Chapter Nine

The Escape

A gentle numbness oscillated through Sarek's fingertips as he pulled away from the sleeping teacher. For a moment he lost himself, unsure of his identity. Separated from Amanda's mind, Sarek's emotions were dull and lifeless. Was this what he wanted for his life? Centuries of hollowness? Others were content with such livelihoods before, and yet there was always a lack of something within Sarek; a space that screamed to be filled. The woman's mind had appeased that part of him, and now that they were apart, it was like tearing a bandage from his body to expose a wound.

Sarek took in Amanda's expression, now more pensive than pained. Good. He felt himself relax a fraction and hated it. This emotional cascade was collapsing his ability to focus on the situation.

His eyes moved to Amanda's shoulder. It had been bandaged. Dread crept up the Ambassador's spine, for someone had been here while he had been in Grayson's mind. That was information he was hoping to keep hidden for now.

Sarek's ears picked up a tap by the door, so he turned to find Nula leaning against the exit. Curiosity was written all over her. Gracefully, she came to stand beside him, her eyes trained on the human. There was tension in the air, but Sarek couldn't tell where it was directed.

"You walked into her mind?" The incredulability in her voice, made Sarek question his own actions. "The doctor said you had your hand over her face for the better part of an hour… I was hoping you were trying to suffocate her."

Her pointed face angled itself towards the Vulcan. Her attitude was expected. His actions were so far out of the Vulcan norm, that even a Romulan was uncomfortable. A part of him was embarrassed, but he regained enough control of himself that it did not matter.

Sarek inclined his head. "I did."

Nula leaned back and crossed her arms over her chest. "I never did learn much about Vulcan voodoo… but what I do know is that you don't do that kind of thing with just anyone." She looked back to Grayson with her brow furrowed. "She means more to you then I poke fun at you for, doesn't she?"

"She is Terran." Sarek started before standing and addressing Nula as if she were a child that needed a simpler explanation. For anyone else, his last statement would have sufficed. "An interesting human I must admit, but she is not my lover nor close compatriot of mine if that is what you are implying."

"Heartless Sarek, so heartless!" Nula said with a smile that harbored a short sigh of relief; the reaction confused the Ambassador.

"Logical," Sarek answered quietly. "From consulting with Grayson, I have learned the true villain behind this scheme. I must warn you Nula, you are meddling in affairs beyond your cognitive abilities. Mars is not one to be taken lightly. She will puppet you as she has this human." He gestured to Amanda.

Nula adopted a defensive stance. "That woman has less than half the wit I possess!"

"I did not mean to insult you Nula. I state only facts I have observed." Well, perhaps he was being a little cocky. The influence of humans was more potent than he could have imagined. "Let us start again. It is my assumption that Mars is attempting to start a conflict between Vulcan and Earth so that she may benefit from the resulting turmoil. Earth is currently experiencing trouble with the Kling-ons and require aid; however, if Vulcan decides to no longer align themselves with the Federation, the Romulans, or more specifically - Mars, can take the niche my homeworld used to fill."

"Sounds good for us." Nula said, looking at her fingernails with a grin on her face. "Clever Vulcan… figuring it all out. You should have stayed with Father, he always liked your keen mind."

Sarek tilted his head and raised an eyebrow. "Nula, you are aware that this plot is entirely concocted by Mars for her own profit, not yours or your father's. Romulus will feature last on her list of priorities when the time comes to execute her plans. She is an exile of your government, surely you knew that?"

The Romulan girl narrowed her eyes at the Vulcan. Leashed anger was making her face adopt a greenish tinge. "Of course I know! That's what makes her perfect for the part… if anything goes wrong Romulus won't take the fall for it."

The Ambassador shook his head slowly. "Did she tell you that Nula? It sounds like a lie one would tell a little girl to coax her suspicions."

Nula's hands turned into fists, but Sarek smirked behind his rigid mask. There was a small chance that he could pull some strings of his own and puppeteer the Romulan girl… maybe even save Grayson if he managed to confuse Nula enough – her young mind wasn't too strong. Yet, there was a small voice - which Sarek could only assume was his logical conscious - that said he was straying too far from the Vulcan way. Manipulation of others was not peaceful in any respect, and frankly, very human of him.

"I planned this! I have you in my Sickbay!" Her voice became raised as she wagged a finger at the Ambassador in an effort to assert what little power she currently had.

"You are correct Nula. I will not deny that you have put me in a difficult position, but you share some of it. You cannot trust Mars. You can only trust yourself." Sarek put his hands neatly behind his back. "So I propose you develop a back-up plan incase Mars turns on you."

The girl wrinkled her nose. "She won't."

"Ah. The statistics of her work must have changed since I last was on Romulus. How many accomplices managed to stay by Mars' side through her various criminal conquests? And how many of them have been disposed of by a Romulan firing squad? Compare and speculate."

Silence answered. Sarek wormed his way into the small opening of doubt he sensed within Nula's mind.

"Ah. I see. It remains a spotless record of treachery. So why not expect her betrayal and thwart her when the time is right? It would be a wise course of action."

Nula glared at Sarek for a long while. "You're up to something…" She whispered through clenched teeth.

"I am." It was his last chance, the only way he could think of saving Grayson. His only hope.

Nula appraised him thoroughly before sitting down on the edge of Amanda's bio-bed. She set her hands daintily in her lap before perking her pointed ears as if ready to listen. "Tell me how you would defeat Mars, and this better be good."

Sarek's brain was computing as fast as it could. He needed the right words to get his ploy to work. As he was thinking, the sound of a phone ringing made both aliens snap in the direction of Amanda. Her pocket was vibrating. Nula looked incredulous. "She gets service up here? Mine can't even penetrate atmo on Romulus…" she mumbled as Sarek slipped Grayson's mobile communicator out of her pocket and looked at it.

Toluk's number was on the display and everything started to snap together in Sarek's plan.

"Nula. I will give you the Vulcan information database."

His eyes searched her dull gray ones for a response. He found intrigue. He could work with that.

"Now why would you do that? I don't need it."

"The only way I see this scheme working is if Mars caters to the Terrans by supplying the information we refused to give them from the Romulan database - probably at a high price. You can give the Vulcan Database to your father - Mars as well if you can manage it. Both would inspire confidence in your abilities."

Suspicion darkened Nula's features. "I didn't want to involve Father. Terrans don't even know we exist… and he wants to keep it that way. I don't think you know what Mars is up to. She can't be planning on revealing ourselves to them AND giving them valuable information. She wouldn't reveal Romulus in this way."

"You are correct. We do not know what she is planning, but that is my best assumption based on what has happened. Tell Nolsa my suspicions and he will help you move against Mars. That is what you truly want, is it not? To work together with him? Show him you are capable? He will be most impressed with your capture of the Vulcan Database. Romulus will know what we know about the Terrans… and we know much." Sarek threw Nula the mobile phone. "This is a means to contact my retainer Toluk. He has the coordinates of the database. You may retrieve it."

"One – your flunky is not going to just give me the coordinates, Two – you'll just arrest me or kill me at whatever false coordinates you give me! I'm not stupid!"

"He will tell you the coordinates if I order him to, and you can not be harmed if you have a hostage. Consider it collateral." Sarek motioned to the motionless linguist. "You will administer the antidote to Grayson, ensuring she lives for use as a hostage. She is unconscious so she can not resist. You can terminate her if anything goes wrong in accordance with Mars' plot without any complications. You win either way."

"And you?"

The Ambassador turned away and frowned slightly. "You wish for me to return to Vulcan, do you not? Since I am incapable of solving this issue myself, and the matter of the Vulcan database is dissolved now that I entrust it to you, I have no viable reason to resume my diplomatic mission."

Nula tapped her fingers to her lips in a nervous gesture. "Tempting Sarek. I didn't expect this from you at all. Surrendering valuable Vulcan information in exchange for human…." She stared at Sarek with a mixture of anticipation and doubt.

"Tell your Vulcan friend to meet me in the clearing by the reservoir in Seattle, with the database - alone."

The Ambassador looked a little taken back. "I thought we agreed on sending you the coordinates."

"Too risky. I'll approach by shuttle craft… I have a nifty prototype of something the university produced that will be perfect for the occasion." Nula gave Sarek a scathing look, "I'm going to do this my way if at all. You're going to find I'm not that easy to lure into a trap Vulcan. I will come out ahead."

"As you wish." Sarek opened Amanda's communicator and frowned slightly at the buttons. The settings were not in Standard so it took him a moment to adjust and figure out how to properly work the device. In minutes he contacted a worried Tulok and informed him of the situation. After negotiating Nula's demands they came to an agreement. The two of them spoke in Standard for the Romulan's benefit so that she did not think they were planning anything worthy of further suspicion.

After the call, Nula summoned several guards who came and took Grayson. "Don't worry Sarek. She'll be given that antidote so that she'll live - while she's still useful."

"Trade her for the database. There will be distrust at the rendezvous. I suggest holding off administering the antidote, so you can hand over the woman for access to the information. Tulok will not betray you with only half a hostage. Do not give him the antidote until the database is in your hands." Sarek hated to state it, but logic prevailed in negotiations. It is what he would have done.

The girl nodded. "You know, Father missed having a Vulcan on our side. If you ever get bored with Terrans, you could advise Father again. He liked you."

"Nolsa chooses the easiest path to progress, no matter where it takes his people. You are much like him in that respect." Sarek said quietly. It would have been an insult if Nula knew half the things her father had done.

"Vulcans. They never like to get their hands dirty." Nula smiled as she summoned some minions to take the human with her.

Now that Sarek was alone in Sickbay. It was time for phase two of his plan. He tapped on the sickbay doors.

A guard opened it and eyed Sarek warily, "What do you require?"

"Use of the facilities."

"Stand back." He turned to his fellow guard just as Sarek pinched him gracefully in the neck. The remaining guard went for his phaser, but in the process of doing so exposed his neck as well. Soon there were two slumped bodies on the floor of the hallway.

Sarek looked down both corridors before dragging the unconscious guards into sick bay. He hurried down the hallway to where he remembered the Transporter Room was.

He did not intend to return to Vulcan as he led Nula to assume. This matter needed to be clarified before Mars got any further in her plot. Sarek's earlier conversation with Nula was purely to save Amanda's life, because he could not focus on the matter at hand with her existence destined to come to an end. This way he gave her hope, as she did to him. It was a logical solution, even if the problem itself was not.

With the Terran out of his mind for the moment, he needed to tend to this impending conflict between planets. Sarek planned to beam outside of the Embassy where he could quickly gather together a council that would hear out Mars' design and put a stop to it. It would be easy.

Too easy.

Once he opened the door to the Transporter Room he was met by the sound of a laser rifle being powered up. It was the same one Nula left on the console earlier. Now it was in the hands of a cocoa skinned woman with eyes full of fire and a grin like the Cheshire cat.

"Ambassador," the woman whispered.

Sarek raised his hands instinctively. Nula was a child, and asserting himself against her was harmless. Mars, however, could not be trifled with unless he wished the probability of his survival to lower significantly.

"I did not think you would discover my escape plan so quickly." Sarek explained.

Mars grabbed Sarek by his hair, and in one fluid movement shoved him around so that he was forced marched back into the hallway with her gun digging into his back.

"I set up security cameras the moment I stepped onto little Nula's little boat. Such a youthful girl. I like my accomplices to have exploitable weaknesses, so I thought Nula might be a fun way of getting what I want from you. You were allied with Nolsa once… decades ago. I assumed she was like a niece to you… and got some interesting results."

"Ah, you were behind her kidnapping four years ago." Sarek had been paying attention to that story on Vulcan, wondering if his past connection to Nolsa would drag his name into it. It had. The political shaming ruined his martial prospects with T'Rel.

"You're stretching the connections to those dots Ambassador. Only humans see patterns in everything." Sarek did not need to see Mars' face to know there was a prideful smirk there.

"Your words do not make me less correct."

The villainess led Sarek into a small room with four bunks. Roughly, she sat him down at the nearest one and continued to aim the rifle at him. There was never a moment where her eyes left his form.

"Either way, the lost Romulan girl grabbed your attention and that is all I needed. I worked on orchestrating a pawn into Starfleet to guide you here. Your former friend's wayward kin was to be my trade for the database, but you attached yourself to the human! Oh Sarek. I have an ocean of pity for you." The way she spoke, made her quips more barbed against a Vulcan.

"Do not insult me." It was reflex.

A dark eyebrow rose on Mars' brow, and she let herself be amused by Sarek's retort. "You insult yourself Ambassador; melding with such an inferior being. I am flattered you resorted to it just to discover my identity, but I am also disgusted. Desperation colors you poorly."

"And I thought only humans talk this much." Sarek said coolly.

Mars pulled out a chair and flipped it around so she could lean into the back of it and still aim her weapon. "Maybe I am trying to seduce you with my human words." She flirted with a laugh.

"I'm not going to waste my breath on more monologues that will bore you. I'll get straight to the point and tell you what to expect for the next few weeks."

Sarek struggled to figure out a way to rectify the situation. There was no solution from what he could see. He was forced to accept whatever the woman offered him.

"You will be sent back to Vulcan, and then set free… because by that time, what you say and do will have no effect on what I've done to satisfy my needs. You will be beamed to a cargo ship that's waiting for you as we speak. It's not a pretty ship, but then again you could do with a change of scenery, am I right?" She didn't even wait for an answer as she continued. "When you get to Vulcan feel free to do whatever you wish. No strings."

Mars stood and headed out the door backwards. "There will be some of my people waiting for you in the Transporter Room. Please don't resist… all the walls have eyes and I'm too busy to be hunting you down, again."

She slipped out the door and Sarek resigned to her plan. There was nothing more he could do. After attempting to meditate and being interrupted by more Romulans, the Ambassador was led to the Transporter Pad where he was ripped apart into atoms.