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He hadn’t meant to be a hero, but when he saw it, he had no choice but to act. To him, the entire affair is distasteful in the extreme, but his fellow officers seem to think it something to be celebrated.
Lieutenant Harris smiles at him when they cross paths on the observation deck. “Looks like you’ve gotten up to some derring-do.”
Saru blinks at him, hoping doubtfully that that was a compliment. Humans have so many odd turns of phrase and strange habits. Every time he thinks he’s grasped some aspect of their behavior, they start doing the opposite, or something else new and confusing. But then, he knows very well that Kelpiens seem just as odd from their perspective
“I would have rathered there not have been the need,” Saru says delicately. Sometimes the way his fellow officers seem to savor violence unnerves him, even when he knows they mean no true harm.
Harris shrugs. “Sure, but I heard you put up a good fight. Wish someone had recorded it.”
Saru wishes that too, but not for his own sake. He wants to know if the pirates had any compatriots nearby who fled while he was freeing Ensign Rali from their clutches.
The alarm went out immediately. The whole station is on alert. If there are indeed more, they will not escape. Saru tries to comfort himself with that knowledge. It is not an effective technique. There are too many loose ends. Too many people suffering. Too many ways more might be made to suffer in future.
He wishes powerfully that there had never been the need for such a rescue. But he cannot regret his actions.
He has just finished repeating his report for the starbase’s security chief and is looking forward to going back to his quarters for the rest of the day when Captain Georgiou finds him.
She has a stormy, foreboding look on her face as she strides down the corridor, and from the direction she was coming from, Saru surmises she’d just been visiting Sickbay. He hopes she had good news.
Her face softens as she approached him.
“I received your report.” Georgiou raises an eyebrow. “I must admit, when I heard there had been an incident on the station, I was not expecting to find you at the center of it all.”
Saru shakes his head. “Captain, am I in trouble?”
Georgiou regards him with a smile. “No, Saru. You did very well. However, you did it in, shall we say, a very memorable way. Do not be surprised to find yourself the subject of gossip for a few days at least.”
“I see,” Saru says. “Thank you.” The captain’s approval goes a long way to easing the anxiety of the day. Saru knows that whatever comes now, Georgiou will be able to handle it.
He is not certain if he is pleased with this turn of events, but he is relieved the ensign is safe. And that those who had come after her will not be able to harm anyone else.
“I would hope station security is done with you? Gotten everything they need?” she asks, an inextinguishable spark of anger in her eyes. Not at him, or the station, but at the people who would dare treat any of her crew like slaves. “Because if they haven’t, they will have to talk to me. You have done more than enough.”
There is no need for it, but Saru allows himself a silent sigh of relief and gratitude. “They told me they would contact us if they required any other information.”
Georgiou nods. “Just know that if I had my way about it, we would be chasing after those slavers ourselves,” she says, with an unmistakable, chilling edge to her voice, and Saru cannot disagree.
“I believe I share that sentiment, Captain.” The criminals had been clever. As soon as they realized their scouts had been found and foiled, the rest took off in their ship.
“As you should. Station Security tells me their ship registration was fake. Tracking them will be difficult.”
Starfleet will stop them in their tracks, Saru has no doubt of that, but as terrifying as the prospect of confronting those cruel monsters again is, part of him desperately wants the satisfaction. It is a strange feeling, this desire to hunt, and he isn’t sure he likes it.
It occurs to him that Georgiou must have come from Sickbay. “How is Ensign Rali?” The sight of bloody claw marks on her arms and shoulders had awoken in him an anger he rarely felt. She should not have suffered so. And he knows there are more out there, dozens, maybe hundreds, who are undergoing far worse. Even if they are rescued - the ones that survived at least, he thinks darkly - there will be lingering effects even their best medical technology cannot fully ease.
“Shaken, but surviving,” Georgiou says. “She’s strong. And our doctors are good.”
“Yes,” Saru agrees, to all of it.
He should be more frightened than ever, he thinks, to be reminded so harshly that such terrible people exist in this world, people who prowl space looking for targets. Looking for lonely or weakened innocents to kidnap and sell for profit to even more hideous causes.
He is accustomed to living with predators barely a breath away. This isn’t all that different. But now he has yet another reason to fear.
“It was, I hope you will remember,” Georgiou says into the quiet, “your perceptive nature that saved Rali today.” She looks at him, and he sees in her eyes a rare warmth of approval. “Not many would have noticed something was amiss.”
He ducks his head. “Thank you, Captain. I only wish I had realized sooner.”
“And you are far from alone in that. Learn to accept the victories you find,” Georgiou advises. “Nobody can change the past.”
Saru nods sadly. Regrets and wishes do not change hard times. He’s learned already that some of his old life’s so-called truths were false. That no species is fated to be lesser than or to serve another.
“Understood, Captain.”
“I hope you let the starbase medical officers attend to you as well,” Georgiou says. “From what I heard, you engaged in quite a ferocious battle.”
He wishes he hadn’t needed too. He can still see in his mind the face of the man he threw against the wall, limp and bleeding.
“I was not hurt,” he says, and then adds before Georgiou can press, “and yes, I allowed them to perform a basic scan.”
“Good.” She continues to watch him. Not because she doubts he is telling the truth, he can sense that much, but for some other reason. Some sort of unwarranted concern. He’s grateful for it, but there are better places for the Captain to place her attention.
A thought crosses his mind. Something he’s tried not to think about. “Captain, the suspects. Are they- did I…” The last he saw of the raiders who had tried to kidnap Rali was when two of them were being taken into emergency surgery.
He is well accustomed to death. Accustomed to losing those close to him to powers that most dared not challenge. But he is not accustomed to being an agent of death himself, and he had hoped he would rarely have the need, no matter how much those beasts deserve it.
“They survived,” Georgiou says. “Unfortunately.” She sighs. “I will leave you be. You’ve had quite an exciting day. I’ll make sure you are not disturbed for anything less than a critically important disaster.”
Her understanding of his need for quiet means almost as much to him as the praise. “Thank you, Captain.”
“But I would suggest you visit Rali when you are ready for it. I’m sure she’ll want to talk to you.” She lifts her head to meet his eyes. “I do not think it wise to leave either of you entirely alone tonight.”
He nods gravely. “I will,” he promises.
Protecting your fellows is nothing special. It is what is expected between crewmates, between any sensible people. But Saru isn’t so humble as to not realize the striking circumstances of this particular assist.
He sighs and heads down the hall to the turbolift and Sickbay. He’d much rather return to his quarters and rest in the company of his flowers, far away from danger and people who expect him to speak about it. But the crew needs him. And, he realizes with a sense of warmth rather than resentment, he needs them himself.
Georgiou is right to suggest they stay close to each other today.