Hellguard

by Starsinger

After the five year mission and during the Enterprise refit, Spock meets a little girl, half Romulan and half Vulcan, she will change his life in ways he couldn't imagine, and doesn't realize until he sees the echoes of her face in someone much, much older. Don't own them.

It was only a rumor, they said, Romulans wouldn't be conducting breeding experiments with Vulcans. The logic seemed sound, but sixteen ships had disappeared along the Neutral zone in the past decade without a trace. Accidents did happen, everyone knew it.

It was a report filed by the USS Mariposa that caught Spock's attention. A young Vulcan woman rescued from a dying ship. She died soon afterward, but mumbled coordinates, just on the other side of the Neutral Zone. A place where Vulcans were dying. A place where children were being born, and abandoned. A wild place that no adult, much less a child, should live.

The captain, Gail Rushing, had filed it with both New Vulcan and Starfleet. She thought that the Vulcans might be interested. Spock was intrigued. These children might be new additions to families who desperately needed sons and daughters to expand their families, and Vulcans breeding stock. Romulans and Vulcans were virtually identical, genetically. So, Spock talked a few, including Sarek, into coming with him to Hellguard.

Hellguard was a dirty little planetoid. Barely big enough to hold a breathable atmosphere its rocky surface and active volcanism made it highly unstable. Yet, life survived, even thrived. As they made their camp the first night, they were aware that they were being watched. They casually wandered in and around the camp, not afraid of Romulans, they had long since abandoned the planet, but wary of the wildlife. Something prompted Spock to look up from a discussion being held by his father to find himself staring at a wild young girl, maybe eight years old. Her dark, matted hair and dirty, almost emaciated body made it difficult to get and exact age. He saw a spark, intelligence in those eyes. She continued to watch the group before turning to leave. Not hurrying, just making her way away from the group.

The next day they set up traps. Little better than cages with food for lures, they made sure that the traps were big enough that the wild cats they saw around wouldn't get at the sleeping children inside. At least they hoped the children would be sleeping, the sedatives in the food had to be guessed at as far as dosage. They didn't want to kill them. They left them, not planning on returning for a few hours. They caught six the first hour. Slowly, over the course of the next two days, they caught a total of twenty-five starving children whose only crime was that they had been born. Still, the girl was not among them.

Spock had gone out to relieve himself when he found himself being watched once again. Slowly, he turned around to be confronted by a little boy holding a rock. He was reluctant to stop the child, but his own self-preservation would take hold if the boy proceeded any further. When the boy did attack, he was surprisingly strong. Years of hard scrabble living had hardened sinewy muscle under his skin. As suddenly as the attack had begun, it ended. The girl he had seen hit the boy on the head and then fled into the night.

She was a tough one, but he was determined to catch her. She was obviously too smart for the traps. He sat on some rocks, waiting one day. He couldn't say for what. Abruptly, she was there, her halting Romulan, words long disused, ground their way out, "What do you want?"

Upon looking at her closely, he realized she was closer to eleven or twelve years of age. There was even a promise, and echo of beauty not yet realized. "I want to take you someplace safe," he replied. He took out a ration from his pack and took a bite of it, chewing and swallowing it for her benefit. He then handed it to her. She ate it ravenously. "Do you have a name?" she looked at him puzzled. "Something to call you?"

"No," came the short supply. "If I go with you, will there be food?"

"Yes," Spock simply replied. He rose to go back and to his surprise the girl joined him. Sarek looked at the girl, his head tilted curiously, almost as if he recognized the girl. "What is it Father," Spock asked.

"Nothing, I could have sworn I've met her before," the little girl's dark brown eyes stared up at Sarek without comprehension, they spoke in Vulcan. Sarek knelt down in front of her, "I am Sarek." He told her quietly in Romulan, welcome to my home."

Of all the children, she was the only one who came willingly. Sarek could only shake his head at the abandonment of such and obviously bright child. The Medics assured him that she was just suffering from too little food and too little constructive contact with others of her own kind. Spock brought her back to New Vulcan. He would have to leave her in his Father's care, Sarek was lonely, and relished the idea of having someone new to teach and bring along in the world.

Days later in the market, just before he left for Earth, Spock spotted his older self out with his wife. Spock stared at Saavik, seeing her familiar face, the familiar lines, in the small child he'd just rescued. It seemed, once again, the universe was resetting itself.