AN: I hope you all enjoyed my evilness with the cliffie! ;) I just couldn't resist. So this is probably going to be a bit shorter than my usual 6-8 pages. But maybe not, you never know. So, to resume where we left off…
For a moment she felt absolutely nothing from where he should be in her mind… And then it bloomed into an explosion of color. Pure red rage, violent and deadly (even more potent than when Jim had provoked Spock); nearly black-blue determination, steady and intense; and a frightening sickly green-yellow of panic.
She sent him comfort, calm, and serenity. The beautiful and soothing pale blues and greens hit him and broke over his emotions, rather than blending. She couldn't affect him, not this time. But the sickly green-yellow faded all the same, so he'd obviously felt her. And then the bloom of orange stars hit them both… she gasped. He was in pain…
"Chris! Caris Pike you ANSWER ME!" Jim roared, ripping her from her mind and back to the present.
"Jim!" She answered. "Jim, Spock's alive. But he's in pain." And he was coming to get her, hell or high water be damned. "He's snapped Jim, no one should try to stop him if they see him. He'll kill anyone in his way." She was sure of it this time.
"Fine, you listen to me. You shut down the transporters and then you hide. You're no match for a bunch of Klingons. Bones is working on something, and they're doing major damage to the power systems. The plasma conduits are unstable." The tone of voice was one she would usually listen to, so similar to her Father's 'Commander Voice'. But this time she had no intention of doing as she was told.
"Orders acknowledged, Captain. Is Chekov ready?" She said, feeling guilty for basically lying to her friend.
"Aye, Aye, Kris!" The boy chirped. "What you need to do is…"
Spock was not himself. He had absolutely no control over his body. It was as though he were watching himself from a slightly removed position. He knew he was out of control, he knew he was facing Klingons to find her, but he also knew that Chris would not stand a chance against a Klingon. And he was NOT going to let a disgustingly violent and barbaric BEAST take her from him.
And his logical Vulcan self simply sat back and enjoyed the ride. He did not want to control himself, not this time. Chris had once said an illogical action undertaken out of love and friendship is never illogical. He hadn't understood then, but he did now.
No, he thought as his body reacted without any direction and shot a Klingon, killing it instantly, he was not about to lose her, not now and not ever.
Chris finished locking down the transporters and sighed. "Thanks Chekov." She told the boy over the com. "You lot be safe up there." She told the entire bridge crew… her friends… her family.
"You too Chris." Jim said softly before cutting off the com.
Chris turned to the poor Ensign. "When I leave lock the door and hide. Let no one in. You should be safe, the Klingons want the bridge, not the transporter room." She would have stayed longer, attempted to make him a little calmer, but from her link to Spock a second bloom of orange stars and flashes of red reminded her of the danger he was in.
She stood and punched in the code to open the door and focused on the direction she felt Spock's emotion. At least two floors up, through Klingon infested decks… She turned in a slow circle, eying the corridor. The access panel to the power and plasma conduits… They were malfunctioning and volatile, but they ran along shafts just big enough for a small crewman to move through.
She dashed to the access panel and wrenched it open, slicing her palms on the cold metal edges. Ignoring the pain Chris reached up, grabbed the opening, and hauled herself upward. It took a distinct amount of shimmying and gymnastic ability but she was flexible and determined. Eventually she was inside the small pathway and moving as swiftly as she could to the pulsing red beacon in her mind that was Spock.
Spock had been particularly fortunate during his rampage. He had never come across groups of Klingons. He knew, as did most, that a Klingon was far stronger than most Vulcans, and particularly stronger than a half-Vulcan such as himself, but he had surprise, tactical knowledge, and his own burning rage on his side.
But that burning rage that consumed him prevented him from utilizing logic. He failed to check down a corridor as he rounded a corner and ended up face to face with four Klingons. Their sudden appearance and his shock were enough to dislodge the control his rage held and he utilized that moment to regain control.
He dodged the downward swing of one axe, twisted away from the jab of another, but was not quite able to sidestep the reversed upward stroke from the first. He did not react outwardly as the long, disgustingly dirty and rusted blade bit into his side, skimming along his ribs before he could slip away.
Silently he backed up to the wall behind him. The Klingons ranged around him, filling the corridor intersection, preventing any escape but not attacking. The one who had caught him with his blade smiled a very unpleasant smile.
"toDSaH" He snarled at Spock mockingly.
Spock leveled his phaser at them. "I am no weakling," he said calmly. "You shall find I provide a unique challenge. And I do not wait for rescue."
He heard the violent fizzling of the power and plasma conduits in the access panel above his head. He knew, without much doubt, that if he did not move soon then he would be caught in the resulting blow out.
One Klingon took his challenge to heart and lunged forward. Spock twisted away from the blade and shot the idiot with his phaser. The others lunged forward but the first roared a command in Klingon.
"Stop! He is the Vulcan Spock. He is important." They froze, halting in their assault. "You will open the bridge up to us."
Chris looked through the access panel grating. She was looking at a T-intersection of the corridors. The wall she hid in ran along the top of the T and her panel allowed her to see down all three corridors. There was someone tall and dark all but storming along one corridor, his emotions a red pulsing in her mind. She saw the four Klingons striding swiftly toward her and she had to bite her lip to prevent herself from calling out to Spock.
She saw him blunder into them, unable to warn him, and saw them immediately attack. She couldn't stop herself from noticing how incredibly attractive he looked, dark and furious, his usually coiled and contained grace on display and he dodged and twisted to avoid the Klingons' axes.
Chris could feel him force the emotions away, retake control of himself. As his logic prevailed she forced herself to look away. She could do nothing for him, not yet. And he was more than capable on his own.
The plasma conduits beside her fizzed, little sparks striking her bare skin and making her wince. The bloom of orange stars from Spock and she nearly cried out in frustration and their shared pain. She had to do SOMETHING! The plasma fizzled again, searing her delicate skin. Her eyes flicked to the long, slightly glowing bands, her mind whirling.
The question was not could she damage them enough to incapacitate the Klingons, it was could she do so without killing herself and Spock. She peered back out, catching a glimpse of Spock just below her and the Klingons a man down. If she could get Spock to move down the long corridor, away from the small shaft she hid in, he could survive, were he perhaps ten meters away or covered by something… or someone.
She began jerry-rigging an explosion. The plasma and power conduits would generate a nasty but not far reaching reaction, if she made them overload at just the right possible moment… She dimly heard them talking in Klingon, heard Spock's smooth, dark reply.
She strained, mentally, to connect herself to him. Her empathy gave them a link, and she was Vulcan, Damn it! She should, technically, be able to utilize the pre-existing Betaziod bond as a link to speak to him mentally without touch. But try as she did she couldn't reach the warm darkness that was his familiar mind.
"Damn it all!" she cursed aloud, in Vulcan, just under her breath.
She felt the shock from Spock and turned to see his back tensing and his head turning very slightly. She was filled with peace through their bond, and relief enough to make her knees buckle and her eyes water. He HAD been looking for her.
"I'm going to blow the power and plasma conduits." She whispered, praying he caught on. "You need to move away but keep the Klingons within the blast radius." There was a sickly green worry from him and she realized he wasn't attempting to block or control his emotions, so she could feel and understand him better. "Don't worry about me, Spock." She ordered. "I promise, I'll be fine." She felt the ripple of annoyance and smiled. He hated the word 'fine'.
"It is only logical that I lead you to the turbolift," Spock said quietly in Klingon, the harsh language sounding… wrong coming from his lips. He dropped his phaser and took a single step forward.
The Klingons argued for a moment, as she knew they would. Chris took the last few moments to tie a strip of cloth, ripped from her pants, to the conduit control and her waist. She watched as the Klingons shoved Spock forward, ahead of them, and ordered he march. They allowed him to get ahead of them significantly before they took a step and Chris knew it was now or never.
Grasping the top of the access panel opening she kicked the panel away and swung down, kicking the biggest Klingon, the leader, as she came down. The tie on her waist tightened and pulled, ripping open the conduit and starting the blowout. She had only a second or two.
She hit the ground and rolled with the force before lunging to her feet. She had reached Spock but they were still to close. As she felt the heat on her back she lunged at her friend, knocking him down and covering as much of him as she could with her body.
The overheated and volatile plasma cloud hit her first, searing her back. She screamed as the agony washed over her and she fell into the welcome black.
Spock sat in Sickbay, hours later, glaring darkly at anyone who dared to attempt to make him leave. His burns had been minor, he had taken the 2.35 second lapse between the first and the second explosion to haul himself and Chris' limp body into the scant shelter of a doorway. His right arm had suffered second degree burns but they had been swiftly tended by a medical aide.
There was no lingering ache, no scar, but he refused to leave, sitting in a corner, watching the private ICU with wary, constantly alert eyes. He could not see into the room, the walls were frosted glass, but he could see the dark shapes moving within.
Chris was in that room, lying limply on a biobed, her entire back covered in horrible third degree burns, her long hair burned short, and the rest of her thin body covered in bruises and scrapes.
Doctor McCoy was the best, Spock knew, but he could not convince himself to leave, though logically his remaining was without purpose. Should she live Chris would not wake for days, possibly weeks. His continued presence did not increase her chances of survival, but he could not control the overwhelming emotional NEED to remain as close to her as he possibly could. Should he lose her, the very thought made him nauseous and his heart clench and his mind fill with a black cloud of sorrow and hate as powerful as the one he had felt at the destruction of Vulcan and the death of his Mother, he was going to be as close to her as he could until she passed. He could not, and would not, waste the precious time he had left.
AN: Do you hate me? I'm sorry. But it had to happen. What do you think? Chris being willing to die for Spock, on the off chance that he might survive. Now THAT is real love. And Spock is coming to realize exactly how much Chris means to him.
But don't get your hopes up too high. Spock is stubborn and still not ready to make that leap from friendship (deep and powerful as it may be) to a romantic attachment. But it's like holding back a flood. It'll work for a while, but as it builds and builds the pressure will eventually become too much and that dam will burst in a torrent. And trust me, when the dam bursts it'll be worth the wait!
