Author's Note:

Well that was exciting. I've been rewatching the original series and Star Base 11 was where George Samuel Kirk was, so I had to change it to Star Base 21. There are three things you need to know: number 1- remember the name Ricter Dreykovich…it's very important and will come up later. Number 2-Lizabell is pronounced liz-a-bell like Elizabeth, and number 3-Cinnamon Shafer will be mentioned occasionally, and later will become a main character. Cinnamon Shafer is all thanks to my sister Kyla, aka, PyroQueenofFire, and that's who the character is based off of. You see that PyroQueenofFire? I'm a nice person and I thank you for your contributions…

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Chapter 2: Star Base 21

"I don't understand. I just fixed the life support systems this morning!" I cried.

Jessica shook her head. "I don't know what's going on. You're the best engineer, how is this happening?"

"I wish I could tell you." I sighed, prying open the bulkhead I was in front of.

Where there should've been a whole mess of jumbled wires, there was nothing. Every wire was cleanly cut. I finally knew why everything was going wrong. We were purposefully being sabotaged. In less than an hour's time, the space station would crash onto the planet's surface, killing all of its 400 inhabitants.

"This makes no sense. This is Lyle's station…Is Lyle trying to kill us?" I asked.

I was so lost in thought, I didn't notice when Jessica came up behind me and slugged me over the head with a strength that wasn't human at all. I blacked out.

The first thing I did when I regained consciousness was check the time. I'd been out for twenty minutes, and there was absolutely no one around, where there had been a few people milling about before I blacked out.

I didn't understand where Jessica's strength had come from. I'd personally run background checks on everyone who came onto the station, and she was most definitely human.

"Ouch…that really hurt." I rubbed the back of my head where I'd been slugged as I tried to remember everything I'd turned up on both her and Lyle.

They had both been hospitalized for years, and then suddenly got up, perfectly healthy. I cringed and smacked myself in the forehead. Why had it not occurred to me before? They were probably in a symbiotic relationship with an alien life form. I was a complete moron. I hit one of the buttons on my console to record and send out a distress signal.

"This is the chief engineer of Star Base 21. At least two of our own have sabotaged us. We have around thirty minutes before the station crashes into the planet, killing us all. If there is a ship nearby, regardless of what happens to me, I beg of you to transport the 35 children to safety. I will go after the saboteurs."

As I ran down the corridor, I couldn't understand why I was left alive. If they had wanted me dead, they would've had no problems taking me out. Was Jessica still in there somewhere? I turned a corner and almost broke down into tears. Everyone was dead. There were no signs of wounds…it must have been something that was put into the vents…which explained why the air smelled stale. There was a small whimpering from behind the paneling in the wall beside me.

I knelt down and gently pried the panel away from the wall, to be faced with nine crying children. None of them were older then 9 years old. They all cried harder when they saw me. This had to have been traumatic for them, considering all of their parents had to have been slaughtered.

"Shhh. It's okay, I won't hurt you. Out of 35, are you nine all that's left?"

They nodded slowly.

"Those horrible monsters! I need you all to stay hidden and quiet until I come to get you. If someone that's not me comes, I want you to run, okay? They are very bad people. I'll be back as soon as I can."

"Okay."

I silently put the panel back in place and pulled my fan off my belt, prepared to attack anything that came near me. A voice came over the ship-wide comm. Lyle.

"Mira, I know you're still alive, because someone didn't do their job properly…so wherever you are know this: when we later die with our hosts…which I assure you wont happen today, we'll rest easy knowing we dwindled your miserable race."

I had wandered over to the wall, and traced the frequency. They were broadcasting from the bridge.

"They're going to try and escape using a shuttle." I mumbled. "Not if I can help it."

I knew I had to put myself between them and escape. Lyle had made a fatal mistake telling me that they would die if their hosts died. If I was going down, they were going down with me, otherwise, this could just happen all over again somewhere else, and I couldn't let that happen. I was closer to the shuttle bay then the bridge was…if I could get there first, I'd have a fighting chance. I hurled myself into the lift.

"Shuttle Bay." I said.

I'd have to kill Lyle and Jessica. I'd have to kill my two best friends since I got here. This was going to be harder then I thought. The lift doors slid open, and I ran to the shuttle bay doors. I was about to cry. I wasn't sure if I could do this, but if anything, I had to save the children.

"Computer, locate Ensign Jessica Fredrickson, and Lieutenant Lyle Jacobs."

"Ensign Fredrickson and Lieutenant Jacobs are in the lift." A cool female voice rang out.

"Perfect." I muttered, standing in front of the shuttle bay doors. "Computer lock the shuttle and hangar bay doors to open on my command alone. Command Code: MStelloc938651A459586F."

"Hangar and Shuttle doors locked. Only authorized entry: Commander Stelloc." The computer told me.

"Ah. This makes my job easier."

"Is Lyle still in there somewhere?" I asked tentatively.

"Lyle's been dormant for the past year. He gave up trying to fight me."

"Oh. So that's why he…you…became so distant."

"Mira, move." Jessica ordered.

"Why don't you kill me, like you killed everyone else?" I sneered. "And in case you haven't noticed, I outrank you Jessica, and you too Lyle. I don't care if you're in a symbiotic relationship with those that I called my friends. I don't have to do a single thing you say. I will kill you if I have to."

"And what difference will that make?"

"You said that if your host dies you will die too. But I don't want to kill you."

"We have been caught in the planet's gravitational pull: full system failure in 5 minutes."

"Thank you, Computer." I said.

Lyle pulled out his phaser and pointed it at me. "Step away from the doors."

I smiled. "Have it your way."

He walked over to the doors and tried to open them, and failed.

"Please state your authorization code."

"LJacobs645875K5435487H."

"Access Denied."

"Mira, unlock the doors."

"No."

"Mira just do it." Jessica ordered.

"Once again, my answer is no. Go ahead and kill me. But remember that if you do, the doors will never be opened."

"This is Captain James Kirk of The United Starship Enterprise. We are locking onto your signals and beaming you aboard.

I started to cry.

"Forgive me." I whispered. "I'm so sorry, but I can't let you harm anyone else."

I raised my fan and slashed Lyle's throat, and he fell convulsing onto the ground. Jessica started to raise her hands in surrender. Kridelins are an advanced empathic, telepathic, and telekinetic alien race able to block their abilities, and that's what I had done for the past six years. I lowered the barrier around my mind, and probed hers. Jessica was too far gone. I used my telekinesis to control "Jessica's" mind.

I'm so sorry about this. Pull out your phaser, put it to your head, and pull the trigger.

There was a slight resistance, but Jessica did as she was told. As she crumpled onto the ground, I felt the slight pull of a transporter beam, and let the sobs overcome me. I was suddenly on my knees on a transporter pad, surrounded by children. I needed to pull myself together if only for them. I gathered them all around me.

"I'm sorry we couldn't give all of your parents a proper burial. There wasn't time."

"Kirk to Engineering. Do you have them?"

"Aye Captain."

"On my way."

When the captain came into the transporter room, I smiled at him. He smiled back, but it wasn't with a smile of old friends. He didn't recognize me, but then again he had been a total skirt chaser when we first met. I shrugged I could use this to my advantage.

"Come on children; let's go to sickbay for our physicals."

James gaped at me and I shrugged. I was well versed on Starfleet medical procedures, having had a best friend in the medicine field, and also studying it myself. I had helped to birth a few of the children around me, back when I first come on board Star Base 21.

"Is there anywhere you'd like to be dropped?"

"No. That base was our home for the past two years. We don't know anything else." That wasn't exactly true…I did. "We'd like to stay here if it's not a problem." I told James as I passed.

"Of course not. I'll have a yeoman prepare your rooms."

"Thank you."

I climbed into the lift with the children, and it took us directly to sickbay. The nurse screamed and dropped everything to run to me.

"Christine! What are you doing here?" I cried as we hugged.

"I was assigned to the Enterprise, remember, while you chose to work on Star Base 21?"

"It's a small frickin' world. Who knew it would be the Enterprise coming to save me from a crumbling Star Base? Speaking of which, we're all here for physicals, although I assure you, I don't need one."

"I'm sure you don't, but its—"

"Protocol. I know. I did—LEONARD!"

He turned to me. "Mira? What are you doing here?"

"Getting a check up? Isn't that what people normally do in Sick Bay?"

"Not here in Sick Bay, here on the Enterprise. I thought you were stationed on Star Base 21?"

I shrugged and checked the time. "I need to go to the Bridge."

"But you haven't—"

"I know. Call me a masochist, but for some strange reason I need to see my home crash into the planet…in order for me to know it's really gone."

One of the children I helped to birth, Lizabell, tugged on my sleeve as I turned to leave.

"Miwa, don' go."

"But Lizzie, I really need to do this."

"Miwa, I scawed."

"Scared? Of wha—oh. I'll do it first so that you know that it's not scary, okay? Leonard, if you please."

"I'll get Jim to broadcast it down here for you."

"Not what I meant, but that's very nice of you. Now let's do this whole check up thing okay?" I asked. "Did you know that James didn't recognize me at all? I felt really hurt, but I kind of want to use it against him somehow. Why did you recognize me? I mean, we only met briefly for two days, and then didn't ever really see each other."

"You're very…unique."

"Is that boy code for you're a total freak?"

"No." Leonard replied, as he checked over my vitals. "You're perfectly healthy."

"As I implied to Christine, I'm fit as a fiddle."

I stared at the view screen as I held Lizabell's hand through her physical. I wiped the tears from my eyes with the back of my hand. It was really gone.

xxxxx

"I'm what?" I asked in disbelief.

"Lieutenant Stelloc."

"No. That's not gonna fly."

"I'm sorry? What?"

"I'm sorry…Captain. I was the chief engineer on Star Base 21."

"I already have a chief engineer."

"I didn't say you didn't. I just worked hard to get where I am. Being called Lieutenant is just demeaning, and it's a total step backwards. May I be Lieutenant Commander Stelloc? I promise I won't undermine...Mr. Scott's—that is his name, am I correct?—commands, but I've been a senior officer for the past two years. I won't let myself be demoted."

"You know, you remind me of a girl that I once knew. She didn't take no for an answer either. She was very headstrong. We only met once and it was only for two days…you two even have the exact same name. I guess Mira Stelloc is very popular."

I rolled my eyes. "Does that mean I still get to be a senior officer?"

"I suppose it does." James sighed.

I left the captain's quarters and looked back over my shoulder. "You really think Mira Stelloc is a popular name, skirt-chaser? It was me…how did you ever make it to be a captain when you're not that observant?"

James stood their, mouth agape as I laughed and skipped into the lift, where there was a girl in a yellow outfit; a command officer. I held out my hand.

"Hi. My name's Mira Stelloc."

"Cinnamon Shafer. I've never seen you around before."

"I'm new. I just got transported here from Star Base 21. I'm going to be working in engineering. Did your parents really name you Cinnamon or do you just like to be called that?"

"It's really my name." She sighed.

"Oh. Well it's spicy." I joked.

We giggled as he lift opened, and a man with a blue uniform and pointed ears, entered.

"Bridge." He said.

"There was no need to do that commander. Since I'm here, wouldn't you assume I was headed to the bridge, considering I work there?" Cinnamon said to him.

"I only assumed that you were on break, and it is better to be safe then ride this all the way down to engineering, where I assume Lieutenant Stelloc is headed."

"Lieutenant Commander Stelloc." I corrected.

"I am sorry. I was informed that you were to be a Lieutenant."

"You were informed wrong."

"Mr. Spock, why is it you're so annoying?" Cinnamon asked.

"Annoyance? Ah, one of your earth emotions. I am Vulcan, and therefore do not experience such feelings."

"Please." Cinnamon scoffed. "You're half Vulcan. I've seen you show more emotion then the Captain."

"That would be impossible." Spock said.

Cinnamon shook her head behind his back, and I laughed. This would prove to be a very exciting and fun ship. I would hopefully soon forget all about what happened on Star Base 21.

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