Title: After the Rescue
Part: NEW 72/73
Author: Karmen Ghia, karmen_ghia@yahoo.com
Series: TOS
Romance Code: S/Mc and then some.
Rating: NC-17
Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html
See part one for disclaimers, etc.
Spock chose not to argue with anyone about where Maja might be at that moment and had himself transported directly into the vicinity of Maja's Federation Identifier Signal.
"I'm so glad I wasn’t taking a shit, Spock." Maja snarled, looking up from his sketch pad.
Spock ignored this in favor of placing the DNA results on Maja's unfinished pastel.
"What is this?" Maja asked.
"Conclusive proof that Tien is my son."
"This is not news for me, Vulcan." Maja looked curiously at the papers. "Oh, yes. The strand of hair," Maja said sadly. "Spock, you have all the compassion of your people, possibly less. Don't you realize what Tien was doing? He was fulfilling his dead lover's last wish and all you could think of to do was call him a liar."
"I believed him, Maja," Spock said levelly. "It is you I wanted to confront with proof so you could not lie to me."
"When," Maja asked coolly, "have I ever lied to you?"
"Why did you not tell me?"
"That's not the same thing as lying."
"I agree. Why did you not tell me?"
"It was none of your business."
"Perhaps, but why did you think not?"
"You had other things on your mind."
"I would have taken time for this. Why?"
"What would you have done, Spock?"
"I cannot speculate on the hypothetical past," Spock said. "I still want to know your reasoning for not telling me and running away."
Maja looked up at him sadly. "I was scared. All I saw for us here was misery. Either alone while you were on a starship or with you, a bitter, angry you, who'd stayed and learned to hate me and the baby." He switched his attention to the mural he'd painted as a child. He'd painted it to please Spock but if it did, Spock never let on that it did. "So I ran. I ran into the unknown because it was better than any other possibility I could foresee or even logically speculate upon. Except death and I thought if that was my fate, then I'd embrace it when the time came." Maja paused, almost overwhelmed by the waves of sadness in this memory. "Hobie came with me," Maja murmured abstractedly. "He took care of me. I think he was afraid I would die."
"You never gave me a chance, Maja," Spock said flatly. "I might have found a solution I could have lived with, I have more compassion than you give me credit for, if I had a home and a family, my ideas could have been altered to my satisfaction. You might have had some small faith in my judgment. But you never gave me a chance to find out what I might have had. You had no interest in what I was thinking or wanted."
'What did I ever see in you?' Maja frowned up at him but said: "D'you realize you've used the word 'I' twelve times and the word 'me' seven times and 'my' four times since you walked in here?"
"I do not consider my use of language to be the issue here."
"That's thirteen and five respectively," Maja said, rolling his eyes. "Don't you even want to know where Tien was conceived?"
"I thought it might have been there," Spock said, gesturing to the purple couch. "On the night I left for Terra."
"Yes," Maja said. "The night Sarek declared you outcast and you were upset enough to run to me for comfort. Stress, Spock, induces a minor form of Pon farr in you Vulcans. It's how you knock us Talljets up when you do. So maybe you knew, somewhere deep deep inside, maybe you knew what you didn't want to know because it would wreck your wonderful Star Fleet career. Y'know, I never liked what T'Pring did but I always understood why she did it. You don't fucking care about anything but you, Spock. So, fuck you." Maja rose and opened the door. "Now get out before I throw you out the window."
Maja's tone was not something to argue with but Spock stood stone still, his eyes looking inward. Maja listened to his own mind and heard the distress in Spock's over whatever was vibrating in the bond between Spock and Kirk. "Spock? What is that?" he asked in spite of himself. It was vaguely familiar, this weakening, withering feeling emanating from Spock.
"Where is Hobie?" Spock rasped from his closed throat.
"Dunno. He's shielding," Maja said, feeling Spock's panic rise. "Maybe his workshop or somewhere."
Spock whipped open his communicator and ordered the Enterprise's transporter to beam him to Captain Kirk's location, now!
Maja stepped into the transporter beam behind Spock, who did not realize he was there until he was face to face with Hobie and Jir Talljet.
* * *
"Thank you for meeting me here, Kirk, I wanted to apologize for coming on so strong to you these past few weeks." Hobie smiled disarmingly. He fanned out his shields to include Kirk so Spock would not pick up his trail too quickly. "I guess you're just not interested."
"I was under the impression you were engrossed in Chekov," Kirk said innocently, strolling the room.
"Oh, Chekov is delightful but hardly an enthralling companion. One longs not to have to explain everything, not to have to share the wonder of his discovery of something I was bored with long ago." Hobie sighed. "I long for a kindred spirit, Kirk, I thought or hoped that was you, but it appears not to be. I can take it. There is something to be said for unrequited love, it ... it builds character." He watched Kirk smile but not relax. "I thought you might like to see my workshop and have some lunch."
Kirk looked dubiously at the nearly empty space before him. The ground floor of the workshop was a large, open space but contained only a chair in all its expanse. "I thought it might be interesting to see your workshop, Hobie," he said, remembering Jessup's command to get all the information possible from this Talljet. "But there doesn't seem to be much to see."
"I do most of my work in virtual design. Here." Hobie handed Kirk a sensor hood, similar to what the blind wear but with a difference. Each sensor was tuned to a computer generated environment image instead of the outer environment. "And these." Hobie handed him a pair of sensor gloves that would interact with the virtual environment. "You'll not only be able to see but feel what I've been up to."
Kirk watched the pirate smile and noted that the smile never reached his eyes. This was an important chance to get some real information so Kirk pushed aside his reservations and slipped on the gloves and hood.
He was immediately standing on the bridge of a starship. Reminding himself that he was not on a starship, Kirk found himself 'listening' to the ship he wasn't on. It was uncanny, not only could he 'feel' the engines around him, it was almost as if he could feel the ship's 'pulse.' He suppressed the urge to reach out to this strange but strangely familiar ship. The virtual stars faded from the viewscreen and were replaced by Hobie's symmetrical and classically beautiful features.
"Remarkable, no?" Hobie smiled. "I designed this program so I'd know what kind of a ship I was building."
(Kirk felt a pleasant chill run up his spine.)
"Ships are funny things, Kirk, almost have souls."
(Circling the well of the bridge area, Kirk felt that the spaces were made for the length of his stride.)
"I found the mathematical model for that, to communicate with their souls, long ago, here, on Vulcan."
(Kirk sat down in the command chair; a perfect fit.)
"It's all in the design."
(Rising, Kirk paced around the slightly raised area of the bridge. He was pleased that it was slightly wider than he was used to. The Enterprise bridge had grown somewhat cramped over the years for him.)
"How the parts communicate with the whole."
(Passing the turbolift, Kirk was curious to see the doors swish open. He entered the lift and directed it to engineering.)
"A purer translation of power to action, source to outcome, cause to effect."
(The hum of this lift was low and soothing. Like a large feline purring.)
"No one understood it here; they admired the model but could not see a practical application."
(Stepping into the engineering deck was like stepping into a labyrinth.)
"I knew I could create engines that were works of art."
(There were no open spaces here, no high ceilings or graceful lines. Kirk wended his way along narrow corridors that led onto corridors that led onto corridors.)
"In the same way a work of art takes on a life of its own by moving or inspiring the viewer."
(Kirk speculated that every available space here went to house engines and that living beings were not physically welcome.)
"I thought in Star Fleet..."
(Turning a corner, Kirk came upon a long row of instruments set into a wall. Above them was what appeared to be a starfield but on closer inspection, points of light turned out to be dilithium crystals, suspended in a nul-gravity field, with light refracting through them.)
"...but that did not happen."
(As Kirk continued to study the shifting patterns of light before him, he began to have the eerie feeling that they, the lights, were studying him, somehow.)
"As I said, I developed the model here on Vulcan but no one could understand it and I couldn't prove it without building a starship."
(Fascinated, Kirk felt their energy reaching out to him.)
"I would also need a significant quantity of dilithium crystals. Much more than the Vulcan Institute could ever afford."
(He felt the energy surrounding him, soothing him.)
"I had good teachers there, but they were Vulcans, of course."
(...a warm glow extended down Kirk's back and flank, slowing the blood pulsing in his veins and coaxing him into a calmer rhythm...their rhythm...)
"The Vulcans are so removed from their emotions, they did realize that dilithium crystals contain different spectrums of light but they didn't know why that was important."
(...began to enjoy the sensation... awash in the multiple sensations... passionate and surrendered...)
"They didn't realize that the other spectrums could converge and intersect with certain higher forms of energy."
(...Kirk jumped slightly... allowed himself to feel firmly held helpless...)
"Telepathic energy."
(...transmutated to pleasure, Kirk found he was enjoying himself very much...)
"The Vulcans are so busy containing and taming their telepathic abilities..."
(...held there, enthralled and enfolded in the rush of sensation... nearly overwhelmed with pleasure...)
"...it never occurred to them that if you put a ship full of telepaths..."
(...dominating and surrendering; pursued and pursuing...)
"...even as minimal and puny as your human telepathic energy..."
(...Kirk stopped shaking...calmed ...overwhelmed by the erotic intimacy...)
"...together with crystals refracting in the xetros range..."
(he savored it for a moment... wanting to prolong the contact...)
"...you have a ship that knows what you're thinking."
(...glowing hazel eyes...)
"Knows what you want."
(...very close... greater and greater urgency... doubling and redoubling the pleasure ...)
"That knows you as you know it."
(...shuddering with pleasure in the sensation... /shudder ...flex.../)
"That might even know you better than you know yourself."
(/...flex.../)
Kirk watched with amazement as the viewscreen began to play the challenge at the Koon-ut-kal-if-fee for him. Spock in Plak Tow, the deadly weapons, the searing heat... But different, the figures were more vivid as if they were glowing and pulsing with energy. He watched amazed and then went very still as he saw a strange convergence occur in the energy between Spock and himself, an overlapping ring of light took shape between them. Hard to see if he looked directly at it but there if he looked at it in his peripheral vision.
And it was all suddenly so clear, all the months of wanting McCoy when he'd never considered it before. Feeling strangely compelled to have sex with Spock even though he wasn't particularly attracted to him. All the times he made love to them, together or singly, that he'd felt there was certainly more to it than lust, more than even love. He wondered how he could have been so stupid, so blind, so manipulated.
Kirk felt warm, gentle fingers stroking his cheeks under the hood. "I can free you," Hobie's silky voice promised.
Kirk tensed under the fingers. They drew back slightly but did not withdraw.
"Don't you want to be free?"
The fingers moved up and hovered just above meld position.
"No more confusion, no more compulsion."
They settled gently on his face but did not initiate the meld.
"You'll make your own decisions again."
Kirk felt a strange peace descending on him, but he still kept his guard up.
"Be your own man again."
Kirk went still (the fingers waited) and then relaxed. Still the fingers waited just above the surface of his mind.
Kirk floated pleasantly for a moment and then, as if greeting a new pleasure, he yearned for the meld, reached out for it.
/...good, good, very good, so very good.../
Hobie began to unravel the bond. He felt Spock at last stirring in it and unwound that connective tendril and then another. He discovered it was not really a bond,
(/t'hy'la/)
more of a strong link that would have become a bond had it been nurtured to fruition. Rare and precious that, but, oh well. And not to be, he thought, as he gently,
(/t'hy'la/)
ever so gently, unwound the strands of Spock's consciousness from Kirk's. All Terrans are fragile so it took a long time, so long in fact, Kirk fell asleep
(/t'hy'la/)
in the process. When he had finished and watched with satisfaction the energy wither out of the connection and die away, Hobie picked up the sleeping human and carried him to his bed. He undressed Kirk and tucked him in and went to wait for Spock, who was on his way.
* * *
Jir arrived first. "Where's KirkaFara?"
"Sleeping it off," Hobie said lazily from his desk on the mezzanine.
"Oh?" Jir tiptoed to the bedroom door. "Maybe I'll just slip in and see if he needs any legal advice."
"No time for comedy, Noli." Hobie gestured to the workshop floor where Spock was materializing. They were surprised to see Maja with him but decided they could work with it.
"Come on up, Spock," Hobie called softly. "We're all waiting for you."
"Where is he?" Spock demanded.
"In my bed," Hobie returned.
Maja frowned and moved to where he could get between Spock and his brothers if necessary.
"Why did you do it?" Spock asked quietly.
"Revenge," Hobie said simply. "Starting with the way you just threw Maja away, for everyone that ever loved you that you simply didn't even notice loving you, let alone appreciate it." He strolled over to a chair and sat. "For T'Pring, bitch though she is, you didn't give a damn that bonded to you, stuck with you, she would be alone for most of her life so you could have it all: The model Vulcan life and your fabulous Star Fleet career. No wonder she tried to kill you. And then, of course and most of all, there is Tien." Hobie leaned back. "Tien never said anything but he wanted you all his life. He always understood why he couldn't have you and made the best of it but it was always there. And if he hadn't loved Kalzat to the bottom of his soul, he wouldn't have told you. But it turned out to be Kalzat's last wish that you know and when Tien, your son, the one you threw away when you chucked Maja, told you, you called him a liar. Demanded proof and departed without a word, Spock, without a fucking word. And have you even gone back to him? Welcomed him? Expressed any kind of curiosity about him, his welfare, his future, anything, VulCheq, anything?" Hobie paused to listen to Kirk stirring in the next room. "So that's why. You've hurt the people I love once too often and I want you to suffer for it, if not from it, and for as long as possible." He turned to look at Kirk standing in the doorway.
They were silent, waiting, looking at Kirk.
"Are you all right, Captain?" Spock asked at last.
"Yes, thank you, Mr. Spock," Kirk said crisply and turned to his host. "Thank you for the tour, Hobie, good-bye."
"Take Spock with you, please."
Kirk nodded and Spock fell into step behind his captain.
They met Chekov on his way in.
"Mr. Chekov," Kirk snapped, "you are confined to the ship until further notice." He flipped open his communicator and the three were beamed up.
From the mezzanine, Hobie, Jir and Maja watched them go.
"Hmmmm," Jir sighed. "I wonder if you'll miss Chekov, Hobie?"
"Actually, I will," Hobie said. "I was getting used to sleeping on him."
"What's wrong with you, MajaYaga?" Jir asked brightly.
"He's had so little happiness," Maja whispered, still gazing at the spot where Spock no longer was. "And now it's all gone." He shook his head sadly. "All gone."
"Yes," Hobie agreed softly. "All gone."
* * *
Kirk directed Spock into the conference room closest to the transporter room. "Why didn't you tell me?" he demanded savagely.
"I did not wish to distress you."
"I have not been in my right mind for more than a year and you didn't want to distress me?" Kirk sat down. "You never gave me a chance, Spock. We might have found a workable solution if I had known. You might have had some small faith in my judgment. But you never gave me a chance to find out what I might have had. You had no interest in what I was thinking or wanted. And McCoy," Kirk put his head in his hands. "Dear god, what was I thinking, dragging McCoy into bed?"
"I did not want to lose you," Spock admitted. "Either of you."
Kirk said nothing, he simply got up and walked out.
Four hours later, Kirk informed admiral Jessup that Hobie Talljet possessed no information or technology of any use to the Federation. The Enterprise was ordered home and the crew to be disbanded. The five year mission was over, there was no reason to delay the reallocation of crew and resources any longer.
The Enterprise left Vulcan's orbit within twelve hours and never returned.
About a year later James T. Kirk realized he'd made the biggest mistake of his life in Hobie Talljet's workshop.
* * *
"Master, I am sorry." Tien knelt down next to Maja's chair later that evening. "I should not have told him without asking your permission first."
Maja reached out and stroked the curls off Tien's shoulder. "It's all right. Worse for him than for anyone else."
"Will he come back?" Tien laid his cheek on Maja's thigh.
"No, I don't think so." Maja stroked his eldest child's hair, noting again that Tien got the best of the hair: Shiny silky jet curls to his waist.
"I will miss the buzz, then." Tien looked up at Sarek and Amanda exchanging greetings with Svurek.
"What buzz?" Maja asked, ignoring the newcomers.
"The buzz I always felt when he was near." Tien rose to greet Sarek and Amanda.
"Why would you feel a buzz when he was near?" Maja asked and turned to Sarek: "Why would he feel a buzz when Spock was near him, Sait?" And added, "Hi, Amanda."
"It is a sympathetic vibration between Vulcan parents and offspring, Maja," Sarek said. "Offworlders generally do not know about it."
"Huh," Maja observed. "Did you miss it all your life, Tien?"
"No," Tien said. "Just when I found out what I was missing. I'll get over it."
'I don't see why you should, it sounds like one of the perks of being a VulQuad,' Maja thought, but said: "Huh."
"We've come to extend our welcome into the House of Surak to Tien and his brothers," Amanda said softly.
"Good heavens! And Farro, too?" Maja blurted.
"And Hraja and Farro, too," she assured him. "If you do not object, Master Ghet."
"It's up to them," Maja said. "Well, little one? What do you think?"
"I think we would be honored."
"Well, then." Maja rose. "Let's go tell the Commune. They will be pleased. After all, they like Amanda very much." He turned and swept his cassock around him and marched them into the Commune, which was very pleased indeed.
* * *
"Come," McCoy called, hoping it was Spock at his door.
It was not. "Did you know about the bond?" Kirk demanded.
"Yes," McCoy sighed. "Wanna drink?"
"Yes," Kirk said flatly, sitting down. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I kept hoping Spock was going to." McCoy poured two large snifters of Saurian brandy and handed one to Kirk. "I kept asking him to. It was up to him."
Kirk thought he could argue with that but at this point, why bother?
They drank in silence for a while.
"I'm sorry, Bones," Kirk said at last. "Some of my behavior toward you was unforgivable."
"Forget it, Jim."
"No, I don't want to."
"Yes, you do."
"No, I don't."
"Well, are you feelin' any sexual urges toward me now?" McCoy asked tartly.
"No," Kirk murmured, considering. "But I feel like I could with a little encouragement."
"Forget it, Jim."
Kirk narrowed his hazel eyes at his former lover and relaxed. "Okay," he said.
The subject did not arise between them for quite a while.
* * *
Late on the night before Hobie was to leave Vulcan, after the noisy farewell dinner, the Talljets sat in the Sas' kitchen. They were drinking Relan tea and minutely examining SaKzostVo.
"SaK," Jir announced.
"ZostVo," Maja completed.
"No, just SaK," Jir insisted. "The other is too much to say on a daily basis."
"Well, you might be right," Maja nodded, looking at SaK waking in his arms and making hungry noises.
"As long as you don't call him late for dinner," Hobie commented, watching Ling put SaK to her breast. He looked up to find Maja's eyes on him. "What 'cha thinking 'bout, Noli?"
"The future."
"Aren't we all?" Jir asked.
"What about it, Maja?"
"I told you."
"Tell us again, please."
"The Commune has decided to split in two," Maja said. "Master Khat, Hraja and those that want to, will stay in the Federation and accept one of the commissions that have been pouring in. I'll take the other half back to Zhaharnisha and finish the Garrison and Cathedral there as I promised the Hierophant."
"He'll be pleased," Ling said, referring to the Hierophant. "He does miss you so."
"And somebody's got to keep an eye on the Klingons," Hobie commented. "And Sarek?"
"Amanda can keep an eye on him for the time being," Maja said flatly. "What else did Malira say this afternoon?"
"She said all goes well on Ovtar," Hobie said. "That planets and whole systems are asking to be taken back under our wing, now that I'm going back, they all want to be in our good graces again."
"After what happened to the Certegians," Jir said quietly, "can you blame them?"
"Nah. But would they be so agreeable if that hadn't happened to the Certegians?" Hobie reminded him.
Jir nodded and looked at Maja, who'd fallen silent.
"Well." Hobie finished his tea and rose. "Time to go."
They embraced. "Godspeed, NoloHobie," Jir, Maja and Ling wished him.
"Godspeed, Nolis and little sister," Hobie said. "Godspeed." He hailed his ship and was beamed aboard.
Jir and Maja sent Ling and the baby home. They lingered tidying up the kitchen, just to be together a little longer and then they went to their respective beds, Maja upstairs to his studio and Jir to Stonet at the theater company's digs in Shirkar.
* * *
end of part 72
This story also lives at http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/
Or http://www.oocities.org/Paris/Villa/4422/
Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html