[2] Amor Vincit Omnia ➳ Star Trek: Into Darkness (2013) ✔️

|09| Do or Do Not. There Is No Try

Chapter 9 x

~~~~~~~~~~

"He will," Victoria murmured, shaking herself out of her fear, "He'll make it."

She knew he would, she knew he'd make it because it was the same reason he'd made her captain in the first place. He knew she'd do anything to see him back alive...if just so she could kill him herself when he got back. The same could be said for his efforts to get to the other ship. He'd go and he'd give it his all, he'd make it because he was just too stubborn to die like that. He'd go down in a blaze of glory in a starship crashing to Earth before he let himself get taken out by a bit of debris.

She looked at Sulu, "Do we know where Khan is? His screen is working right?"

"Affirmative," Khan's voice called over the comms. and Victoria wasn't sure whether to feel relieved the man was back or disappointed he hadn't been taken care of with the debris, "My display is still function, I see you Kirk. You're 200 meters ahead of me, my one o'clock. Cut to your left few degrees and follow me."

She resigned herself to being relieved, but only if he could get Kirk into the other ship safely, which reminded her, "Scotty?" she called out, "Do you have access to the hanger door?" but there was silence, "Scotty!"

"Scotty, we're getting close," Kirk shouted in warning, "We need a warm welcome. Do you copy?" still more silence, "Do you copy, Scotty!"

"Scotty report!" Victoria ordered, but nothing.

"If you can hear us, Mr. Scott, open the door in 10..." Spock made his way to the Captain's chair, standing beside it. He knew that humans seemed to appreciate proximity when they were concerned or worried about something. This though, was a more...triple reason for him to stand so close.

The first was that he'd observed that humans tended to react differently when they knew they were being watched by others. They acted braver, sometimes more calmly, were more aware that they were going to be questioned if they made the wrong choices. He noticed that they tended to become more professional, stiffer, more focused when others were observing them. To be so close, he hoped, would remind Victoria of her duty as captain and help her focus on the fact that she needed to remain calm and rational about this, not let her concern for Kirk get to her.

The second was that, the comfort he had noted before. If his observance of her actions was not enough to calm her and get her to rationalize, then the next course of action would be to try and...be there for the girl as the humans would say. Often the humans were...quite nice in how they didn't often need words to be made aware that others were empathetic to their plight, just sitting beside someone who was upset and being silent could comfort them. He was appreciative of that, especially when Uhura had explained that to him when she had been upset once. Just being there for someone, even if you didn't speak, could mean the world to them. And even though Victoria didn't seem to be aware that he was so close, he liked to think that he might help her cope with the fear of Kirk being in danger of his helmet shattering and dying mid-flight.

The third and final reason was...she was...his friend, he could admit that, she and Kirk had become good friends of his and he...was worried for the man as well. The comfort went both ways, to see her equally as alarmed as he felt (though he didn't show it) comforted him on some level. He knew the crew would be alarmed, their captain was in danger, but...Kirk was more than just a captain to the two of them, he was his friend and Victoria's...something, he honestly wasn't sure what to call the two.

"Scotty!" Kirk cried.

"9, 8..." Spock continued to count, "7..."

"Scotty open the door!" Victoria ordered, standing up, frantic and wishing she was there, somehow, that she'd be able to do something to get the other door opened.