Is everyone off school yet, or is it just me? . Anyways, thanks sooooo much for all the reviews, guys! I seriously got tears in my eyes when I checked my inbox... :)
So here's this especially long, action-y chapter to show my appreciation! ;)
Oh, and btw, I got questions on this, so Alana means "beautiful" in french or irish or some other euro country. I just love that name and wanna name my kid that. Same with Laurence, which is mentioned below. Yup. :) Oh, and I thought it through and Alana taking Sulu's position over other people may not make much sense, so I've clarified it in the next chapter. Thanks to the people who pointed that out! ;)
Enjoy!
Three days later…
"Should I go to warp, Captain?"
"No, Ms. Vella. Just circle around the planet once more to confirm its safety."
"Aye, aye, Captain," Alana said, giggling a little before she did as he told. Being the happy-go-lucky Edo she was, everything onboard was delightful and exciting. Hell, she didn't even complain about her grueling ten hour shifts.
"I don't understand." Chekov frowned, "There are no signs of the Ekosians here. Zeon seems to be in perfect condition."
"I am picking up no distress frequencies. The airways are clear. There are no transmissions from either planet."
Kirk frowned, swiveling around a full circle in his chair before facing forward again, "Shall we just call this a false alarm?"
"It is highly probable that we have…" Spock hesitated for a second. Uhura tensed. The only thing that made sense was if she misinterpreted the transmissions. Would he point out her mistake? "arrived at the wrong time."
"Full orbit of Zeon completed." Alana proudly announced.
"Good job, 'Lana," Chekov warmly praised her. She happily grinned back, reaching over to pat his cheek. To everyone's surprise, over the past few days, it was the young Russian she had become inexplicably close with. It shocked the hell out of Kirk and Scotty at first, who had both been eying Alana hungrily, but once you got to the core of it, their friendship made more sense than all else.
Chekov was a seventeen-year-old Russian genius. Alana was a fun-loving Edo. He was the only one who got her strange, alien jokes. She was the only one near his age he could relate to. As much as Kirk and Scotty hated it, it made sense.
***
All of them sat around the cafeteria table; Uhura, Chekov, Kirk, Bones, Scotty, and even Spock, though as far away from Uhura as possible as they tried to understand what Alana was saying.
"And so the Ickaslopin told the Preteapokin, "You cannot sleep there!" And a Treepatoyo comes in and says, "Why not?" And the Ickaslopin says, "Because your szxin is over there!" She abruptly burst into semi-hysterical laughter.
The room was dead quiet. All eyes were on Alana and the young Russian ensign who laughed along with her. The blonde beauty wiped the tears away from her eyes a few seconds later. "Good one, Alana," Chekov said, patting her back while chortling the whole time, futilely trying to hold back his laughter.
She raised an eyebrow at her confused audience, "Don't you get it? You see, the Ickaslopin is a super stickler for regulations and the Preteapokin is rather loose, so the Ickaslopin tries to tell him that it is wrong to sleep on the ground, but the thing is, there's no rule for that!" She immediately burst into laughter along with Chekov again.
Scotty was suddenly sorry he asked her to tell him an Edoian joke…
Later on, everyone else returns to their rooms to do whatever it is they do in private. Alana sits on her bed, the door left wide open, staring off into space. Back on Edo, she'd be chatting with friends or bingeing on yetspilns with her parents or browsing some shops. Stuck on a ship in outer space put her at a loss for what to do.
Lieutenant Uhura didn't seem to like her much. She could not ask Kirk, Scotty or Bones for company as they were probably busy with their important jobs and Spock was… well, a Vulcan. And she was not enough acquainted with anyone else on board.
Suddenly, there was a soft knock on her door. Alana looked up to see the young Russian hovering at the entrance of her room, "Oh, hello, Ensign. Is there anything the matter?"
"Pavel," he instantly corrected.
"Pavel," She replied with a smile, "Then I must be Alana."
"Alana… Would you like to accompany me to the recreational center?"
"For what reason?" She asked with a frown.
"Recreational purposes." He said with such a friendly grin that she finds herself smiling back.
"I suppose it would be insightful to participate in the ways of humans." She suddenly noticed how close his curly hair resembled her brother's. Standing next to him in the turbolift, she examined his hair, but yet, his hair could've been her brother's removed and reinserted on his own scalp. It was that identical. "I wonder, do you have an older sister?"
"Yes." He said, blushing slightly as she saw right through him. "But she died last year…"
Alana gave him a sympathetic smile and slung an arm around his shoulder, "I had a brother named Laurence… He was prosecuted when he was nine for tripping and accidently knocking down a police officer in a punishment zone…" Chekov slowly squeezed her back. They needed each other.
***
"Alright, let's pull out," Kirk said, raising an eyebrow at the two sitting directly in front of him, "Vella, warp forward. Uhura, keep an ear out for any Zeon transmissions. Chekov, navigate us back to Earth. I think we need to check out what's going on." He moved over to activate the captain's log. "There has been some… miscalculations. We were heading to Zeon because we had received a distress call, yet when we got there, there were no signs of attack. We are heading back to Earth now to-"
"Captain!" Uhura gasped, her eyes wide, "I am receiving an urgent distress call from Zeon- right now!"
He quickly ended his log and turned to his crew, "Chekov, reroute us to Zeon. Vella- maximum speed."
"Entering warp speed, Captain. Destination in 5, 4, 3, 2-" Her words died on her lips as the wreckage appeared before them. Zeon was nothing like it had been only minutes ago. Even from a satellite view of the planet, a tall cloud of smoke was visible. A few miles from where they hovered, hundred, or maybe even thousands, of ships, some smaller but most larger, than the Enterprise lingered. The Ekoians had dropped an atomic bomb on the planet.
"Zoom in on the planet." Kirk commanded after a few seconds' hesitation.
Chekov numbly obeyed, focusing in on the mushroom cloud below. The sounds of screams echoed in the silent bridge, drawing frowns on every person's face, except Spock, of course. Figures were barely visible in the thick black smoke. The Zeons who were still alive ran wildly from one place to another, like startled animals. Everywhere, limp corpses lay scattered. Some had been unfortunate enough to be thrown into sharp objects and their blood flowed freely down the streets, giving the metropolis a ghastly, surreal look. Metropolis could hardly be the name for it anymore- there weren't any buildings standing anymore. Ruins lay before them, crushing many and getting in the way of all the rest. It was incredible how there were still survivors. There must have been some kind of safety area those few survivors were lucky enough to escape to.
This was no ordinary atomic bomb. Hiroshima couldn't even compare.
Chekov quickly zoomed out of the destruction and turned to Kirk. Next to them, Alana was hastily wiping the tears out of her eyes while Uhura seemed just as affected but handling it better. Spock, who had seen the destruction of his planet, looked as though he had simply been watching the weather program, but the steely glint in those hard black eyes gave him away. Kirk clenched his jaw tightly together, his hand griping the arm rest so hard, his knuckles were white.
"I- I hate to bring this up, but the Ekoians have spotted us," Alana said, pointing wide-eyed at the storm of ships headed right towards them, "And they do not appear to be very friendly- oh!" She gasped as she, along with the rest of them, was thrown backwards.
"Vella- move, now!" Kirk barked, suddenly snapping back into it, "Chekov, request backup from Starfleet. Uhura, tell me what they're saying. Spock, what the hell is going on?!"
"Eko has always been aggressive towards Zeon, blaming their neighboring planet for all their troubles. In a way, they are just like your planet with your Nazis and Jews. I believe that this is their version of the 'Final Solution' to the Zeonese." Spock quickly explained, looking worried, "However, Zeon is a very peaceful planet and will not fight back, though they are more technologically advanced. What perplexes me is the fact that Eko is a very primitive planet, so where did they find the technology for such weapons? They have not even discovered the advancements for space travel at-"
His words were cut off as the entire ship was slammed to the side by a particularly strong blast. "Chekov!" Kirk bellowed.
"Sorry, Captain, but our shields are only at 43% now and they are firing hard!" The Russian boy panicked, trying to set a course that would be difficult to follow, but the problem was that there were so many ships that one was bound to follow; no matter what path they chose.
"Reinforcements?!"
"They have blasted away our communication devices, sir. There is no way to contact Starfleet," The young ensign wanted to do nothing but bash his head on the screen and assure himself that it was all a dream, but instead, held his ground under his young captain's glare.
"Then we're in a shit load of trouble."
"Captain, I can try to go to warp…" Alana offered, biting her lip in frustration.
"That would be of no help," Spock quickly said before Kirk thought it over, "They can as well."
"Wait!" Uhura suddenly exclaimed, her eyes wide. Everyone but Alana, who was busy trying not to get them killed, turned to look at her, "Those are class M719 ships, aren't they?"
Chekov quickly zoomed in on a ship close on their tail, and indeed, it was.
"The thing about these certain ships is that-"
"They can't go as fast as warp 9!" Kirk quickly completed for her, his blue eyes wide. So some of old Professor Johnson's lecturing had paid off eventually. "Vella-"
"Already done, sir," Alana said, "Going in warp in 5, 4-"
"Shields at 12%, sir!" Chekov exclaimed, looking extremely worried.
"3, 2, 1-"
Suddenly, there was a giant explosion, then they were moving faster than light, the storm of aggressive ships back in their dust.
"Captain, it is urgent that you turn the ship around right now." They had never heard Spock's voice so hard before.
"Commander, there is no way I am to allow-"
"The 'Final Solution' is not final until they are all dead. Captain, we must go back to attempt rescue." His eyes were stormy with rage.
"I will not allow us to go on a suicide mission, Spock. There is nothing we can do to-"
"I will not allow another planet to be destroyed." His knuckles were white from being in such a tight fist, "There is a 2.7% chance of success and I will take it if it means potentially saving a planet."
Kirk hesitated as he stared at his first officer, blue meeting black. Alana didn't know whether to turn around or ignore Spock. But Kirk was still captain and he hadn't said anything, so she slowed a little, staying off warp 9, but still continued forward. "He is right, Captain," all eyes turned to Uhura. She proudly raised her chin and stared Kirk in the eye. "I would rather be remembered as a hero than-"
She gasped as she was thrown to the floor. Uhura quickly pulled herself up, ignoring the pain and looked through the clear windows. They were following. "I don't understand… how is this…?"
"They've upgraded," Kirk numbly said."How is this…?"
"It is not possible for a M719 ship to go at warp 9 speed. The Ekoians must have accessed technology from more advanced planets, even Earth, and built boosters in their-"
Kirk's head snapped to stare at Spock, "What did you say?"
"Boosters, they cannot keep at warp 9 for lengthened periods of time, but-" His voice was cut off as they were blasted again, nearly toppling him over. Cracks were beginning to show on the screen. Alana's palms were slick with sweat as she nervously maneuvered them out of the way of a new wave of attacks.
"Continue, Commander," Kirk growled.
"But they can give the ship enough to even-"
"Shields at 3%!"
"-catch up with warp 9 for a limited amount of time."
"And M719 ships' defense systems aren't up to date with… Excellent." There was a gleam in Kirk's eyes. "Chekov, what's our weaponry status?"
"We haven't fired once." Chekov said, "But, sir, our shields are going to fail in only a few-"
"Vella, maximum speed."
"Sir, I-"
"Just do it!"
Alana's mouth was hanging open, but she wisely closed it and set to warp 9. They left behind the enemy ships with a bang. "Yes, Captain."
"Kirk, I presumed that we were to stay and fight?" There was anger in the half Vulcan's tone.
"Shut up, Spock. I know what I'm doing."
"But, sir, going at this rate is merely-"
"Where are the enemy ships?"
"Right behind us, sir." Chekov said, nervously running a hand through his unruly hair.
"Good. Now stop the ship."
"What?!" Was this some kind of human joke? Because it was not nearly as funny as the Edoian ones Alana was accustomed to.
"Stop the damn ship and turn it around." His tone was so serious that Alana did exactly what he said.
Uhura's hand tightened on her seat, though her eyes were strangely not on the screen like everyone else's, but on Spock. This was it. Their end. There was no way they were going to get out of this situation. They were all as good as dead. And yet, Spock was never going to know how she felt about him. She loved him. That felt amazing to admit. All the stress and worry about dying was instantly lifted off her shoulders. Nothing mattered as long as she loved him. Uhura wanted to rip herself away from her stations and launch herself at Spock, declaring the pure truth she'd kept hidden for way too fucking long. But it was over. She did not want to hurt him in their last few moments of life. This was it. She closed her eyes tightly. There was the booming sound of ships exiting warp speed… Then-
Ooh la la. How are they gonna get out of this one? ;)
I added in that part with Chekov and Alana b/c I feel that they are very similar being innocent and yeah... ;)
Ew! There's a dead moth like six inches from where I'm typing... I could be intelligent and yell for my dad to get rid of it, but I think I'm gonna leave it there until it magically disappears... . So gross, though! Yuckers! Look at all I do for you! Updating even when there's monstrosity threatening to overwhelm my sanity! -shakes head- I'm too generous.
