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Chris
“Anyone want to tell me how the hell this happened?”
Christine and Joseph glanced at each other and back at the biobed, avoiding Una’s eyes. The little boy wolfed down the applesauce Christine had gotten for him, merrily swinging his legs and completely oblivious to anything else.
“Hey.” Una raised her eyebrows, and Christine and Joseph snapped to attention. “Answers.”
“We haven’t had time for a full examination,” Joseph started. “I’ll need to do a full analysis of the energy signatures-”
“Yeah, we have no idea,” Christine interrupted. Joseph shot her a panicked look, but she just shrugged. “Scans show a normal human boy, about ten years old.”
“Can you reverse it?” Una asked shrilly.
“I believe so, Commander.” Spock inserted himself into their huddle, pointedly turning away from Chris. He had avoided looking at Chris since he had first started to cry for his mommy on the bridge. “If my equations are correct. I will need time to run some tests.”
“You have one hour,” Una ordered, and Spock nodded.
“Nurse Chapel, I’m all done!” Chris held out his applesauce cup to prove it. Christine took a deep breath and slapped on a perky smile before she turned to him.
“All right, I’ll take that then. Do you want some more?” Chris shook his head.
“No thank you, I’m all full.” He patted his belly, and finally noticed Joseph, Una, and Spock staring at him. He grinned, dimples on full display, and Una smiled back before she remembered to be alarmed. It was odd, seeing him like this. They had been in objectively stranger situations, but when she thought of him as young, she thought of a hot shot test pilot, not a sweet little boy.
“Hello,” he said brightly. “I’m Chris. Well, actually, I’m Christopher, but a lot of people call me Chris. Except my mom, she calls me Chrissy.” Una blinked and looked to Joseph for help. He shrugged.
“Hello, Chris,” Una said eventually. She approached his bed, trying to look more friendly than wary. She didn’t entirely succeed, judging by his widening eyes as she drew near. “Do you know who I am?”
“You’re really tall.” Una froze, staring down at him. Christine snorted and hastily covered it up with a cough.
“Right,” Una said. “But do you remember my name?” He shook his head.
“I’m sorry,” he said, eyes huge and doleful. To Una’s horror, his lip started to wobble. “I didn’t mean to forget. It’s really mean to forget someone’s name, especially if they’re your friends.” He looked around at them all, eyes shimmering. “Are you my friends?” Una gaped at him.
“Yes,” Spock interjected. “Chris. We are your friends.”
“Which is why-” Una gave herself a shake. “-we forgive you for not remembering. Friends forgive each other.”
Chris wiped his eyes. “Okay.” He sniffed, and in short order seemed as happy as ever. “What’s your name?”
“I’m Una.” Una clasped her hands behind her back. “You can call me Number One.” Chris’s eyes went big and round.
“That’s a really cool nickname,” he said, awed. Una cracked a smile.
“Thanks.”
“You’re really pretty.” Una’s smile stiffened, and Christine swooped in.
“I know she is, buddy, do you want to watch a holovid?”
Chris agreed immediately, completely diverted, and Una ducked out of Sickbay before Joseph could say a word about her pink cheeks.
Uhura
“I thought we fixed this problem?” Chris looked around at the group, who had nothing more to offer than a collective shrug. Una groaned.
“This is a starship, not a daycare.” She glared around, and Spock avoided her eyes. “Spock, you made Chris an adult again, why didn’t the problem end there?”
Spock opened his mouth, but a high pitched giggle from the biobed cut him off. Christine tickled Uhura with one hand and with the other stealthily approached her shoulder with a hypospray while Joseph made a valiant attempt at tricorder readings.
“I do not know,” Spock admitted. “Evidently the anomaly has longer lasting effects than I anticipated.”
“Can you fix her like you fixed the captain?” Una asked.
“And can you do it soon?” Christine sounded more haggard than Una had ever heard her, including after twenty-four hours with no sleep. She joined the huddle and pulled a sticker out of her hair. “I can’t keep this up much longer.”
On the biobed, Uhura smashed two hastily replicated dolls together. Una couldn’t tell if they were kissing or fighting to the death.
“Five years old is a magical age,” Joseph said grimly.
“I personally would not have expected this from Uhura,” Chris said. “She’s normally so reserved.”
“Yeah, well-”
“Why is it so quiet?” Una hesitated, afraid to turn around, but Chris’s horrified expression gave it away.
Sickbay’s doors swished open, and Una turned just in time to see her officer scamper out the door, giggling.
“Oh, no.”
They all hurtled after her, skidding to a halt in the hallway before splitting off every direction. There was an alarmed shout and Una honed in on it, rounding a corner to find an ensign staring into a jefferies tube.
“Hey, kid!” he yelled. “Don’t go in there!”
Una groaned and pushed the ensign out of the way before he could follow. “This is not what I signed on for,” she grumbled as she clambered into the tube, hair swinging in her face. “Number One to Captain Pike. I’m on her trail. Someone get to deck twelve section eight and you should be able to cut her off.”
“On it.”
Pattering sounds echoed up the tube and Una pushed forward, maneuvering her arms and legs through the narrow space with great difficulty. She hadn’t taken a jaunt through the ship’s innards in some time.
“Nyota?” she called. “Nyota, I need you to come here right now.” She rounded the bend and Uhura came into view, fiddling with wires on the wall. “Nyota-” Una banged her head on a sectional divider and bit back several curses. “Hey, leave that alone-”
Uhura yanked on a wire and Una surged forward, throwing herself over Uhura and curling herself around her. Sparks and steam rained down on them, stinging Una’s eyes and making Uhura cough. Una blindly reached to the side and switched off the current.
Once the air had cleared, Una shuffled to the side and rolled over to sit up, wiping her streaming eyes. She pulled Uhura between her knees and patted her down for damage.
“Are you okay?” she croaked. Uhura rubbed her eyes, spluttering and hacking until the smoke cleared her lungs. She nodded. Una leaned her head back against the wall and closed her eyes to catch her breath.
Uhura crawled over Una’s knee, and Una’s eyes shot open. “Oh no you don’t.” Una swiped for her and just missed her ankle. Uhura scurried away, shrieking with laughter. “Get back here!”
Spock
“Well, this is great.”
“My name is Spock. My parents are Amanda Grayson and Ambassador Sarek.” Una pinched her nose and squeezed her eyes shut.
“Uh, does anyone know how he fixed the others?” Erica asked. Una glared and she hastily turned back to her station. Chris let out a deep sigh.
“Let’s get him to Sickbay.” He stood and beckoned Spock towards the turbolift, but Spock just frowned at him, legs dangling off his chair. His head barely reached the science station controls.
“My name is Spock,” he repeated insistently. Una wouldn’t have expected such a serious voice from that round, cherubic face, but this was Spock. “My parents are-”
“We know who your parents are, buddy,” Chris said tiredly. “Come on, we’ll get you fixed up.”
“Mother says not to talk to strangers.” Chris blinked. Erica bit back a grin, until she caught Una’s exasperated look.
“Well,” Chris said, “we… know your mom, and she said it’s okay.”
Erica whistled. “Way to sound like a classic predator, Captain.”
“Mind your station, Lieutenant,” Una snapped. Chris gave her a helpless look.
“Mother says to find a mother with her children and ask her for help if I ever get lost,” Spock plowed on.
“And that’s usually great advice, buddy, but there are no-”
Spock stared straight at Una. “Can you help me?” Una’s mouth dropped open and Erica snorted. Chris turned to Una.
“Of course she can,” he said in a pleading tone. “Right?”
“Don’t encourage this,” Una retorted. “I’m not a-”
“Maybe don’t focus on that?”
“If you think I’m going to-” There was a thud, and to Una’s horror, Spock was no longer in his seat. She raced across the bridge and found Spock’s feet hanging out of the conduit under his station. “Oh no,” she said, and hauled him out by his waist. “I have maxed out my time crawling around the tubes today.”
Spock blinked owlishly up at her, clutching an important-looking piece of piping to his chest. An alarm to perform an immediate diagnostic flashed across the science controls.
“What is that?” Una asked, afraid of the answer.
“It was humming,” Spock said. “I wanted to find out why.”
“I’m pretty sure it’s supposed to do that,” Una said, dumbfounded. She took a deep breath and held out her hand for the equipment, and Spock handed it over. At the helm, Erica was shaking with laughter. “Don’t do that again.”
“Mother says my curiosity is admirable.”
Erica
“What fresh preteen hell is this?” Una ignored La’an’s question, though she shared her sentiment. Erica crossed her arms, sullenly avoiding Christine’s attempts at conversation.
Una was sure she had been a much more pleasant eleven-year-old.
“How long to fix her this time?” Una asked tiredly.
“An hour to calibrate the equipment to her readings, Commander,” Spock answered.
Christine sighed and stepped away to confer with Joseph, and Erica slouched farther down the bed. She started to pick at the mattress.
“We’re getting the hang of this, huh?” La’an said dryly. “Who do you think is next?”
“Don’t even joke about that,” Una grumbled. “Hey, stop that,” she said sharply. Erica snatched her hands away from the biobed controls, pouting.
“I’m not doing anything!”
“You’re messing with delicate equipment is what you’re doing.” Una raised her eyebrows. “Don’t.”
“‘Delicate equipment,’” Erica mocked under her breath. “You don’t even know me.” Una’s jaw dropped. La’an frowned.
“How is that relevant?” she asked in an undertone, and Una gave her a warning look.
“Big words from someone who refused to wear any color but black for six months.” La’an flushed.
“Point taken.”
Una took a deep breath and controlled her expression. “Of course I know you,” she said imperiously. “You’re Erica Ortegas, and-” Erica shrunk back in the bed, showing what her surly demeanor had been an attempt to hide: she was absolutely terrified. Una softened her voice. “-and you’re the best pilot I know.” Erica blinked, and the crease faded between her eyebrows.
“No I’m not,” she said automatically, but she sat up, intrigued.
“Are you calling me a liar?” Una straightened to her full height and beckoned Erica towards the door. “Come on.” Erica glanced at La’an, who shrugged. Una raised her eyebrows. “Come on, I want to show you something.”
Erica slid off the bed. She didn’t take Una’s hand, though she appeared to be contemplating it.
“Commander?”
“Calibrate, Spock!”
Erica didn’t speak on the way to the bridge, but her eyes widened when the turbolift doors swished open. Una led her down to the helm, and with a few taps locked the controls before depositing Erica in her chair. She retreated to her own station and watched Erica closely from behind, only looking away when Erica glanced back at her.
Once Erica was sure no one was watching, her guarded exterior fell away and she stared out the viewscreen with unabashed wonder.
Christine
“Please get her out of here,” Joseph said through gritted teeth. “I care very much for Christine, but I am this close to losing my temper.”
“Oh, you’re losing your temper?” Una asked mockingly. “I’ve been on babysitting duty all day. Work it out.” Joseph grimaced. Something clattered and he whipped around to find Christine fiddling with some test tubes on a lab table.
“Hey!” Joseph barked. “Put that down.” Una blinked, taken aback at his snappy tone. She would have expected more patience from him as a physician, and as a parent himself.
Christine raised her eyebrows into somehow the most grating expression Una had ever seen on a child’s face, and Una understood Joseph’s irritation immediately. “We have these at school,” Christine sassed. “I know what to do.” She rolled her eyes, and Una grabbed the back of Joseph’s shirt to keep him from marching over.
“Deep breaths, Doctor,” she muttered.
“It’s nonstop,” he said under his breath. “Since she transformed she hasn’t listened to a word I’ve said. Please get her out of here so Spock and I can finish setting up the device.”
“She can’t be that bad.”
Christine yelped, and Joseph flinched at a loud crash. What remained of a tube laid smashed in pieces on the floor, and Christine looked at them with wide eyes. “That wasn’t my fault.”
“Christine, that’s why I told you-”
“It’s not my fault!” Christine said indignantly. She crossed her arms with a stormy look.
“Okay,” Una said, and stepped in front of a seething Joseph. “Let’s all calm down.”
“He’s mad at me when I didn’t do anything!” Christine cried, and Una silenced her with a look.
“Christine, we both know that’s not true. You didn’t listen to the doctor and you dropped the tube.” Christine opened her mouth, but Una raised her eyebrows and Christine snapped her mouth shut. “Doctor,” Una said in an undertone, “she’s ten. Stop glaring and go work on the machine.”
Christine kicked at the shards, attempting to gather them in a pile. “Let me do that,” Una ordered. “You’ll cut yourself.” Una picked around the lab table away from the spray of glass. “Come here.” She signaled for Christine to raise her arms, and carefully lifted her away from the broken glass. Christine latched around her waist without prompt and Una carried her to a biobed before hunting down a dustpan. She pretended not to notice Christine watching closely as she carefully swept the glass up into a pile. There was probably more than she could get with the dustpan, but it was better than letting anyone cut themselves.
“Can I help?” Christine’s voice was much more timid than before, and Una looked back at her with raised eyebrows.
“That would be appreciated,” she said after letting Christine squirm a moment. Christine hopped off the biobed and scampered over to her, beaming. Una gave her the dustpan and told her to hold it still for Una to sweep the glass into it.
“Thank you, Christine,” Una said when the glass was safely disposed of. “Do you understand now why you shouldn’t mess with equipment that isn’t yours?”
Christine ducked her head and nodded. Una resisted the urge to pat her back. No need to get mushy.
La’an
“I’m really getting tired of this,” Chris groaned. “Do we know why it’s still happening?”
“I am working on several theories, Captain,” Spock reported. “I do not have a timetable as of yet. There does not appear to be a pattern in crew affected or the ages to which they are reduced.”
“Well, regardless, this has gone on long enough. Una, I got this one.” Chris gave her an apologetic look. “You’ve been on kid duty all day, you can have a break.”
Una didn’t respond, or even look in his direction. She swayed from side to side, humming under her breath. La’an’s little arms were solidly wrapped around her neck and she was a warm weight on Una’s chest, tiny breaths puffing against her neck. It had been pure, primal instinct to sweep her out of her chair on the bridge as soon as she had started to sniffle, and Una had not released her since, even for her scans. Una stroked her hair to the ends of her pigtails and La’an sighed, eyes drifting closed. Her heartbeat fluttered against Una’s chest, much slower and steadier now than when she had first transformed.
“Una?” Una startled and looked around. Chris, Joseph, and Spock were all staring at her, clearly awaiting a response.
“Sir?” Chris raised his eyebrows with a half-smile.
“I was just saying I could take over babysitting this time, since you’ve been handling them all day.” Una frowned and half turned away so that La’an was out of reach.
“I’ve got this, sir,” she said firmly. Christine snickered from across the room and Una gave her a sharp look over La’an’s head. “Do you have all the readings you need, Doctor?”
Joseph nodded, looking wary. She had glared at him a bit more fiercely than intended when he had asked her to put La’an on the biobed for her exam, and he had apparently not yet recovered. “We just need to adjust the device. Shouldn’t take longer than an hour.” He cracked a tired grin. “We’re getting the hang of this.”
“No need to rush,” Una said imperiously. “Don’t get complacent; I expect the same care with this remedy as with the others.” Joseph raised his eyebrows, almost affronted.
“Aye, Commander,” he said.
“Una, you really don’t have to do this by yourself,” Chris insisted. “Weren’t you telling me you had a meeting to get to that you didn’t want to miss?”
“I can multitask, Captain.” Una strode towards the door, huddling La’an away from Chris’s outstretched arms. “Let me know when the device is ready,” she ordered.
La’an jolted as Una hurried out of Sickbay, and Una shortened and smoothed her steps. Small fingers tangled in her hair and Una winced to think of the snarls she would have to brush out later, but she didn’t pull La’an’s hand away.
Una hummed as she wove through the ship, hoping La’an would drop back to sleep, but La’an’s eyes stayed determinedly open and watchful. She kept her head tucked against Una’s neck, but turned slightly to watch crewmembers as they passed.
Her meeting was uneventful. No one dared to comment on the toddler safely nestled in her arms, or the hushed tones Una made them use to give their reports. The only excitement was Chris sweeping in at the end with a problem that could only be solved by Una crawling around in jefferies tubes, and whisking La’an away before Una could argue.
When Una stormed into Sickbay thirty minutes later, grumbling about incompetence, she found La’an on Chris’s shoulders and shrieking with laughter as Chris ran around making spaceship noises. As soon as she saw Una, though, she dove for her, and Chris barely managed to catch her from tumbling off his shoulders.
“Having fun?” Una asked dryly. She lifted La’an onto her hip and raised her eyebrows as Chris leaned over to catch his breath. “Is this why the conduit situation was so urgent?” Chris grinned.
“Can’t let you have all the fun, Number One.”
Joseph
“He makes a pretty cute kid.”
Chris turned to her, baffled. “What?” Una shrugged.
“I prefer him as an adult who can do his job, but come on. He’s pretty cute.”
Joseph bounced around Sickbay, holding Christine’s hand and asking a hundred questions a minute. Christine, clearly charmed, did her best to do her job one-handed, though she was struggling to balance all her equipment. Spock had been delegated to follow and catch anything she dropped.
“I guess?” Chris looked at Joseph in a new light, pondering. “Not as cute as La’an, but I see where you’re coming from.”
“Well of course not,” Una scoffed. Chris shot her a sidelong glance, and Una grimaced. “Don’t tell her I said that.”
“Oh, I’m going to. Honesty among my officers is important,” Chris said seriously. “And if you think La’an was the cutest kid on this ship she should know that.” Una just glared, and Chris chuckled.
“You know what, buddy?” Christine said. “I need a few minutes to set this up, so I can’t answer your questions right now. Do you want to go ask Number One?” Una’s head snapped towards her and she gave her a look of absolute betrayal. Joseph scampered over to her, unconcerned.
“How come you’re called Number One?” he asked without preamble.
“Because she’s my number one,” Chris said with a grin. “She’s the best first officer in the whole fleet.”
“What’s a first officer?”
“Ohoho, that’s an excellent question.” Chris looked far too excited. Una watched warily as Chris lifted Joseph onto a biobed and made himself comfortable.
“Now, a first officer-”
Una’s insides were already curdling with embarrassment, but she crossed her arms and stationed herself next to Chris, hoping to keep him moderately in line.
And if watching Joseph swing his legs and rattle question after question with bright and curious eyes made Una smile, that was incidental.
Hemmer
“Buddy.” Uhura’s voice was somewhere between exhaustion and exasperation, leaning heavily towards exasperation. “We can’t be doing this.” After several seconds of clanging, Hemmer poked his head out of the jefferies tube. His sharp features were blunted somewhat by his round cheeks, but his serious expression was the same as when he was an adult.
“I’m bored,” he said matter-of-factly, like Uhura was ridiculous for trying to stop him.
“Then we’ll find something else to do, come on.” Uhura beckoned him out of the tube, but he just stared blankly in her direction, unmoved. Given his unaltered ability to maneuver the ship, let alone the jefferies tubes, Una knew his other senses were intact. He was just ignoring Uhura for fun.
“Hemmer,” Uhura pleaded. “We’ll find something else.” Hemmer blinked at her, utterly unconcerned, and started to retreat back into the tube.
“Hemmer,” Una barked. “Out. Now.” His head swiveled towards her, and he crawled out without a murmur. Uhura’s jaw dropped as Hemmer wandered past her, and Una smirked at her outrage.
She was not smirking for long. Her disciplining effect only lasted as long as Hemmer was in her presence, and as soon as he was out of sight he was off like a shot.
“What is with these kids and climbing into things?” Una asked despairingly. She keyed in override after override as Chris and Spock attempted to manually open the hatch. None of them were having much success. The emergency protocols were doing a great job of sealing things off at the first sign of an overload, but there were no procedures built in for a precocious child crawling into the engines and pulling things apart.
“Can we at least turn the alarm off?” Chris yelled over the blaring klaxon.
“Negative, Captain,” Spock answered, straining at the locking mechanism. He and Chris were pulling at it with all their might with no success.
Una hit her sixth firewall and groaned. She smacked the interface in frustration and inserted herself between Spock and Chris, adding her Illyrian strength to the mix. With a metallic screech, the hatch edged open torturously slowly.
“Why didn’t you do that from the beginning?” Chris panted. Una ignored him.
She stuck head into the hatch. “Lieutenant!” she bellowed. “Come out of there this minute!”
There was no response for several seconds. Una gritted her teeth and braced herself to climb into the tube, knowing she was at least marginally more resilient to the radiation, but just as she grabbed onto the bars to pull herself in, a pair of antennae poked around the bend.
“Commander,” he greeted in his normal growling tone, only with a much squeakier voice. Una didn’t wait for him to crawl all the way out; as soon as he was in reach she hauled him out of the tube. Spock and Chris slammed the hatch shut and collapsed against it, panting. Una didn’t realize she was holding Hemmer tightly to her chest until he started to squirm, and she loosened her grip so he could lean back and cross his arms. He made no move to get down, though, and Una didn’t prompt him.
“We need to get you a hobby,” Chris said from the ground, sounding dazed. Spock staggered to his feet and reset the protocols, and finally the alert klaxon turned off.
Una let out a long breath.
Una
“So…” The captain glanced around at everyone, baffled. “Do any of us know how to handle this?”
La’an shrugged, as lost as he was. Una watched them both with wide, frightened eyes, sitting quietly on the biobed with her hands tightly clasped in her lap. Dr. M’Benga raised his eyebrows at Chris’s tone.
“I think we’re pretty efficient by now, Captain,” he said, amused.
“Yeah, but-” Captain Pike fumbled for words, gesturing vaguely in Una’s direction. “It’s Una.” M’Benga shook his head and chuckled, but La’an agreed with Captain Pike. For whatever reason, the rest of them had gravitated to Una as children, and she had been able to keep them under control. None of them really knew how she had done it, and it was unlikely they could apply her methods.
“All right, Una,” Christine said in a much gentler voice than La’an had ever heard from her, even with the other children. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” Una said quietly, even as her heart rate shot up on the monitor. Christine didn’t react to the beeping monitor, or even look away from Una’s face.
“Do you know who I am?” Christine asked. M’Benga ran his tricorder over Una as Christine spoke, and Una jerked away from the device.
“No.” La’an couldn’t tell if she was reacting to Christine or M’Benga; she retreated from them both.
“Okay,” Christine said easily. “That’s okay. My name is Christine, and this is Joseph, and we’re going to help you.”
“I don’t need help,” Una said shrilly, and slid off the bed. “I’m fine. Please don’t scan me.”
“It won’t hurt,” M’Benga promised.
“What makes you nervous about it?” Christine asked. She stayed where she was as Una retreated, giving her space to feel safe.
“I’m not nervous,” Una said firmly. “I just don’t like it.” She crossed her arms, as if to shield herself from the tricorder. She glared at M’Benga when he opened his mouth to explain, and La’an almost smiled.
That was their Una.
M’Benga wisely chose to retreat and stand next to Chris. He watched contemplatively as Christine engaged Una in quiet conversation about if she’d like a snack or a book. Una politely refused everything.
“Do you have enough data to calibrate the device?” Chris asked under his breath, and grimaced when M’Benga shook his head.
“If it were a human crewmember, I would say yes,” he said, and Una’s eyes shot to him, though he should have been out of earshot. La’an frowned as M’Benga continued. “But she’s Illyrian, and even though the physiological differences are minimal-”
Una paled so drastically La’an took a half-step forward to catch her if she fainted. Her breaths came sharp and deep and she leaped back when Christine reached for her.
“What are you talking about?” Una demanded, voice shaking with panic. “I am human!”
They all understood within seconds of each other, and M’Benga winced at himself. Chris’s shoulders sagged in the face of Una’s terror, and Christine knelt. Even at an estimated twelve years old, Una was nearly as tall as La’an, which La’an had not grumbled about as she had escorted her to Sickbay. On her knees Christine reached Una’s shoulders, and Una looked down at her, trembling.
“I’m human,” Una insisted desperately. “Your scanners are wrong. I’m not Illyrian. I’m human.”
“Una,” Christine interrupted. “We’re not going to hurt you. You’re not going to get in trouble.”
“I’m not- I’m not- I promise-” Tears streamed down her face and La’an’s heart tugged at her abject terror.
Una had always seemed so heartbroken when La’an called her in tears after an incident at school or yet another change in foster families once they put two and two together and found out where she came from. It had never occurred to La’an to wonder where that sympathy came from, even when she found out the truth about Una’s heritage. She had been so angry to find out that Una, the same Una who had always told her never to be ashamed of her origins, had kept her own genetics a secret for most of her life. But this reaction made La’an wonder if that secrecy had been more than a calculated decision, and instead a deeply ingrained instinct borne out of trauma. Una never talked about her childhood, and La’an wasn’t one to ask.
“Una, look at me,” Christine said soothingly. “I believe you.”
“But he said-”
“He was wrong.” She lied so smoothly La’an consciously had to control her shock. “The tricorder is broken; he’s gonna get a new one, okay?”
M’Benga looked dubious but he followed her lead. He got a new tricorder and laid it on the bio bed for Christine, not daring to approach and break the tenuous rapport.
“I don’t want-”
“Una,” Christine said firmly, “no one here is going to hurt you. No matter what. We’re going to keep you safe, but to do that we need these scans.”
Una’s mouth wobbled as she looked down at Christine’s reassuring face, and her breathing hitched. “Are you gonna tell?” she asked quietly.
Christine’s shoulders sagged, but she didn’t try to defend her lie. She shook her head. “No. You’re safe here, we won’t tell.”
Una looked around at the rest of them, and for La’an it was like looking at herself all those years ago, lost and alone and so terrified that it was all too good to be true, that Una was about to disappear like everyone else. “No one?” Una asked. La’an straightened her shoulders and met Una’s gaze head on.
“No,” La’an said firmly. “This is Starfleet, we don’t care what you are, we care who you are.” Captain Pike shot her a surprised glance, but La’an didn’t squirm. It was Una’s old mantra to her whenever she’d fallen into resenting her ancestry again, convinced it was holding her back. “You’re our friend,” La’an continued, “and we’ll protect you.”
Una looked to Chris, and he nodded. She swallowed, and took a deep breath.
“Okay.”