Chapter 4

"Ms Spock." The Vulcan looked up.

"Do you require my assistance?" Mr Spock noted Mr Chekov had gone, perhaps to fetch some missing instrument.

"Negative. However Mother and Sarek shall be boarding soon. I am uncertain of the specifics, however I thought you may wish to be informed, particularly if your… relationship with Sarek equals mine." (translated from Vulcan)

"Assuming Sarek disowned you also, then yes." Mr Spock nodded.

"Understood." He said, returning to Federation standard. "When I have acquired more specifics, I shall then inform you of them." Ms Spock nodded, grateful, and went back to her task. They had shared all they needed, and each had their respective duties.

Mr Spock left just as Chekov was coming in, though he didn't pay much attention; his mind was brimming with possibilities and questions. He knew the severe physiological repercussions he'd faced growing up and especially when when Sarek had disowned him, would things not be worse for his female self? After all, females were typically more emotional than males. Also, if her mother was Vulcan, then she would (like Mr Spock) have gotten no emotional support there, but if her human parent was male, then it was highly unlikely he would have given large amounts of emotional help also. Perhaps, Mr Spock thought, she had it better than he did. Perhaps the lack of emotional support had been helpful, helping shield her from weakness. Or perhaps it had only served to hurt and confuse her further, with even less basis for understanding her human half than Mr Spock himself had. Fascinating.

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"Ms Spock, your presence is required on the bridge." She nodded, and handed the PADD she had been working on to another science crewman.

"May I inquire as to why I was not simply commed?" Her voice sounded… dead. Something was wrong, Mr Spock knew, but what? Her captain was in danger, however this level of extremity seemed… wrong. Perhaps her shields were simply incredible, Mr Spock rationalized.

"I was on my way to the bridge, so the captain decided I may as well inform you on the way." Ms Spock nodded, and they continued on.

"Do you know why the captain has requested my presence?"

"I do not." Ms Spock nodded, she seemed to do that quite a lot. Mr Spock didn't understand why; simple gestures were often quite easy to misinterpret. Well, females were often illogical. Mr Spock had to admit, though, it was somewhat… displeasing, that his other self was so prone to illogical behavior. He decided not to comment. They finally entered the bridge, and Jim swiveled around in the captain's chair.

"Ms Spock. Do you think you're better than Mr Sulu at piloting?" Ms Spock felt a brief flash of confusion, but really, almost nothing could really phase her anymore.

"I do not know for certain, captain, but I find it very highly probable."

"In that case, take over." Ms Spock raised an eyebrow.

"May I inquire as to why I am relieving helmsman Sulu of his duties?" Sulu gave her a reassuring grin.

"Don't worry, miss, it's not permanent, and I'm not offended. But even I can't pull of a maneuver this delicate." Ms Spock felt her eyebrows draw together, uncomprehending.

"I do not understand. If we are simply returning to the nearest starbase, why would that require such delicate maneuvers?" Jim stared at her.

"We can't go back to a starbase yet, we have to find your captain." For the first time in 5 days, part of Ms Spock came alive.

"What? But we must still be under suspicion. Given the odds of rescuing my captain, even if she is still alive…"

"You're not under that much suspicion!" Jim cried, agast. "Did you really spend all this time thinking we were just going to leave her?" The look on Ms Spock's face could have answered all by itself, even if she had not spoken.

"Yes." She nearly whispered, shocked. "But the chances…"

"This is the Enterprise! Since when did we care about the odds of anything? Now we need Mr Spock to handle the cloaking device, so can you pilot or can't you?" Ms Spock's eyes suddenly looked so determined, everyone felt a very distinct shiver of fear, and almost felt sorry for the Harignauts.

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"3-2-1- WARP!" The Enterprise rocketed forward, both Spock's hovering over their respective panels. Mr Spock had to scramble the Romulan scanners, then immediately activate the cloaking device. Ms Spock had to pull them out of hyperspace at exactly the right time, then pull them sideways, and stop them resting directly on top of the top Romulan vessel. The idea was nearly the exact same one as applied by Han Solo in Star Wars, an ancient terran movie series. The cloaking device would make them seem part of the Romulan vessel, and since they would be on top of the top one, no one could see them visually. Stars streamed by, and then there was a terrible jolt as Ms Spock pulled them out of warp. Mr Spock hit the scramblers, and Ms Spock forced the enterprise onto the top of the topmost ship, which dwarfed the Enterprise completely. Mr Spock slammed on the cloaking device. Everyone took a deep breath and held it. Time passed. Nothing happened. Everyone let the breath out (everyone, of course, only being the humans). Ms Spock stood.

"Captain, who will the landing party consist of?"

"Myself, you, Mr Spock, and three of our redshirts. We'll have to risk beaming down into one of their ships. Come on." The aforementioned people exited the bridge, Mr Spock already comming Giotto for 3 pretty much expendable redshirts (since they were bound to die). They assembled in the transporter room, (the redshirts had already said their goodbyes) and the command to energize was given. Those Harignauts really had no idea what what was coming.

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The team dashed through the halls of the ship Jane's signal had come had a chip implanted that could be used as a tracking device, implanted after a nasty run-in with some Klingons, but that was beside the point. As for now, all that mattered was that they find her, dead or alive. Ms Spock lead the way, body tense and alert. Finally they came to the holding cells. Footsteps. The agents of starfleet hid behind a pillar. They came closer. Ms Spock's hand flew out and with a single pinch the Harnaut jailer was felled. They slipped into the area. Jane was lying on a table, blood covering her broken body. Ms Spock looked murderous. She advanced forward, and gently began undoing the straps that bound her captain to the table. The others stood outside the door, to give her some privacy. Suddenly, the doors snapped closed. Locked. Transparent though they were, to make escapes by prisoners harder, they could still see inside. Harnauts started materializing inside the large room, each with phasers. Their leader sneered.

"Shall we discuss surrender, halfbreed?" He spat the highly uncreative insult as though it were a curse. Ms Spock did not look impressed.

"You may feel free." She stared impassively, moving away from her captain.

"Smart one, aren't you."

"Compared to you." Ms Spock was now in the middle of the circle of 11 Harnauts, and she did not seem scared by anyone's definition. The lead Harnaut snarled, furious.

"Kill her, now!" His minions obeyed, leaping into action. Unfortunately, they had taken on more than they could handle. Ms Spock dashed forward, grabbing two, nerve pinching them, then whirling them about as living shields. The phaser blasts hit the bodies, giving her time to leap into the fray once more. She whirled low, shooting up to give one Harnaut a stunning uppercut to the jaw, knocking him out, then she threw him at one of his partners, knocking him to the ground, giving her time to leap that direction, kicking the felled man's head hard enough to rendered unconscious, then whirling about to face two Harnauts attacking side by side. She sprang forward, whirling about, one foot coming up in a destivating kick, other hand grabbing the helpless Harnaut about the neck, swinging him around, knocking all of his companions to the ground, finally releasing him to fly into one of the metal cages, rendering him unconscious, and with a possible concussion. 5 to go, the leader among them. They got to their feet, wary now, and attacking from a distance, a thing they were unused to; Harnauts always preferred to go in close. Ms Spock dived behind a table like the one Jane was on, and grabbed the tiling of the floor. It pulled up rather easily, obviously not made to withstand a vengeful Vulcan. Spock split the tile in half, and came out tiles blazing. Sort of. She used one to deflect a shot that got too close (there weren't many she allowed to do so) and the other was devoted to spinning frisbee like into one Harnaut's forehead, the ricochet rebounding the metal into the side of his partners head. They dropped like stones, blood gushing. The remaining three looked very scared. Spock rushed them, dropping into a forward role, then springing up to a handstand of sorts, except that each of her feet connected solidly with a Harnaut's face. She sprang up into a flip in the air, and in mid air, solidly punched the lead Harnaut into a wall. He stuck there, his body denting the metal. Ms Spock landed crouched on her feet. She walked over and fiddled with the locking mechanism on the door. It opened. Everyone stared.

"Can you do that?" Jim demanded of Mr Spock.

"No captain."

Ms Spock walked back over to her captain and finished untying her. "Ready for beam up, captain." Kirk nodded, and flipped open his communicator. Scotty's panicked voice filled the room.

"Captain, they were waiting for us! They're attacking now, I don't know how much longer we can evade them!"

"We don't have to: Beam us up, Scotty!"

"Aye sir!" Lights swirled, images warped and twisted before fading away, and they were transported up to the Enterprise. Then all three redshirts died simultaneously. They were placed in the three body bags set aside specifically for them. The bags even had their names embroidered on them. Jane was taken to medbay, and Ms Spock walked beside her every step of the way.