I found out ENT apparently changed Honor Blades to swords instead of daggers in their novels; however, I'm using them as daggers, like they are in other places. Hopefully, that's not confusing. The Talon Blade is based on a fantasy knife by Robert Shiflett mixed with elements I created; the Forge Dagger is based on the Magma Dagger from the AdventureQuest game that I found while researching Vulcan weapons. The lirpa fight is based on Amok Time and the knife fights are based on recorded combat choreography, especially between women, for authenticity.
Cekula strode up to where a group of Vulcans exercised. They watched her, silently debating if they should order her away until they decided to wait and see. She grabbed a weapon off a rack that had a metal shaft with a fan-shaped blade on one end and a club on the other. The blade was dulled for sparring.
Next to the rack was a board with long, cloth strips with metal balls at the ends to weight them. She let those be for now.
She walked up to Spock, all eyes on her including his shipmates. Only McCoy and Kirk were missing from them. "If it isn't the famous spy." She made it sound like a titillating compliment.
The Enterprise officers drew closer and so did the Vulcans, but Spock stayed completely calm. "We both know I am not your quarry."
"Do we?" She laid her left hand and the weapon's blade on his chest and slid them slowly down, a heated smile playing around her mouth and eyes. Her voice turned into a purr. "Maybe I want to know for myself what I've heard."
He didn't react, but he kept everyone around him from going after her. Her own people saw what was happening and drew closer. A ring now circled the two of them.
"I will not be your bait, Subcommander."
The blade and her hand reached his abdomen. He grabbed her wrists and started to push her away, but she put her weight behind the weapon's blade, to bite into his arm to buy her a little more time.
Cekula wondered if the half-blood would ever believe she was sorry for twisting this particular symbolic dagger into that hybrid heart: she, a Romulan, acting out a seduction on a Vulcan, the one Saavik put above everything else.
Her lover Akul would understand; he'd grin over her simpering seduction of Spock of all people and want to know more about Saavik. He'd be darkness embodied over Thieurrull.
"Perhaps what we know-"
Before Spock threw her off and she could finish her words, another fanned blade slipped under hers and shoved back with a clang of the shafts. Saavik, now armed and in between Spock and Cekula, that Vulcan weapon held easily and aimed at the Romulan's throat.
The Subcommander gave points for the silent arrival.
The dark gaze bore into her. "We finish this. Now, Subcommander Cekula."
Of course, the half-breed had checked out her file. Cekula played innocent. "Finish what?"
"Answering your question."
She added more points for the other woman seeing through the trick and still coming down.
Saavik noted, "Direct methods this time, other than the ploy with Spock."
The Romulan let her mouth curl for real. "What do you say we take the governments out of this?"
The other woman nodded. "Although I did not believe it possible in the Empire." She reached for her uniform jacket closures and next pulled off her undertunic, leaving her in a white tank top.
The Subcommander did the same with the top of her uniform. She picked up the weapon again, finding balance with it in her stance. "Show me."
Saavik rushed her adversary and swiped with her lirpa once, twice, three times, making the Subcommander leap back each time. On the fourth, Cekula blocked with her own weapon.
Saavik sized the situation up fast. They both knew she couldn't win, the Romulan was far more experienced for that and lived in a daily, dangerous environment whereas Saavik lived in the Federation. She instead would be graded on how long she lasted and how well she did it.
She slipped her hands down to hold the lirpa above the club end as she swung this time, extending her reach through the weapon's length. She scored on her opponent's chest.
But Cekula wasn't a green girl, even with the unfamiliar weapon; she pushed back and locked with Saavik at the shafts so she could use her legs. It broke Saavik's balance and the Romulan heaved to get the Vulcan off her feet and then swung with the club. Saavik took a glancing blow on her head, but she ignored the pain.
She returned the favor by swinging up through the other's arms, shoving up Cekula's lirpa enough to catch the Romulan on the chin with the flat of her blade. The Subcommander fell but lashed out to kick Saavik in the stomach.
She retaliated by locking lirpas again, only this time, she reached across and grabbed her opponent's too. She squeezed the shafts hard together, crushing Cekula's fingers and making her drop her weapon. But the Romulan immediately grabbed hold of Saavik's and the two of them fought to win it from the other. Saavik fell backward into a roll and took Cekula with her, flinging the other woman for a distance. She went for the winning blow but the Subcommander was up on her feet fast.
Saavik had the weapon racks behind her. She grabbed an ahn-woon. She cracked it like a whip at the Romulan's outstretched hand to keep the woman from her lirpa. The cloth didn't work well as a real lash, but it worked enough. She then wrapped it about Cekula's ankles and sent her crashing to the deck. Saavik ran again to get her lirpa at her opponent's throat for the win, but the Romulan got up once more.
She also drew her Honor Blade. "That's enough nostalgia."
Enough of her holding back too. Saavik was no fool; she knew her opponent could have fought back harder. The important question now was, would she be allowed to get a knife or was the Romulan going right for her?
Cekula lunged and Saavik leaped away.
"Saavik!" Spock shouted above the crowd, but as she glanced from the corner of her eyes, he looked to Suhuk who pulled a weapon from a case. "Lehm ish-veh."
The young male, intent on the women's match, did as ordered: he threw the knife to Saavik who caught it neatly. She glanced at it for an instant and then almost took a second look, but she had no time.
Suhuk had given her a Forge dagger. Incredibly rare even in ancient times, the well-balanced knife had a small chamber running from the hilt to the center of the blade on top of the fuller or blood grove, with a smaller one running on each side. In PreReform times, the chambers contained molten magma. A master of the knife would strike and release the lava at the right time, turning even a scratch into a deadly injury.
Do it wrong and the lava backlashed on its holder.
The Romulan stared at the dagger herself for one second, symbolic amber stones having replaced the magma chambers. The daggers were still rare.
This one had a dulled edge, unlike the twin blades in Cekula's Honor Blade that narrowed to an almost joined point. One blade for each of the Romulan worlds.
Cekula dominated the first attack this time. She swiped like Saavik had with the lirpa, driving the other woman backward. They half-circled the other, putting Saavik's back to the Klingons who had run up. Everyone who wasn't in the conference was here, shouting, and they increased the circle around the battling women.
The Romulan stabbed for the side of Saavik's head; it ended up being a feint because as Saavik bent backward, Cekula cut her shoulder, although lightly. If they weren't sparring, the Subcommander would have stabbed deep.
Saavik's pain controls kicked in and she unconsciously started healing it. She lured the Romulan in and grabbed the hand holding the Honor Blade. She started pressing the nerves that would make Cekula drop the dagger when the Romulan used her free hand to grab Saavik's knife hand. She lunged forward and headbutted the Vulcan; it couldn't disable her but it kept her from numbing Cekula's hand. The Romulan put a foot on the other woman and shoved, breaking both their grips.
They went at it, one knife meeting the other until Cekula got a hold of Saavik and flipped her to her back.
"I can get this from any of you red jackets!" the Romulan snarled into her face. "You have something different at your core! It's what you were bred for, it's how you survived! Show me what that is or what did the Vulcans die for?!"
She couldn't know about the Vulcans on Hellguard who literally went into death chambers for Saavik's sake.
She used her legs to grab hold around Cekula's neck and shoulders and flipped her. She scrambled away and saw they had reached the center of the big room, near the Romulan section.
The Subcommander got to her feet too and reached for a Talon Blade. The all black dagger had a hand guard formed into an Eagle's wing. The main blade curled like a talon while a back 'claw' went around the wielder's hand.
Instead, the Commander signaled to her and tossed her own Honor Blade to her Subcommander.
Damn.
People on Saavik's side rushed to get her a second knife when gasps sounded around the circle and the loudest was Toreeth's because the Commander gave her a pointed look.
The Subcommander's hand dropped to her Honor Blade. "Mine?!" When her argument got her nowhere, she pulled the dagger and reluctantly handed it to Saavik. "Don't stain it! Not with dishonor or with incompetence."
Saavik couldn't believe what she held. The barest touch told her the knife's quality and then, looking down at her hands, she realized what had happened. She, the half-blood, held Vulcan and Romulan weapons, unlike Cekula who had only her own people's.
Saavik caught the Commander's attention; was this deliberate? A psychological move? She couldn't tell.
Sulu and Chekov were at her shoulders, hurriedly explaining what they noticed about how Cekula fought and what Saavik needed to improve.
The Romulan attacked with the style of a left-hand reverse grip and right-hand forward grip; Saavik matched her and this time, they worked harder to prevent the opponent's opportunity of blocking with one knife while slicing at somewhere like the throat or wrists. They each increased speed, trying to get past the other, and their blades became a blur.
Saavik held her own and she wondered how long she could when Cekula locked grips to snarl right in her face, "You're illogical." Saavik thrashed to break the hold, but the Romulan wasn't finished. "You throw away an advantage! If you don't care about your own damned life, what about someone you could save! Someday, someone attacks Amanda and you're not there to defend her because you got yourself killed from not using what you could to live!"
She violently threw Saavik back into the crowd. "Show me!"
No! Justify in the Empire's eyes what they had done? Make use of Hellguard's pain and death like it benefited its victims?
But what if the Subcommander was correct?
Then came the deep click of a tongue to the back of the throat that went through the scales of sound and in different rhythms. Memory blasted through Saavik's shields, memories of Thieurrull and that sound.
Cekula demanded of a Centurion, "What are you doing, calling a set'leth? There's none—Oh, Fates."
Saavik smelled the dust coating her nose and her eyelids again; felt the starving, real starving, and Romulans putting food a short distance from themselves and making that click, calling Hellguard's progenies. How she hid and stared at the food, needing it to survive, but knowing it meant death until her belly demanded she'd try, that she was fast enough. But before she could, another child did and couldn't beat the blast from the disruptor and the Romulans' laughter.
The click meant becoming target practice. The click meant death.
Saavik searched the crowd until she found him, his oily smile as he repeated the sound over and over. She remembered that face.
Her feet wanted to stamp the ground; her mouth ached to bare her teeth, and the curse she wanted to fling at him lived on the tip of her tongue.
Instead, her eyes burned into Cekula. "Why did I believe you?"
Because the Romulan had sworn no one here had been at Hellguard. She had believed a Romulan.
Who swore, "I told you the truth. I didn't know someone in our party had been there."
Saavik heard a Starfleet officer ask Spock, "What are they talking about?"
Chekov and Sulu were back, taking advantage of the break to point out a big vulnerability. "You von't put your back to the Romulans," the weapon officer said. "It is understandable, but she manipulates you vith it by limiting your range."
"Pavel and I will work our way over," Sulu added. "Don't worry that you're alone over there. Spock keeps moving to protect your back too."
Saavik said nothing as she watched Cekula change her hold on her knives. Does she limit my range of space?
They both could use that tactic, but Saavik did the reverse. She lunged and danced to make the Romulan push back on the circle with her until it fit the width of the room. They stood opposite each other to the limits of the space, but Saavik had what she wanted.
Final move.
The Subcommander locked eyes and then, both women charged each other. Except Saavik recognized a critical point and she could tell Cekula hadn't. But then, she lived with it most of the time and the Romulan didn't. So when she reached the right point, she kicked off and leaped.
The Earth-level gravity was lighter than Vulcan and Romulus, so Saavik was airborne by at least a body length. She twisted in the air ensuring she wasn't killed before she flipped her daggers, so their hilts instead of the blades into Cekula's neck, just as the wide-eyed Romulan flipped hers to stab over Saavik's ribs on both sides, including over her heart.
"Stalemate." A stunned Cekula panted for breath. "Stalemate."
It should not have been possible, not with the differing experience levels.
Saavik spun on the Centurion from Thieurrull, daggers ready, and drilled her stare at him like another weapon. He flung his arms wide, leaving his body open, and mocked her by hitting each click hard and deliberate.
"Go ahead," he sneered. "See if you can get the prize before the punishment."
She could throw the Honor Blade in between his eyes; it was sharpened. She could open his throat so he'd never make that sound again.
She'd start a war, just as she'd teased Cekula last night.
Her will had to forcibly push her arms down and walk away. She'd learned the difficult lesson the last time she was at Hellguard: the Federation would pay the consequences of her revenge if she took it now. So she wouldn't.
But she would find a way to track down the Centurion again.
From the corner of her eye, she caught Toreeth making a slashing gesture. The clicking stopped.
Spock came to her holding her uniform shirt and jacket. She gave him the Forge Dagger, then carefully cleaned the Honor Blade and stuck it in her pants' waistband. She rubbed down with a towel that he gave her when Cekula, also cleaning up, crossed over. Saavik could not decide what the Romulan thought.
That voice, could it hold regard? Even a small measure for their… property? She didn't find out because Cekula grabbed her arm, wiping away at the lash marks. "These are healed! How did you-!"
She stopped; the answer was obvious: it was Saavik's Vulcan half. "Maybe we should have stayed on the Motherworld long enough to learn tricks like these." Cekula took a breath. "Sa'Av Ik – Lieutenant Saavik. We're reporting this as a spar with a red jacket in the official file. No one will care about that. But you're in the open now and people talk."
"Then talk of this." Saavik's expression hardened. "I survived. I am on this side of the Zone now. Spock is off limits. These people are off limits. Vulcan is off limits."
"Is that a threat?"
"It is a reminder of what you bred me to do. Heed me. If I am not strong enough today, I will be tomorrow."
Cekula gave her a small smile. "All right. Remember what I said. Don't be illogical." She went to her leader's side.
Saavik got dressed again as the Commander came up to her. The Romulan jabbed at the rank insignia on her jacket. It was the first time Saavik heard her speak.
"Work hard. Get that higher, get your own ship. Then we'll see." Her expression grew animated. "I look forward to it."
Toreeth was behind her and Saavik returned her Honor Blade. The Subcommander stroked it and turned her eyes up to Saavik, her voice both insistent and light. "Now you heed this." She pointed her knife's hilt at Valeris in the crowd. "You need to kill her, now. Immediately. I'd do it as a thank you for all the entertainment, but we know I can't. Don't let this mission end without you doing it. She's got the dagger ready to put in between your shoulders the second you turn around."
Saavik took a deliberate step between the Romulan and Valeris.
Toreeth shook her head, keeping their eyes locked. "You'll regret it."
The Romulans began making their leave. As they passed Amanda, the Commander stopped, the small smile back as her eyes searched the blue ones. At last, she said only, "T'Sai."
Equally regal, Amanda replied, "Commander."
The Romulan called over her shoulder, "Centurion D'Rau, join me."
Their party left with D'Rau talking with a verbal smirk, "I knew it'd throw the half-breed off. It did back then too." He sniggered.
Saavik spoke over her shoulder to Valeris, still maintaining her protective position: "You know I take your word over theirs."
Behind her back, a chilling light glowed behind Valeris' eyes. "Yes, I do."
A sudden bellow made everyone run into the corridor. Saavik spun to face Valeris who was a cadet and, more importantly, would be in tight approximation with the Klingons in the hall. "Return to the ship. I will contact you shortly."
The body of Centurion D'Rau laid face down, a large blood stain growing like an incoming tide, his one arm outstretched in front of him. His Honor Blade stabbed the floor out of his reach.
Kirk came pounding down the hallway. "What happened?"
A dark human woman, the Romulan expert for the Enterprise, knelt by the body. Saavik didn't need her to interpret, but since she didn't want to explain it herself, she said nothing. "He was judged dishonorable by his superiors. That's why his Honor Blade is placed like that. He wasn't worthy of it."
Spock suddenly told the crewwoman to stand still. He approached the knife and read something on the carpet. He pulled the dagger from the floor and moved toward Saavik. He held it out to her. "They give this to you, the one proven to have honor."
She shook her head, staring at it in his hand. When he didn't take it away, she met his gaze and shook her head with more emphasis.
He didn't push her. He handed the Honor Blade to the Romulan expert. "For study and then the archives."
She seized it with bright eyes. "I've never had a chance to hold one of these before."
Neither had Saavik until moments ago. She decided she preferred it that way.
One Klingon seized Saavik by the shoulder and roared in the corridor, "Who commands this one?"
Kirk opened his mouth, paused, and said, "I have and I will again shortly." He eyed the Klingon with a thin veil over his disgust. "Her current captain is right there. Harry, they're looking for you."
The Federation and Klingon factions took sides in the corridor as a middle-aged man strode up the hall. He looked ordinary in every way, but his voice held strength.
"I'm Captain Griffith. What did you want?"
The Klingon told his fellows, "Here he is!" He clapped his other hand on Griffith's shoulder. "It takes a real warrior to command one such as this," as he indicated Saavik. "Excellent, Captain! We look forward to hearing songs of your courage."
The Klingons filed out to their ships, each one pounded Griffith's back that he stood under until they were gone.
"You hear that, Jim? People are singing songs about me. Try not to be jealous."
McCoy smirked. "Songs for commanding someone you don't know. Want us to introduce you?"
Griffit ran fingers through his dark hair. "I needed that when this whole conference began, but now." He looked at Saavik who went to attention. "You do create a buzz in the grapevine, Lieutenant. All good. So, if you're the reason why they're singing songs of my prowess as a commander, I can live with that. Better than a reputation as a bad one."
Saavik found Styles pushing through the crowd to see what was going on; he made sure to be away from Scotty and Sulu when he saw her.
She spoke as she looked back at him. "Aye, sir."