The Cage (Reboot), PG, Pike/Boyce
Title: The Cage (Reboot)
Ship/Characters: Pike/Boyce, One/Barry
Canon: AOS reboot of a TOS episode
Prompt: written for the Origins prompt, for Team Newoldskool at st_respect.
Beta: the inimitable imachar, with a look-over by the obliging ellie_pierson
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Aliens have taken Captain Chris Pike captive to be ‘Adam’ for a new race of humans. They may have misjudged the nature of their man.
Author’s note: This is an AOS reboot of the TOS episode The Cage. About half the dialogue is taken from the original TOS episode. This story features Chris Pike (Bruce Greenwood), Phil Boyce (Mark Harmon), Number One (Jennifer Garner) and Caitlin Barry (Gina Holden).
The image of One was photo-manipped by the talented taraljc.
“We’ve located a magnetic field that seems to come from their underground generator,” said Lieutenant Barry. “We should be able to transport down inside the Talosian community”.
Lieutenant Commander Conseller regarded the Yorktown’s chief engineer with skepticism. “Could that be an illusion too?” demanded the science officer. “They created an entire community of human refugees so realistic we didn’t even think to question it. All just figments of fantasy. This is unjustifiably dangerous.”
“They’ve got our captain,” growled Doctor Boyce. “If you can’t handle a little danger, why the hell did you enlist?”
“Phil, enough,” said One softly. Turning to the bigger group she continued. “As acting captain I am authorizing a six-person rescue mission. Myself, Barry and four security crew.” Boyce huffed with annoyance. “Doctor, we need you here to deal with injuries. And not just from this mission. We have our causalities from Rigel VII to think of. Mr Conseller, you have the helm. People, our measurements and readings may be an illusion. We may be about to beam down into solid rock. Nothing will be said if any volunteer wants to back out.”
No one moved.
Barry caught Boyce by the arm, speaking softly. “Phil, we’ll get him back. You know what he’s like for getting into trouble and then squirming his way out again. Worse than a cat with nine lives.”
Boyce gave her a bleak smile, his face pale with strain. “Be careful. All of you.”
“Commence beaming,” ordered One. Six figures shimmered briefly on the transporter pad. Only two disappeared.
“The women,” exclaimed Conseller. “They’ve taken the women.”
“Point out the fucking obvious, why don’t you?” growled Boyce as they all stared helplessly at the two empty spaces.
* * *
One and Barry swung round, drawing their phasers as soon as they realized the security detail wasn’t with them.
“Captain,” exclaimed One. Captain Christopher Pike was standing in front of her, apparently unharmed, looking furious, and accompanied by a very pretty slender blonde wearing not a great deal of shimmering grey dress paired with kitten heels.
“No. Let me finish,” exclaimed the blonde despairingly. “It’s not fair, you don’t need them.”
One realized after a moment that it was Vina, the young woman they’d met when they’d investigated the illusionary camp of human survivors, the survivor supposedly born just before the crash eighteen years earlier. She glanced around quickly. They were in a room the size of a bedroom. The only piece of furniture was an ugly grey loveseat. The walls were carved out of rock, except for one entire wall made of a transparent substance, which provided a view onto a corridor lined with similar rooms. Not rooms, One realized. Cages.
“Sir, neither the phasers nor the communicators are working,” said Barry.
“Don’t say anything,” snarled Pike. “I’m picturing beating their huge misshapen heads to pulp. They can’t read through primitive emotions. Otherwise they can just reach into our minds and pluck out our dreams and desires. I’m filling my mind with hate.”
“Chris, no,” exclaimed Vina, reaching out to him with an immaculately manicured hand.
“Leave him alone,” ordered Barry.
Vina turned on the engineer, looking with hate at the slim woman with her long brunette curls and generous mouth. “He doesn’t need you. He’s already picked me.”
Barry looked back to her fellow officers. “Picked her. For what? I don’t understand.”
“Now there’s a fine choice for intelligent offspring,” spat Vina.
“Offspring? As in children?” exclaimed Barry.
One regarded Vina thoughtfully. “Offspring. As in he’s Adam. Is that it?”
“You’re no better choice,” retorted Vina, turning on the austere first officer. “They’d have more luck crossing him with a computer.”
“They want Chris as Adam?” exclaimed Barry. “Sir, with respect, if they can read your mind how have they not realized--“
“Quiet,” interrupted Pike, gesturing behind her. She turned to see that one of their alien captors had emerged from an elevator door. The Talosian approached the glass wall of the cage. He was humanoid in appearance, dressed in a long robe of the same shimmering silver as Vina’s dress, but with a cranium some three times bigger than a human head - bald and bulging with pulsing veins running just below the skin’s surface.
He addressed Pike in a synthetic voice eerie in its monotone. “Since you resist the present specimen, you now have a selection.”
“Us?” exclaimed Barry. “Of all the women on the ship you think we two are the appropriate choice?”
The Talosian ignored them, continuing to speak to Pike. “Each of the two new specimens has qualities in their favor. The female you call Number One has the superior mind and will produce highly intelligent children. Although she seems to lack emotion, this is largely a pretense. She often has fantasies involving you.”
Barry stared at One with raised eyebrows. “Since when?” she mouthed. One carefully avoided Barry’s gaze. Pike began to shout at their captor. “I’ll break out of this zoo somehow and get my hands on you. There is a way out of every cage and I’ll find it. Can you read these thoughts? Images of hate? Killing?”
The Talosian continued, imperturbable. “The other new arrival has factors in her favor like youth and strength. Plus unusually strong female drives.”
Barry smirked at him. “You might want to be concentrating more on the female bit.”
Pike began to hammer against the glass. “You’ll find my thoughts more interesting, you fucker. Thoughts so primitive you can’t even understand. Emotions so--” He crumpled forward, curling in on himself, clearly racked with an invisible agony. Vina fluttered around him, picturesquely hiding her face from the horror. One and Barry looked on, hands clenched around their useless phasers.
“Wrong thinking will be punished,” said the Talosian coolly. “Right thinking will be as quickly rewarded. You will find it an effective combination.” He left them, disappearing into the elevator.
Pike took deep breaths as he slowly regained his composure. “No, don’t help me,” he admonished the women. “I have to concentrate. They can’t read through hate.”
“Captain,” snapped One, “this will take more than hate to solve. Think about it! Their controls and their illusions seem overwhelmingly powerful and yet--“
“And yet their mind-reading is just a bit off,” finished Barry. “That has to be the point of weakness we can attack.”
Pike looked at them both and finally nodded slowly. “You have a point.” He waved them over to a corner of the room, pointedly excluding Vina, who sat down on the loveseat and sulked prettily, showing a lot of leg in the process.
“Captain, what is going on?” asked One.
“I found out this much from Vina,” said Pike. “The Talosians were a technologically advanced culture but they destroyed their planet’s surface and all their fellow creatures with a nuclear holocaust. The survivors went underground, where they became dependent on their mental ability to create illusions. It became a trap, like a narcotic. Dreams became more important than reality. They forgot how to repair machines built by their ancestors.”
“And yet, if they can read your thoughts, why haven’t they picked up the blindingly obvious?” demanded Barry.
“I’m not that obvious,” grumbled Pike. “But they do seem to only pick up on certain things in the mindreading. First they put me back on Rigel VII, at the end when I had the death struggle with the Kaylar warrior, except this time I had to protect Vina as well. I think they were trying to force me into feeling emotional protectiveness and sympathy for her.
“Then they put us in a park outside my home town of Mojave, provided my favorite horse and a picnic and made Vina my wife, all done up in a pink gingham outfit too.”
“Chris, in what world is that any kind of fantasy of yours?” exclaimed Barry. “Discovering new worlds, epic space battles, hot boys in bars, all that I could believe in. But picnics in a park with winsome blondes? Where is this coming from?”
Chris shrugged uncomfortably. “Just before we supposedly found the survivors, I was talking to Phil in my cabin. The bastard plied me with alcohol. Martinis, no less. After that cock-up on Rigel VII - three dead, so many badly injured - I was feeling ready to resign. I was telling him that I wanted something different. An escape from reality. Life with no frustrations. No responsibilities. I think the Talosians picked my fantasy of home out of my mind.”
“Resign?” exclaimed One in horror.
“You? With no responsibilities? You’d be dead of boredom within the week,” said Barry.
Pike snorted. “Phil put it a bit more diplomatically. He told me that a man either lives life as it happens to him, meeting it head on, or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away. I told Vina some of this and she offered me chicken tuna sandwiches made to my mom’s recipe and suggested she bear my children. She offered to become any woman I’d ever imagined.” Chris laughed humorlessly. “At least I got the rest Phil wanted me to take.”
“So all this time in your cabin with Phil - complete with alcohol - and all you did was talk?” said Barry. Pike nodded. Barry rolled her eyes at One. “I wish he’d live his life a little,” she whispered.
“What else has happened?” asked One.
“Suddenly Vina decided that what a ship’s captain must really want is a break from duty. Next thing I knew I was a slave trader eating grapes on a couch like a Roman emperor, watching her writhe around in next-to-nothing, done up like an Orion slave girl. The worst bit was that I was wearing this shiny purple and red monstrosity of a toga, complete with a glittery gold sash, and metalwork jeweled collar.”
“Oh yes, straight as my hair, that boy,” muttered Barry, twirling one of her curls around her finger. One frowned at her disapprovingly but the corners of her mouth were twitching.
“So it’s as if they can see into our minds but they can only understand certain things from all that they see there, things that fit their objective,” said One slowly, trying to puzzle it out.
“Doesn’t explain what Chris is doing in your fantasies,” grumbled Barry sotto voce. “We’ll be having words about that later.”
“And what they want is an ideal breeding pair,” continued One.
“They did say I was a prime specimen,” said Pike wryly. The captain stood just over six foot tall, lean and lightly muscled, although broad in the chest. His blue eyes could be steely cool when he was angry, but the laugh lines that were just beginning to form at their edges and the errant light brown curls that flopped down on his forehead somewhat undermined the severest of his gazes. It was not hard to see why both Vina and the Talosians were so taken with him.
One turned her deep brown eyes on him, fixing him with that concentrated stare that intimidated so many people. “Captain… Chris, forgive me if this is too personal, but this vision - this idealized marriage with children, life in a forever-perfect park, this isn’t what you really wish for, is it? Is this who you wish you really were?”
“What? Straight, home-loving, dying to have children, no taste for risk? All the things my grandmother wanted for me? No, of course not. I’m not some self-hating gay wishing I was hetro.”
“I have wondered sometimes,” said One carefully. “The way you refuse to acknowledge what’s right under your nose.”
“I put my duty first,” said Pike stiffly. “I’m entitled to my choices.”
“Yes,” agreed One gently, “except that your choices end up hurting more than just yourself. They hurt others who care deeply for you.”
* * *
“Doctor Boyce, should you not be back in sickbay?”
“I’m perfectly comfortable right here, Commander.” Boyce leant against the wall of the bridge, arms folded, glaring at the science officer who was now their acting captain.
“Doctor, we’ve no choice now but to consider the safety of this vessel and the remainder of the crew. We need to leave--“
“Bullshit! Three of our people are trapped down there. We don’t leave our own behind.”
“Their power of illusion is so great we can’t be sure of anything we do, anything we see. They could swat this ship like a fly. We must--“
“We must nothing! Starfleet Medical Protocols, regulation 121, section A. I’ll stand you down for seriously impaired judgment. We are not leaving them behind!” Boyce was right up in the other man’s face, his fists clenched in frustration.
“I suspect I’m not the one letting emotion cloud his judgement!” Commander Conseller turned his back on the doctor and sat himself in the captain’s chair. “This is your acting captain speaking. We’re leaving. Prepare for warp factor--“
The bridge was abruptly plunged into darkness. “All systems are dead. We’ve got nothing,” reported the pilot. As the back-up batteries took over, essential services and lighting flickered on. “Once the batteries drain, we’ll lose gravitation and the air supply. Your orders, captain?” demanded Boyce sarcastically. The two men glared at each other.
Behind them the monitors starting to sputter back to life. They both spun round and watched as the contents of the ship’s database flickered across the screens, almost too fast to be recognizable. The communications officer turned to them. “We’ve no control. The Talosians seem to have taken over. They are using all our power to run through our information banks.”
* * *
The prisoners dozed in their cage, One and Barry sitting close together near to Pike, their hands almost touching. Vina sulked ostentatiously some distance from them. Pike watched the piece of wall through which food had been previously introduced through slitted eyes, letting his hate stew in his mind on a low simmer, disguising his intentions. Hate might be primitive in its origins but humans could make it as emotionally complex as any other aspect of their contradictory lives. Vina had told him that it was impossible to keep hating their captors indefinitely but she was wrong. Even easier was to hate himself for what he’d done to the two officers sat beside him, to the doctor who he was sure was going crazy back on the ship, to himself. He was going to get out of here. He was going to put it right.
As the small hatch slid open he dived forward, grabbed the Talosian behind the hatch and pulled him into the room, pinning him down with strong hands wrapped around his throat. The tall grey figure morphed into a long-toothed orange monster but Pike didn’t even blink, just squeezed harder. “Stop this illusion or I’ll twist your head off. Try one more illusion, try anything at all and I’ll break your neck.”
The Talosian shifted back to his native form and whispered hoarsely: “Your ship. Release me or we’ll destroy it.”
“Chris, please, they’re not bluffing,” begged Vina.
Pike hauled the Talosian to his feet. “I’m going to gamble you’re too intelligent to kill for no reason at all.” He shoved the hostage at One and turned to blast at the transparent wall of the cage with a phaser. Nothing happened. It looked as pristinely perfect as ever. He turned back to the Talosian, now being held from behind by One, and put his phaser to the bulbous grey cranium.
“On the other hand, I’ve got a reason to kill. I’m willing to bet you’ve created an illusion that this phaser is empty. I bet it just blasted a hole in that window and you’re keeping us from seeing it. Do you want me to test my theory out on your head?”
The Talosian bent his head in acknowledgement. A hole appeared in the wall of the cage, the fabric jagged and blackened around its edges. Pike pushed the Talosian through it at phaser-point. They all took the elevator to the surface. Once safely outside, One and Barry tried to get the phasers and communicator to work, while Pike continued to hold onto his hostage.
The Talosian spoke with his usual infuriating calmness. “As you see your attempt to escape accomplished nothing. You are now on the surface where we wished you to be. With the female of your choice, you will now begin carefully guided lives. If you do not wish to choose one, you may have them all. All we require of you are offspring that can be trained to serve as artisans and technicians.”
“Let my officers go,” said Pike coldly. “I’ll trade your life for theirs and I’ll stay.”
“No! Never,” exploded One, beginning to twist her phaser settings furiously. “It’s wrong to create a whole race of humans to live as slaves. It is wrong to take one human as a slave. Besides, we do not leave our own behind.”
The Talosian watched in concern as the phaser began to glow. “Is this a deception? Do you truly intend to destroy yourselves?”
Pike offered an icy smile. “The weapon is building up an overload, a force-chamber explosion. We will all be vaporized. You still have time to get underground. Well, go on!” He pushed Vina away from him. “Just to show you how primitive humans are, Talosian, you go with her.”
At that moment, two more Talosians appeared on the rise above them. One spoke, addressing Pike’s hostage. “The humans’ method of storing records is crude and consumed much time. Are you prepared to assimilate it?” The hostage nodded. One stood down her weapon as the humans waited.
Their hostage paled. “We had not believed this possible. What we learnt of your species from the Columbia was profoundly limited. Not only do the customs and history of your race show a unique hatred of captivity, but your sexuality is far more varied than we had supposed. As are your needs and desires. We could not create a benevolent captivity that would content you. You are too complex and too dangerous a species for our needs.”
“The Columbia was a colonizing ship,” said Pike, as understanding began to dawn. “A religious sect devoted to moral family living of the more rigid Calvinist kind, looking for an uninhabited planet where they could start anew. All the information on board would have reflected that belief set. No wonder you misunderstood what you saw in our minds.”
“Indeed,” said the Talosian. “And your unsuitability has condemned our race to death. We will slowly wither away within the beauty and boredom of our illusions.”
“We can offer you the aid and support of the Federation to rebuild your planet.”
“Your race would learn our power of illusion and destroy itself too. Go, human, and follow this freedom you desire so strongly.”
Pike nodded. Turning to One, he instructed her to order four to beam up. His two fellow officers vanished.
Vina turned to him, her beautiful face agonized. “I can’t. I can’t go with you.” As Pike watched in consternation, her face began to shift, to melt into a jigsaw of burn scars and deformed bones. Her body twisted into a crumpled heap. “They found me in the wreckage, dying, a lump of flesh. They rebuilt me. Everything works. But they’d never seen a human. They had no guide for putting me back together.”
“We have surgeons that can help with that,” said Pike. “We have many ways of living fulfilling lives that don’t depend on beauty. Reality isn’t always pretty but it’s far more satisfying. Come with us!”
She backed away from him, shaking her head. As she turned away, her beautiful form reappeared. “You’ll keep her pliant with an illusion of loveliness,” Pike said scathingly.
“And more,” replied the Talosian. Pike watched in horror as a doppelganger of himself appeared by her side, took her hand in his, spoke sweet nothings into her ear. A man with all his appearance but nothing of his own drive and ambition and complicated desires. He backed away from it.
The Talosian spoke again. “She has an illusion and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant.”
“As pleasant,” spluttered Pike. “I’ll take reality any day, for all its flaws and frustrations. Although I’ve a few urgent things to do to improve reality. Yorktown, one to beam up.”
* * *
Pike strode onto the bridge, with One and Barry on his heels. Boyce caught him by the arm. “Hold on a damned minute.”
“I feel fine, just fine,” replied Pike.
Boyce examined him with narrowed eyes. “You do look unusually healthy for the end of yet another cocked-up mission.”
Pike shrugged. “You recommended a rest and change of pace, didn’t you? I’ve even been home.” He hesitated. “I’ve had time to do some thinking too.” He turned to One and to Barry. “We need an informal debrief, before we work out the official mission report. This way.” They followed him into the ready room.
Once the door had slid closed, Barry turned on him with a wicked grin. “I was wondering, just curious. Who would’ve been your choice for Eve?”
“Eve? As in Adam?” Boyce exclaimed. “They wanted you to start a new race.”
“Why do you all seem so skeptical?” Pike grumbled. “They said I was an ideal specimen, healthy and intelligent.”
“Give it up, Chris,” Barry said. “We all know where your eyes go in a bar, and they don’t go to the women.”
“It wasn’t exactly a great experience for my ego,” admitted Pike. “Surrounded by three beautiful women, told to pick one, or even keep a harem if I wished. One of them wanted some anodyne fantasy version of me that I wouldn’t have a drink with, let alone trust him on my crew. And the other two just wanted to screw each other!”
“Chris,” said One, her voice tight with warning.
“No. Enough hiding. Haven’t you two been at it for months already?”
One turned away to stare angrily at the wall. Barry answered. “No we haven’t. You made your policy clear when we joined the ship. Starfleet advises against relationships between officers but leaves it up to the captains to enforce or ignore that advice on their own ships. You chose to enforce it. We respect that.”
“Really?” Pike stared at her in surprise. “You must’ve realized I’m being an idiot about this.”
“Well yes, punishing us as you punish yourself,” said One. “I kept hoping Phil would knock some sense into you. But until he does, you’re our captain and we follow your orders.”
“What am I supposed to do about it?” protested Boyce. “He sets standards for himself no one could meet.”
“Okay. Enough already with the criticism.” Pike gave One a rueful smile. “So where do the fantasies about me fit in to all this?”
“Yes, do tell!” demanded Barry, arms folded across her chest, glaring at One.
One shrugged apologetically. “The Talosians just couldn’t see the things they didn’t understand. I might’ve had the occasional fantasy about you ordering me to do things to Cait and then watching us.” One glanced cautiously at Barry, who was now grinning back at her.
“This being our Cait with the unusually strong female drives,” teased Pike.
Cait rolled her eyes at him. “I’ve known you since the Academy, Chris. You can’t embarrass me. The Talosians just couldn’t get their heads round lesbian sex.”
“Ladies, this is getting far past the mark of too much information.” Boyce turned on Pike. “So are you going to lift this stupid no-sex-between-officers rule? I’d like to see at least some of us getting some.” He gestured towards the two women.
Pike nodded. Barry promptly grabbed One by the hand. “Quick, before he changes his mind. We’ll leave the two of you to finish this debrief in private, shall we? Phil, you may be closer to getting some than you think.” With a wink for the doctor, she towed the first officer out of the room.
“You’re doing the right thing for them,” said Boyce.
“Hell, I’m not doing it for them. Flattering thought it is to hear that I feature in One’s fantasies. I’m doing it for me. Vina said something to me about ships’ captains always having to be formal and decent and proper. You talked to me about withering away if you choose to turn your back on life. Even One called me out on my behavior hurting those who care for me. I’ve been trying so hard to be a model captain that I’ve stifled all my personal desires. I don’t want to give up being a captain. I don’t want ride out with a picnic lunch every day. But I do want someone to share my life with.”
He hesitated, rubbing restlessly at the back of his neck, not quite meeting Boyce’s eyes. “So. Can I take you out for a drink sometime?”
“You’re asking me on a date?”
“You don’t have to sound so incredulous.”
“I think I’ll take Cait’s advice on this one,” said Boyce, moving to stand close to Pike who was leaning against the desk.
At Pike’s look of enquiry, he continued. “Get in quick before you change your mind.” He reached out and cupped Pike’s face in a strong hand. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been hoping you’d get over yourself and let me in?”
The end of the question was lost as he pressed his mouth against Pike’s and licked curiously at the full lower lip. His captain shivered under his touch. Encourage, Boyce pushed gently with his tongue. Pike’s mouth opened up to him easily, eagerly, while his hands slid around Boyce’s waist, pushing up under his jacket. Boyce slowly explored the warm, wet depths, trying to capture every moment of this first kiss of the beautiful, infuriating man he’d been crushing on for many months. He let one hand tangle in Pike’s wayward curls, while the other traced down the long, lean back. For an endless moment they simply savored the taste of each other.
Eventually Boyce pulled back. “Shall we move this to your cabin? Leave Conseller to take us into warp. You can buy me that drink after we’re done.”
“I should’ve known,” said Pike with a chuckle as he pushed Boyce towards the door. “All ships’ doctors are dirty old men.”
“Only for you, you beautiful bastard,” said Boyce. “Only for you.”
- THE END -
Ship/Characters: Pike/Boyce, One/Barry
Canon: AOS reboot of a TOS episode
Prompt: written for the Origins prompt, for Team Newoldskool at st_respect.
Beta: the inimitable imachar, with a look-over by the obliging ellie_pierson
Rating: PG
Warnings: none
Summary: Aliens have taken Captain Chris Pike captive to be ‘Adam’ for a new race of humans. They may have misjudged the nature of their man.
Author’s note: This is an AOS reboot of the TOS episode The Cage. About half the dialogue is taken from the original TOS episode. This story features Chris Pike (Bruce Greenwood), Phil Boyce (Mark Harmon), Number One (Jennifer Garner) and Caitlin Barry (Gina Holden).
The image of One was photo-manipped by the talented taraljc.
“We’ve located a magnetic field that seems to come from their underground generator,” said Lieutenant Barry. “We should be able to transport down inside the Talosian community”.
Lieutenant Commander Conseller regarded the Yorktown’s chief engineer with skepticism. “Could that be an illusion too?” demanded the science officer. “They created an entire community of human refugees so realistic we didn’t even think to question it. All just figments of fantasy. This is unjustifiably dangerous.”
“They’ve got our captain,” growled Doctor Boyce. “If you can’t handle a little danger, why the hell did you enlist?”
“Phil, enough,” said One softly. Turning to the bigger group she continued. “As acting captain I am authorizing a six-person rescue mission. Myself, Barry and four security crew.” Boyce huffed with annoyance. “Doctor, we need you here to deal with injuries. And not just from this mission. We have our causalities from Rigel VII to think of. Mr Conseller, you have the helm. People, our measurements and readings may be an illusion. We may be about to beam down into solid rock. Nothing will be said if any volunteer wants to back out.”
No one moved.
Barry caught Boyce by the arm, speaking softly. “Phil, we’ll get him back. You know what he’s like for getting into trouble and then squirming his way out again. Worse than a cat with nine lives.”
Boyce gave her a bleak smile, his face pale with strain. “Be careful. All of you.”
“Commence beaming,” ordered One. Six figures shimmered briefly on the transporter pad. Only two disappeared.
“The women,” exclaimed Conseller. “They’ve taken the women.”
“Point out the fucking obvious, why don’t you?” growled Boyce as they all stared helplessly at the two empty spaces.
* * *
One and Barry swung round, drawing their phasers as soon as they realized the security detail wasn’t with them.
“Captain,” exclaimed One. Captain Christopher Pike was standing in front of her, apparently unharmed, looking furious, and accompanied by a very pretty slender blonde wearing not a great deal of shimmering grey dress paired with kitten heels.
“No. Let me finish,” exclaimed the blonde despairingly. “It’s not fair, you don’t need them.”
One realized after a moment that it was Vina, the young woman they’d met when they’d investigated the illusionary camp of human survivors, the survivor supposedly born just before the crash eighteen years earlier. She glanced around quickly. They were in a room the size of a bedroom. The only piece of furniture was an ugly grey loveseat. The walls were carved out of rock, except for one entire wall made of a transparent substance, which provided a view onto a corridor lined with similar rooms. Not rooms, One realized. Cages.
“Sir, neither the phasers nor the communicators are working,” said Barry.
“Don’t say anything,” snarled Pike. “I’m picturing beating their huge misshapen heads to pulp. They can’t read through primitive emotions. Otherwise they can just reach into our minds and pluck out our dreams and desires. I’m filling my mind with hate.”
“Chris, no,” exclaimed Vina, reaching out to him with an immaculately manicured hand.
“Leave him alone,” ordered Barry.
Vina turned on the engineer, looking with hate at the slim woman with her long brunette curls and generous mouth. “He doesn’t need you. He’s already picked me.”
Barry looked back to her fellow officers. “Picked her. For what? I don’t understand.”
“Now there’s a fine choice for intelligent offspring,” spat Vina.
“Offspring? As in children?” exclaimed Barry.
One regarded Vina thoughtfully. “Offspring. As in he’s Adam. Is that it?”
“You’re no better choice,” retorted Vina, turning on the austere first officer. “They’d have more luck crossing him with a computer.”
“They want Chris as Adam?” exclaimed Barry. “Sir, with respect, if they can read your mind how have they not realized--“
“Quiet,” interrupted Pike, gesturing behind her. She turned to see that one of their alien captors had emerged from an elevator door. The Talosian approached the glass wall of the cage. He was humanoid in appearance, dressed in a long robe of the same shimmering silver as Vina’s dress, but with a cranium some three times bigger than a human head - bald and bulging with pulsing veins running just below the skin’s surface.
He addressed Pike in a synthetic voice eerie in its monotone. “Since you resist the present specimen, you now have a selection.”
“Us?” exclaimed Barry. “Of all the women on the ship you think we two are the appropriate choice?”
The Talosian ignored them, continuing to speak to Pike. “Each of the two new specimens has qualities in their favor. The female you call Number One has the superior mind and will produce highly intelligent children. Although she seems to lack emotion, this is largely a pretense. She often has fantasies involving you.”
Barry stared at One with raised eyebrows. “Since when?” she mouthed. One carefully avoided Barry’s gaze. Pike began to shout at their captor. “I’ll break out of this zoo somehow and get my hands on you. There is a way out of every cage and I’ll find it. Can you read these thoughts? Images of hate? Killing?”
The Talosian continued, imperturbable. “The other new arrival has factors in her favor like youth and strength. Plus unusually strong female drives.”
Barry smirked at him. “You might want to be concentrating more on the female bit.”
Pike began to hammer against the glass. “You’ll find my thoughts more interesting, you fucker. Thoughts so primitive you can’t even understand. Emotions so--” He crumpled forward, curling in on himself, clearly racked with an invisible agony. Vina fluttered around him, picturesquely hiding her face from the horror. One and Barry looked on, hands clenched around their useless phasers.
“Wrong thinking will be punished,” said the Talosian coolly. “Right thinking will be as quickly rewarded. You will find it an effective combination.” He left them, disappearing into the elevator.
Pike took deep breaths as he slowly regained his composure. “No, don’t help me,” he admonished the women. “I have to concentrate. They can’t read through hate.”
“Captain,” snapped One, “this will take more than hate to solve. Think about it! Their controls and their illusions seem overwhelmingly powerful and yet--“
“And yet their mind-reading is just a bit off,” finished Barry. “That has to be the point of weakness we can attack.”
Pike looked at them both and finally nodded slowly. “You have a point.” He waved them over to a corner of the room, pointedly excluding Vina, who sat down on the loveseat and sulked prettily, showing a lot of leg in the process.
“Captain, what is going on?” asked One.
“I found out this much from Vina,” said Pike. “The Talosians were a technologically advanced culture but they destroyed their planet’s surface and all their fellow creatures with a nuclear holocaust. The survivors went underground, where they became dependent on their mental ability to create illusions. It became a trap, like a narcotic. Dreams became more important than reality. They forgot how to repair machines built by their ancestors.”
“And yet, if they can read your thoughts, why haven’t they picked up the blindingly obvious?” demanded Barry.
“I’m not that obvious,” grumbled Pike. “But they do seem to only pick up on certain things in the mindreading. First they put me back on Rigel VII, at the end when I had the death struggle with the Kaylar warrior, except this time I had to protect Vina as well. I think they were trying to force me into feeling emotional protectiveness and sympathy for her.
“Then they put us in a park outside my home town of Mojave, provided my favorite horse and a picnic and made Vina my wife, all done up in a pink gingham outfit too.”
“Chris, in what world is that any kind of fantasy of yours?” exclaimed Barry. “Discovering new worlds, epic space battles, hot boys in bars, all that I could believe in. But picnics in a park with winsome blondes? Where is this coming from?”
Chris shrugged uncomfortably. “Just before we supposedly found the survivors, I was talking to Phil in my cabin. The bastard plied me with alcohol. Martinis, no less. After that cock-up on Rigel VII - three dead, so many badly injured - I was feeling ready to resign. I was telling him that I wanted something different. An escape from reality. Life with no frustrations. No responsibilities. I think the Talosians picked my fantasy of home out of my mind.”
“Resign?” exclaimed One in horror.
“You? With no responsibilities? You’d be dead of boredom within the week,” said Barry.
Pike snorted. “Phil put it a bit more diplomatically. He told me that a man either lives life as it happens to him, meeting it head on, or he turns his back on it and starts to wither away. I told Vina some of this and she offered me chicken tuna sandwiches made to my mom’s recipe and suggested she bear my children. She offered to become any woman I’d ever imagined.” Chris laughed humorlessly. “At least I got the rest Phil wanted me to take.”
“So all this time in your cabin with Phil - complete with alcohol - and all you did was talk?” said Barry. Pike nodded. Barry rolled her eyes at One. “I wish he’d live his life a little,” she whispered.
“What else has happened?” asked One.
“Suddenly Vina decided that what a ship’s captain must really want is a break from duty. Next thing I knew I was a slave trader eating grapes on a couch like a Roman emperor, watching her writhe around in next-to-nothing, done up like an Orion slave girl. The worst bit was that I was wearing this shiny purple and red monstrosity of a toga, complete with a glittery gold sash, and metalwork jeweled collar.”
“Oh yes, straight as my hair, that boy,” muttered Barry, twirling one of her curls around her finger. One frowned at her disapprovingly but the corners of her mouth were twitching.
“So it’s as if they can see into our minds but they can only understand certain things from all that they see there, things that fit their objective,” said One slowly, trying to puzzle it out.
“Doesn’t explain what Chris is doing in your fantasies,” grumbled Barry sotto voce. “We’ll be having words about that later.”
“And what they want is an ideal breeding pair,” continued One.
“They did say I was a prime specimen,” said Pike wryly. The captain stood just over six foot tall, lean and lightly muscled, although broad in the chest. His blue eyes could be steely cool when he was angry, but the laugh lines that were just beginning to form at their edges and the errant light brown curls that flopped down on his forehead somewhat undermined the severest of his gazes. It was not hard to see why both Vina and the Talosians were so taken with him.
One turned her deep brown eyes on him, fixing him with that concentrated stare that intimidated so many people. “Captain… Chris, forgive me if this is too personal, but this vision - this idealized marriage with children, life in a forever-perfect park, this isn’t what you really wish for, is it? Is this who you wish you really were?”
“What? Straight, home-loving, dying to have children, no taste for risk? All the things my grandmother wanted for me? No, of course not. I’m not some self-hating gay wishing I was hetro.”
“I have wondered sometimes,” said One carefully. “The way you refuse to acknowledge what’s right under your nose.”
“I put my duty first,” said Pike stiffly. “I’m entitled to my choices.”
“Yes,” agreed One gently, “except that your choices end up hurting more than just yourself. They hurt others who care deeply for you.”
* * *
“Doctor Boyce, should you not be back in sickbay?”
“I’m perfectly comfortable right here, Commander.” Boyce leant against the wall of the bridge, arms folded, glaring at the science officer who was now their acting captain.
“Doctor, we’ve no choice now but to consider the safety of this vessel and the remainder of the crew. We need to leave--“
“Bullshit! Three of our people are trapped down there. We don’t leave our own behind.”
“Their power of illusion is so great we can’t be sure of anything we do, anything we see. They could swat this ship like a fly. We must--“
“We must nothing! Starfleet Medical Protocols, regulation 121, section A. I’ll stand you down for seriously impaired judgment. We are not leaving them behind!” Boyce was right up in the other man’s face, his fists clenched in frustration.
“I suspect I’m not the one letting emotion cloud his judgement!” Commander Conseller turned his back on the doctor and sat himself in the captain’s chair. “This is your acting captain speaking. We’re leaving. Prepare for warp factor--“
The bridge was abruptly plunged into darkness. “All systems are dead. We’ve got nothing,” reported the pilot. As the back-up batteries took over, essential services and lighting flickered on. “Once the batteries drain, we’ll lose gravitation and the air supply. Your orders, captain?” demanded Boyce sarcastically. The two men glared at each other.
Behind them the monitors starting to sputter back to life. They both spun round and watched as the contents of the ship’s database flickered across the screens, almost too fast to be recognizable. The communications officer turned to them. “We’ve no control. The Talosians seem to have taken over. They are using all our power to run through our information banks.”
* * *
The prisoners dozed in their cage, One and Barry sitting close together near to Pike, their hands almost touching. Vina sulked ostentatiously some distance from them. Pike watched the piece of wall through which food had been previously introduced through slitted eyes, letting his hate stew in his mind on a low simmer, disguising his intentions. Hate might be primitive in its origins but humans could make it as emotionally complex as any other aspect of their contradictory lives. Vina had told him that it was impossible to keep hating their captors indefinitely but she was wrong. Even easier was to hate himself for what he’d done to the two officers sat beside him, to the doctor who he was sure was going crazy back on the ship, to himself. He was going to get out of here. He was going to put it right.
As the small hatch slid open he dived forward, grabbed the Talosian behind the hatch and pulled him into the room, pinning him down with strong hands wrapped around his throat. The tall grey figure morphed into a long-toothed orange monster but Pike didn’t even blink, just squeezed harder. “Stop this illusion or I’ll twist your head off. Try one more illusion, try anything at all and I’ll break your neck.”
The Talosian shifted back to his native form and whispered hoarsely: “Your ship. Release me or we’ll destroy it.”
“Chris, please, they’re not bluffing,” begged Vina.
Pike hauled the Talosian to his feet. “I’m going to gamble you’re too intelligent to kill for no reason at all.” He shoved the hostage at One and turned to blast at the transparent wall of the cage with a phaser. Nothing happened. It looked as pristinely perfect as ever. He turned back to the Talosian, now being held from behind by One, and put his phaser to the bulbous grey cranium.
“On the other hand, I’ve got a reason to kill. I’m willing to bet you’ve created an illusion that this phaser is empty. I bet it just blasted a hole in that window and you’re keeping us from seeing it. Do you want me to test my theory out on your head?”
The Talosian bent his head in acknowledgement. A hole appeared in the wall of the cage, the fabric jagged and blackened around its edges. Pike pushed the Talosian through it at phaser-point. They all took the elevator to the surface. Once safely outside, One and Barry tried to get the phasers and communicator to work, while Pike continued to hold onto his hostage.
The Talosian spoke with his usual infuriating calmness. “As you see your attempt to escape accomplished nothing. You are now on the surface where we wished you to be. With the female of your choice, you will now begin carefully guided lives. If you do not wish to choose one, you may have them all. All we require of you are offspring that can be trained to serve as artisans and technicians.”
“Let my officers go,” said Pike coldly. “I’ll trade your life for theirs and I’ll stay.”
“No! Never,” exploded One, beginning to twist her phaser settings furiously. “It’s wrong to create a whole race of humans to live as slaves. It is wrong to take one human as a slave. Besides, we do not leave our own behind.”
The Talosian watched in concern as the phaser began to glow. “Is this a deception? Do you truly intend to destroy yourselves?”
Pike offered an icy smile. “The weapon is building up an overload, a force-chamber explosion. We will all be vaporized. You still have time to get underground. Well, go on!” He pushed Vina away from him. “Just to show you how primitive humans are, Talosian, you go with her.”
At that moment, two more Talosians appeared on the rise above them. One spoke, addressing Pike’s hostage. “The humans’ method of storing records is crude and consumed much time. Are you prepared to assimilate it?” The hostage nodded. One stood down her weapon as the humans waited.
Their hostage paled. “We had not believed this possible. What we learnt of your species from the Columbia was profoundly limited. Not only do the customs and history of your race show a unique hatred of captivity, but your sexuality is far more varied than we had supposed. As are your needs and desires. We could not create a benevolent captivity that would content you. You are too complex and too dangerous a species for our needs.”
“The Columbia was a colonizing ship,” said Pike, as understanding began to dawn. “A religious sect devoted to moral family living of the more rigid Calvinist kind, looking for an uninhabited planet where they could start anew. All the information on board would have reflected that belief set. No wonder you misunderstood what you saw in our minds.”
“Indeed,” said the Talosian. “And your unsuitability has condemned our race to death. We will slowly wither away within the beauty and boredom of our illusions.”
“We can offer you the aid and support of the Federation to rebuild your planet.”
“Your race would learn our power of illusion and destroy itself too. Go, human, and follow this freedom you desire so strongly.”
Pike nodded. Turning to One, he instructed her to order four to beam up. His two fellow officers vanished.
Vina turned to him, her beautiful face agonized. “I can’t. I can’t go with you.” As Pike watched in consternation, her face began to shift, to melt into a jigsaw of burn scars and deformed bones. Her body twisted into a crumpled heap. “They found me in the wreckage, dying, a lump of flesh. They rebuilt me. Everything works. But they’d never seen a human. They had no guide for putting me back together.”
“We have surgeons that can help with that,” said Pike. “We have many ways of living fulfilling lives that don’t depend on beauty. Reality isn’t always pretty but it’s far more satisfying. Come with us!”
She backed away from him, shaking her head. As she turned away, her beautiful form reappeared. “You’ll keep her pliant with an illusion of loveliness,” Pike said scathingly.
“And more,” replied the Talosian. Pike watched in horror as a doppelganger of himself appeared by her side, took her hand in his, spoke sweet nothings into her ear. A man with all his appearance but nothing of his own drive and ambition and complicated desires. He backed away from it.
The Talosian spoke again. “She has an illusion and you have reality. May you find your way as pleasant.”
“As pleasant,” spluttered Pike. “I’ll take reality any day, for all its flaws and frustrations. Although I’ve a few urgent things to do to improve reality. Yorktown, one to beam up.”
* * *
Pike strode onto the bridge, with One and Barry on his heels. Boyce caught him by the arm. “Hold on a damned minute.”
“I feel fine, just fine,” replied Pike.
Boyce examined him with narrowed eyes. “You do look unusually healthy for the end of yet another cocked-up mission.”
Pike shrugged. “You recommended a rest and change of pace, didn’t you? I’ve even been home.” He hesitated. “I’ve had time to do some thinking too.” He turned to One and to Barry. “We need an informal debrief, before we work out the official mission report. This way.” They followed him into the ready room.
Once the door had slid closed, Barry turned on him with a wicked grin. “I was wondering, just curious. Who would’ve been your choice for Eve?”
“Eve? As in Adam?” Boyce exclaimed. “They wanted you to start a new race.”
“Why do you all seem so skeptical?” Pike grumbled. “They said I was an ideal specimen, healthy and intelligent.”
“Give it up, Chris,” Barry said. “We all know where your eyes go in a bar, and they don’t go to the women.”
“It wasn’t exactly a great experience for my ego,” admitted Pike. “Surrounded by three beautiful women, told to pick one, or even keep a harem if I wished. One of them wanted some anodyne fantasy version of me that I wouldn’t have a drink with, let alone trust him on my crew. And the other two just wanted to screw each other!”
“Chris,” said One, her voice tight with warning.
“No. Enough hiding. Haven’t you two been at it for months already?”
One turned away to stare angrily at the wall. Barry answered. “No we haven’t. You made your policy clear when we joined the ship. Starfleet advises against relationships between officers but leaves it up to the captains to enforce or ignore that advice on their own ships. You chose to enforce it. We respect that.”
“Really?” Pike stared at her in surprise. “You must’ve realized I’m being an idiot about this.”
“Well yes, punishing us as you punish yourself,” said One. “I kept hoping Phil would knock some sense into you. But until he does, you’re our captain and we follow your orders.”
“What am I supposed to do about it?” protested Boyce. “He sets standards for himself no one could meet.”
“Okay. Enough already with the criticism.” Pike gave One a rueful smile. “So where do the fantasies about me fit in to all this?”
“Yes, do tell!” demanded Barry, arms folded across her chest, glaring at One.
One shrugged apologetically. “The Talosians just couldn’t see the things they didn’t understand. I might’ve had the occasional fantasy about you ordering me to do things to Cait and then watching us.” One glanced cautiously at Barry, who was now grinning back at her.
“This being our Cait with the unusually strong female drives,” teased Pike.
Cait rolled her eyes at him. “I’ve known you since the Academy, Chris. You can’t embarrass me. The Talosians just couldn’t get their heads round lesbian sex.”
“Ladies, this is getting far past the mark of too much information.” Boyce turned on Pike. “So are you going to lift this stupid no-sex-between-officers rule? I’d like to see at least some of us getting some.” He gestured towards the two women.
Pike nodded. Barry promptly grabbed One by the hand. “Quick, before he changes his mind. We’ll leave the two of you to finish this debrief in private, shall we? Phil, you may be closer to getting some than you think.” With a wink for the doctor, she towed the first officer out of the room.
“You’re doing the right thing for them,” said Boyce.
“Hell, I’m not doing it for them. Flattering thought it is to hear that I feature in One’s fantasies. I’m doing it for me. Vina said something to me about ships’ captains always having to be formal and decent and proper. You talked to me about withering away if you choose to turn your back on life. Even One called me out on my behavior hurting those who care for me. I’ve been trying so hard to be a model captain that I’ve stifled all my personal desires. I don’t want to give up being a captain. I don’t want ride out with a picnic lunch every day. But I do want someone to share my life with.”
He hesitated, rubbing restlessly at the back of his neck, not quite meeting Boyce’s eyes. “So. Can I take you out for a drink sometime?”
“You’re asking me on a date?”
“You don’t have to sound so incredulous.”
“I think I’ll take Cait’s advice on this one,” said Boyce, moving to stand close to Pike who was leaning against the desk.
At Pike’s look of enquiry, he continued. “Get in quick before you change your mind.” He reached out and cupped Pike’s face in a strong hand. “Do you have any idea how long I’ve been hoping you’d get over yourself and let me in?”
The end of the question was lost as he pressed his mouth against Pike’s and licked curiously at the full lower lip. His captain shivered under his touch. Encourage, Boyce pushed gently with his tongue. Pike’s mouth opened up to him easily, eagerly, while his hands slid around Boyce’s waist, pushing up under his jacket. Boyce slowly explored the warm, wet depths, trying to capture every moment of this first kiss of the beautiful, infuriating man he’d been crushing on for many months. He let one hand tangle in Pike’s wayward curls, while the other traced down the long, lean back. For an endless moment they simply savored the taste of each other.
Eventually Boyce pulled back. “Shall we move this to your cabin? Leave Conseller to take us into warp. You can buy me that drink after we’re done.”
“I should’ve known,” said Pike with a chuckle as he pushed Boyce towards the door. “All ships’ doctors are dirty old men.”
“Only for you, you beautiful bastard,” said Boyce. “Only for you.”
- THE END -