When the senior officers met in the conference room, they were as clueless as McCoy had been.
Scotty was the first to arrive, only waiting to return to his beloved engines. When the bridge officers arrived, Chekov was just complaining to Sulu that he'd never finish the investigation if Spock kept adding variables.
Standing calmly at the head of the table, reacting neither to Jim's questioning gaze nor to the engineer's badly concealed impatience, Spock waited. When everyone had settled down, he wasted no time filling them in.
"As you see," he closed his narration, "they seem to be quite alive and eager to return to our plane of existence."
As expected, everyone reacted in varying degrees of confusion and shock to this unexpected development.
"Now, the question is," Kirk said, "why did they vanish? And how do we get them back?"
"What if they were contaminated with something? Similar things happened before," Sulu said slowly. "For example, with the water on Scalos and the hyper-acceleration because of it."
"But we didn't hear a buzzing sound this time," Jim thought aloud, "so that can't be it."
Spock raised an eyebrow. "Contamination in general, though, is a good starting point for a hypothesis. If so, it must have been something in the ion storm that led to their current dilemma. Something that was mixed up in the matter stream."
Pavel Chekov's face lit up. "Tachyons!"
"Is that a hunch?"
"It is a hypothesis, Mr Spock! What if there were tachyons in the ion storm and got mixed up with the two? Our transporters would not have detected anything out of the ordinary, because tachyons can be by-products of the transport process. But they can also be a by-product of temporal distortion or cloaking devices."
"So, you're saying they are out of phase? Out of sync with our reality?"
Chekov nodded. "If tachyonic interference is the case, it could have put them into a spatiotemporal flux."
Spock nodded. "The phenomenon Mr Chekov is describing has not been adequately proven but it is a theoretical possibility."
Jim smiled at the younger officer. "Well then, do you have a practical idea how to get them back? If tachyons are to blame, that is."
"That's easy!" Pavel exclaimed. "We simply beam them into the pattern buffer and when we beam them back, we fine-tune the transporter to filter out the tachyons."
"Not bad, Pavel," Kirk murmured. "It's as good a guess as any."
Spock pressed the intercom. "Spock to bridge. Run a sensor sweep of the entire ship. We're looking for high concentrations of tachyons."
The response was almost immediate. "Aye, sir. Sir, detecting two sources of tachyons with an unusually dense concentration in the conference room with you."
"Can you pinpoint the location?" Jim asked.
"Yes, sir. One is exactly half a meter to the right from the door, the other a couple of centimetres further. They're both not far from the wall."
"Thank you, bridge. Kirk, out." He closed the frequency and took some steps towards the door, looking at the area the officer had just described.
Christine smiled as for the first time in three days, someone made an effort to look at them. True, the Captain was looking at some point close to her left shoulder, but the gesture still held meaning for her.
"Eh, I don't know how much you've listened to just now," Jim Kirk said slightly awkwardly. "But we think that tachyonic interference is the cause for your situation. We'll try getting you back by using the transporter to filter out the contaminating particles. If you stand ready on the transporter pad in exactly thirty minutes…" He exchanged a look with Scotty, who nodded. "…we will commence rescue operations at that time and place.
Christine nodded, out of reflex, then realised he still could not see her, yet.
Jim smiled, this time at a point close to Saavik's right ear, and said, "See you in half an hour. Dismissed."
Christine and Saavik wasted no time in leaving the room after the senior officers and making their way to the transporter room. They had some time to spare when they arrived, and so, they waited, seated on the steps to the transporter platform.
When Spock, Kirk, Scotty, and McCoy filed in a few minutes later, they took their places on the pad.
"Well, here we go again," Christine murmured.
Saavik nodded. "Indeed. Here we go again."
Jim Kirk stepped next to the transporter console, and turned, looking up at the apparently empty platform.
"Time, Spock?"
"Exactly half an hour," the Vulcan said from his position next to the doctor in front of the console.
Kirk turned to Scotty behind the controls.
"Energise."
Scott started the transport process. "They're there, alright," he said. "Transporting into the buffer now."
On the platform, two shimmery shapes appeared, fluctuating in the gleaming blue light that for a moment, Jim thought something had gone wrong. Then, the shapes disappeared again.
"I've got them, Captain," the engineer sighed.
"Compensate for tachyonic contamination, Scotty."
"Aye," Mr Scott said as he pressed some buttons. "The transporter will filter out the tachyons now."
"Energise."
Scott energised; the shimmery shapes reappeared. And this time, they coalesced into humanoid shapes and when the light died down, it revealed Doctor Christine Chapel and Lieutenant Saavik.
The Lieutenant stepped carefully down while Christine jumped off the pad and rushed forward, throwing herself at Spock who, to his fortune or misfortune, however you want to see it, was standing closest.
"Oh, you wonderful, wonderful man!" she exclaimed, flinging her arms around him.
"Why, thank you," Spock mumbled, taken aback by this unceremonious greeting and trying to ignore Doctor McCoy's laughter.
Out of the corner of his eye, he could see Saavik throwing him a shocked glance as Jim hugged her enthusiastically.
"Oh, I can touch you!" Christine went on, clutching his arms. "I couldn't, before. I couldn't touch any of you. You were all like ghosts..." She looked up into his face, realising what she was doing. "Spock, I…" She took a step back, blushing slightly.
"Yes, I know," he said gently. "I watched the recording."
Taking in her appearance, including the bloody sleeve, bandaged hand, and the bump on her head, Spock plucked a little gold star out of her hair.
"You look rather the worse for wear."
"Well, thank you," she murmured sarcastically. "I missed you, too."
"What happened?" he asked. "Did you have an accident?"
She huffed. "Make that three. First, I ran into your door, that's where the blood is from. Then I bumped my head under your table, and I spilt the Captain's coffee on me."
"Sounds like an awfully big adventure," Leonard murmured as he hugged her. "You'll come to sickbay right away."
She nodded, and after being sufficiently greeted by both Scotty and Jim as well, followed Leonard out of the room.
Lieutenant Saavik stepped up to Spock.
"I apologize for damaging your door." She tilted her head. "Repeatedly."
Spock nodded gravely. "Under the circumstances, I will forgo legal proceedings." He inclined his head and added softly, "It is good to have you back, Saavik-kam."
The recreation deck was slowly filling up with people when Christine arrived. She had almost forgotten about this event, though she had been present hours before when Spock had agreed to his part in it.
Having been invisible to everyone for three days, Christine felt very watched as she entered.
She nodded at Saavik across the room. The young Vulcan was currently deeply immersed in a discussion with Pavel. From what Christine could gather, they were talking about tachyons, and she decided not to join them. She had heard enough of tachyons for a while.
In the centre of the room, Spock sat at the piano, playing some 20th-century piece that she couldn't remember the name of.
A few steps into the room, she crossed the path of Jim Kirk.
"Doctor Chapel." He greeted her with a warm smile. "Good to have you back in the land of the living."
She didn't try to conceal her sigh of relief. "Oh, I'm glad to be back."
"So, you mostly just walked around with us, watching us mourn you?" he asked.
"Apart from trying to get your attention, mostly, yes." She allowed herself to reminisce on the conversations she and Saavik had unwittingly been witness to. "So, you felt like you barely knew me?" She shot him a cheeky smile.
Jim smirked back. "Well, you know, it's hard to find the right words. I wanted to give you justice at the memorial."
"Well, good thing you asked Spock what to say," Christine went on, but couldn't bear making fun of him any longer. Not when his justification had sounded so earnest. "Oh, I'm joking, your speech was alright."
"Alright?" Jim gasped in mock offence.
She grinned. "I'm a doctor, not a rhetoric critic." Then she sobered up and said, "I think it was nice, thank you." She looked across the room and added, "Now, excuse me, I think Lieutenant Saavik needs rescuing."
At the other end of the room, a crewmember had entangled the young Vulcan in a conversation.
"You're Lieutenant Saavik, right? You're a Federation legend!" His excitement was unmistakable.
She raised an eyebrow. "I was not aware of that moniker."
"Are you kidding?" the youthful officer exclaimed. "You were on Genesis! You helped restore Captain Spock back to life."
"A young man died on that planet," Saavik remarked cautiously but with slight reproof.
She was not entirely sure how much the public and the rest of Starfleet knew about these events, but it was almost an assured fact that they knew much less than the people who had been involved. For example, it was often neglected that it did not start out as a rescue mission but as a mission to put Spock's katra to rest. Similarly, the deaths of the research personnel on Regula I and David's death on Genesis had found less recognition than it could have.
The officer blushed furiously. "I'm sorry, I mean…"
"It's quite alright, Ensign," Saavik said and nodded graciously. "Thank you." She turned around as someone else approached her. "Hello, Doctor."
The young man walked away, leaving Christine and Saavik to themselves. For a while, they stood silently next to each other, Christine sipping on a glass of something she had picked up on the way. Spock was still at the piano and the two women watched him play.
"Please take care of him," Christine said suddenly.
Saavik frowned. "Are you being reassigned?" She had not been aware that the doctor was leaving.
"No, no." Christine shook her head. She didn't take her eyes off Spock as she talked. "But there comes a time for everyone, and being declared dead has made me think. His friends here are mostly human. If we should die before him, or rather, when we die before him...he's going to be the last of us. And I don't want him to be all on his own." Her look softened and she turned to look at Saavik. "Would you be there for him? I...I cannot bear the thought of him alone. I care for him, deeply. We all do."
Saavik met her gaze steadily, sure of her answer even before the doctor had finished. "I will," she said, remembering Christine's record tape. "I promise."
They turned their attention back to the room as the music had ended and they saw the object of their conversation approaching them.
"Lieutenant. Doctor." Spock stopped in front of them with his hands folded behind his back. "I am relieved to find that the origin of the disturbing events was merely your way of trying to establish contact. The entire situation did seem unusual from the beginning."
"Unusual from the beginning, huh?" Christine crossed her arms. "And you still didn't find us?"
Spock fidgeted with his collar and for a moment, Christine thought he was feeling self-conscious. But he fished a little gold star from under the hem, eyed it curiously for a moment, then answered, "Christine Chapel, you are an accomplished scientist and a fool."
"Why? What did I do?" she asked, pulling her lips into a pout.
Spock raised an eyebrow. "It is more what you neglected to do. You could have used a PADD to leave a message."
"Yes, but it's not as easy as you make it sound," Christine protested. "And don't you think you could have thought of us when I made the synthesizer replicate you Plomeek soup of all things, or when I left a book I gave you lying around, just to name a few?"
"No," Spock said decisively. "I do not deal in metaphors."
"Still." Christine increased her pout, tilted her head, and batted her eyelids at him. "Wouldn't you admit that you could have been a little more attentive, a little more open to the seemingly impossible?"
Spock sighed and pursed his lips in a gesture of defeat. "Perhaps I was slightly reluctant to the possibility of the impossible."
Saavik, who had followed this exchange with undisguised interest, tilted her head and said, "I believe her exact words were 'oblivious elf'."
Spock's eyebrows shot up and he left, giving Christine a look of mock disapproval.
"Why is he giving me so much trouble?" Christine grumbled to Saavik. "I can't think of everything."
The Vulcan didn't hesitate to answer. "Because he likes you. He invites the debate."
"Oh."
Before Christine could say anything else, Spock returned, carrying a small parcel. A certain brown paper package, tied up with string.
"Oh, thanks, Spock." She smiled gladly as she accepted the slightly belated Christmas present.
She unwrapped it under the watchful eyes of Spock and Saavik, relieved that she hadn't opened it in his cabin before.
The wrapping fell apart and Christine gasped. It was a snow globe. The small transparent orb contained a miniature model of Mount Seleya. But the ground of the scenery was white, not the colour of the desert. And when she shook it, the Vulcan landscape was suddenly engulfed in a little artificial snowstorm. Something quite impossible in reality, as far as she was informed.
"Oh, Spock." She looked up at him and smirked. "I thought you didn't deal in metaphors."
"I do not." He tilted his head and she thought she saw his eyes twinkle with a smile. "But if you can see a metaphor in there that I did not intend, perhaps the possibility of the impossible, and it is to your enjoyment, I will see my mission of a successful gift as accomplished."
"It's wonderful, thank you, Spock."
The rest of their friends had joined them as they talked and were regarding her gift, and their banter, with badly concealed glee.
"There's one more thing you could do," she said.
"She just came back from the dead," Jim piped up. "You can't refuse her wish."
"I was not aware such a rule existed. If I had known, I would have certainly made use of it," Spock retorted before he turned back to Christine. "What is your wish?"
She pointed at the piano. "Would you play again? It sounded so nice."
Spock nodded, walked the few steps to the instrument and sat down.
"Oh, and, Spock?"
Hands hovering over the keys, he looked back up at her.
"Merry Christmas."
"And a Merry Christmas to you, Christine."
He placed his fingers on the keyboard and, surrounded by his friends, began to play, a slow, peaceful tune that told of companionship and miracles.
Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!