McCoy looked up as he heard footsteps approaching. He was packing away some of the medical supplies he had finished using, when the time came to evacuate he wanted to be ready. There was no chance of him being left on this godforsaken planet crawling with Vulcans for any longer than necessary.
Uhura walked over to him. Her eyes were red and she looked like she had been crying. She asked "Where's lieutenant stager?"
McCoy shrugged, how anybody expected him to keep track of where everybody was in this labyrinth of passages, he didn't know.
"Well, if you see her, tell her, I'm evacuating on the triton" Uhura said beginning to turn away.
"I thought you were evacuating on the devlin with Spock?" McCoy said stowing away some diagnostic equipment.
"I am—I mean, I was, I just need to—"she broke off tears coming to her eyes.
McCoy straightened up and looked at her knowingly. "All that logicalness finally getting to you too?" Uhura didn't answer, as she brushed tears away with her sleeve.
"I'm going to give you some advice; you can't have a relationship with an emotionless person. They'll act like they care about you at first. You'll care about them, but eventually they'll show their true face and you'll lose everything. " McCoy said his voice distant, eyes his staring out past her.
Uhura looked at McCoy "Spock's not like that, he just—"
"He's just what?" McCoy said glaring at Uhura "For god sakes he's already got you making excuses for him! Uhura you can't love somebody if they can't love you back. You're better off if you just leave him."
Uhura looked at McCoy, her face angry and confused, "you're wrong, I don't know why you hate Spock and Vulcans but you're wrong!" Then she turned around and started to walk away.
"I'm not wrong, I'm right. You just don't see it yet" McCoy called after her, he could see her pause for an infinitesimal moment before she continued walking away.
McCoy stared after her. He was right. He was sure of that. Spock had the same emotionless, logical, cold manner of Jocelyn. It mattered not to him that Spock's manner was because of his race's philosophy and his upbringing and Jocelyn's had been because that was how she was. The outcome would be the same. Whether he intended to or not Spock would hurt Uhura, the same way Jocelyn had hurt him. McCoy's words may have seemed harsh, but he felt they needed to be said. He was trying to save Uhura from the pain and sadness that he felt every day.
XXXX XXXX
Chekov glanced behind him as he stowed equipment in the shuttle. There was only one other group of people set to go up, other them. They had to evacuate now, the anomaly left a very narrow window for when takeoff would be possible without conditions making navigation almost not viable. The only person they were waiting for was Smith. He glanced around again. Where was Kelly? She had left to get Lieutenant Smith from wherever he had wandered off to and she should've been back by now. Unless the lieutenant had gotten himself lost and she was still trying to find him and knowing Smith that was a definite possibility. Chekov was just about to ask Spock could he go look for her, when Kelly burst into the room. her face was flushed her,breath came in pants. "Smith's dead- we—have to—get—out of here! " She gasped.
Spock, Ensign O'Connor, and Havarii turned towards her. "Kelly vhat are you saying?" Chekov asked startled.
"He killed him- he's dead, Silkar just—he saw me -he's coming we have to leave" a note of horrified urgency in her voice.
Everybody could se that ensign Kelly was obviously shocked by what she had saw. "Please—we have to go—she broke off fighting to control herself. She was clearly terrified.
She had started to speak again, when the door opened behind her, a group of Vulcans stood there, Silkar was at the head, "I think you'd better re-think that". He said as Spock's hand moved towards his phaser. Silkar gestured at the guards and they moved forward encircling the crew. Chekov moved in front of Kelly. "I would presume you've figured out some of what's going on by now Spock" Silkar said looking at Spock.
"You're not a Vulcan" Spoke said calmly.
"Well not, full Vulcan and I'll let you in on the rest of secret since, you're not going to live to tell anybody. " Silkar said enjoying his power "We may not be fully Romulan, but we are Romulan in spirit, and you're looking at what will in a very few months be ruling the galaxy. The federation will be destroyed and all the races shall be subject to our will. And this colony is the advance force; we're the group that will make the entire conquest possible"
With a gesture from Silkar the guards grabbed the crew forcing them to follow as the group moved off. They walked through the colony, taking back ways and corridors to avoid any possibility of the few crew members from the enterprise that were still present seeing them. When they reached their destination, a series of cell blocks, the guards searched them removing anything that could be used to escape, and then they were locked away. Guards were posted outside and the door was reinforced with a force field, they're would be no chance of escape Silkar promised them. Then he left after telling them he would be back to question when the shuttles left.
XXXX XXXX
Silkar came back sooner than expected. The crew looked up as light flooded into the dark cell, Silkar stood in the cell's doorway he was flanked by by two guards all three Vulcans carried disruptors.
"The shuttles will be getting ready to leave in a short while. They'll be suspicious if your shuttle doesn't depart with the rest. " Silkar continued "So I need one of you to tell the others that the Devlin will be staying behind for a while. I don't care what excuse you make, just be convincing."
The entire time he had been talking Silkar, had been staring directly at Spock. Spock looked back at Silkar calmly. "I will not tell the crew anything." He glanced at the disruptor that was levelled at his head "and if you threaten to kill me that will just highlight your illogical behaviour, as if I am dead I cannot contact the crew as you wish, and therefore you cannot effectively threaten to kill me because you would not be able to carry out your threat without thwarting your own aims."
Silkar stared at him, utterly amused "spoken like a true Vulcan." He gave a small smile. " but who said something about you telling anybody anything... Indeed I think it better if the message comes from somebody else that way its less of a chance for you to sneak any little hidden messages in" Silkar turned away from Spock and gestured with his disruptor at Chekov. "He'll do the talking."
The young Russian looked up from where he was seated next to Ensign Kelly attempting to console her and said forcefully "vhat makes you think, I vill do anything you say?"
"Because I'll kill her if you don't" Silkar said simply, turning his disruptor and pressing it to Kelly's head.
"Don't do it Chekov" Kelly said her voice steady, even if her face was afraid.
Chekov looked at her hesitating. Silkar changed the setting on the disruptor.
"you had better do as I say" Silkar said looking straight at Chekov, his eyes boring into the ensign's ." This disruptor was on kill before. Now the setting is lower , but this level will also kill, However at a very slow rate. Do you know how?"
Chekov remained quiet, he had turned to stare at Kelly. He didn't see Silkar's face but he could feel his words.
"The cells inside her head will disintegrate slowly, every minute, every second will be agony, this room will be filled with her screams, she will beg you to die, and eventually she will. And the entire time you will know this was your fault."
Kelly whimpered at his words as the disruptor pressed more tightly into her head, digging into her temple. Chekov stared at Kelly his gaze haunted. The only sounds that breached the silence were Kelly's ragged breaths.
"Go ahead Mr. Chekov" Spock said quietly. Whether he said it because he knew that Silkar was serious and would kill Kelly and felt there was little to be gained by holding out or he did it to take the pressure of the ensign's shoulder because he thought Chekov was going to give in anyway, he wasn't sure.
"See, even Spock see's the wisdom in complying with my wishes I suggest you do as he says. Or we'll all have the pleasure of listening to her as she dies an agonizing death."
"I vill do eet" Chekov said abruptly, tearing his eyes away from Kelly
Silkar smiled and held one of the communicators that had been taken away from them out.
Chekov opened a channel.
"Lieutenant Roth here" said a bored voice from the other end of the line.
"This is Ensign Chekov, Mr. Spock vanted me to tell you that the Devlin will be leaving about 30 minutes after everyone else"
"And vhy is that, Ensign Checkers?" Roth said enjoying himself
Chekov thought fast "Mr. Spock vants to collect data on the anomaly's effect on planetary departure. Can you relay the changes to the other shuttles?"
"Sure thing, by the vay ensign Checkers, tell your girlfriend Kelly, I said hi and that I'll be waiting for her when she gets back if she decides to leave your dumb a—"Roth laughed then clicked off.
Silkar lowered his weapon and took the communicator back. "Now that we've got that settled, I'll leave you until the shuttles depart, then I'll be back and we can have a little conversation" with that last comment Silkar and the guards left the room.
Kelly was shocked, her face was extremely pale, she looked like she was fighting back tears. Chekov placed an arm around her.
They all sat there for several moments in silence before Ensign O'Connor broke the quiet. "I hate! Roth. Even if you had tried to put a message in that communication that a—hole wouldn't have caught it because he was to busy insulting you."
Spock said "Indeed that was extremely unprofessional on the lieutenant's part, when we get back to the ship, he'll have to be reprimanded"
Kelly sniffed back tears and looked across at Spock "you think we'll really get out of here Commander Spock?"
"I believe we will Ensign." Spock said his face as calm and reserved as ever. He felt the other crew relax at his words. Spock had no desire to have hysterical humans on his hands and he had discovered that oddly they sometimes preferred a lie to the truth. It was believed throughout the federation that Vulcans didn't lie. Spock wondered whether he had just gone against that common belief. Because as it was he saw no way that they were getting off this planet alive.
Next update will be February 3rd (with as always a two day margin either way). Well there you go a nice long update. Thanks to all my reviwers , favouriters, and followers. Specific questions for this chapter are : How is Silkar as a villian? Evil enough? Should McCoy ahve given Uhura the advice he gave? Nice to see you guest reviewer markie804. I wish you had an account so I could reply without taking up space in my AN;) but here's the answer. Spock is a bit OOC at times in this story because of Uhura, you're correct she's pregnant, but neither of them knows that. Her decreased emotional control a is affecting him because of their bond, basically her emotions are spilling over into his mind. If Spock knew that Uhura was pregnant he could be on his guard controlwise but he doesn't know so he isn't. As to how Uhura's pregnant anyway with Spock being half-vulcan and her being human, that's to be answered in the sequel to this story. Oops I just leaked the news...