Title: After the Rescue
Part: NEW 19/73
Author: Karmen Ghia, karmen_ghia@yahoo.com
Series: TOS
Romance Code: S/Mc and then some.
Rating: NC-17
Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html
See part one for disclaimers, etc.
Sarek had slipped into a healing trance just prior to being beaten into unconsciousness by three of Imstk's guards. He was thrown into a crowded cell whose inmates relieved him of his fine clothing. One of them had shown pity on the half-dead man and tossed some rags around him.
The cell was crowded because a prison ship was due the following morning to transport the occupants to a prison colony on Rist 8 in the Trza system in non-aligned space. These prisoners would be worked to death in the mineral field there. The dead Yustala had made this arrangement with the Ristians. It was a simple way to dispose of criminals, rebels, maniacs and other troublemakers. The Rovirin coffers even received four Ristian gold ducats per prisoner. He could not have dreamed that Sarek of Vulcan, his invited guest, would now provide an additional 4 ducats.
Sarek was deep inside himself and so at first did not feel the gentle hands on his bleeding brow. He just barely felt the skin pull tight and smooth as the gashes there knitted together. They caressed his broken jaws, restoring the bone and mending the shattered teeth. He felt energy coalesce in his nose and could almost hear the cartilage reassembling itself. The hands moved down to the aching broken ribs. He felt the tips of the bone moving back into place and out of his lungs. He felt the pain of mere breathing subside. He could even feel his punctured lung heal and reinflate.
For a moment the hands left him and he sank back down into his trance.
The hands returned. He felt them moving over his stomach healing the bruised flesh there. They lingered over the bleeding internal organs, pouring pure healing energy into them, making them whole again. The hands moved over his bruised and bleeding groin where the guards had kicked him with steel tipped boots.
Sarek felt the hands recoil for a moment and return. He thought he could just hear someone crying softly but he preferred not to come close enough to consciousness to investigate. The healing continued in his groin area. He felt the ache in his genitals ebbing away and the blood flow restored.
He felt the unseen hands move down his legs, healing the bruised thighs and shattered kneecaps. They vanished for a few moments and returned to soothe away the bruises on his calves. They progressed to the torn cartilage in his ankles and his broken feet. He could almost feel the bones and tissue knitting together.
Sarek was now strong enough to focus his own healing energy in assistance of the hands. He let his consciousness roam over the areas the hands had healed and moved with them to his back and neck. Together they explored the damage inflicted with phaser rifle butts and clubs.
'Why didn't they shoot me?' Sarek wondered weakly.
/they are savages/
Sarek felt this waft gently through his consciousness and then it was gone. He returned his attention to healing his body.
Maja let the tears run freely down his face as he pulled Sarek's agony away from the Vulcan and into his own body. Three times he had had to stop before the pain and damage caused him to lose consciousness himself. Twice he'd stopped to fight off predators that found him and his clothes too interesting. They'd jumped him from behind while he was preoccupied. He'd broken their necks and left their bodies nearby as a warning to anyone else with the same idea.
The MageCheq thanked god repeatedly for the thick Vulcan skull on Sarek. It had been fractured but there was no brain damage. Had Maja found brain damage there would be nothing to be done for it. He was shaking with pain as he carefully explored each of Sarek's vertebrae, probing for spinal damage and weeping with relief at finding none. He stroked the base of the Vulcan's skull soothingly, feeling Sarek's healing trance take over. Maja broke contact and sat back on his heels to rest. Weak as a babe, he stared down a big Rovirin male moving in his direction. Even from ten meters Maja could feel the violence in the big male's mind and quickly entered that mind and changed those thoughts to more pacific ones. The Rovirin wandered off, suddenly very interested in something on the other side of the cell.
Maja felt Sarek stirring to consciousness in his mind and wondered how deep a link they had forged in the healing. In his rush to save the old Vulcan's life, forming a link with Sarek was a risk Maja had not had any time to contemplate. He stroked the high forehead with his fingertips, easing the Vulcan into a deeper sleep. Maja needed time to decide what to do next now that he was stuck here.
Maja had slipped out of the cathedral and into its shadow, very near the door Sarek had been led out of. He had to find a trace of Sarek's psychic energy somewhere.
'I could track you by your shadow, Spock,' he'd once boasted when they were youths. Spock had dared him and Maja had tracked him to a secluded spot near the Forge. He'd been rewarded with an embrace and they had stayed there learning each other's pleasure until nightfall. They'd caught hell when they got home but it was worth it.
'Ah, there,' Maja sighed softly. The memory had vibrated around him, spreading its energy in all directions. It caught an eddy of Sarek's energy field and Maja could feel where it lead. Sarek was well shielded but like all beings he left a trail of energy wherever his body was. His energy was alarmingly faint and Maja quickened his pace through the shadows following it. Even at this distance he could almost feel the beating Sarek had taken.
'Keep living, Vulcan, keep living.' Maja chanted as he flew through the dark and empty streets.
Getting into the prison was easy. The guards were distracted by the change in government and inattentive to anyone trying to enter the structure. He influenced several guards into opening locked doors for him. Maja had quickly found the cell and Sarek. He flung himself on the battered Vulcan and poured his own life energy into the prone form. When he felt the life force regenerating he went to work healing the injuries before Sarek bled to death or drowned in his own blood.
'Thank the infinite mercy of god these Vulcans are a sturdy species.' Maja thought between taking Sarek's injuries onto himself. He had had to pause to let his own body heal itself, which it did with its empath quickness.
Maja watched warily as several prisoners came close and tossed Sarek's boots and clothing to him. The general consensus among the prisoners, having seen Maja in action, was that it was extremely unwise to provoke someone with so powerful a protector and so what had been taken was returned. Maja had smiled coldly and pulled the garments back on the Vulcan.
'Easier to get them off than on,' he thought as he redressed Sarek. Another prisoner, one of the weaker ones, came near with a mute offer of help but was chased off with a scowl.
'I cannot protect you, too,' Maja thought savagely. 'I'm not sure I can protect anyone.'
Now that the Vulcan would surely live, Maja turned his attention to a new problem. There were no guards around to influence into opening the cell door and letting them walk out. Everything was securely locked down and he noticed the surveillance cameras. This prison was designed to allow the guards to remain at a safe distance from the prisoners. The floors and walls could be selectively electrified to break up fights and other disturbances the guards monitored from their stations on the ground floor. It was a brilliant design. Maja should know because the Gozshedrefreingin Commune had designed and built it. He was very aware of how escape-proof it was.
'Well, let's hope Kalzat can pull us out of the crowd when we're moved to the transport ship in the morning.' Maja thought as he curled around Sarek. Knowing Sarek was still in a weakened state, Maja let his own health energy radiate into the sleeping Vulcan. Spock had always liked sleeping next to Maja, even for short naps, because he always felt so refreshed and renewed when he woke. Anyone who sleeps in an empath's arms has the same experience.
* * *
end of part 19
This story also lives at http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/
Appendices: http://members.tripod.com/karmen_ghia/atrappendices.html