[Star Trek] Refit (2/?)

[chaseasteroid]

Title: Refit (2/?)
Author: chaseasteroid (AKA racheldeet)
Pairings: Chekov/Sulu, with a side of Kirk/McCoy and Rand/Riley
Rating: PG
Summary: Pavel had grown up in the cold, where clouds did not form as easily and the lights of the city were distant. Stars had always been easy to see from there, even if the sun was not fond of visiting.
Previously: "Under Construction.", Chapter One

Pavel could see figures waiting for them before they had even completely materialized, and was ready to pull his phaser. Before he did, though, he recognized the red shirts of the two security personnel who had been sent to the planet. He took his hand from his phaser; it wouldn't do to go stunning his poker buddies. Oliver grinned broadly, smile always brighter than snow, though William didn't react.

"I never thought I'd be glad to see you, Doc," Oliver chirped at the sight of them. "Hope you saved a ride up for the two of us!"

"You can keep your pants on," McCoy grumbled. "Which way are we heading?"

Oliver pointed toward a clump of trees. "Be careful."

"Do you know what they want, yet?" Pavel asked.

"They wouldn't speak to anyone but the captain, sorry. But they asked for you lot by name." He frowned. "It's weird. They seem pretty friendly, actually. It might just be the translator, but usually it gets tones and such across just fine."

"Let's hope they are friendly," Pavel said. He opened his communicator. "Mr. Scott, two to beam up."

A moment later, the two stragglers disappeared in a brief swirl of blue light. There was a pause, as if no one knew what to do, until McCoy cleared his throat.

"You're in charge, kid," he reminded gruffly.

Pavel nodded. "Just getting our bearings," he lied. He had forgotten, but was not about to admit that. He kept a hand on his phaser while he led the way; Rand, though she had a certain control over Kirk, was quiet now, and followed; McCoy was not far behind, his footsteps heavier, though Pavel could not see him.

They were stopped when Pavel ran into something very solid, and very invisible. It forced his body backward, and he almost fell, though he managed to catch himself. Rand put a hand on his shoulder to steady him.

"Well," he said, "I suppose they want us to knock." Now that he knew something was there, he could hear a faint hum, the type of which he would normally associate with a force feild of some sort.

"Knocking is generally considered polite," said the familiar voice of the alien, though eerily distorted by the force field keeping them back. The person who stepped forward from behind the tree was short, but broad. Giant eyes stared at them, and Pavel had the disconcerting feeling that they were being studied, like samples under an old-fashioned microscope.

The huge eyes blinked at them. "Excellent. You are capable of following orders, it seems. Well done."

Pavel glanced at the other two, but neither seemed to know what this was supposed to mean. "Why have you called us here?" he asked, turning his attention back to the alien.

"Our planet did not used to get many visitors. In recent moons, however, we have begun to recieve many more. We have been forced to devise a way to decide which of these visitors we are willing to do business with, and which we will keep from our borders." The alien paced in front of the force field, a hair's breath from Pavel; the field hummed between them.

"Our first law is this: every person must be capable of love. As this is the most important of our laws, this is the principle upon which we have devised our test."

Pavel blinked as that set in.

"We have to prove that we're in love?" McCoy asked. "That doesn't seem like the kind of thing you want to be basin' diplomatic relations on."

"That is for us to decide," the alien said, voice rising sharply. Pavel put out a hand to silence McCoy. None of them were diplomats, but he knew when there was a time to stop talking.

"I'm sure we can pass such a test," Pavel said, trying to sound amiable. He had never failed a test in his life, after all.

"I certainly hope so," said the alien. "It pleases me that you have no ill will toward us, and for this reason alone will I not ask you to leave your weapons here. Consider it an act of trust." Pavel swore the alien then winked at them.

The humming suddenly stopped, though it took Pavel a moment to realize that was where the sudden silence had come from. He shook his head, trying to clear it, then looked the alien in the eye — as much as he could, anyway. "What is the test?"

"Come with me." The alien led them into the forest.

"I don't like this," Rand whispered. Pavel smiled at her over his shoulder, in an attempt to be reassuring, but McCoy just frowned even deeper.

"Me too," McCoy said. "But it's not like we have much of a choice, is it?"

They didn't, neither personally nor as Starfleet officers. It was not just their lovers who were at stake, but their fellow officers, and their captain. This was their duty, to make sure that all attempts were made to keep from having to leave someone behind. Besides, how would it look if they had to go back to Starfleet and say that six months into his first mission, the hero James Kirk had managed to be lost on a free-love planet? Pavel couldn't resist smirking a little at the thought.

The forest they walked into had seemed young and sparse, at first, but grew thicker as they went. The trees were no longer alive, here, some of them falling over to expose their hollow trunks, the rest as bare cones reaching to the sky. Pavel had to wonder at the ecology, and hope that Hikaru had had a chance to be caught up in the beauty of the young forest, rather than this sad sight.

They were invited into the trunk of one of the bigger trees, the alien bowing low as if to honor them. Pavel went first, especting a short drop from the ground-line into the roots' hollow — and finding that the tunnel went much deeper. He fell for a long second, then landed, hard, on his rear end. "There is a ladder," he heard the alien inform McCoy, somewhere far above.

"Thanks!" Pavel shouted, just out of spite.

McCoy was the next one down, taking the ladder, and his chucking echoed off the walls of dirt and bedrock. Pavel tried not to move, his spine feeling like it had been shoved into his skull.

"Look before you leap," McCoy said as he stepped down to the floor. "Need some help?"

"Please."

McCoy helped him up, and playfully slapped him on the ass. "Hope you didn't break something. It'll make sitting in your nice, comfy chair on the bridge a real nightmare."

"I'm ignoring you now," Pavel said. "Is this where they live?"

"We live in similar structures, yes," said the alien, coming down the ladder just after Rand. "This one is used as our...how would you say it? This is where we make decisions affecting the entire community."

"City hall?" McCoy asked, amused. "How many of you are there?"

The alien just shrugged, which was unusual. Though if their system of numbering was different than the one Starfleet used, the translator would not compute it properly. When he thought about it, he was not sure if he had seen the creature move its mouth at all while speaking. He had been too focused on its eyes. Rand was taking scans of everything, and would hopefully have better answers to such questions.

They were led through the tunnel, which wound in sharp curves and small hills, leaving Pavel a little breathless, and struggling to remember how to return to the surface if they needed to. They finally came into a small chamber, in which Kirk, Hikaru, and Riley sat in a row at a long table. They were blindfolded, and their hands were tied in their laps.

"Sit," said the alien. "And prepare."

"Prepare? Prepare for what?" McCoy asked.

"For the trial," the alien replied. He then left, and closed the door behind him. The sound of the bolt slamming into place echoed, and left little doubt that there was no escape at this point.

Without a second's hesitation, Pavel ran to Hikaru and ripped the blindfold off. The others followed suit, and before long, they were caught up in the untying of hands, and furious kisses that meant they had all feared the same thing. It was Kirk who finally put a stop to it.

"Has he explained the trial yet?"

"We wish," McCoy grumbled. "We're supposed to be 'preparing,' but god only knows what that —"

Kirk waved a hand to shut him up. "Listen. All I know for right now is that they have some weird ideas about who is honorable and who isn't, and I'm pretty sure they have some sort of mind-reading ability. I don't know how involved it is or what the limits are, but...it's creepy."

"What do you mean by weird ideas?" Rand asked.

"They don't believe that anyone can be honorable if they aren't in a relationship," Kirk explained. "That's why they sent our security detail home."

Pavel pressed his forehead against Hikaru's, unsure what to think of all this yet. "Are you hurt?" he asked, in a tiny whisper.

"I'm fine," Hikaru replied. "I'm worried about you."

"Bruised, but not because of them."

"Don't tell me you —"

"Fell down the hole? Yes." Pavel smiled, which earned him a tiny, chaste kiss. For the moment, he was totally absorbed in the corner the two of them occupied, the rest of the company completely forgotten.

"I love you," Hikaru said.

"I love you too," Pavel replied. He wrapped his arms around the other man and squeezed, just to be sure this wasn't a dream.

Kirk cleared his throat, which alerted Pavel to the fact that they were being stared at by everyone else. He blushed, deeply, his face burning like a furnace, and pulled away from Hikaru a little. Hikaru, on the other hand, did not seem embarassed at all. That was probably a good sign.

"There's not much we can do to prepare, that I can see," Kirk said, sighing. "As far as we can tell, they have some sort of telepathic ability. No idea what its limits are, but I think it's safe to say we're not going to be able to bluff them. I'd say —" he paused and cleared his throat, like he didn't want to say what was next at all. "Just make sure your partner isn't surprised by anything that gets said or happens."

It wasn't hard to translate into what he really meant: make your peace, just in case.

Pavel clung to Hikaru, but neither of them spoke. There wasn't anything they needed saying, really. The only thing that seemed important at that moment was that they stayed close, and didn't let the fear make them say things they didn't mean. There was a chill that came with being this deep beneath the earth, and Pavel shivered; Hikaru pulled him closer, resting his head on a yellow-clad chest.

Being underground was already taking its toll on him. Pavel had grown up in the cold, where clouds did not form as easily and the lights of the city were distant. Stars had always been easy to see from there, even if the sun was not fond of visiting. In San Francisco, he had had to resort to the astronomy tower, but they were still availible to him -- as well as through his work riding small shuttles to the space dock. He was the kind of person who did not survive well in the dark, cold underground, and he did not want to be here any longer than he had to be.

"We'll get out," he said, because the thought of being subservent to a species of moles made his skin crawl a little. At least, he thought, if we are kept here, I will be with Hikaru. And that made the situation barable, really. As long as he was with Hikaru, he was sure he could endure anything, even being away from the stars.

"I'm here," Hikaru reminded him. "You'll be okay." He rubbed at Pavel's neck, gentle and soothing, and some of the tension eased.

The alien returned far too soon for any of their tastes. "Please," he said. "Sit."

They did, each across the table from his or her partner. Kirk and McCoy held hands on top of the table, while Riley and Rand just gave each other nervous glances. Rand mouthed the words "I love you," and he responded in kind. Pavel slid his foot across the floor to rest lightly on top of Hikaru's, and Hikaru just smiled. He did not look nervous. Pavel's hands trembled, however, and he had to try hard to hide it.

"We will begin here," The alien said, sitting at the end of the table, next to Kirk and McCoy. Pavel wanted to be polite, and try not to listen, but their voices carried so far in the room that it was impossible. Still, he tried not to look at them, to give the illusion of privacy.

"The trial is only one question," the alien said. "And we are able, as you know, to discern when the truth is being told."

"We're ready," Kirk said.

"For what would you give your partner up for, Doctor McCoy?"

There was a silence, and then, McCoy answered. "My daughter."

"Very well," said the alien. There was a soft shuffle, and Pavel had to look over. Kirk did not look surprised by the answer in the slightest, and merely held McCoy's hand so tightly that his knuckled were white. The alien pulled his chair over to sit near Rand and Riley, and gazed at them thoughtfully for a long moment before speaking again. "Yeoman Rand," he said. "For what would you be willing to part with your partner?"

Pavel didn't look away fast enough to miss the look of shock and confusion that spread across Rand's face. He had the feeling that she had not expected that question, and that she had never considered it before. She stammered a little, and then replied, "A promotion." In a softer voice, she added, "I'm sorry."

The alien said nothing, but moved to sit next to Hikaru. He gazed at the two of them, as well, big eyes taking in everything. "Pavel Chekov," he said.

Pavel did not wait. "Nothing," he replied. "There is nothing."

The alien stared at him, as if reading his very soul, but did not reply for a long minute. "You are the first to reply in such a way. Why?" he asked. "You have lost your mother, have you not? Would not getting her back give you ample reason to leave?"

At that, Hikaru's eyes widened. It sounded a lot like an offer, and Pavel could not help the ache in his heart that made him wish he could have her back. But he knew that that was not the question being asked, and he answered approrpiately. That was his first duty, to be a diplomat. "I have learned to live without her," he admitted. "I do not think I could live without him."

The alien nodded, and this time, actually smiled, showing off a set of razor sharp teeth. "Very well," he said, though this time he sounded pleased. "You have passed. The first, and so far, the only."

Pavel blinked, then looked around at the other people along the table. "What does that mean for us?" he asked.

"It means that we will be willing to form an agreement about our presence here," Kirk said. "And go home, of course."

Pavel relaxed, his whole body slumping into the chair. For a moment, he had wondered if they were doomed anyway. But they weren't, and that meant that he — oh god — he had done the right thing. A little giddy, he spread his lips at Hikaru.

Hikaru was staring at him like he had two heads. "You were telling the truth," he said.

"Of course I was."

"I fucking love you," Hikaru said, and kissed him soundly.