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Captain’s Log, Stardate 51296.2
Akito, Toya, An, Kohane, and Fuyune are about to go on a mission to an uninhabited planet. It looks like a Class M planet with a very temperate climate, aside from a few intermittent thunderstorms! Nothing my beloved Toya can’t handle, of course! Though, I must admit that I feel the slightest bit of… apprehension, leaving my little brother alone on an away mission after what happened last time. Alas, as the captain, I must trust in my crew! And I trust my Toya more than anything!
“Toya, did you remember—” Tsukasa starts.
“Tsukasa-nii, it’s alright. I remembered my tricorder, my instruments, my combadge, and my Padd.” Toya cuts him off, holding up his medical bag. “I promise, it’s going to be alright.
Tsukasa sighs and reaches up to pinch Toya’s cheek.
“I know, I know. But can you blame me for being worried?”
“No, I guess you can’t. But it’s alright, this planet is uninhabited. It’s just me, An, Kohane, and Akito.” Toya smiles, but that smile falls after a second. “…And Shimizu, but nothing can be done about that.”
“I know, I know. Just remember—”
“If we run into any trouble, call you immediately and you’ll beam us back up, I know. Tsukasa-nii, you’ve repeated that around thirty times.”
Tsukasa sighs.
“Alright, alright. I’ll leave you be. I’ll see you soon, my love!” He says, walking out of the transporter room just as Akito walks in.
~
It’s such a lovely planet.
That’s all Toya can think. It’s quiet, and lovely, and sitting under a tree with a good book is just absolutely lovely.
It’s old Vulcan literature, before the days of emotional repression. When blood ran hot and the literature ran hotter.
He’s about midway through a particularly steamy scene when there’s a hand on his shoulder, and he jumps and drops the Padd.
“Sorry, partner.” Akito says, picking it up and handing it back to Toya. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Whatcha reading?”
“Nothing you’d be interested in.” Toya says, putting the Padd back in his medical bag. He’d die of embarrassment if Akito knew the kind of thing he was just reading.
“Uh, cool.” Akito says. “I hate to bother you, but An’s challenging me to a race. Who can run the fastest while carrying their partner. So, would you mind getting on my back?”
Toya laughs gently and is about to accept, when Shimizu shows up. Because of course she does.
“I can carry you on my back, Aki!” She says, and Akito laughs awkwardly.
“That’s okay, Fuyune. An wants to race against me. She’ll never let me live it down if I don’t do it.”
Toya can’t help the small smirk on his face, and Shimizu’s tail bristles slightly.
But suddenly, the pressure around them starts to drop.
“Do you feel that?” Shimizu says, and Akito shakes his head.
“Feel what?”
“I feel it too.” Toya chimes in. “The pressure’s dropped. I think a storm’s coming.”
“I agree.” Shimizu says. “It feels like it’s going to be a big one, come on, we need to get back to the ship.
Toya clicks his combadge.
“Nurse Aoyagi to Lieutenant Kusanagi. A storm is coming, can you beam us up?”
“Give me a second.” She says, and suddenly Toya’s body is shifting.
But then it stops.
“Damn it. I can’t beam you through all the interference from the storm. Can you guys find shelter?”
“Give us a minute.” Toya says, running over to a blue and black blur in the distance. “An! Kohane! A storm is coming and they can’t beam us back up, we have to find shelter!”
Kohane looks up from the grass.
“There was a cave over there! I didn’t find anything in it, so it should be safe!”
Toya nods, and soon enough all five of them are in the cave just as the storm starts.
And then Toya clicks his combadge.
But there’s no familiar sound of the line connecting.
“Damn it…” Toya groans. “Our combadges are down.”
An, Kohane, Fuyune, and Akito all look at Toya like he’s crazy.
“…Uh… Toya-kun?” Kohane says. “We didn’t understand that.”
Toya blinks, and then he registers just what happened.
The Universal Translator must have gone down.
“Ah, my apologies.” Toya starts, switching from Vulcan to Japanese. “Is that better?”
“Much.” An says. “The UT went down?”
“It seems so.” Toya says. “It’s alright, I can communicate in Japanese. I don’t know about Shimizu, though.”
“Oh, it’s alright.” She says. “Your language is quite simple.”
…God, if he’s stuck in here with her for much longer he might be liable to snap.
~
Great. Just great. They’re stuck on a planet, the universal translator has gone offline, and Toya hasn’t said a word in two hours.
“Toya, come on.” Akito says, but Toya still doesn’t respond. “Why aren’t you responding?”
“He’s probably just ended up too reliant on the universal translator, Aki.” Fuyune says. “He can understand basic conversation, but nothing deeper.”
“Nah, there’s something wrong. I can tell.”
Akito reaches out a hand to Toya, and Toya grabs it and pulls him closer in a split-second.
“Akito…” He mumbles, leaning onto Akito’s shoulder.
“There we go. How are you feeling?”
“…Fine.” Toya replies, in that cute Vulcan accent he gets when he’s tired.
“Alright, great. Can you keep up with what we’re saying?”
Toya simply nods.
“When I was a child, my mother would exclusively speak to me in Japanese while my father would speak to me in Vulcan. I’m fluent in both. Don’t worry.”
“Yeah, but you’re more comfortable with Vulcan, aren’t you?”
“Just because I was raised there. But I can keep up with your Japanese, don’t worry.”
Akito’s pretty worried, but that’s not because he doesn’t believe in Toya. It’s mostly because he’s been trying to get Toya’s attention for two hours and he hasn’t responded.
“Then why haven’t you been responding?”
“Huh?” Toya says. “You’ve been trying to speak to me?”
“Yes?”
“Oh, I’m sorry. I was lost in thought. I didn’t even realize.”
Akito lets out a sigh.
“You had me worried.”
“Sorry. Just… being on this planet is putting me on edge. I can’t wait until the storm passes and we can get back.”
“Yeah, I get that. This place is weird.”
Toya mumbles something in Vulcan, and Akito gives him a quizzical look.
“What did you say?”
Toya blinks a couple of times before putting his hand on his forehead.
“I said that in Vulcan, didn’t I?”
“Yeah.”
“Sorry. Just tell me if I slip up, alright?”
“I will. So, what were you saying? Tell me how you said it in Vulcan too. I should probably have at least a basic understanding of Vulcan.”
Toya’s eyes start to glitter.
“T’hy’la. There’s no exact translation, but it basically means sibling that’s not biologically your sibling. I was referring to Tsukasa-nii. I thought was speaking in Japanese. I was saying ‘Tsukasa-nii will probably be calling us soon.’”
“Hm. Okay. T’ hy ’la?”
Toya lets out a chuckle.
“You sound like a two year old.”
“Hey, I’m learning!”
All the tension seems to drop out of Toya’s shoulders as he leans back on the cave wall.
“Taluhk nash-veh k’dular.” Toya says, the words escaping his lips sounding almost angelic. He almost wishes he could turn off the UT more often. Toya sounds so pretty talking in Vulcan.
“What does that mean?” Akito asks.
“I cherish thee. The Vulcan equivalent of I love you. ”
Oh, that makes Akito’s heart skip a beat.
“Then what’s the word for kiss?” Akito says, in a burst of confidence.
Toya tilts his head to the side, his hair falling with the motion and exposing his ears.
“Ozh'esta would be the closest equivalent. Vulcans don’t kiss like humans do. That’s the word for the finger embrace.”
“The what?”
Toya puts his index and middle fingers out, and Akito instantly realizes.
“Oh, that thing. That’s your equivalent of a kiss? How does your mom survive?”
“Vulcans in interspecies marriages tend to adapt to their partner’s forms of affection. I like being kissed and hugged though. Then again, you already knew that. I can hear my mother now, ‘Toya-kam, sometimes I wonder if you’re actually Vulcan!’”
“Toya -kam ? I’ve never heard that one.”
“Oh, it’s a Vulcan term of endearment. Usually from mother to child. My mother uses it often, I guess because she’s so used to honorifics.”
Toya’s clearly enjoying the hell out of this, and he pulls himself right into Akito’s lap.
“Hmm… okay. Try to say this. V’tosh ka’tur.”
“V’ tosh ka’tur?”
“You still sound like a two year old.”
“Shut up and tell me what it means.”
“Oh, it’s an archaic term. It translates to Vulcans without logic. As far as I know, Akiyama and I are the only ones alive right now.”
“Eh? Why would you teach me something like that?”
Toya shrugs and runs his hands over Akito’s face.
“It’s a term that I’ve been called far too often. I thought you should know what it means.”
“So I can punch anyone in the face who calls you that?”
“Please don’t.”
“You know you can’t stop me.”
Toya lets out a soft laugh before suddenly flinching in pain and grabbing onto his head, and Akito reaches over in an instant.
“Hey, are you okay?!”
Toya opens his eyes again just slightly before mumbling something in Vulcan and shutting them again.
“Toya, I can’t understand you. What’s wrong?”
Toya mumbles in Vulcan some more, but there’s one word in Japanese.
“Hurts…”
“I can see that. What’s wrong?”
Toya lets out an annoyed grumble before mumbling some more in Vulcan.
“Partner, I can’t understand you.”
Toya snaps and screeches something in Vulcan before putting his head in his hands.
Okay, if Akito knows Toya, and he does, then Toya’s probably asking for him to shut the fuck up and let him think.
Soon enough, Toya reaches out and grabs onto Akito’s shoulder, just past where his uniform covers it.
“Tricorder…”
Akito grabs his tricorder and hands it to Toya, and Toya looks at him like he’s a fucking idiot.
Oh. Wait. He’s asking for a medical tricorder.
He picks up Toya’s tricorder and hands it to him, and Toya scans himself before turning it to Akito.
“Partner, the readings are in Vulcan. I can’t read them.”
Toya sighs before pushing a few buttons, and suddenly the readings are in Japanese.
And Akito still doesn’t understand a word it says because it’s using medical terms that he doesn’t understand.
Toya says something in Vulcan again that Akito is about 99% sure means “You’re a fucking idiot.”
He snaps the tricorder closed and tosses it at Kohane, and she snaps it open the moment she catches it.
“Ah, I see. Elevated heart rate, altered brain chemistry, there’s something on this planet that’s messing with us.” She says.
Toya shakes his head and points to Kohane again.
“Eh?” She says.
Toya grumbles something in Vulcan and shakes Akito slightly.
“Partner, I still can’t understand you.” Akito says, and Toya looks so annoyed. It’s actually kinda cut— Ow!
Akito looks up, and Toya looks even more annoyed.
“Toya, the hell was that for?!” He yells, rubbing the spot where Toya smacked him, and Toya only gives him a look that says “I can read your mind, you absolute dumbass.”
“Sorry, sorry. What are you trying to tell me?”
Toya takes a breath before letting out a screech and punching his fist into the cave wall.
“Whoa, whoa! Toya, calm down!” Akito says, pulling Toya’s fist down and noticing that he split his knuckle open.
“God, okay, where’s your dermal regenerator?”
Toya rolls his eyes before reaching into his med kit and grabbing the dermal regenerator, aggressively running it over the cut on his hand.
“Hey, let me help—” Akito says, but Toya smacks his hand away and just glares at him. Don’t touch me.
“Okay, okay. I’m sorry.” Akito says, pulling his hands away from Toya.
The moment the cut on Toya’s hand vanishes, he tosses the dermal regenerator back into his med kit and pulls himself out of Akito’s lap. He paces over to Kohane and picks up his tricorder, scanning her before showing her the readings.
“What…? It’s not affecting me. Does it only affect Vulcan physiology?”
Toya spins his tricorder around and points the precision piece at Fuyune before showing Kohane the readings.
“…Oh, it’s not that it only affects Vulcan physiology. It seems like human physiology is immune to it, which is why it’s affecting Fuyu-chan more than Toya-kun.”
“Hm? But I feel fine.” Fuyune says, her tail curling confusedly.
“It seems like your physiology has a higher tolerance to the chemical. So even though it’s affecting you more, your body isn’t reacting to it yet.”
Toya lets out a relieved sigh, throwing his tricorder back into his med kit and laying his head on Akito’s shoulder.
“Oh, so your brain’s not workin’ right and so you’re having a hard time communicatin’ with us?” Akito asks, and Toya just gives a nod.
Toya grabs a Padd out of his med kit and stares at it, scrolling through it so fast that Akito’s head is spinning.
Well, not like he can read it anyway. It’s in Vulcan.
Toya clicks out of the book and into a keyboard, typing something in and showing it to Akito.
It’s written vertically, in looping swirls that Akito can’t make heads or tails out of.
“Huh? What’s that mean?”
“Toya.” Toya says, and Akito’s just getting more confused.
Toya types something else out, and shows it to Akito.
“Akito.” Toya says, and Akito’s starting to realize what he’s saying.
“Oh, our names, right?”
Toya smiles and nods, before typing something else out and pointing to each one as he speaks.
“An. Kohane.”
“Okay. So, what’s Tsukasa-senpai?”
Toya types it out, and shows it to Akito again.
“Okay. Then…”
Toya seems to have read his mind before he could finish his sentence, typing something out.
“Saki.”
“Gotcha.”
Suddenly, Akito feels a fuzzy tail tickling his neck as Fuyune leans over.
“Hm, I see. Your language is written vertically. Knowing what each of these spirals means… Fuyune would be…”
She grabs Toya’s phone from him, and Toya looks at her annoyedly before she turns the phone back.
Toya tenses up a little. She got it right and he’s so annoyed by that.
Toya snatches his phone back and rereads it before nodding and glaring at her.
“Uh, okay, Toya, why don’t you show me some of those words you taught me written down?”
Toya instantly turns to Akito, smacking Fuyune’s tail away before typing something out.
“Taluhk nash-veh k’dular.” He says, showing it to Akito.
“Right, that’s… Vulcan I love you, right?”
Toya smiles and nods, before repeating it.
“Taluhk nash-veh k’dular.”
“Huh? You just… Oh. I… uh… Tal uhk nash- veh k’dular?”
Toya giggles softly, and Akito just knows that if Toya remembered how to say it he would be bullied for sounding like a two year old again.
Suddenly, Toya speaks with a thick Vulcan accent.
“I love you.” He says, touching his nose to Akito’s.
“I love you too.” Akito replies, and he puts his index and middle finger out, while Toya touches his own to them and a telepathic rush goes through his skin, almost electric.
“Ozh'esta.” Toya mumbles, and Akito repeats after him. Again, the cute giggle.
Toya leans in for a kiss, but suddenly Fuyune’s tail gets between their faces.
And she says… something in her native language.
Ah, fuck. It’s started to affect her too.
Toya smacks her tail away and glares at her, but from the way that they’re yelling at each other, it’s clear they don’t understand a word the other is saying.
“Guys, calm down!” Akito yells, and Toya turns to him with a weird look.
He says something in Vulcan, but it’s nothing Akito knows.
“Toya, what are you trying to tell me?”
Toya reaches up to Akito’s face, mumbling something.
“Partner, calm down.”
Toya’s breathing quickens and he shakes his head, grabbing onto Akito’s uniform, his voice getting sharper and more aggressive.
Akito reaches up to Toya’s face and gently caresses it, trying to calm him down.
“Kohane, what’s happening?”
Kohane dives over to the med kit and grabs Toya’s tricorder, scanning Toya.
“The concentration of the chemical’s gotten larger! It seems like it’s blocking some cognitive functions, I don’t think he can understand us anymore!”
Kohane clicks a couple of buttons on the tricorder to change the display to Vulcan, and Toya sighs before mumbling something.
“Akito…” He starts, before mumbling in Vulcan again and burying his head in Akito’s shoulder.
Kohane starts speaking softly in a smooth tone, trying not to aggravate Toya further.
“This will soon be happening to Fuyu-chan too. I believe it’s also increasing feelings of paranoia, so just speak softly and try to keep Toya-kun calm.”
“Alright.” Akito replies, and Toya’s grip on Akito’s body gets stronger. God, he wishes he knew the Vulcan word for sorry right about now.
“Hey. Hey, Toya.” Akito whispers, and Toya raises his head out of Akito’s neck. “Tal uhk nash- veh k’dular.”
Toya leans in closer, locking lips with Akito. God, they don’t do this enough.
But the moment is broken by Fuyune again, shoving Toya away and off of Akito’s lap with a screech.
“That’s… probably the paranoia.” Kohane says, and Toya suddenly gets an icy glare in his eyes. Shit, he’s going to fight her.
An leaps into action, jumping between them.
“Hey, guys, calm down!” She starts. “Split up!”
Fuyune starts barking even harder, and Toya screeches at her in Vulcan.
Fuyune lunges at him, and An leaps between her and Toya, and Toya grabs her.
And he’s grabbed her phaser off her hip, and now has her hostage. Fuck.
“An-chan, stay calm!” Kohane yells. “Aggravating him will only get you shot!”
An bites her lip, but she nods and tries to even out her panicked breathing.
“Akito, I think he’ll listen to you.” An groans, though it’s clear it’s hard for her to speak through the grip Toya has on her body.
Akito gets up and tries to speak as softly as he can.
“Toya, calm down.”
Toya has this… really panicked look in his eyes as he starts screeching, and Akito doesn’t even know if Toya would make sense to someone who could actually speak Vulcan.
“I know you can’t understand me, but you hear the tone of my voice, right? Come on, those sharp ears of yours have gotta pick up that I don’t want to hurt you.”
Akito reaches out his hand, but Toya flinches away.
“Come on. Just let me come a little closer.”
Akito takes a step, and Toya jerks back.
“Toya, it’s me. Please, just trust me. You know I love you. Tal uhk nash- veh k’dular.”
Akito takes another step, and Toya doesn’t jerk back this time.
“Akito…” Toya starts, before mumbling something incoherently.
“Yeah. Yeah, I’m here. Just give me the phaser.” Akito finishes, holding his hand out.
Toya’s hand starts shaking, but he still hands Akito the phaser.
“Okay, now let her go.” Akito says, motioning to An.
Toya shakes his head, gripping onto her.
“Captain Tenma to Commander Shinonome!” Akito hears over his combadge, and Akito lets out a sigh of relief. Finally, they can talk to someone.
“Commander Shinonome here. I don’t suppose you speak Vulcan, do you?”
“Hm? Yes, I do. Why?”
Oh, thank the gods.
“Long story short, there’s something on this planet that’s affecting Toya and Fuyune badly. It looks like humans are immune to it, but it’s causing paranoia and blocking parts of their brains. Toya’s not understanding anything we’re saying and he’s just kinda… aggressively screaming in Vulcan.”
“Oh. I see. Toya?”
Toya looks up at the mention of his name, and Akito actually hears a word he knows. T’hy’la.
Soon enough, Tsukasa and Toya are having a conversation over Akito’s combadge and Akito sighs.
“What were you guys saying?”
“Toya’s worried that Shimizu’s going to hurt An because she got involved in their fight. He’s trying to keep her safe.”
“Don’t really feel safe right now…” An groans out. “He’s crushing me…”
Tsukasa sighs and switches back to Vulcan, repeating that to Toya.
Toya seems unnerved, and he instantly loosens his grip on An, saying something to her.
“He says he’s sorry.”
“It’s fine.” An says, slipping out of his grip, and Tsukasa repeats what she said in Vulcan.
Toya says something, and Tsukasa’s voice suddenly turns panicked.
“He says the levels of the chemical have started to reach toxic levels. Luckily, we called to say that we can cut through the interference and beam you up now!”
“Oh, thank god.” An says.
Akito picks up Toya’s med kit, putting the Padd back in it and closing it.
“We’re ready when you are.”
And soon enough, they’re beamed back onto the ship.
~
“Ngh…” Toya groans when he wakes up in Sick Bay. “Is the Universal Translator back up?”
“Yes, don’t worry.” Mafuyu says. “And you sound much more coherent.”
“Thank you. I apologize for worrying you.”
“Not your fault, Toya!” Saki chimes in, rushing over to tackle him in a hug. “It’s just a good thing that Onii-Chan and I still remember how to talk in Vulcan! We’re prepared if this ever happens again!”
Toya sighs and shakes his head.
“I remember now, didn’t something like this happen once before? A long time ago?”
“Yes, on the first Enterprise. Though that time it affected humans.”
“Yes, I remember now. If only I had managed to keep my wits about me, I may have been able to prevent myself from…”
Toya trails off, and Saki shakes her head.
“Don’t worry, Toya. It’s fine. Though, I don’t think Onii-chan’s going to let you go on another away mission for a bit.”
Toya sighs.
“I’m not complaining, they’re starting to get… incredibly tiring.”
Then the door to Sick Bay slides open, and Toya hears an incredibly familiar cry.
“TOOOOOOYAAAAAA!”
“…Good luck with that.” Saki says.