Title: Gateway
Fandoms: Star Trek (NuTrek), Doctor Who (10+Donna), Sherlock (BBC).
Pairings: Kirk/Spock, Sherlock/John
Rating: M
Chapters: 1/?
Comments: Warnings that POVs change style depending on which character. So I did a TrekWhoLock fic like I said I would. It disregards some of the comic book references of transference between the two, but takes place in the time of Ten and Donna and post-Into Darkness for Star Trek. Sherlock will appear next chapter and it will be post-Reichenbach, pre-Season 3. Enjoy!
It has been over 2000 hours since the Captain has had any kind of romantic entanglement with either a crew member or a civilian on a trip planetside. I am pleased that the Captain is not taking the same liberties as he did in our previous year mission, but I sense that it is an indication of an emotional state in which he finds himself. I have not expressed my concerns to Doctor McCoy. I do not know how to phrase such an enquiry.
I do not wish to broach the subject with Nyota either. She has been irrational with regards to her emotions towards me for the last thirty three point seven days, since our relationship ended. She has not been unfair towards myself, and performs admirably when we work together, but she is not interested in hearing all my thoughts as she once was.
It has become somewhat of a research project to see if I can work out the change in the Captain's behaviour for myself.
We are currently headed towards a diplomatic mission on a planet that is known for its artistic culture. I have heard Lt. Sulu refer to many bars and clubs that he wishes to frequent once the mission is completed. It appears that Ensign Chekov agrees with him and also wishes to 'drink the bar dry of wudka'. I have deduced that he does not mean this literally, but fear that Doctor McCoy will have to prepare plenty of hydration packs for crew members who have partaken in such activities.
I am unsure whether or not the Captain will take part in such proclivities himself. He has been increasingly sombre over the last few weeks and I feel it would be remiss of me to suggest that he indulges in large amounts of a depressant.
Our ship lurches to a stop.
"Scotty, what's going on?"
The Captain is instantly calling down to Engineering. The bridge is alight with error signals and I can see Sulu and Chekov both rapidly hitting buttons and flipping switches, trying to work out if the error is on their end.
"From what I can tell, Cap'n, we're still in warp! Nothing wrong with the engines!" Scotty comms back. I raise an eyebrow, turning to the captain. Sulu and Chekov have also turned to face the Captain, their faces telling us that they agree with Mr Scott.
We are in warp, and yet we are not moving anywhere.
"Is this some kind of-"
The Captain can't finish his question because we are suddenly pitched sideways. Those who are seated remain so, but the few that were stood on the bridge, including myself, are sent sprawling to the floor. I do not remain so for long, using the Captain's chair to pull myself to the feet.
"Red alert. We're under attack. Sulu, shields to maximum-"
"They're not responding sir!"
"Scotty get us out of here!"
"I wish I could Cap'n but there's just no juice left in her! We are technically travelling at warp speed!"
Another blow to the ship and the damage reports start streaming in from all sides. I do quick calculations. We have lost in the region of 30 crew members in less than a minute. Our shields are almost completely wiped out. Our escape pods have also been deactivated.
"Why can't we move?" The Captain asks, turning to me. I turn to my station, bracing myself against the Enterprise's tremors as she seeks to right herself after the last attack. I scan the area twice, reprogram the scanners, and try again. It is the same response each time.
It is illogical.
"We are caught in an anomaly Captain," I say, trying to get the data before me to make sense.
"Well that's useful Mr Spock. Tell me something I don't know," Jim replied somewhat sarcastically. He is not meaning to be rude. I have been aware that the Captain has responded differently recently to the crew and refuse to let it induce an emotional response in me. I ignore the crew members' looks at the Captain.
"If it is possible, the scanners indicate we are trapped in a… pocket of time and space. It is quite unlike anything I have ever come across before. I believe it is a constructed trap however, laid out to catch ships coming through the quadrant. There is a ship 0.52 parsecs away from our current position. Putting on the screen now," I summarise the information in as short a way as possible for the Captain. I hear his breath catch when he sees the ship before us.
It is huge. I am aware that humans often link connotations of strength and size, and I can see how it might have an effect on the human psyche. I am not above being affected by it myself. However, I clamp down on any emotions I feel. We have no shields and we cannot escape. The Enterprise is at the mercy of this ship and its intentions. It has disabled us.
"It has ceased firing," Sulu reports. I turn to the Captain and await his orders.
"Uhura, hail them," he orders. She is trying, broadcasting on all frequencies. I notice her nail chips as she hammers buttons, desperately trying to get them to respond.
I am not surprised we encounter nothing but silence. She stares at me for a few moments before turning in her seat, her voice admirably level.
"Captain. We cannot communicate outside the… space pocket. I have tried sending communications to the ship, but we are unable to. We are also unable to communicate with Starfleet," she says, the set of her jaw fierce and determined. Nyota would say that she is not like the Captain, but I can see the stubbornness in her that permeates all humans in some way. She will face this crisis in a purely human way and she will face it bravely.
"Why have they stopped firing on us? Can you work it out?" The Captain asks. Immediately I am scanning for the answers to his question and finding little that can help. I can hypothesise but it is useless without evidence to weigh in the facts.
"I can only assume that it takes a large amount of power to sustain this trap, Captain, and that they are content to keep us here for now," I say, disliking the theory but finding nothing that contradicts my logic.
"So they are either waiting for our power reserves to go out or for reinforcements," the Captain says. His eyes are bright as he views the other ship.
"Can we attack it?" he asks Sulu. Sulu gapes at him for a moment.
"Sir, that thing is so huge it could just run into us and destroy us-"
"But it didn't, it used this. So we must have something that can threaten it. Find its weakness-"
"Sir! Unexpected readings in the hangar bay! Complete atomic realignment similar to our transporter technology but… it's like nothing I've ever seen!" An Ensign interrupts the Captain and Sulu's small… disagreement. I immediately am walking to the turbo lift. The Captain is joining me.
"Uhura, get some security teams down there immediately," the Captain says. I look at him as the door shuts.
"Captain, there is a 98.74 percent chance that this intrusion will be hostile. You have not checked your phaser is set to the correct setting," I remind him. He looks at me and I realise that he looks tired. Amongst Terrans, it is not unusual for them to look so, but it is unusual for the Captain to look so worn.
He checks his phaser without comment, placing it back in his holster when it's done. He doesn't try to engage me in communication, nor I him. The turbo lift doors open and I feel like somehow I have missed an opportunity here.
It is immediately pushed to the back of my mind, however, because the sight that greets us is incredibly strange.
Donna clutched the console with both hands as she felt the TARDIS come to a complete stop. She took a few seconds to get her breath back before she straightened, drawing herself up to her full height.
"Just what was that?" she asked, fixing the Doctor with a particularly fierce glare. "One minute, we're on our way to a beach holiday on Badeferie and then the next, you're tweaking knobs and pushing buttons and we're crashing."
The Doctor didn't look apologetic, but he didn't look up from the screen either. He pressed a button and a garbled message started to play through a speaker that the Doctor had installed. It looked like it came from the days of record players.
"Doctor?" she asked, somewhat unsure now. He hadn't risen to her usual banter, meaning something must be wrong.
"Hm? Oh, yeah. Sorry. Distress call," he said, turning the volume up.
"Hailing on all freq-czt-come in, I repeat, com-tzk-Starf-f-f-f- Is there anyone-" A woman's voice came through, her voice cutting off and jarred. Donna looked up at the Doctor.
"We're going to help 'em, right," she said, turning around to dig through the trunk the Doctor allowed her to keep her clothes in. She pulled out a jean jacket and pulled it over her bare arms. No telling what the temperatures would be like wherever it was they'd landed after all.
"We aren't in our universe anymore," The Doctor's tone was almost wistful. His eyes were staring at the blank screen and his lips were parted slightly. Donna paused, before buttoning the cuffs. She went and clapped him on the shoulder.
"Come on Spaceman. Get your butt out there. They sounded pretty urgent so we're going to want to get a move on," she urged. It snapped the Doctor out of whatever daze he'd been in and he grinned, following her to the door and opening it slightly to reveal a futuristic silver hallway. Donna guessed it was some kind of hangar bay.
"Come out with your hands in the air. We are armed and our phasers are set to stun," someone shouted.
Donna immediately raised her arms and stepped out. For a moment her brain processed everything in front of her before she turned to the Doctor, her mouth hanging open.
"Doctor… is this Star Trek?!"
I'm not really sure how to deal with this. They don't really teach you how to at the Academy. The woman who has stepped out of the weird box ship thing is cracking up laughing and the man with her looks mildly alarmed. He still has his hands raised, but I'm not sure he deems us any kind of threat.
Both of them look human.
"Beam me up Scotty!" the red headed woman forces out between giggles. "That is most illogical Captain."
I blink because her impression was quite clearly of a Vulcan. I turn to Spock and he merely raises an eyebrow at me. The security crew are looking at me for orders and I'm not entirely sure what orders to give. Diplomacy is probably the first course, as they don't appear to be trying to kill us.
"Welcome to the USS Enterprise. I am James Tiberius Kirk, Captain of this vessel," I say, taking a step forward. Spock matches me and raises his hand in the ta'al.
"I am Spock, First Officer of the Enterprise," he introduces himself.
The woman seems to be unable to control herself now and she doubles over, pointing at us. I'm not sure what's amusing, but in a hopeless human reaction, I find myself smiling somewhat awkwardly as well.
"Well, hello. I'm the Doctor and this is Donna Noble. We heard your distress call. Thought we'd come check things out, lend a hand, you know," the man said, lowering his hands. The woman tries to get herself under control, wiping tears from under her eyes.
"Captain Kirk, Doctor? Spock? You've got to be kidding me?" She does not appear to want to address us directly. I try not to be too freaked out by her reaction because it's really disconcerting. Maybe she's a fan; we've met them before on our travels. Though it really doesn't seem that way.
"Don't mind her. You know what it's like, space dementia can set in very quickly," the Doctor said, taking a step forward and putting his hands in his pockets. The Security team shifts uneasily at the gesture but he doesn't seem to care too much.
"I am afraid I could not ascertain your name from your introduction. You are Doctor who exactly?" Spock asks. The man grins, like we've just asked him his favourite question.
"Exactly. Just The Doctor," he replies and I can almost hear the gears in Spock's head turning. I can tell already that this man is going to give my First Officer headache after headache. He is not playing by Spock's rules of logic.
"How did you get aboard our ship?" I ask, deciding it's better to ascertain that than anything else. If they can get on, maybe we can get off and that is our biggest challenge right now. The Doctor elbows Donna, who is covering her mouth now, and she lets out a strange cough-laugh. His look clearly says 'knock-it-off' and she clearly doesn't care about taking orders from him.
They are definitely not from any kind of military.
"Like I said, we followed your signal. This brilliant ship of mine pulled us off course to respond. It helps you're currently stranded in the time vortex though I suppose," the Doctor doesn't seem to wish to explain himself properly and I can already tell the hundreds of questions Spock is about to raise.
I've got to admit, it does seem rather suspicious.
"We haven't been able to communicate with anyone. How did you receive any of our signals?" he pressed. The Doctor frowned.
"You don't listen. Humans never listen. I told you, you're in the time vortex. Luckily, so were we. Though I wasn't quite expecting to be pulled into another-" He stops for a second, before frowning and looking around. From his pocket he pulls the weirdest looking thing I've seen. It makes a whirring sound and lights up. It does absolutely nothing that I can tell.
"Put that down immediately!" A security officer shouts. The Doctor rolls his eyes but doesn't comply. The woman has stopped laughing now, seeming to realise that the phasers are pointed at her as well.
"Doctor, whatever you're doing, stop it before they set those phasers from stun to kill," she said urgently. The Doctor makes a noncommittal noise and then finally acquiesces. He puts the instrument back in his pocket.
"They're clever, the ones that got you…" he trails off, turning around to look at the Enterprise like he's not really seeing her hull at all. I get the feeling that this man has seen more than his appearance would have us believe.
"You know something of our attackers?" Spock questions. The red head lets out a small cough but when I glance at her she has schooled her expression into something appropriately serious.
"Only that your ship can't drop out of warp speed. If you do, the time vortex is going to spit you out somewhere in the far future and strand you there. Very neat method of warfare," the Doctor said, almost admiringly. I can't help but feel alarmed by the statement. I look at Spock and see that he is shaken slightly, in that Vulcan way of his.
"You mean to say that if our warp capabilities fail, we will be catapulted in time?" Spock repeats and I know he's struggling with this man, to follow his thought processes. To be honest, I'm not sure I can follow him either. He's either brilliant or mad.
"But we will live right?" I ask. The Doctor looks at me, and I feel like he's seeing everything I have ever been and everything I ever will be. It's like looking into the eyes of Ambassador Spock but it strips me completely bare. This man he sees so much and I can't breathe.
"Can you make that decision, Captain? To remove them from their families, from their homes, from all they've ever known?"
I cannot answer that question.
Author's Note:
Donna and other companions make mention of being aware of Star Trek during Doctor Who episodes, so it is canonically correct she'd be familiar with the original series. For the purposes of this fic, she is not aware of the reboot plotlines however.