I lost my footing, falling back onto the hot sand as my weapon, a lirpa, slipped from my sweating palms. I feel I should mention a lirpa has a bladed end as well as a blunt end. A very reliable weapon might I say. This planet is very hot as well, you know? I'd estimate the temperature now to be 110°F, or around 40°C. I'm sure you think that it'd make you burn alive, but it is bearable to humans. The atmosphere is also very thin, making me worn out at this point. I was so light headed. The captain had gone into a sort of Vulcan heat, or blood fever a week before this battle. We had been fighting for about an hour now. I also had earned a very large cut across my chest during so.
My captain stood over me like a predator just about to pounce on his prey. His eyes were untamed and flaring like a wildfire.
He still had his lirpa in hand and he held the blade above my face. I watched as it reflected the sun every few moments. I'm pretty sure he was circling around my head with it. In this moment I was pretty sure I'd die. Jim had basically won and if he didn't complete this final step he could also face death. Truthfully, I'd rather die at his hand than him die due to something uncontrollable. I closed my eyes and I could hear McCoy yelling in the background. He sounded so distant in this moment, like he was yelling from a mile away.
For a long while everything seemed to go silent. I could hear my captain painting and felt as he shifted in the sand. The blade is coming down. I braced myself, trying to close my eyes tighter and go into a ‘happy place’ as some people do I assume.
I felt a sudden pain on the right side of my head. It took me a moment or two to realize it was my ear. I would later learn that a good portion of the top was chopped off by the lirpa. I could feel the warm blood trickle down the side of my head and I finally opened my eyes. Jim stared down at me with that same wild look in his eyes. He suddenly fell closer to my body, our noses touched. An odd feeling certainly, never before had I been so physically close to the captain. He stayed like this for what felt like an hour, well it may have been only a few minutes. Just as I opened my mouth to speak I felt a firm pressure on my lips. A kiss..A kiss?