Disclaimer:

This story is based in the "Star Trek" universe. The use of anything related to "Star Trek" in this series is not intended to infringe upon the rights of Paramount Pictures. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise.

All other content or otherwise are works of my own imagination. All events are fictitious in nature.

Any similarities to persons living, dead, or otherwise are purely coincidental.

This story contains strong themes of homosexual content, if this offends you in any way, please refrain from reading further. If you are not of legal age to read this, please leave now.

A/N: I'd like to thank TalonRider for editing this chapter. His skill and tiresome effort applied to my work is greatly appreciated. Thank you.

A Vulcan’s Love
-By Emulated

Chapter 14: The Hunt

I reached across his chest and tapped on his bedside panel, turning off the alarm. He deserved a lie in. Especially after last night. I snuggled closer and wrapped my arm over his chest as I looked up at his face. A warm rush flowed over me. He was so adorable when he was sleeping. I just wanted to stay there and stare at him forever. I watched as his chest would rise and fall gently as he breathed silently. I loved him so much.

I thought back to last night. His actions took me somewhat by surprise. I didn’t expect us to make love again, least of all me being ‘on top’. But that didn’t make it any less perfect. From our kissing on the sofa to the velvet sheets, it paved the way for something beautiful.

People accredit space as being the final frontier. But the events of the past few days have made me disagree. When T’Luk and I made love, when he brought me to orgasm, he took me to the true final frontier. And for a split second I felt like I knew everything. That I’d been everywhere and seen the universe. T’Luk took me to those heights. He let me experience those things.

I reached for his hand, interlocking our fingers together. Our hands fit together perfectly. I leaned forward and pressed my lips to his warm skin, before I laid my head on his chest. I could hear his heart beating rapidly. I suddenly became aware of an odd sensation. I could feel that T’Luk had woken up.

“I love you.” I whispered.

“I love you too.” He whispered back.

I tilted my head and looked up into his dark eyes. A large grin quickly spread across my face, “Hey, baby.” I smiled, “Sleep well?” I asked.

He nodded, “Yes. You?” He asked, reaching down to stroke my face.

“Perfect.” I paused, “Last night was amazing.”

He twirled my hair around his finger, “It was.”

I shifted closer and kissed him softly. He ran his hand through my hair and drew me closer. I exhaled softly at his touch. He was so dreamy. Everything he did felt perfect. I pulled back and looked into his eyes. The two dark pools filled with emotion.

“I love you, T’Luk, more than anything.”

“I love you too, Kai.” He replied softly.

I leaned down and kissed him briefly before I laid my head back onto his chest. I reached for his hand and drew it near, toying with the gold bracelet that he was wearing. It looked really good on him. Its golden colour matched his skin tone beautifully. I squeezed his palm gently, causing him to do the same. I felt so connected to him. I’m not talking physically, I’m talking mentally and emotionally. It was like I could feel his presence inside me, like I could reach out and take hold of him. It was the bond. The bond that was formed when we first made love. After last night, the connection was truly established, creating something very special. Something that we shared. Together. It wasn’t like I had become a Betazoid overnight, but there was definitely something else going on. Some extra sense that I had acquired from my Vulcan god.

I began to wonder how I ever managed without it. It was like having an extra sense of being. I could actually feel T’Luk’s natural confidence, along with his masses of logic. And I’m sure he could feel the strong emotions that were vibrating inside me.

After laying there silently next to each other for a few more minutes, we had to finally get up and get ready for our shift. We couldn’t be late today. Today we’ll finally be on the offensive. Today we’re going to hunt.

*

“We’re going to depart Earth within the hour. Our first point of call will take us to within one light-year of Proxima Centauri, then we will head on towards Vulcan and Andoria. After that we will head over to Risa, before finally ending up at Coridan Prime.” Said Comm. Jones, as she simulated our route on the large display in Astrometrics. The route that Starfleet had given us would cover the inner most planets of the Federation, but there was still a lot of territory untouched.

“What about Trill and Betazed?” Asked a crewman.

“The USS Prometheus, along with the USS Sovereign are due to be fitted with their own anti-cloak generators by the end of the week, so they will cover the planets further out, including Trill and Betazed.”

“Why wasn’t our entire task force fitted with the generators? I don’t see how the Titan alone could do anything, should we detect them.” Asked another crewman.

Comm. Jones faced her, “Our mission is to locate the Warbirds, not to engage them. Starfleet is disbanding our task force so each ship can have a separate route, which in turn would cover a wider area.”

I nodded, “So what is the procedure if we detect one, or all of them?” I asked.

“We would inform Starfleet so they can send reinforcements from nearby star systems. During that time we would continue to monitor the Warbirds from a distance, as not to warn them to our presence.”

“Wouldn’t the terrorists notice a Federation task force heading towards them?” I asked.

“Yes, that’s why each ship would take a different, non direct route. But even if they become suspicious, they can’t hide from us.”

“What about the Klingons?” Asked T’Luk.

Jones looked at him, “Starfleet Command is currently in talks with the Klingon High Council, but we can safely assume that they’d want their hands on the generators too.” She paused, “With the Klingon fleet aiding ours, we should be able to sweep much of the quadrant with relative speed.”

“Can the generator be used to detect the older cloaking devices used by the Romulans and Klingons?” Asked Lt Anders. I looked up at Jones, that was a good question.

She shook her head, “Simply put, no, it cannot. The generator was only designed to detect the new variant used by the terrorists. These new cloaks work on an entirely different concept and completely different technologies to the older ones used by the Romulans and Klingons. Therefore the generator is unable to detect them.”

I nodded and turned to T’Luk, “That makes sense, I doubt the Romulans would have willingly given us a way to detect their entire fleet.”

“Indeed. It would have been highly illogical to share their greatest asset; stealth.”

Jones smiled, “Right, now onto our job.” She said, rubbing her hands, “Actually, we haven’t got a lot to do, surprisingly. It seems that the team that built the generator are quite competent at their programming too. They’ve built the generator to be self-sufficient, in the sense that it doesn’t need any input from us. We just sit back and let it do its thing. If it detects anything, it’ll tell us. Simple.”

‘Yes. Simple.’ I thought to myself.

“I do, however, want a team to be monitoring its work at all times, just in case. I know it’s not nice to stare at a screen for eight hours straight so we’ll work in four hour rotations.” She added, “But aside from that, it’s business as usual people. So unless there’s anymore questions…” She looked about, “Good, you’re all dismissed.”

Most of the personnel left the room, as they worked in different sections of the ship, but T’Luk and I remained, along with a few crewmen. Comm. Jones walked over to us, “Guess who has the first shift?”

I thought for a moment, “Would that be you, Commander?” I asked with a grin.

She nodded, “It should, but I wouldn’t be a very good department head if I had all the fun, so I’ll let you guys do it.”

I smiled, “You’re too kind, Sir.”

She walked towards the door, “I know. I’ll be on the bridge.”

“Aye, Sir.” I called after her. I turned to T’Luk, “So much for being a lowly Ensign.”

He raised an eyebrow, “We only need to monitor the output for four hours.”

“I suppose.” I said as I pulled up the right screen on my console, “It’s just-“

“Repetitive.” Finished T’Luk.

I smiled at him, “Exactly.” I looked up at our route on the large display, “It’s not all that bad, we get to pass right by Vulcan.”

He looked up, “Indeed.”

“How much shore leave do you have? I mean, I assume you brought some over from the USS Nova, before you came here.”

“Ten days. How much do you have?”

“In two days time, I would have a week saved up.” I replied. If there was one thing that was good about Starfleet, it was their policy on shore leave. Generally you get one week of shore leave for every five weeks you are on duty. So over a course of a year, you could have a little over ten weeks of leave accumulated. Not bad, eh? And considering that we’re never too far away from home (wherever that happens to be).

“Do you not save up your leave?”

“Sometimes, but usually I use it whenever I have the chance. A few days here and a few days there. I don’t know why the Bellerophron never stopped at Vulcan.”

“Would have you visited?”

I nodded, “Of course.” I paused, “Although I have a better reason to visit now.”

He looked at me, “To meet my parents.”

“Yes, well that and the fact that it’s your home.” I replied.

“Indeed.”

We worked for a few minutes before something came to mind, “Do you have any baby pictures of you?”

“No.”

“None at all? Even stored at Vulcan?”

“There are some on Vulcan, but I do not have any with me.” He glanced at me, “Why do you ask?”

I shrugged, “I just wanna see a young T’Luk.” I smiled at him, “I bet you were really cute, especially with those ears and all.”

He ignored that and turned to me, “Do you have any photographs of you, as a child?”

I nodded, “Thousands! My parents wanted to photograph everything. I’m sure there’s hundreds of holo-recordings stored at home too.”

He raised an eyebrow, “My parents conducted a similar practise, although they stated that it would be beneficial to store a photographed record of my childhood.”

I shook my head, “No, I think they just wanted to keep some pictures of their handsome little boy.”

“Indeed.”

*

“You got her ready for combat?” I asked Casey, gesturing to the Titan.

He patted the table, “She’s always ready.” He replied with a grin.

I nodded in response. T’Luk and I had been analysing the data for around two hours. Fortunately, two other personnel on a later shift offered to take over for a half hour, giving T’Luk and I a chance to take a break. We found ourselves in the mess hall, sitting with Casey and Alex.

“Always ready?” Asked Alex.

Casey nodded, “Yeah. We’ve been at a constant yellow alert for the past few weeks, but it only takes a few seconds to bring the weapons online.” He paused, “I bet Clark has his finger hovering over the button right now.”

“Anyway, enough of that.” Said Alex, leaning forwards and looking at T’Luk, “I wanna hear about last night.”

“What do you want to know?” I asked.

Alex glared at me, “I was talking to T’Luk.”

I giggled and raised my hands in a surrender, “Ok, go ahead.”

Alex turned to T’Luk, “So, what happened?” He asked, before he gave me a sideways glance, “And I wanna hear everything.”

Casey laughed at that, “Kids.” He remarked, shaking his head.

T’Luk raised an eyebrow, “We shared a meal.”

“And…”

“That is all.”

Alex stared at him for a moment, “You’re not going to tell me, are you?”

“No.”

I sat back and folded my arms, “See, should’ve asked me.” I remarked.

Alex shook his head, “Ok, ok I get the hint, I’ll change the subject.” He paused, “You guys found any of those ships yet?”

“Not yet, but we’re looking hard.” I replied.

“I wonder what they’re up to.” Said Alex.

“The terrorists?” Asked Casey.

He nodded.

“They’re probably trying to come up with some half-witted plan to disrupt the Federation-Romulan alliance.” Said Casey.

“Is it an alliance?” I asked, somewhat rhetorically.

“The Federation and Romulan governments are working together to neutralise a common threat. Neither has signed an official alliance.” Replied T’Luk.

Casey placed down his glass, “Well, whatever the nature of the friendship, I hope it lasts. One less bad guy to worry about.” He paused, “Not to mention the necessity of having them as allies.”

That was an interesting thought. With the Romulans as allies, along with the Klingons, the Federation, along with the entire quadrant would be in a better situation. While there may be the neutral species such as the Tholians or the Breen, they are relatively small in comparison to the Romulan Star Empire. I looked at T’Luk. It would be interesting to see Romulans return to Vulcan, to the planet where their species evolved.

“What do you think about Romulans returning to Vulcan?”

T’Luk looked at me, “I think it would be very beneficial. To both Vulcans and Romulans.”

I nodded, “It would be interesting. Quite a moment in history.”

Casey waved a hand, “Hold up a minute, let’s not forget that they’re not our allies yet. I don’t think there will be any Romulans setting foot on Vulcan anytime soon.”

Alex nodded, “You’re right, but I would love to see it happen in my lifetime.”

“Don’t we all.” I replied.

“Either way, at least we have their cooperation in this current mission.” Said Alex.

We all nodded, before Casey clicked his fingers, “While I remember, do you guys fancy going to the holodeck sometime this week?”

I glanced at T’Luk, who nodded, “Sure, what do you have in mind?”

“I was thinking that we could go kite surfing again, if you want.”

“Yeah, I’ll go.” Said Alex.

I thought back to the last time we went kite surfing; it was the first time that I kissed T’Luk, “Yeah, sounds good.” I said, looking at my Vulcan beauty.

“Yes, I will go.” Added T’Luk.

“Good.” Replied Casey, turning to Alex, “Do you think that Trey would like to come?”

Alex nodded, “Hell yeah! I swear, that guy’s like a fish. He loves the water.”

“Alright then, I’ll talk to him and H’Jan. I’ll get back to you guys with a date and time.” He said, before glancing at a PADD, “Anyway, I better get back to work. I’ll see you guys later.” He said, standing up.

“Sure thing, Casey. See ya.”

“Bye.” He replied as he walked off.

I turned to T’Luk, “We’d better head back too.”

He nodded, “Indeed.”

“I’ll walk with you guys.” Said Alex as we all stood up.

We recycled our stuff in the replicator before we exited the mess, heading towards the turbolifts. Once we entered inside, we rode up to deck 1, letting Alex get back to the bridge, before we headed down to astrometrics. We relieved the crewman that had covered for us, leaving T’Luk and myself, along with Crewman Foster.

I sat down at my console, “Report crewman.” I called out, while looking at the large display. It was currently showing our position in relation to the entire quadrant. Everything seemed so close together when it was viewed like this.

“No contacts detected, Sir.” Called out Crewman Foster.

“Very good.” I called out as I sat down. I pressed a few buttons on my console and zoomed into our location on the star chart. I pressed another button, which overlaid all the Starfleet ships in the area. I stared at the image for a few seconds.

“Wow, she’s in a hurry.”

“What is?” Asked T’Luk.

“The USS Sovereign, she’s at Warp 9.6, on a course for Earth.”

“She is receiving one of the generators this week.”

I nodded and panned around the map.

We worked for around another hour before the computer started to chirp.

“Sir, I’m detecting a contact.” Called out Foster.

We looked over at her, “Can you identify?” Asked T’Luk.

“I’m working to acquire a scan.” She replied, “It will take a few seconds to complete at this distance.”

T’Luk looked over at the door as Lt Anders walked in, “Sir, we have detected a contact.” Said T’Luk.

Anders seemed surprised, “What? Here?” He asked, looking toward Foster.

“Aye, Sir. It just came into the generators range at 5.06 light years away.” She replied.

Anders walked over to a console, “What is it’s velocity and location?”

“It appears to be stationary, Sir. At approximately 1.5 light years away from Alpha Centauri.”

“1.5 light years?” He clarified.

“Aye Sir.” She replied.

Anders nodded, “Have you alerted the bridge?” He asked, turning towards T’Luk and me.

“Not yet, Sir.” I replied.

“Ok, I will report it directly to the Captain.” He said.

I looked at him oddly, causing him to laugh in response.

“Don’t worry Ensign, I’ll make sure I credit the findings to you three.”

I nodded, “Thank you, Sir.”

I watched as he picked up a PADD and walked towards the door, “Keep an eye on the target, tell me if it changes its flight path.” He called out.

“Yes, Sir.” Replied T’Luk, before Anders turned and left astrometrics.

I looked at T’Luk, “We could have just called the bridge, it would have been quicker.”

“Indeed. Perhaps he believes the Captain would prefer to be notified in person.“

I shrugged, “Yeah, perhaps.”

I looked toward Foster, “Foster, how long until the scan is completed?”

“Less than a minute now, Sir.”

“If we confirm that it is one of the Warbirds we can alert Starf-“ He began before the computer made an unappealing chirp.

I looked down at my console, the generator was no longer responding, “Foster, what just happened?” I asked.

“Unknown Sir. I was performing a detailed scan when the generator malfunctioned.”

“Malfunctioned? Did it shut down?” I asked as I stood up and approached her station.

“No, Sir. It is connected to the main computer…” She paused, “I’m not sure what happened.”

“Anders to astrometrics, what’s going on? I’ve lost the signal.” Came Lt. Anders’ voice through the Comm.

I tapped my combadge, “Stand by Lieutenant, we are having a problem with the generator.”

“What kind of a problem?” He asked.

“I’m not sure, it has stopped responding.”

I didn’t hear anything for a moment before I heard him talk to the computer, “Halt turbolift, deck 12.” He paused, “Ensign, I’m on my way back, I’ll be there in a moment.”

“Aye, Sir.”

I looked down at the generators diagnostic screen, I couldn’t figure out what happened either. According to the logs, it was performing fine before it suddenly began to send gibberish to the main computer, before it ceased to communicate completely.

I heard the doors open and saw Anders approaching us, “Any luck?” He asked.

“No, Sir. The computer reports that the generator is online, yet it is refusing to respond to any input.” I replied.

“I see. So the contact that we detected could have been a malfunction.”

“It is possible. The generator only malfunctioned when we began a detailed scan.” Replied T’Luk.

“Ok, I haven’t told the bridge yet, lets see if we can sort this out first. I don’t want us to be chasing sensor ghosts.”

I nodded, “I agree, what should we do, Sir?”

Anders thought for a moment before he turned to us, “Head down to deflector control and take a look at the generator, see if there’s anything you can do.”

We nodded and walked over to retrieve a maintenance pack from one of the panels in the wall.

Anders walked over to Foster, “Crewman, I need you to go down to engineering, see if they have made any changes to the sensor grid or EPS system.”

“Aye, Sir.” She replied as she stood up and walked out of the room.

T’Luk and I walked towards the door, “We’ll call you if we find anything.”

“Good, I’ll monitor your progress from here.”

I nodded and walked out into the corridor, heading towards a turbolift. We reached one and pressed the button to request one. I turned to T’Luk.

“I thought Comm. Jones said that the generator was good to go.”

The lift arrived and we stepped inside, “Deck 15.” He called out before turning to me, “Indeed. However it could be a fault that would have been difficult to notice. There is also the fact that she didn’t design, nor build the device either.”

I smiled at him, “I know it wasn’t her fault, I was just kidding.”

He nodded as the lift stopped. We walked along the corridor before I noticed H’Jan appear at the opposite end, heading towards us.

“Hey, what are you doing here?” I called out.

“I have to go fix that new toy of yours, I hear its broken.”

“The generator?”

He nodded.

“That’s where we’re heading.” I said as he stood next to us.

“Yeah, just got a call from engineering. I’m the out and about handyman today.”

“Good. Let’s go see if there’s something that you can fix.” I replied as we headed down another corridor.

Deflector control was at the front of the secondary hull. It took up the entire front section. Because of it’s importance in warp travel, the doors are off limits to visitors and requires a security entry code. H’Jan walked forward and keyed his in, allowing the doors to slide open. There was no one on duty down here as the systems were monitored from main engineering, which was only a deck below.

The room was quite large. Directly in front of the doors, about 5 metres away stood several consoles, all displaying information about the deflector. Next to them, on the left was a bank of monitoring stations. They were used to regulate how the deflector operated. To the rear of the room, or rather, at the front of the ship was the reverse end of the main deflector. From the outside it looked like a parabolic dish, but from the inside it was a large grey unit. Because of its large size, it took up several decks, so there was a glass wall where you could walk up to and peer down. There were entry ports to access the unit itself, but for the most part, it was isolated behind the glass. And finally, on the right hand side of the room was the generator, which was plugged directly into a socket behind it that allowed it to interface with the deflector.

H’Jan walked over to the nearest console, “Alright, let’s see what’s going on here.”

T’Luk and I headed towards the other consoles.

“So the computer is detecting it, and it’s receiving power but it’s making no sense.”

“Yeah, we were performing a detailed scan of an unknown contact when it messed up.”

“Ok.” He replied as he walked over to the generator, “I’m going to restart it, perhaps that’ll solve the issue.”

I turned to T’Luk, “Aren’t we lucky we found an engineer? Imagine if we had to restart it ourselves!”

H’Jan faced me, “Hey, if this doesn’t work, you’ll be needing my brilliance.” He said, before he kneeled on the floor and moved to the side of the generator, “So how was last night? You guys have fun?”

I smiled, “Yeah, we did, thanks. T’Luk cooked me a lovely meal, it was all perfect.” I replied, flashing T’Luk a smile.

“Yeah?” He replied, glancing toward me for a second.

I nodded.

He went back to fiddling with the generator some more before I noticed him grinning.

“What?” I asked.

He looked up, “It’s just…” He glanced between T’Luk and I, “You two look good together, I’m really happy for you guys.”

I smiled and blushed slightly, “Thanks H’Jan, that’s really nice of you.”

He grinned, “You’re welcome.” He said, standing up, “There you go, all done.”

I looked down at the console, sure enough, the generator had rebooted itself and was scanning again. A few seconds later, it detected the contact again, at the same location as the last time. H’Jan looked at the display.

“The terrorists?”

“I’m not sure, we were attempting to perform a detailed scan before it messed up last time.” I replied.

H’Jan nodded, “Well I’ve looked it over, everything seems to be working fine. Begin the scan again so we can see what happens.”

“Ok.” I said, as I performed the scan. It took a few minutes, but it managed to complete this time. It displayed the results on the screen. “There’s your answer.” I said to H’Jan as I looked at the text. It listed the contact as a D’deridex class Warbird. It was the terrorists. We had them.

“It is them.” Said T’Luk.

I nodded, “At least we know the generator works.” I pressed my combadge, “Lieutenant Anders, the generator is back onli-“ I began before a klaxon began to wail. It wasn’t a red alert, this sound was different. This one was more chilling.

“INTRUDER ALERT ON DECK 15. ALL PERSONNEL REPORT TO DESIGNATED AREAS.” Said the Computer over the Comm System.

Suddenly the whole room went dark, along with the computer systems and main deflector.

“What the hell?!?” Called out H’Jan, before the emergency lighting kicked back in, along with the sound of us dropping out of warp.

I looked at T’Luk’s and H’Jan’s faces. They both looked alright.

H’Jan pulled out a tricorder, “Power’s out across the entire deck. We’re isolated from the rest of the ship.”

“What about the intruders?” I asked.

He tapped on the device, “I’m detecting four unknown life signs.” He paused, “They’re all armed.”

“Where are they?” Asked T’Luk.

“Section 27, 300 metres away. They’re heading in this direction. And fast.”

I thought for a moment. What’s of any value on this deck? Or more importantly, in the forward sections. I looked at the large cylindrical device in front of me. A shiver flowed down my spine. The generator. They were coming for the generator.

Thank you for reading Chapter 14 of A Vulcan’s Love.

I'd like to thank everyone who emailed me after the last chapter, it's
great to hear from you guys and know what you think about my story.

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Emulated