Far from Home

A/N Another chapter now, what will happen to Kara?

Chapter 2

"Keptin the wormhole seems to be collapsing, several smaller branches have split off from the main stem… the mouth of one of them is open in the engine room, no reports of any damage though" Chekov said whirling round in his chair to give his report to the captain. They had been studying this particular wormhole for the past month as they believed that it may be linked to the past and they wanted to learn all that they could about it before it collapsed.

"Thank you, Mr. Chekov" Kirk replied. He hit the button on his control pad next to him to contact engineering "Scotty we're picking up a branch of the wormhole that has opened up in engineering, can you see anything down there?".

"No sir, we cannae detect it's exact location we know it's in here somewhere but until we can pin-point it we are relying on searching for it the old-fashioned way, I'll keep ya updated sir" Scotty replied through the comms shouting as usual.

"Ok thank you Mr. Scott" he replied cutting off the connection and turning back to the main view-screen.

Kara woke to a blinding pain in her head, she couldn't work out where she was the surface beneath her felt cool and hard, probably metal, she was going to have to open her eyes if she wanted any more information but wanted to put it off as long as possible. She tried to pull her left arm up to feel her head but the stabbing pain that ran through her wrist and hand stops that course of action before it gets any further. Instead she tries the other arm, successfully bringing her hand to her forehead, and feels a warm sticky liquid running down her face; blood. She knows that there's no more time to spare, and so using her good hand to shield her eyes a bit, she peels her eyelids back slowly groaning at even the low light level that is there.

She shifts her head to the side and realises that she is laying on some sort of metal mesh, it looks like it could be a walkway judging by the railings on either side of her, she looks down at her left arm as it gives another throb and is horrified to see that it is bent slightly just above the wrist and her hand and half her forearm is bruised and swollen, it's definitely broken from when she fell. But what was that weird vortex. The only time she's ever heard of anything like it is in old sci-fi movies that she's watched but those are not real, she thinks at least.

She's not given much time to ponder this before she hears footsteps approaching and sits up, looking behind her despite the spinning it causes in her head, she sees the shadows of two people approaching around the corner. She can't be found, she doesn't even know where she is, this could be some kind of top secret government facility, they'll kill her if they find her. Panicking she looks around and notices that she's only a short distance from the ground under the walkway and so carefully she slides herself to the side carefully cradling her broken arm on her lap and slips under the railing onto the floor and rolls under the walkway so that she is only just visible through the mesh she stays as still as possible praying that they won't see her in the low light.

The people appear just as she has managed to get into position, and she has to clamp a hand over her mouth and hold her breath to stay silent as she catches a glimpse of them. They both appear male but she's certain that neither of them are human, one of them has dark green skin and the other had pronounced ridges of skin sticking out of his forehead and what looked like tiny horns on the ridges, 'what kind of place is this?'. They stop almost directly above her and the green-skinned one pulls something off his belt and begins to wave it around pressing buttons, maybe it's some sort of scanner, she really hopes not because it may be able to detect her but luckily they look up instead towards the light that she has just fallen out of. The other pulls something off his belt and speaks into it, surprising Kara the voice that she hears is spoken in English "Scotty we've found the mouth of the wormhole, it looks like it's closing already and nothing's come through, it looks like we've gotten lucky".

"Good we don't want to be dealing with something from the past coming through it just gives me a mountain of paperwork" a voice comes back in response through the small device, some kind of phone Kara thinks.

She doesn't dare to breathe until the two have walked back the way they came and she is alone again. As soon as their footsteps die away she feels herself building towards a panic attack as her breaths become harsher and faster. She couldn't have just gone through a wormhole could she, that seemed to be the only explanation but based on what they just said she must have travelled to the future. This couldn't be happening they were going to kill her if they found her, she had to leave now if she wants to survive.

With this thought in her head she looked around and saw what looked like a panel that she could open set into the wall and so she crouches low and starts to move towards it as fast as she dares. Reaching it she sees there is a handle on the bottom and so giving it an experimental tug she jumps back when it easily slides up and open revealing a long tunnel ahead of her, it was too low for her to stand in but she crawls in and pulls that hatch shut behind her. The tunnel is surrounded by what looks like metal pipework and she guesses it must be some kind of maintenance place for the facility. She begins to crawl along the tunnel having to hold her arm at an awkward angle to keep it from hitting anything because her forearm is now hanging limp, completely useless and she can't really feel it anymore. As she reaches an opening in the tunnel she sees a similar hatch on each side wondering if she should get out but decides that she should get further away from where she arrived in this place before daring to exit the tunnel where she seems relatively safe if only for now at least.

Spock is studying the readings taken of the opening to the wormhole that was found in engineering, he notices a slight discrepancy and upon further investigation he reveals something that warrants immediate investigation. He walks up to stand beside Kirk and Bones at the captain's chair "Captain forgive me for the intrusion on your debate with Dr McCoy but I have been examining the readings of the opening to the wormhole and I require permission to investigate further in engineering".

"What are you going on about Spock? Just tell us what you've found" Kirk said with the tone of someone who was used to the Vulcans long winded way of getting to the point.

"I have reason to believe that a person may have come through the wormhole, there were only two crew members present when the scans were taken but I have discovered that a third individual was present whose signature was initially masked by the presence of the wormhole but I am certain another being was there" Spock stated calmly hands clasped behind his back.

"Geez Spock so you're saying there is an intruder on-board and they've been lose for the last half an hour" Bones said incredulously.

"That would appear to be correct yes doctor" Spock said.

"Well let's get down there, we don't know if this person is hostile or if they were sucked into the wormhole accidentally, either way we have to find them, Sulu you have the conn" Kirk said standing and striding towards the turbolift with Spock and Bones close behind.

When they reach engineering, Scotty seems surprised to see them and rushes over "Captain I wasn't expecting ya, what can I do for you?".

"Spock looked at the scans that were taken of the wormhole and has discovered that a person that came through the wormhole and gone undetected until now. Their life signs were masked by the wormhole, but now that it has collapsed we should be able to find them." Kirk said hurriedly.

"Right I'll send out teams to search the area in case they're still in here" Scotty said turning to a nearby crewmember and yelling at him to get the teams together.

"Good, we are going to go to where the wormhole was originally and see if we can find anything more about the individual" Kirk said heading towards the back of engineering.

McCoy stops on the walkway and crouches down noticing a patch of the metal appears darker in colour, reaching out to touch it his fingers come back red. He pulls his tricorder of his belt and scans the substance suspecting he already knows what the reading will be. The scans confirm it, human blood.