The Mysteries of James T. Kirk
Chapter Three: Discovered Treachery
"But always, if we have faith,
a door will open for us,
not perhaps one that we ourselves
would ever have thought of,
but one that will ultimately
prove good for us."
~ AJ Cronin ~
Spock stared at spinning planet the Enterprise was orbiting through the viewing window.
Gamma Trianguli VI was a beautiful planet – no one could dare say otherwise – that was known for its advanced technology. Of course it hadn't always been this way. A couple of years ago, according to the Starfleet intelligence Spock had read earlier, the whole planet had been controlled by some type of artificial intelligence the natives had worshiped, the computer's name – Vaal.
When Starfleet had discovered the existence of the planet they had sent a ship to explore the planet's surface. When the ship's team had discovered that Vaal was the reason they were unable to beam back to their ship, they had deemed it dangerous and had destroyed the computer completely.
The people of Gamma Trianguli VI had suffered after the destruction of Vaal. The worldwide computer had cared for the Vaalians for centuries. When it was destroyed the Vaalians had no skills or knowledge about how to survive on their own.
After almost a decade, however, the people had used their minuscule knowledge about Vaal in order to recreate the technology that had made their planet into an Eden. Technologies that not only worked with the planet's environment, but which managed to reuse Vaal's infinite network below and above, the planet's surface. Technology became the Vaalians salvation. The network that had once provided for the Vaalians at the cost of their freedom was now serving them without fail.
It was the type of technology that had caused Starfleet to keep an eye on the Vaalians. Their reason being that it had been Starfleet in the first place who had destroyed the planet's previous utopia, and that it was now trying to right the wrongs they had committed.
When the Vaalians had finally united their people under one government the Federation had then offered to support them. Regardless of the misery the Vaalians had gone through because of Starfleet's interference, the Vaalians had not rejected the Federations invitation.
The Enterprise had been sent on behalf of the Federation in order to study the native flora. It was the Vaalian Government's way of declaring that they were willing to put the past behind them.
And that was how Captain Kirk had come into contact with the planet's one and only rebellion group. They called themselves The Dilys and believed that the Federation had destroyed Vaal in an attempt to destroy the Vaalians.
It was also a rebellion that the Vaalian Government had failed to inform the Federation about. The Dilys had manipulated the Captain to represent them at the Capitol. The Captain had believed that he was serving as a bridge between the opposing sides.
Spock knew that if the Captain had known about the rebellion's true plans he would've never been at the Prime Minister's office the day the Dilys attacked the Capitol. The Captain would also have never been placed in the position where he had allowed himself to be taken captive.
Spock could almost feel the Bridge Crew's glares on his neck.
"Transporter Room is ready for you, Commander." Ensign Rand murmured shyly from behind the Captain's chair.
"Thank you," Spock replied standing gracefully from the Captain's chair – all the while feeling the Crew's stares on his back. "Lieutenants Uhura and Sulu if you would follow me please, Ensign Chekov you have the Conn."
Sulu and Uhura stood up without question following Spock into the Lift leaving behind a frustrated bridge crew and a confused ensign.
The rest of the trip to the Transporter Room was spent in silence.
When they finally arrived at the Transportation Room they found a security team of three waiting for them. Spock, however, ignored the team and only proceeded to get into position on the transporter pad.
The security looked to Sulu and Uhura for guidance, but both lieutenants only shrugged and stepped onto the transporter pad as well. With no other instructions the security team also stepped onto the pad.
When they materialized on the technology-filled planet Spock turned to face everyone – excluding Uhura who ignored the gaping Sulu and security team and went ahead to investigate the large trees and bushes – and gave the simple order to search the surrounding area for something out of place.
Uhura couldn't help but feel some pity towards the Vaalian Government.
They had tried and fought hard, she could see that clearly in the ruined Capitol, but it was not enough. The rebellion (The Dilys, her conscious supplied) had all but destroyed the beautiful Capitol the Vaalians had so painstakingly built.
Not that she didn't understand why the rebellion had done so, when the Captain had been captured, so had she.
Uhura had been regaled with tales of how the Vaalian Capitol had ignored their people's cries of warning, and how the government was allowing itself to be controlled by yet another potent – yet unseen – power. The Captain had tried to show the Dilys leaders how the Federation was not trying to control the Vaalian's. He had tried to explain that they were trying to provide them with the supplies necessary for a newly-made government
The rebellions leaders wouldn't listen and it forced Kirk to take things into his own hands.
Yesterday
"What are you doing Kirk?" Uhura wondered. She had been watching the Captain mess with his chains for the past half hour.
Kirk didn't look up, "I'm trying to get past the electronic monitoring system on these cuffs."
Uhura threw him a look.
Sensing it Kirk looked up and smirked at her. "The cuffs are easy enough to escape from, but the monitoring system is another matter altogether." He shook his chains for emphasis. "If someone were to free themselves from their cuffs without disabling the monitoring system it would send 65 milliampères of electricity straight to your heart."
She gave him a humorless smile, "And I suppose this knowledge comes from your days as the only genius-level, repeat offender in the Midwest?"
His smirk grew, "Of course…"
End
Kirk had managed to free them eventually and together they had escaped.
On their way back to the Enterprise, however, they were attacked and that was how the Captain ended up taking a couple of poisonous darts and explosive stones. Uhura remembered the way the Captain had fallen to the ground unconscious, the fear she had felt when she couldn't find a pulse, and the adrenaline that coursed through her body the moment she placed the Captain on her back and carried him the rest of the way.
A hand on her shoulder startled her out of her thoughts.
"You seem troubled, Nyota." Spock murmured as he pulled his hand away.
Without turning around she responded, "I can't help but think that there was something I could've done differently. Some other choice I could've made, more negotiations, better communication, something."
Spock opened his mouth to speak but was interrupted by a scream somewhere to their right.
Both immediately rushed into the trees, and headed in the direction that the screams were coming from.
Together they tore through branches and plants as they fought to reach the location of the screams. Finally they both arrived at a clearing, and were just in time to see a man (obviously a Dilys member by his clothing) strike a slender woman. The woman fell to the ground unconscious and Uhura could see the skin begin to redden and bruise.
The man turned around the moment they stepped into the clearing. Noticing their uniforms he pulled out a jagged dagger and got into a defensive position.
Uhura glanced at the woman with concern. The man had held nothing back when he had hit her. Turning her attention back to the man she asked, "What did she do?"
The man smiled, "She was trying to escape. The rebellion captured her during the siege of the Capitol. She was living within the Governor's own house, a woman taken from another planet for study. The Rebellion captured her for ransom."
Uhura remembered meeting the Governor of the Vaalians. He was a peace loving man, son of Akuta the old Vaalian leader. But why would he have a human woman living within his home? The Vaalians might look human but they were anything but. For them to have violated Starfleet's Prime Directive while the Enterprise was orbiting the planet seemed absurd.
Yet the woman was obviously human. Her skin was tanned, not the reddish tone that always covered the Vaalians skin, and her hair was a dark bistre black that reached down past her hips. Her clothing was also different than the normal Vaalian robes adopted by most of the planet just three years after Vaal's destruction. What she wore resembled the clothing the Navajo, Mohican, and Delaware Indians had worn in Earth's early history.
What is an American Indian doing on Gamma Trianguli VI?
She saw Spock's hand move from the corner of her eye and took a step forward in order to take the full brunt of the man's attention. If she was correct, the man was far too nervous to take Spock on in a fight.
The man saw her step forward and jumped, consequentially lowering his dagger a quarter of an inch. In that very same moment Spock drew out his phaser and stunned him.
Both officers ran to the unconscious woman's side.
"It appears that he hit her temporal bone, possibly causing a fracture along the squamosal suture and internal bleeding." Spock said as he lightly pressed his fingers against the side of her head. "We need to beam back onboard the Enterprise in order to hear Dr. McCoy's diagnostic."
Uhura nodded and pulled out her communicator. "Uhura to Enterprise, Uhura to Enterprise…three to beam up. Have a medical team waiting."
Only a second later she heard the response, "Enterprise to Lieutenant Uhura. Medical teams on its way, please wait while we lock onto your signal."
She put away her communicator and looked over to the unconscious rebellion member. It was then that she noticed the pale round stone in his hand.
Moving away from Spock and the woman she took the stone from the man's hand and inspected it.
"How horrible," She murmured throwing the rock away with disgust.
Spock only gave her a raised eyebrow.
Then they were suddenly back on the Enterprise, being pushed and shoved by the Medical Team as they moved to place the unconscious woman on a stretcher. Uhura and Spock stepped off the pad to allow the nurses more room, and both stared as they carried the woman out of the room.
Hours later Uhura took it upon herself to visit the Sickbay.
Dr. McCoy frowned when he noticed her come in.
"How is she?" Uhura questioned moving to stand next to the biobed where the woman was placed.
Bones ran his hand over his face before replying. "Spock was right about the temporal bone fracture, but not about the internal bleeding, for which I'm thankful for. I don't think I could handle two severe internal bleedings within the course of two days."
"We'll find him, McCoy. Don't worry."
"I'm not worried about finding him. I'm worried about what condition he'll be in when they do." McCoy replied sitting in a nearby chair.
"Will she be okay?" Uhura motioned to the woman.
"It was a clean break. The man managed to hit her just hard enough to split the temporal bone in two. Although she had no internal bleeding, she might have some hearing loss as well as facial paralysis." He sighed, "Of course I'm just waiting for her to wake up from her coma in order to begin reconstructing the torn nerves and muscle fibers, as well as the cochlea. I've already reset the ossicles. Other than that she'll have a full recovery."
"When will she wake up?"
"It depends on the person. Hopefully she'll wake up in a few days." Dr. McCoy answered before getting up from his chair. "I, on the other hand, have other patients to attend to." With that being said he moved away to some other part of the sickbay.
Uhura turned to inspect the woman. Now that she wasn't worried about her physical condition, she could see that the woman was slender but not delicate. Her arm and leg muscles were lean, and her skin was tanned to a fawn brown.
"She's beautiful…isn't she?" A distinctively female voice said from somewhere to her right.
Nurse Chapel – one of McCoy's numberless assistants – was standing there leisurely with a medical tricorder in her hand.
Uhura gave her a questioning look.
The nurse laughed nervously. "Sorry, it's just that when she was brought in, I couldn't help but notice that she was beautiful." She motioned to a couple of male nurses hanging around casually.
"She has a couple of men ready to comfort her pain when she wakes up."
Uhura stared at Chapel before bursting into laughter. Both women enjoyed the moment before growing serious again.
"Though I would like to keep her away from the Captain's wills," Chapel stated before moving off to attend to another patient.
Uhura laughed a little at her last words before lightly touching the woman's willowy hand. Now that she knew that the woman would be okay she could rest a little. Uhura knew that once the woman woke up there would be an interrogation as to her where her home-world was located. Until then she could wait to have some of her questions answered.
A.N. The planet Gamma Trianguli IV is an actual planet within the Star Trek Universe. I make a lot of allusions to the actual planet which shows up in TOS episode: The Apple. Of course I made it so that in this universe the planet was discovered WAY ahead of time so that's practically where I deviate from the Star Trek Universe. Other than that I made sure to keep the planet basically the same (with a few years of evolution here and there ^_^).
Anyways I hope you enjoyed and please review!
