and of Starfleet, was human. Their loyalty was easily bestowed on someone who encountered the same emotional trials they did. It was less easily offered to someone they found unrelatable, whether it was due to logic or physiology.
"Vulcans are a challenging species for humans to understand- or obey," he responded tacitly.
T'Kota nodded. "You're right. But Romulans-" She looked away and made a pouting smile. "We're much more closely related to Vulcans than humans are. We can understand you."
Spock approached her feet on the desk and looked down, examining them. Her boots shone, reflecting the lighting fixtures of the chamber.
"To what end are we discussing this, Commander? You suggest I leave the Enterprise and lead a Romulan ship?"
"I didn't say the ship had to be Romulan. Just the crew on board." She stuck the toe of her boot out and pushed Spock's stomach briefly. He reached out and wrapped his hand around her boot toe, gripping tightly. If she were Jim, he would feel very powerful, having power over his body and positioning. He considered taking a hold of her other boot, but decided it would be too aggressive.
"You like the idea? How about the Enterprise? It would make my career if I brought her back with me. Starfleet's newest, brightest ship, and all her technology for the taking. And you could stay with her."
There was a harsh beeping sound from T'Kota's console. She shifted her gaze to it for 3.1 seconds, as if cogitating. She pulled her boot from Spock's grip, and grazed his hip as she brought her feet back to the ground. "How about some dinner? We could discuss this further."
"It would be an honor, Commander."
She stood up, close and smiling. "You can address me by T'Kota."
She gestured for him to follow her from the chamber. While she was not Jim, she was also an attractive figure to follow.
In the hallway, Spock took a calculated risk with his conversation. "T'Kota: what else do you know of Vulcans?"
T'Kota smiled, amused at his question. "Not much, but I look forward to learning more." It rung the way Jim's flirtations did. He was unsurprised that T'Kota and Jim did not like each other. Their dispositions were too similar, despite their differing species and gender.
Kirk came to in a small cell. He was surrounded by shiny cold blue metal.
He was shiny cold blue metal.
He wanted to kill someone. No, not someone: he wanted to kill that Commander.
Spock wasn't in here with him. He knew he'd been unconscious for at least a few minutes- at most, an hour. He didn't have a headache.
That meant Spock's come-ons were working on her. That meant he was successfully seducing her into giving him information. And seducing her how? He didn't think it was just with logic shmogic. She was a Romulan and a Commander and fucking hot. She didn't just use her brain. She used her whole body. And if Kirk knew what a catch Spock was, she'd know it too.
Kirk should be happy. They were working together. Their plan was going as intended, as ordered. They might get out of this thing alive- and with a nice bonus come time for shore leave.
But Kirk almost wished it was a fiasco. He'd rather barely escape and be unsuccessful and have to answer to Starfleet- than imagine what Spock was doing with T'Kota right now.
He was boiling. It was cold in the cell but he was boiling. He was clenching his fists so tight he had scraped his own skin. He bled a little. That's fine. It was convincing. He was crazy. Except he wasn't.
He was Krazy. Khrazy? Whatever. He'd been Khan-ed. He briefly tried to calculate how long they had been on the ship. He spotted a couple sentries outside. Blue houndstooth. Peons.
"HEY. YOU! WHAT'S THE STARDATE?"
They looked at him. Then at each other. One of them whispered to the other one.
"TELL ME! WHAT BIG SECRET ARE YOU GOING TO LET OUT IF YOU TELL ME WHAT TIME IT IS?!"
Had Bones noticed his clue in the brig? Had he acted on it yet? Was Spock far enough along working on T'Kota to persuade her that his actions were- like she said- honest?
All he could imagine was Spock and T'Kota touching each other's stupid pointy ears. Her sitting on that desk, already short skirt hiked up, boots still perfectly in place, and Spock pressed up against her, looking at her, the harsh way he sometimes looked at Jim, in that possessive, primal way. How could he compete with her? The guards weren't answering him.
AGH. He couldn't take it anymore. Khan neither.
He took off his rubber-soled boots. The stupid Romulans. They had no idea. He could have some fun with them. If they wanted to withhold information from him, he could mystify them just as well.
He took off his gold shirt and his black undershirt at the same time. He pulled his pants off by the toe so he had to stagger around the cell, hopping on one foot, until they finally came loose. Now all he had on were his black briefs. He made eye contact with each of the guards- and then pulled down his underwear. He rolled his clothes into a ball and threw them at the guards. They stopped a few feet short. That's where the barrier of the cell was.
He ran and slammed hard on the forcefield door like he would if it were any other door… aaaand immediately got fried.
He felt himself stick to it. He allowed himself to stick to it. He used Khan to tolerate the contact, the pulse of electricity through himself and into the metal floor. The guards freaked, almost launching themselves at him. One yelled to the other. Kirk's Romulan was rusty and his brain was a little overloaded at the moment, but he thought he could parse out that the other guard was supposed to bring the Commander.
McCoy had just finished stuffing the knotted sash and the rest of T'al's clothes under his shirt when the Ensign came back in.
He immediately went to the access panel and opened the cell. He was too nervous to look at anything but McCoy's face, which was grave.
"Lieutenant- uh, acting Captain Sulu said you need to go to the transporter room.
"Did he say why?"
"He says Captain Kirk needs medical attention, over on the Romulan ship."
"And they're sending me? Well- they must be in the dark on human anatomy, wouldn't you say?"
The Ensign looked at him blankly. McCoy smiled at him. The Ensign smiled back. But it was more of an imitation smile than an I-get-it smile.
"Don't forget your vaccines, next time we hit a starbase."
He clapped the Ensign on the shoulder and walked out.
Then the Ensign noticed the unconscious Romulans- Subcommander T'al missing most of his uniform. His eyes widened in fear. Wh-what should he do?
