Suvuk and Äänekoski were sitting on their mattresses, facing each other and talking about the history of the Vulcan ideal of Infinite Diversity in Infinite Combination, when the freighter suddenly lurched to a full stop, the inertial dampeners barely able to compensate.
As if on order, chaos broke out in cargo bay four where all those Starfleet officers, used to acting quickly in a crisis, found themselves stymied by the fact that there was nothing for them to do right now, while the civilians were panicking outright.
Suvuk rose unhurriedly. "Silence!", he bellowed into the hubub. Everyone quietened immediately with astonishment to hear the Vulcan actually shout. "Panic is illogical; we are merely passengers on the Bajoran captain's freighter, and he does wish us not to interfere with running the ship. Please stay calm."
All eyes turned to him, and something resembling calm indeed descended. Behind him, Suvuk heard the Finn's voice say, "Lieutenant Suvuk and I will deal with the situation, if there is a situation. Maybe it was just the propulsion system giving up its ghost, but perhaps we are really being attacked. I will check out the engine room while the Lieutenant will contact the bridge. We'll tell you if we need help; please keep yourselves at the ready. Dr. Pulaski, it might be a good idea if you switched on your instruments just in case. Thank you."
Suvuk had no other option than to follow Äänekoski from the room. "Astonishing, Lieutenant; you seem indeed to have acquired the ability to think logically. However, this does not from my point of view give you the right to give orders to me", he hissed at the human as they were jogging up the ramp to the central walkway.
"Your diatribe didn't help much, Lieutenant; they want to see action. Although I doubt it was much more than the antimatter converter hickuping a little. Tell me as soon as you know anything."
With this, the Finn dived into an opening leading down to the engines while Suvuk ran up the stairs to the bridge, if it could be called that. The installations were so amazingly primitive that actual windows encircling the tiny space and forming a cupola above it were used for an outside view. The captain sat on a swivel chair from which he could reach all the instruments. There were some screens for additional information, and he was staring intently into one of those. "Damn, no!", he shouted in Cardassian into a microphone he had pulled towards him, "I will not, surrender, Gul Adak! You can shove your warrant where the sun don't shine, we are in Federation space here!"
"Indeed, do you think?", a voice hissed from a speaker. "Tell me, then, where is your Federation?"
A new hit shook the ship. Suvuk tapped his com badge. "Lieutenant, we are being attacked by Cardassians. Come to the bridge."
"The dilithium crystal was fractured by the impact; the antimatter converter is stuttering, too", came the answer from the engine room.
"Call Mandela to deal with that; I need you here", Suvuk replied curtly.
"Ensign Mandela, you find a small aluminum case among my things; take it and bring it to the engine room and do what's neccessary there. Dr. Pulaski, please send someone to collect the miserable Catellan, he is injured. Tulen, Suvuk. Ne vitun Kardassialaiset avaruusrosvot!"
"On the contrary, it is a ship of the regular Cardassian forces, and their commander is a veritable Gul. Don't swear, Lieutenant, and come here."
"I'm there already", Äänekoski said behind him. Captain Andra Gal had been negotiating with the attackers all through the exchange, but the ship was hit again. "Shield down to 83 percent", a neutral computer voice announced.
"S'Kanuk, ready torpedoes", Andra shouted into the intraship mic.
"Most illogical", Suvuk interrupted. "Trying to defend this ship would be futile even under normal circumstances; in addition, your companion is presently underway to our improvised infirmary. Let me talk to the Gul." He squeezed into the narrow command station, took the microphone from Andra and pulled it towards him.
"Gul Adak", he said in Federation standard, "this is Lieutenant Suvuk from Starfleet, science deparment. Aboard the *Millenial Falcon* there are twelve Starfleet officers and civilian Federation employees. This freighter is carrying official passenger to Bajor, and any aggression from your side will be condered an act of war by the Federation."
"The Captain of this ship is a criminal wanted by Cardassian authorities, a know terrorist and smuggler. You should have checked beforehand who you hitched a lift with", the Cardassian snapped in the same language.
"Will you call off your attack if I were to take command of this vessel?"
"Surrender to me, and you won't be harmed. The criminal and his accomplice however will be arrested, and the ship will be seized."
Again, the Cardassians' phaser hit the *Millenial Falcon* head on. "Shields at 65 percent", the computer announced. "Mandela, route all energy to the shields", Suvuk ordered, handing back the microphone to Andra. "Captain, keep talking. Whatever happens, keep talking."
He turned towards Äänekoski. There was nobody he'd rather have had at his side in this situation.
"Luutnantti, mulla on a'atus. Tunnetko ton avaruusalustyypin?"
"Erittäin hyvin. Se on cardassialainen *galor*-luokan sotaalus".
"Selvä. Mä puhun cardassiaa, sä tunnet aluksen tekniikan. Me voidaan katkaista aluksen".
"Mitä?"
"Piggybacking our signal on the Captain's useless parlaying, we contact the Cardie computer, cause a fuse to short out and so shut down all systems", Suvuk answered, still in Finnish. "What do you think is their weakest point?"
"Weapons control; they got too many weapons. You're using informal speech."
"Fewer syllables. Access, code, suggestions?"
"Try three zeroes, that means packet is destined for the computer."
Suvuk's fingers danced over the communications concole. "Got it, trying login to their shipboard systems."
"What does this mean?"
"The Cardie computer wants an access code."
"Three ones, three zeroes, three ones, or the other way round. Cardies are into threes."
"Simple." A warning klaxon came from the bridge speakers.
"What now?", Äänekoski groaned.
"We have no time to lose, they'll discover us any moment. Allow me."
Suvuk bent down over the Finn squatting in front of the computer console and put his fingers on the correct points of his face. Contact came easily, as if from long practice. He let go, and still the connection held.
*Let us try three times three ones. Right, we're in. Weapon Systems. Stop, he's firing again. That was a broadside.* "Captain, keep talking!" *Go on. Invert phasers. Of course the security system won't allow that, but it keeps the computer busy. We need a code to cancel and confirm the command at the same time, then it'll crash. Infinite loop. Should work, confirm now.*
The Falcon was hit by a photon torpedo, and all consoles erupted in sparks. Suvuk and Äänekoski were thrown against the navigation controls, and the mental link broke.
Suvuk freed himself from the Finn's motionless body and lurched towards the computer again. Just one tap. Confirm. Blue sparks chased over the console. Confirm. Like this.
The console exploded, and a a flying shard buried itself in Suvuk's arm. The electric discharge threw him backwards, the back of his head hit a metallic object with a thundering clang, and he sank into bottomless blackness.
When Jukka-Pekka came to, for a moment he didn't know what had happened. Stars were passing overhead, and somthing soft and heavy was lying across his chest. Warm liquid was trickling onto his shoulder. He tried to move. The weight was holding him down as in a nightmare. Desperately, he freed himself from it and dazedly sat up. Across his chest and shoulders, his uniform was stained by some green liquid; at least it wasn't blood. Blood! For heaven's sake, green blood! Suvuk! His memory returned in a flash: Suvuk, the ship, the Cardassians...
Beside him lay the motionles shape of the Vulcan, like a discarded rag doll. Emerald blood was seeping from a wound in the short black hair, from another injury on the inside of his left elbow. Äänekoski shook his good arm; no reaction. He leaned down; weak, irregular breathing. At least he was alive.
He tried pulling Suvuk up into a sitting posture, but collided with an object moving to his right. "Get out of my way, I'm busy. The Cardies won't play dead forever."
Captain Andra Gal. "We got their computer to crash and shorted their systems; they'll be a while. Help me to get this Vulcan to sickbay."
"Man, your Vulcan is the least of my worries. I need to fly a ship that's three quarters done for. Get lost."
"Painu helvetiin", Äänekoski murmured. By a sheer act of will he freed his mind from the numbness just to discover he had the most earsplitting headache. Never mind.
He pulled Suvuk away from the swivel chair's range and propped his back up against the wall. A splinter of console glass was embedded in his left arm. Jukka-Pekka pulled out the shard, which was followed by a spurt of green blood, discolouring Suvuk's blue uniform sleeve. Voi itku! Obviously, Vulcan anatomy put an artery in that place as well. He tore the bloody sleeve off at the shoulder and pulled it down. The wound looked very bad. He folded the sleeve and pressed it on the injury to stop the bleeding. Then he tapped his com badge with his free hand.
"Dr. Pulaski, Suvuk is severly injured. Send me someone to help me bring him down to you."
"Acknowledged", came the more-than-curt reply.
The Finn sat down beside the end of the stairs leading up to the command station, pulling the unconscious body up against his shoulder. With is left hand he held on to the imrovised tourniquet and pressed for his life, worse even, for Suvuk's life. The Vulcan's head hung over his right shoulder, green blood seeped from the head injury, invisibly, into the black shoulder piece of his uniform, and into the yellow fabric of his sleeve like spilled ink. With his free right hand he gently caressed Suvuk's cheek and temple. The touch, dreamed of for so long, now gave no satisfaction to himself, was just meant to strenghten Suvuk's spirits, to make him hang on. "Suvuk, mun rakas, sä et saa kuolla. Mä en anna sulle kuolla", he murmured to the motionless figure.
Steps rang on the metal stairs leading up to the command station. A red-headed man in a yellow Starfleet uniform with whom he'd never even spoken a word turned up from below.
"Take his legs, and I'll lift him by his shoulders. Slowly, carefully, I have to keep pressure on his arm."
Gently they carried Suvuk down the stairs, through the walkway, then down the ramp into cargo bay four. On the improvised medical bed was a brown furry creature. The miserable Catellan.
The doctor quickly adjusted one of her feinbergers and came towrds the two humans carrying the Vulcan between them. "Put him on that mattress."
A short humming. "I'm sorry, he will have to wait. Just a slight concussion, and the two external injuries. If we stop the bleeding he'll be all right after a short healing trance."
She went back to the Catellan and adjusted another gadget affixed to S'Kanuk's body. "With him it's a different story. His neck is broken; if I don't treat him at once, he'll die."
"If you don't treat Suvuk at once, he'll bleed to death."
"Oh no, he won't. Vulcans have a much lower blood pressure than humans; they hardly ever bleed to death. Keep applying pressure, you're doing just fine. Just hold on to your friend and let me do my work."
Äänekoski was opening his mouth for an angry retort, but then thought the better of it. Pulaski was one of the best doctors in Starfleet; the fact that they were sending her to Bajor was another proof of how important the planet was to the Federation. Illogical to contradict such an expert in her own area.
He sat down on Dr. Pulaski's mattress beside Suvuk and pulled him into his arms again, just like he'd done on the bridge. His left hand clamped down on Suvuk's elbow, pressing the soaking sleeve against the bleeding artery; his right hand a wrapped around the motionless body, just holding him, caressing his hands, his face.
He felt the daze descending on his own mind again; he was hit worse than he liked to admit and couldn't quite ignore it any longer. He leaned his cheek against Suvuk's neck and closed his eyes. How warm he was, and how hard the muscles in his neck under the soft skin. Where his neck connected to the back of his head there was a hollow, soft and vulnerable. He touched it carefully with his lips, kissing it gently, brushing his lips against it.
Something was stirring in his mind; confusion, disorientation. Suvuk was coming to and took up the connection broken when Jukka-Pekka had passed out.
"Hello, Suvuk. We made it. You're safe", he breathed, comfortingly touching the Vulcans shoulder. "You're with me."
Suvuk gave a low, helpless moan, dropping his head onto the human's arm, snuggling up against him. Weakly, he lifted his right hand, gripping Jukka-Pekka's wrist.
The human bent down to him, brushing his lips over his neck again. Through the mental link, he was reassuring his friend with feelings of tenderness, warmth, closeness; love. Suvuk calmed down, was held, safe in his arms. He pulled the human's hand that he was still gripping towards his face, pressed his lips on the inside of his wrist. Jukka-Pekka put his face against the Vulcan's neck once more, kissed the tendons, the sensitive spot between them at the nape of his neck. A dazed contentment flowed into his mind from Suvuk's, and astonishment at the gentle emotions he had never felt before. Not even in pon farr. There had only ever been the icy void of non-feeling for him, mastery and suppression of everything kind and gently inside him, beyond the range of pain, and further out than any Vulcan had ever gone before.
*This is over now, my Suvuk. No pain now. You are with me, and everything will be fine.* He pulled the Vulcan even closer, kissed him behind the ear, and then on the warm, velvety tip of his ear in a perfect moment of tenderness and comfort.
But now a new sharpness welled into their joined consciousness, negating, refusing. The contact broke utterly. Suvuk shook himself free, fought Äänekoski off, forcing him to let go, apart from the hand still pressing the torn-off sleeve to his injury. The Vulcan tried to stand, ripped his arm from the human's grip and clawed at the metal bulkhead, slowly, painfully gaining his feet. Blood dripped over his arm and from his hand onto the mattress.
Jukka-Pekka jumped up in one swift, dizzying movement and tried to catch hold of the arm again to stay the blood. "What are you doing? How dare you? Desist, let go of me", the Vulcan gasped.
"Suvuk, your arm...the blood", he stammered. Suvuk looked down on himself, ripped the sleeve out of Jukka-Pekka's grip and perfunctorily held it against his wound himself. His knees gave in; Äänekoski caught him, trying to help him stand. Suvuk swatted his hand aside like an annoying insect.
"Your behaviour towards me is highly inappropriate; you are showing no respect for what I am. Go and see to your engines."
From the other side, Dr. Pulaski took hold of the Vulcan's shoulder and energetically pulled him towards the examination table. "Your turn, lie down there. Your little lovers' quarrel can wait until later. Äänekoski, you'd best do what he said and take care of the engine room; you'd just be in the way here. Don't stand there like a sinking pudding, I need the space."
As if all feeling had suddenly died inside him, he wandered off; and when the propulsion system was working flawlessly again, he went to the bridge with Mandela to instal some new terminals instead of those that had exploded or shorted out. When all the work was done, he locked himself in the head and cried helplessly, vomiting bile with dizzyness and concussion, venting his rejected emotions.
When he finally returned to cargo bay four, Suvuk's possessions had vanished from their place beside his mattress, and the Vulcan was lying on a cot near the improvised medical station, beside the Catellan and in Dr. Pulaski's reach, and was already in a healing trance he wouldn't merge from for the rest of the voyage to Bajor. Jukka-Pekka lay down on his mattress and was declared pale as a sheet and diagnosed with a mild concussion by Dr. Pulaski, who gave him a sedative that sent him far away from the disgusting reality.
_Translation! . While hurrying to the bridge, Äänekoski says, *I am coming, Suvuk. Those damn Cardassian space pirates.*
Their dialogue before crashing the Cardassian computer translates as:
Suvuk: *Lieutenant, I have an idea. Do you know this type of ship?*
JP: *Thoroughly. It's a Cardassian Galor class warship.*
Suvuk: *Fine. I know Cardassian, you know the ship's technology. We can switch the vessel off.*
JP: *What??*
About this dialogue we have to note that Suvuk not only uses informal pronouns and verb forms, but also a much more colloquial style of Finnish than before when he always spoke Finnish precisely as it is written, while Jukka-Pekka used colloquial terms. Saving syllables, and thus time, can of course be a logical reason for this stylistic shift.
After the attack has been repelled, Äänekoski tells the the Bajoran captain to *painu helvetiin - go to hell*; and after he pulled out the shard, he says *Voi itku - What a pity*; this is a euphemism for a much stronger term and contains a connotation of sadness or regret, as it literally means, *Oh, for crying*. To the unconscious Suvuk he says, still on the command station, *Suvuk, my love, you can't die! I won't let you die!*
As if on order, chaos broke out in cargo bay four where all those Starfleet officers, used to acting quickly in a crisis, found themselves stymied by the fact that there was nothing for them to do right now, while the civilians were panicking outright.
Suvuk rose unhurriedly. "Silence!", he bellowed into the hubub. Everyone quietened immediately with astonishment to hear the Vulcan actually shout. "Panic is illogical; we are merely passengers on the Bajoran captain's freighter, and he does wish us not to interfere with running the ship. Please stay calm."
All eyes turned to him, and something resembling calm indeed descended. Behind him, Suvuk heard the Finn's voice say, "Lieutenant Suvuk and I will deal with the situation, if there is a situation. Maybe it was just the propulsion system giving up its ghost, but perhaps we are really being attacked. I will check out the engine room while the Lieutenant will contact the bridge. We'll tell you if we need help; please keep yourselves at the ready. Dr. Pulaski, it might be a good idea if you switched on your instruments just in case. Thank you."
Suvuk had no other option than to follow Äänekoski from the room. "Astonishing, Lieutenant; you seem indeed to have acquired the ability to think logically. However, this does not from my point of view give you the right to give orders to me", he hissed at the human as they were jogging up the ramp to the central walkway.
"Your diatribe didn't help much, Lieutenant; they want to see action. Although I doubt it was much more than the antimatter converter hickuping a little. Tell me as soon as you know anything."
With this, the Finn dived into an opening leading down to the engines while Suvuk ran up the stairs to the bridge, if it could be called that. The installations were so amazingly primitive that actual windows encircling the tiny space and forming a cupola above it were used for an outside view. The captain sat on a swivel chair from which he could reach all the instruments. There were some screens for additional information, and he was staring intently into one of those. "Damn, no!", he shouted in Cardassian into a microphone he had pulled towards him, "I will not, surrender, Gul Adak! You can shove your warrant where the sun don't shine, we are in Federation space here!"
"Indeed, do you think?", a voice hissed from a speaker. "Tell me, then, where is your Federation?"
A new hit shook the ship. Suvuk tapped his com badge. "Lieutenant, we are being attacked by Cardassians. Come to the bridge."
"The dilithium crystal was fractured by the impact; the antimatter converter is stuttering, too", came the answer from the engine room.
"Call Mandela to deal with that; I need you here", Suvuk replied curtly.
"Ensign Mandela, you find a small aluminum case among my things; take it and bring it to the engine room and do what's neccessary there. Dr. Pulaski, please send someone to collect the miserable Catellan, he is injured. Tulen, Suvuk. Ne vitun Kardassialaiset avaruusrosvot!"
"On the contrary, it is a ship of the regular Cardassian forces, and their commander is a veritable Gul. Don't swear, Lieutenant, and come here."
"I'm there already", Äänekoski said behind him. Captain Andra Gal had been negotiating with the attackers all through the exchange, but the ship was hit again. "Shield down to 83 percent", a neutral computer voice announced.
"S'Kanuk, ready torpedoes", Andra shouted into the intraship mic.
"Most illogical", Suvuk interrupted. "Trying to defend this ship would be futile even under normal circumstances; in addition, your companion is presently underway to our improvised infirmary. Let me talk to the Gul." He squeezed into the narrow command station, took the microphone from Andra and pulled it towards him.
"Gul Adak", he said in Federation standard, "this is Lieutenant Suvuk from Starfleet, science deparment. Aboard the *Millenial Falcon* there are twelve Starfleet officers and civilian Federation employees. This freighter is carrying official passenger to Bajor, and any aggression from your side will be condered an act of war by the Federation."
"The Captain of this ship is a criminal wanted by Cardassian authorities, a know terrorist and smuggler. You should have checked beforehand who you hitched a lift with", the Cardassian snapped in the same language.
"Will you call off your attack if I were to take command of this vessel?"
"Surrender to me, and you won't be harmed. The criminal and his accomplice however will be arrested, and the ship will be seized."
Again, the Cardassians' phaser hit the *Millenial Falcon* head on. "Shields at 65 percent", the computer announced. "Mandela, route all energy to the shields", Suvuk ordered, handing back the microphone to Andra. "Captain, keep talking. Whatever happens, keep talking."
He turned towards Äänekoski. There was nobody he'd rather have had at his side in this situation.
"Luutnantti, mulla on a'atus. Tunnetko ton avaruusalustyypin?"
"Erittäin hyvin. Se on cardassialainen *galor*-luokan sotaalus".
"Selvä. Mä puhun cardassiaa, sä tunnet aluksen tekniikan. Me voidaan katkaista aluksen".
"Mitä?"
"Piggybacking our signal on the Captain's useless parlaying, we contact the Cardie computer, cause a fuse to short out and so shut down all systems", Suvuk answered, still in Finnish. "What do you think is their weakest point?"
"Weapons control; they got too many weapons. You're using informal speech."
"Fewer syllables. Access, code, suggestions?"
"Try three zeroes, that means packet is destined for the computer."
Suvuk's fingers danced over the communications concole. "Got it, trying login to their shipboard systems."
"What does this mean?"
"The Cardie computer wants an access code."
"Three ones, three zeroes, three ones, or the other way round. Cardies are into threes."
"Simple." A warning klaxon came from the bridge speakers.
"What now?", Äänekoski groaned.
"We have no time to lose, they'll discover us any moment. Allow me."
Suvuk bent down over the Finn squatting in front of the computer console and put his fingers on the correct points of his face. Contact came easily, as if from long practice. He let go, and still the connection held.
*Let us try three times three ones. Right, we're in. Weapon Systems. Stop, he's firing again. That was a broadside.* "Captain, keep talking!" *Go on. Invert phasers. Of course the security system won't allow that, but it keeps the computer busy. We need a code to cancel and confirm the command at the same time, then it'll crash. Infinite loop. Should work, confirm now.*
The Falcon was hit by a photon torpedo, and all consoles erupted in sparks. Suvuk and Äänekoski were thrown against the navigation controls, and the mental link broke.
Suvuk freed himself from the Finn's motionless body and lurched towards the computer again. Just one tap. Confirm. Blue sparks chased over the console. Confirm. Like this.
The console exploded, and a a flying shard buried itself in Suvuk's arm. The electric discharge threw him backwards, the back of his head hit a metallic object with a thundering clang, and he sank into bottomless blackness.
When Jukka-Pekka came to, for a moment he didn't know what had happened. Stars were passing overhead, and somthing soft and heavy was lying across his chest. Warm liquid was trickling onto his shoulder. He tried to move. The weight was holding him down as in a nightmare. Desperately, he freed himself from it and dazedly sat up. Across his chest and shoulders, his uniform was stained by some green liquid; at least it wasn't blood. Blood! For heaven's sake, green blood! Suvuk! His memory returned in a flash: Suvuk, the ship, the Cardassians...
Beside him lay the motionles shape of the Vulcan, like a discarded rag doll. Emerald blood was seeping from a wound in the short black hair, from another injury on the inside of his left elbow. Äänekoski shook his good arm; no reaction. He leaned down; weak, irregular breathing. At least he was alive.
He tried pulling Suvuk up into a sitting posture, but collided with an object moving to his right. "Get out of my way, I'm busy. The Cardies won't play dead forever."
Captain Andra Gal. "We got their computer to crash and shorted their systems; they'll be a while. Help me to get this Vulcan to sickbay."
"Man, your Vulcan is the least of my worries. I need to fly a ship that's three quarters done for. Get lost."
"Painu helvetiin", Äänekoski murmured. By a sheer act of will he freed his mind from the numbness just to discover he had the most earsplitting headache. Never mind.
He pulled Suvuk away from the swivel chair's range and propped his back up against the wall. A splinter of console glass was embedded in his left arm. Jukka-Pekka pulled out the shard, which was followed by a spurt of green blood, discolouring Suvuk's blue uniform sleeve. Voi itku! Obviously, Vulcan anatomy put an artery in that place as well. He tore the bloody sleeve off at the shoulder and pulled it down. The wound looked very bad. He folded the sleeve and pressed it on the injury to stop the bleeding. Then he tapped his com badge with his free hand.
"Dr. Pulaski, Suvuk is severly injured. Send me someone to help me bring him down to you."
"Acknowledged", came the more-than-curt reply.
The Finn sat down beside the end of the stairs leading up to the command station, pulling the unconscious body up against his shoulder. With is left hand he held on to the imrovised tourniquet and pressed for his life, worse even, for Suvuk's life. The Vulcan's head hung over his right shoulder, green blood seeped from the head injury, invisibly, into the black shoulder piece of his uniform, and into the yellow fabric of his sleeve like spilled ink. With his free right hand he gently caressed Suvuk's cheek and temple. The touch, dreamed of for so long, now gave no satisfaction to himself, was just meant to strenghten Suvuk's spirits, to make him hang on. "Suvuk, mun rakas, sä et saa kuolla. Mä en anna sulle kuolla", he murmured to the motionless figure.
Steps rang on the metal stairs leading up to the command station. A red-headed man in a yellow Starfleet uniform with whom he'd never even spoken a word turned up from below.
"Take his legs, and I'll lift him by his shoulders. Slowly, carefully, I have to keep pressure on his arm."
Gently they carried Suvuk down the stairs, through the walkway, then down the ramp into cargo bay four. On the improvised medical bed was a brown furry creature. The miserable Catellan.
The doctor quickly adjusted one of her feinbergers and came towrds the two humans carrying the Vulcan between them. "Put him on that mattress."
A short humming. "I'm sorry, he will have to wait. Just a slight concussion, and the two external injuries. If we stop the bleeding he'll be all right after a short healing trance."
She went back to the Catellan and adjusted another gadget affixed to S'Kanuk's body. "With him it's a different story. His neck is broken; if I don't treat him at once, he'll die."
"If you don't treat Suvuk at once, he'll bleed to death."
"Oh no, he won't. Vulcans have a much lower blood pressure than humans; they hardly ever bleed to death. Keep applying pressure, you're doing just fine. Just hold on to your friend and let me do my work."
Äänekoski was opening his mouth for an angry retort, but then thought the better of it. Pulaski was one of the best doctors in Starfleet; the fact that they were sending her to Bajor was another proof of how important the planet was to the Federation. Illogical to contradict such an expert in her own area.
He sat down on Dr. Pulaski's mattress beside Suvuk and pulled him into his arms again, just like he'd done on the bridge. His left hand clamped down on Suvuk's elbow, pressing the soaking sleeve against the bleeding artery; his right hand a wrapped around the motionless body, just holding him, caressing his hands, his face.
He felt the daze descending on his own mind again; he was hit worse than he liked to admit and couldn't quite ignore it any longer. He leaned his cheek against Suvuk's neck and closed his eyes. How warm he was, and how hard the muscles in his neck under the soft skin. Where his neck connected to the back of his head there was a hollow, soft and vulnerable. He touched it carefully with his lips, kissing it gently, brushing his lips against it.
Something was stirring in his mind; confusion, disorientation. Suvuk was coming to and took up the connection broken when Jukka-Pekka had passed out.
"Hello, Suvuk. We made it. You're safe", he breathed, comfortingly touching the Vulcans shoulder. "You're with me."
Suvuk gave a low, helpless moan, dropping his head onto the human's arm, snuggling up against him. Weakly, he lifted his right hand, gripping Jukka-Pekka's wrist.
The human bent down to him, brushing his lips over his neck again. Through the mental link, he was reassuring his friend with feelings of tenderness, warmth, closeness; love. Suvuk calmed down, was held, safe in his arms. He pulled the human's hand that he was still gripping towards his face, pressed his lips on the inside of his wrist. Jukka-Pekka put his face against the Vulcan's neck once more, kissed the tendons, the sensitive spot between them at the nape of his neck. A dazed contentment flowed into his mind from Suvuk's, and astonishment at the gentle emotions he had never felt before. Not even in pon farr. There had only ever been the icy void of non-feeling for him, mastery and suppression of everything kind and gently inside him, beyond the range of pain, and further out than any Vulcan had ever gone before.
*This is over now, my Suvuk. No pain now. You are with me, and everything will be fine.* He pulled the Vulcan even closer, kissed him behind the ear, and then on the warm, velvety tip of his ear in a perfect moment of tenderness and comfort.
But now a new sharpness welled into their joined consciousness, negating, refusing. The contact broke utterly. Suvuk shook himself free, fought Äänekoski off, forcing him to let go, apart from the hand still pressing the torn-off sleeve to his injury. The Vulcan tried to stand, ripped his arm from the human's grip and clawed at the metal bulkhead, slowly, painfully gaining his feet. Blood dripped over his arm and from his hand onto the mattress.
Jukka-Pekka jumped up in one swift, dizzying movement and tried to catch hold of the arm again to stay the blood. "What are you doing? How dare you? Desist, let go of me", the Vulcan gasped.
"Suvuk, your arm...the blood", he stammered. Suvuk looked down on himself, ripped the sleeve out of Jukka-Pekka's grip and perfunctorily held it against his wound himself. His knees gave in; Äänekoski caught him, trying to help him stand. Suvuk swatted his hand aside like an annoying insect.
"Your behaviour towards me is highly inappropriate; you are showing no respect for what I am. Go and see to your engines."
From the other side, Dr. Pulaski took hold of the Vulcan's shoulder and energetically pulled him towards the examination table. "Your turn, lie down there. Your little lovers' quarrel can wait until later. Äänekoski, you'd best do what he said and take care of the engine room; you'd just be in the way here. Don't stand there like a sinking pudding, I need the space."
As if all feeling had suddenly died inside him, he wandered off; and when the propulsion system was working flawlessly again, he went to the bridge with Mandela to instal some new terminals instead of those that had exploded or shorted out. When all the work was done, he locked himself in the head and cried helplessly, vomiting bile with dizzyness and concussion, venting his rejected emotions.
When he finally returned to cargo bay four, Suvuk's possessions had vanished from their place beside his mattress, and the Vulcan was lying on a cot near the improvised medical station, beside the Catellan and in Dr. Pulaski's reach, and was already in a healing trance he wouldn't merge from for the rest of the voyage to Bajor. Jukka-Pekka lay down on his mattress and was declared pale as a sheet and diagnosed with a mild concussion by Dr. Pulaski, who gave him a sedative that sent him far away from the disgusting reality.
_Translation! . While hurrying to the bridge, Äänekoski says, *I am coming, Suvuk. Those damn Cardassian space pirates.*
Their dialogue before crashing the Cardassian computer translates as:
Suvuk: *Lieutenant, I have an idea. Do you know this type of ship?*
JP: *Thoroughly. It's a Cardassian Galor class warship.*
Suvuk: *Fine. I know Cardassian, you know the ship's technology. We can switch the vessel off.*
JP: *What??*
About this dialogue we have to note that Suvuk not only uses informal pronouns and verb forms, but also a much more colloquial style of Finnish than before when he always spoke Finnish precisely as it is written, while Jukka-Pekka used colloquial terms. Saving syllables, and thus time, can of course be a logical reason for this stylistic shift.
After the attack has been repelled, Äänekoski tells the the Bajoran captain to *painu helvetiin - go to hell*; and after he pulled out the shard, he says *Voi itku - What a pity*; this is a euphemism for a much stronger term and contains a connotation of sadness or regret, as it literally means, *Oh, for crying*. To the unconscious Suvuk he says, still on the command station, *Suvuk, my love, you can't die! I won't let you die!*