Disclaimer: The boys, the ship, and everyone else belong to Paramount.

Once again, I'm just playing.  Lyrics to "The Dark Lady" are by Bernadette

Gillece.



Warning: We're dealing with The Wrath of Khan, here, so Spock dies.  Since

we all know he comes back, if this bums you out, go watch ST III for Eris'

sake.

---



As soon as I gave her back to him I knew I was dead.  She was very

tolerant of his dalliances, and when she thought she had lost him she

resigned herself to that.  I told him once, years ago, that he would not

survive us both, but I was wrong.  I was the one who would not survive.



I walked the corridors in a daze, feeling her around me.  I could feel the

decks throb under my feet, and I knew--I *knew* she was lying to Mr.

Scott.  She didn't feel like a crippled ship.  I could hear her heartbeat,

clear and strong.  Scott must feel it too, I thought desperately.  He must

know.  She laughed then, this creature of metal.  She would crush me

inside of her.



She had thought he was mine forever.  She had respected that choice.  And

when I gave him back...she knew I would take him again.  And I did, that

very night, in the warmth of my cabin.  I had pulled his body against me,

cried out into the blackness, felt him shudder and come beneath me,

listened to him call me his love.  She would have killed me anyway, but I

provoked her.  This will not be a pleasant death.



Engineering was not so far from me.  I could almost see McCoy and Scott

through the doors.  She laughed under the soles of my feet.  This

mad ship--she was insane. She would have killed all of us--all these

children that I was sworn to protect, even Jim--in her murder of me.



The doors opened in front of me, and I could see in Scott's face that he

knew.  The ship was doing something she didn't *feel* like she was doing.

He was frightened.  I was terrified, remembering the taste of Jim in my

mouth, the cool sweetness of human skin, the way he arched his back when I

touched him just so.  These were things she could never have.  She knew he

was mine now, but she would not permit it.



It wasn't difficult to fix the problem.  It was minor, as I had known it

would be.  Once she had killed me, she helped me repair it.  My mother had

a word for women like her: bitch.  The bitch.



At least she let me say goodbye to him. I wanted to kiss him, to devour him 

with my mind and my body--but I was blind and trapped and dying, and all I

could do was...say goodbye.



			* * * 



James Kirk caressed the sheets on Spock's bed, his eyes troubled.  He lay

down on it, and for an instant thought he felt the Vulcan beside him.  But

there was only empty space.  He knotted his fingers into the sheets,

arched his back, and screamed.



			* * *



In the rec room, Uhura, who knew the ways of some women, sang an old

Terran song.



	...The ship steered herself to the heart of the gale

	Where a wave swept the maiden out over the rail

	Sweet revenge--on an unfaithful lover.



	That night, the Lady drank a toast.

	She said, "Here's to your lovely lady host!

	Your one true love!"

	No voices replied.

	And the Dark Lady smiled.



The song ended on a shivering note, and Kirk's scream seemed to sound in

its dying.



---

End.