Run Amok, 2/2
Aiba supposed it was Nino’s idea to travel to and from the planet in the shuttlecraft. He’d long known that the doctor hated the transporter, even though it was a perfectly safe means of travel. He’d probably made up some stupid lie, that if Sho-chan beamed down that it would worsen his condition, so it was shuttlecraft or bust because the doctor’s orders took precedence over a captain’s in this instance. Nino was such a wily guy, Aiba wondered if he’d cheated his way through Starfleet Medical.
It was just five of them heading down to the planet. Captain Ohno, Dr. Ninomiya, Aiba to pilot the shuttlecraft, Lieutenant Matsumoto to translate if any of the Vulcans decided to get cute and whip out their own language, and of course, poor Sho-chan.
Sho was on so many tranquilizers that he was sitting next to Ninomiya in a goofy daze. While Aiba piloted them to the Vulcan city ShiKahr where Sho had been born, Sho sat looking quite silly. He was usually so composed, so serious, but he was half-snoring, half-mumbling. Aiba couldn’t understand, so he was probably mumbling in Vulcan. And whatever he was saying was probably quite saucy, because the more Sho mumbled, the more Matsumoto was laughing at him.
“What’s he saying?” Nino was asking.
Matsumoto shook his head. “I’d rather not tell you.”
“This is embarrassing enough for him,” Ohno muttered. “Just leave him be.”
“Is it dirty talk?” Nino asked, ignoring the captain’s suggestions as usual. “What’s Vulcan dirty talk like anyway? Is it all ‘I love it when you lick my ears, baby’?”
This got a rather ungentlemanly snort out of Matsumoto, and he shook his head. “Out of respect for a senior officer, I will not say.”
“Can we get there any faster?” Ohno complained. “I knew we should have just beamed down…”
Ninomiya launched into a lengthy complaint, using big medical words to explain why the shuttle was necessary, but Aiba knew he was just full of shit. But at least it was an interesting journey. The planet Vulcan was way different from Earth, a harsher climate with several deserts and mountain ranges. It was hotter than Earth, too, and with a thinner atmosphere. If Aiba had to describe the place in a word, it would probably be “orange.”
“Ten minutes to dock,” Aiba said as the shuttlecraft entered ShiKahr airspace. Within seconds, the comms console beside him started blinking. “Incoming transmission from ShiKahr, high priority.”
Ohno got to his feet, standing beside Aiba. “This is Captain Satoshi Ohno of the U.S.S. Stormchaser. To whom am I speaking?”
Aiba activated the view screen while he headed for the city’s shuttle dock. From the corner of his eye, he could see a very solemn middle aged woman in long flowing robes, with the short, dark hair of most Vulcans and pointed ears.
“I am T’Yoko. Satoshi Ohno, I understand you have my son on board.”
Sho seemed to come out of his strange reverie at the sound of her voice. Aiba couldn’t exactly turn around, but there was no mistaking the sound of “why the fuck did you call my Mom?” emerging from the usually polite and proper Commander Sakurai’s mouth.
Aiba heard a muttered apology from Jun. “Well, I had to tell her…”
“No you didn’t!” Sho hissed back at him.
“Ah, yes,” Ohno said, trying to talk over the conversation behind him. “Yes, he’s here. He’s…well, he’s in a bad way, ma’am.”
“Sho,” the woman on the view screen said in a sharp voice. “Sho, let me see you.”
Ohno stepped aside, and Aiba heard a disapproving sound as T’Yoko got her first look.
“Arrangements have been made. It would have been prudent for you to notify me far earlier, as I’ve had to cobble this together in a most haphazard fashion.”
“I apologize, Mother,” Sho said, and though Aiba knew Sho was in his thirties, he sounded more like a petulant teenager. This was incredibly awkward.
“It’s, uh, it’s my fault, ma’am,” Ohno said. “My fault we’re late in getting him here.”
“Satoshi Ohno, we have accommodations prepared for your people if you wish to stay in ShiKahr until the ceremony is completed,” the Vulcan woman said. “And of course, as my son’s colleagues, you are welcome to attend his koon-ut-kal-if-fee.”
“Mother, wait,” Sho protested.
“Two minutes to dock, Captain,” Aiba replied.
“That’s…wonderful. We’ll be there shortly, ma’am,” Ohno replied. “Ohno out.”
When Aiba had them fully docked, he turned to announce they could depart at any time. But instead he found Sho with his head in his hands and Jun looking so surprised his mouth was hanging open.
“What?” Ohno asked, looking between them. “What’s the Kona coffee thing she said?”
Jun started to explain, but Sho spoke first, sounding like he wanted to be anywhere else but in the shuttle with the four of them.
“My wedding ceremony.”
-
Jun helped himself to another one of the fancy appetizers T’Yoko had had sent to the suite where the four of them were due to remain until Sho was “cured” of his current condition. He had already had twenty of the strange vegetable tempura-like things, having been guilt eating since Sho had been whisked away with the look in his eyes that only meant one thing: “save me, you assholes!”
Vulcans kept a lot of secrets when it came to certain aspects of their culture. Sho had explained some of it to him, years ago, that Vulcans didn’t really consider it polite to talk about sex and marriage and “private bedroom matters.” Not that Sho had been a blushing virgin when they’d met. He’d been all too willing to concede to his human drives, at least when he’d been a cadet. Sho had just never bothered to tell Jun what pon farr was, but Jun’s Vulcan was good enough to understand what koon-ut-kal-if-fee meant.
It meant “marriage or challenge,” and Aiba had already hacked the terminal in their suite to find temple records. It had been all too easy to find Sho’s name, if only because Sho went by his father’s surname as well as his given name. There weren’t exactly hundreds of people named Sakurai floating around in Vulcan databases.
Sho’s betrothal had been recorded when he was a mere 10 years of age to some girl named “T’Maki.” It seemed the marriage that would take place the following day would be with her. Sho’s literal intended mate. A consummation of a marriage and a means of completing the pon farr. But of course, Jun knew that Sho wasn’t exactly interested in women. No wonder he was so upset with Jun. If Jun hadn’t notified his mother, perhaps Sho would have satiated his pon farr without incident.
This was all Jun’s fault.
“This is not your fault,” Ohno reassured him anyway. “We were all worried about him.”
“Ah, but he’s going to get married. Weddings are happy things!” Aiba said, utterly oblivious.
Jun grabbed another five of the tempura things from the buffet table, sighing.
“What’s the challenge part?” Nino inquired. “You said the uh, the koda kumi thing meant marriage or challenge.”
“Koon-ut-kal-if-fee,” Jun said for what had to be the twentieth time. “And I don’t know. I can only translate what it means literally. Vulcan’s a tricky language, and they’re secretive about stuff like this.”
“Are we supposed to get him a present?” Ohno wondered aloud, scratching the back of his neck. “Wait, if he’s getting married, is he going to stay here? We can’t bring civilians on board the Stormchaser…”
The door to their suite opened, and thankfully Aiba was no longer using the computer terminal. They didn’t really need to piss off their hosts. Although Jun thought it was a bit rude for said hosts to come barging in without notice. Then again, Vulcans prided themselves on being truthful, so it was assumed people had nothing to hide.
Still rude.
It was Sho’s mother and an entourage of people. To Jun’s embarrassment, she had remembered him earlier, asking him if he’d ever “figured out the Klingon subjunctive.” The Klingon language didn’t have a subjunctive mood, but she often included it as a trick question on exams, and a very young Jun Matsumoto cramming for said exam had fallen for it. Nobody ever expected a Vulcan professor to ask trick questions, but that was just part of Professor T’Yoko’s “charm” and Jun was really happy she wasn’t his mom. He could only imagine what life had been like for Sho.
The professor was looking less than professorial at the moment, swooping into the room. “You four will come with us. The bride wishes to become acquainted with you.”
“All of us?” Ohno asked.
“At once.”
They left their food behind and were escorted to another suite on a different floor of the large palace-like building. It seemed that T’Yoko’s family was very wealthy. Inside the sparsely appointed suite, they found a rather nervous-looking Sho, his foot tapping in irregular intervals. Whatever drugs Nino had been giving him had apparently worn off, and he was probably experiencing the full agony of his pon farr. It probably took all his willpower to keep from lashing out. Jun looked over, saw a sour look cross the doctor’s face. Nino wanted to intervene, but the last thing they needed was an interplanetary incident.
Beside him was an equally uncomfortable looking woman in maybe her mid-twenties. She seemed to be full Vulcan, with shoulder-length black hair and a prim, coldly polite face. She was introduced to them as Sho’s betrothed, T’Maki.
Ohno, who usually relied on Sho to guide him through introductions, started things off a little awkwardly. “I’m Captain Satoshi Ohno, Sho’s commanding officer. We work together on the U.S.S. Stormchaser and…”
T’Maki interrupted him. “I’m well aware of my betrothed’s position in Starfleet, thank you.”
Several of T’Yoko’s entourage exchanged what seemed to be the Vulcan equivalent of an uncomfortable look. Which was mostly a subtle eyebrow raise. Jun figured the poor woman was dealing with the same pon farr shit Sho was, which explained her ruder than usual tone.
Ohno, sweating a bit in a room full of Vulcans, continued as best he could. “With me are three of my officers. Dr. Kazunari Ninomiya, Chief Engineer Masaki Aiba, and Lieutenant Jun Matsumoto. We are honored to be here to participate in the…”
Don’t try to say it, Jun screamed internally. Please don’t try to say it!
“…to uh, participate in the koopa troopa…”
T’Maki saved Ohno from further embarrassment. “Now that you are all here, I have something to say. I wish to invoke the kal-if-fee, as is my right.”
The room fell deadly silent, and Jun might have been the only person from the Stormchaser, save for Sho, that understood why. The Vulcan party looked completely taken aback, save for one female in the rear of the room who actually seemed to be smiling at T’Maki’s pronouncement.
The ‘kal-if-fee’ was the part that translated to ‘challenge’. Sho looked ready to puke.
Ohno looked to T’Yoko. “Does this mean the wedding’s canceled?”
T’Maki actually smiled at the captain. “It means, human, that I do not wish to marry the person I am betrothed to. He will fight a selected champion of my choosing, and only if he is victorious will the marriage go through.”
“A fight?” Aiba interrupted. “Like…a fight fight? But Vulcans don’t fight.”
T’Yoko clapped her hands for attention. “Enough of this foolishness. I will not stand for this uncivilized and illogical display of attention-seeking and impropriety…”
T’Maki got to her feet. “You wish to deny me of my rights? Now who is being illogical?”
The Vulcan woman who’d smiled earlier stepped forward. “Allow me to serve as your champion.” She looked incredibly tough, as far as Vulcans went, and the look she and T’Maki exchanged told Jun everything he needed to know. T’Maki and Sho did not wish to marry one another for very similar reasons - neither of them was attracted to the opposite sex.
“You wish for my son to fight the kal-if-fee against a woman?” T’Yoko scolded. It seemed that no matter who Sho fought, it wasn’t going to end well. Sho still looked incredibly sick.
“That is my wish,” T’Maki replied.
The Vulcans started chatting amongst themselves while T’Maki sat back down, a rather triumphant smile on her face. Sho had given up on proper posture, was leaning forward and holding his head in his hands. Ohno moved to Jun’s side, giving him a hard poke.
“What the hell is going on?” he whispered, eyes wide. “Is Sho going to have to fight a girl?”
Jun wanted to point out that T’Maki’s champion was taller and much larger than Sho, but he chose not to. “Marriage or challenge, that’s what the ceremony meant. I guess it really is a literal translation.”
“Well, shouldn’t he just throw the fight? Let the girl beat him?”
“He’s not exactly in the right frame of mind right now,” Nino interrupted, insinuating his way into the conversation by shoving himself in between Jun and Ohno. “Those Vulcan robots aren’t going to let me give him any tranquilizers, not when it’s their fancy pants secret ritual.”
And now Aiba came over, a look of pure excitement on his face. “Wait, so Sho’s wife likes girls?”
The three of them let out a sigh at the exact same time.
The Vulcans’ meeting concluded. “T’Maki, with the exception of those females who choose to defend themselves in kal-if-fee, no woman has served as champion before,” T’Yoko said. “You must find a male to fight on T’Kara’s behalf.”
“I could…” Ohno said, raising his hand. “I could do it?”
“No!” Sho protested, and it sent a shiver down Jun’s spine. What weren’t the Vulcans telling them?
“It’s clear you’ve got your traditions here,” Ohno said. “And if it’s somehow improper for Sho to fight a woman, than I’ll do it. I’ve got a doctor here, so…it should be okay, right?”
Jun saw T’Maki’s smile widen, and before T’Yoko, Sho, or any of the other Vulcans could speak, T’Maki nodded.
“I accept! Satoshi Ohno will serve as my champion!”
“No!” Sho shouted again, getting to his feet. “No! No, he can’t! Mother, stop this! No!”
T’Yoko’s eyebrows rose in what could only be the Vulcan equivalent of panic. Without words, she had several of her entourage drag her son kicking and screaming from the room, and she followed behind, trying to calm him.
“No!” Sho’s screams echoed down the hallway. “No! Satoshi!”
Aiba patted Ohno on the shoulder. “You’ll really fight Sho-chan?”
Ohno shrugged, turning to T’Maki. “I just have to win, right? Then you can marry who you want?” And, Ohno was implying without saying so, Sho got to come back to the Stormchaser so Ohno could keep being a slack-off captain.
“Stormchaser officers, please escort your captain back to your suite,” T’Maki said. “I want my champion fully rested for tomorrow.”
“Hold on,” Ohno said, holding up his hands. “Just…wait a second, alright?”
The big woman, T’Kara came over, inclining her head. “Your bravery astonishes us, Captain Ohno.”
Ohno looked around, making sure no other Vulcans were listening in. “Look, I see what’s going on here, and I’m sure Sho-kun doesn’t want to get married either. So like, could you help me out? Do you guys have a weak spot? Vulcans, I mean. So I can just jab him right away and win?”
“A weak spot?” T’Maki asked.
“So the fight’s over quickly,” Ohno said, as though the two Vulcan women were dense. “I don’t actually want to hurt him, and it’s pretty obvious that he’ll kick my ass if I don’t take him down right away.”
T’Kara and T’Maki exchanged a rather surprised look. T’Maki stared Ohno down. “We were simply going to ensure that your weapon was dipped in poison. We were going to aid you anyhow if T’Kara could not serve as my champion. You are aware, human, that kal-if-fee is a fight to the death right?”
Ohno’s mouth dropped open. No wonder Sho had been so upset.
Nino gave Jun a shove. “Hey, communications genius! Did something get lost in translation?!”
“It just means challenge, not death match!” Jun cried out. He pointed at T’Maki. “You could have said something!”
T’Maki raised an eyebrow. “As you humans are so fond of saying…oops?”
The four officers of the Stormchaser exchanged horrified looks as they realized exactly what Ohno had just agreed to.
-
“Those dirty, dirty cheaters!” Aiba was still complaining as the four of them sat together in the waiting area before the kal-if-fee the following day. “What kind of Vulcans are they, anyway?”
“Clever ones,” Nino said, filling his hypospray device from the supplies he’d had Jun and Aiba go retrieve from the shuttle bay. They’d snuck out in the dead of night, relying on Aiba’s computer hacking talents to get them to and from the shuttle without alerting the Vulcans guarding their suite. “But humans can be clever too.”
“I don’t like this,” Jun said, getting to his feet and pacing the room. “Why not have me or Masaki take your place? At least we’re bigger than Sho-kun is.”
Ohno seemed insulted. “Look, I get that I’m not very tall and I’m not very bulky,” the captain complained, “but I’m not changing my mind. I’m in charge here, and it’s my responsibility.”
Definitely not a sentence Kazunari Ninomiya had ever heard from the captain’s mouth before.
The Vulcans, the universe’s most “logical” species, were having a Starfleet captain fight his own first officer to the death. And with the way Sho’s fiancee had been bragging the day before, the fight’s conclusion was all but determined already. Ohno was to fight with a poison-tipped weapon, and Sho’s death was all but certain.
Nino had always had his issues with Sakurai, but he did like the guy. Sure he had a permanent stick up his ass, but he was a competent officer and a decent person. There was no way he was allowing Sho Sakurai to die today.
“Are you sure this is going to work?” Aiba asked nervously. “Shouldn’t we report this to Starfleet?”
Nino exchanged a look with the captain. Ohno simply nodded at him. “I trust Nino.”
“Famous last words,” Nino mumbled.
A minute later the door opened, and some bodyguards arrived to escort them to a shuttle that would take them to the arena. As T’Maki and her girlfriend had explained the night before, combat took place outdoors in a private fighting arena outside the city. Since Vulcans liked to keep everything personal and secret (including their stupid death matches), only a handful of people would be present to witness the event. Sho’s mother, T’Maki and her parents, T’Kara, a few Vulcan attendants, and the group from the Stormchaser. Some wedding party. They all thought it was odd that Sho’s father hadn’t been invited, but Jun supposed that if Sho’s human father, a Starfleet ambassador, found out his son was about to fight to the death, he’d intervene and T’Yoko didn’t want that.
“It’s not fair you know,” Aiba complained while the shuttle carried them across the desert wastes of Vulcan. “Sho’s mother is a Vulcan and she clearly got to marry who she wanted!”
“Maybe it’s a case of do as I say, not as I do,” Ohno reasoned.
“Bunch of hypocrites,” Nino replied huffily. “Logical species, my ass.”
The shuttle landed, and the four of them were brought to the arena. It seemed like an ancient ritualistic site. Nino wondered how many “logical” Vulcans had perished here over the centuries. The dusty arena floor was ringed with stone pillars, and there was no seating for spectators. They were just expected to stand by and watch as either their captain or their commander died in front of them. Nino looked over and saw T’Maki standing almost triumphantly with her lover by her side.
Nino had to give it to her, treacherous as she was. She’d probably even anticipated that the Vulcans wouldn’t let her have a woman fight for her, and she had a back-up plan to ensure that she didn’t have to marry Sho anyway. If Ohno hadn’t volunteered, T’Maki might have still asked him. Nino got the impression that T’Maki didn’t really have anything against Sho as a person - it was the ancient Vulcan tradition that was to blame here. Still didn’t make it any better for poor Sho.
Sho was in the center of the arena beside his mother, looking rather frightening. He had a blood red sash tied around his waist, probably denoting him as the person fighting for his proper mate. They didn’t give Ohno a sash, merely shoving him out into the arena, his boots kicking up dust.
T’Maki made an announcement. “I have invoked my right to kal-if-fee. Satoshi Ohno fights on behalf of T’Kara as my champion. If Satoshi Ohno is defeated, I will abide by the laws of our people and consummate my arranged marriage with Sho, son of T’Yoko.”
Nino had to stifle a laugh at that one. Good acting. Vulcans didn’t lie, or so they’d always been told. And technically T’Maki wasn’t lying - she just wasn’t telling the whole truth, that the match was rigged from the start.
The fight was about to begin. T’Maki’s parents and Sho’s mother both rang bells to announce the event, and two of T’Yoko’s attendants brought out items wrapped in heavy purple cloth. The traditional weapons of the kal-if-fee, which looked to Nino like they were just long sticks with an axe blade on the end. He watched Ohno’s eyes nearly bulge from his head as Sho easily hefted the weapon in his hands, as though he’d been trained to do so from a young age. Perhaps he had.
Ohno was a little more hesitant, hoisting the heavy looking axe-on-a-stick into his hands. They stood opposite each other, Sho looking like all he wanted to do was chop Ohno’s head off. He was definitely in the zone, taking a few practice swings with his weapon. Beside Nino, Aiba was already soaked in sweat, wiping his brow with a handkerchief. “This planet is crazy,” Aiba mumbled.
And that was exactly what Nino had been counting on. Before T’Yoko could ring another bell to commence the ritual, Nino raised his hand. “If I might just say something quickly, Mrs. Sakurai.”
The woman’s eyebrows positively jumped at Nino’s casual address and obvious reference to her human marriage. “Doctor, is something the matter?”
“Yes, actually. There is.” He held up the hypospray in his hand. “T’Maki’s champion is not a native of this planet, and the atmosphere and climate of Vulcan is very different from Earth. He is at a strict disadvantage.”
“Satoshi Ohno was T’Maki’s choice of champion,” T’Yoko reminded him. “And he volunteered, as I recall.”
“Yes, Mrs. Sakurai, I know that,” Nino continued, further daring the woman to get angry with him. “I only wish to inject Captain Ohno with this tri-ox compound. Since oxygen levels on Vulcan are considerably lower than what the Captain is accustomed to, the injection will compensate for that and allow him to have a fighting chance. It would be a more honorable fight for your son, don’t you agree?”
“Honor is a rather Klingon virtue,” T’Yoko replied, but she looked over and seemed to silently confer with T’Maki’s parents. Nino kept his expression neutral, holding his hypospray aloft. T’Yoko finally turned back to him. “But I will allow it, seeing as how humans do not traditionally participate in the kal-if-fee.”
“Most generous of you, Mrs. Sakurai.” Nino hurriedly scampered across the arena floor before she could say anything further.
Ohno looked at him with a seriousness Nino was really not accustomed to. He tilted his head, allowing Nino easy access to his neck. “This better fucking work,” Ohno whispered, the axe-on-a-stick shaking in his hands.
He administered the injection and stepped back. “You’ve got about two minutes,” he whispered.
Nino had barely gotten out of the arena when the bell rang noisily. And then it started. Jun was biting his thumbnail, Aiba had covered his eyes with his handkerchief, and Nino silently prayed that Ohno would do as he was told.
The two men, captain and commander, started circling one another, and Nino looked over, seeing that T’Maki and T’Kara’s eyes were firmly planted on the blade of Ohno’s weapon. It was poisoned, Nino had no doubt. Which was why Ohno’s first move was to give Sho a surprise, turning his weapon in his hand and swinging in an upward motion, knocking Sho’s weapon right out of his hands. The strength in the motion had probably been from adrenaline, because Nino knew Ohno definitely wasn’t in the mood to die just yet.
Sho’s weapon landed on the opposite side of the arena, and as soon as he turned his back on Ohno to go and fetch it, T’Maki’s face lit up, thinking Ohno was just going to swing again and take Sho’s head off. Instead Satoshi Ohno, with his rather scrawny little body, tossed his poisoned weapon aside, all the way out of the arena and way out of reach. T’Maki’s face changed in an instant, betraying her surprise.
Ohno instead chased after Sho, kicking up a cloud of dust from the arena floor to temporarily blind him. This made Sho cry out in pain, made him stumble around a bit. This opened the door for Ohno to reach for Sho, his hands going straight for Sho’s neck. Ohno put on a really good show, Nino had to hand it to him. He managed to keep his hands around Sho’s neck for at least 30 seconds, choking him, until Sho’s superior strength and pon farr madness won out. He knocked Ohno to the ground with a body slam that made Nino wince. He ignored his weapon and instead, as Nino had anticipated and Ohno had hoped, Sho took cues from Ohno’s own attack.
Nino watched nervously as Ohno lay on his back with Sakurai on top of him, choking the life out of him. Ohno struggled beneath him, trying to shove Sho off of him. Nino had been counting the seconds in his head. Just about thirty more, just about thirty more. Come on, come on. As soon as Nino saw Ohno’s hand fall away and hit the dusty arena floor, Nino cried out.
“Stop this!” he shouted. “Stop this, it’s over! Can’t you see that it’s over?”
This somehow got Sho to stop his attack, and Nino was thankful to see him loosen his hold around Ohno’s neck. Beside him, Jun and Aiba were watching with wary, nervous faces. T’Yoko waved Nino over, and he hurried across the arena.
“What have you done?” Nino shouted theatrically, pushing Sho away. Thankfully, Sho didn’t push back. “What have you done to him?”
While Sho sat there in the dirt, stunned, Nino made a big show of checking Ohno’s pulse. He looked over at T’Yoko and shook his head. When there was a shout of surprise, Nino turned to see T’Maki falling to her knees in shock, covering her mouth with her hand.
How unfortunate, Nino thought. She’d have to be true to her word.
T’Yoko, clearly not trusting Nino to tell the truth, came over and made her own assessment, kneeling down and feeling for Ohno’s pulse herself. She looked over at her son.
“Sho, you are victorious. Satoshi Ohno is dead.”
And like that, just like that, with those words, Nino saw a profound change occur in Sho. The dilated pupils, the quaking rage, it all started to fade. It seemed that the pon farr was over. What Nurse Yoshitaka had read in one of the journal articles was that pon farr could be ‘cured’ in another way. The Vulcan didn’t have to mate. They had to murder someone in cold blood. The medical journals hadn’t exactly stated why, and that was because the Vulcans kept this shit secret.
But here Nino was, seeing a medical marvel before his eyes. Sho’s pon farr was over.
“Mrs. Sakurai,” Nino mumbled, and the older woman leaned over. “I’d check Captain Ohno’s weapon. I think the opposing party may have poisoned it. She really did not want to marry your kid.”
Already T’Maki and T’Kara looked frightened. After all, victory had been all but guaranteed.
“I will investigate the matter. For now please return to your starship.” T’Yoko looked over at her son. “Sho…pull yourself together.”
Nino could only look on, feeling guilty as Sho looked down at Ohno’s body, his fingers brushing across the captain’s face in such a gentle motion Nino hadn’t realized someone like Sho might have been capable of it. Ah, Nino realized. No wonder Sho hadn’t disclosed any current personal relationships to the captain.
“No,” he was crying. And he was crying, forgetting himself even on his home planet, letting the tears fall. “No, Satoshi-kun…”
By now Aiba and Jun had come over, gently pushing Sho aside to lift Ohno’s body. Sho let out a piercing howl of pure, unsuppressed emotion, and they ignored him, carrying the captain’s body back to the shuttle as Sho realized exactly what had happened.
-
It would all be swept under the rug, to use the human idiom. T’Maki had spent long hours already apologizing for her deception. She too had been caught early and unaware with her pon farr, and she’d not been quite ready for their betrothal to be consummated either. It was her lover, Sho suspected, who had been more interested in seeing him dead.
But either way, T’Maki had been sequestered to meditate her pon farr away. It wasn’t the easiest thing to do, and it might still kill her, but if she put in half the energy towards meditation that she had put into arranging for his assassination, Sho suspected she might be fine.
His mother had used her connections to sever any bonds or commitments between their family and T’Maki’s. It was as though Sho had never been betrothed in the first place. Temple records expunged, payments made. It was all so very human in its ruthlessness, but like usual his mother refused to acknowledge that any small fragment of her husband’s species had rubbed off on her.
And thankfully for Sho, he had another seven years of relative peace before his pon farr would strike again. He doubted his mother would interfere next time. He’d be pushing forty years old then. Although it was quite unlikely he’d reach such an age, not after the horrible thing he’d done.
He could not allow his grief to drive him mad. Taking another’s life was a potential consequence of joining Starfleet. Their ships were equipped with weaponry, and in battle, lives might be lost. And as a Starfleet officer a heartbeat away from captaining a ship, Sho knew tough choices might have to be made, and blood would be on his hands.
But not like this. Not in primitive hand to hand combat. It had been unfair for his mother to allow an outsider, a naive outsider unfamiliar with their ways, to accept the challenge. But Ohno had done it anyhow, had volunteered himself without understanding the consequences. It had been a foolish choice, one Sho would never have allowed him to make had he been in his right mind when it happened.
The fight between them had been a blur, so consumed had Sho been with his rage, with the feverish impulse to simply kill and take a mate, that he hadn’t even known what was happening. At least until Dr. Ninomiya had cried out, had come hurrying over. And then as though someone had simply flipped a switch in Sho’s brain, it all flooded back. And there, lying in the dirt before him, had been the body of one of the most important people in his life.
He stood on the transporter pad in one of ShiKahr’s main transport hubs. His mother had wanted him to stay behind, but he insisted on going. He was a Starfleet officer first and foremost, and he had just taken the life of his captain. His friend. He had to face the consequences. A court-martial, obviously. Arrest and expulsion from Starfleet, imminent. Execution, perhaps.
The transporter operator communicated with the familiar voice of Chief Aiba, who sounded like his usual peaceful and chipper self. Sho exhaled slowly, waiting for transport to commence. He supposed everyone managed their grief in different ways.
He arrived on the Stormchaser, coming face to face with Dr. Ninomiya, who was standing there with a rather calm look on his face, given that a murderer had just beamed up to the ship. “I’m back, Doctor.”
“Ah, welcome. If you could please follow me to sickbay, Commander.”
“You needn’t address me as such.” He turned to look at the chief. “You’re the next ranking officer, Chief Aiba. You are well within your rights to relieve me of command.”
Aiba and Nino exchanged a look Sho couldn’t quite understand.
“Just follow me, Sho, alright?”
Sho stayed quiet, feeling uncomfortable as he and Ninomiya rode together in the turbolift up to medical. It hadn’t been so long ago that Sho had been sequestered within. Perhaps Ninomiya had every intention of keeping him there until they reached a starbase, could have Sho removed from the ship to await prosecution. It would be more sensible for Sho to be placed in the brig, but that would be Aiba’s decision, now that he was in command.
He followed Ninomiya into sickbay. “Why are we here, Doctor? I shouldn’t be trailing you like a cub following a mother bear. I have committed murder, and though I have no wish to do so again, I ought to be sequestered. Have you been in contact with Starfleet? I wish to record my confession formally and forward it along to expedite the process and…”
“Sho,” Nino said, smiling at him absurdly. “Shut up.”
He shook his head, and despite his best efforts, his body was still readjusting. He didn’t bother to suppress his irritation. “What is going on? Why are you behaving in this manner? Chief Aiba needs to take command of this vessel!”
“Don't you think you'd better check with me first?"
Sho gasped, turning around to see who had just snuck up behind him, looking ridiculously healthy. “Satoshi-kun!” he couldn’t help crying out, surprising both the captain and himself by wrapping the man up in a very un-Vulcanlike embrace.
He was solid, he was real, and he was chuckling in that rather endearing manner he’d always had, patting Sho on the back. Sho knew there were tears pricking his eyes, and he didn’t much care if they saw them.
“You’re alive. How are you alive?”
Ohno stepped back, gesturing to Ninomiya. “You have the doctor to thank for that.”
Ninomiya offered a rather self-satisfied grin. “Prior to the big fight, I injected the captain here with a neuro-paralyzer that knocked him out, slowed his heartbeat to next to nothing. Told your mom it was tri-ox. For all appearances, he was dead.”
“But I strangled him,” Sho sputtered.
“You sure did,” Ohno complained, punching him in the shoulder. Sho could still see some purple bruising all over the man’s neck. “And it fucking hurt, too.”
Sho looked between the captain and the doctor another time, trying to keep his emotions in check. But he was just so happy.
Ohno, the person in the galaxy who had the most faith in Sho, was alive, and he was so unbelievably happy. The captain smiled, holding out his arms. “Come on, Sho-kun, if you want another hug you may as well have one.”
“This is disgusting,” Ninomiya commented, leaving them alone.
-
Captain’s log, stardate 2268.10. The Stormchaser received a scrambled communication from the planet Vulcan and rushed to investigate. Upon arrival at the planet, we discovered the beacon had been sent falsely. Professor T’Yoko of Starfleet Academy was on the planet at the time and has sworn to uncover the identities of the jokers. A report will be submitted at a later date. Chief Aiba highly suggests the ship’s communications systems and sensor arrays undergo a complete overhaul to ensure such false alarms do not happen again, on the Stormchaser or any other Starfleet vessel. Admiral Roddenberry was gracious enough to wait for our return from Vulcan, and we picked him and his party up only 38 hours late. The Altair asteroid belt soil sample analysis will be postponed until we deliver the admiral and his party to Starbase 192.
-
Captain’s personal log, star date 2268.10. I’d rather not be strangled again. Ever.
-
They were a day out from Starbase 192, and Ohno had finally come off duty. Aiba, in the guise of analyzing the sensor arrays, had been all too happy to take the bridge for the next shift. Instead of heading straight for his quarters and blissful rest, he made his way to the other end of the corridor.
He was granted permission to enter the commander’s quarters in mere seconds. Sho was at his desk, reading one of those strange print books he had on his shelf. Most of Sho’s job involved reading computer terminals, Ohno didn’t understand how someone would want to keep reading after his shift was over.
Sho set his book down, and where he used to acknowledge Ohno with a deferential nod of his head, instead he easily grinned. In the past several days, it seemed that Sho was being a bit less cold, a bit less insistent on cloaking himself in the logic and unemotional trappings of his mother’s people. Then again, Ohno thought, after being on Vulcan, he wondered how truly different they were after all.
He held up the bottle of bright blue liquid he’d snuck out of his quarters. “Romulan ale?” Sho asked quizzically, raising an eyebrow. “That’s illegal.”
“Captain and first officer, and we haven’t shared a drink before have we?” Ohno wondered, setting it down on Sho’s desk, paying no mind to his slight frown when Ohno ignored the coaster Sho slid over.
“We have not.”
“Well,” Ohno said, twisting the cap. “After the week we’ve had, I think we both need one.”
Sho bit his lip, probably suppressing another of his rather adorable smiles. Perhaps it was the pointy-ear-and-pretty-smile combination that made it all so cute. Ugh, Ohno thought, he shouldn’t describe a fellow officer as “cute.” That had to be somewhere in the Starfleet manual…
Ohno shoved down his weird feelings and instead downed a healthy swig of the ale. Man, the Romulans sure knew how to make the good stuff. “Romulans are like cousins of the Vulcans, right?”
“In a manner of speaking, yes,” Sho replied, taking a small sip when Ohno insisted on it. “They did not choose to embrace logic and in so doing they left Vulcan never to return, instead founding the Romulan Star Empire.”
“Do you ever wonder if maybe they had the better idea? Just letting their feelings out?” Ohno wondered. “Bet they don’t have any pon farr.”
Sho paused with his lips near the rim of the ale bottle. “I have never contemplated that.”
Ohno stole the bottle back, grinning from ear to ear. “Well then that means one point to Satoshi Ohno. For the very first time, I’ve found a question you didn’t already know the answer to.”
Sho chuckled, shaking his head. “One point to you then, Captain.”
Ohno held up the bottle. “Cheers to me then!”