Bare These Bones

Beneath the Exoskeleton

Spock had noticed as soon as he saw Vahl'Sai for the first time that her body was built for survival of elements. She was long, lean, and compact. From what he knew by studying the Sahvarian race the people were built for hunting; they had a much more animalistic nature compared to the other races. He had not seen anything about Sahvanah visually, only knowing from reading, but he did know that the wilderness of the planet could kill an untrained hunter in a day. The creatures and elements were harsher than anything on Earth, Vulcan or otherwise. Because of the ways that Sahvarian's must live, they are deadly. They lived up to the name of 'the predators'.

Vahl'Sai was no different. He could tell that she was holding back on him, never kicking or jabbing anywhere near as hard as a she could. If she truly wanted, she could have him on his back before anyone in the class could realize. Instead, she was able to easily block and strike, never once slowing down. Her green eyes didn't wander from him, intent on catching every move that he made. She wouldn't miss even a twitch of a muscle.

Catching a hold of her cloth covered wrist, he was able to twist her arm behind her back but was forced to release it when she bent forward slightly, bringing her leg backward and kicking him in the back of his shoulder. They moved apart, but she wasn't going to give him time to adjust and swung her leg up. Instead of taking the chance to kick him in the head, which would have left him incapacitated for the remainder of the day, she pressed her calf against the side of his head and pushed, throwing him off balance.

Using his forearm, he was able to manipulate the movement of her leg, swinging it from above his shoulder to below it, catching it under his arm as he remained kneeled on the ground. Vahl'Sai's eyes narrowed as he pulled, drawing her to the ground as well. Several of the students gasped as she fell into a split, but the movement was natural and she didn't even flinch.

One of the advantages that she had over Spock was that she was much more lithe and fluent than him. Twisting around, she brought her other leg up to push on his chest, throwing them apart as she continued with her twist to end up on her feet. When he looked into her eyes, they were narrowed down until he could see barely a dot of black where her pupil was. She looked feral.

"Enough," Pike called out, clearly seeing that the fight wasn't going to be moving much past the point that it was at. Vahl'Sai straightened immediately, her muscles uncoiling and her eyes moving over to the Admiral. "We might not have time to assess the class if you two keep going, so we'll leave this one at a draw."

"Yes, Admiral Pike," the said simultaneously. Vahl'Sai glanced over to Spock briefly, catching the dark brown as they darted over to her as well, before the both turned away and moved to their side of the room, the cadets that they would be assessing moving to form a circle around each Commander. They were whispering and gossiping already, speaking in hushed, quick words about what they had just seen. Sahvarian's were able to process and think as quickly as a Vulcan could, but they were taught to fight from a young age and knew just about every attack one could think to do.

Jim Kirk was grinning like the cat that had caught the canary, looking over to Bones and Uhura. They each looked as equally fascinated at what had just taken place, but weren't going to give Jim the satisfaction of knowing such a thing. He was going to be fighting against Spock for his evaluation, and he couldn't be more pleased. Throughout the training sessions with Vahl'Sai he had never won against her, but he knew better what to expect from someone who was stronger than him.

Hours later, the last of the Cadets that were shuffling their way back toward the changing rooms, some bloodied, some bruised and all of them sore. Neither Commander had taken it easy on them, beating them to the ground while still testing them carefully. Vahl'Sai often took the cadet's to the ground immediately after she knew all that she needed to, while Spock actually let the try to take him down. No one succeeded. Vahl'Sai was sporting a deep blue bruise on her right cheekbone that was fading away more and more every moment. Spock had gotten an elbow to his jaw that gave him a faint green bruise, but aside from that neither Commander was injured.

Jim lay on the mats, looking up at the ceiling as he huffed for air. He had still gotten his ass kicked by Spock, but he was able to last much longer than he had when he got into it with him on the bridge of the Enterprise. Spock's hand removed from his neck, where he had short of grand slammed him into the floor, and looked at the younger man with a sense of approval. They hadn't exactly become the best of friends since the time that Spock Prime had butted in, but they were as close to it as a Vulcan and a Human could get.

"You surprised me, Captain," Spock finally chose to say, getting a splitting grin from Kirk. Offering him a hand up, they clasped each other's wrists and Spock easily pulled the blonde to his feet, although slightly unsteadily. They looked over when there was a resounding thud, seeing that Vahl'Sai had just flipped Cadet Mack, the same one that had cracked Kirk in the nose, and slammed him onto his back with a knee moving to his throat to keep him down and end the round.

"Ow," Kirk mumbled to himself, wondering if the other man would still be functional. Vahl'Sai moved her knee from his throat and looked down at him carefully, speaking in hushed, gentle tones. The cadet made incoherent noises that left the woman above him sighing. Kirk had to repress a laugh when she had to motion the medical team over, Bones joining them, and have the man moved to a gurney to take him off. She hadn't broken anything, but he was stunned to the point that he couldn't move and the air had been knocked from his lungs.

"That may have been overkill," Pike said in greeting as he approached the Sahvarian, getting a discrete smirk from her. It wasn't allowed for Cadet Kirk, the Captain, to get back at the other man because he would get into serious trouble for fighting with another Starfleet member, but that didn't mean his Commander couldn't rough them up when she got the chance.

"I have not a clue what you are referring to," she answered back, getting a chuckle from the older man.

"It was a good class, Commander," he complemented before turning to look over to where Spock was speaking with the Captain, one standing leisurely while the other remained as regal and brisk as ever. "I have a feeling that your class enjoyed your spat with Commander Spock most of all."

"Spat?" she asked curiously, looking down at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Quarrel, match, fight."

"I see," she said, nodding her head. Even though she said she understood Pike was amused to see the underlying confusion to human terms.

When looking at Vahl'Sai, it was hard to not feel both intimidated and interested. Standing over the height of most human females at six feet and still growing, her snow white hair was pulled taut at the back of her head in a professional, twisted bun, the paleness contrasted with the dark copper of her skin tone. The striking, emerald green eyes looked human enough, but the intensity of their colour reminded people of a cat's, holding the same cunning mind and deadly grace as well.

Pike had seen Vahl'Sai when she first arrived at the academy, he remembered the day as perfectly as though he was watching a recorded film over and over, reliving it. The sight of the skittish, strong woman that stood out with white hair and tan skin, wearing a red cadet uniform as she tugged at the skirt and constantly tried to hide herself away, nearly broke his heart.

Her Uncle had refused to send anyone with her.

Standing by herself, she was quite literally alone.

It was hard not to grow close to the young woman, even though she was nearly the same age as him—as Sahvarians age drastically slowly—and take on a bit of a fatherly role. He knew that she didn't have her true parents anymore, she had never even met them, and he wished that he could help in some way. It was the more sentimental side that took over when he was always dealing with her in the past. He was even there throughout her many English lessons, often striking up random conversations with her to slowly help ease her into the strangeness of the new words and grammar.

Only a month into being at the academy and she had come stumbling into his office, her face flushed as she cried, hysterical Sahvarian words passing her lips as she fell into one of the seats in front of his desk. It was at that moment that he learned how tightly knit her race was; a child never parted with a parent no matter how old they grew. They would leave home and move on to their own lives with their own family, but never did they go a day without craving hearing a mother's voice from when it would lull them to sleep as an infant.

Without a mother, she never had that contact. Her uncle was cold, and uncaring toward her. He despised her very existence. She received the love that her parents were supposed to give her through friends, and she didn't even have them anymore.

Sahvarians have major separation issues.

Looking at her now, he could still see that crying foreigner curled into his side, whimpering words he did not know. However, she was no longer the first thing he saw. Now, as he looked to her, the first thing that his eyes caught on to was the tall stance she kept, the look of iron in her eyes and a pride on her shoulders that was great and weightless. She smiled and laughed, bearing her fangs as she never had in the past. It took him months to coax her into acting even a semblance of natural.

He could still see that she was in a slightly depressed state because of the fact that everything was so different. She would never admit it, sometimes even strongly deny it, but she missed her home and longed to return. In the beginning, she had asked countlessly when she would get to return, but soon that had dwindled down and he almost never heard her mention Sahvaria anymore.

"Tired?" Pike asked as he watched Vahl'Sai roll her shoulder as though the muscles were sore.

"Hardly," she answered in a low drawl, her accent sounding more Spanish than he had heard in a while.

"You might want to start on those evaluations, then," he answered, smirking at the look that she shot him.

Soon, the room had emptied out and Vahl'Sai moved to check that everyone had already departed, no one left inside of the change rooms. Spock had left with Pike, students slowly trailing out of the room because of a paranoia that they would get in trouble with the strict Commander. At least Vahl'Sai had a sense of humour. Kirk sat out in the courtyard with McCoy, one of the two still reading a PADD while the other smirked at the women walking by in their short skirted uniforms.

"I think that she would have won," McCoy finally said after a couple of minutes, causing Kirk to pause and glance over to the man at his side. "Commander Vahl'Sai, I mean. I think she would have won if Admiral Pike hadn't called it a tie."

"Really?" Kirk asked curiously, his eyes igniting with mischief. "I wonder how Spock feels about that."

"She looks shorter when farther away," McCoy said in a thoughtful voice, looking toward the doors that they had stepped out of only minutes before. Kirk glanced up before directing his eyes completely to where Vahl'Sai was walking along the path of stone, leading to the steps. She had her stride reduced as Admiral Pike walked at her side, still slow with recovery. She was taller than Pike, actually, and Kirk snorted in amusement at the sight.

"Still freakishly tall for a woman," Kirk answered back, watching as Vahl'Sai offered Pike to lean on her shoulder as they descended the steps to the courtyard. "You'd think that a species basically designed to kill and destroy wouldn't be so gentle."

"I think she sees him as a father, someone close to her away from home."

As though she was listening to their conversation, Vahl'Sai glanced over to them for a moment, the fading sunlight catching her poison green eyes. Her pupils constricted to the point of near invisibility against the still bright light, making it appear as though there was nothing but green iris. In the sun, she looked like she was truly in her element. Her bronzed skin seemed to glow and her white hair took on a fiery glow.

"You're staring."

"Shut up, Bones."

Wow, been a while. I didn't realize how long it had been since I updated until I started to finish and edit this chapter. I didn't even remember a lot of the stuff that I had put in it, it was like I was readying a new story myself Well, sorry it took so long but I hope you all liked the new chapter and I'll try not to take so long with the next one! Hope to hear from all you wonderful readers.