A/N: Hey everybody, this is a collaboration between me and a good friend of mine. So heads up, our writing styles may vary slightly. Also this story revolves more around our OC characters, though not romantically, than it does the cannon characters and there will be hints of Spork and other pairings.

Disclaimer: Neither myself nor my friend own Star Trek in any way shape or form, if we did it would be very different.

Volatus (in latin) - flying , flight

This chapter takes place five years before the Narada Event.

Chapter One: Kale

In the vast ocean of space, the cargo ship Volatus was on it's way to deliver supplies to a small newly established colony. Though it's course now was somewhat altered from the one chartered in order to cut time down to something more manageable to the crew, who were anxious to return to their homes or simply receive a break from their long journey. Six weeks of cramped quarters, low quality food, and the ships constant need for maintenance were rattling nerves. However, not enough to cause out right fighting but enough to cause general annoyance for nearly everyone involved.

Two of the seemingly content crew members were currently playing a game of rock, paper, scissors to see who would get first pick of the ships endless list of maintenance jobs. They stood just in the doorway of their shared bedroom, one smirking the other frowning. "Paper beats rock, little bro." the winner said grinning. "That is such bullshit and you know it Kale. How the hell does paper beat rock?" the loser said frowning. "Those are the rules Jack; you should know that by now." The Argyle brothers began walking down the corridors to the engineering section.

Kale, the oldest of the two, had light brown hair that was cut short and messy, and his eyes were light grey color. He was currently wearing a lightweight black jacket over a grey t-shirt and blue jeans. His younger brother Jack had opted for a longer haircut and his eyes were a warm brown. He was wearing red long sleeved shirt and light blue jeans.

"I still say phasers should be included in the game. You win all the time."

"Then nobody would win. Besides you beat me last week."

"Yeah, once last week out of the 42 days we've been in space."

Kale rolled his eyes at his brother's complaints. "Be glad we have this job in the first place. Do you know how hard I had to work to convince Andrew that we'd be able to handle this? It took two months to prove to the guy that we were good enough to replace him."

"Which you didn't have to do by the way, I was doing just fine working in dad's car shop."

"No you weren't. I knew how much you wanted to go out into space. You could have joined Starfleet; you have the scores for it."

"I couldn't just abandon you like that Kale. Not after what happened to mom and dad." Jack said placing a hand on his brother's shoulder. The older of the two smiled and gave Jack a playful shove, "Stop acting like I would have died without you. I'm not your goddamn mother and that was a long time ago. You're starting to creep me out."

"Right and you didn't have a panic attack when the car I was working on blew up." Jack pointed out. Kale paused, as if to contemplate that bit of information. "Your right that little experiment nearly killed you, if you joined Starfleet your likely to blow up a whole ship. You're never leaving my sight again little brother!" Kale chuckled before grabbing Jack in a headlock. "Ack! Kale stop being so freaking over dramatic, let me go!" Jack shouted trying to get free of his brother's grip.

Eventually Jack broke away and their conversation continued as it had in previous days. The topic jumping from bits of gossip around the ship to recent engineering feats that they would have liked to get in on.

This was their normalcy, a constant that was appreciated. There were plenty of times Kale had been sure he had lost everything. There was the fire that took his parents and home, the aforementioned explosion that nearly killed his brother. He would never admit aloud but if his brother had joined with Starfleet, he would have worried. He knew the statistics fairly well, new recruits had to be careful not to be injured or killed more so than those who had the experience to handle bad situations. He was grateful for this normalcy.

That's when the world tilted and the ship gave a shuddering groan. Normal crumbled away into chaos. He and fellow crewmembers struggled to stay upright, and listen to the static filled message from the bridge. They were being attacked and were trying to escape, engineers needed to get to their stations right away. That was all the information they got, it was all the information they really needed.

There was no time to argue over who had to do what. The focus had to remain on keeping the ship functioning long enough to get away or call for help. Kale let his mind fixate on the task at hand and not the overwhelming fear that threatened to swallow him. He allowed things to be cut down in short bursts, taking things one step at a time.

He hadn't noticed Jack running off.

The ship had been hit on the portside, but still able to escape. People ran to fix the damage which sparked and flared from various panels. Panic was loud and all too visible among the crew. The cargo ship rocked again as it was hit once more. Too much damage to the engines now, escape by warp was impossible but they still had impulse power.

They were turning away from the attacking ship, heading for a nearby planet.

There was still hope to escape.

The Volutas gave another shudder, and sparks flew from electrical panels. Metal groaned under the stress, there wasn't enough power to pull away from the gravitation of the planet. Someone had miscalculated their trajectory.

The attacking ship no longer dogged them, the job was already done. They were going to crash.

Kale was unsure of when he left his station, or if he even had done it of his own volition. All he knew was the pull of gravity, the singular moment of flight when they hit the ground, and the darkness that engulfed him with a resounding crack.

He was unsure of how long he had been there, unconscious to everything around him. It was the sounds of panic that filled his ears once again but also sounds of pain and crying. His eyes opened to find only more darkness edged with dim light. He laid there for some time, staring at the ceiling, dim light slowly becoming brighter and world clearer. When he finally turned his head to see what was happening, the sight of survivors searching for the injured and dead greeted him. Suddenly a man he knew as Henry was beside him, leaning over him with a worried expression.

"Kale, Jesus your alive! How are you feeling? Can ya stand up?" Henry's voice was rushed and panicked.

Kale nodded slowly and pushed himself up to a sitting position with the man's help, "I feel like someone took a bat to my head. What's going on?"

Henry just shook his head, "A horrible mess that's what. Come on, we need to get you out of the wreckage before something worse decides to happen."

Kale allowed himself to be pulled up and helped towards the exit. As they walked, careful to avoid twisted broken metal and still sparking wires, Kale could see the extent of the damage that had been done. People were shouting, digging through collapsed pieces of the ships ceilings searching for others, there were far off voices calling for help. At least there was one good sign. This crew might not be Starfleet but at least they acted quickly to help each other.

Kale's mind drifted towards his little brother and he looked at the faces around him in hopes that he would see him. There was no such luck but he knew that his brother must have been around here somewhere. Jack wouldn't die on him that easily.

It took several manual jeffery tube ladders to the lower deck to get to the hole in the ship that people were now using as an entrance and exit. Outside of the ship wasn't any better. From what he could see, the crash had torn and burned a long stretch of trees and made a ditch of dirt. The dead had been placed off to the side in rows, scavenged blankets from the ship covering their forms, while the injured sat on the other side. Those uninjured tended to them the best they could but there were some who seemed to be too far-gone.

Henry moved Kale over to a tree and made him sit down. "Stay here, alright? I need to go help search for other survivors." Henry said pausing only to see Kale nod before leaving him alone.

Kale would have gotten up to help, he would have gone searching for his brother, but the pounding dizziness in his skull kept him firmly grounded. So he sat there, watching as the numbers of the dead and injured steadily grew. He closed his eyes, to rest for only awhile.

However, he woke to find Henry was standing in front of him, asking him to wake up, and the sky was now dark. A fire had been lit to light the area. Kale stared at Henry's face, taking in the look of pity and sadness.

"What? What's going on?" he asked fear clutching at his heart.

"Kale, we found your brother…" There was no explanation needed, the tone and the look on his face said enough. The words only made it worse. "I'm sorry, Kale, he was already gone by the time we got to him …"

Kale was up in an instant, looking past Henry to see the others settle a new body among the rows that grown since he had fallen asleep. Breath caught in his lungs and for a moment, he felt all too numb. He did not know he had been walking over until he was already there, the words his mind had been repeating now tumbling from his mouth.

No, no, no, Jack, "no, no, no, oh god, no, no, no, no," you're not supposed to die, I promised to take care of you Jack, nonononono NO!

His own hands tugged at his hair, as if the pain would wake him from this nightmare. But he couldn't, his brother, his friend, lay there, eyes closed, skin pale, cold, and smudged and cut but not bleeding, the was blood crusted over and hard.

There was no life to be found in this body.

He hadn't realized that he had fallen to his knees until he was holding Jacks hand, almost willing there to be life again but knowing it was too late for any of that.

Half-heartedly he listened to someone explain, "There wasn't anything we could do, from what we can tell his spine had snapped during the crash."

He didn't hear the rest, apologies and pity. Nobody else had brought family along on this trip even though it should have been relatively safe. He had thought Jack would be safe, shit like this wasn't supposed to happen. Why were they attacked in the first place? They didn't have weapons, the ship wasn't built for battle, they weren't carrying cargo that was all that special, hell they weren't even part of Starfleet!

He hadn't even realized he was sobbing until he felt a hand on his trembling shoulders, "You can't stay here all night…"

Kale looked up but couldn't place the name to the face in the dim fire light and neither did he want to. He shook his head in reply and shoved the hand off his shoulder.

"Leave me alone…" he muttered miserably.

"You need to leave the body alone. It's not healthy." the man urged.

Anger boiled up unexpectedly, Kale had no idea where it came from over the sadness he was feeling, but he shouted, "I said fuck off!"

He watched the man back off and eventually leave to join the others around the fire. Kale looked away and stayed to watch over his brother, if only to keep any alien animals from taking him. As he sat there, he looked up at the rows of dead. His brother was one of many, the crew may have been small in comparison to any of those in Starfleet, but even the estimated half was still a large number. In the morning, they would have to be buried or the rest of the crew could risk attracting diseases or dangerous animals. In the morning, his younger brother would be six feet underground on some foreign planet. When they are rescued, as he hoped was going to happen soon, he would probably never be able to return the gravesite.

He looked over at the survivors and a lot weren't in great shape. A good chunk were barely alive or at the least immobile. They had no doctors, certified ones in any case, and had to make do with the minimal. If rescue didn't come soon, a lot of them were going to die slow deaths.

Sighing, Kale turned to look at his brother's now cold body. As hard as it was, he had to let go for now. He couldn't afford to be taken ill by whatever diseases were attracted to the rotting bodies. He released his brother's hand and removed his jacket, covering the body in hopes to keep at least some insects away.

"I'm sorry, I was supposed to take care of you and I couldn't…," he murmured softly.

There was nothing he could say that would make the feeling of loss go away. Instead, he stood and walked a bit away so he could keep any eye out until morning.

…Things did not get better from there.

In the morning, the mobile survivors did their best to bury the dead. But the ground was full of roots and was hard to dig without the proper tools. So the graves were shallow. This attracted, as was expected, several unwelcomed guests. Insects constantly attacked those with open wounds and large carnivores dug up the graves at night, taking the bodies with them. Those who were sick only got worse.

The natives, a race of humanoid feathered reptiles whose spine and front of the head were covered in hard bone plating, watched them from a distance constantly. At first, the natives had tried to approach in a peaceful manner, but the survivors were wary and didn't want to violate any of the non interference laws. Apparently understanding that they were unwanted, the natives backed off but continued to watch.

The survivors scavenged what they could from the ship and its cargo. But with no weapons they had no way to defend themselves, and with no way to tell what plants of this planet were edible the food that they had would only last so long.

They were dying, there was no way around it. They had gone off course and the short cut would make it inevitable that any distress signal would go unheard. Kale could see that clearly, and though he mourned for his brother, he would not allow himself to be killed.

Within a week, he had made up his mind and sought out the natives, leaving the others to the fate they had chosen.

A month passed by and the other survivors were all dead from various causes.

A year passed by and he had given up hope on being found.

Five years passed by and he accepted that he was stuck on this alien planet, never to be found again.