Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek. To be honest, this isn't a great ending. But I have no inspiration left for this story, so I hope it's an okay one at least. Thank you all for reviewing, favouriting and following this story. Your support meant so much to me, and I will always appreciate it. Thanks, IWantColouredRain.
Chapter Sixteen
Courtroom Chaos and Endings
Ap-Lau Stardate 2259.173
In the end, the whole thing was really very anti-climatic. The taskforce that Spock and Giotto had assembled for the rescue stormed the abandoned warehouse where Uhura had set up shop.
Her decayed mind had been too focused on capturing Rose that she hadn't even considered setting up any defences save for a few easily defused bombs. Lenore Karidian had attacked the assault force and received three stun bolts before being taken to be given medical attention in the Enterprise's brig.
They had found Uhura in the next room, so intent on beating Rose to death that she hadn't even realized the warehouse had been breached. Giotto and Hendorff had pulled her away from the unconscious captain, giving McCoy space to bend over his imzadi, tension lining his jaw.
"You're too late," Uhura gasped out, her voice a mixture of sobbing and laughing. "You're too late. She's dead. The goddamned hybrid bitch is gone. Finally!"
"Not yet she isn't," McCoy growled, turning slightly to Spock while still concentrating on the screen of the tricorder that he held in a white-knuckled grip. "But she definitely needs surgery. God damn it all, the least worrying problem out of this list is her concussion. Call for the damn medics to get in here and help me transport her already."
"I shall do so immediately," Spock murmured. He raised his portable-comm unit to his mouth and ordered the medics to enter before he turned to look at the men restraining Uhura. The minute McCoy had declared Rose to be alive she had started trying to wrench herself out of their grips in order to attack the unconscious woman again. Her screeches were loud and in a mixture of different languages, rendering it impossible to decipher them.
"Chief Giotto, Lieutenant Hendorff," Spock said to them, his expression wooden. "Please escort Miss Uhura to a holding cell and ensure that she is kept under constant surveillance."
"Yes sir!" the two security officers nodded crisply, unable to salute with their hands full of the thrashing woman. Spock let the lack of physical respect 'slide', as Rose and McCoy called it. Rose had been working on making him be less strict about protocol.
"There's a time and a place, Spock," she had said to multiple times when they discussed it. "A time and a place. A crisis situation, or any situation requiring medical attention is not one of those times, nor is it one of those places either."
The two redshirts dragged Uhura away, the former communications officer shrieking and struggling wildly the whole way. She struggled so desperately that two others had to go and join the group after she managed to riggle an arm out and smack Giotto hard across the face in the midst of flailing around wildly.
Watching the pathetic scene, Spock felt a surge of guilt. Uhura had been, while not someone that he wanted to call a wife, a friend of sorts to him. He knew with an eerie, almost prophetic certainty that the fact that he had failed to see or help prevent her mental disintegration would haunt him for the rest of his life.
He turned away from the scene to concentrate on Rose. The medics had rushed in and surrounded her, barking instructions and stats at each other as they worked to stabilize her enough to take her to the medbay onboard the Enterprise.
His heart thudded in his side, and he knew the sight of Rose, blonde hair turned the crimson colour of human blood, lying still in a scarlet halo, had joined the sight of Vulcan collapsing in on itself in his nightmares.
"Alright, we're good!" McCoy called suddenly. "Beam us up Scotty! Straight to the medbay, and have M'Benga and the nurses on standby to go to surgery! Hurry, goddamnit!"
The group was enveloped by the bright light that signalled the use of a transporter, and when it faded they were gone, leaving Spock and the remainder of the security team to go over the scene and check for anything else they needed.
Ap-Lau Stardate 2259.202
A month later, they held the trial for Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. Why they were putting her on trial at all, McCoy had no idea. It was obvious to anyone who looked at her that Uhura was crazier than a bag of cats, but Doctor Dehner had certified that she was well enough to be court martialled despite her mental difficulties.
Uhura had been aware enough of her actions and was responding enough to her treatment that she was able to be put on trial and subsequently punished for her actions. McCoy couldn't really bring himself to even pretend to be upset about it.
"All rise for Admirals Archer, Pike and Barnett!" the bailiff ordered.
The three men all looked exhausted, and no wonder. Kodos' trial had been delayed by the attack on Admiral Samuels and Rose's kidnapping, meaning it had only been wrapped up three days ago. After that, the three had been working round the clock to do Roslyn's work, and their own, and deal with press regarding Kodos' and Uhura. On top of all that, Uhura's family had descended on Ap-Lau, her admiral uncle in the lead, to try and get her out of a punishment.
Thankfully, Rose was friends with Pike and Archer (who she knew through Hoshi Sato from Tarsus IV apparently. Obviously mind-bonds couldn't make you share everything.) and on cordial terms with Barnett who was a keen advocate of justice. Instead of freeing Uhura, the whole clan had been barred from the court.
"We are here for the court martial of Lieutenant Nyota Uhura, Senior Communications Officer aboard the USS Enterprise under the command of Captain Rosalind Kirk. Starfleet Medal of Honour, awarded for services accorded during the Narada Crisis.
She is to be tried for two counts of attempted murder, and one count each of assault, theft, unauthorized possession of a restricted object and kidnapping. The defence has entered a plea of not guilty due to mental instability. Defence, you have the floor."
Arash D'Qar, an Arcadian lawyer summoned by Uhura's family from a nearby planet for the case, rose to his feet and began speaking in his client's defence.
McCoy zoned out a bit during the speech after he understood the gist of D'Qar's tactics. The case against Uhura was rock-solid, no way would she ever get a verdict of 'innocent.' D'Q knew that, so instead he was trying to mitigate the consequences she would receive.
D'Qar called Doctor Dehner to the stand and got her to go over Uhura's mental state. Basically, she had suffered a severe mental breakdown after witnessing the destruction of Vulcan and losing her best friend on the Farragut.
The initial problems had been so small, that they had been overlooked by the professionals, who were all overwhelmed by the influx of patients traumatized by the incident. The longer Uhura had gone without help, the worse the cracks had grown, the damage increasing with each of the incidents that in other circumstances would have simply been small upheavals of distress.
As CMO, McCoy knew that he had failed the woman. As Rose's imzadi, he didn't care, and just wanted her to go to hell already.
Areel stood up to cross-examine Dehner, and McCoy felt a hint of a grin play at his lips. Areel and Rose were friends. She was gonna see Uhura get the worst punishment she could swing for what had happened.
And then McCoy was gonna say to hell with it and propose to the two idiots he was in love with. If Starfleet had taught him anything, it had taught him that life was short and you couldn't afford to take a second of it for granted.
The Epilogue (Four Years Later, Yorktown)
Ap-Lau Stardate 2263.455
"Hello Saavik," Rose smiled down at the serious looking child. It was adorable, the not-quite emotionless expression along with the princess pajamas and the stuffed sehlat beneath her left arm. After Saavik had greeted her back, she turned to the three adults who had arrived with the child. "Hello Selek, Leon, Roslyn. How are you? It's been a while."
"Couple o' months, at least," Leon agreed, leaning in to hug her. "What's this I heard about you running around a radiation belt in your condition? Have you got any survival instincts at all? A lunatic in every universe, I swear it."
Rose grimaced slightly. It was too soon to joke about that disaster of a mission yet. Not with the destruction of Yorktown still being repaired seemingly everywhere she looked. Roslyn shot her a sympathetic look and quickly changed the subject. Rose sent a feeling of gratefulness to her.
"Where are Spock and Leo? I'm amazed you escaped their bubble wrap. I could never get a moment of peace when I was pregnant. Every time I turned around one of them would be there to fuss over my daring to stand on my own two feet."
"Oh, yeah," Rose snorted. The two of them ignored Leon and Selek's protests that they hadn't been that bad, and anyway, according to Leon, they would've had the right to be, what with the Kirk crazy gene she had inherited.
"Spock was on 'Rose watching duty' when there was an explosion in a lab," Rose explained. "I said I would go, which promptly made him insist that I rest in our quarters while he sorted it out. As soon as he left I made my escape."
"He and Mini-Bones are going to throw a fit you know," Roslyn pointed out, her amusement plain on her face.
"That is true," Rose agreed. "But as it so happens, there was a mix up with our timetables for the next few weeks."
"Oh?" Roslyn raised an eyebrow, her dark eyes dancing with suppressed laughter. "Is that so? What happened?"
"Well," Rose heaved a mock sigh, resting one hand on her swollen stomach and stroking it gently. "Despite my dear husbands ordering that my shifts coincide with at least one of theirs, it seems they're both on Omega shift for the next month, and I'm on Alpha. The new shifts kick in tomorrow, actually."
"Do they know?" Roslyn asked with a curious head tilt.
"Hell, no," Rose snorted. "Not yet anyway. When they find out-"
"ROSALIND KIRK!" She heard Bones' voice, full of fury, echo through the whole station, causing various passerbys to pause and stare around in surprise.
"We'll know," Rose finished calmly. She turned and smiled innocently at her approaching husbands. Bones' face was nearly purple from fury, while Spock had his lips pressed tightly to each other, displeasure radiating from him.
"Rose, what the hell, darlin?" Bones demanded loudly. "You-"
"I love you," she interrupted. He sputtered to a surprised stop, Spock raising an eyebrow. Rose didn't notice her and her husbands' counterparts slipping away into the crowd, Saavik clutching Leon's hand for safety.
"Are you well, t'hy'la?" Spock asked, stepping closer to along with Bones, both looking worried by her random declaration of love.
"No," she shook her head. She grinned broadly, leaning into them. "I'm fantastic," she whispered into their ears. "We're gonna be the best parents in the galaxy." she'd pulled away to smile even more brightly at them. "Which is a very good thing, because our child has decided to make their appearance a few weeks earlier than we predicted."
The labour would've been worth it, just to see the look on their faces, even if she hadn't had a beautiful child to claim as her own by the end of it.
