A Vulcan's Love 4
**Disclaimer:
**This story is based in the "Star Trek" universe. The use of anything related to "Star Trek" in this series is not intended to infringe upon the rights of Paramount **Pictures. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.
All other content or otherwise are works of my own imagination. All events are fictitious in nature.
****Any similarities to persons living, dead, or otherwise are purely coincidental.
This story contains strong themes of homosexual content, if this offends you in any way, please refrain from reading further. If you are not of legal age to read this, please leave now.**
A Vulcan’s Love
-By EmulatedLove
Chapter Four: Shadows of the Bassen Rift
The impact sent me flying backwards; smashing the back of my head into the bulkhead behind me. I immediately fell to the floor, unable to move. I opened my eyes to see that while we had stopped, the nightmare had just begun; smoke started to fill the air, causing the overhead lights to be dimmed slightly. The pain from my head was intense, pounding like a jack hammer against my brain. I looked up to watch as a shadow effortlessly moved through the smoke towards me, the figure bent down over my head and began to talk. To me his words came out as though I was underwater; slurred and distorted. Noticing that I didn’t understand, he moved closer; close enough for me to recognise him. Up to that moment I didn’t feel scared or frightened, just confused. That changed once I looked into the eyes of my Vulcan love. His face absent from emotion, but his eyes; his eyes showed fear…
35 Hours Earlier...
“Hello stranger,” I said while walking up behind H'Jan.
He turned to face me, “Hey, I haven't seen you about in ages. I thought you forgot about me.” He replied with a smile.
I shook my head, “No, just been busy with work and stuff, you know?”
He grinned, “Oh, busy playing with your new toy?”
I assumed he was talking about the Interceptor, I bet he was jealous that I've been inside it, “Yeah, she's a beauty.”
He raised his eyebrows, “She?”
I frowned, “Yeah, why? You think it's a boy?”
He looked shocked, “We are talking about T'Luk, right?”
I cringed inwardly, “Erm, I thought you were talking about the Runabout.”
H'Jan laughed, “No stupid, I meant T'Luk.”
I blushed, “He's not my toy!”
H'Jan just smiled, “Uh huh.”
I rolled my eyes at him, “What's that supposed to mean?”
He shrugged, “Nothing.”
I took a look around main engineering, there were quite a few people here considering the hour. It had just gone 21:30 and after talking to Alex in my quarters for about an hour, I decided that I would go and catchup with H'Jan. I hadn't seen a lot of him recently, being on different duty rosters and everything, but we adapted it. Back on the Bellerophon sometimes we'd go days without hanging out properly or anything, and we shared the same room!
“What are you doing here anyway? It's quite late.” I asked.
H'Jan smiled, “Boss wants me to fix the warp core.”
I giggled, “What?”
“I'm giving you the dumbed down version, you want the details?”
“No thanks. Why don't you get someone else to finish off 'fixing it'? It's 21:30.”
“Naah, besides, these extra hours will help me reach Lieutenant Junior Grade before you!”
“Oh no! A Lieutenant Li, whatever shall I do?” I said sarcastically.
“You won't be talking to me like that for a start, and you'll have to address me Sir.” He grinned.
“Not if I become a LT quicker.” I shot.
He laughed at my challenge, “Good luck, Ensign.”
I grinned back, “You doing anything tomorrow evening?”
He shook his head, “Nothing in particular, why?”
“I was thinking about all of us coming over mine or something, have dinner and stuff.” I said.
“Sounds good, what time you thinking about?”
“Is 19:30 a good time?” I asked.
“Yep, not staying around here this long tomorrow, that's for sure.” He replied with a yawn.
“Good. Anyway, I'm out of here, I'll see you tomorrow,” I said, turning to leave.
“Yeah, see ya.”
I left main engineering and went up to my quarters. After cleaning my teeth and going a toilet, I walked over to my bed and shed my clothes, leaving me in my boxers. I crawled into bed and laid down on the pillow, pulling my covers up over me. The Starfleet issue beds were really comfortable, providing a perfect balance between being too soft or too firm. Their quilts and pillows however, didn't seem to be of similar quality. Sure they were alright and kept you warm, but they were too thin, hardly the pillow or quilt I was familiar with. The good part is that Starfleet have no problem with people wanting to use their own bedding. This led me to rip off the old quilt and pillow, and replace them with my own from Earth. The result being a very comfortable bed reminding me of home. Lovely. As I laid there I began to think about T'Luk sleeping. I bet he is curled up looking all cute in those nasty Starfleet issue sheets, poor Vulcan. But knowing him, he wouldn't care about things like that, it would be illogical.
I woke up when I heard the door chime. I rolled over and opened my eyes. The door chimed again.
“Just a minute.” I called out groggily, while swinging my legs out of bed.
“Computer lights, and what is the time?” I called out, while putting on yesterdays shirt and trousers.
“The time is 03:14 hours.” Replied the computer.Damn, this had better be good, I thought to myself while walking toward the door.
I pressed the button to unlock it, and it slid open. Lt Commander Jones was standing there in full uniform looking quite awake. I straightened myself out,
“Good morning, sir, is there something I can do for you?” I asked.
“I can't go into it now, but I'm on my way to Astrometrics, please report there when you're dressed,” She replied.
Lt Jones wasn't usually this vague, “Yes sir, I'll be right there.”
She nodded and walked down the corridor.
I turned back into my quarters and quickly got into my uniform, I put on my combadge and looked at myself in the mirror. I could have done with a shower and a shave, but they'd have to wait until later. I walked out of my quarters and toward the closest turbolift. I summoned one and waited, suddenly feeling really tired. The door opened and I stepped inside,
“Deck 12,” I commanded before I noticed T'Luk walk around the corner toward me, “Halt turbolift,” I quickly called out, before the doors closed.
T'Luk walked inside, “Thank you Kai, Computer deck 12,” He said.
I smiled when I saw him, even though he hardly showed it, I knew that he felt as inconvenienced as me about being woken early.
“Hopefully it won't take that long and we can go back to bed,” I said, trying to stifle a yawn.
“Indeed.” He replied.
I moved closer to him and rested my head on his shoulder. I inhaled and I could smell him. Even though he hadn't showered, he still smelled real good.
The turbolift stopped and I broke away from him before we walked the distance to Astrometrics, finding Lt Commander Jones, Lt Commander Clark and Captain Riker talking to a Romulan male on the main screen at the front of the room. Captain Riker was speaking to him as we walked over,
“I very much appreciate your openness in the matter, thank you for your time ambassador, Riker out.” He said, before closing the channel and facing toward T'Luk and me.
“Captain, I wasn't aware that you were aboard.” I said.
Riker glanced at Lt Comm Jones before answering, “Yes, well there has been an incident that requires my attention.”
T'Luk stepped forward, “What kind of incident?”
Captain Riker pressed a few buttons on the console and a map appeared on the main, there was a coordinate readout at a point on the map, I recognised it immediately. It was where we left the probe yesterday.
“20 minutes ago, sensors picked up an explosion originating from these coordinates. As I'm sure you know, this is where our probe is, or rather where it was.” He said, before continuing, “We haven't been able to contact it since the explosion, leaving us with the explanation that it was the probe that exploded.”
I looked at the map and then back to the Captain, “Do we know what went wrong?”
He looked at me, “No, we didn't detect any anomalies in the surrounding space before and after the explosion and neither has the Romulans. According to the probes last diagnostic, there wasn't anything wrong with its systems.” He paused, “However we have detected some debris left over from the explosion. After speaking to the Romulans and getting their permission, we are allowed to go and salvage what's left of it.”
“So the Titan is going out there?” I asked.
Lt Comm Clark answered me, “No, while the Romulans said we can go there, they were clear on the point that they didn't want us to send a large starship, but we are allowed to send a runabout.”
“The Interceptor? Wouldn't it be dangerous to send such a small ship away from the fleet?” I questioned.
“If the Romulans wanted to attack us, they would have done it by now, besides, they wouldn't achieve a lot from destroying one runabout, apart from declaring war.” Answered Clark.
I nodded, he was right, they could have attacked at any time, and I doubt they would risk war with the Federation.
“Who will perform the salvage operation?” Asked T'Luk, I think we both knew who would be involved.
Jones answered, “I will be commanding the Interceptor, along with you two, and Ensign Cauchon.”
I looked at T'Luk who was giving me a sideways glance, “Ok, when do we leave? And where is Ensign Cauchon?”
“We gave Ensign Cauchon a head start so he can perform preflight checks while you two get ready and pack your bags. It will take 27 hours to reach those coordinates at warp 6, so pack enough supplies to last you for three days. We will leave in 30 minutes, I will meet you in the main shuttle bay. Any other questions?” She replied.
“No, mam.” I said.
“No, sir.” Said T'Luk.
“Good. Dismissed.” She replied.
I nodded and walked out of Astrometrics with T'Luk by my side. We walked into the turbolift,
“Deck 7,” Called out T'Luk.
I turned to face him, “Looks like we are getting our little romantic getaway after all.” I said softly.
“Romantic?”
“Well, its not what I planned, but it gets us away for a while.”
He nodded.
The turbolift stopped and we walked to my quarters, as T'Luk's are past mine. We paused outside mine as I opened my door . I quickly glanced around the corridor, there was no one there. I leaned forward and kissed T'Luk on the lips.
I pulled back, “I'll see you in a bit, babes” I whispered.
He raised an eyebrow at my choice of words, causing me to blush slightly.
“I will meet you at the shuttle bay.” He said.
“Ok, see you there.”
He nodded and walked down the corridor. I turned and walked into my quarters, I noticed my bed looking all messed up and so inviting. I sighed and walked over to my wardrobe and retrieved a standard issue suitcase, it wasn't very large, but it held enough storage for two days worth of clothes, but with the replicator on board the Interceptor, I wouldn't need to wear anything twice. I also packed a PADD and some extra shoes, something a little more comfortable then the Starfleet ones.
About 15 minutes later I was showered, shaved and dressed in a new uniform. I had also sent a memo to H'Jan and Casey, apologising for the change of plans regarding us meeting up later. I attached my combadge, picked up my suitcase and walked out of my quarters and headed down to the shuttle bay. Once I arrived there, I noticed that the nacelles to the Interceptor were lit up and a mild drone could be heard emanating from it. I walked toward it and could see Alex through the front windows, I waved to him as I walked around and entered through the hatch.
“Hey Alex, enjoying yourself?” I remarked, noticing the large grin on Alex's face.
He giggled, “Yeah, it's gonna be so much fun piloting this thing, I can't wait.”
I smiled, “I bet you can't, I'm just gonna go stow this away.” I said raising my suitcase.
He nodded and swivelled back to face the front control panel.
I walked into the galley, just behind the transporter, which separates the fore and aft compartment and placed my suitcase inside one of the racks. I noticed that Lt Comm Jones suitcase was already here, so I knew that she'd be here soon. I walked into the rear compartment and noticed there were two bunks opposite each other on both sides of the wall, along with a fold out table and four chairs that can be placed in the middle of the room. The far end of the runabout had been turned into a makeshift bathroom with a toilet, sonic shower and sink. It wasn't the largest of living spaces, but it wasn't exactly too squashed.
I heard someone moving behind me and turned around to see T'Luk effortlessly lifting his suitcase and placing it above mine. He faced me,
“Hello, Kai.”
“Hey, you ready?” I asked.
“Yes, are you?”
“Yep, let's go salvage a probe.”
We walked back into the fore section and sat down, noticing Lt Comm Jones entering the shuttle bay. She walked through the hatch and sealed both the outer and inner doors before sitting down in the free seat at the front of the ship, opposite Alex. She swivelled around to face all of us,
“Is everyone ready?” She asked.
We all replied that we were.
She turned to Alex, “Are we ready for departure?”
“Yes sir, all systems are online and standing by.” He beamed.
“Good.” She pressed a button on the console in front of her, “Bridge this is Lieutenant Commander Jones aboard the Interceptor, requesting permission to launch.”
There was a brief pause before Lt Comm Clark replied, “Lt Comm Jones you have permission to launch, have a good flight.”
The lighting to the shuttle bay dimmed as a level 1 forcefield activated around the large shutters which slowly began to open, revealing an inky black background dotted with stars. Space. Once the shutters were fully open, Jones turned to Alex,
“Take her out, straight and steady Ensign.”
Alex grinned, “Yes mam.”
He tapped a few commands into the console in front of him and the gentle drone increased in volume slightly as the runabout rose above the floor to a height of about two feet. We hovered there for a couple of seconds before we started to glide forward, increasing speed until we exited through the forcefield and out into space. Alex bought the ship about which allowed us to fly over the top of the Titan. Out here it looked huge, it's hard to imagine over a thousand people are inside it, most of whom are still sleeping. We turned away from the fleet and sped up to full impulse, moving away from the planet.
“Ensign set a course for the coordinates, warp 6.”
Alex tapped away, “Aye sir, course and speed plotted.”
“Engage.”
A gentle whine could be heard rapidly increasing in pitch until we accelerated to the speed of light, mystical clouds of different colour flew past the front window until the familiar view of the stars whizzing past against the black background could be seen.
“Steady at warp 6, ETA: 26 hours and 34 minutes.” Called out Alex.
Jones turned around to face us, “Do any of you want to go back to sleep? I know we got you up a little early.”
We all shook our heads.
“Ok, I'm going to go lie down for a while, I didn't get much sleep last night, ” She said, raising out of her seat, “You have the conn, Ensign.” She said addressing Alex.
“Aye, sir.”
She turned and made her way into the rear section, with the door closing behind her, leaving me and Alex with grins on our faces. T'Luk looked over at us,
“What?”
Alex and I looked at each other and then back to T'Luk, “It's just that we are in a runabout and Alex has the conn, it's exciting.”
T'Luk raised an eyebrow, “Do you not like Lieutenant Commander Jones?”
“I do, I think she's great, but there's just this excitement you get when you know that there isn't anyone looking over your shoulder.” I replied.
He nodded, “I think I understand.”
We chatted for about an hour before we retreated into doing our own thing. T'Luk and Alex were both reading books on their PADD's, while I performed a search of the Federation database on the keyword: Vulcan. Suffice it to say that there were more articles and data with that keyword that I could read in a lifetime, instead I chose to read up on some Vulcan customs, the planet Vulcan and lastly famous Vulcan people. I was looking through Ambassador Spock's article when I came across a picture of him. It must have been taken over a hundred years ago, as he couldn't have been over thirty years old. At first glance I thought that he looked kind of like T'Luk, sure there was the obvious differences, such as T'Luk's smaller nose and his slightly darker skin tone, but they shared some similar features. I enlarged the photo to fill the screen and tapped on Alex's shoulder, he looked up to face me.
I handed him the PADD, “Does he look familiar to you?”
He looked at the photo for a couple of seconds before he looked over at T'Luk,”Yeah he does, who is that?” He asked excitedly, handing back the PADD.
“That is Ambassador Spock, taken over a hundred years ago, in his younger years.” I said.
T'Luk looked up and over at me. I stood up and sat down in the chair next to him, handing him the PADD, “What do you think, look like anyone familiar to you?”
He glanced at the photo for several seconds, “Intriguing. He does seem to share some similar physical traits to me, which is unusual considering he is half human.” He said.
I smiled at him, “Yeah, although you're a lot cuter. All Vulcan.” I said quietly.
He looked at me for a minute, before he lifted the PADD so he could see it, he looked at the top of the screen and saw my searching history.
“You have been searching for Vulcan?” He asked.
“Yeah, I wanted to see what information the database has, which is apparently a lot.” I replied.
“Have you ever been to Vulcan?” He inquired.
I shook my head, “No, never. Although I'd love to go sometime.”
He studied me for a moment, “When we acquire enough shore leave, I will take you there, if you would like.”
I grinned, “I would like that.”
He handed me back my PADD and I glanced at his, “What are you reading?”
He reached over and gave it to me. I looked at the screen. I smiled, he was also performing a search of his own, only his search word was Human. He'd already looked through quite a few articles from what I could see, including one on England.
“Have you ever been to England?” I asked, handing it back to him.
“No, San Francisco is the only place that I have been to on Earth.” He replied.
“If we have some time left after visiting Vulcan, I'll take you there, if you would like.” I said, mimicking his offer.
He nodded, “I would, thank you.”
I sat there listening to his reply when I suddenly realised something, “T'Luk, say England.”
He didn't hesitate, but raised an eyebrow, ”England.”
I giggled.
“What is it? Did I say it wrong?” He asked.
“No you said it fine, I only just realised that you have this cute American accent.” I said, pausing, “Most other races usually use the universal translator, which gives them a species specific accent, but you don't.”
“I don't see the need to use it as I can speak it fluently. With my cute American accent.” He said.
I laughed aloud at his humour; he's so perfect.
The next 24 hours were pretty uneventful. Lt Comm Jones made it clear to us that she wanted us to relax and not to feel on edge for the whole journey, after all, it was an away mission. We shared all main meals with each other and generally had fun. I also learned a bit about Lt Comm Jones, or Maria as she made us call her. She had been serving in Starfleet for most of her adult life, she had served aboard four different starships before joining the Titan. She was also married to a Bajoran engineer who worked on Bajor, so she didn't see him as much as she liked. When she told us that, I looked over at T'Luk. I didn't know back then what the future would bring, but I knew that should we ever get married, I wouldn't want him to be so far away. T'Luk and I shared bunks over to one side of the ship. Just before I went to bed, he walked over to me and kissed me goodnight. I slept really well that night, which I put that down to me being close to T'Luk. Hopefully once we get back to the Titan we can spend some time together, and I don't even mean to be intimate, but to just spend some time alone with each other would be nice.
We were all awake when we arrived at the coordinates specified. All we had to do was perform a short range scan for anything worth salvaging, notably the storage devices, and beam them aboard. The Interceptor was inside the Bassen Rift, so that when you looked out of the front window all you could see was its green clouds of dust. Every now and then you could just look out and be mesmerised by its appearance. We had been here for about an hour, beaming aboard some items, before we tracked a smaller piece of debris that had drifted away from the explosion, we set an intercept course and caught up with it. The object continued to move however, as it was still running on its inertia from the explosion; and as space is a vacuum, it would continue to move until it hits into something. I started to scan it and found that it appeared to be part of an optical sensor. I told Alex that I was going to beam it aboard so he could bring us to a stop.
The Interceptor came to a stop as I acquired a transporter lock onto it, I was about to beam it aboard when something odd happened. The object stopped suddenly and then slowly drifted back to us, as though it hit into a wall. I looked on the sensors, but there was nothing there. I stood up and walked to the front window, sure enough, there was nothing in front of us. Nothing that I could see.
I turned to Lt Comm Jones who was busy writing a report on the objects we had recovered, T'Luk was assisting her with identifying the debris, “Maria, is your console picking up anything in front of us?” I asked.
She tapped away and shook her head, “Nope, nothing apart from your object, why?” She asked, turning to face me.
“It just hit into something.” I replied, “It was travelling on inertia from the explosion, but then it hit into something ahead of us.”
Alex turned to face us, looking alarmed, “A cloaked Romulan ship?”
“Well it's really close if it is, about 100 metres.” I said, sitting down at my console and looking across at T'Luk, who was staring out of the front window.
Maria turned around in her seat and faced the front, “Alex, bring us about and engage full impulse, move us out of the Rift.” She replied quickly.
Alex nodded and relayed her commands into the console, turning the ship around and moving away.
“Computer Red alert.” Called Maria, putting us on guard. “Alex perform evasive manoeuvres until we exit the Rift, then set a course for the fleet,”
The lights dimmed and red lighting began to flash, along with an alarm which briefly sounded.
I briefly looked ahead out of the window long enough to notice a Romulan warbird – D'deridex class, begin to decloak in front of us.
“Alex avoid that ship and take us to warp, we have to get a message to the fleet,” She said.
“They're firing torpedoes,” Called out T'Luk.
The Interceptor violently rocked to the left, almost knocking me from my seat, “Shields at 76%,” I called out.
I could hear the nacelles beginning to charge, signalling that we were about to jump to warp, but we were hit again.
“Fuck! We've lost warp drive!” Cursed Alex.
Maria began to tap away quickly on her console before it became apparent as to what she was doing, “I'm going to launch a distress beacon, hopefully the Romulans won't detect it and the fleet will come to help us.”
The ship rocked again and I looked across to T'Luk. We both shared the same thought, even if the fleet left Romulus this instant, it would still take them at least 20 minutes to get here, and there was no way that we could hold out that long.
T'Luk turned back toward his console, “Returning fire.” He said, before the phaser array could be heard firing.
Maria hit her display, “I've lost computer control, the beacon will need to be launched manually,” she called out.
I was the closest so I stood up, “I'll take care of it.” I shouted over the sound of the various alarms that had begun to wail.
I ran into the aft compartment and suddenly realised how difficult it had suddenly it had become to walk, evidently the inertial dampeners had taken a hit, along with the anti-gravity systems that seemed to make me feel too light. I crouched down next to a panel on the wall and pried it off with my fingers, I pulled the lever which released the panel in the floor, which contained the system manual overrides. I looked for the right system and removed the isolinear chip and pushed it into the active slot. I heard the sound of the beacon being launched and I made my way back to the forward section. The control panel I was working on earlier had exploded and was now on fire, half of the displays was no longer working and the ship was shaking about all over the place. I looked out of the front window and noticed that we were heading into what looked like an asteroid field, I remember thinking that hopefully the Romulans won't be able to chase us in here, and that maybe we'd get away. They fired at us again.The impact sent me flying backwards; smashing the back of my head into the bulkhead behind me. I immediately fell to the floor, unable to move. I opened my eyes to see that while we had stopped, the nightmare had just begun; smoke started to fill the air, causing the overhead lights to be dimmed slightly. The pain from my head was intense, pounding like a jack hammer against my brain. I looked up to watch as a shadow effortlessly moved through the smoke towards me, the figure bent down over my head and began to talk. To me his words came out as though I was underwater; slurred and distorted. Noticing that I didn’t understand, he moved closer; close enough for me to recognise him. Up to that moment I didn’t feel scared or frightened, just confused. That changed once I looked into the eyes of my Vulcan love. His face absent from emotion, but his eyes; his eyes showed fear.
T'Luk had something in his hands and was waving it over me. He was then holding something else which he pressed to the side of my neck. I felt a cool sensation before the world around me faded away. Everything went black.
*
When I opened my eyes I found myself looking into the eyes of T'Luk. His appearance left something to be desired as his hair was all messy and sticking up in places, along with patches of black dirt was plastered across his face. I tried to speak, but found that I didn't have the power to. I felt his hand softly stroke the side of my face as I started to feel my body waking up. I could see T'Luk's lips moving, but I couldn't hear anything. I wasn't quite sure what I was doing laying there on the ground. I remember feeling confused, but at the same time comforted my T'Luk's presence. After a couple of minutes I started to feel more conscious and could now hear sounds around me. I remember hearing someone, a guy, talking in an unfamiliar tongue. I knew the voice, but why was he talking like that? It wasn't T'Luk, he was just looking at me, I opened my mouth,
“T'Luk...” I croaked out.
He leaned closer to me, “It's ok Kai, I'm here.”
I tried to sit up, but felt a searing pain sweep through the back of my head as I tried to move.
“Don't move, you are hurt.” He said softly.
I looked past him and noticed that I was staring up at a blue sky. I stared at the white clouds overhead for a minute, trying to take it all in before I tried to speak again.
“Where...” I said slowly, before I started to cough. T'Luk put a bottle to my lips and squeezed some water into my mouth, I swallowed and things felt better.
He pulled it back and looked around, “We are on a planet, we're safe here.” He replied.
I tried to sit up again, “What happen-” was all I got out before T'Luk held me on the ground, refusing to let me move.
He shook his head, “You can't move Kai, you are hurt.”
I relaxed my muscles, and T'Luk let go of me, “What's wrong with me?” I asked.
He paused for a moment, “You have suffered a severe head trauma, you will be ok as long as you remain still.”
I tried to nod, but found that even the slightest movement gave me a lot of pain.
I heard that other voice again, “Who is that?” I asked T'Luk.
“It's Alex.” He replied.
I tried to laugh, “No it isn't. Alex doesn't talk like that.”
T'Luk looked over to my left and called out, “Alex, come over here.” He said.
I heard some footsteps approaching before I saw Alex's blond hair over me. He sat down by my side and smiled, before he started to speak in a language I couldn't understand.
I looked at him, “What are you saying?”
He stopped for a moment, “Oh, sorry I thought you could understand me.” He said in a strong French accent.
“Alex...What's wrong with your voice?” I asked.
He grinned, “Nothing, you've always heard the translator speak for me, this is my voice when I speak English. Usually the translator converts my French with little accent, but the translator isn't working.”
“Oh. I didn't know, I always assumed you talked like that normally.” I replied.
“I just find it easier, besides, I have quite a strong accent otherwise.” He said.
I looked at T'Luk, “How come you aren't speaking Vulcan?”
“I told you earlier, I don't use the translator.” He said.
I remembered that, we were on the Interceptor and we were on a mission with Lt Comm Jones, but where was she?
“Where's Maria?” I asked.
“She's trying to fix the subspace radio.” Replied T'Luk.
“What happened after I...passed out?” I asked.
During the next 5 minutes, T'Luk and Alex filled me in with what had happened while I was unconscious, this is their story:
Lt Comm Maria Jones turned around to see T'Luk was caring for Kai who had just smashed his head during the last attack. She turned back to watch as the Interceptor entered the asteroid field, which was too dense for the larger warbird to follow.
“Move us behind that large asteroid and all stop, Alex.” She said, before standing up out of her chair and moving toward Kai.
She watched as the Vulcan tenderly held the Human in his arms as he guided a dermal regenerator over a cut on his forehead. She knew that these two were together ever since she first saw them working down in Astrometrics, but their feelings for each other were clearly evident on the Vulcan's face as he cared for his loved one. She knelt down next to him.
“How is he?”
T'Luk looked at her, “He's sedated, but he hit his head hard on the wall. He needs to see a doctor.” He said, sounding unsure.
She looked down at Kai, “We'll get him home soon. Are you alright T'Luk?”
The Vulcan nodded before leaning down and kissing Kai on the forehead, “I'll get you home soon.” He whispered.
Maria stood up and walked back to the front, “How are you doing Alex?” She asked.
He kept looking straight forward, “I'm ok, Why did they attack us? Do you think we're at war?” He asked.
She turned to look at him, “I'm not sure Alex, but we should concentrate on getting us out of here. I'll see if there's somewhere where we can put down.” She said, before searching the local star charts. “Here, a star system with one class M planet, about 0.2 ly from our current position.”
“Without warp drive you can forget about that, sir.” Replied Alex.
“Let's see how badly damaged it was,” She said while tapping on her console, “It seems to be intact, the computer shut down the core after an overload was detected in the EPS grid. I'll try to bring it back online.”
A gentle hum could be heard, indicating the drive was back online, “Alex move us out of the asteroid field and we will go to warp.”
Alex bought the Interceptor around a large heap of rock before engaging the warp drive, “We should be there in about 10 mins, but the subspace radio is out, so even when we leave the rift, we can't call for help.” He said, before continuing, “There's no sign of that Romulan warbird, maybe we lost them.”
Maria Jones nodded and sighed, let's hope we make it that far, then we'll worry about the radio, she thought.
10 Minutes later, they dropped out of warp and quickly entered orbit of the class M planet. Maria programmed the computer to set a course toward the fleet and instructed the emergency radio, which had limited range, to transmit their coordinates on an encrypted Starfleet channel. Once the computer was set, they beamed down to the planet along with some supplies and the broken subspace radio. The Interceptor then broke orbit and headed toward the fleet at warp speed. They had been on the planet for 3 hours before Kai woke up.
My account continues from here:
“You lot were busy then,” I said.
Alex nodded, “You could say that. We were just lucky really.”
I heard someone else approach, “How you doing Ensign?” Asked Lt Comm Jones.
“I'm doing alright sir. How's the radio?”I replied.
She smiled, “I think I've managed to fix it. It's relaying an encrypted distress signal which should be heard all the way into the Neutral zone. I guess we'll find out soon if it works.”
We talked for the next 2 hours, each of us speculating about what had just happened, but we ended up with more questions: Were we at war? Was the fleet ok? Would someone come looking for us? After a while we became quiet. The sun started to set, and from what I could see overhead, it looked beautiful. A gorgeous red haze filled the sky, with the blackness of space peeking through from behind, and the small beads of white being stars. T'Luk had never left my side and was now laying next to me, his fingers laced with mine.
“When we go to Vulcan, can I see your home?” I asked.
He turned to me, “I will take to see anything you want.” He replied softly.
I squeezed his hand, “I love you.”
He squeezed back, “I love you too.”
After a couple of minutes, Alex called over, “I've got some lovely tasting rations for you.” He remarked sarcastically, while throwing a pouch to T'Luk.
“Thank you Alex.” He said before facing toward me.
“Kai, do you want me to help you to sit up?” He asked.
“Will it be safe for me to move?”
He picked up a tricorder and scanned me, “The swelling has gone down. I will give you an analgesic for the pain. It should be safe for you to move.” He pressed a hypospray against my neck and injected it.
“Ok, can you help me up?” I asked.
He nodded and moved behind me, gripping me under my arms, “Are you ready?” He asked.
“Yeah.”
T'Luk pulled me up steadily as I sat up. I didn't feel any pain, thanks to the fresh dose of analgesic. Once I was in a sitting up position, T'Luk pulled me back toward him so I was resting against his chest. He was resting against the emergency supply kits so we didn't fall backward.
T'Luk gave me the contents to a rations pack which he opened for me, I gripped the long and chewy snack and took a small bite. It didn't taste of much, but on a whole, it was edible. Now that I was sitting up, I looked around the makeshift camp that we had. We were on a grassy hill, a tree lined valley could be seen in the distance below. Alex and Maria were sitting about 10 metres away with some other containers and the subspace radio. It was a comfortable temperature and not very windy, we were very fortunate, as there are many places which are much less habitable. T'Luk started to eat some of his rations as well. He had one arm wrapped around my waist, keeping me close, and his other was holding his food. Just sitting here in his embrace made me feel safe and loved. I could feel the gentle exhale against the back of my neck when he breathed out, it was a comforting feeling.
After we finished eating and having some water, the sun had almost become non existent; leaving us with a clear view of space and the stars above. I was laying down again, but this time I was laying with my head on T'Luk's chest, with a blanket covering us. We linked hands as we stared up above. Laying there on his chest, I could hear the rapid beating of his heart, much faster than my own. Even though we'd been through such an ordeal, I felt surprisingly calm as I looked out into the vast gulf. I was looking for any astral objects that I could identify when I noticed something. Several small dots flashed above us in the sky, appearing for only a second before vanishing. Something had just dropped out of warp. Someone had found us.
“Did you guys see that?” I said, loud enough for Alex and Maria to hear me.
Maria stood up, “Alex, T'Luk, grab your phasers. We don't know if they are friendly.” She replied, reaching down into a bag on the floor and retrieving hers.
T'Luk moved from underneath me and grabbed his own, before crouching down and taking a defensive posture over me.
Everything was silent for a few seconds before a bright light appeared a metre off the ground and started to intensify. Someone was beaming down using a Starfleet transporter. Four security officers, along with Commander Caves rematerialised in front of us. T'Luk remained still for a second before he put down his phaser.
“Commander, it is good to see you.” Said Alex in a relieved voice.
“Likewise, you gave us a scare when we detected the Interceptors distress beacon.” He replied, taking a quick look around before walking over to me.
“Hey sir,” I called out.
“Hey Ensign, how are you feeling?” He asked, looking down at me.
“A little sore and tired.”
He nodded, “Don't worry, we'll get you to sickbay straight away,” He said before tapping his combadge and requesting a beam out.
T'Luk knelt down next to me and held my hand. I looked up into his eyes as we dematerialised on the planet and rematerialised moments later aboard the Titan.
I smiled at him. We were home.
Thank you for reading Chapter Four of A Vulcan's Love.
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