Chapter Forty

"Sir?"

"I hope you've got good news for me, Toby." Beckett growled.

"Er...well, not really."

"Your force blade really is missing?"

"Uh...aye, Sir." Toby reported hesitantly over the intercom. "I also found the rest of it under Salen's bed."

"How the hell did he get a hold of it?"

"He must have broken into the room."

"How did he even know it was on the ship?"

"That...uh..."

"Spit it out, Toby."

"It's my fault, Sir." Toby admitted. "He came to me the other day and asked me for help getting over his knife phobia."

"What?"

"He...um...well....he asked me to cut him."

"And you did?"

"Aye, Sir." Toby said meekly.

"Toby, the next time one of my men comes and voluntarily asks you to torture him you'd better be damn sure you report it to me, understood?"

"Aye, Sir." Toby replied. "Sir, is Dingo going to be alright?"

"I'm not sure Salen has ever been alright."

Beckett slammed the panel that would shut down the intercom system, he was in no mood to be disturbed. Walking over to the biobed where Salen was laying he looked down and sighed heavily. Locked in an unnatural sleep Salen twitched in the clutches of an unknowable nightmare. Beckett reached out and gently ran his hand through Salen's snow white hair to calm him. Salen's eyes fluttered open for a moment, but they never focused.

Beckett glanced up at Razor who was sleeping peacefully on the next biobed over. He had fought sleep as best he could, but after the strenuous mission he had eventually given in to sleep. Beckett stared at Razor's cut ear and realized that if he lost Salen he was going to lose Razor as well. Razor would never trust or follow his command ever again if Salen didn't survive this. The doctor came up and stood next to Beckett.

"I want him sedated." Beckett ordered.

"There isn't much sense in sedating Salen at this point, Sir."

"Not Salen, Razor."

"Sir?"

"I don't want to deal with him right now."

"Aye, Sir."

The doctor walked over to his medical cart and fetched a hypospray with a deep green fluid. When he jabbed Razor in the neck he jolted awake with a cry of alarm. The doctor calmly held Razor down while the drug quickly took effect. Razor struggled in vain before relaxing completely as though dead.

"Don't worry, Sir, he won't remember that when he wakes up."

"Good. How is Salen doing?"

"His condition is deteriorating. I'm still not sure what's happening to him. It's like his sympathetic nervous and endocrine systems are shutting down. Which may explain why he's been seeking pain."

"I don't follow."

"The pain would encourage his failing systems to go into emergency mode and dump adrenaline into his blood which would help him stay awake."

"So the device isn't killing him?"

"Quite the opposite, it is keeping him alive. The adrenaline and endorphins that it stimulates during violent actions to act as a reward have been helping him fight whatever this is. In fact I think the device has been doing its job beautifully."

"What makes you think that?"

"I just got the autopsy report back on Dankort. Salen unleashed on him, his death was perhaps the most gruesome I've ever seen."

"What did he do?" Beckett asked hesitantly.

"At first Salen tried to suffocate him by stuffing a piece of cloth down his throat, however it went down his esophagus rather than his trachea. From there it looks like Salen sat down on his stomach heavily enough to rupture his spleen and then forced Dankort's jaw shut so hard that he cracked a dozen teeth. Unluckily for Dankort he also bit down on his own tongue, nearly severing it. As his tongue bled he couldn't swallow the blood because of the cloth in this throat, which he was gagging on so violently that he ruptured all of the blood vessels in his eyes. The blood from his broken teeth and half eaten tongue ran down into his lungs and he slowly drown in it."

"My god..." Beckett whispered in horror as he stared at Salen.

"The more violent he became with Dankort the more the device would reward him, but in this case instead of just a simple reward it was the only thing that would make Salen feel alive. I think it was the same with the pain, without it he would feel himself starting to die. With the force blade in his heart he probably felt closer to 'normal'. He might have even been getting a high from it."

"But it failed." Beckett pointed out. "He was screaming."

"The human, or in this case even the Vulcan body can only take so much."

Beckett closed his eyes and dragged his hands through his silver hair. When he opened his eyes again the doctor was inspecting Salen. He forced the unconscious Vulcan to turn his face away so that he could get a better look at the green gem. The doctor tapped on it and brought out the small remote that could interact with it.

"What are you doing?"

"Trying an experiment." The doctor shrugged.

"Experiment?" Beckett repeated in disgust. "This is Admiral Pike's son, not a medical experiment!"

"He's not going to be either of those things if I don't try to do something."

"Doctor..."

"At this point I can't do any more harm."

"Fine...just...just don't let him feel anymore pain." Beckett sighed in defeat.

"I can't promise that."

Beckett shot the doctor an icy glare however he eventually nodded. Having permission to continue the doctor shut the device embedded in Salen's neck off. The biobed monitor that had been beeping in alarm now wailed in panic. Salen started gasping for breath as his body failed him.

"You're killing him!"

"I'm trying to reset his system, trust me."

When Salen stabilized again his heartbeat was barely noticeable on the monitor. After waiting another moment the doctor pressed the remote against Salen's skin once more. This time Salen jerked awake. Blinking a few times Salen looked up at the celling with a look of confusion etched into his fine features.

"Salen?" Beckett asked.

"Colonel?" Salen asked weakly. "Is...is Razor alright? I thought I heard him cry out."

"He's fine, Salen. How are you feeling?"

"Weak."

Salen closed his eyes for a moment and took a few deep breaths. The doctor took a step back as Salen fought to sit up. It took all his effort, but Salen managed to sit on the edge of the biobed. He trembled slightly as he stared sightlessly at the floor.

"Sir, may I return to my quarters?"

"Salen, you're barely strong enough to remain upright."

"I will be fine." Salen whispered. "I just need...I need to go back to my quarters."

"Salen," the doctor broke in "we know about the force knife."

"I...I did not want to steal it." Salen said fearfully. "I am sorry. I can explain."

"I'm hoping that you can. It might help us figure out what's wrong with you."

"There is nothing wrong with me." Salen insisted. "I have simply been lax about my emotional control, and I am paying the price. I will be fine."

"Salen..." Beckett hesitated "Salen, you're dying."

"Dying? No, no I will be fine. I will take care of this."

"I don't think this is something that you can deal with on your own." Beckett said sadly.

"Salen," the doctor said "I need to know what has been happening to you to give me a place to start."

"It is nothing. Please, just leave me alone."

"Salen, we are just trying to help you."

Salen closed his eyes as tears slipped down his cheeks. He shook his head like a stubborn child. When Beckett reached out to touch him he jerked away, nearly losing his balance. Cowering in fright Salen froze, looking for all the world like he expected to be struck across the face for having pulled away in the first place.

"I'm not going to hurt you, Salen."

"Please, Sir...I...I need to speak with Commander Spock."

"I'll see what I can do."

"Please, hurry."

"Do you think he can help you?"

"Yes." Salen nodded.

"How?"

"He can take the memories out of my mind."

"Memories?"

"If I am dying, then they are the cause." Salen whispered. "I do not know why I did it, perhaps I deserve death."

"Salen, what are you talking about?"

"I could not tear myself away from Dankort's mind as I was murdering him."

"You got locked to him?" Beckett asked in confusion.

"No..." Salen replied vacantly "no, I could not tear myself away because I did not want to...I reveled in his pain, it made me feel alive...but now...now it haunts me. I can not..."

Salen stopped suddenly as he arched back and began convulsing. The doctor acted quickly and slammed Salen down on his back on the biobed. Beckett watched in shock as bright green blood began to drip from his nose. Salen's dark eyes were open, but they had a terrifying glassy stare as he continued to tremor in seizure. The doctor pressed the remote to his neck and he relaxed and closed his eyes once more.

"What just happened?" Beckett demanded.

"I was able to bring him back to consciousness by turning the device up as high as it can go. Unfortunately his body could only handle the extreme dose for a few minutes before going into into seizure."

"How much longer does he have?"

"A day, two at the most."

"Do you really think that the mind melding could be causing this?"

"I don't know, I'm not an expert on Vulcans. I could check Dr. McCoy's records on the Enterprise to see if he's dealt with anything like this in the past."

"Do it."

"Aye, Sir."

While the doctor busied himself with the computer Beckett went over to the sink and got a cold wet rag. He ran the cloth over Salen's forehead gently before working to clean the emerald blood off his face. Beckett traced one of the scars on Salen's face as his eyes stung with tears.

"Don't give up, Kid." Beckett whispered. "You can't die on my watch."

"Sir." The doctor called.

"Please tell me you found something."

"I did. Salen is right, Spock can save him."

"You're kidding."

"No, Sir. It's called Pa'nar Syndrome, caused by improper mind melding. Apparently both Joanna McCoy and an Engineer aboard the Intrepid contracted it from Salen when he was aboard their ship."

"It's contagious?" Beckett exclaimed in alarm.

"Only through mind melding. This condition is insanely rare and it took even the crew of the Enterprise a while to figure it out."

"I guess it doesn't matter, the point is that they have a cure."

"According to the notes that Dr. McCoy wrote Pa'nar can only be cured by a mind meld with a highly trained Vulcan."

"Or half Vulcan." Beckett smiled.

"The only real problem is that Commander Spock is aboard the Enterprise and she tried to blow us to Space-dust the last time we got anywhere near her."

"I'll need to go to Thomline about it, but we'll figure something out. Keep Salen alive until I do, got it?"

"Aye, Sir."

Beckett brushed Salen's cheek one last time before turning to leave the infirmary. He rushed to his office and slammed his emergency code into the subspace transmitter. It was only seconds before General Thomline was on the screen. Thomline glared at Beckett with what looked like barely contained rage.

"I was wondering how long it was going to take you to contact me, Jack." Thomline snarled.

"Brian?" Beckett asked in concern.

"What were you thinking?"

"I don't understand..."

"You let Salen on the Intrepid, and in doing so compromised everything that the Black Diamond Dogs are!" Thomline spat.

"I'm sorr..."

"You don't let your men off your ship to fuck their girlfriends when that girlfriend happens to be the daughter of a doctor who is best friends with a Vulcan!"

"Brian..."

"Spock and Kirk are heading to the place where you intercepted the Intrepid and they are going to be on your tail any minute now. What part of covert operations confuses you?"

"I'm sorry. I fucked up. But I can fix this, I need you permission to contact Commander Spock."

"Absolutely not!" Thomline snapped.

"Sir, Salen is going to die if..."

"I know exactly what is happening to Salen, I read McCoy's report about his daughter and put two and two together myself."

"So you know that Spock is the only one who can save Salen."

"Spock already knows far more about the Dogs than he should. There is no way I am going to authorize allowing Spock to look into Salen's mind."

"But he is going to die!" Beckett roared.

"You should of thought of that before you started messing with Vulcans to begin with. I warned you."

"No, no you can't do this, please. Spock won't say a word..."

"I disagree. The only thing keeping him quiet right now is the fact that he does not wish to pain Admiral Pike with the truth about what happened to his son. If Salen lives and is returned to Pike Spock will expose us and even Starfleet will not be able to protect us from the Federation, in fact they won't even try. We'll all be exiled to a shithole prison planet to die."

"No, this is a secret that Spock would keep to save the Admiral's son."

"I will not take that chance." Thomline replied coldly. "I am ordering you to contact Captain Yule of the Excelsior and inform him to run a code Reaper on Salen."

"No! Salen's not dead yet!"

"Yes...he is."

When Thomline broke off the communication Beckett slammed his fist down on the glass desk in pent up rage and frustration. As much he hated to admit it he realized that Thomline was right. Going over to the cabinet Beckett brought out a bottle of scotch and a glass. Returning to his desk he poured himself a drink and drained it before tapping on the communicator again.

"Captain Yule, here. What can I do for you, Sir?"

"I'm afraid there has been an accident. I need a code Reaper, full military honors."

"On who, Sir?"

"Salen Pike."

"The Admiral's son is dead?"

"...yes."