Space: it was the final frontier, a place undiscovered. Man always held a fascination with the stars. Romanticists, philosophers and scientists all looked to the skies, craving the day when man could travel among the stars as one sails the great seas of Earth. History was forever changed when man first left Earth's atmosphere and the great race to the stars surged forward. A century later, the world was again turned on its head with the invention of the warp drive and subsequent first contact. World peace was finally attained and humanity pushed to explore the far reaches of the universe. No one ever thought that the depths of space would find us from the floor of our own ocean.
Stardate: 2233
Location: San Francisco General Hospital
Log Entry: George Kirk
It's now, 2233.231, one day after the creature was finally defeated. 'Kaiju' they are calling it, after the monsters of vintage foreign film who would invade large cities and go on wild rampages. This Kaiju attacked for seven days and killed hundreds, thousands...no, probably more. In response to the assault, Starfleet has grounded all missions and is putting all efforts into figuring out what exactly this Kaiju creature is and it's origin. Initial reports mention the formation of a large fissure on the seafloor just off the coast of China. Shuttlecraft have been dispatched with research crews to the site of the fissure.
Winona is upset that she's missing what could have been the greatest opportunity of her career. Me...I must admit I am beyond happy to be a new father but sadly not just because we have a second, beautiful baby boy but also because she isn't on the first round of research shuttles. We have no idea what we are facing all we know is that it is dangerous. It's almost surreal, a new life born among all this death and destruction. It might not make sense, but I am happy you were born when you were. Your mother is safe, whether for only one more day or for a lifetime, I feel I am in your debt...James Tiberius. Kirk, out.
Stardate: 2250 (Seventeen years after first Kaiju assault)
Location: Shatterdome San Francisco
Supple hands worked a sharp blade across a wooden surface as curled slivers of wood fell freely. Each pass removed more of the material adding to the substantial pile accumulated on the floor. A horned crown took shape on an already menacing looking creature. From the opposite side of the room, cold eyes and a severe face glared at the man belonging to these hands.
"I fail to see the logic behind engaging in this activity at the conclusion of our missions." The feminine voice uttered, a hint of displeasure in her tone.
"I find it is a form of meditation in which I can purge myself of the negative emotions that form in my mind from said missions." Never once did he look from his carving to meet her gaze.
"You have spent far too much time among humans Spock if you are unable to guard yourself from such thoughts." No effort was made to hide the poison in those words. He paused and looked towards his female counterpart, most surprised to have been assaulted by her in this manner.
"Yet you remain here with the humans, people full of these thoughts. Most illogical considering your apparent distaste at the company." Subtly shaking his head, he returned his attention to the figure in his hand. With a few last flicks of the knife, the final details were carved. An analysis of the figure yielded no noticeable imperfections or missed details. Spock returned the knife to its sheath and stood to place the figure on the highest shelf next to six similarly carved figures. Turning back to T'Pring, he saw her staring at the floor, as if in shame.
"It would be the greatest dishonor to abandon our mission and to abandon you..." The words caught in her throat, "Perhaps I am not as in control of my emotions as I believed." Larger, rougher hands tenderly grasped her wrists, and thumbs swirled across her palms. The movement was soothing and T'Pring stretched the index and middle fingers of her right hand.
"This is war, a time of madness where even the strongest of minds can sucumb to stresses and fatigue." Spock touched his fingers to hers, sweeping them back and forth along the length of hers. "Will you share your mind with me?" A slight nod from her was the only answer he needed. Kneeling before her, his fingers easily found the meld points on her face.
A swirling vortex of emotion and vivid color assaulted his telepathic senses. Violent reds and gunmetal greys clashed to form brilliant streaks of lightning. Fight, fight, FIGHT! Pain, no, no pain. Darkness. Cannot fail. Failure means death for all... It was a tiring journey through her conscious as the path was wrought with unyielding fear and suffering. One particularly gruesome sight caught his attention. T'Pring, pilot suit torn to shreds revealing battered and bleeding flesh underneath. She just knelt there, face contorted from her usually impassive Vulcan facade into one of pure anguish. Blank eyes stared at the sky, accepting whatever terrible fate had been bestowed upon her. The pain pulled deep within him and Spock had to remove himself from the meld.
"Why...these thoughts...how long have you been experiencing them?" his phrasing awkward as the terror of the vision pulled at the back of his mind, where he normally felt only the comfort of his bond with this woman.
"Ten months or, more specifically, four days after our second Kaiju kill. I sealed these vile stirrings from even our bond. Erecting such barriers was the only way in which I could both maintain my sanity and prevent such emotions from bleeding into the drift." Her voice strengthened and she was determined that her course of action had been the most appropriate.
"Even the slightest break in your mental barriers could have broken our sync and destroyed us...destroyed everything we are fighting to defend." Spock grabbed her shoulders and gave a gentle squeeze, trying to get her to understand the gravity of her decision. "I am not criticizing you for experiencing emotion, you know as well as I how deep and how strong they run in our race. I am criticizing your handling of these emotions. There are many highly qualified Vulcan healers here in this Shatterdome who understand our desire for privacy and maintain the utmost discretion..." He was abruptly cut off.
"What has been done is done; I cannot change the past nor would I attempt to do so if granted the opportunity. I shall atone for the offense I have inflicted upon you and can only ask that you are accepting of my atonement." T'Pring now rested her hands upon Spock's wrists exchanging glances with the emotionless face.
"I will reflect upon your words." He touched a hand to her cheek. "Swear to me T'Pring, when you are with me, you shall never feel shame for emotions."
"You know I cannot make such a decree." A klaxon tore through their quarters and the duo stood alert, waiting for orders to be relayed.
"Red alert. All personnel are to report to assigned stations. Intrepid Phoenix to Hangar three for deployment. Eternal Defiance to Hangar five for standby. Red alert." The message repeated itself throughout the entire dome. T'Pring and Spock looked at each other and nodded before running towards the hangar.
The halls were total chaos as the entirety of the dome now scrambled to their appropriate posts. T'Pring whipped her communicator from its belt pouch, tuning it to the hangar's frequency.
"Intrepid Phoenix to control, we are bound for the drivesuit room. Estimated arrival in seven minutes. Please advise."
"Control to Intrepid Phoenix, received. Systems are going online and will be ready for your arrival. Turbulent breech activity detected, you will received further briefing during suit up. Hawkins out." The communicator chirped as the transmission ended and was shoved back onto T'Pring's belt. She quickened their already frantic pace, determined to get there before the given estimate. Something did not seem right.
When they started having to dodge engineering personnel pushing hover carts loaded with Jaeger parts, they knew it was only seconds before they would arrive at Hangar 3. Doors swished open to reveal a vast room buzzing with people clearing the launch pad and pulling necessary equipment from storage. T'Pring and Spock quickly ducked down a side hall that lead to the drivesuit room where an official looking, silver haired man greeted them. It was Fleet Admiral Pike ready and waiting to relay mission details.
"Spock. T'Pring." He gave a nod to each of them. "Looks like this is going to be one hell of a difficult mission. Analysis on the Kaiju, codename Knifehead, reports him to be a Category III Kaiju, and the largest we've faced so far. You are to intercept and destroy the target as far from land as possible. I made the call to make this a solo fight, our fleet is hurting right now: two Jaegers decommissioned, one in need of serious repairs and two in fully functioning condition. I will have Eternal Defiance on standby and ready for immediate deployment should their assistance be required. But I have faith in you two, Intrepid Phoenix is the best team in the Starfleet Defense Corps." He briefly saluted the pair and technical staff ran over to commence preparations.
Medical personnel logged preliminary tricorder readings to establish vitals baselines once they were linked with the Jaeger. Spock and T'Pring quickly pulled on the skin tight circuitry suits and technicians soon followed with segments of the battle armor. Technicians double checked the connections of all the armor plates before the insertion of the spinal clamp. With that final piece, the pilots pulled on their helmets and took the turbolift to their conn-pod. Engineers were finishing their pre-launch checks when Spock and T'Pring came aboard. Each pilot locked into their side of the connection ports and the engineers complete their tasks. The heads up display lit up and the AI system logged on.
"Welcome aboard. Commencing pre-launch protocols." The AI ran a check to make sure all connections were active before distributing the hand controllers to their pilots. "Incoming transmission from LOCCENT." T'Pring connected their communication feeds.
"Hello Intrepid Phoenix, Lieutenant Hawkins staffing mission control. All systems go?" he questioned.
"All systems reporting ready and active. Engage drop." Spock commanded.
"Securing conn-pod. Engaging drop. " The engineers sealed off the pod and a warning siren sounded as the scaffolding pulled away. Once fully removed from the head-shaped pod, it zoomed downward, thrusters slowing it down before corkscrewing into the rest of the Jaeger's body.
"Coupling confirmed. Engaging pilot to pilot protocol." Hawkins gave the AI orders to commence the next round of protocols. The core sprang to life, casting a vivid glow onto the launch platform. Hangar doors opened as the platform the Jaeger stood upon advanced toward the opening. It's crawl took it over the edge before slowing being lowered into the ocean, waves crashing against the massive machine.
"Fleet Admiral Pike on deck. Intrepid Phoenix you are ready to align." announced Hawkins.
"Captains, this is Fleet Admiral Pike, get ready to initiate neural handshake."
"Initiating handshake in 15 seconds...14...13...12...11..." Hawkins counted down, all the while watching the synchronizing data displayed at his console station. "...3...2...1..."
"Neural handshake, initiate!" Suddenly both pilots were drawn into themselves, floating through thoughts and emotions. It was a similar but ultimately different experience from a mind meld and while a wonderful system. It suffered from some flaws, such as a more distant connection than that of a meld and the risk of being thrown out of sync was far too great, even for a team as perfectly paired as Spock and T'Pring. Another surge and they found themselves within each other, ready for combat.
"Good, strong sync guys. Time to initiate calibration." Spock and T'Pring motioned their arms in front of them in several jabbing motions before pounding their fists together. They took several steps forward and the display confirmed the completion of their calibration.
"Detection system reporting Knifehead is approximately 300 kilometers off the coast from the dome. I want you to make sure all weapons systems are charged now." Pike firmly ordered. He had already lost three crews, he wasn't about to lose another.
"Loading first clip of plasma torpedoes now sir." Spock called back to the admiral.
"I'm detecting fast movement ten kilometers out. Prepare for contact!" The Kaiju erupted from the ocean, a long, knife-like horn protruding from his face. Intrepid Phoenix stepped backwards just in time. Clawed fingers slashed where they were standing moments before, trying to slice through anything solid. A roar rumbled from Knifehead, revealing a glowing mouth. He lunged forward, attempting to impale their Jaeger on its horn. When that failed, he continued his slashing assault. Claws connected with the machines arms, smoothly slicing through the metal.
"Right arm, seventy-three percent functionality, torpedo system unaffected. Left arm, thirty-three percent functionality."
"Mute AI voice. Show notifications on display." The vast mass of raging creature pulled back, waiting for another chance to strike, Intrepid Phoenix lunged forward first, fists colliding with the rough skin. The Kaiju gave a thrust with its horn and T'Pring swung the damaged arm in its path. Jaeger shoulder collided with Kaiju jaw.
"Firing plasma torpedoes!" The entire load of torpedoes were unloaded into Knifehead's chest. A piercing shriek signalled that the torpedoes meet their intended target and had inflicted severe damage. But there was still fight in this Kaiju. With a final swing, its arm tore through the conn-pod, taking T'Pring with the wreckage. Spock went rigid with pain, a pain unlike anything he had ever experienced, as T'Pring was torn from his head. The pain was quickly replaced by an increased stress on his mind as he was now solely responsible for the neural load of the Jaeger. It was an excruciating trek back to the dome.
Engineers initiated emergency pod deployment. Medical staff flooded the compartment scanning and carefully disconnecting Spock from the control unit. He was in a daze: he could feel the people around him but he could not hear them and did not care to acknowledge what they were saying. All he could hear were the screams of T'Pring's conscious echoing in his head. Finally freed from the machine, he fell to his knees. One lone tear rolled down his face. He touched the wet streak on his cheek and just stared at the green tinged liquid on his fingers.
A/N: Someone sent me a question about the stardates I have listed. My response (pulled from Memory Alpha) "During a Q&A session, Orci restated that a stardate is 'the year, as in 2233, with the month and day expressed as a decimal point from .1 to .365 (as in the 365 days of the year).'" Since I'm writing based off of AOS!verse, it only makes sense to use their system.
This story will not be a direct retelling of the movie: it will draw on many events and plot points but in the end it will be it's own unique being. I am making new Jaegers whose names are based upon TOS and AOS starship names. This has not been beta'd and one can only proof their work so much.