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Chapter Sixteen

Searching for Lost Roses

Ap-Lau Stardate 2259.173

Selek had been in Roslyn's post-surgery room with her unconscious form and Leonard when the alert came. He was meditating, or rather he was attempting to meditate, when his comm started to beep frantically.

"Who's calling you?" His husband asked, distracted from the chart he was perusing by the noise.

"I am unsure," he murmured in reply. "I shall check." He pressed the button to answer, Amanda appearing in the screen.

"Selek," she said. At the distraught tone of her voice, dread rose in his throat.

"Lady Amanda," he answered, wrapping his mask of emotionlessness around him like a protective cloak. "Is something the matter?"

A sob burst out of her throat. "Oh Selek," she wept. "She's gone. They took her, I'm so sorry."

Leonard came up to his side, looking worried. "Amanda, take a deep breath," he instructed tensely. "Tell us what happened. Who took who and why are you sorry?"

She took in a shaky breath before exhaling equally as shakily. "A Starfleet patrol came across Saavik, lying abandoned in an alley with, with blood around her." She met their horrified expressions with grief lurking in her own brown orbs. "The blood matched Captain Kirk."


Rose groaned in pain as she stirred. Then she froze, registering the tight cords of cable wrapped in an intricate knot around her wrists. The memories of her flight, and then her failed fight, flooded back to her and she flung her mind out. She was unsurprised to realize that she was still within the range of a psy-blocker, but her worry increased when she couldn't feel Saavik's presence. What had they done with her?

She faked sleep as the sound of footsteps approached. A familiar voice sounded.

"I know you're awake Kirk," Uhura sneered. "Stop your faking. It's pointless."

Seeing as the lieutenant was right about that, Rose opened her eyes and awkwardly shifted into a seated position. She studied her (former) communications officer with a frown.

Uhura's eyes were wild with dark shadows underneath. Her hair was messy, like she'd been tugging at it repeatedly, and her clothes were untidy as well. Her chest seemed to heave heavily, and Rose also noted a thinness to the woman's already slim form. She felt a surge of guilt well up within her at the sight.

As Captain, it was Rose's duty to see that her officers were all in good physical and mental health while they were serving on the Enterprise. Looking at Uhura, it was beyond clear to Rose that she had failed epically in that duty.

"Lieutenant Uhura," she greeted the woman softly. "What did you do with the baby?"

The other woman glared at her viciously. "I left her there where she'd be quickly found of course," she snapped angrily. "What sort of person do you think I am? As if I would harm an innocent! You're not worth staining my hands for!"

"And what about Admiral Samuels?" Rose countered. "Why didn't she count as an innocent? What did she do?"

"She'll be fine," Uhura scoffed. She was pacing, a jittery manner in her hands and walk. Her eyes seemed to dart all around, searching for what Rose didn't know. "The dose wasn't lethal," Uhura continued. "But I needed to do something to get you separated from your loyal bodyguards, and it worked like a charm." She paused in her frantic pacing to smirk at Rose. "You did exactly as I wanted you to. So much for smartest captain in the fleet"

"How did you poison her?" Rose asked, ignoring the insult so that she could reach out mentally to the other woman.

The blockers didn't prevent her using passive empathy on anyone inside them with her, and Uhura was such a mental mess her emotions seemed to be spilling out of her.

"Oh that was easy," Uhura dismissed the question with a wave of her hand. "Little Lenore Karidian was very eager for the chance to get revenge on the one who got her father arrested."

Rose frowned inwardly, disturbed at what she had found in Uhura's mind. The woman had once been a slightly more spoiled version of the woman who had served with the Prime Triumvirate in their universe. She was spoiled, but a good person at heart. She had joined Starfleet because she believed wholly in its' mission to keep the peace in the galaxy.

But the combination of the effects of untreated mental trauma from seeing Vulcan's destruction, along with the loss of her best friend and roommate, Gaila, on the Farragut and losing the man she had anchored herself on, Spock, had caused her mind to disintegrate.

She had been pouring all of herself into her relationship with Spock and her position as Comm Officer. Then she had learned that she wasn't going to be made Chief of Communications despite her help during the Narada crisis, and Spock had broken up with her, and she simply couldn't deal with everything.

In a desperate attempt to have an enemy to focus her building rage on, she had targeted Rose, who she had always been jealous of in the Academy. Rose had become Captain before her graduation, she had become close to Spock and, in Uhura's eyes, taken her place as his confidant. Therefore Uhura's damaged mind had labeled Rose as The Source of All Her Problems.

'I'm sorry' Rose thought. 'You should have been given the help that you needed. I should've been able to help you.' She didn't try to resist when the crazed lieutenant suddenly gave a vicious smile and began punching her with her with all the built up fury her slim body contained. She deserved it for failing her officer so badly.


Ap-Lau, Stardate 2259.174

"This is unacceptable," Spock declared curtly. "Captain Kirk has now been missing for exactly twenty-nine point eight three hours. In such cases, the first twenty-four hours are critical. Our efforts to locate the captain must be increased."

"There is very little more that we can do, my son," Sarek informed. Only Amanda and Selek could read the unhappiness in his expressionless face and tone. "We have deployed all the available resources to find the captain. Computer experts are studying the satellite and security footage as we speak for clues. We can do no more to aid them."

"Then perhaps I should join the search parties on the ground," Spock decided and both of his parents immediately objected, Amanda falling silent to allow Sarek to give a more logical argument against the suggestion.

Selek stayed quiet in the background, focusing on sitting beside Dr. McCoy attempting to give him silent comfort.

The group was gathered in Roslyn's office at the local Starfleet base.

Her computer was beeping almost constantly in the background with reports from the search teams. Most of them were simple statements of 'no progress'. Whoever had taken Rose was clever and talented, a deadly mix for certain.

Spock was behind the desk, with his parents in front, and Selek and Young McCoy were seated at the soft red sofa Roslyn kept in the room. McCoy had, after several hours worth of futilely attempting to contact Rose through their imzadi bond, rested his head in his hands and hadn't spoken since. A psy-null could feel the pain and grief radiating from him, and as far as Selek knew, while both of the men were in love with Rose, they weren't in love with each other as well yet. Meaning that their respective presences were not as comforting as they would be for Selek and his own husband Leonard.

Leonard himself was still at the hospital, but now Saavik was a patient there as well as their still-unconscious wife. It was a grim state of affairs, for sure.

Someone rapped briskly at the door, and entered before anyone could answer. A man Selek recognized as a young Chief Giotto came striding in, a frown on his face and his PADD clutched tightly to him. McCoy lowered his hands and looked hopefully at the man.

"Chief Giotto," Spock nodded. "Has any progress been made in the search?"

"Maybe," the man replied gruffly. "Lt. Uhura hasn't reported in since several hours before the kidnapping. And her tracker was destroyed."

Selek and Spock's eyes rose at that, McCoy snapping out a sharp "What?" at the same time.

All Starfleet officials were required to keep the tracker in their standard-issue uniforms active at all times. While there were times that interference or damage stopped them from working, many officers' lives had been saved by the small devices. Uhura's tracker being destroyed was a very serious matter.

"Do you believe that whoever took the captain also took the lieutenant?" Spock asked, traces of a frown around his eyes. Giotto, to everyone's surprise, shook his head. The next words out of his mouth stunned them all.

"No," he said grimly. "I think she's the one who kidnapped Captain Kirk."

The chaos that had ensued from Gitto's accusation was immense once the word spread, but Spock, upon thinking it over, understood the logic.

Uhura's recent evaluations, both psychological and physical, had revealed an increasingly large downturn in her health. And her hatred of the Enterprise's commanding officer, as well as her desire to become Spock's bondmate, was well known to all the officers on board the starship. And it was also a commonly accepted fact that if Spock hadn't yet joined McCoy and Rose's relationship, he soon would. Even Spock and McCoy had accepted that fact. It simply wasn't official yet.

So, if Uhura wanted to become Spock's wife, she would have to eliminate the obstacles in her way: Rose and McCoy. Rose, as the superior fighter of the three of them, needed to be dealt with first. Not if Spock could help it.

He couldn't contact her yet, but both he and McCoy still felt Rose's golden presence in their minds, so they knew she was still alive. And once they had identified Uhura as the culprit, as well as linking her to Lenore Karidian, Kodos' angry and revenge-seeking daughter, finding her location was very easy for Starfleet's best.

"Is everyone ready?" Spock asked Giotto, who was checking his phaser's power levels.

"Yes Sir," the security chief nodded crisply.

"Then we will, move out," Spock ordered calmly, quoting Rose. He felt the Vulcan's dormant instincts demanding blood as he spoke, and reassured himself with the knowledge that Rose would soon be safe with him and Leonard again. And Uhura would be dead.