Brutal Sacrifice

FebuWhump 2024

Jim is being held hostage and Spock has a decision to make.

Fandom(s): Star Trek TOS
Character(s): Spock, Jim Kirk
Tags: Spirk, Whump, Hostages, Death

Rating: Teen+ Audiences
Content Warnings: Gore, Major Character Death
Word Count: 1115
Type: Oneshot, Standalone

Collection: FebuWhump 2024

febuwhump

FebuWhump Day 17
Prompt: Hostage Situation

"We have your captain," the masked figure said, speaking through the view-screen. He had one hand clamped tight around Jim's arm, his other hand holding a phaser to the captain's head.

"I can see that," Spock said calmly. On the outside he looked and sounded indifferent to the situation. But on the inside, alarms of panic were blaring.

"Maybe now that our situation has changed, you'll be willing to fulfill our request," the figure said, stroking Jim's face with the phaser. "Now it can be a trade. Your captain for my cargo."

Jim made contact with Spock through the view-screen, and shook his head minutely. Don't.

Spock did his best to look unimpressed. "Your 'cargo' is twenty-six people that you have kidnapped are intending to traffic. I cannot give them back to you."

Jim seemed relieved at Spock's response, but the masked figure was displeased, jamming his phaser painfully against Jim's temple, causing him to flinch in pain. Spock stiffened visibly, and the masked figure smiled cruelly.

"I think you're bluffing," he said in a sing-song voice. "I don't think you can bear to let your precious captain die."

Spock gritted his teeth. He tried to push his anxiety down and out of the way. His mind raced. Where was the extraction team he sent to the enemy freighter to take this trafficker out and retrieve Jim? He was sure they have reached him by now.

Pushing the shakiness out of his voice, Spock answered coolly, "You are mistaken. This man means nothing to me." He nearly recoiled at the devastated look Jim gave him. Another, more illogical anxiety struck him then. Jim had to know he didn't mean what he said, right? Jim had to be acting, to sell Spock's story, right? He wanted to make some signal to Jim to reassure him, but knew he couldn't make a single movement without it being scrutinized by Jim's captor.

There was a long silence, and then the masked figure shook his head in disappointment. "If you say so," he said, and Spock heard the tell-tale whine of a phaser charging up.

"Wait!" He shouted in a panic, stepping forward, and the whine died down.

"Are you ready to bargain now?"

Spock's face tightened. "Yes," he spat. He just had to stall for long enough for the extraction team to reach Jim.

"Spock, don't—" Jim cried out as the masked figure bashed him in the head with the butt of his phaser. Spock flinched. Jim just looked at him, eyes wide with panic, shaking his head. Don't do it.

Spock's heart ached. He wished he had a way to tell Jim that help was on the way, that he was only stalling, that he wouldn't ever intend to return this man's prisoners to him. But he had no way to reassure him.

"Beam my cargo back into my cargo hold," the masked figure instructed. "Once our cargo is secured and accounted for, we'll raise our shields and send your captain back to you in a shuttle."

"Very well," Spock said coldly, mind racing to decide his next move. Stall, all he had to do was stall.

"Oh, and by the way," the masked figure said, sounding far too amused. "We've captured your little rescue team. Just thought I should let you know."

Spock's heart skipped a beat. Their plan had failed. Now he had to decide— decide for real —who to save. Twenty-six innocent souls, or Spock's captain. Spock's— Spock wasn't sure what exactly Jim was to him. But he knew that if he died, Spock's very soul would shatter.

"I—" Spock started, but the words stopped in his throat.

Jim gave him a desperate look, still shaking his head. Mouthing the words don't do it like it was a prayer.

Spock was frozen in place. He didn't know what to do. He knew, logically, that he would have to sacrifice Jim to save twenty-six lives. But emotionally, and selfishly, he wanted to save Jim no matter the cost. The two sides warred with each other in his brain, and all he could do was stand there, staring at the view-screen.

"You need to make a decision," the masked figure said, adjusting his phaser against Jim's head. "Or I'll have to make one for you."

Spock opened his mouth to speak, and as if he had read Spock's mind, Jim shouted out, "No, Spock!" His words were met with another strike from the butt of the phaser, but despite his disorientation from the blows to the head, Jim gave Spock a look of deep sincerity and absolute pleading. "Please, Spock," he said quietly. "It's okay. Let me go."

Spock's breath shuddered as he stood there, staring into Jim's eyes and reading all that Jim hadn't said. Jim was choosing this. It was Jim's choice, not Spock's. It wasn't going to be Spock's fault. But fault didn't matter to Spock when the outcome was the same.

The whining of the phaser started up again, and the masked figure looked at Spock expectantly, waiting for him to stop him. But Spock had resigned himself to Jim's fate. He just held Jim's gaze in his final moments. As the whining came to a climax, Jim offered a small smile of encouragement to Spock, and then the phaser fired.

Uhura screamed. Sulu flinched back from the view-screen. Chekov squeezed his eyes shut, face reddening with the force of it. Spock stood frozen, unable to breath, feeling like his heart had stopped.

"Cut the feed!" Sulu shouted, voice breaking.

Uhura recovered for just long enough to slam her hand down on her console, severing the connection between the two ships.

The view-screen blank, Spock fell to his knees in the middle of the bridge. When he blinked he saw that last image, as if it had been burned into his retinas. That was no ordinary phaser. A phaser set to kill would horrifically disintegrate its target. But this was so much worse. Spock knew he would never be able to forget the moment Jim's smiling face became a spray of red and grey clumps and shattered bone fragments. He knew that every time he closed his eyes, that would be all he could see. He would be haunted by this image for the rest of his life.

He wanted to scream, but he couldn't. It wouldn't come out. The bridge was silent, the crew too stunned to do anything but cry silent tears and stare into the distance, unseeing. They were all seeing that last image before the view-screen cut out. That's all they could see or think about. That's all they would see or think about for a long time.

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