Chapter Two is finally posted up. Thank you everybody who is following and favorited this story. :D
A/N: Just a friendly reminder to everybody and to myself, I don't own Star Trek or the characters. I only own the character Hannah Kirk.
Chapter Two
As the U.S.S. Enterprise made its voyage back to Earth, Hannah went to her living quarters and changed into her long sleeved captain gold uniform dress with black leggings with black boots, and her light brown hair in its usual loose pony tail. She rolled up her sleeve to see the graze she got from when the natives threw the spear at her and sighed. This means she will have to go down to Med Bay, but at least she will be able to see Bones which brought a smile to her face. Hannah made her way towards med bay to see McCoy sitting at his desk going over reports that he would need to submit, she lightly punched him in the shoulder to get his attention. "Hey, Bones." Hannah said smiling when McCoy quickly turned around to glare at her.
"Hey, Anne." McCoy grumbled before giving her a quick kiss and smiled. "What can I do for you?"
Hannah rolled up her sleeve and motioned to her upper arm to reveal a graze, "One of the spears the people of Nibiru threw grazed me. Think you can patch me up?"
McCoy placed a gentle hand on her arm and observed the cut to see any signs of poison or infection. "Well I can safely say that there were no poison on the tips of the spears. But yeah, I can patch you up."
"Great. Hop to it." Hannah said moving to sit at one of the medical tables. McCoy laughed and shook his head before getting the equipment to clean the cut and bandage it up. As McCoy began cleaning the cut on Hannah's arm, she looked towards him smiling, "You wanna know something?"
McCoy looked up from his work and raised an eyebrow, "What?"
"This cut gave me the excuse to see you in the med bay. The only place I try to avoid occasionally." Hannah said laughing when there was a couple of times she would run away from McCoy when she had to get checked out. Though she's no longer afraid of going into medical facilities, she still like to avoid them just to annoy McCoy.
"Oh yeah? Well despite the reasonings, I'm glad you came to get this checked out. It was on the verge of getting infected. I don't wanna have to explain to Admiral Pike why his surrogate daughter died or lost an arm due to being stubborn and not getting it checked out." McCoy said laughing as he finished up his work and rolled down the sleeve of her captain uniform dress.
Hannah laughed and hopped down the table and gave McCoy a loving kiss, "I have to get back to the bridge. I will see you when we get back to Earth." McCoy smiled and nodded as Hannah left Med Bay, it has been a great year and a half, and a month ago, McCoy was able to propose to Hannah. The day he proposed, he was nervous, but confidant that Hannah would say yes. They had been through a lot since they met nearly five years ago, but now everything was great. He has high hopes for the future, even if Hannah did like running away from him sometimes when it was mandatory to go to the hospital to get a check up. He knew that she only ran because it annoyed him at times, but other times, it brought a smile to his face when he had to go and hunt her down and drag her to the hospital.
When they got to Earth, Hannah submitted her captain's log of what 'happened' on the Class M planet, Nibiru and headed over to her and McCoy's apartment. Hannah walked into the apartment and got ready for bed. She sat in her bed as she looked at a photo album of her family. Hannah smiled as she saw a picture of her and Jim's mug shot from when they were kids. As Hannah laughed remembering that day, McCoy walked into their room with a raised eyebrow. "What are you laughing about, Anne?"
Hannah stopped laughing as McCoy sat beside her in their bed and placed an arm around her, holding her close beside him. Hannah looked down at the pictures, "I was just remembering the day Jim and I got arrested when we were about eleven or twelve years old."
McCoy looked at his fiancé curiously, "You never told me that. What did you two misfits do?" Hannah mumbled something that McCoy couldn't hear, "What was that?"
Hannah rolled her eyes, "We were arrested for stealing our babysitter's antique car."
"I sense there is more to the story than just stealing the car."
"Our mother was off planet and we hated the guy she stuck us with. So to get back at him, we stole his car and drove it down the highway. My brother was driving, so when we were being chased by the police, he turned into a restricted area because of cliffs. My dumb brother didn't realize that we were headed right for a cliff. So last minute, he quickly turns the car left and we jumped out onto the ground and we slid to the very edge of the cliff as we heard the car crash. Once we got ourselves away from the edge we were taken into custody. After a long lecture from both the police and our mother, who was finally back home, we had to work in the corn fields as punishment." Hannah said laughing at the end of the story, "I hated corn from that day forward. And technically, it wasn't my fault the car was destroyed. Jim was the one driving and failed to notice the warning signs."
McCoy laughed and shook his head, "You could have told Jim. And you were an accomplice to your brother's schemes. Man, I can only imagine what other messes you and Jim would have gotten into if he were still alive."
"I have no idea, but we would most likely be driving you crazy. You probably wouldn't want to marry me." Hannah said smirking.
"No, I would still want to marry you. I can't stay away from you. Besides, I would probably be dragged into your guy's evil plans." McCoy said rolling his eyes with a smile as he pulled Hannah closer to him and kissed her passionately. Later, early in the morning, Hannah's face was buried in her fiancé's chest when her comm beeped annoyingly. Hannah groaned and tried to ignore it. McCoy shifted and grumbled, "Anne, your comm is beeping."
Hannah sighed as she leaned over to her side of the bed and picked up the comm to read the message stating that Admiral Pike wanted to see both her and Spock at 0700. Which was in an hour. Hannah got out of bed to get ready for the meeting, and twenty minutes later she left a note for McCoy and kissed him softly on his lips before leaving to meet up with Spock. When both cousins made it to Starfleet HQ, Hannah tried to figure out why they were called to see Admiral Pike. "Do you think he called us about the new program?" Hannah asked Spock as they walked towards Pike's office.
"I highly doubt that we would be selected for the new program, Hannah." Spock said looking over at Hannah, shaking his head.
"Then why else would Pike would wanna see us? Forget about seniority. They gave us the newest ship in the fleet." Hannah said trying to get Spock to see the possibility of being chosen for the new program. "Who else would they send out?"
"I can think of numerous possibilities." Spock said as they entered the building and towards the elevator.
"Five-year mission. Spock! Think about it, being in space and going to uncharted territories exploring different planets, seeing other lifeforms. It's exciting!" Hannah said smiling towards her cousin excitedly. She knew that if her twin brother, Jim, was still alive that he too would be just as excited at the idea.
When they reached Admiral Pikes' office on time they stood at attention in front of his desk as he began to read from a digital file. "'Uneventful.'" Pike said looking down at the file in his hand.
"Admiral?" Hannah questioned.
"It's the way you described the survey of Nibiru in your captain's log." Pike said placing down the file on his desk.
"Ah, yes, sir, I didn't want to waste your time going over the details." Hannah said smoothly.
"Tell me more about this volcano." Pike said leaning back in his seat. "Data says it was highly volatile. If it were to erupt, it would wipe out the entire planet."
"Well, lets hope it doesn't, sir." Hannah said nodding as she stayed at attention not liking where this meeting was going.
"Something tells me it won't." Pike said already knowing full well what happen on the planet.
"Well, sir, volatile is all relative. Maybe our data was off, it's been known to happen." Hannah said coming up with an excuse.
"Or maybe it didn't erupt because you had Mr. Spock here detonated a cold fusion device inside it right after a civilization that has barely invented the wheel happened to see a starship rising out of the ocean!" Pike yelled, "That is pretty much how you described it, is it not?"
Hannah looked over at her cousin in shock, "You filed a report?" Hannah asked feeling betrayed Why would he do that to her? "Why didn't you tell me?"
"I incorrectly assumed that you would be truthful in your captain's log." Spock looked over at his cousin justifying his actions.
"Yeah, I would have. If it wasn't for the fact that I had to save your life." Hannah said glaring at Spock.
"For which I am immeasurably grateful and the very reason why I felt it was necessary to take responsibility for the actions…" Spock said before he was cut off by Hannah.
"Yeah, take responsibility. Well pointy, it would be really noble if you weren't also throwing me under the bus." Hannah said looking away from Spock, angry and hurt.
"'Pointy'? Is that a derogatory reference to…" Spock looked over at his cousin curiously.
"You bet it is." Hannah said with a fierce glare.
Pike quickly interrupted before the two cousins could start to really argue. "Enough." Pike said staining up holding onto the cane to help him walk. "Starfleet's mandate is to explore and observe, and not to interfere."
"Had the mission gone according to plan, Admiral, the indigenous species would never have been aware of our interference." Spock said trying to justify his and Hannah's plan on Nibiru.
"That is a technicality." Pike said walking towards the two.
"I am Vulcan, sir. We embrace technicality."
"Are you giving me attitude, Spock?"
"I'm expressing multiple attitudes simultaneously, sir. For which one are you referring?" Spock said curiously. Hannah wanted to laugh because she knew that this was Spock's way of being a smart-ass. If she wasn't so mad at her cousin, she would pat him on the back and give him a high-five.
"Out." Pike said to Spock who looked towards him confused, "You're dismissed Commander Spock." Spock nodded and looked towards his cousin who quickly looked away from him, Spock inwardly sighed and left the room quietly. Pike ran a hand over his face before looking over at his surrogate daughter, "Do you have any idea what a pain in the ass you are, Hannah?"
"I think so, sir, according to all the adults that came and went in my life over the years." Hannah said looking at the wall before her.
"Then tell me what you did wrong. What is the lesson to be learned?"
"To never trust a Vulcan, family or not." Hannah said without thinking.
"See, you can't even answer the question. You lied on an official report, Hannah. You think the rules don't apply to you 'cause you disagree with them." Pike said walking towards Hannah.
"Isn't that why you talked me into following through with my promise to Jim and had me sign up in the first place?" Hannah said curiously, "You gave me your ship."
"I gave you my ship, Hannah, because I saw greatness in you. And now, after a year and a half, I see you haven't got an ounce of humility." Pike said as he sighed softly wondering when Hannah was going to start acting like a responsible captain.
Hannah turned around to face Pike, "What was I supposed to do, let Spock die in the volcano along with the planet's citizens?"
"You're missing the point, Hannah."
"I don't think I am, sir. What would you have done, if you were in my place?"
"For starters, I wouldn't have risked my First Officer's life in the first place! You were supposed to survey a planet, not alter its destiny! You violated a dozen Starfleet regulations and almost got everyone under your command killed."
"Who's to say it was Nibiru's destiny to die? If we could do something about it, we should help them. I don't regret it, sir. I don't regret saving the planet and exposing the Enterprise to the citizens so that I could save Spock." Hannah said seriously. "And so far I haven't lost one crew members since I assumed command of the Enterprise."
"Thats where your problem is, Miss Kirk. You think you're infallible! You think you can't make a mistake. It's becoming a pattern with you! The rules are for other people."
"Some should be." Hannah mumbled.
"And what's worse is that you use blind luck to justify your playing God!" Pike yelled towards Hannah who stood there quietly, absorbing what Pike was telling her. After a few moments of silence, Pike spoke up again, "Given the circumstances, this has been brought to Admiral Marcus' attention. He convened a special tribunal, to which I was not invited. I can't protect you. You understand what Starfleet regulations mandate be done at this point."
Hannah looked towards Pike shocked, knowing what he was about to say, "Sir..."
"They've taken the Enterprise away from you, Hannah. They're sending you back to the academy." Pike said quietly as Hannah stood still in shock trying to wrap her head around whats going on.
"Admiral, listen… I can justify…"
"No, I'm not going to listen. Why should I listen? I'm not going to. You never listened to anybody but yourself." Pike said with his voice getting louder due to the fact that Hannah was talking over him trying to justify herself. "You don't comply with the rules, you don't take responsibility for anything, and you sure as hell don't respect the chair. You want to know why? Because you aren't ready for it yet."
Hannah looked towards Pike before looking away knowing that what Pike was saying was true, maybe he's right, maybe she isn't ready to be Captain. Maybe she isn't even cut out to be in Starfleet in the first place. At first, all she was doing was following through with her promise to her brother and joined Starfleet, but somewhere along the way she grew to love being here, being apart of something. She can't imagine not being in Starfleet and to know that she will have to go back to the academy, it felt as if they were kicking her out. After she was dismissed, she numbly said goodbye and slowly made her way towards her and McCoy's apartment. When she got home, McCoy was already about to leave for work. "I lost my ship." Hannah said when she saw McCoy.
"What? How?" McCoy asked putting his bag back down and stood in front of Hannah.
"I didn't submit a truthful report and Spock did,…long story short, saving the planet and Spock's life came back and stabbed me in the back." Hannah said feeling angry, angry at Spock, at herself and Admiral Marcus and Pike who wouldn't hear what she had to say. "I'm sorry, Bones…you're going to be late for work. I will see you tomorrow after your shift." Hannah said moving away from the door knowing that McCoy had a long shift ahead of him.
McCoy sighed and pulled Hannah towards him and hugged her tightly. "Everything will be all right, Anne. You'll see. I will call you later and we can talk about it." Hannah nodded as McCoy kissed her good-bye and walked out the door leaving Hannah unsure of what she should do.
Hannah changed into comfortable jeans, combat boots, black and white striped shirt as she laid on her bed staring at the ceiling and staring off into space. Before she knew it, she dozed off for a few hours and when she woke up she noticed that it already dark outside. Hannah sat up and sighed as she wished she could just erase the events of the whole day. Grabbing her grey jacket and putting it on, she made her way down to the bar that was a couple of blocks away. She went inside the bar and sat down in front of the busy bar tender ordering a scotch. If there was one thing that could lighten up her dark mood it was scotch. Just as she was about to order another scotch, Pike plopped down onto the seat next to her. Hannah sighed and looked down at the wooden table. "How did you find me?" Hannah asked depressed.
"I know you better than you think I do, Hannah." Pike said looking down at his surrogate daughter. "Remember the first time we met? It was in a place similar to this. You got into a fight with these two huge men because they were harassing another woman. You got your ass handed to you."
Hannah scoffed denying, "No I didn't…"
Pike laughed, "Yeah, you did. It was an awesome fight and you stood up for someone. By the time I got there, you were on the floor drooling."
Hannah laughed, "Yeah, yeah. It was a good fight and most certainly wasn't my last."
"'A good fight.' I think that's your problem right there." Pike said nodding before looking over at Hannah who stared at the table. "They gave the Enterprise back to me."
Hannah saddened but looked on the bright side, at least the Enterprise of a worthy Captain, she sighed before looking up at Pike, "Congratulations. Word of advice, watch your back with that First Officer. He will most likely stab you in the back with his pointy ears."
"Spock isn't my First Officer, he's been transferred to U.S.S. Bradbury. You're going to be my First Officer." Pike said smiling lightly.
"Really?" Hannah said as her mood lightened slightly at the thought of working with her surrogate father.
"Yeah, Marcus took some convincing though. But you know, I can make a pretty good case. You're proof of that, I convinced you to join Starfleet."
Hannah rolled her eyes with a slight smile, "What did you tell him?"
"The truth." Pike said to Hannah seriously, "That I believe in you. That if anybody deserved a second chance, it was you, Miss Hannah Kirk."
Hannah looked away as she felt her eyes get teary and smiled, "Thank you, I uh…I don't know what to say."
"That's a first. It's going to be okay, kid." Pike said smiling as he pulled Hannah into a fatherly hug. "So, have you and Doctor McCoy chosen a date for the big day?"
Hannah blushed slightly at the mention of her future wedding shaking her head as she pulled away from the hug. "No, we haven't discussed it yet. You will be the first person to know. Speaking of which, I have a question for you."
Pike nodded, "What is your question?"
Hannah smiled, "I was wondering if you would do the honor of giving me away. You're the closest person I have to a father."
Pike smiled as his eyes started to water, "I would be honored to walk you down the aisle and give you away. Doctor McCoy is a lucky man to have you, Hannah."
Hannah scoffed, "More like I'm lucky to have him. He's sticking around."
Before Pike got the chance to say something, his comm began to beep. He pulled out the communicator and read the message, "'Emergency session, Daystrom.' Thats us."
Hannah looked over at Pike curiously before nodding, "Yeah."
Pike patted Hannah on the shoulder, "Suit up."
Hannah smiled to herself as she quickly made her way home to change back into her grey uniform before she headed to Starfleet HQ. On her way to HQ, she sent a quick message to McCoy before turning off her communicator. She entered the building straightening her grey skirt and jacket before entering the lift. "Captain." Spock said as he caught up with his cousin.
"Not anymore, Spock. Its First Officer." Hannah said pressing a button on the lift and placing her hands in front of her. "I was demoted and you were reassigned."
"It is most fortunate that the consequences were not more severe." Spock said staring at his cousin curiously and grateful.
"Are you kidding me?" Hannah muttered to herself.
All day Spock felt guilty for, metaphorically, pushing Hannah under the bus. "Captain, it was never my intention…"
"Its not Captain." Hannah interrupted Spock before turning to face him. "I saved your life and you wrote a report. With that happening, I lost my ship."
Hannah walked out of the elevator once the doors opened. Spock quickly followed, "Commander, I see now I should have alerted you to the fact that I submitted the report."
"I know, I'm highly familiar with your compulsion to follow the rules." Hannah said before stopping outside of the meeting room. "But I can't do that. Where I come from, if someone saves your life, you don't stab them in the back." Hannah didn't only save Spock just because he was her cousin, he was her friend and brother and she protects her friends and family at all costs, she just can't fully understand why Spock would betray her like that.
"You know that Vulcans cannot lie." Spock said reminding his cousin.
"Then I'm talking to the human part of you, Spock. Can you understand why I went back for you?" Hannah asked genuinely wanting to know.
"Commander Spock?" Captain Abbot asked towards Spock interrupting the conversation between the two cousins. "Frank Abbot, U.S.S. Bradbury. Guess you're with me."
Spock glanced at Hannah before glancing over at his new captain. "Yes, Captain."
Once Abbot walked away, Hannah and Spock stared at each other for a few moments, Hannah looked away before looking back at Spock smiling lightly, "Spock, the truth is, is that I'm going to miss you. I'm even going to miss hearing you giving me percentages of how things might end up." Spock stared at Hannah about to say something before closing it and wiped all emotion away from his face. Hannah let out an annoyed sigh and rolled her eyes before walking into the room to stand next to Admiral Pike.
"Thank you for convening on such short notice." Admiral Marcus said as he walked into the room and towards his seat. "Be seated. By now, some of you have heard what happened in London." The lights in the room went dark as the monitor screens in front of each Captain and First Officer turned on. "The target was a Starfleet data archive. Now it's a damned hole in the ground, 42 men and women are dead. One hour ago, I received a message from a Starfleet officer, who confessed to carrying out this attack, that he was being forced to do it by this man." Marcus said puling up a picture of a man on each screen. Hannah looked at the picture known as John Harrison, she had to admit, he was good looking, except for the fact that he holds an evil expression.
"Commander John Harrison. He's one of our own. He is the man responsible for this act against London. For reasons unknown, Harrison has declared a one-man war against Starfleet. Under no circumstances are we to allow this man to escape Federation space. All of you here tonight represent the senior command of all the vessels in the region. In the name of those we lost, you will run this bastard down to the ground. This is a manhunt, let's get to work." Admiral Marcus said to all Captains and First Officers around him.
As Marcus continued talking, Hannah shared a quick glance over at her cousin from across the room before looking down at her screen to see the wreckage caused by the blast. Hannah frowned when she zoomed in the picture to try to see what John Harrison was carrying, she looked over to Pike on her left and whispered, "What's in the bag?"
"Not now, Hannah." Pike whispered, turning his attention to his First Officer.
"Doesn't it seem odd though? That he would target an archive? It's equivalent to bombing a library." Hannah whispered back trying to figure out why Harrison would do that.
"Chris? Everything all right over there?" Admiral Marcus asked towards Pike.
"Yes, sir. Miss Kirk is just acclimating her new role as First Officer."
"You got something to say, then say it Miss Kirk. Tomorrow is too late." Marcus said looking over at Hannah.
Hannah sighed and looked around before sitting up straight, "I'm fine. My apologies, sir."
Spock looked over at his cousin curiously as Marcus was starting to get slightly annoyed, "Spit it out, girl. Don't be shy."
Hannah nodded, "Why the archive? All that information is public record. If he really wanted to damage Starfleet, this could only be the beginning."
"The beginning of what, Miss Kirk?" Marcus asked leaning back in his seat looking over at Hannah.
"Sir, in the event of an attack, protocol mandates that senior command gather Captains and First Officers at Starfleet HQ, right here in this room." Hannah said eyes widening in realization and standing up when a bright red light shined into the room. Hannah observed the space craft outside the window before turning back to the people of the room and shouted, "Clear the room!"
As soon as Hannah yelled that, the ship outside started to fire inside the room causing everybody to fall to the ground and try to exit the room. Some were shot and Hannah fell to the ground trying to figure out what to do as she tried to find cover. Pike hid as best he could behind the table legs yelling into his communicator, "We need an air defense team! Daystrom Conference Room!"
As glass flew every where Hannah looked towards the room entrance as people entered with guns shoot out the window to take down their target. Hannah saw a gun laying on the ground, so she stood up and ran over to hit, dodging the best she could to not get shot. Due to the adrenaline she could hardly feel the cuts and scrapes she got from the glass as she made her way into the hall and hiding behind the wall before she moved in front of the window to take a shot causing all the glass to fly everywhere. After a couple of minutes of shooting, Hannah observed the ship and looked behind her to get the water hose getting as much as she could so that she could tie it around the gun. She tossed the gun towards the ship causing it to get sucked into the vent, Hannah ducked down as the water hose pulled a part of the wall towards the ship. Once it passed her, she stood up and saw John Harrison staring at her with intense and piercing blue eyes before warping away as the ship fell down towards the ground. Hannah's eyes followed the fallen ship fall and crashing towards the ground.
ST
McCoy was doing his rounds when he saw Uhura run towards him in a panic. "Uhura? What's wrong?" McCoy asked concerned to the young women who had tears in her eyes.
"Did you hear?" Uhura managed to say.
"Did I hear what?" McCoy asked confused, he just got out of surgery so he was cut off from the outside world.
"There has been an attack at Starfleet Head Quarters. The target was the Daystrom Conference Room. Spock and Hannah are there." Uhura said feeling tears come in her eyes again when she thought about her boyfriend and best friend.
McCoy stared at Uhura in shock before quickly pulling out his comm to try to get ahold of his fiancé, he knew that when Hannah was in a meeting she had the tendency to turn off her communicator, but now he just wanted to know if she was alive. He tried contacting her with no luck, "Hannah's not answering." McCoy said trying to stay calm. "Are they still being attacked?"
"No, now they are just looking for survivors and to see if the attacker is still alive when the ship went down." Uhura said wiping her eyes. Before anything else could be said, people were being pushed into the emergency room, just by staring at the patients uniforms, they could tell that they were from the meeting. "I'm confident that Spock and Hannah are alive, but I'm just worried and scared for them. I will message you if I hear from them."
"Yeah, I will do the same." McCoy said before rushing over to help the other doctors but not before doing a quick scan to make sure that Hannah wasn't laying on a gurney injured or worse…dead. He could only hope and pray that she is all right.
ST
Hannah quickly made her way back into the room to look for Pike and Spock, she fell to her bloody knees when she saw Pike's lifeless body on the ground near Spock. Hannah felt tears falling down her face as placed her bloody hand on her surrogate father's shoulder. Just an hour and a half ago, they were at the bar talking about him giving her away and now her father was dead. Pike had always been there for her over the years, she would always go to him for advice, advice about decisions that involved her crew and even about her relationship with McCoy. Pike was her father and now…he joined the rest of the family members that left her. Hannah leaned over and hugged the dead body before sitting up trying to stop her tears, she shakily stood up and placed a hand on Spock's shoulder. She walked over towards the empty window looking down towards where the ship had fallen wanting nothing more that just to find the man responsible and beat the crap out of him as she felt anger and rage go through her like a fiery storm.
