Lucky Shot

Disclaimer: I don't own any Star Trek characters except for Kevin Kowalski and Counselor Rodgers. And here's your quote: "Yes, they deserve to die, and I hope they burn in hell!" - Samuel L. Jackson as Carl Lee Hailey, A Time to Kill

Hello, folks! L1701E here, and I started writing this little tale when an idea came to my head about where Kowalski was during the events of the Star Trek movie. The idea also explained how a certain little minor character from the film survived the Narada's thrashing of a fleet of starships, and why she was unseen in the rest of the film. Anyway, enjoy!

Chapter 1: Introduction.

The USS Enterprise

"Hello, Lieutenant." The counselor, a reddish-blonde woman dressed in the blue Starfleet mini-dress uniform, smiled as she welcomed a man into her office.

"Hey there, Counselor Rodgers." A lanky, yet muscular young man smiled as he entered the room. His voice showed an English accent. He was wearing the standard red Starfleet uniform, with lieutenant's stripes on the sleeves. He also had on a tool belt around his waist. Unusually, he had shoulder-length dirty blond hair, tied in a neat ponytail. He was Kevin Kowalski, a technician on the Enterprise. Many viewed him as the Enterprise's resident rock star, due to his being a talented musician and his love of Earth rock music from the 1970s and 1980s. The son of a boxer and a stand-up comedienne, Kowalski was known for his pranks.

"Take a seat, Lieutenant Kowalski." Counselor Paula Rodgers smiled. Kowalski took a seat opposite from her. She started to write in her PADD. "First, I want to ask how you are doing." Kowalski shrugged.

"I'm doing okay, I guess." He then took a drink of water. "I do have another little project in the works, though."

"I thought your project was that new Holodeck thing." Rodgers blinked.

"I finished it. It's been a big hit." Kowalski grinned. "You should try it out! There's some great simulations in it."

"Perhaps I will." Rodgers nodded. "...have you been having any troubles about the Farragut?"

"Not since last week." Kowalski admitted.

"That's good." Rodgers nodded, writing in her PADD. "I know it is hard for you, being one of the only two survivors of that ship. In fact, I have an appointment with the other survivor this afternoon." Kowalski then burst out laughing. "What's so funny, Lieutenant?"

"Oh, you'll have to be careful with her." Kowalski warned with a chuckle. "She can be a real spitfire. We caught her and her last therapist in bed together. What a night that was. Diplomats gone mad, crazed chickens, and a drunk Captain Kirk singing Eric Clapton. Great night."

"Yes, I've heard." Rodgers nodded. "As I'm new, you're going to have to relay me your story of how you two managed to survive the destruction of the Farragut."

"That's in me report." Kowalski reminded. "That's already known. You don't need to ask me."

"Yes, but I would like to hear it in your own words." Rodgers explained. "I want to hear how you remember it."

"Well..." Kowalski sighed. "It happened like this. You see, Captain Benton of the Farragut was having me repair a shuttlecraft that was damaged in an earlier mission..."

The Shuttlecraft Bay of the USS Farragut, shortly before the fleet's battle with the Narada

I must remain inside this silent web of sorrow... The voice of Ian Gillan blasted into Kowalski's ears from a small music player as the young lieutenant started to solder together a circuit in the shuttlecraft's control panel. The young lieutenant was also quietly singing along. Unbeknownst to him, two figures were walking towards the shuttle bay. The two figures were conversing. One was a tall man with balding black hair and a mustache, wearing the gold Starfleet uniform. The other was a curvaceous green-skinned redhead, dressed in the red cadet's uniform. She was carrying a computer under her arm.

"Now, young lady, I must warn you..." The man warned the redhead. His voice showed a more upper-class English accent, unlike Kowalski's cockney-influenced voice. "Lieutenant Kowalski is a bit...odd."

"I've dealt with some oddballs in the Academy. I'll be fine, sir." The redhead waved him off.

"Quite." He cleared his throat, and called towards the lieutenant. "Lt. Kowalski..." Kowalski continued his work, not hearing him. "Lt. Kowalski..." Kowalski still worked. "KOWALSKI!" Kowalski jumped up and turned off his music. He pulled up his mask and turned off his torch as he turned around and exited the shuttlecraft. "What's up, sir?" The redhead grinned.

Hey, this assignment may not be so bad after all. He's actually kinda cute! She thought.

"Lieutenant Kowalski, I know you've been asking for help in repairing the shuttlecraft." The man, Captain Thomas Benton, remembered.

"Yeah I have, sir." Kowalski nodded. He pulled a cloth out of his tool belt and started wiping his hands on it. "Red here any good with computers? I need someone who's good with software. I'm no hacker, sir."

"She obtained spectacular grades in programming at the Academy." Benton explained.

"And I didn't even have to sleep with any of the teachers to get it!" The redhead grinned, making Kowalski burst out laughing.

"Oh, I like her already!" Kowalski laughed. Benton groaned.

Orions... "Kowalski, this is Cadet Gaila. Gaila, this is Kevin Kowalski."

"Nice to meet ya." Kowalski smiled, shaking Gaila's hand. "Just Gaila, huh? No last name?"

"It's difficult for humans to pronounce, so I often drop it." Gaila explained with a smile. "Kowalski, huh? Strange name."

"Me dad's Polish." Kowalski explained.

"I trust that you two will be able to repair this shuttlecraft?" Benton asked.

"No problem, sir." Kowalski grinned, giving Benton a jaunty salute. Gaila had walked over to the shuttlecraft to examine it. Benton quickly leaned to Kowalski.

"Kowalski, you had better be careful around her. You know what they say about the Orion women." Benton warned. The younger Englishman looked at Gaila, then back at Benton.

"Oh yeah, she is brimming with viciousness and cunning." Kowalski remarked dryly. He knew perfectly well about the seductive powers of the Orion female, but much of it was legend and exaggeration, built up by wild-eyed cadets and explorers. "Come on! That's an old pulp magazine stereotype!"

"Quite. I'll leave you two to your work, then." Benton walked off, letting Kowalski walk to the shuttle. "Oh, and Kowalski..."

"Yes, sir?"

"For God's sake, at some point, make an appointment with the ship's barber and cut your hair..." Benton groaned tiredly as he walked away. He didn't know why he bothered anymore. He told Kowalski to cut his hair a thousand times, but the young technician never did. How he got away with it in the Academy was anyone's guess. Gaila blinked at Kowalski's ponytail.

"Is it against Earth custom for males to have long hair?" The Orion blinked. Kowalski shrugged.

"Not really. He just doesn't like it being long. Benton's all prim-and-proper, martinet type of deal. He's a bit of a pompous arse. Good captain, but he lets it get to his head. Acts like he's God's gift to the starship on occasion."

"Ah, I see." Gaila nodded. She then smiled. "You should keep it like that. It's refreshing seeing someone wear their hair a little differently on occasion."

"Yeah, thanks." Kowalski smiled, fingering his ponytail. "It's a holdover from me days back home in London. I was in a band, then."

"A band?" Gaila blinked. "You play music?"

"Yup." Kowalski grinned. "I still do play. You play any instruments?"

"Not really." Gaila admitted. "I sing a little, and I like messing around with that one instrument, the uh...tambourine, yeah." She then looked around. "What's exactly wrong with the shuttle? It looks alright."

"Believe me, it looked worse before I started on it." Kowalski explained. "I'm great with repairing physical things, but when it comes to programs and all that, I'm lost. I needed someone who knows their ones and zeroes, if ya know what I mean." Gaila laughed.

"Lead me to the computer core of this thing and let me work my magic." The Orion grinned. Kowalski bowed dramatically at the shuttle's door.

"After you, luv." Gaila laughed as she walked in.

"You know, after we finish up here..." The Orion shot Kowalski a seductive smirk. "Maybe I can work my magic on you." Kowalski chuckled.

"I appreciate the offer, but I never hook up with girls I just meet. Friend of mine did that once, and it led to some crazy times." The blond-haired Englishman explained. The redhead raised an eyebrow.

"Really?"

"Yup." Kowalski nodded. "Let's just say it involved a drunk furious preacher, a van, a couple explosions, the police, some gun play and gratuitous violence, and a lot of very angry zebras." Gaila blinked.

"What're zebras?"

"Four-legged animals native to Africa on Earth." Kowalski explained. "They're really neat. You know what a horse is, right?" Gaila nodded. She saw a horse once. Someone arrived at the Academy riding one. "Imagine a horse that is white with black stripes. And that's a zebra, essentially."

"Wow." The Orion blinked. "Sounds like you have some very interesting friends."

"Yeah. Ol' Andy was a wild man." Kevin chuckled.

"Sounds like he was a lot of fun." Gaila chuckled as she opened a panel on the shuttle's floor, revealing the computer core of the shuttlecraft. "How exactly did the shuttlecraft get busted up?"

"Uh, a mission, I believe." Kowalski remembered. "The shuttle was rescuing some kidnapped dignitary and it got caught in a firefight. Took some bad hits. One of the engines exploded."

"Shouldn't you have had a repair team helping you with this?" Gaila realized, pulling a cord out of her computer and connecting it to the computer core. "If the shuttle was so damaged, why would the captain have you fix it all by yourself?"

"I did." Kowalski explained. "I'm just finishing up here, really. Just got to get that control panel back together again." He then eyed his music player. "Hey Green Jeans, you like music?"

"Who doesn't? I prefer 22nd Century techno myself." Gaila answered as she typed, unaware of Kowalski's grumbling about techno simply being another term for disco music. "Geez, some of these programs are really badly corrupted. I may have to rebuild some of these from the ground up. Dammit."

"I like to listen to music when I work." Kowalski explained as he turned on his music player, and pressed a button on it. "Makes the work less stressful. Benton hates it, but he's not the one fixing this thing." The radio started playing a keyboard note. Gaila blinked.

"What is that?"

"Deep Purple." Kowalski explained. "Me favorite band. Their music is a couple hundred years old, but it's still absolutely fantastic. This is one of their most famous songs: 'Perfect Strangers'."

"I've never heard music like that before." The Orion cadet admitted.

"Yeah, I love this stuff." Kowalski smiled. "So, you're gonna have to rebuild some programs, huh?"

"Yeah." Gaila nodded. "You're lucky, handsome. You got yourself someone who is more than just a nice body helpin' ya."

"Yeah, Benton said you'd try this." Kowalski smirked.

"And I suppose you're one of those who believe that all of us Orion chicks are sex-crazed animal women?" Gaila raised an eyebrow. "Okay, I will admit, I am sex-crazed."

"No, he said to me..." Kowalski then started imitating Benton's more upper-class accent. "'Be careful, Lieutenant, you know what they say about the Orion women'. And I said to 'im, 'Yeah, she is brimming with viciousness and cunning'." The redhead burst out laughing.

"Yeah, I had to admit, I think the Captain is a bit uptight." Gaila confessed. "Maybe he just needs to get his wife to nail him a bit more often."

"Good luck tryin', luv!" Kowalski laughed. "I doubt he's seen a naked woman in his life."

"Maybe I can change that at some point." Gaila grinned.

The USS Enterprise, the present day

"That's a fantastic story and all Lieutenant, but it still doesn't explain how the two of you managed to escape the Farragut." Rodgers frowned. "There have been some rumors you two fled the ship."

"We did not flee." Kowalski scowled. "Yes, if it weren't for that shuttlecraft, we'd both be dead. But let me tell you something. We did not jump in it and fly off like a couple of cowards when the Narada blasted the Farragut to kindle. In fact, the shuttle caused us to practically miss the battle! Let me explain..."

Well, well, well! Looks like Kowalski's little tale is about to pick up! What will happen next? How was the shuttle involved? Find out in the next chapter!