Fic: Everything Was Beautiful; Nothing Hurt, Chapter 10
Title: Everything Was Beautiful; Nothing Hurt... or Even More Kin and Even Less Kind
Chapter Title: Chapter 10: Driving School
Author: katiemariie
Artist: tprillahfiction
Fanmixer: civilbloodshed
Beta(s): subluxate and avsioss
Link to Art: Art
Link to Mix: Fanmix
Word Count: 3k
Nyota was excited, as much by being off planet for the first time she became the planetary body politic as by watching Data fly for the first time. After putting up with Data coming over to his shop every afternoon to ask, “What does this part do?” every five seconds, Elder Spock had offered to teach Data how to fly the Squid, Sha-Ka-Ree’s diplomatic vessel. Nyota and T’Pring talked it over with Data and agreed it would be a good opportunity for him to learn some responsibility. (There was only so much he could learn from taking care of Kihika.) After studying the ship’s function and acing simulations, Data was deemed ready to take the Squid for a test run.
This was actually their second attempt at Data’s first real flight. In the first instance, T’Pring went up along with Data and Elder Spock. The Squid wasn’t two meters out of space dock when Data apparently “hesitated” (to do what, Nyota wasn’t sure) and T’Pring declared the entire venture too dangerous, demanding that Elder Spock “turn this vessel around immediately.”
It was agreed then that Nyota would go along the next time. On the off chance that they were approached by an aggressive vessel while circling the planet, the Squid was more than able to outrun them or, if need be, disable the vessel. For such a small ship, the Squid was Air Force One and the accompanying fighter jets all rolled into one. The Matriarch wouldn’t travel in anything less.
“You sure this is a good idea?” Admiral Pike asked. He had somehow managed to sweet talk his way onto the ship for this short ride. Everyone was feeling a touch guilty that he had decided to take a month’s leave on Sha-Ka-Ree when there wasn’t much of anything to do there. Coming up with ways to entertain Pike became somewhat of a pastime in their family. “Last time we had a computer controlling a vessel-”
“Data’s not a computer,” Nyota said. “And he knows the difference between war games and war. He doesn’t have access to the weapons system anyway.”
“Okay, if you’re sure,” Pike said, amusement etched on his face.
“What?”
“Nothing. I never pegged you as the type to mother hen.”
“Neither did I,” she murmured.
“Leaving space dock in three, two, one,” Data counted. “We are in open space.”
“Good work,” Elder Spock praised. “Now, input the coordinates.”
“Coordinates inputted. Engage.”
“Good. The ship is entirely under your control; we are outside of the range of the space dock’s tractor beam.”
Nyota was so caught up in watching Data that she jumped in her seat when Pike said, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She smiled. “It’s very easy to underestimate him.”
“Right.” Pike crossed his legs and fussed with his pant leg. “I’m not paralyzed; you don’t have to gawp like that. You’re not witnessing a miracle.”
“Sorry. I...” Nyota averted her eyes. She’d assumed Pike was paraplegic, like Worf.
“Don’t be.”
She felt something cool and metallic up against her neck; as she turned to see what it was, she heard a phaser fire. But not at her. Pike was holding a phaser to her neck, and had another aimed at the conn, where Data was slumped over his console. “Data! What did you do?”
“Don’t move,” Pike said. “I just stunned him. I didn’t think it would work.”
“You... You have no idea what you just did. He could be dead.”
“He’s an android.”
“She is right,” Elder Spock said, his hands in the air. “Your stunning blast may have reset Data, effectively killing him.”
“I swear to god, Pike. I swear to god...”
“Allow me to reactivate him. It is the only way we can ascertain if you have killed him.”
“Fine,” Pike said. “Get him out the chair first. Put him over here.”
While Elder Spock dragged Data across the bridge like a rag doll, Nyota stared daggers at Pike. “Why are you doing this?”
“I need the ship.”
“Why?”
“I need to get somewhere. I’ll make sure it gets back to you.”
“We will not let you take this vessel,” Elder Spock said, flipping Data onto his stomach. He pulled up his shirt, and pressed Data’s activation switch.
Data’s eyes blinked open, looking between Elder Spock and Nyota. “Why am I lying on the floor in this undignified position with the two of you standing over me, displaying expressions of concern?” Out of the corner of his eye, he registered Pike. “I see. Is this a simulation to test my courage under fire as a captain?”
“No,” Elder Spock said, helping Data onto his feet. “Admiral Pike is attempting to steal the Squid.”
“Only temporarily,” Pike said
“Why would you need to steal this vessel?” Data asked. “As a Starfleet admiral, you have hundreds of ships from which you could obtain safe passage by legal means.”
“I can’t take a Starfleet vessel where I’m going.”
“Where are you going?”
“Talos IV.”
“Visiting Talos IV is forbidden to any Starfleet officer. The punishment is death.”
“Then it’s a good thing I resigned my commission.”
“Starfleet Command will never let you back in after this,” Elder Spock said.
“I know. That’s why I need you three to get on the shuttle; I won’t ruin your chances of joining back up.”
“I’m never returning to Starfleet,” Nyota said. “So you can get that phaser out of my face.”
“I am afraid I much too old to consider a change in career,” Elder Spock said. “Data, are you willing to preclude the possibility of a Starfleet career?”
“I am an android. The probability of today’s Starfleet admitting me is minuscule.
“I believe the matter is settled. We shall take you to Talos IV.”
“You have no idea what you’re getting yourselves into,” Pike warned.
“May I fly?” Data asked.
-
Data had yet to master the warp drive or Elder Spock’s souped version of it, so he would spend the remainder of the journey in the ship’s conference room with Nyota. At his mother’s insistence, he rested on one of the couches with his head on her lap.
“My condition is optimal; I do not require coddling,” Data protested.
“You love to be coddled.”
“I like,” he said with some difficulty, “to know that people hold affection for me. It renders me less insignificant. However, I have been activated for nine Terran months. I should not require this level of affection.”
Nyota smiled. “Are you saying you don’t want me to give you a kiss when I drop you off at school?”
“I do not attend school.”
“Right. Sorry. It was a reference to a phase Human adolescents go through.”
Data looked eager at being compared to a Human. “Explain, please.”
“At that age, Humans try to assert their independence by pushing away from their parents. Although most of the time, they only act distant from their parents, so they look cool in front of their friends. They usually get over this phase around the time they head off to university and start to do their own laundry.”
“I do not intend to ‘push you away.’”
“I know. I didn’t either. Looking back on my teenage years, I know things would have been a lot easier if I would have let my mom coddle me once in a while.”
“If that is so, then I do not object to this coddling. Far be it for me to reject the advice of my elders.”
Nyota stroked Data’s hair silently for a moment. “You could have died. I thought you were dead.”
“I am not.”
“I don’t know what I would have done if you had been reset.”
“Hopefully, activate me once again.”
“It would still be like losing you. You wouldn’t have any of your memories, you wouldn’t know who I was... I think I know how Elder Spock feels now.”
-
Elder Spock observed Admiral Pike out of the corner of his eye as he manned the conn. Recognizable events continued to occur in a strikingly dissimilar fashion. (What was it Mr. Sulu always said? “Dèjá vu all over again.”) Christopher Pike was sitting here beside him, willingly heading to Talos IV. He did not overlook the irony that he was one being kidnapped this time. Pike had so much more to live for now. Although the pain and spasticity in his legs necessitated the use of a wheelchair, Pike could move, speak, act. He had a life in the corporeal world. Why would he risk returning to Talos IV? Elder Spock knew that Pike was dissatisfied with his position in Starfleet and the architectural barriers that prevented him from being a captain, but surely that was not enough to drive a man away from society. There had to be some other reason, some physical deficit wrought by his injuries that made life less meaningful.
“Admiral Pike, is your desire to visit Talos IV predicated by a... loss of sexual functioning?”
Pike smirked. “In a manner of speaking.”
“I see... There is more to life than having lovers.”
“Is that why you have two?”
“I am merely making up for lost time, as the Human expression goes. I spent the majority of my life unbonded, and I found it very satisfying.”
“Why did you become bonded then?”
“One morning, I awake in a pool of my own vomit, surrounded by chocolate wrappers and far too many sehlats, and I realized that perhaps I could not make it in this universe alone.”
“That’s how I feel.”
“You need not journey to Talos IV to find a partner. There are numerous men and women on Terra who would be interested in a relationship with you.”
Pike sighed. “Everything I want in the universe is on Talos IV, and that’s the only place I can get it.”
Elder Spock wondered, perhaps, if Pike was given more time to consider, he would not choose to return to Talo IV. By not granting him this time, Elder Spock was enabling Pike to make an irreversible decision that cut him off from the rest of the universe. All those years ago, Elder Spock knew he was making the right decision by kidnapping Pike, but now, when Pike going willingly, he wasn’t so certain. The admiral needed time, but was unlikely to take it, and Elder Spock could not live with any more guilt. He reached over, as if he was stretching, and pinched Pike’s neck, planning to bring him back to Sha-Ka-Ree to consider his options more fully.
“Are you trying to neck pinch me?” Pike asked incredulously.
“Yes, but it does not appear to be taking effect.”
“I have nerve damage in my shoulders.”
“I see. I have never met a Human who was immune before.”
“Do you nerve pinch Humans often?”
“Not as often as in my youth.”
A special sensor Elder Spock routed for an occasion like this went off. As expected, the Talosians had taken control of the vessel.
“Won’t be long now.”
-
“Where are you?” T’Pring asked over Nyota’s comm. “I have been attempting to comm you for hours.”
“I’m sorry. The Squid’s warp core has been tampering with our comm signal. Both of us are fine. We’re on a side trip. I’ll tell you everything when we get home.” It was best, Nyota had learned, to not throw a Vulcan into a blood rage when there was nothing they could do to save their loved ones or, at least, settle the score. If she told T’Pring what Pike did now, she would have worked herself into such a state by the time they returned that she would shoot laser beams out of her eyes at Pike.
“Let me speak to Data.”
“Here.” She passed off the comm.
“Hello, Mother.”
“Data, are you well?”
“Yes, my condition is optimal.”
“How are the levels of your power cells?”
“Sub-optimal, but I will remain functional until we return, unless we spend too much time on the planet.”
“What planet are you visiting?”
“Ta-” Fortunately, Data was cut off by the Talosians transporting all four of the ship’s occupants onto the planet’s surface. “How peculiar.” The planet’s surface was covered in sand and large rock formations that jutted up from the ground. Data reached to touch one of them. Nyota’s hand shot out to stop him.
“Don’t move. We don’t know why this planet is forbidden. Anything could be dangerous.”
“None of this will harm him,” Elder Spock said. “The planet’s inhabitants are another matter entirely.”
“Keeper!” Pike shouted, advancing toward a rock face up ahead. “Show yourself!”
The rock face slid open, and a small, wrinkly Humanoid alien walked out of it. Nyota was never one to be crude or cultural insensitive, but she couldn’t deny that the alien’s head looked like a butt crack.
//Christopher, you have returned.//
“The Talosians are a telepathic species,” Elder Spock explained.
“Really,” Nyota said. “I couldn’t tell.”
//You have brought more specimens. They are most unique: the android with a soul from another universe; the Human-Vulcan hybrid also from another universe-the one that begot this one-he has the same DNA as the half-Vulcan your brought last time; and the cyborg woman in control of the prison planet at the center of galaxy. It is a pity that we cannot study them... You did not know their true identities, Christopher?//
“No, I didn’t, and right now I don’t care. I want Vina.”
//Very well.//
A beautiful blonde Human walked out the rock face. “Christopher?” She glanced nervously between Nyota, Elder Spock, and Data. “What are you doing here? What happened? Why are you in a wheelchair?”
“I’m fine. I was injured in the line of duty.”
“You’re not telling me everything.”
“I was tortured by a Romulan from the future. I can’t walk much now. Come here. I need to talk to you.”
Vina looked back at the Talosian before walking to Pike’s side. “Who are your friends?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Why are you here?”
“I came back for you.”
“Chris.” She ran a hand through his hair. “You can’t stay here. You’d die in captivity, remember?”
“I’m not staying... I’m asking you to come with me. Back to the real world.”
Vina flinched away. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. I should have never left you here. Back then, I thought, ‘I’d rather be dead than disabled.’ I thought, if I was in your place, I would do the same. Now I am, and I would choose life, pain, people acting like fools around me over this any day.”
“It’s not the same,” Vina said, tears filling her eyes. “You’re not a woman. People don’t expect you to be beautiful all the time. I won’t be pitied for the rest of my life.”
“You don’t think I’m pitied? There are places you can go where people aren’t like that. There’s a planet at the center of galaxy, where’s there’s a whole city made up of people like us. They call it Criptown.”
“Actually,” Data interrupted, “only the residents call it by that name. The rest of us refer to it as Handicapabletown.”
Pike side-eyed Data something fierce before he went on. “I bought a house there, and I would be honored if you lived with me in it.”
“Chris, I don’t know.”
“If you don’t like it, we can bring you back here. Just try it. After a while, if you stay, I’ll get my own ship again, and we can see the universe together. I can show you so much more than they can.”
“Okay.” Vina bent over and, as she kissed Pike, her body shifted into an older, scarred, and hunchbacked form.
“My Vina,” Pike murmured, playing with her hair.
-
“Data, I thought I told you to get my comm,” Nyota said.
“It is in the conference room,” Data replied, as if this explained everything.
“So? Go get it.”
“I cannot go in the conference room.”
“Yes, you can. We were just in the conference room a half hour ago. Go get it.”
“I cannot go in the conference room now.”
“Why not?”
“I am not allowed to.”
“According to who?”
“According to you.”
“I never said you couldn’t go in the conference room.”
“You said I could not enter a room when its occupants were having special adult time together.”
“Who’s...” Nyota looked around the bridge. Vina and Pike were missing. “Ew.”
“Do you have a problem with disabled people having sex?” Elder Spock asked.
“No. I have a problem with people having sex where Data can hear them. Data, don’t listen in on them.”
“I cannot help it. My hearing is very keen.”
“Sing something.”
“Row, row, row your boat-”
“Anything but that.”
Previous Next
Chapter Title: Chapter 10: Driving School
Author: katiemariie
Artist: tprillahfiction
Fanmixer: civilbloodshed
Beta(s): subluxate and avsioss
Link to Art: Art
Link to Mix: Fanmix
Word Count: 3k
Nyota was excited, as much by being off planet for the first time she became the planetary body politic as by watching Data fly for the first time. After putting up with Data coming over to his shop every afternoon to ask, “What does this part do?” every five seconds, Elder Spock had offered to teach Data how to fly the Squid, Sha-Ka-Ree’s diplomatic vessel. Nyota and T’Pring talked it over with Data and agreed it would be a good opportunity for him to learn some responsibility. (There was only so much he could learn from taking care of Kihika.) After studying the ship’s function and acing simulations, Data was deemed ready to take the Squid for a test run.
This was actually their second attempt at Data’s first real flight. In the first instance, T’Pring went up along with Data and Elder Spock. The Squid wasn’t two meters out of space dock when Data apparently “hesitated” (to do what, Nyota wasn’t sure) and T’Pring declared the entire venture too dangerous, demanding that Elder Spock “turn this vessel around immediately.”
It was agreed then that Nyota would go along the next time. On the off chance that they were approached by an aggressive vessel while circling the planet, the Squid was more than able to outrun them or, if need be, disable the vessel. For such a small ship, the Squid was Air Force One and the accompanying fighter jets all rolled into one. The Matriarch wouldn’t travel in anything less.
“You sure this is a good idea?” Admiral Pike asked. He had somehow managed to sweet talk his way onto the ship for this short ride. Everyone was feeling a touch guilty that he had decided to take a month’s leave on Sha-Ka-Ree when there wasn’t much of anything to do there. Coming up with ways to entertain Pike became somewhat of a pastime in their family. “Last time we had a computer controlling a vessel-”
“Data’s not a computer,” Nyota said. “And he knows the difference between war games and war. He doesn’t have access to the weapons system anyway.”
“Okay, if you’re sure,” Pike said, amusement etched on his face.
“What?”
“Nothing. I never pegged you as the type to mother hen.”
“Neither did I,” she murmured.
“Leaving space dock in three, two, one,” Data counted. “We are in open space.”
“Good work,” Elder Spock praised. “Now, input the coordinates.”
“Coordinates inputted. Engage.”
“Good. The ship is entirely under your control; we are outside of the range of the space dock’s tractor beam.”
Nyota was so caught up in watching Data that she jumped in her seat when Pike said, “I’m sorry.”
“It’s okay.” She smiled. “It’s very easy to underestimate him.”
“Right.” Pike crossed his legs and fussed with his pant leg. “I’m not paralyzed; you don’t have to gawp like that. You’re not witnessing a miracle.”
“Sorry. I...” Nyota averted her eyes. She’d assumed Pike was paraplegic, like Worf.
“Don’t be.”
She felt something cool and metallic up against her neck; as she turned to see what it was, she heard a phaser fire. But not at her. Pike was holding a phaser to her neck, and had another aimed at the conn, where Data was slumped over his console. “Data! What did you do?”
“Don’t move,” Pike said. “I just stunned him. I didn’t think it would work.”
“You... You have no idea what you just did. He could be dead.”
“He’s an android.”
“She is right,” Elder Spock said, his hands in the air. “Your stunning blast may have reset Data, effectively killing him.”
“I swear to god, Pike. I swear to god...”
“Allow me to reactivate him. It is the only way we can ascertain if you have killed him.”
“Fine,” Pike said. “Get him out the chair first. Put him over here.”
While Elder Spock dragged Data across the bridge like a rag doll, Nyota stared daggers at Pike. “Why are you doing this?”
“I need the ship.”
“Why?”
“I need to get somewhere. I’ll make sure it gets back to you.”
“We will not let you take this vessel,” Elder Spock said, flipping Data onto his stomach. He pulled up his shirt, and pressed Data’s activation switch.
Data’s eyes blinked open, looking between Elder Spock and Nyota. “Why am I lying on the floor in this undignified position with the two of you standing over me, displaying expressions of concern?” Out of the corner of his eye, he registered Pike. “I see. Is this a simulation to test my courage under fire as a captain?”
“No,” Elder Spock said, helping Data onto his feet. “Admiral Pike is attempting to steal the Squid.”
“Only temporarily,” Pike said
“Why would you need to steal this vessel?” Data asked. “As a Starfleet admiral, you have hundreds of ships from which you could obtain safe passage by legal means.”
“I can’t take a Starfleet vessel where I’m going.”
“Where are you going?”
“Talos IV.”
“Visiting Talos IV is forbidden to any Starfleet officer. The punishment is death.”
“Then it’s a good thing I resigned my commission.”
“Starfleet Command will never let you back in after this,” Elder Spock said.
“I know. That’s why I need you three to get on the shuttle; I won’t ruin your chances of joining back up.”
“I’m never returning to Starfleet,” Nyota said. “So you can get that phaser out of my face.”
“I am afraid I much too old to consider a change in career,” Elder Spock said. “Data, are you willing to preclude the possibility of a Starfleet career?”
“I am an android. The probability of today’s Starfleet admitting me is minuscule.
“I believe the matter is settled. We shall take you to Talos IV.”
“You have no idea what you’re getting yourselves into,” Pike warned.
“May I fly?” Data asked.
-
Data had yet to master the warp drive or Elder Spock’s souped version of it, so he would spend the remainder of the journey in the ship’s conference room with Nyota. At his mother’s insistence, he rested on one of the couches with his head on her lap.
“My condition is optimal; I do not require coddling,” Data protested.
“You love to be coddled.”
“I like,” he said with some difficulty, “to know that people hold affection for me. It renders me less insignificant. However, I have been activated for nine Terran months. I should not require this level of affection.”
Nyota smiled. “Are you saying you don’t want me to give you a kiss when I drop you off at school?”
“I do not attend school.”
“Right. Sorry. It was a reference to a phase Human adolescents go through.”
Data looked eager at being compared to a Human. “Explain, please.”
“At that age, Humans try to assert their independence by pushing away from their parents. Although most of the time, they only act distant from their parents, so they look cool in front of their friends. They usually get over this phase around the time they head off to university and start to do their own laundry.”
“I do not intend to ‘push you away.’”
“I know. I didn’t either. Looking back on my teenage years, I know things would have been a lot easier if I would have let my mom coddle me once in a while.”
“If that is so, then I do not object to this coddling. Far be it for me to reject the advice of my elders.”
Nyota stroked Data’s hair silently for a moment. “You could have died. I thought you were dead.”
“I am not.”
“I don’t know what I would have done if you had been reset.”
“Hopefully, activate me once again.”
“It would still be like losing you. You wouldn’t have any of your memories, you wouldn’t know who I was... I think I know how Elder Spock feels now.”
-
Elder Spock observed Admiral Pike out of the corner of his eye as he manned the conn. Recognizable events continued to occur in a strikingly dissimilar fashion. (What was it Mr. Sulu always said? “Dèjá vu all over again.”) Christopher Pike was sitting here beside him, willingly heading to Talos IV. He did not overlook the irony that he was one being kidnapped this time. Pike had so much more to live for now. Although the pain and spasticity in his legs necessitated the use of a wheelchair, Pike could move, speak, act. He had a life in the corporeal world. Why would he risk returning to Talos IV? Elder Spock knew that Pike was dissatisfied with his position in Starfleet and the architectural barriers that prevented him from being a captain, but surely that was not enough to drive a man away from society. There had to be some other reason, some physical deficit wrought by his injuries that made life less meaningful.
“Admiral Pike, is your desire to visit Talos IV predicated by a... loss of sexual functioning?”
Pike smirked. “In a manner of speaking.”
“I see... There is more to life than having lovers.”
“Is that why you have two?”
“I am merely making up for lost time, as the Human expression goes. I spent the majority of my life unbonded, and I found it very satisfying.”
“Why did you become bonded then?”
“One morning, I awake in a pool of my own vomit, surrounded by chocolate wrappers and far too many sehlats, and I realized that perhaps I could not make it in this universe alone.”
“That’s how I feel.”
“You need not journey to Talos IV to find a partner. There are numerous men and women on Terra who would be interested in a relationship with you.”
Pike sighed. “Everything I want in the universe is on Talos IV, and that’s the only place I can get it.”
Elder Spock wondered, perhaps, if Pike was given more time to consider, he would not choose to return to Talo IV. By not granting him this time, Elder Spock was enabling Pike to make an irreversible decision that cut him off from the rest of the universe. All those years ago, Elder Spock knew he was making the right decision by kidnapping Pike, but now, when Pike going willingly, he wasn’t so certain. The admiral needed time, but was unlikely to take it, and Elder Spock could not live with any more guilt. He reached over, as if he was stretching, and pinched Pike’s neck, planning to bring him back to Sha-Ka-Ree to consider his options more fully.
“Are you trying to neck pinch me?” Pike asked incredulously.
“Yes, but it does not appear to be taking effect.”
“I have nerve damage in my shoulders.”
“I see. I have never met a Human who was immune before.”
“Do you nerve pinch Humans often?”
“Not as often as in my youth.”
A special sensor Elder Spock routed for an occasion like this went off. As expected, the Talosians had taken control of the vessel.
“Won’t be long now.”
-
“Where are you?” T’Pring asked over Nyota’s comm. “I have been attempting to comm you for hours.”
“I’m sorry. The Squid’s warp core has been tampering with our comm signal. Both of us are fine. We’re on a side trip. I’ll tell you everything when we get home.” It was best, Nyota had learned, to not throw a Vulcan into a blood rage when there was nothing they could do to save their loved ones or, at least, settle the score. If she told T’Pring what Pike did now, she would have worked herself into such a state by the time they returned that she would shoot laser beams out of her eyes at Pike.
“Let me speak to Data.”
“Here.” She passed off the comm.
“Hello, Mother.”
“Data, are you well?”
“Yes, my condition is optimal.”
“How are the levels of your power cells?”
“Sub-optimal, but I will remain functional until we return, unless we spend too much time on the planet.”
“What planet are you visiting?”
“Ta-” Fortunately, Data was cut off by the Talosians transporting all four of the ship’s occupants onto the planet’s surface. “How peculiar.” The planet’s surface was covered in sand and large rock formations that jutted up from the ground. Data reached to touch one of them. Nyota’s hand shot out to stop him.
“Don’t move. We don’t know why this planet is forbidden. Anything could be dangerous.”
“None of this will harm him,” Elder Spock said. “The planet’s inhabitants are another matter entirely.”
“Keeper!” Pike shouted, advancing toward a rock face up ahead. “Show yourself!”
The rock face slid open, and a small, wrinkly Humanoid alien walked out of it. Nyota was never one to be crude or cultural insensitive, but she couldn’t deny that the alien’s head looked like a butt crack.
//Christopher, you have returned.//
“The Talosians are a telepathic species,” Elder Spock explained.
“Really,” Nyota said. “I couldn’t tell.”
//You have brought more specimens. They are most unique: the android with a soul from another universe; the Human-Vulcan hybrid also from another universe-the one that begot this one-he has the same DNA as the half-Vulcan your brought last time; and the cyborg woman in control of the prison planet at the center of galaxy. It is a pity that we cannot study them... You did not know their true identities, Christopher?//
“No, I didn’t, and right now I don’t care. I want Vina.”
//Very well.//
A beautiful blonde Human walked out the rock face. “Christopher?” She glanced nervously between Nyota, Elder Spock, and Data. “What are you doing here? What happened? Why are you in a wheelchair?”
“I’m fine. I was injured in the line of duty.”
“You’re not telling me everything.”
“I was tortured by a Romulan from the future. I can’t walk much now. Come here. I need to talk to you.”
Vina looked back at the Talosian before walking to Pike’s side. “Who are your friends?”
“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.”
“Why are you here?”
“I came back for you.”
“Chris.” She ran a hand through his hair. “You can’t stay here. You’d die in captivity, remember?”
“I’m not staying... I’m asking you to come with me. Back to the real world.”
Vina flinched away. “I can’t. You know I can’t.”
“Yes, you can. I should have never left you here. Back then, I thought, ‘I’d rather be dead than disabled.’ I thought, if I was in your place, I would do the same. Now I am, and I would choose life, pain, people acting like fools around me over this any day.”
“It’s not the same,” Vina said, tears filling her eyes. “You’re not a woman. People don’t expect you to be beautiful all the time. I won’t be pitied for the rest of my life.”
“You don’t think I’m pitied? There are places you can go where people aren’t like that. There’s a planet at the center of galaxy, where’s there’s a whole city made up of people like us. They call it Criptown.”
“Actually,” Data interrupted, “only the residents call it by that name. The rest of us refer to it as Handicapabletown.”
Pike side-eyed Data something fierce before he went on. “I bought a house there, and I would be honored if you lived with me in it.”
“Chris, I don’t know.”
“If you don’t like it, we can bring you back here. Just try it. After a while, if you stay, I’ll get my own ship again, and we can see the universe together. I can show you so much more than they can.”
“Okay.” Vina bent over and, as she kissed Pike, her body shifted into an older, scarred, and hunchbacked form.
“My Vina,” Pike murmured, playing with her hair.
-
“Data, I thought I told you to get my comm,” Nyota said.
“It is in the conference room,” Data replied, as if this explained everything.
“So? Go get it.”
“I cannot go in the conference room.”
“Yes, you can. We were just in the conference room a half hour ago. Go get it.”
“I cannot go in the conference room now.”
“Why not?”
“I am not allowed to.”
“According to who?”
“According to you.”
“I never said you couldn’t go in the conference room.”
“You said I could not enter a room when its occupants were having special adult time together.”
“Who’s...” Nyota looked around the bridge. Vina and Pike were missing. “Ew.”
“Do you have a problem with disabled people having sex?” Elder Spock asked.
“No. I have a problem with people having sex where Data can hear them. Data, don’t listen in on them.”
“I cannot help it. My hearing is very keen.”
“Sing something.”
“Row, row, row your boat-”
“Anything but that.”
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