I am sorry about the wait on this chapter...I had the lead role in a play, and absolutely no time to let the creative juices flow...But here it is. Enjoy:)
Commander Hikaru Sulu shivered and tried pulling himself into a tighter ball. The air was becoming more chilled now, a deep bone-touching cold that seemed to be universal for the plunge into nightfall. The helmsman forced his trembling to subside and glanced about his caged comrades, hoping to take his mind off this horridly gradual temperature decline.
Uhura sat close by him, huddled beneath her thick layers of coat and still talking quietly to the young ensign Claude Laking.
Uhura had such a fine way of talking to people. Her warm eyes and honey coated voice could coax anyone to spill over their secrets to her. Sulu grinned slightly, in guilty remembrance. He had more than once fallen victim to her irresistable charm when the latest gossip compelled him to keep quiet.
She laughed then, at something the ensign had said, and the sound filled their chambers, ringing like golden wind chimes. Such a welcoming tone didn't belong here, in the bleak scenery of a forever winter.
Sulu felt a breif pang of some obscured emotion and turned his glance to Captain Kirk. Their commander sat a few feet away, his nervous pacing finally at an end. Sulu suspected that exhaustion was the cause, stopping only the Captain's tired legs. The hazel eyes still walked back and forth near the barred entrance, un-fatigued, searching for an answer there. For an instant, those eyes blended gaze with Sulu's and shared a moment of breif reassurance.
"Sulu?"
The soft voice startled him and jerked his head in Uhura's direction.
There was sadness in her face, barely hidden beneath an apologetic and pretty smile.
"Do you think Pavel is alright?"
"I think he is just fine, Commander."
Kirk spoke before Sulu could even open his lips to respond. "Where ever he is, I am sure that the Solotans are caring for him."
"They didn't seem like they wanted to hurt him," Sulu added, "Not yet, anyway."
"Not ever, Mister Sulu. Not any of us. Spock is probably working on the sheild problem right now...in a few hours, they will either send a landing party or contact Starfleet Command. We will make it out of this, Commander."
The words weren't unusual in a time like this. From anyone elses' tongue, they would've sounded placating, condescendingly hopeful. But when Kirk spoke, it became truth.
*************************************************
"SPOCK."
The voice did not escape from the old woman's shiveled lips, but rang in the mens' minds as they stood before her.
"I WAS EXPECTING YOU WOULD COME. YOUR MIND OFFERS MUCH POWER."
She rose from her rose colored cushions, her long ebony mane rippling from her shoulders to the floor. She took an agonizingly shaky step forward, and McCoy bit back the urge to run up and help her as she walked weakly towards Spock.
"I AM SURE YOU WISH TO AQUIRE AN EXPLANATION. I INTEND TO GIVE YOU ONE.
THE FEDERATION ATTACKED OUR PLANET FOR IT'S PRECIOUS ORES. THEY LAYED WASTE TO MANY VILLAGES. THEY TORE OPEN OUR PEOPLE. AND NOW FEDERATION RETURNS, SENDING THOSE OF SUSPECTED INNOCENCE. I SHALL NOT HAVE IT. I SHALL PUNISH THEM, IN ORDER TO PUNISH THE FEDERATION."
Spock nodded at this, calm despite her words. So calm in fact, that Doctor McCoy wished he could sock him a good one.
"What you are saying, Madam Jasha, is not logically sound. What you have described is indeed not the acts of our Federation. And furthermore, your idea of punishing the few who know nothing of the crimes, would not harm the Federation deeply. Your words echo for an irrational revenge."
She turned from him, her hair swinging like a black cloak to swirl around her shoulders.
"AND WHO WOULD NOT WISH REVENGE I ASK YOU? YOU DID NOT WITNESS THE FEAR AND FATE OF THOSE SOLOTANS. YOU DID NOT CRAWL, BLOODIED, THROUGH THE WRECKAGE. YOU DID NOT SEE THE BROKEN BODIES AND VILE WOUNDS-"
"These people, these wounded...please,...
I am a doctor,
allow me to see them."
Doctor McCoy stepped forward, shocked by his own voice and even more by his words.
When he'd opened his mouth to speak, he hadn't known what he was going to say.
She glanced at him with her opal eyes, and he glanced away, slightly embaressed by her sudden full attention.
"It was the Federation, and I'm not saying it was, perhaps I could recognize the weaponry used and try to help some of your people."
The Jasha frowned, cocking her head at an earnest angle.
"YOU ARE BEING HONEST."
She simply observed. She stayed suspensefully silent for a moment, then asked,
"YOU EXPECT TO GAIN NOTING FROM THIS?"
Leonard heaved a huge sigh, trying to calm his nerves. It was an important question, but the truth of it made his heart sink
.
"Noooo...I can't say that is true. I can't help but hope that you might free my friends, should I offer you the aid. But I will not withold it from you. I do wish to help."
She nodded once at him.
"YOU ARE AN INTRICATE MAN, LEONARD MCCOY.
AND WHAT OF YOUR COMPANION, MISTER SPOCK? WHAT SHALL I DO WITH HIM?"
"He can help me," the good doctor hurriedly suggested. He gave a ragged grin and added on, "I mean, he IS the closest thing to a computer I have to confer with."
Spock didn't bat an eyelash in response. He stared at the Jasha in innocent Vulcan curiousity.
"THEN, SUCH ARRANGEMENTS SHALL BE MADE. YOU SHALL AID IN THE HEALING OF OUR PEOPLE. SPOCK WILL ACCOMPANY YOU. YOUR FRIEND'S FREEDOM..."
She stopped, clearly gauging their reations,
"IS YET TO BE DECIDED."
She clapped her hands once and Solotan guards lead Spock and McCoy to the healing chambers, their hope momentarily renewed.
*************************************************
"I wish that Capt'in Kirk was here..."
Scott muttered the comment under his breath and glared at the viewscreen, daring the Klingon Bird-of-Prey to come into sight.
"What a wee knot we have ourselves tied into this time, I'll tell ya..."
He spun in the command chair, acutely uncomfortable in the warm leather seat, and raised his voice to a more audible level.
"Ensign, see if ya can patch an emergency message tuh Starfleet Command, scrambled. Give them our current dilemma."
The young woman immediately obeyed, then turned frightened tawny eyes to Scott,
"Shall I ask the for their advice, sir?"
The cheif engineer shook his sable head at the meek question,
"Nae, doncha bother with that lass...their answer wouldn't reach us in time, it will take at least a week before it comes back tuh us. We'll haveta figure out how to deal with our Klingon friends way before then."
And, he silently added to himself, such answers might include leaving the landing party behind. There was no way he could take such advice.
"Helmsman."
He whirled around in his chair, fixing a steady Gaelic gaze on the blond leiutenant at the console. The fellow straightened beneath his commanding officer's scruntiny and returned the stare firmly. Good, Scott thought, he's a steady one.
"How long before those Klingons get here?"
The man glanced down at his console read-out, his face momentarily washed in the bright green wording.
"They have slowed down, sir, to warp 2...they will arrive into viewing range in...15 minutes..."
"Alright...I will tell ya wot tuh do. We're gonna change orbit and head to the opposite side of the planet. Plot a course and take it at Warp 1. It willna hide us for very long, mind ya, but if Klingon technology is still as terrible as it has been. It will take em a while to sniff us out."
"Aye aye, sir."
Scott felt the quiet grind as the ship changed direction and pondered his options. They were dangerously limited. The Enterprise could make a run for it, of course. But leaving meant also abandonning all the personnel on the planet, possibly to a Klingon raid. It was true Kirk would have wanted him to go, to speed off now before the Klingons even realized they were there. But leaving the captain and stranded crew, as well as the Solotan people to the Klingons was not an option he could follow. Scott nibbled his knuckle and sat back. The Klingons would no doubt be willing to start a pretty fight.
Could the Enterprise, with it's finely tuned engines and state of the art weaponry, give them a pretty finish?
Commander Hikaru Sulu shivered and tried pulling himself into a tighter ball. The air was becoming more chilled now, a deep bone-touching cold that seemed to be universal for the plunge into nightfall. The helmsman forced his trembling to subside and glanced about his caged comrades, hoping to take his mind off this horridly gradual temperature decline.
Uhura sat close by him, huddled beneath her thick layers of coat and still talking quietly to the young ensign Claude Laking.
Uhura had such a fine way of talking to people. Her warm eyes and honey coated voice could coax anyone to spill over their secrets to her. Sulu grinned slightly, in guilty remembrance. He had more than once fallen victim to her irresistable charm when the latest gossip compelled him to keep quiet.
She laughed then, at something the ensign had said, and the sound filled their chambers, ringing like golden wind chimes. Such a welcoming tone didn't belong here, in the bleak scenery of a forever winter.
Sulu felt a breif pang of some obscured emotion and turned his glance to Captain Kirk. Their commander sat a few feet away, his nervous pacing finally at an end. Sulu suspected that exhaustion was the cause, stopping only the Captain's tired legs. The hazel eyes still walked back and forth near the barred entrance, un-fatigued, searching for an answer there. For an instant, those eyes blended gaze with Sulu's and shared a moment of breif reassurance.
"Sulu?"
The soft voice startled him and jerked his head in Uhura's direction.
There was sadness in her face, barely hidden beneath an apologetic and pretty smile.
"Do you think Pavel is alright?"
"I think he is just fine, Commander."
Kirk spoke before Sulu could even open his lips to respond. "Where ever he is, I am sure that the Solotans are caring for him."
"They didn't seem like they wanted to hurt him," Sulu added, "Not yet, anyway."
"Not ever, Mister Sulu. Not any of us. Spock is probably working on the sheild problem right now...in a few hours, they will either send a landing party or contact Starfleet Command. We will make it out of this, Commander."
The words weren't unusual in a time like this. From anyone elses' tongue, they would've sounded placating, condescendingly hopeful. But when Kirk spoke, it became truth.
*************************************************
"SPOCK."
The voice did not escape from the old woman's shiveled lips, but rang in the mens' minds as they stood before her.
"I WAS EXPECTING YOU WOULD COME. YOUR MIND OFFERS MUCH POWER."
She rose from her rose colored cushions, her long ebony mane rippling from her shoulders to the floor. She took an agonizingly shaky step forward, and McCoy bit back the urge to run up and help her as she walked weakly towards Spock.
"I AM SURE YOU WISH TO AQUIRE AN EXPLANATION. I INTEND TO GIVE YOU ONE.
THE FEDERATION ATTACKED OUR PLANET FOR IT'S PRECIOUS ORES. THEY LAYED WASTE TO MANY VILLAGES. THEY TORE OPEN OUR PEOPLE. AND NOW FEDERATION RETURNS, SENDING THOSE OF SUSPECTED INNOCENCE. I SHALL NOT HAVE IT. I SHALL PUNISH THEM, IN ORDER TO PUNISH THE FEDERATION."
Spock nodded at this, calm despite her words. So calm in fact, that Doctor McCoy wished he could sock him a good one.
"What you are saying, Madam Jasha, is not logically sound. What you have described is indeed not the acts of our Federation. And furthermore, your idea of punishing the few who know nothing of the crimes, would not harm the Federation deeply. Your words echo for an irrational revenge."
She turned from him, her hair swinging like a black cloak to swirl around her shoulders.
"AND WHO WOULD NOT WISH REVENGE I ASK YOU? YOU DID NOT WITNESS THE FEAR AND FATE OF THOSE SOLOTANS. YOU DID NOT CRAWL, BLOODIED, THROUGH THE WRECKAGE. YOU DID NOT SEE THE BROKEN BODIES AND VILE WOUNDS-"
"These people, these wounded...please,...
I am a doctor,
allow me to see them."
Doctor McCoy stepped forward, shocked by his own voice and even more by his words.
When he'd opened his mouth to speak, he hadn't known what he was going to say.
She glanced at him with her opal eyes, and he glanced away, slightly embaressed by her sudden full attention.
"It was the Federation, and I'm not saying it was, perhaps I could recognize the weaponry used and try to help some of your people."
The Jasha frowned, cocking her head at an earnest angle.
"YOU ARE BEING HONEST."
She simply observed. She stayed suspensefully silent for a moment, then asked,
"YOU EXPECT TO GAIN NOTING FROM THIS?"
Leonard heaved a huge sigh, trying to calm his nerves. It was an important question, but the truth of it made his heart sink
.
"Noooo...I can't say that is true. I can't help but hope that you might free my friends, should I offer you the aid. But I will not withold it from you. I do wish to help."
She nodded once at him.
"YOU ARE AN INTRICATE MAN, LEONARD MCCOY.
AND WHAT OF YOUR COMPANION, MISTER SPOCK? WHAT SHALL I DO WITH HIM?"
"He can help me," the good doctor hurriedly suggested. He gave a ragged grin and added on, "I mean, he IS the closest thing to a computer I have to confer with."
Spock didn't bat an eyelash in response. He stared at the Jasha in innocent Vulcan curiousity.
"THEN, SUCH ARRANGEMENTS SHALL BE MADE. YOU SHALL AID IN THE HEALING OF OUR PEOPLE. SPOCK WILL ACCOMPANY YOU. YOUR FRIEND'S FREEDOM..."
She stopped, clearly gauging their reations,
"IS YET TO BE DECIDED."
She clapped her hands once and Solotan guards lead Spock and McCoy to the healing chambers, their hope momentarily renewed.
*************************************************
"I wish that Capt'in Kirk was here..."
Scott muttered the comment under his breath and glared at the viewscreen, daring the Klingon Bird-of-Prey to come into sight.
"What a wee knot we have ourselves tied into this time, I'll tell ya..."
He spun in the command chair, acutely uncomfortable in the warm leather seat, and raised his voice to a more audible level.
"Ensign, see if ya can patch an emergency message tuh Starfleet Command, scrambled. Give them our current dilemma."
The young woman immediately obeyed, then turned frightened tawny eyes to Scott,
"Shall I ask the for their advice, sir?"
The cheif engineer shook his sable head at the meek question,
"Nae, doncha bother with that lass...their answer wouldn't reach us in time, it will take at least a week before it comes back tuh us. We'll haveta figure out how to deal with our Klingon friends way before then."
And, he silently added to himself, such answers might include leaving the landing party behind. There was no way he could take such advice.
"Helmsman."
He whirled around in his chair, fixing a steady Gaelic gaze on the blond leiutenant at the console. The fellow straightened beneath his commanding officer's scruntiny and returned the stare firmly. Good, Scott thought, he's a steady one.
"How long before those Klingons get here?"
The man glanced down at his console read-out, his face momentarily washed in the bright green wording.
"They have slowed down, sir, to warp 2...they will arrive into viewing range in...15 minutes..."
"Alright...I will tell ya wot tuh do. We're gonna change orbit and head to the opposite side of the planet. Plot a course and take it at Warp 1. It willna hide us for very long, mind ya, but if Klingon technology is still as terrible as it has been. It will take em a while to sniff us out."
"Aye aye, sir."
Scott felt the quiet grind as the ship changed direction and pondered his options. They were dangerously limited. The Enterprise could make a run for it, of course. But leaving meant also abandonning all the personnel on the planet, possibly to a Klingon raid. It was true Kirk would have wanted him to go, to speed off now before the Klingons even realized they were there. But leaving the captain and stranded crew, as well as the Solotan people to the Klingons was not an option he could follow. Scott nibbled his knuckle and sat back. The Klingons would no doubt be willing to start a pretty fight.
Could the Enterprise, with it's finely tuned engines and state of the art weaponry, give them a pretty finish?