Inverse

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Prologue

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Her face was pale as moonlight and her hair was spun gold. Just being in her presence was like drinking in a fairytale. Captain Kirk reached out hesitantly, feeling like a nervous schoolchild, in order to caress that lock of sunlight floating near her ear; but the further his hand stretched, the farther away the woman seemed. Puzzlement overcame Kirk, as well as frustration. There always seemed to be something in the way of him and a good old-fashioned relationship.

"Captain."

Her voice was strange, ill-suited for such a creature of divine beauty. An angel should have the voice of mother earth… or Aphrodite; yet hers was deep and uninspiring - strangely familiar now that Kirk thought about it. Her tones soothed a foreign part of his soul…

"Captain?"

The vision disappeared with a jolt and Captain Kirk sat upright in his chair, the appearance of the bridge sending his brain into high gear. For a split second there were five sets of eyes trained on him, but as soon as awareness of his surroundings set in they all returned to the consoles they belonged to – with one exception. Spock had a slanted eyebrow raised, coupled what Kirk guessed to be a disapproving stare. Kirk tried to shake off the weariness he felt as he addressed his First Officer with a tone that attempted to be casual, "Yes Mr. Spock, what do you have to report?"

"Velar II reports that the transportation of the L2B2 Vaccine has been delivered and requests that you and Doctor McCoy join them for a formal supper. They wish to show their gratitude."

Kirk massaged the bridge of his nose. He was beginning to get a headache, but that was natural after a double shift.

"Please inform them that I politely decline, we have another engagement in twelve hours and as much as I would love to visit - duty calls." Inwardly Kirk groaned. Velar was a gorgeous planet known for its exquisite cuisine. Their offer was almost worth making Starfleet wait.

Spock nodded smartly and joined Uhura at her station to relay the message. Within the hour the Enterprise was set to leave Orbit and head to Starbase 14.

Kirk leaned back in his chair, a portion of him glad to see the usual lay-out of inky blackness spread out before him on the screen. Pinpricks of stars were much more enticing then the colorful concave cropping of whatever planet they happened to be orbiting. The gaping void called to him, and like a victim of the pied piper he followed. Perhaps it was obsession… maybe it was destiny, but space was a part of Kirk's soul – as it was with many starship captains.

Jim was so caught up in staring into the cosmos that he didn't notice doctor McCoy slip out of the Turbolift and lock eyes with Spock. They shared a knowing look before the doctor leaned against Kirk's chair and adopted a face that radiated concern.

"Jim. I think you had enough chair time for one day."

The Captain nearly jumped at McCoy's sudden presence and instantly went on the defensive. He spared a moment to glare at the back of his Science Officer's head. It didn't take a rocket scientist to figure out who lured the ship's mother hen to the Bridge.

"I'm all right Bones. I just need some coffee." His fingers went to the button on his armrest that would summon his Yeoman, but Bones shooed his hand away from it.

"Codswallop and you know it. You've been running yourself ragged. I don't think you've slept in the last twenty-four hours! You're not a machine. Spock might be able to get away with it because he's a walking calculator… but you're goin' to steer us into an asteroid if you keep this up."

Jim chuckled, "McCoy, the day I steer us into an asteroid will be the day I-"

He never got to finish the sentence.

A large explosion rocked the ship, sending McCoy flying over the command chair and careening into the floor. Kirk was wrenched painfully to the side then flopped unceremoniously to his knees. Dazed, he tried to get his bearings, but the wail of the red alert siren split his thoughts. The bridge was suddenly bathed in vivid crimson lights, making everyone instinctively scramble to their stations. Uhura untangled herself from her chair and went to help the doctor who seemed to be the one who suffered the most damage. There was a trickle of blood running from his forehead down his cheek.

"Is everyone all right?" Kirk gasped as he slipped himself back into his chair and locked eyes on the screen. There seemed to be a wormhole in the process of opening. From its gaping maw came the dregs of space debris and some more minor explosions. It was as if hell itself was pouring into their world.

Sulu and Chekov both were fine, minor bruises did not prevent them from being all business within thirty seconds. "Helm is operating at full capacity, engines are functional, shields are now up and absorbing the rest of the blow… It was a massive explosion, source isn't from any known weapon."

Uhura was listening to reports from the heads of the dozens of stations across the ship. "Two casualties and over a dozen injuries. Doctor, you better head back to sick bay, Nurse Chapel says the chemical stores in Lab 3 have been compromised."

"Wait a moment doctor."

McCoy froze at the turbolift while Kirk looked to speaker in puzzlement. "What is it Spock?"

Spock stood up and stared at the screen with just as much bewilderment as the caption and the CMO. "The debris from that wormhole and the particles from the explosion... they are the result of an anti-matter containment breach. There are dilithium fragments scattered over several kilometres…" His eyebrows knitted slightly. "The amount of dillithium is standard for a mining vessel, or a Constitution class Federation vessel. The materials of the wreckage indicates the latter."

Kirk tried to swallow this information, but disbelief was written all over his face. "The closest Constitution class starship is the Potemkin and she's not even close to this sector."

"I am aware of that Captain. Also, Lieutenant Sulu, magnify the viewing screen centering on the co-ordinates twenty-two-mark-zero-zero-three."

Instantly the screen zoomed in on an object that looked to be an obsidian coffin floating in space. To the average Starfleet officer it was easily identifiable as a single escape pod. They were rarely used for emergencies in which one could not evacuate via transporter. That aside, what really captured everyone's attention was the registry number that identified the craft it was jettisoned from.

NC-1701 USS Enterprise

"No way…." Sulu breathed as he looked at the pod. "That can't be ours…"

Spock was running some figures through the computer. "All our pods are accounted for and as expected, our scans cannot penetrate the protective shielding around the object. It is functioning however, indicating that there is life within and it is being successfully held in stasis." Spock looked to Kirk with his usual stoic mask." Your orders Captain?"

Kirk couldn't take his eyes off the sleek black box. "Let's bring it in… but don't lower our defences. We don't know what kind of radiation could be spilling through that wormhole. Chekov, lock on with the tractor beam and pull it through our aft shield. Try to swing it into the shuttle bay if you can, I'll have maintenance ready to catch it. Mr. Spock, you have the conn – try to figure out just what else is spewing from that thing. McCoy, you're with me…" Kirk put the ship into yellow alert and buzzed Scotty down in engineering. "Scotty, I need you in the Shuttle bay in two minutes, bring Davis and Anderson with you - phasers set to stun."

"Aye Capt'n"

Kirk wasted no time informing personnel in the Shuttle Bay to be ready for their arrival and that of the black box. He entered the Turbolift, Bones at his side trying to clear the blood from his own face. The doctor used a dermal regenerator to patch up his scalp as Kirk ordered the lift to take them to deck seven.

Scotty met them outside of the Shuttle Bay with two security officers lagging behind him. He was limping slightly on his left leg, causing McCoy to run him over with his medical tricorder. He grumbled something about a sprained ankle and pulled out a spray.

"Felt that last bump in the road pretty hard; sent Singer to Sick Bay with a broken wrist… could have been worse mind ye, but I thought we were smooth sailin'? What'd you pick up?"

The Captain opened the Shuttle bay doors and slipped inside. "I don't know Scotty… I'm hoping you'd tell me."

As they entered, several engineers and maintenance personal were running around clearing the deck from anything that shook loose when the wormhole appeared. Others were trying to co-ordinate the more sensitive tractor beams into aiding the arrival of the small black pod into the bay. Everything was organized chaos, but at least nothing seemed to be going wrong – for once. The sleek seven foot box made it through the atmospheric shielding without a fuss and touched down neatly several feet from the Captain.

Scotty was all over the pod in seconds. "Unbelievable. Just look at those scorch marks. This poor bloke was seconds from being a baked potato; if he jettisoned any later he wouldn't have made it." His eyes roamed over the registration marks, then did a double take. "Well I'll be… this ain't possible. I know for a fact all our pods are still in their casings. Looks like someone's been raiding Starfleet's stores back home and selling our wares underground."

Kirk relaxed a little at his senior engineer's speculation. "It would be hard to steal from the Fleet, but I suppose it is possible."

"Can we stop yaking and open the darn thing up? I have patients waiting for me back in Sick bay." McCoy said tersely as he gave Scotty a pointed look.

The Scotsman smiled apologetically and went to work. He input a code into the damaged touchpad of the container and stood back to allow it to adjust to the change in pressure.

There was a small hiss of air and a brief cloud of particles, which McCoy hastily explained were harmless and only meant to clear the surrounding air of contaminants. The lid of the pod slid back releasing the sound of a steady beeping noise coming from the interior. It was muffled somewhat by the contents within.

Two figures were crammed into the small compartment normally meant snugly for one. Both were on their sides; one right-side up, whilst the other was forced somewhat uncomfortably into the remaining space. Both were wearing Starfleet uniforms and both were female, but other than that the similarities ended.

In science blues was a rather tall Vulcan with short hair. She did not look nearly as comfortable as the Terran in command gold and matching hair. What was most striking about the pair was their rank. The blonde woman was sporting command stripes denoting that she was a Captain, while the Vulcan was her second in command.

Kirk, McCoy and Scotty all stared at the two females crammed within the escape pod in stunned silence. It took a moment for the Captain to clear his throat and exclaim, "… there are no women assigned the rank of Captain within Starfleet."

McCoy stared at the pair in the pod with bewilderment. "Not only that, there are currently no Vulcans in Starfleet - with one exception."

Captain Kirk stretched out his hand to touch the cheek of the unconscious Vulcan female crammed within the container. His fingers traced her jawbone till his grip rested on her chin. From his touch there came a shuddered breath and a slight fluttering of eye lashes. They parted, revealing eyes the color of warm chocolate – familiar, human. They stared at each other, taking a long minute for neither could comprehend the presence of the other.

Kirk was the first to break the silence as he breathed the question, "Spock?"

Author's Notes:

This is hastily written, and I'm almost ashamed to put it up, but I needed to submit SOMETHING to get me posting again. I have two different stories mulling around in my head... this one is one is much more amusing then the other. Please review... I'm interested to see how many people will be interested in a gender-bend fanfiction.