DISCLAIMER: The Star Trek characters
are the property of Paramount Studios, Inc and Viacom. The story contents are the
creation and property of Djinn and are copyright (c) 2022 by Djinn. This story
is Rated R.
It's in the Spaces Between That We Fall in
Love
by Djinn
Part 10: How We Were Betrayed
Days move into weeks. A new normal
begins. Him on the ship with La'an. Christine on Earth—when she isn't with his
father—with Saavik and Valeris.
Saavik wastes no time in
beginning her wooing of La'an, taking his suggestions for a florist to use and
which flowers La'an might like, La'an's office becomes home for a constant
rotation of beautiful arrangements.
"She's relentless,"
La'an says, but she looks pleased.
Jim backs off with grace, as
Spock knew he would. "Your girl's got game, Spock."
"She is difficult to
deter once she is on a path."
"Like father like
daughter." Jim grins. "And your cousin is doing great. Matt can't
stop raving about her."
"She is still number one
in her class." Valeris is a source of pride for him—how different would
her life have been if she had stayed with his brother, if she had been cast
adrift with criminals after his death?
Missions fold into missions.
Months into months. They are in space, and then they are back on Earth. Space,
Earth.
This time is different
though. Change is in the air as Jim might say.
La'an walks beside him as
they head for the apartment. Saavik moved back in with Christine when she left
Gol.
But that will change. She and
La'an are apartment hunting. La'an will not be on the ship for much longer, is
being assigned as deputy chief of security for all of Starfleet.
He is happy for her, for
Saavik, for Christine, who forgave him for not being there for her when she
needed him once he brought her daughter back to her.
A daughter who now seems to
love with even more of herself—perhaps just as he did, once the austerity of
Gol was purged. Only the focus of his love was with another.
Saavik is not so cursed.
La'an fell before the onslaught of flowers and calls, of poetry she mentions
but will not share with him that Saavik writes for her.
Just as Saavik fell for a
little girl La'an fell in love with on one of their last missions. A toddler
who is now home with Christine and Saavik. Who was the last of her tribe on a
world where those without tribes were killed.
He agreed they could not
leave her to die, and so La'an beamed her out with them, and she and Saavik
have become too enamored with her to give her up to the orphan facility the
Federation runs.
Besides, she would be the
only Callarian at the facility. Better to be with outsiders who love her if
there is no chance she can be with her own kind.
Callarians are empathic but
also highly resistant to being read telepathically. Spock remembers how strange
that was the first time she touched his hand and he felt nothing coming back
from her.
He has grown used to making
use of his gifts without even thinking about them. Or not until they are
suddenly of no use.
La'an and Saavik have named
the girl Manua, after La'an's brother. She is too young to tell them what her
own name was.
As they walk toward the
entrance to the apartment, Spock allows his focus to turn to Christine, to let
her know they are there, to feel her answering joy.
Part of that joy is for her
new grandchild. But she is very ready for her to be a grandchild who visits,
not lives with them. If only so she and Spock can fully enjoy his time home.
She is waiting at the door,
allowing La'an through then pulling him into the powder room near the entrance
and shutting the door, pushing him against the wall, and kissing him hard and
fast and with passion that seeps into him from both where her fingers touch his
skin and the bond.
"You have missed
me?"
"I have." She
nuzzles his neck. "Also"—she pulls out a scanner and laughs at the
results—"I can't believe I felt this before you did." She shows him
the readings.
"Nor can I." The
Pon Farr? He is fortunately in the early stages. "I was more reactive than
normal to everyday frustrations." But no one has commented. Now that she
has named it, though, he can feel the hormones mixing together to make the
generally inconvenient soup of love and desire to possess.
"I took the liberty of
booking a place. Just in case I was right." She pushes back his hair.
"Are you all right? It worries me that you didn't notice this?"
"I always miss you when
we are apart. I greatly anticipate our reunions. The bond keeps me feeling part
of you. Perhaps all these things masked the underlying issue. Wanting you is
not a new thing." He pulls her back to him. "Where is this place you
have booked?"
"The mountains. Very
private. Very discreet. Your parents went there the last time... Your mother
was telling me how nice it was, for if we were ever in need of such a
place."
He does not wish to hear of his
parents doing this. Especially when his mother is getting older—will there come
a time when she cannot? It is not something one asks one's parents.
He hears a squeal outside the
bathroom door. Manua is there, tapping softly on the door, making the noise she
often does when anyone makes romantic overtures. Her empathy seems far more
tuned to loving vibrations at this point than to anger or fear.
"Our granddaughter wants
in. I cannot wait for them to get their own place." She pockets her
scanner and opens the door, bending down to whisk the child up and then she
holds her between them, blowing on her neck until she laughs in effervescent
joy.
Manua reaches over to him and
he holds out his arms, letting her move to him. "She has grown
considerably."
"She was way too thin.
But now she's good. We had her at the doctor last week. He thinks she's the
equivalent of an eighteen-month-old. I've downloaded everything I could on
Callarians. She seems totally normal for that age."
He feels her joy, knows his
own mirrors it. He is happy for La'an and Saavik. Thinks it is probably
preferable that a foundling will be their first child, since they both were
that—and it might take any strangeness out of bearing a child later if they
choose to go that route. A buffer between the child Saavik forced herself to
carry and one she or La'an might want to create.
Then again, given the energy
level of the small being who now wants to return to Christine, one might be
sufficient.
He does not doubt that
Christine is ready for this bundle of energy to have a place more suited to her
needs.
"Do you have her in
there?" Saavik asks from outside the door. "Because we're about to
head out to look at places and I can't find her anywhere."
He opens the door. "We
have her."
La'an studies them. "Do
we want to know what you're all doing in there."
Manua suddenly laughs
outrageously and La'an's face transforms in a way he would not have thought it
could. Such adoration on her as she reaches out and takes her child from him.
"Little monster."
Manua rubs her hands over
La'an's braids, cooing softly.
"Okay, monster, we have
to go." La'an hands Manua back to Christine. "Your grandparents will
take good care of you. Or else they will hear about it from us." She
glares at them both. "Ixnay on the eunionray exsay."
"At least until she's
napping," Saavik says with a grin. Then they are gone.
Christine shows him where
they have put Manua's toys in his office closet. "It's only temporary, but
we needed the room. Between me and Amanda, this kid might have a few too many
cute clothes taking up the other closets."
He can well imagine how much
fun she and his mother have had dressing the child up.
"Oh and she's prepared
to take her to the beach house while we're gone tending to your biological
issues." She has a sheepish look. "I know it's probably weird that I
told her, but we're going to need a babysitter. Saavik and La'an are not going
to be easy to please on apartments so it will take them forever to find a
place. For two who travel light they have the weirdest checklist of
'essentials' for their new place."
"Indeed." He has
seen La'an's side of the list. "I believe if the child were not in the
picture, they would not be so exacting. They wish to do right by her."
"They're nervous
nellies."
"To be fair, you and I
have never had to raise a toddler. She may not be as reasonable as Saavik and
Valeris were—or as inclined to avoid danger." He does not wish to think
about all the possible things that could harm a young child.
"Here, take her. I need
to pack." He knows she will pack for him too. He keeps enough clothes here
to not have to carry things between the ship and home.
He takes Manua to his office
and watches as she pulls toys out of his closet and lays them carefully out in
a pattern only she can understand.
Then she meets his eyes and
smiles in a way he finds almost more charming than he can bear.
"Very well done,"
he says, touching her cheek.
She leans into his hand, then
goes back to what she was doing.
##
He lies in bed next to
Christine, sweat drying as a cool breeze wafts in through the screens on the
windows and sliding door.
The burning has come sooner
than he thought, given that his body went through it on the Genesis planet.
Then again, his body aged decades on that planet so he may, in fact, be once
again overdue.
Christine reaches for the
cooler they placed near the bed and pulls out a water container, and opens it
over him, letting the condensation drip onto his chest and stomach. It feels
wonderful.
She shivers from the feel of
it. The bond is open wide between them. The meld he has had in near constant
engagement dying gently.
"I regret that our leave
is taken up with this."
"With nonstop
lovemaking?"
It cheers him that she
considers it that and not nonstop rutting. "You had no choice."
"Sure I did." She
lets him drink from the bottle, then recaps it and puts it on the floor.
"I could have dropped you in the middle of a desert and flitted
away." She laughs as she pulls him on top of her. "Or I could have
put you in a deep-sea submersible and left you way, way down at the bottom of
the ocean."
She wraps her legs around him
and he groans at the sensation.
"Or I could have put you
in stasis, ready to go when I felt like waking you. Or—"
He kisses her and puts an end
to all the ways she could have avoided this. She is laughing under his mouth and
he can feel her joy, it surges in the best way.
"I am glad you did none
of those things."
"Yeah, they would suck
for you. Although stasis might not." She closes her eyes as he moves
inside her. "Having you mad for me at a moment's notice. Oh wait—I already
have that. Even without the burning."
He murmurs something
agreeable and keeps moving, lost in the feel of her. Soon she is lost in the
feel of him, too. Then they are moving faster, calling out, then finally
collapsing against each other in quick succession.
As they lie quietly together,
she says softly, "Sarek wants you to join him on our next mission."
He waits, unsure where she is
going with this.
"I know I said I didn't
want you on his team, but I've been rethinking that. Do you think Jim would
loan you out from time to time?"
"If Sarek wishes it, he
will take the request high enough that Jim will have no say."
"Not if I say not
to."
"You have that much sway
over my father?" Even Michael did not show such confidence in controlling
him.
"He values my input. And
if he doesn't, I make him." She pulls away so they are eye to eye. "I
don't want him doing this if it's not what you want."
"Is it what you
want?"
"I miss you. I'd love to
have you with us every so often. I'm starting to really enjoy diplomacy—I think
you might too. And we know we work well together."
"It is true." He
smooths back hair grown damp over the course of the burning then runs his
finger down her cheek, to her lips. "We could try it. Once. It is not
working with you that concerns me. It is working with my father."
"Technically, while
you're learning, you'd be working for him."
He sighs. "True."
"Is that too much to
contemplate?"
He can feel through the bond
that she wants it not to be. That she wants him to try, for her. And for
himself. To have another career path open to him.
And perhaps his mother was
right? How long should he serve in the same position on the same ship? Jim is
grooming Sulu for captaincy. Might he not appreciate Spock being gone from time
to time so Sulu can be first officer for more than just a few hours or days?
"All right. You said he
has something in mind?"
"I can't tell you about
it. It's very preliminary. But it's based on what happened inside the Great
Barrier. And with whom."
He lifts an eyebrow. There
were Romulans and Klingons both on that planet—he barely interacted with the
Romulan but he was on the Klingon ship.
Could it finally be time for peace
with the Klingons?
Could he be part of that?
"I find myself very
interested. Tell my father to request me."
"And you'll work for
him?"
"Until such time as I no
longer need his immediate instruction. And then I will work with him. Or,
perhaps, on my own even."
"Two more stubborn
men..."
"But you serve as
intermediary between us so very well."
"I do, don't I?"
She rolls him to his back. "Now, where were we?"
##
He does not just enjoy
diplomacy; he finds it fills a hole in himself that he did not realize was
there.
His father is pleased with
him. Not just with his willingness to be mentored but also at the progress he
is making getting the Klingon leadership to trust him.
Jim is less pleased. At first
Spock was gone infrequently but now it is more and more.
Although you cannot tell he
is unhappy as he sits in a wetsuit near a surfboard at the beach house while
the ship is in for routine refits, talking to Valeris who is on leave before
her first assignment.
She is also near a surfboard
and in the same kind of wetsuit Jim is wearing.
He walks down to join them.
"Grab a board, Spock.
You need to learn to do this too."
"I lack the protective
swimwear you and Valeris have."
"I know. I might want you
to freeze. Payback for never being around anymore." He winks at Valeris
who bites back a smile. "Okay, we do this on the sand first. You have to
master the pop-up, the rise from lying down paddling to up on both feet. None
of this going-to-the-knee-first crap. Got it, kiddo?"
"I am too old for that
name."
"I'll always be older so
that's a load of crap. You ready to pop up?"
"Sir, yes, sir."
"Okay, together."
He does it easily and since she is young and agile, so does she.
He looks at Spock. "Get
a damn board."
"Vulcans and water do
not mix."
"Says the man who swam
with whales. Get a damn board—that's an order."
As Spock walks over to the
surfboard stand, he hears Jim talking softly to Valeris about her new
captain—her first assignment will be on the Buteo, a fast frigate. He's
giving her some quirks to avoid triggering Captain Par'avan, some things to do
to excel.
He feels a surge of
satisfaction at how invested Jim is in her. Even if he and she still play their
game of never having met when they pass each other in public.
He thinks it appeals to the
troublemaker that lies at the heart of both of them.
With a sigh he brings the
board over. "I would like a wetsuit if I'm to do this."
"You're not going to
actually get in the water, and we all know it. But you will do your land-work
or it'll be KP for a month."
She laughs at the archaic
punishment.
"You think I don't have
actual cooks on my ship? Replicators are great for some things but you can't
beat a home cooked meal for others."
He takes after Chris in that
way, even if his cooks work primarily on special events—whether diplomatic,
Starfleet brass, or even crew special events—and Chris enjoyed cooking for
those closest to him.
Spock puts the board down and
tries to pop up the way Jim has shown Valeris. He fails and uses his knee
instead to ease himself up.
"You look
ridiculous," Christine says, as she pushes him off the board and back up
to the house. "And your father needs us."
Jim makes a face. "Wow,
he spoils even my fun time. Good thing he doesn't need you too, kiddo. I'm
going to have you surfing like a pro in no time with all this one-on-one
time."
Valeris looks thrilled at the
idea of having him all to himself.
If Jim were not such a
gentleman about her ongoing—if better hidden now—infatuation, Spock might be
worried.
##
Spock sits next to Christine
on a small shuttle that the Klingons have approved for entry into their space.
She used to be nervous when they made this trip, but no longer.
She too believes in the
possibility of peace. She too believes that they can bring it about.
It is hubris, he knows, on
both their parts, but his father, who does not stand for unqualified arrogance,
has never told them to adjust their expectations. He too is pleased with their
progress, miniscule as it is.
"Three steps forward,
two steps back" is how Christine characterizes it but without rancor. It
is how she says Emergency Ops often was as they tried to help while waiting for
the diplomats to make a lasting difference.
He loves serving with her.
Loves that he has essentially commandeered her to his team when he is working, that
his father lets her go with grumbling but no real resentment. He thinks his
father worked too hard to get them back together to complain now that he
succeeded.
Also, his father values
efficiency and results, and with the bond between them, Spock and Christine are
a team in full rapport. And she is as results driven as he is.
It is why she has stayed on
Sarek's team long past when her original rotation would have run out. Starfleet
says nothing—but as his mother said, they are always looking for diplomats.
Christine will make an excellent one although he wonders if she will want that
as a career path or if she will be ready for new challenges as she has been in
the past.
The downside of a mind as
quick as hers is the tendency to get bored. If they were not working with the
Klingons, with the resulting secrecy and excitement, would she still wish to be
doing this?
"Did I tell you? Valeris
is moving to the Gallorette?"
"That ship should come
with a promotion."
"She didn't say it did,
but there was that excitement she can never fully hide when she has a secret
she's dying to tell us."
"Ensign Valeris becomes
Lieutenant Valeris." He sighs in contentment. "She integrates
effortlessly."
"Well, it doesn't hurt
she's got the new deputy commander in chief of Starfleet in her corner. Matt's
beside himself at the promotion—he wasn't sure he'd go any further."
"Why not?"
"Aged out or something.
I don't know. Once Bill was assigned as CINC, though, it was pretty much a done
deal in my book. I can't imagine him picking anyone but Matt as his
deputy."
Sometimes Spock forgets how
immersed Christine was in Starfleet politics simply by proximity to Cartwright
and others she worked with. That she refers to the new CINC by his first name
is testament to that.
"We're being
hailed," she says, suddenly all business.
"On screen."
It is never the chancellor.
Not at first. They will go through several channels of intermediaries before
Gorkon shows up on the screen.
But less go-betweens than when
they first started this. They are making progress, even if it might not be
apparent to the casual observer.
Fortunately their progress is
not being judged by the casual observer, but by his father. Who is pleased with
him.
It is a state he finds he enjoys.
He wishes sometimes he could go back and tell the unhappy and rebellious boy he
was that there would come a day when he and his father will see eye to eye—even
enjoy each other's company.
That boy, however, would no
doubt not believe him.
##
He sits in his quarters while
McCoy attends to Valeris's wrist. He broke it when he knocked the phaser out of
her grasp.
He broke worse when he
rampaged through her mind, seeking information.
He was so proud of her. And
had been pleased and surprised when she had shown up on the ship, just in time
for this mission. He should have been suspicious.
He is, at times, a fool.
She is breathing slowly,
deliberately, but through her mouth, the way one does when in pain. He does not
think it is her wrist that causes the reaction.
It is what he did to her
mind, how rough he was.
He made her cry out in agony.
The girl he once wanted to never harm—he went above and beyond punishing as he
searched for the information they needed.
But he had to. The needs of
the many.
"Why, Valeris?"
McCoy moves between them, as
if in no worry for his own safety. Valeris could break his neck without a
thought. "Give it a rest, Spock, until I'm done."
"You have disgusted the
doctor, Spock." Her tone is mocking even if the words come out a bit
haltingly.
But with more surety than
they did right after the meld. He has harmed her but not irreparably.
"She's not wrong."
He scans her wrist and then moves to her head.
"You cannot help what's
wrong there, Doctor."
"I can give you
something for the headache."
"He will not want
that."
McCoy looks at him, the
question in his eyes.
"Go ahead, Doctor. Then
please, leave us alone."
He loads a hypospray and
shoots it into her arm, then says, "I'll be in sickbay if either of you
need me."
Once he is gone, she says,
"He is kind."
"Yes. It is often his
downfall."
"Well, it will not be
yours. Or Jim's. One word from him—just your name—and you were on me. The two
of you planned to get the information from me—whatever it took."
"Would my brother and
Angel have done any less?"
"So you admit you two
are criminals? Standing in the way of patriots—and what could have been a
universe free of the Klingon scourge."
"I admit nothing,
Valeris."
"Why do you have a pet
name for Saavik but not me? Why am I never Valerisaam?"
"Is that important
now?"
"Do you have somewhere
else to be? Something else you would rather discuss? Such as how you might want
to watch your pillow talk with Christine from here on out."
He is alarmed—is that how the
conspiracy knew what was going on? "The apartment is swept for bugs
regularly." This had started when Christine worked in ops and had never
stopped.
"Yes, and I set up a
procedure on the home alarm system to let me know when Starfleet security was
entering the apartment building. I could send the bugs I planted into sleep
mode before they even crossed the threshold." She walks to him. "The
two of you are quite amorous, even after all this time together."
"Do not, Valeris."
"No, it was charming. I
think it set a benchmark for what I will want in a partner."
"You speak as though you
have a future."
"We are not at the
conference yet. And you may save no one." She studies you. "Your
disappointment in me is curious. I have consistently shown that my upbringing
colored my actions—and my ethics. You have always tolerated that."
"Until it turned to
treason, yes. I was willing to make allowances."
"Because of the guilt
you felt over my father? You were a child when he was sent away. What could you
have done?"
"I knew where he was
much later in life. I met Angel, as you know. I could have tried to stop him
then."
"You did what you
could."
"I do not know if you
believe that or are trying to play me."
"I would never have come
to you if I believed you betrayed my father. And he would not have let me
come—other than as revenge. I imagine he would have wanted me to kill
Christine."
His gut tightens at the
thought.
"Which I would never do.
She is more a mother to me than Angel or T'Vashti ever were." She touches
his hand gingerly. "Feel the truth of that."
And he does, he feels her
love for Christine. And for him, even if he also feels a certain terror still
raging through her system.
"You are not what I
thought, Spock. I was counting on the fact that you would never hurt me that
way. Even for a good cause. I misjudged. I will not do that again."
"Again you speak as if
you have a future."
"Until you succeed, I
do—and you don't even know what is to happen that you must prevent. Because I
do not know so you could not rip it out of me. Operational security is a bitch,
Spock. West used to say that to me when I'd complain of gaps in my
knowledge."
The door chimes and he says,
"Come", then hears the familiar cadence of Jim's footsteps.
"Ah, the other
one." She backs up though, as if somehow Jim is a bigger threat to her
than he is.
"Ah, the little traitor.
I was blinded the same way your cousin was. You were so good at making us root
for you."
"Cousin." She
starts to laugh. "He's never told you the truth about me. That's so
surprising given your legendary friendship."
Spock feels a sinking in his
stomach.
"But given how my father
stole your ship, I can see why he'd keep my real identity from you."
He has to give Jim credit; he
does not even react. "I knew that already, Valeris. I just didn't
care." And then Jim looks at him and he sees it is true. "I asked
Chris. She's a terrible liar—at least to someone who really knows her." It
is a dig at him, a reference to when she shared his bed instead of Spock's, but
Valeris will not realize that. This is for him only.
"Aren't you curious,
sir, why he didn't trust you with that information?"
"Not really. Spock can
have secrets. Like, you know, this whole fucking mission." He begins to
pace.
"Ah, not so
copacetic." She is clearly enjoying this.
"Matt's my friend. He
always had a hard-on for the Klingons but it was... How the hell did we get
from not liking them to here?"
"People can surprise
you."
"You certainly did. From
number one in your class to this? You'll be a case study for security for
decades to come."
"Always nice to be
remembered."
He shakes his head.
"Your skill with a quick comeback is unharmed by the meld. Glad to see
that."
Another chime sounds at the
door. He opens it to two armed security guards. "The phasers are set on
kill."
"That is a lie. I am too
important to you."
"You're not wrong."
He takes a phaser from one of the guards, turns it up to a higher setting, and
says, "Stun but in the 'painful as fuck' range. I don't want you getting
away when they move you to the brig, and let's just say I have some anger
management issues at the moment." And then he fires and catches her as she
falls. "But I do have limits. No need for a concussion."
He tosses the phaser back to
the guard and picks her up. "I feel a strong need to put her in the brig
myself. You no doubt want to meditate. I'll be back in a bit."
He knows Jim is not taking
her solely for the satisfaction of getting her into the brig, where cameras
will record everything that she does. He is also doing it to protect her from
the guards—she did, after all, kill two of their colleagues. And there are
corridors that have no surveillance, where anything could happen. She proved
that when she killed those men.
Jim does love her, in his
way. Even if she nearly got him killed.
##
Spock follows La'an into a small
room in the security holding area in the bowels of Starfleet Command, a room
that is behind a false wall of an interrogation area—they can see into the
space but he assumes whoever is being questioned cannot see them. "Why are
we here?" They are supposed to be saying goodbye to Valeris—but where is
Christine?
"I want you to
watch." She picks up a communicator and says, "Bring him in and then
let her in. Stay alert but not too obviously. And don't interfere if they
hug."
Security officers bring Cartwright
in. He looks defiant—the way he has since he was arrested. Although he could
not defy a Vulcan meld, which his father was called to do rather than Spock.
He feels cheated. He wants to
make this man pay, and ripping the names of other conspirators from his mind
would have been a good start.
He realizes his hands are
clenched and tries to relax.
Then Christine comes in. He
did not even know she was here. "What is she doing?"
"Stay calm, Spock."
"Matt, I've been so
worried." Christine rushes to Cartwright, hugging him as if he has not
ruined their daughter, and he sees her pass him something, which Cartwright
quickly slips into his mouth and swallows.
"What is she
doing?" He wants to break through the wall, but La'an puts a hand on his
and he feels her serenity—her total lack of concern. He meets her eyes and
says, "She is not part of the conspiracy?"
"She is not. Just watch.
I couldn't get you access to his mind, but I can give you this."
Cartwright sits and Christine
takes the chair across from him. There are monitors in the room Spock and La'an
are in, monitors that allow them to have close-ups on both of them. He
recognizes the look on Christine's face and marvels that Cartwright does not,
after all this time working with her.
She is playing him.
And yet he smiles at her and
says, "You're ongoing faith in me will save me."
"You'd think so,
huh?" She leans forward, her look earnest. "In return, tell me two
things? First, where is the pill for my daughter?"
The guards suddenly look
confused, one of them even beeps for La'an, who says, "It's okay. Look
interested but don't do anything to stop their conversation."
"The pill, Matthew. The
one I just gave you."
He looks panicked and Spock
relishes the fear he must be experiencing.
"Why just one? That's
not how this little job was presented to me. I was given the 'Save them both
from the horror that is Rura Penthe' pitch. Not the one where we just save
you."
He glances at the guards.
"Yeah, they're listening
to this. Just answer the fucking question."
He is clearly taken by
surprise. "You wish her to die?"
"I'm just wondering why
you get to take the easy way out and she doesn't?"
His expression as he watches
her changes, grows warier. "And your second question?"
"Why did you target
her?"
"Target?"
"Oh, you prefer 'groom'?
You took a child and turned her into a murderer and a traitor."
"Groom? And child? She
was eighteen."
"You said she told you
her true history. Did she leave out that she's two years younger than her
identification documents say? Sixteen—still, legally, a child. And you were
fucking with her head, with her fears and anger and pain."
He looks too surprised to have
known the truth. But he bites it back, showing again the defiance of before.
"That's not really how it went. But you'll never believe me because you're
too angry."
"I'm her goddamned
mother. Of course I'm angry."
"She's a patriot. She
came ready to believe in our cause. I did nothing that the Klingons and her
father and mothers hadn't already done to her. You're her guardian, Christine,
not her mother, and a pretty absent one at that."
"Nice insult. You know
just where to strike." She leans back and says, "Do you really think
you can mind-fuck me? After all this time, Matthew?" She laughs and
it's a slightly terrifying sound, even to Spock. "You don't know this
about me, but in my early days, I had a group of friends, and we made it our
mission to cull those who prey on women."
"Cull?"
"Oh, I don't mean kill.
I mean mark them so they can't hide in plain sight as if they are decent
people. We did all sorts of things. Genetic changes, mainly." She smiles
and laughs softly. "Silly, really and who knows if they worked.
"Like, in your case, I
might have 'I prey on children' just randomly show up on your face. But there
are unintended consequences—and prisoners have their own unique code of ethics.
I want you to stay alive at Rura Penthe to suffer, not be killed because they
think you're some kind of pedophile."
"But the pill." He
touches his throat, almost unconsciously.
"That time-delayed
suicide pill you think you just swallowed? I handed it and the person who gave
it to me over to security. What you swallowed was not that."
Cartwright is sitting very
still, but his rage is clear.
"Be ready," La'an
says into her communicator and the guards move slightly. She hits a switch and
says to Spock, "I just raised a shield between them, but he won't realize
that unless he tries to get to her."
"What did you give
me?" Cartwright asks in a dangerously low voice.
"It's a tracker—but not
machinery. It's based on your genes—super complicated stuff, even I barely
understand it. But the long and short of it is that if you ever do manage to
escape, which given what Jim said of the place is highly unlikely, you'll set
off alarms and sensors anywhere you go. I wish I could claim credit for that
but I can't. It's been a while since I played with genetics at that level. But
my friends are still at it. You go near a fucking exit at Rura Penthe and
you'll probably set off their alarms. My friend isn't terribly discriminating
when vengeance is on the table."
A vein in his forehead is
pulsing but his voice is calm. "Valeris will be there with me. She's
strong and I've made sure she knows everything she needs to survive—and keep me
alive there."
Spock allows himself a smile.
He knows what is coming.
"Valeris isn't going to be
remanded to the Klingons. Kirk and Spock talked to Azetbur, pleaded her case.
Turns out she doesn't want to put the Architect of Klingon Peace's daughter in
a Klingon penal colony, after all. Especially not when she had such a troubled
childhood caused by, well, her own people's violence. So she will be going to
Ankeshtan K'til for rehabilitation."
For the first time Spock sees
fear on the admiral's face.
"Your protector will be
Ambassador Nanclus, who I seriously doubt will be there for you when the chips
are down. Do not ever fuck with my children."
Cartwright launches himself
at her but is brought up short by the force field, screaming in pain and then
falling back in a half faint.
"I may have turned it up
all the way," La'an murmurs, and Spock allows himself a smile of
satisfaction.
The guards take Cartwright
away and Christine sits, all the bravado draining away as he watches.
"Let's go get her. You
two need to say goodbye to Valeris. She really is scheduled for transfer later
today—I wasn't using that as an excuse to get you here for this."
He follows her out and
Christine is waiting in the hallway for them. She goes to him and he holds her
even though they are in full view of many security officers.
"I couldn't tell you.
La'an's still rounding people up. It's a long shot, but the person who gave me
the pill might know more than Cartwright thought."
"I understand." He
imagines his father or some other Vulcan extracting the information and feels
such anger toward a man he has never met that he knows it is right they are
keeping him from the prisoners.
He would surely rip their
minds apart to find any scrap of information. And he would not regret it.
Christine takes his hand and
they follow La'an to the holding cells. Valeris looks up and sees them. She
studies them for a long moment, then gets up and comes to the force field.
"I want to go in,"
Christine says.
La'an shakes her head.
"I can't let you."
"I won't hurt her,"
Valeris says.
"You might, when you find
out you're not going to Rura Penthe with your great guru." La'an's voice
is soft despite the mocking tone.
"What do you mean?"
"You'll be at Ankeshtan
K'til instead. Rehabilitation and release is possible if you cooperate with the
program." Spock meets her eyes. "I...I wish to apologize for—"
"For tearing my mind
apart?" She slams her hand on the forcefield and pulls it away again so
fast she barely registers the pain. "You had your chance to apologize on
the ship. If you think I'll grant you absolution now, you're wrong. And I don't
want to go anywhere but Rura Penthe. I have to protect the admiral."
"No, sweetie, you
absolutely do not." Christine moves closer. "He used you."
"You're so blind. He
loves me. He's a better parent than you two have ever been."
"Oh, honey. That's what
everyone in a cult says." Christine sighs. "It's my hope you'll
understand someday how heinously he used you."
"I need to go with
him." Valeris's voice breaks. "I owe him that."
"Not anymore,"
Spock says as gently as he can. "You're leaving for Ankeshtan K'til
today."
"So I come full circle.
Do you think they'll give me my father's old cell?"
"They do not have cells
there."
"How the hell would you
know?" She practically spits the words at him. "I had a purpose with
the admiral. A role and trust and a future I was fighting for."
"They were lies. What he
fed you were lies. He took your pain and turned it into a mission."
Christine clearly wants to touch her; her hand hovers dangerously close to the
forcefield. "La'an, please let me go in."
"If you let her in,
La'an, I really will kill her."
"Christine, I'm not
letting you in." La'an glances down the hallway where one of her officers
is standing. "And it's time for her to go." She moves to a controller
by the door. "Go lie down on the bed, Valeris."
"Fuck you."
The words sound so wrong
coming from her.
"Lie down before you
fall down. I'm going to sedate you for transport."
"What part of 'fuck you'
wasn't clear?"
"Suit yourself."
She hits a switch and gas floods the compartment. A moment later, Valeris
collapses to the ground. "And this is why we have padded everything,
including floors. No one ever wants to cooperate." She turns to them.
"You should go. I'm sorry for how this all worked out."
"As are we."
"For what it's worth,
you weren't absent parents. Sometimes...sometimes people do things out of pain
no matter how well treated they were after the trauma they went through. I
definitely know how that goes whenever I think about Una. About what I
did."
He nods. "And yet we
will probably always wonder what we could have done differently."
"Yeah," Christine
whispers. She pulls La'an in for a hug. "We'll see you and Saavik soon. I
need some quality time with Manua."
"And she needs some
quality time with her grandmother."
They leave and follow a
security officer out. As they exit the building, he can tell she is about to
lose control and steers her toward a green space where there are benches facing
away from the buildings.
She is crying by the time
they sit. "I hate Matt so much. I wanted to kill him with my bare
hands."
"As did I."
"But he'll suffer for
what he did. She was an innocent."
"I'm not sure she was,
Christine. You saw Angel. My brother was duplicitous at times. And set on his
way. Perhaps it was in her blood to turn out this way."
"You just don't want to
blame us."
"You are right. I do
not." He sits helplessly as she cries quietly.
"I do love her."
"I know that."
"But it was never
enough. Because she saw me with Saavik. And she wanted that."
"Yes. And Cartwright no
doubt knew that and made sure to make her feel as if she was the only person in
the world. Which we could not do. But Saavik was with us when Valeris came to
us. If she could not share, that is on her."
"Doesn't make it
better."
"Sadly, I realize
that."
They sit in silence for a
long time, then she composes herself to some extent and they head home.
While their daughter is taken
way—possibly forever.