mirroredcommand | Another Meeting

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Another Meeting

With the most careful of attempts, not wanting to warn the system that he was trying anything at all, Pike was testing the limits of the restrictions on the padd he had been given. He had been reading extensively on the history and known facts of the Christopher Richard Pike of this universe.

In many ways, they were surprisingly similar, and in others, not so surprisingly different. This was a man of peace, with multiple accomplishments in the areas of peace keeping and bravery, a very well respected captain as well as the designer of this universe's Enterprise.

And a slightly younger man as well, it seemed. The year was 2258. When he had left his universe, it had been 2263. Briefly, Pike had wondered if he had remained fifty years old or he had lost five years in the process.

His head came up from the faint light of the padd when he heard the guards shifting. It was too early for the shift change - that meant something was happening.

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"You say that, but I wonder if it's true." Pike leaned back slightly, "But I hadn't realized the extent of your bonds with others. It's different then what I know."

"Nufau au sochya - yi dungi ma tu sochya. Though perhaps Surak did not walk the Plain of Blood in your time.

I did not reveal them to you last time. I extend an offer to you, that you might view them. Under certain conditions, if they are acceptable to us both."

"And why are you extending the offer to me now, Spock?" His voice level, but his eyes commanded.

Spock was not a man to be cowed by the commands of others. He served his Pike because his Pike earned that. He served his Jim, as difficult as it was, for the same reason. He owed this man no obedience and his eyes flashed it.

"I am curious. I cannot hear him, yet there may be something there. You are tuned to him. And I..."

Spock steps closer, very close to speak in a commanding tone of his own.

"I would know if this is possible. I would see you reunited and my friends and mates unharmed. I feel the pain of your loss, the shadow of it like a limb that has been amputated, and I would heal the hurt if possible. And I would protect my loves, this life I have built"

This Spock and his Spock, Pike mused to himself, are not so different. That same flare of rebellion, denial of the truth, had been in the eyes of a much younger Vulcan eleven years ago. Like a great panther, dark eyed and haired, sleek grace and power, brought to hand by someone who knew just the right amount of dominance and offerings to make it lay at his side.

"Why are you so very sure I would do anything to hurt your friends or mates?" Pike asked with a raised eyebrow, not acknowledging the comment on his pain. "Why are you so sure that I would do anything to destroy the life you have?" His tone kept calm, unbowing beneath Spock's command.

"I have certainty of nothing, Pike."

Spock's eyes are dark and huge and anyone who thinks Vulcans are truly emotionless is blind to the intensity pouring off of this man as he risks.

"I know only that you entered my mind without invitation, simply because you saw it as a chance. You have done me no harm but you - and yours - use violence as a tool in a way that is repugnant to me no matter how logical it is in your universe. Your... Spock. Your mate. I know what I would be in his place. He would do harm. I seek to avoid it."

"Perhaps you should realize my intentions instead of simply what might be, then." Pike said in an almost quiet tone, no less powerful for its softer volume. "Do you really think I prefer being locked away down here, waiting on a chance? Do you believe, truly believe, I'm incapable of seeing that this universe is different then my own?"

Pike stood up, slowly and steady, keeping his eyes locked with Spock. "I am capable of restraining myself. Spock, if he comes, will look far more kindly on finding me free of a cell. You are capable of keeping up barriers to keep me from your mind if you believe I will try again."

"Were I not aware, I would not have even extended the offer. Though your residence is not mine to decide."

Spock has no reservations regarding the potential meld itself - he can offer a bit of his mind to Pike, with the same tight control that Pike exhibited, though with less threat.

"We dance around this most illogically. State your intentions or do not. But I have made this offer. Would you hear the conditions?"

You can't be serious. Spock you can't actually believe he wouldn't hurt someone if I let him out of here. Kirk thought wildly, gritting his teeth together so hard his jaw was aching.

And you seriously better not be offering to fucking meld with him again.

"Tell me your conditions." He stated calmly.

"You provided a path from which I did not stray. I request the same courtesy in return. And an agreement that you intrude no more without permission in the future. I will aid your effort at contact in whatever way I can in this moment in return for this."

Here he paused, looked at Pike's gloved hands.

"And a condition, from the captain. That you surrender your gloves."

Spock had not forgotten Kirk's threat. He saw no need to stun this man - and believed in the privacy of his mind that such might prove more difficult a task than James supposed in any event.

"Your first condition I can agree with fully. The second is more difficult." He gestured over one hand. "If anyone other then my hands touches these, the results won't be pleasant by any means." He looked to Spock, his tone serious.

"I explained, with some details, this to your counterpart."

Spock reached a hand out, as though to stroke the leather, but did not touch.

"Such was remembered, in our sharing of the event."

He withdrew his hand.

"Your gloves need not to manipulated by another. They may be placed in secure storage." He did not mention that they might be destroyed - indeed he hoped they would not be. The technology, while applied to terrible use, was fascinating. Perhaps a way to study them might be devised. "Yet I will not counter the captain, who is, for the duration, now my captain, in this."

So they had melded, very interesting indeed; the word 'sharing' was a heavy clue to that. "While I wear them, they respond to me." He half-offered a hand. They looked completely ordinary, unremarkable except for their obvious long term use.

"Separated from me, they have a very good chance of never ending up in my possession again." Pike was no fool.

Spock's hand crept back out again, almost as though he were not conscious of the movement himself.

"The technology is fascinating. And you are not incorrect. Yet, should efforts to return you to your own ship prove successful, you are capable, I am sure, of manufacturing more. If you do not already possess alternates."

"Spock and I have been working on the secrets of this technology for more then five years. This," His fingers curled, indicating the glove while subtly encouraging touch, "Is our sole working application of it. It is more advance then anything Earth or Vulcan has to offer."

Spock's attention is on the glove now. He takes a step closer to Pike, and his extended index finger makes the lightest contact with the tip of Pike's curled fingers. In a different situation, it might be seen as a shy, hesitant kiss of sorts.

"Yet, given your success in this application, there is no reason to believe you could not duplicate the gloves."

No shock, no attack, his hand remains steady and still. "From what we know, the technology is almost biological instead of mechanical. They link to a single person. These, fortunately, weren't connected to any one person when I managed to get thrown back into the jar of them. My hands, my gloves in particular, were covered in it. It took us nearly a year to apply another technology to it."

This was not his primary purpose here. Yet Spock was intrigued and curious and such opportunity for examination would almost assuredly not come again whether or not Pike surrendered his gloves.

He took Pike's hand in his own, examining the exterior of the surface.

"Organic in nature? Or an organic medium for the technology to propogate?"

"The latter." Pike said easily, "It's quite interesting to watch, if done carefully." He tilted his head, eyes almost predatory, then brought up his other hand. He tugged off the other glove with his teeth, then held it up so Spock could see the faint glow within its depths.

The flash of teeth set him briefly on edge, but Spock controlled the reaction, shifted his attention to the interior of the glove.

"What powers them? How is the link accomplished? Do you know the original application of this technology?"

He had a hundred more questions but restricted himself. He did not wish to be rude.

"Myself, initial body-electrical contact we believe, and no." Pike answered each question in turn, then removed his hand from Spock's to tug the glove back on.

"Fascinating."

Spock's voice had a breathy tone with which only a very few people were acquainted - he was utterly intrigued, the majority of his intellect bent toward one pursuit but a pleasurable mystery instead of a crisis.

"Would you permit further study should the opportunity present itself?"

The solitude and enforced lack of activity must be working with more debilitating effect on Pike than the actual confinement. A man not accustomed to boredom. Perhaps James could be convinced to involve him in a bit of research....

Pike knew that particular non-expression of Spock's well. "The opportunity would present itself more easily if I was allowed free of this cell." He held up a single finger. "Obviously I'm not asking for absolute freedom. A quarters of my own, sealed and guarded however it is desired, but at least I could work on my own, a more private area, and a much less angered first officer if he arrives."

Spock watched the finger, attention still quite caught.

"I will speak with him to convey your request. However, the decision is his."

He forced his eyes back to Pike's own grey gaze.

"Is this a condition that must be met or will you grant removal of the gloves for the purpose of a meld? I wish to ascertain, as the humans say, where we stand in this moment."

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