Title: Home (Multichapter fic with 35 parts)
Beta: Lissaea at Livejournal
Warnings, Themes and Tropes, etc.: bondage, torture, prostitution, explicit sex, drug use
Summary: The Vulcans need a new home planet, so the Enterprise and her crew set out to find one for them.
"They'd come all the way for this? Which mad astronomer had sent them out here? Whose twisted idea had it been?"
Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek or any of its characters.
– Home-Part 15 of 35 –
Jim hadn't gone to sleep after Spock had left his quarters, there was too much to think about. He was sitting at his desk, his head in his hands. He had to decide whether or not he'd tell the admirals about his change in relationship with his first officer in a formal letter—that's if there was going to be a permanent change of course. The thought that there might not be left him feeling vulnerable in a way he didn't like. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Calm down—Spock isn't the type to do casual and you'll work through the awkwardness eventually.
That brought him back to what he'd have to say to the admirals. With every cell in his body he didn't want to tell them, even though it was his duty to do so. What if the admiralty decided to put a stop to it? It was within their rights to do so if they thought it was affecting his command.
He picked up a PADD on which he'd opened all the mission reports for which the Enterprisehad received some kind of admonishment. 2258.309: Going down on an away mission and throwing himself into the way of phaser fire to protect his first officer; 2259.9: allowing the science department to shut down almost all systems so it could use 80% of the ship's energy for Spock to analyze a 'fascinating' white dwarf star system-leaving them vulnerable to the inevitable attack from Orion pirates; 2259.38: Spock ordering the beam down of a full scale rescue party into a pre-warp civilization city just to save his ass from a few locals; and finally 2259.157: the most recent incident with the Klingons and his gamble—all for the benefit of the Vulcans? Or for Spock?
How would all his actions be interpreted if he sent a formal acknowledgment that he was in a relationship with his First?
Jim slammed the PADD back down onto his desk with such force that the screen cracked. Damn, that felt good!
The next morning before alpha shift Jim walked through the ship in a kind of daze. He was hoping to catch Bones for breakfast-preferably in his quarters.
When he got to his door though his hand hovered over the door chime. What was he going to tell him? His hand dropped to his side. There wasn't much he could say. Jim got the overwhelming feeling Spock would not appreciate it if he went around telling people of their little encounter last night. No definitely not, not after how his relationship with Uhura had ended up as a public mess. And besides, if he wasn't going to tell the admirals, he definitely couldn't tell his crew. If word got out … fuck, he had to keep this secret—not a soul could know.
But he was confused about how to deal with sex with his best friend, but he'd just have to suck it up, wouldn't he, and be confused until he worked through it himself. If anything it was Spock he should be talking too.
He turned away from the door. At that moment, though, the doors swished open and Bones nearly ran into him.
"Woah there, Jim!"
"Hey, I was about to ring the chime! Fancy grabbing some breakfast?"
"Why not wait in the mess?"
"I haven't talked to you in ages and I wanted to know how you were ... "
"Come in," Bones said, already turning around. "Coffee?"
"Yes, please."
As he stepped into Bones quarters he felt guilty that he hadn't made time recently to visit him more.
"Take a seat," Bones said while clattering around getting breakfast. "Glad you came here, really wasn't up for talking about Joanna in the middle of the officer's mess. Not one for making my problems public."
Jim could agree with that sentiment.
"The ex?"
"Uhuh. It's Jo's birthday next month. I'm not around to see her grow up and now she doesn't even want to allow me to talk to her via subspace on her birthday? What sick kind of thinking is that? She's already growing up hardly knowing me. I need her to know that I care, is even that too much to ask for?"
Thoughts of Spock pushed to one side, Jim listened to Bones problems for the rest of their breakfast.
They were a panting, sticky mess—well, Jim was a mess. He grabbed Spock's hand and brought the pale fingers to his lips, before closing his eyes and lying back in the damp sheets. He could feel Spock's breaths slowly becoming shallower, more regular and much quieter. Then the bed moved as Spock got up. He heard the swish of the bathroom door.
Jim's skin was starting to chill so he searched with his hand for a cover, but there was none in reach. He groaned and rolled over, opening his eyes for a second. It was on the floor. Leaning down he picked it up with one hand, flung it back onto the bed and pulled it over his body.
It was late. If someone saw Spock leave his quarters at this time he supposed they would just put it down to an urgent discussion. They might speculate that they'd been having a constructive briefing about changes to the planet-side security patrols' roster.
He wished Spock would stay; he should have talked to him before falling into bed with him again.
"Jim."
"You're leaving?"
When Spock didn't reply he looked up. Spock had cleaned himself up and got dressed-he looked immaculate again. Yes, they had definitely just been in a meeting. He buried his face into his pillow.
Well, it was too late to talk about it now. He rolled over so that he could swat at Spock with his hand, before collapsing back onto the bed.
"G'night," he mumbled.
He was very aware of the door's hiss as Spock left. At least at this rate there was no chance anyone would suspect that after-hours Spock was his lover. That thought sobered him up—they had to be extremely careful. Maybe it was for the best that Spock didn't seem to want hang around after sex-no one could find out about this! If this worked out between them, … he presumed Spock would agree with him that they couldn't tell the admirals.
He pulled the cover up over his head for additional warmth. Sometimes he was still such a screw-up, he thought bitterly.
Sulu got up out of the command chair and walked towards the turbo lift. The second shift was up, the third about to begin.
"Sir," Chekov said, "an Andorian wessel has just dropped out of warp in front of us."
In one fluid move, Sulu had spun right around and leapt back to the center of the bridge.
"Ensign Galand, hail them," he said.
A few streaks of bright green headed their way.
"Shields!"
It was too late. The burst of energy tore through the Enterprise's hull before the shields slammed up. A deafening groan travelled through the whole structure of the ship, shaking its frame. Sulu lost his balance and fell over, hitting his nose on the hard red floor.
He rolled over and shouted, "Lock target and return fire!"
"Yessir."
Sulu looked up through watery eyes just in time to see the other ship go to warp.
Chekov turned in his chair. "Should ve follow it?"
"No, we can't leave the landing parties behind without any defense. There may be more ships."
Besides, the Enterprise had been hit without her shields up. Sulu breathed in deeply and sat down in the command chair. Damage reports were coming in from all departments.
"Hull breach in engineering," Galand said.
"I just saw that. Get me Scotty—and the captain."
Although he knew Kirk was probably already halfway to the bridge by now. Shit, this was bad!
He got up and strode over to Science. "Lieutenant Mamoje, analysis?"
"It was an Andorian ship, Fonta'na class, so it should have been a standard unarmed trading vessel."
Clearly it had been modified.
The turbolift door opened and Kirk and Spock both rushed onto the bridge together. Sulu turned to face them.
"Pirates," he said before the either of them could say a word.
Jim stormed out of the briefing room, but Scotty held him up.
"Captain, we've got to go after those pirates-."
"You heard the admirals, Mr Scott. We're not going anywhere until we've finished all the preliminary scans."
"That could take weeks …"
"Then you'd better work on getting the sensors to perform some miracles to speed things up."
"Yessir," Scotty said, standing to attention, but still giving him the evil eye.
"We will go after them and hunt them down," Jim said and Scotty relaxed a bit. "But studying Saketh takes priority. The Vulcans need a new home world."
"One that's safe," Scotty said.
Jim didn't need to explain himself to Scotty—but he wanted to. He wanted Scotty to understand why he'd played down the threat to the admirals.
"We can make this planet safe. If I'd gone on about how much of a danger those pirates were, then we would've been off this planet in a second, Mr Scott. We wouldn't be hunting pirates though. We'd be looking for another planet, 'cause this solar system would be deemed just as unsafe as the Heuygens one. But Saketh is not just some planet."
He saw Scotty slowly lose his fire. "Ay, Saketh was a Vulcan home world. And it will be one again."
He watched his chief engineer leave. Not going after those pirates who'd really stuck in this throat like a lump of rock. He wanted to leave as soon as he could to hunt them down, too.
McCoy had made it clear that he didn't want Spock participating in this mission, but that wasn't going to help them finish here quickly. If only Bones would give him the all clear. He went back to his quarters and wrote a note for Bones asking him to review Spock's case. They didn't know what had happened, but they weren't going to get close to an answer keeping him confined to the ship.