Red 12

The crowd was huge and slow moving but she eventually made her way down the exit ramp. She spotted Kirk talking to Spock. The Spock suddenly broke away from Kirk and headed for an older looking male Vulcan.

Sam frowned because the older man looked quite a bit like Spock. Jim spotted her and made his way towards her. Sam inched around groups of people and closed the distance. Now that the excitement was wearing off she could sure use a drink to calm her nerves.

As she got closer she noticed Kirk's face was all bruised up like he had gotten into a fight.

"What the hell happened to you?" said Sam

Kirk chuckled

"Had a bit of a disagreement with a Vulcan no big deal" said kirk

She laughed.

"no big deal? You look like someone took a baseball bat to you" said Sam

She spotted a med stretcher leaving the enterprise and raised an eyebrow. Kirk turned

"Pike, Nero did a job on him but at least he's still alive" said kirk

"You went over and got him?" said Sam

"Yeah" said kirk

"Thanks" said Sam

He left out he rest and Sam could tell he was thinking about his father and the captain he had served under.

"so acting captain?" said Sam

Kirk turned back to her with a grin.

"yeah Spock was emotionally compromised and stepped down" said kirk

"Let me guess the bruises were from convincing him?" said Sam

Kirk nodded and rested one hand on the back of his neck.

"um yeah, let me tell you they aren't kidding about how strong they are, damn they hit hard" said kirk

"I can see that, looks like you got trampled by horses" said Sam

Kirk frowned and Sam could tell he was trying to remember just what a horse was.

"so acting captain?" said kirk

Sam nodded

"Terrell got knocked out when we lost the front view screen and so did Hershey, I was the next one in line as the helmsman" said Sam

She was watching the Vulcans behind him. Several were finding loved ones within the group of people exiting the enterprise and still exiting her ship. Jim was staring at her ship. So she turned to see just what he was looking at.

From their position on the walkway they could see the torn metal that made up the outside of the ship where the view screen had been on the bridge. It looked positively horrendous, in fact the ship was a mess.

"Oh man trip is going to kill me" said Sam

"Considering your lucky to be alive I am sure he will let it go" said kirk

He left out the rest but she could understand what he was trying to say.

"So what took you guys so long to show up anyways" said Sam

A med stretcher was making its way down the Reliant's ramp. Med personal hovered near it but she could guess it contained Hershey. Ships personnel were starting to come down the ramp along with the Vulcans and the first of the shuttles heading for earth was taking off.

"we're going to have fun trying to catch a ride" said kirk

Sam turned her attention to the ever growing crowd of Vulcan's and Starfleet personnel waiting for a shuttle.

"Naw not really I'm sure they have enough shuttles" said Sam

Kirk nodded in the direction of someone approaching them and Sam turned. An older Vulcan was approaching them just a bit behind him were several more Vulcans they all looked like politicians.

Sam gave kirk a confused look, so he leaned in and whispered

"Ambassador Sarek and the Vulcan high council, also Spock's dad" said Kirk

Sam gave him a shocked look. Spock was the son of an ambassador? The man stopped in front of her. "Captain Morningstar?" said Sarek

"Actually It's lieutenant I was only an acting Captain, how can I help you ambassador?" said Sam

The Vulcan raised his eyebrow in shock. Sam privately vowed to buy Kirk a drink later, it was so worth a shot of the good stuff just to see a Vulcan shocked.

"I have it under good authority that you are responsible for this" said Sarek

Sam hesitated did he mean the damaged ship or the refugees?

"Ah to which do you refer?" said Sam

Sarek's eyes were focused behind her for a second but she saw just a glimpse of the pain he was hiding. She turned slightly and watched a couple as they embraced the child they thought they had lost. Sam had to turn away because she could already feel the tears gathering in her eyes. She shoved the feeling back and regarded the Vulcan in front of her. He looked vaguely impressed for some reason.

"I was told that you rescued several thousand of my people prior to Vulcan's destruction, I simply wished to convey my thanks on their behalf" said Sarek

Sam looked momentarily shocked

"Oh… ah your welcome" said Sam

Sarek nodded in her direction. Spock was walking towards them. He gave his father a strange look when he saw who he was talking to. He stopped a few feet from them

"Morningstar" said Spock

He seemed unusually tense but then again he did just have his world blown up.

"Father, I see you have met cadet Morningstar" said Spock

"Actually yes I was thanking acting captain lieutenant Morningstar for saving so many lives" said Sarek

Something dark passed across Spocks features then was gone. For a moment Sam had no problem seeing this Vulcan lose control long enough to beat someone into a pulp. Kirk's bruises were a testament to that.

One of the women walked up beside him and Sam briefly wondered if this was Spock's mother. The scathing glance she cast at Spock quickly quelled that notion. No mother would look at their offspring like that, that was the kind of contempt reserved for murderers or outcasts.

"Lieutenant is it? Do you happen to know the exact figures on how many you did retrieve?" said the woman

"Oh yeah O'Malley said he sent it to the flight deck I could ask him if you like" said Sam

She reached for the communicator on her lapel.

"Mr. O'Malley?" said Sam

"Hold on I'll put you through" said a voice she didn't recognize.

It must have rerouted through the station.

"O Malley here Captain what can I get for you?" said O'Malley

"I need those numbers again, I seem to have left my PAD in class" said Sam

O'Malley chuckled briefly

"I believe we're all guilty of that Ma'am, ah here they are. I had to revise them slightly because we found a few wee ones hiding in a couple cupboards and on the holodeck" said O'Malley

"Ah here's the new numbers that would be 5428 counting the crew and the wee ones" said O'Malley Sam frowned she could have sworn those numbers were a lot lower.

"Ah O'Malley exactly how many kids did you find?" said Sam

"Ah so far about 43 but were checking everywhere now. Don't want to miss anyone, they're towing this ship into dry dock soon" said O'Malley

Sam winced because she could only see a small percentage of the damage done to the Reliant and it was bad. It looked like someone had taken a bite out of some parts of it.

"Okay so far it stands at 5428 but they are still counting apparently, I'm sure whenever they are done they will forward the numbers to headquarters" said Sam

The old woman frowned at her then nodded and walked away from sam.

"You fit five thousand passengers aboard your ship? Forgive me for asking but isn't the passenger accommodations no more than a few hundred" said Spock

Sam winced

"Ah yeah that's kind of why we had them pretty much everywhere" said Sam

"Everywhere?" said Sarek

"Our halls, cabins, lounges, cargo holds you name it. They were full" said Sam

"Damn!" said Kirk

Sarek glared at him for the use of the profanity.

"Most impressive" said Sarek

Sam could feel her face turning red. She turned away and spotted T'lin leading a group of forty school age children down the ramp. Sam briefly wondered just how many of them were orphans now. Sam watched as McCoy and Diaz were busy helping check over the passengers coming off of both ships.

The group of elders were making their way towards the gathered refugees.

"Come walk with us" said Sarek

Sam blinked as the ambassador started walking towards the shuttles. Sam stared after him and kirk shrugged. She watched as Sulu was drafted to fly one of the shuttles and so was Neru. She wondered briefly if they would do the same to her, as she made her way towards the organized chaos that was the staging area. Sam politely stood in line with the group of refugees and Starfleet personnel.

She took the time to look around at the gathered group. It appeared that just the Enterprise and Reliant had survived the battle. The loud speaker announced a new arrival and Sam looked towards the empty docking areas. A ship was slowly pulling into the slip. The rest of the fleet was back from the Lorenceian system. The line moved forward and several people ahead of them boarded the waiting shuttle. Sam watched as the old woman and her group cut in front of a young family to climb aboard. She was certainly glad she didn't have to put up with them on her ship. Spock looked relieved when the doors closed. Sam spotted T'lin and her group and waved to the woman.

T'lin nodded back in acknowledgement, in her arms was a young boy possibly about four or five. The older man from earlier was staring at her for some reason. He really did look like Spock when you got a closer look at him.

"Is that man a relative of yours?" said Sam

Spock turned to look where she was looking and froze.

"in a manner of speaking yes" said Spock

Sarek looked confused and gave his son a strange look

"I will endeavor to explain at a later time" said Spock

Sam raised an eyebrow she would love to hear that conversation because she had a feeling it was a doozy. She looked at Kirk and he was smirking. Oh yeah he knew what was going on here, he was so going to spill later. Sam gave him a wicked smirk and he shifted nervously. Uhura was pushing her way towards them. She came up beside Spock and attached herself to his side. He didn't seem to mind. Uhura glanced around her.

Her gaze finally stopped on Sam and she gave Sam a small respectful nod that shocked Sam to her core. The next shuttle landed and Sam moved forward with the group climbing onboard. The medical shuttle was given clearance before them so they had to wait a few seconds. Uhura strapped in right next to Spock and appeared to be having a conversation with Spock's dad. Sam was slightly relieved she had no idea what to say to the man. I mean what did one talk to an ambassador about?

T'lin took the seat next to her and strapped the child in on the other side of her. Sam turned her attention to the children climbing onboard the shuttle with them.

"My nephew" said T'lin

To Sam's unspoken question.

"Oh!" said Sam in response.

Sam glanced at the front and found Sulu flying their shuttle. The last few Vulcan's climbed aboard and the doors closed. Sulu was given the clearance to take off and he did so quite smoothly. Sam kept her gaze firmly away from the window but she still flinched when they passed the reliant. The talking stopped from the ambassadors section and he simply stared at her ship. Sam could guess what he was thinking.

How did it even still fly? Sam shifted nervously when his gaze landed on Sam briefly. The man sat back and frowned. The shuttle was unusually quiet and Sam was wondered if that was normal for Vulcan children.

"So what's his name?" said Sam

T'lin blinked and tore her gaze from the damaged ship in the window.

"Ah Rowen" said T'lin

She gave Sam a nervous glance. Yeah she was thinking it too no need to say how close a call that was. Sam leaned forward so she could see the kid.

"Hi Rowen I'm Sam" said Sam

The boy gave her an uncomprehending look.

"He only speaks Vulcan, he hasn't yet learned any additional languages" said T'lin

Sam nodded in understanding, then in perfect Vulcan she tried the introduction again. This time she got a response. She had the kid near giggling by the time they landed. Sam had decided to tell them some fairy tales while they traveled and she had every one of the kids' attention squarely riveted on her retelling of sleeping beauty.

Mind she had to work to translate it into Vulcan but T'lin helped with the words she didn't know like dragon. When the shuttle touched down she found even the adults had been listening.

"An interesting rendition I do not believe I remember a dragon in the original text" said Spock

"I was going off the Disney versions sans the singing" said Sam

"Singing?" said Kirk

She waved a finger in his face at that wicked look

"no way forget it" said Sam

She was about to go on when someone softly cleared their throat. Sam looked down to see one of the other children standing there. It was a little girl with a haircut similar to T'lin's, oddly the sweeping tapering asymmetrical cut looked better on the kid.

"yes?" said Sam

"Why did she eat the apple?" said the girl.

Several of the other kids were staring at Sam like she suddenly had the answers to the behavior of the human race. Honestly she didn't know.

"You know, I never really understood why they didn't tell her that the evil queen was out to get her or even just not to take things from strangers" said Sam

"Was she stupid?" said one of the little boys

Sam shrugged

"Possibly most women at the time it was written had no formal schooling and she was raised in the woods by a bunch of fairies, so who knows what they taught her if anything at all" said Sam

The kid seemed to consider her answer and Sam was sure they were going to be thinking about it for a while. With any luck it would distract them long enough for them to forget their troubles for a while. The door slid open and people started unstrapping.

T'lin helped her nephew and then moved on to help the next child. Sam noticed the kid just stood there waiting for her without a single complaint. A couple of the older Vulcan's moved to help T'lin with her charges. Sam let them pass out the door first before following them out. It felt wonderful being on solid ground again. She stopped to take a deep breath. She watched T'lin make her way towards the refugee processing center Starfleet had hastily erected.

"So where to?" said Kirk

Sam headed for the main hall.

"Where are you going?" said Kirk

He hurried after her.

"To get my bag out of the lockers and then see if the spa in the gym is free" said Sam

Kirk smirked at her.

"Mind if I join you?" said Kirk

Sam shrugged

"That depends you gonna tell me what gives with Spock's twin?" said Sam

He pursed his lips and regarded her for a moment.

"Okay, that's worth it" said kirk

She raised an eyebrow.

"Is it really?" said Sam

She was messing with him now but it was just so much fun. He looked confused so she took pity on him "just teasing you farm boy" said Sam

"Okay you're never going to believe this, but its Spock" said kirk

Sam stopped walking to turn around and stare at him

"Say what?" said Sam

"He's Spock, but from another dimension. I know it sounds crazy and believe me I wouldn't believe it if...well let's just say he proved it" said kirk

"Proved it how?" said Sam

Kirk took a deep breath and ran his hand through his hair. He looked nervous and somewhat emotionally battered. Neither of them had an easy time of it at least as far as she knew.

"He did a mind meld" said Kirk

Sam rocked back on her heels. Vulcan's rarely did mind melds with humans unless they were mates, in the midst of pon far or the human was so lost in themselves that was the only way to get them to come out. She remembered it had taken one to get her to come out when she had freaked out over being in the future. Kirk didn't seem to be dealing with his all that well.

"So what did he show you?" said Sam

"Everything a whole lifetime worth of stuff you wouldn't believe, I just….I don't... Have you ever had one of them do it?" said kirk

"Yeah when I first got here they told me the year and I freaked out, like totally went catatonic. It took one of them to bring me out" said Sam

Kirk gave her an appraising look.

"so you know how…oh god I don't even know how to say it" said Kirk

"Violating it feels no matter how careful they are, yeah I know and I'm sure that's why they rarely do it with humans" said Sam

Kirk was looking behind her so Sam turned to look at what he was looking at. Uhura and Spock were walking towards a building together.

"Do you ever wonder if they're doing it?" said kirk

If she didn't know what he was talking about she would have so taken that the wrong way, especially given Kirk's reputation.

"I doubt it they are only dating I would imagine that would be reserved for something serious like marriage" said Sam

She honestly didn't want to even think about what another couple did in the bedroom let alone two people she really didn't feel comfortable around.

Kirk was frowning at the couple

"You don't think they're that serious do you?" said kirk

She wasn't really sure but she was glad someone was at least distracting Spock. He made her nervous for some reason that she really couldn't name.

"Don't know but if they are we should be happy they found someone at least" said Sam

kirk nodded he looked disappointed and she wondered if he was really interested or if it was just because Uhura had given him the brush off so many times. Kirk sighed

"Come on if we're going to do this we should do it before they call us in to debrief us" said kirk

Sam frowned she forgot about that part. It was another reason she had avoided the command track, she honestly hated having to explain herself. She groaned and followed kirk. The hall door was locked but somehow kirk managed to get it open. She was fairly certain he had picked the lock to do so.

She retrieved her bag from her locker and headed for her dorm to get her swimsuit. Kirk had suggested they didn't need anything at all to swim in but she didn't really want to take the chance of getting caught. The man had already gotten in enough trouble this week one more infraction might just be the one to get him kicked out and she didn't want that to happen. For some reason she believed kirk belonged here and she didn't want him to lose this.

She climbed the stairs to her dorm. No one was waiting for the elevator and her floor was eerily silent. Sam didn't want to really think about why. She wondered what Starfleet was going to do now that more than half of their students were gone. She pulled open her dresser and found her swim suit. As she held the two piece in her hands she was seriously starting to reconsider the bikini. Kirk would be getting an eyeful whether she wanted him to or not.

She walked into the bathroom and changed into it. As she walked out her Pad buzzed and she lifted it to look at the message. Great command wanted her to report for debriefing. She groaned out loud and pulled another uniform out of her drawers. She slid it on over the swimsuit and shoved a towel in her bag. She pulled her boots back on and threw the bag over her shoulder.