Copyright Marketa J. Zvelebil
Sulu stretched and sighed. This must truly be the most spectacular shore leave he'd ever had or ever will have. First, that amazing hike through the rainforest. He wanted to take a cutting of everything. Only the consciousness of his mass allowance restrained him.
Then the three day white water jaunt. The bruises were fading nicely, thank you. Now...he was lying on the most beautiful pink sanded beach he'd ever seen, with a gorgeous female at his side. A cloudless sky, superbly coloured sea...he didn't really think he'd died and gone to Heaven. Heaven probably didn't have all the 'mod.cons'. He reached for his drink.
"Come for a swim," his companion touched his arm. The events of the night before replayed in Sulu's mind. Oh yes!
"Mmm...not yet. Start without me," he murmured, smiling at her. He really was just too comfortable to get up. She rose, and trickled a handful of warm, soft sand onto Hikaru's middle. Laughing, she ran to the water's edge, expecting him to follow, in their usual game.
He closed his eyes and streched again. 'In a minute,' he thought. How different this was from the nightmares he'd been having aboard the Enterprise. They were all nearly the same: It was cold...space cold. Utterly dark, as though light had never existed. He was falling endlessly. He was inconcievably alone.
---
Sulu woke up with a start. Everything round him was unfamiliar, the sounds and the smell. This was not the Sickbay of the Enterprise. Where was he? He felt panic set in.
"Hey! He is awake!" the cheerful voice of Chekov stopped the rise of panic.
"Oh...Hikaru, we missed you," Uhura was there, taking his hand into hers and squeezing it, while Chekov was slapping him on his shoulder. He looked from the one to the other. Uhura had tears in her eyes. Chekov was grinning like an Argelian crocodile.
"What happened?" he croaked in a weak voice as fragments of memories swam through his mind.
"The Captain will come and tell you everything. We mustn't stay too long or the doctors here will string us up in the desert." Uhura smiled.
"At least tell me, where am I?" pleaded Sulu.
"On Vulcan, at the Academy hospital." Chekov said laughing softly at Sulu's surprise. Just then a nurse came bringing medicine for her patient. She allowed both Uhura and Chekov to stay as long as they promised not to tire the patient. Soon they were joined by the Captain, and McCoy. Spock was on a special retreat, Sulu was informed, as they told him exactly what happened.
---
Three weeks later Uhura rushed into Sulu's room at the convalescent's hostel (for out-worlders) where Sulu was being pampered back to absolute health.
"Sulu, hurry up - we're leaving. New Star Fleet orders to pick up Offer. You can finish you 'vacation' back in the Sickbay of the Enterprise."
Sulu hurriedly got his things together, with the help of Uhura, and hoped that any further convalescing would be done back at his helm.
---
Lieutenant Offer sat dejected and angry in a small cabin of the Vulcan trade ship. He was, as far as he knew, the sole survivor of his landing party. 'What had gone wrong? Why?' These questions occupied his mind as he prepared a report for Star Fleet and his Captain.