Montgomery Scott was restless. As a rule he was not a man given to sitting, unless there were technical journals to read. Sitting in the center seat on the Bridge did not give one much time to read. Sitting in the center seat while the Enterprise did little but cruise effortlessly through space - and while there was an alien technology waiting to be explored - was pure torture. He shifted and tried not to look bored and annoyed. He glanced at the clock and saw that it would only be another hour or so before he could declare his Bridge duties fulfilled and return to his first love, Engineering.
He had just begun wondering how badly it would affect the crew if a senior officer slipped off duty early when Daphne suddenly gasped as if she was in pain. In the time it took Scott to spin around in the chair, Uhura had already crossed the short distance to the science station. Daphne was bent over, one arm held tightly over her waist, her head resting in her other hand.
"What is it, lass?" Scotty asked, sounding like a concerned uncle.
"I'm not sure," she murmured, and then realized that didn't sound very professional. She looked over at Scott and tried to explain, "My connection to Spock, the mental bond we have... It... blinked, for lack of a better description."
"Blinked?" Uhura said.
"It was there, then it wasn't, now it's back."
Uhura went to her station and hit a toggle. "Bridge to Mr. Spock."
Instantly a familiar voice replied, "Spock here. Is something wrong?"
In spite of the certainty of her mind link, Daphne felt a deep rush of relief. She stood and went to stand beside Uhura.
"Spock, it's me," she said.
There was a long, long pause. Waiting, Daphne searched along the mindlink but there was no communication from him, only the strong awareness of his consciousness.
Before he could answer, Sulu announced,
"Mr. Scott, the doors of Cargo Bay Two are opening. Everything is being blown out, sir."
Spock's voice came loud and firm over the comm.
"Let it go, Mr. Scott. That a direct order."
The Bridge crew exchanged mystified glances.
"Spock, what's happening?" Daphne asked. Concern and confusion shadowed her lovely face. "A moment ago I thought our link had been severed, but then it returned."
There was another long, long pause. Then, "There is an explanation, which I cannot give you at this moment. I can only ask that you trust me and wait."
It was possible that no one in the history of Vulcan,Thrace, or Terra had ever trusted someone more than Daphne trusted Spock. It seemed impossible that he would need to ask her to do so.
In the silence that followed, though she knew the communication channel was still open, the link between them became like a sun about to go super nova, so bright and intense she attempted to shield herself from it. Sensing that, Spock backed off.
"Where are you?" she asked, breathless.
"Here," he said, as the turbolift doors opened.
Kirk and Spock catapulted on the Bridge as if they were being whipped. Daphne's eyes sought Spock the way she would seek a beacon on a cold dark night. But he did spare her so much as a glance. He and Jim seemed riveted by the derelict that could now be seen floating just off their starboard bow. Scotty bolted out of the center seat barely in time to avoid Jim sitting on him as Kirk took command.
"Chekhov, lay in a course, anywhere. Nearest StarBase if possible. Sulu, get us out of here, best possible speed," Kirk barked.
There was a chorus of aye, sir's and a flurry of activity. The Enterprise hummed and vibrated. The crew automatically adjusted to the slight shift and pull as the gravity well struggled to keep up with the sudden change in speed and direction. The stars sped by on the view screen until they were almost a blur.
Spock moved to the deserted science station and bent over his viewer. Uhura kicked Daphne lightly in the shins, and mouthed 'What's going on?' But all Daphne could do was shrug and shake her head. Leaving the Communications Officer no more enlightened than she herself was, Daphne went to stand beside her husband. He had asked her to wait and so she would.
But from experience, she knew Vulcan silences could be very long. She gave up staring expectantly at Spock and turned her attention to her brother. She carefully lowered her empathic shields and focused on him.
Joy. Euphoria. There was no other words for the emotion radiating from her brother. He was shining inside like a new sun. Mixed with it were relief and a deep pride and tenderness she sensed were being directed at the crew in general. But he looked awful, like he had been in the same uniform for days. In fact, even Spock looked scruffier than usual.
Scott was giving the Captain a long baleful look. Jim smiled at him sympathetically, and perhaps a bit more affectionately than usual.
"She can take it, Scott," he said, "Just for a little bit. Humor me."
"Aye, sir," Scott said, but he sounded dubious. "May I ask if you're staying on the Bridge, sir?"
Scott was all but backing hopefully towards the turbolift.
"Go on. I'll be here for a little while," Kirk said, indulgently, "I know you'd rather be in Engineering."
Scott grinned and nodded before vanishing behind the red doors.
Spock straightened from his viewer, drawing her attention again.
"The derelict is out of sensor range, Captain," his voice was too even, too calm. Daphne watched him suspiciously. Whatever had happened, Spock was deeply, deeply, Vulcan at the moment.
Kirk almost deflated with relief, sinking back in his seat and letting his hands rest lightly on the arms.
"Slow us down, Sulu," he ordered, "Warp Four, before our Chief Engineer has a heart attack."
"Aye, sir," Sulu said, but he shot a look at Chekhov as he did so. The Navigator returned a puzzled, uncomfortable look and then resolutely stared at his console.
Kirk hit a button on the arm of his chair and said, "Sickbay."
"McCoy!" The familiar gravelly voice answered, "You mind telling me where we're going in such a hurry?"
Daphne was the only one watching Spock at that moment and the only one likely to notice the fine tremor that ran through his tall frame; and the long look Kirk exchanged with him, that seemed to contain a message only they understood. They had all seen Kirk and Spock communicate with only a look , but this particular look made Daphne's senses tingle. Without question they had just escaped some dire peril that only their Captain and XO understood.
"That's a good question, actually," Kirk muttered, "Chekhov, where are we going?"
"StarBase Six, sir," Chekhov answered, "You said, closest starbase if possible?"
"Yes, yes, that's fine," Kirk said, absently. He raised his voice to address McCoy again, "I'll tell you all about it later? Say, in an hour?"
"All right. My office in an hour," he said. He sounded busy and distracted, "McCoy out."
As soon as the channel with McCoy closed, Jim turned back to the viewscreen. Spock chose that moment to finally look at his wife.
His eyes branded her like hot coals and her heart exploded into life. He spoke to her finally and she was once again reminded how deeply Vulcan he was.
"Aduna'm," he said, in a voice low and husky, "K'nash vey sarlah?" My wife, come with me?
Daphne was so caught by the intensity of his gaze, and the alternate reality of being addressed as his wife in Vulcan while on duty, that for a moment she couldn't speak. It may have sounded like an order to anyone who spoke Vulcan, though that was limited to Uhura at the present time. But she knew that by Vulcan custom, he had given her the right to refuse. Still needing to be released from Bridge duty, she frantically tore her eyes away from Spock and sought out the Captain.
"Permission to leave the Bridge, sir?" she asked.
Jim looked back at her with quiet affection. He nodded and jerked a thumb towards the 'lift doors.
"Go on," he said.
She looked back at Spock.
"Ha, adun," she murmured, "K'tu nash vey sarlah."
He strode past her and she rushed to follow him, slipping into the turbolift just as the doors closed. Spock's attention was fixed on the opposite wall. So she simply went and stood beside him, leaning back against the wall and looking at the floor.
"Deck Five," Spock told the computer control and then the 'lift thrummed with the energy that passed between them.
Knowing he was still staring at the opposite wall, Daphne finally dared to look up him again. The cool light inside the 'lift higlighted his dark hair and broad shoulders and reflected lovingly off the classic, perfect lines of his face. He stood encased in silence, and she became even more aware of the bloodstains on his uniform - and clearly none of it was his. A deep disquiet trickled down up her spine. She made no attempt to hide it from him.
He turned finally and speared her with a look that burned with black fire.
"I'm frightening you," he said, and she saw the attempt he made to relax.
She smiled a little and shook her head.
"I could never be afraid of you," she answered, "But you are currently making use of several Vulcan disciplines to maintain your control - don't deny it. My brother is alternately acting like a cat that nearly had got scalded and a child that just got everything he wanted for his birthday. You've both got blood on your uniforms, though none of it is yours and none of it appears to be his. Something has you both on high alert. Whatever that 'something' is, it's a bit frightening."
Spock did not hesitate then to strip his shirt off over his head and let it hit the floor of the 'lift. His body shifted until he was facing her and he raised his hand with the first two fingers extended. She didn't hesitate to mirror her own hand and place it against his. It was as if his hand were a living flame.
"The danger has passed," he said and then shook his head in a self-deprecating way, "It is illogical to be reacting to it still."
Daphne remembered with searing clarity the split second in which her bond with him had vanished. He had felt it too. She was certain of that. She was equally certain he knew why it had happened.
She was also certain, as always, that when he was dressed head to toe in nothing but black, she found him unbearably sexy, no matter the circumstances.
Desire rose in her eyes like a tidal wave. "Perhaps it is not the danger you are reacting to, but rather to what it almost cost us," she suggested. She ran her fingers down his palm, around his wrist and up the back of his hand.
She wanted to kiss him and knew in her blood that he wanted to kiss her too.
They were saved from having to take the lift offline to indulge that particular passion when the doors opened to Deck Five, where their cabin awaited them.
He let her enter the room ahead of him. She stepped inside, careful of the gravity shelf, and sighed with relief when the door slid shut behind him. Spock hesitated just inside the door, dropping the shirt he had brought from the 'lift once more on the floor. When she turned to him she was surprised to see him carefully studying the wall on which they displayed the weapons that were part of their heritage.
"Spock?" she said, softly.
In two long strides he was towering over her. He pulled her close against his body, his palms sliding over the curve of her waist and back. His eyes smoldered into hers, leashed Vulcan passion and possession.
She reached up and cupped the back of his neck, pulling him down into the kiss they had been denied earlier. She kissed him with wild abandon and he returned it as if he wanted to absorb her into his soul. The bond between them fired with iridescence as bright colors of desire lit inside her mind.
When the need for air drove them apart, he turned his attention to the soft skin of her throat. She knew that her uniform was going to be shredded before this was over. Gasping she said,
"You were going to tell me what happened, why our bond disappeared...oh..gods..."
He paused and met her eyes again, "I will. Later."
His mouth claimed hers again and Daphne knew it was going to be much later...