17.

Spock stood in the tiny sickbay in the Alcyone, still with his eyes fixed unwaveringly on Cikita's sleeping face. He did not move when Janas slipped in through the door, but said as if he was on the Enterprise, 'Report.'

Janas quickly gave Spock the summary of their situation. When told him cautiously of their plan to attack the Romulan ship, he simply nodded.

'Logical. I am sure Alison will manage it,' he said. 'She is an extremely competent pilot.'

'She seems to fly a lot like you,' McCoy commented, still concentrating fiercely on the cat on the table.

'My father taught us both,' Spock said simply. 'You say Suaniak is considering a way to penetrate Enterprise's shields, Janas,' he commented. 'That is supposed to be impossible.'

'So's flawless cloaking,' McCoy shrugged, as he carefully sewing together another layer of torn muscle. 'And getting close enough to a Romulan ship to take out its warp engine.'

'How is Cikita?' Spock asked abruptly, noticing a minute relaxation in the doctor's attitude.

'Constitution of a Vulcan,' McCoy grunted. 'She's not going to die unless something very bad happens.'

At that moment, one of the severed arteries split again, and a gush of blood hit the doctor in the face, startling him. Spock felt like shouting at him to do something, but had the sense to stay absolutely silent. He stood still by the table, diligently sticking to his job of watching the cat's head for signs of awakening, and hiding his sick worry. Janas held down nausea, grabbing a towel, and wiped the doctor's eyes free of blood.

'Thanks,' McCoy snapped briefly, running the wound sealer again over the artery. The bleeding slowed, and stopped. 'Another few pints of blood gone,' he said apprehensively. 'Spock, I said she was okay, but I'm not sure how much more of this she can take.'

'Can you use her own blood to give to her?' Janas asked him.

'All the blood she's got is pumping round her body,' McCoy muttered. 'The rest is on the floor.'

Janas bent down and lifted a bowl, trying not to look at it herself. While the doctor had been busy operating, she had silently pushed the pre-sterilised bowl under the edge of the desk, so the blood flowed off and into it. She had done it to save the floor from being covered in blood, but now she thought of another reason for the action.

'Will this be infected?' she asked.

McCoy stared into the bowl for a moment in shock. 'God, I didn't know she'd lost so much,' he muttered. 'I've never had to save a patient's own blood to use again. But it won't be any more infected than she is. Everything in here's clean, and I can pass it through the steriliser before it's used. Spock, can you set up a drip?'

'I know how,' Spock nodded.

Janas took his place at the head as he moved away to gather what was needed.

'Will you be able to find the vein?' McCoy asked.

'With your guidance,' he nodded.

As soon as the drip was fixed up, Spock placed both hands lightly on the cat's temples, and closed his eyes, letting his mind sink deep into the animal's, giving the healing strength of his mind to help heal the wounds. Even as McCoy watched, everything began to look a lot better.

******

Alone on the bridge, Alison studied the schematics of the Romulan ship, locating the exact place on the warp engine that she would have to hit with the phasers. It was no good trying to speak to Suaniak. The crystal was only glowing very dully. He was deep in concentration, his great mind calculating and analysing, trying to figure how to take a ship the size of Alcyone through the shields of the Enterprise without destroying either ship.

Alison pinpointed the most vulnerable spot on the Romulan ship, and began to plot the course. Alcyone turned slowly, and flew silently and invisibly towards the Fire-Dancer.

******

'Captain, the locator chip is moving,' Uhura broke in through the quiet bustle on the bridge.

Kirk didn't take his eyes from the ship on the viewscreen.

'Thank God they're getting away from here,' he muttered. 'I don't know how much more the ship can take.'

'No, sir. They're not moving away,' Uhura told him anxiously. 'They're moving *toward* the Romulan ship.'

Kirk whipped around in his chair. 'Toward it!' he exclaimed. 'What the hell is Spock doing?'

'Sir, it wasn't Spock commanding,' Uhura reminded him. 'It was Mr Spock's niece.'

'No. She was piloting the thing. Spock is still commanding,' he corrected her. 'Uhura, try to raise them. I want to speak to Spock, or that girl, if she's the one who's doing this.'

The communications officer bent over her console for a moment, then turned back.

'She will not acknowledge my call. No! Wait, sir.' She listened for a moment, then relayed the message. 'She says – ' She looked apologetic. '*Shut up, I am concentrating*, sir. But, Captain, the Romulan ship won't be able to see them,' she reminded him. 'They're invisible.'

'I know, Uhura, but we can't fire on that ship while they're near it. Damn!' he exclaimed as the Enterprise shuddered under another blow. 'They can sit and fire at us, and we can't do a thing.' He opened a channel to engineering. 'Scotty, how long can we take this?'

There was a pause, then Scotty's voice came on. 'Sir, we can take another three shots. I canna hold the shields up much longer than that – and you know I'd hold them up wi' me bare hands if I could.'

'I know, Scotty,' Kirk smiled. 'I might take you up on that.'

He turned the channel off again, watching the Romulans. There had been a pause after the last shot – obviously they were wondering why Enterprise hadn't fired back, and they were suspicious about it. He leant forward a little in his chair, resting his chin on his hands.

'Captain!' Chekov began.

'I see it, Ensign.'

Kirk stared as phaser beams lanced out of nowhere, somewhere near the back end of the Fire-Dancer.

'She's killing their warp engines!' he exclaimed. 'God, they're defeating a ship that's a match for a Constellation class starship!'

The targeted area on the Romulan ship began to glow red, and then white, then the beam broke off, and it faded back to black. The great ship began to slowly turn in circles in space.

'Getting nowhere fast,' Kirk muttered.

'Incoming message!' Uhura broke in. She flipped the speakers on without asking permission. Alison's voice came through.

'... out of here right now. I repeat, Enterprise, warp out of here right now. We will follow. We will follow.'

'Alcyone, we will lower shields and – '

'She's not receiving your message, sir,' Uhura cut in. 'She's not taking incoming signals.'

'Stubborn as Spock,' Kirk muttered, then grabbed at the arms of his chair as the ship rocked. 'They've still got weapons. Sulu, f – ' He broke off in mid word. 'No. Don't fire. They must have knocked out the engine so we wouldn't have to destroy them. I'm not going to kill any more people than necessary. Sulu, turn the ship around and take us further into Federation territory at warp – '

'We can't, sir,' Sulu told him. 'The last shot took power from the engines. We need at least five minutes to repower.'

'We could be dead in five minutes,' Kirk said grimly.

'The shields will hold for that long, sir,' Sulu said with certainty.

'Good,' Kirk nodded, not questioning that calculation. He trusted his bridge officers. 'We'll divert all unnecessary power to the shields. I guess we just have to sit and wait.'

******

Alison took the Alcyone back out to hover well away from the Romulan and Federation ship, then left the bridge with Suaniak controlling it. When she entered the small sickbay, Janas stopped her with a finger held to her lips. She looked over the girl's shoulder, then tiptoed in. McCoy was sitting slumped in a chair by the desk, fast asleep. Spock was still at the cat's head, but in a chair too, now, still with his hands pressed to the cat's temples, and with his eyes closed, breathing regularly. Cikita seemed to be the only one awake, with one green eye half open, watching the two women. She wasn't trying to move. There was a thick white bandage right around her chest, and the last of the saved blood was flowing down though the drip into her front leg.

'Was it successful?' Alison asked quietly.

Janas nodded. 'The doctor thinks so. They only finished a moment ago. Spock was already asleep though. Asleep or deep in a trance, at any rate – and I made the doctor rest. The animal seems comfortable. I promised I would stay to watch her – in case the bleeding begins again.'

'I should doubt that,' Alison said, eyeing Spock critically. She touched her hand briefly to his black crown of hair. 'I see Spock has been using his mind to help her. But you must stay here. I can manage the ship. I must get back to the bridge now. Suaniak is controlling, and I am not too convinced of his logic in such situations. He says he has almost devised a way to get through the Enterprise shields.'

******

'Captain, I am getting another message from Alcyone,' Uhura reported. 'It's Suaniak, sir.'

'Suaniak?' Kirk repeated in surprise. 'Well, put him on.'

'Enterprise,' Suaniak's voice said immediately. 'We are ready to board. You will open your shuttlebay doors.'

Kirk tried not to respond angrily at the order Suaniak gave him in a tone which expected to be obeyed.

'Suaniak, we cannot bring you aboard without lowering our shields,' Kirk said patiently. 'There is no way you can get aboard.'

'You will open your shuttlebay doors, human,' the voice said with a little more force. 'We will come aboard through your shields.'

'Suaniak, it is impossible,' Kirk insisted. 'A ship cannot dock with a starship when the shields are raised. The attempt would destroy your ship, and probably ours too.'

'Human, if you do not stop arguing, I will come aboard both through your shields and through your shuttlebay doors, but I fear that would damage your ship. I have made it possible for us to enter the ship while your shields are raised. We have a seriously wounded patient on board, and I believe she should be transferred to your medical facilities. Do you understand?'

'Spock's niece?' Kirk muttered to himself, then immediately ordered, 'Sulu, open the shuttlebay doors.'

'But, sir – '

'Sulu, carry out your orders,' he said with quiet calm. 'Suaniak may not be the most logical of Vulcans, but I'll bet he knows what he's talking about. If they've got a casualty, then we need to trust him, and bring them aboard.'

'Aye, sir,' the helmsman nodded, running his hands over his console. 'Shuttlebay doors opening, Captain. Alcyone is approaching for docking.'

The Alcyone slipped through the Enterprise's shields as if they did not exist, and, as soon as the engines had full power, Kirk ordered Sulu to take the ship away at warp three. He had a medical team standing outside the shuttlebay before the small ship had even boarded, and he was on the way down there himself as soon as he was certain that the Enterprise would escape the Romulan vessel.

Acknowledging its inability to give chase deep into Federation space, the Fire-Dancer returned home to the Romulan Empire with tales of new Federation inventions that made their ships totally invisible, and that enabled them to pass through raised shields.

******

As soon as the shuttlebay was repressurised, Kirk dashed through the door, beckoning the medical team to follow him. Spock appeared in the hatchway of his ship as calmly as if he had just come back from a short tour of Federation space, dressed entirely in black.

'Captain Kirk,' he said with familiar, calm dignity, as soon as he saw the captain.

Kirk strode forward quickly to meet him.

'Spock, I should be yelling and screaming at you and throwing you in the brig after what you've been doing,' he exclaimed, taking hold of his arms with both hands. 'But I don't have the authority – and I'm just too pleased to see you alive.'

'Thank you, sir,' Spock said gently. 'I must admit, it is something of a relief to be back on the Enterprise.' He looked back towards his ship. 'And the Alcyone does need some repairs.'

'Spock, who's your casualty?' Kirk asked quickly. 'Who was hurt?'

'Casualty?' the Vulcan echoed, then an eyebrow raised. 'Oh! Dr McCoy has already operated, sir, and she is doing well. She should recover.' He held out a hand as Alison descended the last steps of the ship. 'This is my niece, Miss Alison Grayson.'

'Pleased to meet you,' Kirk smiled briefly, shaking her hand. 'You piloted the ship in here yourself?'

'Affirmative,' she nodded gravely. 'It is quite simple.'

Kirk stared at the woman a moment, then turned to Spock.

'Spock – who's your casualty?' he asked in puzzlement, glancing at the waiting medical team. 'Who else?'

Spock turned to the medical team. 'If you will go up into the ship, Dr McCoy will take you to the patient. You will not need the stretcher. She will be taken care of, Captain,' he assured Kirk.

'Good. And who's this?' Kirk asked suddenly, as Janas stepped cautiously out of the ship.

Spock began to look vaguely guilty.

'An unauthorised passenger, sir. She is distantly related to me by blood, and she seeks asylum in the Federation.'

The captain suddenly seemed very unsteady, and Spock caught hold of his elbow.

'Captain?' he asked anxiously.

'Not another of them,' he sighed. 'Spock, the ship is full of Romulan refugees. Eight of them. Or eight and a half. One of them is pregnant.'

'You will not send me back?' Janas asked, her face paling. 'Please. You cannot send me back.'

The girl suddenly reminded Kirk of someone, but he couldn't put a finger on it.

'We won't send you back,' he told her firmly. 'One more won't make much of a difference. Spock will allocate you quarters near the other refugees.'

'Thank you,' she said gratefully.

'Now, Spock,' Kirk began. 'Will you please tell me who else you've got up there? Who's your casualty?'

Dr McCoy was stepped down onto the shuttlebay floor with a wide smile. 'Don't worry, Jim. It's all under control.'

'Bones!' Kirk grinned. 'It's good to have you back, too.'

'It's good to be back,' McCoy said earnestly. 'But I don't mind saying – after being interrogated by Romulan police and being dumped in assault cells, anything would seem great.'

'Police?' Kirk echoed, looking between McCoy and the Vulcan and wondering how it was that Spock and McCoy together seemed to get into fifteen times the trouble they normally did if he was there.

'That can all be explained later, sir,' Spock told him. 'This is our casualty, sir,' he said, nodded towards the Alcyone's hatch.

'What - ?' Kirk began, as an enormous, long, black cat stepped unsteadily, but elegantly out of the ship. The whole of her chest was covered in a thick white bandage, and her eyes were blinking sleepily, but she still managed to look proud and dignified. She seemed a little too groggy to really protest at the hands of the medical team that were holding her steady.

'This is Cikita,' McCoy said. He crouched down as the cat swayed across the floor to him, and rubbed under her chin with a grin. 'She's a twenty stone kitten with paws the size of bricks. Who only speaks Vulcan.'

The cat drew back her lips, and growled as Kirk came forward.

'Oh, yes. And she'd kill for Spock,' McCoy finished. 'And me now, probably. Everyone who meets her has to be formally introduced, or else kept at twelve paces.'

'I see.' Kirk backed away a little. 'Spock, you couldn't consider introducing us?'

'Certainly, sir,' Spock nodded. He knelt down by the cat and spoke very quietly in her ear. 'You should offer your hand for her to smell, sir,' he told Kirk, looking up.

'Sure she won't bite it off?' he asked doubtfully.

'Positive, sir.'

'Okay.'

Kirk held out his hand to the cat, she sniffed it, then turned away disdainfully.

'She has acknowledged you, sir,' Spock told him.

'Pity she doesn't like me.'

'Jim, you should be glad,' McCoy told him earnestly. 'Do you know what it's like to have a cat this size sit on your lap? Or wash you? Or sleep on your bed? She can knock you over just by rubbing up against you.'

'I don't suppose you can ride her?' Kirk asked, looking at the cat anew.

'She would likely toss you off and break your back,' Spock said seriously. 'I would not advise it.'

'Well… I'll talk to you later about panicking the whole bridge over a cat,' Kirk said sternly.

'It was Suaniak who stated it was an emergency. And she was seriously wounded, sir,' Spock told him. 'She is walking upright, but that is only because of the animal instinct to move as soon as possible after injury.'

'Not to mention that she's too heavy to go on the stretcher,' McCoy put in. 'You'd think it was more serious if you'd lived with her for a few weeks, Jim. She's part of the crew.'

'What happened to her?' Kirk asked seriously. 'She doesn't look like she should be standing up.'

'She should not,' Spock said. He gently put his hand on the cat's shoulder, and she sank to the floor without protest. 'She was injured in the first phaser attack.'

'Looks like the wall buckled,' McCoy said. 'It smashed her whole chest in. Broke most of the ribs on one side, and they damaged her lung and heart. There was a gaping great hole in her chest.'

'I should be careful at letting too many people get close to her,' Spock warned seriously. 'She is still tender about the injury. She is still affected by the anaesthetic at the moment, but as she recovers, she will undoubtedly become more hostile. Now, if you will excuse me, sir, I will leave the cat in Dr McCoy's capable hands, and take Miss Ztaran to her quarters.'

Kirk began to repeat, 'Miss Ztaran?' but Spock had already led the girl out of the door. The name seemed ever so familiar. 'Bones, what about that cat?' he asked, shaking the thought from his mind.

'She'll be okay in sickbay, Jim,' McCoy told him. 'I can take one of the single rooms, and convert it into a kind of animal recovery room. It'll be fine as long as the door's clearly marked. We can't have any of the nurses getting their arms bitten off.'

'And where will she go after that?' Kirk asked.

'She lives on Spock's ship, wherever it goes. She's not really Spock's cat - although I guess he'd be held responsible for her actions if she did anything wrong. It's just that his ship's her home.'

'She looks after herself?'

'Mostly,' he nodded. 'Or whoever's looking after the ship looks after her. I'm going to tranquillise her now, Jim, then we can move her to sickbay without her hurting anyone.'

******

'These are the officers' quarters,' Spock said as he walked down one of Enterprise's curving corridors with Janas. He indicated a door on his right. 'These are my quarters, if you wish to find me while you are on the ship. The captain's are just next door.'

'Your name is on the door,' she said, seeing the black name-plate beside the door with his name etched on it in white letters.

'With the more permanent people on the ship - mostly the officers - it helps to have the names on the door,' he nodded. 'It makes it simpler for a person to find, say, the captain, without having the recall a long room number.'

'Numbers are easy to remember, and do not have to be changed when the crew is changed,' Janas pointed out.

'Your mind is Vulcanoid. Human minds are not so reliable.'

'You said – the more permanent people on the ship. Do people change ships so often?'

Spock hesitated a moment. 'There are certain crewmembers, such as the security guards, who are – less likely – to stay for many years.'

'You mean because they are killed?'

'Yes,' the Vulcan nodded. 'They are killed. It is their job to protect the other members of the crew. Ah.' He stopped in the corridor, a few hundred metres down from his room. 'These are the guest quarters, Janas. I am afraid that the rooms are rather full right now. By moving partitions we may block off certain areas, so you have your own sleeping area, but you must share the living area with two others.'

'Two others? Do you know their names?'

'I have not had time to look up names, Janas. I only know that there are two other people in this room, male and female.'

Spock knocked softly at the door, and it slid aside. He waited for Janas to enter, but she seemed to be frozen as she stared through the open doorway. He touched her arm.

'Tijanas, these are your rooms. You may enter. Janas? Is something wrong?'

Spock looked past her into the room. The female occupant of the room was sitting in a chair with almost the same frozen expression. Janas's mouth worked for a moment, then she asked;

'Sanah?'

The woman in the chair got slowly to her feet, and stood there, then she rushed forward.

'Janas! It is you! How did you ever - ?'

Spock stepped back, rather embarrassed, as the two women hugged each other tightly, the rest of the world blanked out to them for a moment. At last, Janas stood back, her whole face smiling.

'Oh, Spock, I am sorry,' she gasped. 'Spock, this is Sanah!'

'I recall that was the name of your sister,' Spock nodded with complete calm. 'Was the Fire-Dancer your ship, Ms Ztaran?'

'Yes, it was,' the woman said briefly, then turned back to Janas. 'Oh, Janas, I thought I would never see my family again. But what of Haian? Is he here too?'

'No,' she said with a moment of regret in her voice. 'He is still on Romulus. But we have other family here, San.' She turned back to Spock. 'Sanah, you must meet our extremely distant cousin, Spock.'

Sanah eyed Spock for a moment. 'Janas, he is a Vulcan.'

'Nevertheless, I am related,' Spock said solemnly. 'Although I doubt any kind of tests could prove the link. I am pleased to meet you, Ms Ztaran.'

'You will call me Sanah,' she said firmly. 'If we really are related. I see no reason why you should lie about this.'

'Of course he is not lying,' Janas smiled. 'Spock has been to Romulus. He met Haian and me there. I hid on his ship when he returned. But - it is very hard to explain, Sanah, but we will be able to speak to our family in a certain manner. There is a king of Vulcan. He is long dead - but his spirit - his katra - that is living - and - and - I will explain everything to you later, sister.'

'I should think you better,' Sanah said, looking bewildered. 'Janas, I am here with Reian. And there will be still more family here soon. You are fast becoming an aunt, and I am fast becoming a mother.'

'You bear a child?' Janas asked in amazement.

She nodded. 'It is why we had to leave the Empire, Janas. They would not allow the pregnancy.'

'Spock, did you know who was in the room? Truthfully?' Janas asked, turning to the Vulcan.

'Truthfully, I did not,' Spock said honestly. 'It would seem that good fortune brought you together with your sister.'

******

Kirk and Spock were relaxing in the Vulcan's quarters for the first time in some weeks, sipping at glasses of Romulan ale. They were seated on two large Vulcan-style cushions on the floor, either side of the long black form that was Cikita. Spock's hand was buried in the deep fur, looking as if it had disappeared into a genuine black hole. The bandage was gone, and fur had rapidly covered the shaved area of the wound again.

'They recover almost as fast as Vulcans,' Kirk said idly, watching the cat.

'Captain?' Spock asked him, cocking an eyebrow.

'Your cat. It didn't take long before the wound healed.'

'Indeed,' the Vulcan nodded. 'Although she is still a little weak.'

'At least she's finally accepted me, though.'

'I have found that most people do finally accept you, Captain,' Spock said, and Kirk shot him a look.

'I'm not sure if I've been insulted or not, Mr Spock.'

'No insult was intended. It took most of the crew a little time to adjust to you when you came aboard the Enterprise as the new captain.'

'Including yourself. I recall there were cats and Vulcans involved then, too. That was a long time ago, Mr Spock.'

Spock cocked his head to the side. 'A relatively short span of time when viewed against the length of a Vulcan or human life.'

'And here we are, sitting on Vulcan bean bags, the best of friends,' Kirk said sentimentally. 'Whoever would have guessed?'

'I would not be surprised if Dr McCoy had – hedged a few bets, sir.'

'Last time I saw you in this room, Spock, you were face down on the floor,' Kirk said sombrely. 'You'd just tried to end your life.'

Spock swallowed the sip of ale he had just taken rather stiffly. Kirk saw the Vulcan's free hand slip in under his other sleeve, tracing over the scars that had almost disappeared, and he suddenly regretted reminding Spock of that right now.

'That was another time,' the Vulcan said simply, his eyes focused on some point deep in the opposite wall.

'Yes.'

Kirk knew what he meant. He'd come through that now, and survived, and he didn't want to go back to thinking about it. It did seem like another time now.

'Spock, don't you ever want someone to speak Vulcan to?' the captain asked his friend abruptly.

He thought he saw the Vulcan look grateful for the change of subject.

'I grew up speaking English as naturally as Vulcan. I had to, for my mother spoke English. It is not easy for a human to speak Vulcan.'

'But don't you ever want to be with someone with the same customs and beliefs, Spock?' he asked idly, sipping at his drink.

'Why should I desire that, Captain, when I have friends here?' Spock said smoothly.

'And they say that Vulcans don't have emotions,' Kirk half-laughed, taking another sip of the smooth Romulan ale.

He closed his eyes and leant his head back against the wall, letting the warmth from the cat beside him spread through his bones. Spock glanced across at him, then followed his lead, relaxing back into the cushion, and shutting his eyes against the light. All his shifts were over for the day, and it wouldn't hurt to sleep for just a little while. It was good to be able to sleep in safety and calm, and safety and calm were all that surrounded him now.