This chapter is extra long this time. It's 'cause I love you guys.
"Come on, let me take you to dinner," Kirk jogged down the hallway, trying to keep up with Wendy. For someone short, she walked really fast.
"I still have work to do," the doctor replied shortly.
"Why are you so against going to dinner with me?"
"Because I make it a point to not date my coworkers. Or my captain."
"Then we'll call it an apology for ruining our first simulation test."
Wendy stopped dead in the middle of the hallway, causing Kirk to almost run into her. She couldn't believe he remembered something like that. It seemed like something that the young captain would find too insignificant.
"Yea, but . . . you took the fall," she stammered. "So . . . uh . . . I think we're even."
Kirk flashed one of his brilliant smiles that would make any woman swoon, and Wendy was miffed to find that it was starting to get to her, too.
"Well I couldn't let you take the fall for my dumb mistake, now, could I? Come on, it'll be fun. I promise."
Wendy sighed in defeat. "Alright, fine."
She stopped and stared. She couldn't believe that the words came from her own mouth. "Let's iron out the details later," she said curtly, before turning on her heel and making a beeline for her room.
Spock pulled up a chair to sit by the cell. Dr. Cole and the captain had left, but he was intrigued by Leo's response to their questions. He wanted to talk to her further. Leo, however, had other ideas. She picked up the book she had been reading prior to their interrogation and sat down to find her place.
"I thought Augments possessed superior logic," the he said, trying to start conversation.
"We do," Leo replied flatly. She found where she had left off in the book and started to read, completely ignoring the Vulcan on the other side of the glass.
"Then I do not understand why you claim to love your captain," he waited for a response, but none came. Leo had raised the book so that it was completely blocking her face. "So I do not understand how someone as logical as you would do something as illogical as fall in love."
"It's in our nature. In human nature," she corrected, her voice flat.
"But you're not quite human," the Vulcan pressed.
"Neither are you," Leo shot back.
"I mean that your genetics have been altered, did the scientists not alter your emotions as well?"
"There's only so much DNA you can change before the subjects start resembling a monkey or a banana. Emotions are a tricky thing. When they removed the parts of the brain that dealt with emotions, they ended up with a half brain-dead sociopath. So the brain needed to stay intact. After that, the best thing they could do to stamp out unwanted emotions was severe indoctrination. But emotions will always come into play eventually, it's part of being human. They may be illogical, but that's how we're made."
The first officer started to reply, but Leo had gone back to reading. She obviously had no desire to continue the conversation, so he took his leave.
Wendy was practically banging her head on the wall. How could she have been so stupid? She actually agreed to have dinner with the captain! It wasn't that she didn't want to, because she did, but they were on a mission right now. Dating was not some thing you did on a mission, especially if your date was the captain. She paced her room several times before stopping and placing her forehead on the wall.
"Of all the stupid things . . ." Wendy muttered to herself.
Before she could actually start putting a dent in the wall, she heard a knock on the door. She tried to ignore it, but the person knocked again.
"Lieutenant?" it was Kirk.
Wendy groaned. She didn't want to answer it, but the captain was the captain, whether they were on duty or not. So she grudgingly opened the door to James Kirk's beaming face.
"Dr. Cole!" he greeted enthusiastically. It took everything in Wendy's power not to roll her eyes.
"Look, Captain," she started to say.
"Jim, please. We're not on duty right now."
"I thought the captain was technically always on duty."
Kirk waved away the comment, "Technicalities. Now, how about dinner?"
"That's what I wanted to say," Wendy started again. "We shouldn't be doing this. Not while we're on a mission."
"Doing what?" Kirk asked. "It's only dinner."
"But dating on a mission-"
Kirk's laughter cut her off. It wasn't mocking or unkind, simply amused.
"It's not a date," he assured her. "We're just going to have dinner together in the cafeteria. No fancy meal, no white tablecloth, no candles. I promise."
"Oh . . . um . . . wow," was all Wendy could say. She had always thought he was oblivious to the feelings of those around him. Like he walked around in his own personal Kirk-bubble.
"So, are you ready to go?" he asked, still grinning broadly.
Several minutes later, the two entered the officer's cafeteria. Several people turned to greet the pair, but other than that, no one paid much attention. Instead of sitting at a table by themselves, Kirk lead Wendy over to a table already occupied by Scotty and Sulu.
"Mind if we join you?" Kirk asked.
"Not at all!" Scotty replied in his energetic Scottish accent.
Wendy didn't let Kirk pull her chair out for her, sitting down before he get the chance. Sulu and Scotty went back to their conversation, and Wendy found that she could slip into their banter as if she had always worked on the Enterprise. As they neared the end of their meal, Sulu turned to the lieutenant.
"So, Dr. Cole, why did you decide to study the Augments?" he asked.
"Well, I was originally a biology major," she explained. "But when I was in undergrad, I took a class on the Eugenics Wars. It was just an extra curricular class 'cause I needed the credits, but it fascinated me. So I changed my major to history, but I still minored in biology. Then I wrote my master's thesis on the Eugenics Wars, and my doctoral thesis on the Augments themselves."
Scotty whistled, impressed.
"But you're about my age, right?" Kirk asked. "How did you get your doctorate so fast?"
"You know, Jim, Most people don't take forever to comprehend a single iota of information," Bones cut in as he sat on the other side of Wendy.
"Thanks, Bones," the captain grumbled.
"So, Wendy," the doctor continued, ignoring his friend. "What got you interested in Starfleet?"
"Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute!" Kirk cut in. "How come you get to call her Wendy?"
"Because we're friends, Jim. People can be friends with more than one person."
Wendy chuckled as she listened to the two bicker back and forth. She struck up a different topic of conversation with Scotty and Sulu, until Kirk turned to her again.
"I'm still interested in what inspired you to join Starfleet," he said with his typical Kirk charm.
"It was my dad, really," Wendy confessed. "He's always loved to go stargazing. I from a small town in Illinois, so he would take me out stargazing in the fields just outside of town."
"Illinois, huh?" Kirk asked.
"Yea. It was pretty boring."
"I can relate. I grew up in Iowa."
"Oh . . ." Wendy said with sympathy and understanding.
"Yup."
Leo sat still in the darkness of her cell. Before her centuries in cryo sleep, the dark had always put her a little on edge. But now, she sat and replayed old memories. They echoed in her head like the whispers of ghosts.
"What's that?"
"A saint's medal."
"You have a patron saint?"
"Mmhmm."
"Who is it?"
"Joan of Arc."
"The patron saint of soldiers. That's an odd choice for you.
"Why?"
"Because you're not a soldier."
"We're all soldiers, Khan. Whether we want to be or not"
"But you're not. You're different."
"You've done a very good job of turning me back into one, love."
The memory was shattered by the hiss of the door opening, immediately followed by someone turning on the lights. Leo took a deep breath and clenched her teeth. She really wasn't looking forward to human interaction right now.
"Tell me something, doctor," Leo drawled without opening her eyes. She didn't need to. Her enhanced hearing had picked up on Dr. Cole's distinct footsteps as she started walking towards Leo's cell.
"Didn't you sleep?" Wendy interrupted. Ignoring Leo's question to ask a much more important one.
"I don't sleep," Leo replied quickly. "Now, tell me something. What will happen to my people?"
"Why don't you sleep?" Wendy was intentionally ignoring the question.
"Because I don't want to!" Leo growled, finally opening her eyes to turn a piercing gaze on Dr. Cole. She was getting tired of people refusing to answer her questions.
The Augment's outburst didn't phase Wendy at all. She met Leo's gaze with a flat, unimpressed expression. The two women stayed like that for several moments. Each trying to get the other to back down. Finally, Leo tried another tactic. Her gaze softened considerably, she leaned forward and placed her forearms on her knees, clasping her hands.
"I just want to know what's going to happen to us," her voice had taken on a tone of humbleness.
"I'm . . . not sure," Wendy replied tentatively. It wasn't exactly a lie, but it wasn't exactly the truth, either. No one ever talked about it, but everyone knew the decision Starfleet command had made regarding Khan's crew.
"Why were we in a storage facility?" Leo pressed. "What do you plan to do with my cryo pod once it's fixed?"
Wendy sighed. She didn't want to lie to Leo. The woman was several centuries in the future, and had immediately been confined to a cell on a starship. She had grown to like Leo, and was starting to see her as a friend. So Wendy decided to tell her friend the truth.
"Once your pod's fixed, you're going to go back into a cryogenic sleep."
"And what if I say no?" a sharp edge had crept back into Leo's voice. She didn't like where this was going.
"You don't have a choice. You'll go back into cryo sleep and your pod will go back in the storage bay."
"What?! Back into storage?!"
"I can make sure your pod is placed next to Khan's," Wendy said, trying to placate her.
"Oh, that's a big help," Leo spat sarcastically. "What are we to you? Objects? Life-sized action figures that are really scary when you open the box? Why did you just kill us?"
"Killing you would have been cruel. . . ." Wendy couldn't look Leo in the eye. Somehow, that logic didn't make sense anymore.
"I would have been cruel? So you think keeping us in a cryogenic state, unable to find our own home unable to be alive is somehow and act of mercy?"
"I'm . . . I'm sorry," was all Wendy could think of to say. "There's honestly nothing I can do about it. Starfleet command made the decision, and I don't think they'll ever be convinced to reverse it."
"I see. . . ." Leo stared blankly at the wall of her cell, her face completely devoid of emotion.
Wendy looked at the medical scanner in her hand. She had come to do a routine check-up and talk some more about Leo and her people. But she decided it was best to come back later. Wendy looked back up at the woman on the other side of the glass. She looked so heartbroken, so defeated. So Wendy left her alone to give her time to come to terms with her fate.
If Wendy had looked closely, she would have seen the look in Leo's eyes. Because she wasn't heartbroken or defeated.
She was planning.
Well, I've finally passed the point of what I had pre-written. Unfortunately, that means that updates might take longer, but I'll do my best to keep updating regularly.
As always, this story is co-written with TheWoozie13. Thanks for reading and please don't forget to review!