elliewood | Fic: Compeer, Chapter 5

Chapter 5

An airless gasp, followed by a sharp intake of breath. Air, not water. A cough and another grateful breath follows.

He opens his eyes to the hot Terran sun. He is lying on the beach, the ocean a comfortable distance away, calm and harmless. A turn of his head allows the sight of naked toes dug into sand; his gaze drifts along the line from feet to legs to squatting haunches and up past the chest, shoulders, throat, and finally the face beneath a shock of disarrayed hair, regarding him back primarily with curiosity but also a fair amount of concern. It takes him a moment to realize that he himself is likely the cause of that concern.

He wills himself to slow his breathing.

//You all right?//

He nods and raises himself on his elbows. The concern on Kirk’s face shifts to something both apologetic and sardonic.

//I told you you wouldn’t like it. I got a shitload of issues.//

//I am not displeased by your mind.//

Kirk narrows his eyes, disbelieving.

//I was pretty sure you’d be pissed. Especially all the shit about you.//

//I am...surprised. And somewhat overwhelmed. The thoughts of a Human mind are ordinarily rather chaotic...//

//Well, we don’t have that Vulcan discipline thing going on. It’s harder for us.//

//I am not criticizing, only explaining.//

//Sorry. Go on.//

//Very well. I was about to state that, while I find Human thoughts to be generally erratic in nature, yours are, while not distinctly orderly, not displeasing. The capacity of your cognitive processes is prodigious.//

//THANK you, I THINK.//

//You think correctly. It was meant as a compliment.//

Kirk nods and looks down at his toes as they burrow deeper into the yielding sand.

//So you’re not mad, or...//

//No.//

//...disappointed...?//

He finds himself in the familiar predicament of having caused pain when none was intended and has learned, from several such instances, that a direct refutation of the supposed cause of the offense is the best strategy.

Kirk looks back up at him, squinting against the bright sun, his eyes glittering in the tense question of his face.

He forces himself to breathe.

//You do not disappoint me.//

Relaxing slightly into gentle laughter. //Liar.//

//Vulcans do not lie. I presume you anticipated that I would find your mind so repellent that you thought it necessary to prevent me from accessing it.//

//You’ve pointed out my irrationality before. It makes a guy gun-shy.//

//Your irrationality is characteristic of your species. I did not intend it as a personal criticism.//

//Right...//

//Captain, nothing in your mind warrants concealment from me, I assure you.//

Kirk nods and picks up an errant piece of seaweed. His fingers toy with it before starting to pull it apart.

//What the hell is happening? Why are you here -- are you dead too?//

He rises to a sitting position and faces Kirk, head bent over the slowly disintegrating algal leaves in his hands, eyes avoiding him.

//Negative. Our physical bodies are in sickbay. The doctor placed you in cryostasis to preserve your brain function while he prepares to regenerate your body using Khan’s blood serum.//

Kirk is silent for a moment as he picks at the seaweed.

//Spock, I know I died. I felt myself go.//

//Your body was indeed deceased, but the doctor managed to restore heart and lung function, albeit at a reduced rate. Your mind is very much alive, as you should be able to deduce from the fact that we are having this conversation.//

//How do I know I’m not just dreaming you up? Like tunnels and white lights?//

//I assure you, Captain, I am not a hallucination. What you are perceiving is my mind connected to yours.//

//Yeah, I guess that’s logical. If I were really hallucinating, I’d come up with someone a hell of a lot prettier than you.//

//If you are attempting to insult me, you have failed.//

//You lie like a rug.//

He raises one eyebrow at Kirk, who grins back in return, his eyes bright against reddening cheeks. The beginning of a sunburn.

//So, what is this place? Why are we here?//

//Even for many Vulcan minds, pure thought is difficult to experience in the absence of a corporeal frame of reference. Our cognition has been overlaid onto a physical circumstance to facilitate contextualization.//

//Because without it, it would drive you crazy?//

//Perhaps; my telepathic skills are indeed somewhat substandard compared to those of Vulcans of pure blood. However, it is more likely that your mind would not be able to withstand the incursion of an abstract consciousness without such a framework in which to experience it.//

A frown creases Kirk’s forehead as he looks down at his feet. He resumes the destruction of the seaweed in his hands.

//Again, I mean no offense. Your species, being psi-null, has no natural capacity to accommodate the blending of what would ordinarily be an isolated mind with that of another. In this instance there is the additional concern that your brain may be physically compromised due to the intense radiation to which you were exposed in the warp core as well as the subsequent oxygen deprivation you endured prior to the doctor's initiation of resuscitation procedures. We are wise to be cautious.//

The frown deepens. Sweat is starting to roll down the side of his face.

//Why did you pick this place? It’s nice but it’s too fucking hot.//

//I did not choose this setting voluntarily, nor in isolation. Our combined thoughts and memories operate together to create the frame of reference in which we find ourselves.//

Kirk brushes his palms together to disperse the shredded bits of seaweed, then stands and drags the back of one hand across his eyes to clear the sweat. He turns toward the lapping surf, now several more meters away than just a moment before.

//So what’s going to happen to me?//

//Dr. McCoy is preparing a transfusion with Khan’s serum. It restored life to the tribble upon which the good doctor experimented, so the hope is that it will do the same for you.//

//Well, hope’s better than nothing, I guess.//

//Captain, we do not know the effects of this serum. Humans are not tribbles. It could well fail.//

//If it does, I’m no worse off than I was before.//

//True.//

It occurs to him that witnessing Kirk’s second death would in fact be rather worse for himself and suppresses the thought from intruding into their shared consciousness.

//I don’t get it. Khan..he’s just donating a pint of blood to me? After he literally kicked the shit out of me on the Vengeance? I’m not exactly his favorite thing, so why would he do that for me?//

//He agreed to do so.//

//Why?//

//I asked nicely.//

Kirk’s head spins to gape at him as he shakes with laughter.

//And they say Vulcans don’t have a sense of humor!//

//I am attempting to improve my skill at banter.//

//Well, you’re succeeding. That was a good one.//

More sweat trickles down Kirk’s face; he absently wipes it away with a forearm. The sunburn on his face and shoulders is alarmingly vivid and spreading to the rest of his upper body.

//What are the chances of the transfusion working?//

//Difficult to compute. There are too many unknown variables.//

//Come on, Spock. Usually you give me at least three significant figures.//

//I confess to an inability...//

or unwillingness

//...to attempt such a calculation in this case.//

I find I do not wish to estimate the likelihood of failure.

That thought, he cannot suppress.

//Or it could work. Let’s plan on that.//

//As you prefer.//

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