Chapter Text
Commander Caraccilo had rarely sat in the captain’s ready room without the captain present, and never when she was in danger with no clear path out. His eyes were heavy lidded and lined underneath with dark bags, and on the table in front of him he had both hands curled tightly around a mug of coffee–his third this hour. Even though he looked exhausted, his mind was racing, both worries and hopefully solutions swirling in his head. All that caffeine wasn’t helping, but it was keeping him alert.
Gathered with him for this consultation were Joanna McCoy, Demora Sulu, chief science officer Remi Hollis, and transporter chief Ekatarini Petrokokkinos. Caraccilo had another long sip of his coffee before he began.
“Well. I’m not going to sit here and lay on the false optimism…frankly there isn’t much of anything to be optimistic about. The Augments have the captain, their leader has made impossible demands and refused two counter offers, and the only solution I can think of is to say to hell with the humanitarian mission and send in a heavily armed rescue party. If anyone has any better ideas, please enlighten me.”
“Even if that is the only option, I still wouldn’t recommend it,” Joanna was the first to respond. “Advanced weapons might not be enough to overpower them, the reports from Starfleet’s last encounter with the Augments showed just how easily just a handful were able to take over an entire ship.”
“Noted, but we don’t have any time to listen to problems without solutions.”
“Lieutenant Petrokokkinos.” Hollis spoke up to address the transporter chief. “Are you absolutely sure there’s no way to compensate for the storms to beam them out?”
“Don’t you think I would have done it by now if it was that simple?” Petrokokkinos rolled her eyes. “Theoretically, though? Maybe, but it wouldn’t be quick or easy. I need more data on the storm patterns.”
“Which we’ve been collecting all along, and will continue to gather more.” Holis answered.
“And we’d have to wait for a lull in the storms.”
“Doable, if not ideal.” Caraccilo answered with a nod.
“And I can’t be certain yet, but it’s very likely they would need to be outside to get a strong enough signal.”
Caraccilo hung his head and stared pensively into the dregs of coffee in his cup. “We can’t communicate with them, and even if we could they don’t stand a good chance at that kind of escape.”
“I’ll see what I can do, Commander, but I thought it was better to mention that upfront and avoid a nasty surprise later.”
“Good point.” Caraccilo took a deep breath and drank down the remainder of his coffee. “Well, you all know what you need to do. Get to it.”
When the sun set on Ceti Alpha V, the temperature dropped. Not so much as to be dangerous to a human (and even less so to an Augment), but enough to cause discomfort that was difficult to ignore. Without so much as a blanket, falling asleep would be challenging. What bothered Maya more than the cold, however, was an ever-worsening feeling of dizziness and hunger for air. She couldn’t guess if the feeling was caused by an anxious heart, the thin atmosphere, or a combination of the two. She sat leaned against the wall with her head slumped, trying to take slow, steady breaths.
Saavik seemed more bothered by the cold. At first she tried to hide it, standing still with her hands clasped behind her back and her usual contemplative, neutral look on her face, but in time her resolve began to crumble. She sat down beside Maya and tried to keep a little more dignity by sitting up straight with rigid posture, but when Maya glanced over she saw that the Vulcan was shivering.
Maya inched closer but was cautious to leave a space between them. “Wish there was something I could do to help,” she sighed.
“There is.” Without warning, Saavik took hold of Maya’s hand. The sudden and unexpected contact made Maya gasp in both delight and shock–Saavik’s hand was freezing. “Come closer.”
“Saavik…Captain…What about your bondmate?” Even though she protested, Maya did not let go of Saavik’s hand.
“These are extenuating circumstances. It would be illogical for Tural to perceive a transgression in measures taken to protect my safety…if he were to find out at all.”
Maya took a deep breath and moved closer, making an effort to remain respectful of whatever unknown boundaries might be in place. She pressed her side against Saavik’s and rested her head on her shoulder as Saavik took her other hand. After they sat together in silence for a few minutes, Maya closed her eyes. They faced the worst possible outcome, yet Maya began to feel calm and at peace.
“Would it bother you if I rambled about my complicated emotions?” Maya asked. Her eyes were still closed.
“No. I understand such measures may be necessary to preserve one’s peace of mind, in which case I will listen.”
“I’m not even sure where to begin. I’ve been acting cavalier because I have to, but I’m frightened, not only about what could happen to us but that acting like that came back to me so easily. Being violently assertive was practically required. I had a hard start to my life.” Maya fell silent as foreign images flashed through her mind, of abandoned, starving children left to fend for themselves on a wild planet. Somehow she knew whose memories these were. “But yours must have been so much worse.”
“Comparing our experiences in such a way is not a worthwhile endeavor.”
Maya sat up straight and opened her eyes. “How did I know that?”
“A telepathic link, perhaps a bond.”
“I've had a mind-meld before and found it painfully intrusive. This was nothing like that.”
“That was likely because the previous meld was not wholly welcome, while this link is.”
“And what about you? Is this what you want?”
“It is, though I have concerns for potential complications.”
“You meant Tural?”
Maya nodded.
“It would not be productive to worry yourself with such things. You need rest. I can see your health is beginning to be negatively affected.”
Maya rested her head on Saavik’s shoulder and closed her eyes again/ “I imagine I wouldn’t have to worry so much about a Vulcan being a jealous lover.”
Saavik opened her mouth as if to answer, but stopped herself. Some affairs were best kept private.
Not long after Maya dozed off, she was awakened to the sound of approaching footsteps: soft, light and quick. The surge of energy made her sit straight up, and her heart jumped. However, the sense of shock subsided as quickly as it came. Maya breathed a sigh of relief when she saw the young boy, Enzo, turning the corner carrying a small sack. Maya and Saavik stood up; Maya was careful to move slowly as her head was still in a fog.
“I take it you have more questions for the woman who killed your father.” Maya put her hands on her hips.
“Not quite.” Enzo extended his arms to offer the bag to Saavik and Maya. “I want to help.”
Maya took the bag and looked inside: one confiscated phaser and communicator. “You took quite the risk to get these. Why help us?”
Enzo looked down at his feet and sighed. “Because I want to go to Earth, more than anything.”
Maya handed the bag off to Saavik and placed her hands on Enzo’s shoulders. She looked into his eyes, and even though he looked so much like the man who had once caused her so much pain, she began to see Enzo as his own person. His own person who could forge his own life and had the capacity to do a lot of good, if only he took that chance, just like she had ten years ago. “I know exactly how you feel. You have my word that if we manage to get out of here you’re coming with us, and maybe you’ve given us an advantage.”
“Maya, it would be wise to temper your optimism,” Saavik added. “With the other phaser still accounted for and adversaries whose numbers and strength far surpasses our own. It would be more accurate to say that what we now have is simply less of a disadvantage.”
“Hope is free. At least now we can communicate with the ship. Enzo, before you go, may I ask you a few questions?”
Enzo nodded.
“There were three other children, teenagers. I’m sure I knew them, but they’ve grown too much for me to recognize or remember their names.”’
“Umeko, Elena, and Aada.”
Maya nodded, now realizing the similarities in the three teenage girls and the very young children she had last seen years ago. “And now I feel foolish for not recognizing them. And…are you the youngest child?”
Enzo nodded. “The youngest survivor. The others…new babies…” Enzo forced a slight smile, but there was pain in his eyes.
“You don’t have to elaborate.” Maya didn’t want to dwell on that topic, and she certainly didn’t want a young boy to think about it either. If she didn’t know the details she could carry on with the belief that this environment was too harsh for a fragile new life, but given the Augments’ obsession with utility she had darker suspicions.
“I think you need to hurry up and get back to wherever you need to be.” Maya patted Enzo on the shoulder one more time. “If anyone finds out what you’ve done , say that I put you up to it.”
After a silent nod of understanding, Enzo turned to go. Maya reached into the bag to pull out the communicator and pushed it into Saavik’s hands. “Contact the ship, I’m going to find a place to hide these.”
“Are you giving orders now?” Saavik teased.
“As the expert on Ceti Alpha V, I think I’ve earned it just this once.”
Maya lowered herself to the ground and began to feel around where the wall joined the floor, and while she worked Saavik readied her communicator.
“Saavik to Enterprise.” She spoke quietly, held the communicator close, and cupped it with her hand to muffle any sound.
“Captain? Caraccilo here. What a relief to hear your voice.”
“Keep it brief, Commander, with every passing moment I risk discovery.”
“Right. We might be able to beam you out of there, but you’ll have to get outside when the sandstorms die down in three hours.”
“What you require will be extremely difficult, and there will be a third with us.”
“Understood. Caraccilo out.”
During this conversation, Maya had managed to peel back the corner of the covering on an interior wall. “Put everything in here. A lot can happen in three hours.”