Author's notes: So I have already been writing this for a few days so there's going to be a good amount of chapters posted up all at once. Enjoy the first part of this story.
Disclaimer: Obviously I do not own nor have had any input in this series that started a cultural movement. I'm just a huge fan that got inspiration from another artist.
"Man girl, where have you been? We get on the starship and I barely see you anymore."
Tiffany was sitting in one of the chairs at the table they were eating their dinner at. While Tiffany looked as cheery and perky as always, albeit looking slightly annoyed at her friend, Serena looked a little worse for wear. "I'm sorry Tiffany, I've been busy." Serena said as she ate another bite of her food. Busy was taking it lightly. When she wasn't in Sickbay with McCoy she was in the labs. Spock wasn't always there but he was there more often than not. Apparently they both worked the night shifts in the science labs. Even though she was exhausted she wouldn't have it any other way. She had never felt so alive. Her brain was working overtime configuring new vaccines in hyposprays and charting growth from the cultures. Starfleet Academy was nothing compared to on the job training. And Spock was something else. His mind was sharp and she sometimes mused that it worked at warp speed. She had to use all of her own intellect to keep up with him. Her medical background had gained her some edge in certain departments which she slightly prided.
"Earth to Serena." This time Tiffany waved a hand in front of Serena's zoned out face. Serena looked at Tiffany with a start and immediately apologized. "I asked if you were spending time with the Vulcan, Spock. There's been rumors that the two of you have been hanging out." Tiffany repeated. "We have been working together. I've been given access to the science labs and that's where he works." Serena explained. "So got any gossip for me? What is he like? The guy seems like a mystery to me." Serena tilted her head thinking about Spock. "I can understand where that statement comes from. His immediate appearance is that of rigid logic as his Vulcan ancestors are. Even when you talk to him more you don't get much more. He is very proper and by the rules although he is massively smart and strong. There was this one specimen that was in its habitat and he moved both the specimen and it's habitat like it was nothing. That thing weighed a ton!" Tiffany chuckled at that. "What about emotions? Does he not have any like they say?" Serena shook her head. "Vulcans feel emotions like we do they just suppress them. It's an act of self-control for them and it's very important to their culture." When she thought about it more there were small things that Spock did that portrayed a sense of emotion like sarcasm even anger. They were small signs but any little thing with Spock was major. Maybe it was because of all the time she had spent with him that she could tell these things.
"What am I doing, I have to go!" Serena suddenly said as she shoveled a few more bites of food in her mouth as she got up to go. "What? Now? But I just got to see you!" Tiffany pouted. "Sorry, I have an away mission in a few minutes and I don't want to be late for the briefing." Serena said. She quickly moved around the table to give her friend a hug. "We'll catch up some other time." She promised as she nearly ran to drop off her tray and leave. "Liar! You could as least lie with a time!" Tiffany called out as the doors closed behind Serena's retreating figure.
Serena made her way through the corridors at a brisk pace. This wasn't the first away mission she had done. A month on board and she had already logged in 5 away missions, and she was quiet proud of each one. They all had been interesting and now Serena could counter a few of McCoy's odd adventures with her own every now and then. Her first mission she had been a bundle of nerves but it had just turned out to be a routine mission where she had simply done check-ups of the colony they were visiting. There hadn't really been any fight breaking out around her yet so she still hadn't gone through the adrenaline rush of battle medic yet. While on the away missions she had even worked by Spock from time to time exploring new fauna and geological formations. Serena now had a few cultures that were her own creations. There was one special combination from two different planets that she was particularly excited to see what became of it.
There she was diverting again, Serena was shaking her mind from the culture that had stolen her sleep the last few nights when she entered the transporter room. In the room she saw a few familiar faces and smiled at the crew she had been on previous missions with. "So what are we doing today?" Serena whispered to one of the security officers. He was tall with brown hair and if she remembered correctly he was Ensign Brotley. "Not sure, I only got the order a few minutes ago." He replied bending down so the whisper was for her alone "Same, I was in the middle of eating with a friend." This away mission was a bit unusual. They usually had more notice so all of them were waiting for orders.
Spock came in with Sulu, another familiar face for away missions, and finally gave them their answers. "We've received a distress signal from a nearby star system and have located it. We will be beaming down to assess the situation and provide support as needed. Make sure to have phasers set to stun." The security officers all double checked their phasers as Serena simply held the strap of her tricorder. Serena didn't need a phaser, it wasn't her job to shoot people, kind of against her code to harm others. If worse came to worse she might but she'd leave that in the theoretical realm and just do her job. Spock went over procedures that they had all head a million times, or at least it seemed like a million times to her despite the fact it had only been five, and then proceeded to the transporter. They each positioned themselves as Scotty beamed them down.
At first Serena was a little disorientated, but it was normal when your environment suddenly changed. They were now in a desert like environment and wind was buffeting dirt around all of them. Serena had to cover her eyes as she searched the area. "Break up in teams of two to search for the distress beacon." Spock ordered, raising his voice above the wind. They all broke up in twos, Serena went with Ensign Brotley. "Lovely weather isn't it lieutenant?" Brotley joked as they searched. Serena was about to respond when she spotted something. "Over there." She called out to him and they both picked up their pace and ran to where she had been pointing.
It was a half-buried crash site, the shuttle was intact but the constant buffering of wind and dirt had partially buried it. Brotley called out to the others as Serena started searching for the door. She was working on opening it when the others joined them. A little digging was necessary to get the door open but when they did get it open they found the lights still working inside.
"Is anyone in here?" one of the security officers asked as they entered the shuttle one by one. "Stay back! I'm armed!" Came a panicked voice. Serena saw the man sitting in the pilot seat with a phaser pointed at him. On second inspection she saw that the phaser wasn't even on and it seemed something was wrong with his leg. "We are of the USS Enterprise, we came in response to your distress beacon." Spock said calmly as he held up a hand to stop the security officers from pulling out their weapons. The relief on the man's face was almost palpable. "Oh thank god, I thought I'd die out here."
Serena made her way through the crowd and bent down in front of him so she was more on his level. "My name is Lieutenant Moss, I'm a doctor. You look like you hurt yourself would you mind if I take a look?" she asked putting on a smile to calm the man. He nodded and then looked to Spock as she used the tricorder. "I was on a mission to fix a lost beacon in this quadrant when I hit a meteor shower. It tore through my shields and I was forced to abandon my ship and crash land here. Heard some nasty banging outside like something more than the wind so I've stayed inside. I banged up my leg on impact." He explained as he winced when Serena tried to move some fabric aside to get a better look at the bruised flesh beneath it. "Yes I'm afraid it's broken but we should be able to fix it on the Enterprise. I'm just going to put a stunt on it until we get up there." Serena informed him.
Spock opened his communicator and tried to contact the Enterprise while she worked on her patient. "Spock to the Enterprise, please come in." There was silence. Spock repeated the attempt to no avail. "The storm must be interfering with the comm. We'll have to go to higher ground or wait out the storm." Sulu said as he peaked out the window. "The storm shouldn't last much longer, it has been raging out there most of the night. They usually dwindle out by now." The man said as Serena stood up. "Will he be alright waiting?" Spock asked her. "He'll be fine, I gave him a hypo for the pain but he's fine otherwise. I wouldn't suggest waiting a full day however. Wouldn't want the bones setting in a bad position." Spock nodded and informed them that they'd wait it out.
It was an hour later when the storm finally died down. Serena, Brotley, Sulu, and Spock exited the shuttle. Serena looked around at the place now that she could see better. While Sulu tried to contact the ship again Serena wandered off to look at a few mineral deposits she saw on one of the rock formations. Brotley was moving off to her left while she bent down to study the mineral more closely. It was then that she heard a shout and a sickening thud that ended it. Serena looked up to see Brotley go down with something sticking out of his chest. Her eyes went wide as chaos erupted around her.
There were people coming out from behind the line of rocks all brandishing what she assumed were spears of some sort but a few had phaser like weapons that were shooting as well. Some of the officers in the shuttle were coming out to defend when one of the attackers hopped over the rock formation where Serena was at and aimed a weapon at her. Serena froze, unable to think of what to do to stop it when a blast rang through her ears. Instead of her going down the attacker went down, Spock right behind him with his phaser raised. He made his way to her side and lifted her up by her elbow.
"Are you unhurt?" he asked as he scanned the area. "I'm fine." She reported quickly as her eyes went to the motionless body of Brotley. The adrenaline had kicked in now and her mind was working overtime. "Can you lay covering fire for me?" she asked Spock. Spock looked at her and was about to ask why when she took off without getting an answer. She ran for Brotley using the large rocks as waypoints to get under cover. Spock was laying down covering fire each time she moved from cover. Reaching Brotley she quickly pulled him out of the line of fire. Phasers were still going off above her head but she ignored them as she quickly assessed the situation and began trying to treat Brotley. He was breathing but lightly. As she was treating him another attacker came up on her. This time she didn't freeze her instinct to protect her patient overpowering fear.
Jolting up she slammed into the attacker, knocking his weapon out of his hand. There was a bit of a struggle as they were twisted around each other from the tackle but she gained the upper hand and quickly knocked the man out with a rock. A phaser went off just above her head and she turned to see another attacker go down just feet from her. Spock was next to her in the next second pulling her from the unconscious man and back under the cover she had dragged Brotley to. His arms were hard and unyielding as he had deftly picked her up and practically tossed her behind the rock formation. He opened his communicator. "Spock to Enterprise, we need an emergency transportation. We have two wounded." There was a confirmation and Serena felt the tingling sensation as they began to be teleported. Her eyes never left Spock's profile as her hand rested on the steady rise and fall of Ensign Brotley's chest.
When the transportation was complete Serena immediately ordered them to get McCoy ready in Sickbay as two others took Brotley. She then went to all the others in the party and had someone else get the survivor they had picked up. There were a few phaser burns and a bad cut in the shoulder but they could all walk to sickbay themselves. Serena was just finishing with fixing the shoulder cut to save him a trip to sickbay when a vice like grip grabbed her arm and pulled her up. "Wha- hey!" Serena protested as she turned on the intruder. It was Spock and he was staring intently at her but not releasing his grip. "You need to report to sickbay as well." He stated his dark eyes were boring into her. "I will I just-" she started but she was interrupted. "No I just, now lieutenant." There was an authority in his voice that was stating this as an order. Instead of letting her decide if she was going to obey or not he proceeded to pull her out of the teleportation room and half drag her down the corridors.
"Spock, hey….Spock let go! I can walk on my own!" Serena said finally able to yank her arm from his grasp. She knew she couldn't have done that unless the Vulcan had decided to let her. Spock slowed down to look at her. There was something in that look…She couldn't put her finger on it. It looked like his normal face but there was something in that look that said something else was going on. "Spock I-" "Will you proceed to sickbay?" Interrupted again…Serena had to suppress a sigh. "Of course I'll go to sickbay. I just sent a ton of patients there, McCoy can't handle them alone." Serena said wanting to throw her arms up in the air. "Not for the patients, for you." Spock said grabbing her hand and holding it out in front of her so she could see. Her knuckles were bloodied and there was a pretty bad phaser burn on her arm. "When had that happened?" she thought as she stared at the burn. On further expectation she saw more cuts and scrapes, most from her scramble to Brotley the rest from the struggle with the attacker. "Oh..Yeah.. I'll get them looked at too." Serena said a little less frustrated. Spock nodded. "I'll leave you to it then, I need to go report in." Before Spock could turn on his heel and walk off Serena grabbed his sleeve. "No you don't mister, you have to get checked out too. It's protocol." Serena said nearly glaring at the Vulcan, daring him to say otherwise. "I will after I report in, I know protocol." Spock said almost sternly and walked off before she could do anything.
Serena wanted to grumble the whole way to Sickbay but when she walked through the doors she immediately went to work on the patients. She had worked on two patients before McCoy noticed she was there and then her injuries. He almost got onto her as bad as he got onto Kirk for working before taking care of herself. She had a nice pretty bandage around her forearm by the time he was done but most of the smaller cuts were gone. He made her stay seated in the bed instead of letting her help him out. She didn't understand until the adrenaline finally wore off. Her body began to shake violently and she suddenly felt like crying. It was then that she was glad she worked in Sickbay and McCoy had been generous enough to give her a private room.
The minor breakdown moment passed and her body felt drained and she lay back on the bed. She hadn't realized she had passed out until she woke up hours later. A blanket had been drawn over her and she knew better then to think it was anyone but McCoy. Getting up she walked out of her room and saw a few others asleep as she had been but most were gone. Her first thing was to check on Brotley. He was alive and his chart showed he'd be fine. She went one by one to each of the patients but she already knew they'd be fine. It was when she completed her round that the doors opened and Spock came walking in.
Serena motioned for Spock to go to one of the private rooms so they wouldn't wake the other patients. "So you are just now reporting in?" Serena said almost in a scolding tone. "I had things to do." Spock responded simply as he turned sat down on the bed. Serena poked him in the chest. "You practically dragged me halfway to sickbay because I had to report in, why is it not just as important for you to report in?" she countered. "Because I was not as severely injured." For the second time that day she wanted to throw up her hands. That'll teach her for arguing with a Vulcan.
Instead of scolding him more she simply started her evaluation. He had a cut on his thigh from one of the spears but other than that he was fine. She fixed it up with a dermal regenerator and he was back to normal. Part of her was glad he was fine another part of her wanted him to have a phaser burn so she could make him suffer for how he dragged her. Then again he had also dragged her out of danger back on the planet. It was then that her annoyance with him fizzled out.
"I never thanked you for saving me down there…" she said softly as she put the supplies away and he fixed his clothes. Spock looked up at her then. "Not thanks was necessary, it is my job to ensure the safety of the crew." Serena smiled at that with her back to him, of course that would be his answer. "Your actions however were most illogical. You should not have ran out into danger." That caught her back. "You mean I should not have gone to Brotley who needed medical attention?" she stated more then asked as she turned around and crossed her arms. "You intentionally put yourself into harm's way for someone who was already down." "I intentionally ran out there with the knowledge that you could give me covering fire so that I could do my job and bring back Ensign Brotley alive." She responded her words going steely. No way would she let him make her feel bad for doing her job. "You could not know that I could lay down sufficient fire to protect you." Spock said that expression on his face again. "I could and I did. As you said it was your job to ensure the safety of the crew and I knew you could do your job and lay down covering fire. Even if you hadn't I would've done it anyway. It is my job to make sure every crewman on the mission comes back alive, if I have to run through phaser rounds then I'll run through phaser rounds." Spock was silent at that. Serena stared at him. Had she just won an argument with Spock? "You still should not have put yourself in harm's way." Spock concluded. Serena rolled her eyes. "Trust me if there had been a way where I didn't have to run through phaser rounds and get attacked then I would've."
They stood there in silence for a while both looking at the other. "How are you handling the attack?" Serena hadn't expected the question from Spock but she thought about it for a second before answering. "It was jarring and I can't believe I knocked someone out but at least I know I can do it when the time comes that I'm forced to. Otherwise I'm operating at normal capacities." The last bit was a jest at Spock. Some of the tension in his stance seemed to ebb away at that. The fact that she had seen the tension made her worry. "Spock…are you ok?" She couldn't help but ask. "I am operating at normal capacities." He responded a twitch of his eyebrow made her think he would smile if he were a human at that time. "I will see you tomorrow Lieutenant." And with that Spock left.