Lucky Shot

Disclaimer: "There's something you'd better understand about me, 'cause it's important and one day your life may depend on it. I am definitely a madman with a box." - Matt Smith as the Eleventh Doctor, "The Eleventh Hour".

Chapter 2: Trapped!

The USS Enterprise, present day.

"Really." Counselor Paula Rodgers raised a perfectly-sculpted eyebrow at Kevin Kowalski in disbelief. "You missed the battle with the Narada because of the shuttlecraft you and Ensign Gaila were fixing."

"Honest and true, Counselor." Kowalski answered. "The events in me report are accurate and truthful. Ask Gaila! She'll back me up! She will flirt, and probably talk about me arse, but she'll back me up."

"Okay, Lieutenant." Rodgers chuckled. "I believe you. Let me hear the rest of the story."

"Okay..." Kowalski nodded. "Here's what happened next..."

The USS Farragut

"No offense, but I don't think that'd be such a good idea." Kowalski told Gaila, going back to his soldering.

"And why not?" The redheaded Orion frowned. "I think even that...what did you call him, martinet?" Kowalski nodded. "Would appreciate all of this..." She gestured at herself. "On his bed eager for a night of good times."

"Or, knowing him, he'll have a mild heart attack on the spot." Kowalski countered. "And then we'll be left without a captain, and your green arse might end up in Rura Penthe."

"Rura Penthe is a Klingon prison." Gaila reminded.

"I wouldn't be surprised if Benton has friends in the Klingon Empire." Kowalski muttered.

"You think he does?" Gaila blinked.

"Wouldn't surprise me." Kowalski shrugged. "You doin' any good on that program rebuilding?"

"Yup. Just gotta put in a couple lines of code on this one." Gaila did some typing. "Okay, that's this one done, now for this one...It must've been some firefight."

"Yup." Kowalski nodded. "I think there was a fistfight inside the shuttle, too. At least, that's what the pilot told me."

"With a dignitary on board?" Gaila's jaw dropped.

"The guy had a mean right hook." Kowalski smirked. A klaxon was heard, and the shuttlecraft bay was bathed in flashing red lights. "Bloody hell-!"

"Red Alert!" Gaila gasped.

"This is a Red Alert." Benton's voice announced calmly over the intercom. "We are engaging an unknown craft. All crew must report to battle stations at once."

"Well..." Kowalski started to turn off his soldering iron. A whirring was heard. "What the-?!" He noticed the shuttlecraft's door had shut. "Blast it! I'll open it up." He pressed a button on the console to get the door open. A buzz was the console's response to Kowalski's attempt to command it. "Oh, great! We're stuck!"

"No we aren't." Gaila blinked. "We can just open the door here." Gaila pressed the button on a control panel next to the door, but a buzz erupted from the console and a red light could be seen. "Oh, no!" Kowalski's jaw dropped.

"I had just fixed that damn thing!" He groaned in frustration. "Great! Just great!"

"Can you fix it?" Gaila wondered.

"Yeah, I'll just need a minute." Kowalski sighed. "Luckily, I managed to fix the communications system." He flipped a switch. "Kowalski to Bridge!" The two Starfleet members found themselves rocked. The ship seemed to shake. "Whoa!"

"Eek!" Gaila yelped. "We've been hit by something!"

"Bloody inertial dampeners!" Kowalski grumbled. "I swear, those things are more useless than the appendix!"

"Kowalski!" Benton's voice was heard yelling through the shuttlecraft's intercom. "I heard neither you nor Cadet Gaila were at your battle stations! What is going on?!"

"We're..." Kowalski answered nervously. "...kinda stuck in the shuttlecraft, sir. Another malfunction." A sigh was heard.

"Well, I guess you two are going to have to wait until we can get you out, then." Benton sighed. "Benton out." The comline shut off.

"Hang on, I'll try to cut us out." Kowalski grabbed his soldering iron. The ship shook again, causing Kowalski to fall to the ground. "What the bloody 'ell is going on out there?!"

"Let me hack into the ship's viewscreen." Gaila grabbed her computer and started typing. "There! Look!" The two then gazed at the screen. It showed a massive industrial-appearing ship, almost resembling a squid with outward-reaching tentacles, firing green photon torpedoes everywhere at various ships. "By the Gods..." She mumbled under her breath. "What...what is that thing?!"

"Whatever it is, it's big, ugly, and most likely mad." Kowalski mumbled. The ship shook again. "That didn't sound good."

KABOOM!!

An explosion erupted in the shuttlebay.

"DOWN!" Kowalski and Gaila screamed at each other as they hit the deck. The two quickly peeked up, and through the shuttlecraft's windows, they saw that a hole was blown in the shuttlebay's hull. They saw barrels and various items being blown out into space.

"By the Gods..." The Orion mumbled.

"Oh, man..." Kowalski winced. "The Farragut's shields must've blown out!" Another explosion rocked the shuttle bay.

"Uh, Kevin?" Gaila looked at the blond-haired technician. "Is it just me, or is that hole getting bigger?" Kowalski blinked at the hole.

"No...we're getting closer to it, what the-?!" Kowalski quickly moved towards the other side of the shuttle, and looked outside it. "Uh oh..."

"What is it?!" Gaila blinked. She quickly joined Kowalski at the side of the shuttle. Her eyes widened at what she saw. "Uh oh."

"Yup." Kowalski nodded.

The shuttle was moving towards the hole in the hull. The two caught sight of another explosion, consuming the wall they were moving away from. The force of the explosion blasted the shuttle through the hole in the hull, sending the shuttle, with its two unwilling passengers, into space. The two Starfleet members screamed as the shuttle was sent flying, end-over-end.

"My stomach..." Gaila moaned.

"My brains are going into my feet..." Kowalski added, his face turning slightly green. He slowly crawled towards the shuttle's controls. "Gotta...get this thing back on level..." He pressed a button on the panel, and the shuttle's thrusters. The small jets helped stabilize the ship.

"Thank the Gods that's over." Gaila sighed, sitting up and rubbing her head. She noticed a horrified Kowalski looking out the shuttle's front windows. "Kevin?" She quickly got to her feet and moved towards the Englishman. "Kevin?" She noticed what he was looking at...and gasped in horror.

"By the Gods..." Terror gripped the green redhead's face. The Farragut was on its last legs. The ship had chunks blown off and an engine missing, but it still kept blasting at the Narada. It barely managed to dodge one of the torpedoes the Narada had fired, but it was not so lucky with the second one. The second one slammed into the center of the ship, blowing it in half. A horrified Gaila covered her mouth, and tears ran down her cheeks. The halves of the ship exploded.

"My God..." Kowalski mumbled. Gaila only squeaked. Kowalski turned to the console. "We've got to stay out of sight." Gaila turned to Kowalski.

"Did you see what that thing just did?!" Gaila snarled. "It just killed everyone on the Farragut! We have to avenge them!"

"Yeah, I saw what that thing just bloody did!" Kowalski snapped. "Look at us! We're in a bloody shuttlecraft! A shuttlecraft that is not at one-hundred percent! This thing doesn't even have a phaser bank! The Farragut was a top-of-the-line ship! It couldn't put a dent in that thing! Gaila, we can't fight that monster! We'll just get the hell blown out of us like they did on the Farragut!" He looked at the firefight. "We've gotta call Starfleet. Get some more ships here, get some help!" He quickly tried to call a starship with the shuttle's communications thing. "Kowalski to Starfleet! Kowalski to Starfleet!" The lieutenant got nothing but static in response. Gaila scowled.

"Well, what should we do? You are the ranking officer here." The Orion reminded. Kowalski frowned.

"We have no choice." Kowalski sighed. "We can't raise anyone. We can't fight." He looked at the firefight. "And if we get into the middle of that fracas to try and get rescued...we might be blown to bits."

"We have to wait it out." Gaila realized with a sigh. Kowalski nodded.

"Yeah." He noticed a large piece of debris. He then programmed some coordinates and the shuttle flew behind the piece of debris. "We can hide behind this. It's an old space pirate trick. The debris blocks the ship's scanners, preventing them from detecting us." Gaila sighed.

"We are going to be in so much trouble. Our butts are going to be court-martialed."

USS Enterprise, present day

"We stayed behind that piece of debris until the battle ended." Kowalski remembered. "The Narada didn't even notice us, thank God." Rodgers nodded. "After that, we decided to head towards the nearest Starbase."

"I understand you two didn't get court-martialed." She added.

"Luckily, a transport ship found us at the remains of Vulcan, and took us to the nearest Starbase." Kowalski explained. "In fact, the Enterprise's crew met us there."

Starbase 457, a few days after the Narada incident

In one of the kiosks at the Starbase, Lieutenant Nyota Uhura sighed forlornly as she stared at her Cardassian sunrise.

"Somethin' troublin' ya, darlin'?" The communications officer looked up at saw Dr. Leonard McCoy and Spock standing at the table.

"I'm alright, you guys." She nodded sadly.

"Your body language and tone indicates otherwise." Spock countered. She sighed.

"I'm just thinking about Gaila." Uhura sighed. "She was my best friend at the Academy."

"Yeah, we lost a lotta good people thanks to those future Romulans." McCoy agreed. "Personally, I ain't gonna miss 'em."

"I must confess, I have to agree with the good Doctor." Spock concurred. McCoy's eyes widened in disbelief.

"Oh my God, you two actually agreeing on something." Uhura's jaw dropped. "This is a special occasion." She then noticed Admiral Pike wheeling up to the group. "Admiral!" She stood up in respect, making the older man chuckle.

"At ease, Lieutenant." He chuckled. "I have some news. Evidently, it turns out there were a couple of survivors of the Farragut's destruction at Vulcan."

"Fascinating." Spock raised an eyebrow.

"Well, that's great!" McCoy nodded. "Well, I can imagine that they must be going through a rough time right now."

"Yeah, well...one of them wanted to say hello." Pike explained.

"Nyota!" Nyota found herself grabbed in a big hug. "Hey there, girl! Ya miss me?!" Uhura couldn't believe herself. She saw Gaila, dressed in the red Starfleet uniform, accompanied by Kowalski.

"Gaila?!" The communications officer gasped. She squealed and eagerly returned the hug. "OMIGOD! I thought you were dead!"

"Nah, I'm not dead." Gaila grinned. "It'll take a lot more than a bunch of future Romulans to take this crazy Orion down." She nudged Kowalski with her shoulder. "Especially since I had this guy at my back."

"Well, I'll be." McCoy chuckled. "It's a miracle. Betcha your gal's feeling a lot better now, huh Legolas?" Spock looked at McCoy.

"I preferred you referring to me as 'Hobgoblin'." Spock told the Southerner simply. Gaila joined Uhura at the table and the two started chatting excitedly. He looked over at Kowalski. "And you are?"

"Lieutenant Kevin Kowalski, sir." Kevin greeted with his trademark jaunty two-fingered salute. "I was a technician on the Farragut. Gaila was helping me with repairing a shuttle when the battle with the Narada hit. She and I ended up trapped in the shuttle and we ended up riding the battle out. We got our butts out of there when Vulcan disintegrated and headed to the nearest starbase." He then smiled. "Never thought I'd get to meet the crew of the Enterprise, the crew that saved the universe, heh heh. You know, I got a friend on the Enterprise. His name's John Cronin." Spock nodded in recognition.

"Yes, he is a biochemist." Spock recalled. "He has a fondness for beautiful women and old cars. He helped Captain Kirk obtain a Corvette."

"That's him, sir!" Kowalski grinned. "How's he doing?"

"He was injured in the Narada's attack." Spock answered. "He has a broken leg."

"Ah, the guy'll be fine." McCoy grunted. "He kept trying to chat up my nurses. He's as bad as Jim." Kowalski chuckled.

"Yup, that's John, alright."

USS Enterprise, present day

"And that's the story." Kowalski told Rodgers. "I'm sure me report covers the rest of all that stuff."

"Mm-hmm." Rodgers nodded. "That is quite a story, Kowalski. I have to admit, it's more interesting hearing it from you than just reading your report."

"Yeah, it does." Kowalski grinned. "Maybe I oughta write a novel based on it or something." A crackling on the ship's PA was heard.

"Lieutenant Kowalski, you are needed on deck 14. The replicators are putting out nothing but salmon again." Kowalski sighed.

"I just fixed the blasted things." He got up and started to leave. "I'm sorry to cut this short, Counselor..."

"It's alright, Lieutenant." Rodgers nodded. "Although I do expect you back once we're done. I'm still not done with your exam."

"No problem, luv." Kowalski grinned. "Maybe I'll get to tell you another fun story!"

Well, well, well! There's one mystery solved! What insanity will happen next? Can Kowalski fix the replicators? Will he tell any more stories? Find out soon! Thanks for reading!