Assassination Game (22 page)

“You’re in the middle of a game,” she said.

“Always,” Spock said.

“Who are you playing?”

Spock almost looked embarrassed, if Vulcans could be embarrassed. “Myself,” he said. “I rarely have visitors. You are the second, actually.”

“Oh, you have another ‘special relationship’?” Uhura asked, trying to keep the bitterness out of her voice.

Again with the eyebrow. “No,” Spock said. “I do not.”

Uhura was almost touched by that, but she reminded herself that a special relationship meant something very different for Spock than it did for her.

“Were you able to ascertain who Cadet Daagen delivered the phaser to?” Spock asked.

There we go
, Uhura thought.
Back to business
. After handing the Varkolak phaser off to her contact, they’d been able to track it as the weapon passed through three different pairs of hands. They’d discovered Daagen, a medical cadet, had been the latest. It wasn’t a real Varkolak phaser, of course. Spock had built a remarkable facsimile of one, aided by the fact that Varkolak phaser technology was actually slightly behind that of the Federation. A Varkolak sniffer—even a modest knockoff of one—was well beyond his capabilities.

“No,” Uhura told him. “I followed the tracer you put in it to Chinatown, and I was all set to record the handoff when this cadet I know, Kirk, dropped a panda head on me.”

That one scored her highest hit yet on the Spock eyebrow meter.

“Don’t ask. Suffice to say, I missed the handoff. I didn’t see who got it.”

Spock nodded thoughtfully. “We shall have to rely on the tracer inside it, then. At best, we may have only missed an opportunity to out yet another member of the Graviton Society.”

“And at worst?”

“At worst, the rogue agent within the society now has the device, and we will not know who the person is until he or she moves to use it again.”

“We need more eyes and ears,” Uhura said.

“I have thought so from the beginning,” Spock told her. “Cadet Sulu, I believe it is time for you and Cadet Uhura to become acquainted.”

The door to Spock’s bedroom opened, and Hikaru Sulu joined them. Uhura was stunned. Had he been in there the whole time? But of course he had. Uhura looked back and forth between Spock and Sulu, feeling like the world’s biggest fool.

“We’ve met,” Uhura said sourly.

“Indeed,” Spock said. “Two cadets were nominated for inclusion in the Graviton Society at the same time: you and Cadet Sulu. I worried even then that I was under suspicion by the hierarchy of the Graviton Society and that my recommendation of you would be seen for what it was: an attempt to bring in more ‘eyes and ears,’ as you call it. I
therefore approached Cadet Sulu with an offer: Should he be uninterested in joining the Graviton Society to further its stated goals, perhaps he would join to further mine.”

“I was kind of interested in joining,” Sulu said bashfully. “I thought being part of some elite fraternity would help me get to where I want to go in Starfleet, but I was also afraid it might just be a distraction, something that wasn’t really part of my plan. I spoke to Commander Spock about it after I was officially invited but before I’d given them my answer. He convinced me to say yes.”

“And become a double agent for him,” Uhura said.

“Precisely,” Spock said. “Once they trusted Cadet Sulu, I would then have advance warning of any attempts to expose the two of us as infiltrators. And, in fact, his very first assignment from the society was in that regard.”

“The plot to drive the Varkolak off Earth with the transmitter,” Uhura said, understanding now. “It was a fake.”

Sulu nodded. “They thought you might be in league with Commander Spock, so they sent me to feed you false information. I’m sorry. I couldn’t tell you what I was doing. I told Spock, though.”

“You knew already?” Uhura asked. “And you didn’t tell me?”

“Yes. I hid Cadet Sulu’s role from you, so as not to compromise his position should they use him in another such attempt to expose me. It was vital they not see you
as anything but a willing member of the society.”

“Was stealing the Varkolak sniffer another test, then?” Uhura asked.

“It is unclear,” Spock said. “But I think not. I think, rather, it was initiated by the rogue agent within the Graviton Society, passing the command along to her subordinates on the chain of command, as though the order had come from the top. Then, when you acquired the device and sent it back up the line, that person kept it for his or her own secret purposes.”

“And now they may have it, and I missed the handoff,” Uhura said.

“You didn’t miss much,” Sulu told her. “The person who picked it up was cloaked.”

“You saw it? You were there? In the warehouse?” Uhura asked. Then she understood. “The ninja! The ninja who kicked Kirk! That was you!”

Sulu smiled sheepishly. “I’m hardly a ninja. But, yes, that was me in disguise. I followed you at Commander Spock’s request, to be an extra pair of eyes and ears, but then that cadet attacked you, and I—”

Uhura laughed out loud. She couldn’t help it. Both men looked at her strangely. “I’m sorry,” she told them. “Kirk didn’t attack me. The idiot just ran into me. He was as surprised to see me there as I was to see him there.”

“Yes. I didn’t know who he was or what he was doing there, but when the man in the dog mask attacked him, I backed off, not wanting to get into any fight I didn’t understand.”

“This other cadet, Kirk,” Spock said. “Could he be a member of the Graviton Society?”

“No,” Uhura told them. “Trust me. He’s not.”

“I’m sorry I kicked him, then,” Sulu said.

“Oh no,” Uhura said. “Don’t worry about that. He totally deserves it.”

“Regardless,” Spock said. “We still have the means to track the phaser’s movement, and there are now three of us to keep watch. You have the tracking program on your PADDs. The phaser is currently hidden in the basement of Yi Sun-Sin Hall. When the person who placed it there retrieves it, the program will alert us. It is imperative we converge on the person at once, in case he or she is the rogue agent. Agreed?”

“Yeah,” Uhura said. “And let’s just hope it moves again before the Varkolak reach Sector zero-zero-one.”

“Indeed,” Spock said. “Thank you both.”

“Um, can I walk you back to your dorm, Uhura?” Sulu asked.

Uhura was a bit taken aback. She hardly needed an escort across campus, but Sulu knew that. Unlike Spock, for whom there was never any subtext, Sulu had to mean
that he was interested in her and wanted the pleasure of her company on the way back. She liked Sulu—what she knew of him—but then there was Spock…. But what was she waiting around on Spock for? It’s not like he was going to sprout emotions overnight and start serenading her on his lute.

“I—” Uhura began, but Spock interrupted her.

“I need Cadet Uhura to stay behind so I might to speak to her,” he said. “Privately.”

Uhura was surprised again. If she wasn’t so sure he didn’t care, she would have thought Spock had said it just to keep her from spending quality time with another man.

“Oh, all right,” Sulu said. To Uhura, he said, “Another time then.” He said his good-byes.

Uhura crossed her arms and leaned against the table, sure that Spock had some new mission for her. Some game within a game that, like the 3-D chess set behind her, he was playing against an imaginary opponent.

“Cadet Uhura,” Spock began. He frowned. “Nyota. What I have to tell you is not easy for me.”

Uhura got a weird feeling. Spock? Uneasy about telling her something? If they
had
been dating, she would have thought he was about to break up with her.

“I have been giving a great deal of thought to our conversations of late—particularly those in which I argued for the Graviton Society. Or at least those in which I
advocated a harder line for Starfleet. From the beginning, you argued that trust, loyalty, and honor were the hallmarks of Starfleet, emotional intangibles that I dismissed in favor of logic. But I see now that you were correct. I apologize.”

Uhura didn’t know what to say.

“You don’t—you don’t have to apologize to me, Spock.”

“I believe I do. Despite your help in the past to become more … emotionally intuitive … I am still largely ignorant of the nuances of human behavior. Especially when it comes to relationships. Even so, only a Pakled would fail to understand that this mission has strained our relationship, and that was never my intention. In fact, quite the opposite is true: I asked you to participate not only because you were qualified for the role, but because, selfishly, I wished to spend more time with you.”

Uhura’s heart was thumping in her chest. She had felt this way about him all along, thought that he was spending more time with her and sharing more of himself with her than anyone else because perhaps he felt the same way about her that she did about him. But he was Vulcan. He didn’t allow himself emotions. And this mission, the Graviton Society—all of it. He was right. It had come between them. Shown her just how
alien
he was. But if she was honest with herself, the reason she was so mad at him was because she had realized, finally,
that she was in love with him. She crossed to the corner where Spock’s lute stood, mostly so she could hide the warring emotions in her face.

“I thought that’s what we had, Spock,” she told him, still not looking at him. “I thought we had a … a ‘special relationship.’ But then everything started to change.”

Spock came up close behind her, but didn’t touch her. “The fault is mine, Nyota. I have been reviewing the series of decisions that allowed me to deem what the Graviton Society was doing as acceptable, and I have come to the conclusion that I relied too heavily upon logic. As I did with our … special relationship.”

Uhura almost turned, but she could hear Spock’s voice change as he looked away. He was opening up to her now, opening up in a way he had never done with her before. Perhaps, she thought, remembering his embarrasssment at playing chess alone, perhaps opening up in a way he had never done with
anyone
.

“When I was a boy growing up on Vulcan, I was constantly bullied by those who sought to remind me of my human half. As if they would ever let me forget. In my subsequent efforts to prove to them, and to myself, that I am a Vulcan, I ignored the fact that humans have many admirable qualities. Some,” he said meaningfully, “even more than others. Of all your admirable qualities, Nyota, I find your heart to be your most admirable, and it pains me to
think that through my own ineptitude, I have lost it. It is my sincere hope that you will continue to share it with me and to help me remember to sometimes be … more human.”

Tears rolled down Uhura’s face, and she touched the Vulcan lute in the corner. She had thought Spock could never drop his logical exterior and serenade her, and yet he just had.

“Would you like to hear me play it?” Spock asked, seeing her hand on the lute.

Uhura turned. “Not tonight,” she told him, and she pulled his head to hers and kissed him.

Uhura wasn’t answering her communicator. Kirk had tried calling her all evening, but she was avoiding him. First, she had stolen the Varkolak sniffer and told him it was to take down a secret society. Then she’d sat there and let Lartal be accused of bombing the medical conference when she knew someone else had done it. Then when he and Nadja had followed Daagen to Chinatown, there she’d been, hiding out behind some barrels of wobbly headed dolls with a holo-camera. Kirk wanted answers from Uhura, and he wanted them
now
.

It was already late at night when the security officer at the door to Uhura’s dorm gave him the okay to go in. Kirk had told him he was there to visit a lady friend, which was techincally true—although not in the way he led the officer to believe. It got Kirk inside, though, and he found Uhura’s door and rang the chime.

“It’s Kirk,” he said. “Open up.”

The door did open, bit it wasn’t Uhura standing there. It was Gaila, Uhura’s curvy, red-headed, green-skinned Orion roommate.

In her underwear.

“Hey, Jim,” she said with a smile.

“Um, hi, Gaila,” Kirk said. Orion women had some kind of pheromone that sped up the metabolisms in most men, and Kirk could already feel his heart racing. Or maybe it was the push-up bra. Either way, he had to force himself to stay on task. “I’m looking for Uhura.”

“Oh, pooh,” Gaila said, giving him a fake pout.

“Is she here?”

“No. I think she’s spending the night out. And Uhura
never
spends the night out.” She played with the zipper at the top of Kirk’s uniform. “But that means I’m all alone, in case you’re looking for someplace to spend the night.”

Every molecule of Kirk’s body was screaming for him to step inside, close the door, and not come out until next week.

“That … is a tempting offer,” he forced himself to say. “But I’m going to have to take a rain check. You have no idea where Uhura is?”

“Nope,” Gaila said, looking up at him with come-hither eyes.

“All right,” Kirk said. “I’ll just—I’ll have to—I’m going to go look for her somewhere else.”