Ficlet: No Sacrifice | STXI | Saavik/David | PG | 1/1
Title: No Sacrifice
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing: Saavik/David
Rating: PG
Word Count: 709
Prompt: For last month's Drabblefest at where_no_woman: 29. "Many of the most terrifying moments of my life never happened." --Jan Haag
Summary: In another reality, things were different.
Disclaimer: Paramount and CBS own everything. I own nothing. Darnit!
Author's Notes: I can't believe I forgot to repost this. *facepalm* First Saavik fic I've written in a LONG time, and part of my "Daughters and Sons" 'verse, of which this is the first officially posted piece.
No Sacrifice
As sure as she is that Vulcan--true Vulcan--is long-dead, Saavik is certain there are horrific moments she has experienced, and yet has not and will likely never experience. It is the ultimate paradox to her, but she knows--she knows that these things have both happened and not happened.
It isn't any sort of mysticism or trick of the mind, nor any deceit or mental disability. It is simply the result of living much of her life with a man who should not be, and yet is. The man she knows as her grandfather, for lack of a better term, Ambassador Selek to many, Spock to a few, has seen and lived through so many things that have not come to pass, and through nothing more than simple casual contact, a hug, a pat on her shoulder, she has come to see them, too.
Saavik knows.
She has seen the anguish of growing up on lonely, long-deserted colony planet, with no mother or family, living as an animal, unclothed, underfed, wild and angry. And yet even now her mother is a doctor, serving aboard the Excelsior, and Saavik has no memory of the harsh world she was born into, having lived on New Vulcan as long as she can remember until her enlistment.
She has seen the frustration of knowing no control over her own mind and heart, torn into pieces by her contradictory nature. But she has never felt such enraged strength of the opposing forces within herself, never to that degree, as she's known logic and the Vulcan way since she was a tiny child.
She has seen the destruction of a verdant world that her Romulan blood has often sung for on cool desert nights, a world ripped apart by its own sun. But Romulus is intact and green and living, and will continue to be until ages pass.
She has seen atrocities committed in the name of revenge by a madman. A madman who is now sealed away in stasis, and will never be free to either desire or exact such revenge.
She has seen her grandfather die, a life sacrificed for the good of the many. But he is at this moment a man of advanced age, living out his life in the service of his kind, teaching young Vulcans and Romulans alike the treasures of their shared heritage.
And she has seen a young man--a vibrant, troubled young man--give his life to the blade of a Klingon in exchange for hers, crimson pooling below him on the fertile earth of a planet that was moments from tearing itself apart.
Making her way across the main Academy quad, Saavik finds the young man sitting alone on a bench, scrolling through a document on a PADD, alive and well, and definitely not troubled. She's known for a long time that he was the man she'd seen, the son of a scientist and a Starfleet Captain, destined in another lifetime to meet an early end, and she's... glad that that destiny doesn't belong to this man. Whatever might have happened in that other lifetime, what Saavik knows of the here and now is that this is right.
He raises his head from his work as she approaches, and a grin moves over his face. "Saavik! I'm just finishing up with this. You ready?" he asks, standing and stashing the PADD in a pocket of his red uniform pants. "I understand Dad's on the simulation team today."
"I'm ready," she nods to him, accepting his outstretched hand as they turn to walk toward the Command-training facilities together, Saavik's first attempt at the Kobayashi Maru test just a half-hour hence. "And Admiral Kirk, Captain Spock, Commander Uhura, and Doctor McCoy are all on the simulation team today. You would know that if you'd read the briefing packet," she finishes with a good-natured rib, one up-swept eyebrow raised.
Allowing the corner of her mouth to lift in a tiny quirk of a smile, only for David to see, as he chuckles at her teasing and reaches up to tuck an errant curl of hair behind her left ear, Saavik is grateful that so much of what she knows will never come to pass. Of all the possible realities to live in, this is the one she prefers.
~*~*~*~*~
Fandom: Star Trek XI
Pairing: Saavik/David
Rating: PG
Word Count: 709
Prompt: For last month's Drabblefest at where_no_woman: 29. "Many of the most terrifying moments of my life never happened." --Jan Haag
Summary: In another reality, things were different.
Disclaimer: Paramount and CBS own everything. I own nothing. Darnit!
Author's Notes: I can't believe I forgot to repost this. *facepalm* First Saavik fic I've written in a LONG time, and part of my "Daughters and Sons" 'verse, of which this is the first officially posted piece.
No Sacrifice
As sure as she is that Vulcan--true Vulcan--is long-dead, Saavik is certain there are horrific moments she has experienced, and yet has not and will likely never experience. It is the ultimate paradox to her, but she knows--she knows that these things have both happened and not happened.
It isn't any sort of mysticism or trick of the mind, nor any deceit or mental disability. It is simply the result of living much of her life with a man who should not be, and yet is. The man she knows as her grandfather, for lack of a better term, Ambassador Selek to many, Spock to a few, has seen and lived through so many things that have not come to pass, and through nothing more than simple casual contact, a hug, a pat on her shoulder, she has come to see them, too.
Saavik knows.
She has seen the anguish of growing up on lonely, long-deserted colony planet, with no mother or family, living as an animal, unclothed, underfed, wild and angry. And yet even now her mother is a doctor, serving aboard the Excelsior, and Saavik has no memory of the harsh world she was born into, having lived on New Vulcan as long as she can remember until her enlistment.
She has seen the frustration of knowing no control over her own mind and heart, torn into pieces by her contradictory nature. But she has never felt such enraged strength of the opposing forces within herself, never to that degree, as she's known logic and the Vulcan way since she was a tiny child.
She has seen the destruction of a verdant world that her Romulan blood has often sung for on cool desert nights, a world ripped apart by its own sun. But Romulus is intact and green and living, and will continue to be until ages pass.
She has seen atrocities committed in the name of revenge by a madman. A madman who is now sealed away in stasis, and will never be free to either desire or exact such revenge.
She has seen her grandfather die, a life sacrificed for the good of the many. But he is at this moment a man of advanced age, living out his life in the service of his kind, teaching young Vulcans and Romulans alike the treasures of their shared heritage.
And she has seen a young man--a vibrant, troubled young man--give his life to the blade of a Klingon in exchange for hers, crimson pooling below him on the fertile earth of a planet that was moments from tearing itself apart.
Making her way across the main Academy quad, Saavik finds the young man sitting alone on a bench, scrolling through a document on a PADD, alive and well, and definitely not troubled. She's known for a long time that he was the man she'd seen, the son of a scientist and a Starfleet Captain, destined in another lifetime to meet an early end, and she's... glad that that destiny doesn't belong to this man. Whatever might have happened in that other lifetime, what Saavik knows of the here and now is that this is right.
He raises his head from his work as she approaches, and a grin moves over his face. "Saavik! I'm just finishing up with this. You ready?" he asks, standing and stashing the PADD in a pocket of his red uniform pants. "I understand Dad's on the simulation team today."
"I'm ready," she nods to him, accepting his outstretched hand as they turn to walk toward the Command-training facilities together, Saavik's first attempt at the Kobayashi Maru test just a half-hour hence. "And Admiral Kirk, Captain Spock, Commander Uhura, and Doctor McCoy are all on the simulation team today. You would know that if you'd read the briefing packet," she finishes with a good-natured rib, one up-swept eyebrow raised.
Allowing the corner of her mouth to lift in a tiny quirk of a smile, only for David to see, as he chuckles at her teasing and reaches up to tuck an errant curl of hair behind her left ear, Saavik is grateful that so much of what she knows will never come to pass. Of all the possible realities to live in, this is the one she prefers.
~*~*~*~*~