Connections

"Cora?" Kirk called as he moved through the foliage of Altamid, his pod having crashed and released him only moments ago. He had hit a tree at some point, got turned around, but he could see a pod just behind him, two more in the distance and he could guess they were Cora, Chekov, and Kalara as they were the last to get off the ship. As soon as his pod opened, he'd gathered the provisions that came with each pod, a phaser, a jacket, and a comm. and began to run back the way he'd seen Cora's pod go down, planning to get to her then the other two pods as hers was closer, "Cora!"

He looked around, he should have heard a response by now, so he kept running in the direction he swore he saw her pod last.

It must have been five minutes of running through the trees before he heard something, muffled yet clearly a scream. He turned, racing for it, and finding Cora's pod tilted slightly but resting against a tree at an angle. She was banging on the pod's door, but it wasn't opening. He moved over, grabbing the closest, heaviest thing he could, a rock, and smashed it on the side of the pod's door, hitting it twice more before he was able to trigger the mechanism and open it.

He dropped the rock, trying to help catch Cora as she nearly fell out of it and only managed to help keep her from hitting the ground as she landed on her knees. She was shaking in his arms, panting and sobbing.

"Cora, Cora, breathe," he tried to urge her, moving to sit her down. He reached out to touch the sides of her head as he had often seen Spock do when he was checking on the girl, "Breathe…"

Cora didn't seem to hear him, her eyes closed, though she clutched at his arm with her right hand, "They are dead…the attack, they couldn't escape," she managed to whimper out, "I…I felt them…"

Kirk moved to his knees beside her, reaching out to wrap his arms around her, hoping it would help center her. It wasn't going to be as effective as if Spock were doing it, but he hoped their friendship would be enough, "Just focus, Cora. Push past it, I'm here, whatever you need."

Cora leaned on him slightly as she sobbed, trying to still her shaking, but she just couldn't. She had managed to hold it off while on the ship, when the spikes had struck and breached their walls, when her crew had been snuffed out before the others could escape, she had held it together. But she knew this was coming. Empathics couldn't NOT feel. Even if they tried to block an emotion or push it to the side, it would only serve to hit them worse later. It had been Spock's logic that, in the moment was the time she could not afford to be taken down by the pain around her, but when it was over…she would be in a safer space and position to allow the feelings to hit her.

Right now she was having a hard time seeing that.

Because in all of Spock's logical assumptions about the aftermath, he always pictured himself there with her, to help stabilize her and help reassure her.

She gasped suddenly, her free hand that wasn't clutching Kirk's pressing into her side, "Spock..."

~8~

Off in a canyon-like area of the planet, an enemy ship had crashed, but the man crawling out of it wasn't alien nor an enemy, but Leonard McCoy, who looked completely stunned that they had even survived the landing let alone done so in one piece.

"I can't believe it," the man breathed, looking around, only to spin around when he heard a groan of pain. His eyes widened when he saw Spock struggling to get out of the craft as he had a piece of metal impaled on his right side, "My God, Spock!" he rushed over to help the Vulcan out, "God..." he managed to get Spock's arm around him, helping him over to rest against the side of the ship, "Sit down over here. Ok. Ok, sit. Easy. Ok. Now just try and relax. You're gonna be ok."

Spock panted with the effort of trying to not-feel the pain radiating from his side, "The forced optimism in your voice suggests that you are trying to elicit a sense of calm in order to..."

"I'll cut the horseshit," McCoy cut in.

"Doctor, I fail to see how excrement of any kind bears relevance on our current situation," Spock took a breath and tried to push himself off the ship, groaning in pain.

"Whoa, whoa," McCoy rushed over to try and set him back down, "What the hell are you doing?"

"We must keep moving, Doctor."

"Spock…"

"My mate is out there," Spock panted, resting in his effort a moment as the world began to swim around him, "I will not allow her to be taken too."

"This thing's punctured your iliac region!" McCoy half-shoved him back down. The location of the wound was twice as concerning as the fact he was wounded, one wrong move and Spock could die in front of him and that would be of no help to Cora either.

"Time is a critical factor…"

"That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you!" he huffed, but slowly stepped away, seeing Spock didn't appear to be trying to get up again, "Look, if I can't take this out, you're gonna die. Ok? But if I take it out, and can't stop the bleeding, you're gonna die."

"I can see no appeal in either option."

"Neither can I," he grumbled, "I don't want you to die any more than I want any of the crew to die. But you die, Spock, and Cora might too. I'm not losing anyone else, I'm not losing two more people, you understand me?"

It seemed, at the mention and reminder of how his death could impact Cora, Spock settled still against the side of the ship, "I understand, Doctor."

"Good," McCoy huffed, turning to root around the enemy ship, looking for anything that might help, that he could salvage for this situation, "So, if I remember correctly, the Vulcans have their hearts where humans have their livers."

"That is correct, Doctor."

"That explains a thing or two," he yanked hard, managing to dislodge something from the ship and looked around for something else, "You know, you're lucky. An inch to the left...and you'd be dead already. I just don't get it, Spock," he muttered, crouching down and hitting a rock on the side of an enemy gun, "I mean, what did they attack us for? I mean, they do all this for some doodad that the tiny critters didn't want?"

"It is unwise to trivialize that which one simply does not understand, Doctor," Spock murmured, his eyes closed as he tried to meditate, "We can safely assume it is more important than a doodad."

"I think you just managed to insult me twice, Spock," McCoy carefully aimed the gun and fired at the end of a sharp piece of metal, heating it up until it was red, "Ok," he nodded to himself, getting up and heading over to Spock, "Alright, Spock, I just got one question. What's your favorite color?"

"Teal."

McCoy blinked a moment, his other hand gripping the end of Spock's shirt around the edge of the metal shard, honestly surprised he had answered so quickly and surely, he'd expected some long drawn out comment about what that had to do with anything, "Teal?"

"It is the color of Cora's eyes," Spock remarked, "Though I fail to see the relevance…"

McCoy nodded, hearing the tangent starting, and quickly ripped Spock's shirt up, yanking the metal out at the same time, and pressing the heated blade to the wound.

Spock screamed out in pain…

~8~

Kirk grimaced, pulling Cora to him tighter when she suddenly let out a gut-wrenching scream of pain...

Cora's entire body tensed as a burning sensation shot through her from her side, she couldn't hear Kirk beside her, she couldn't feel anything but the pain, though her vision was starting to speckle white. She sucked in a gasp of air, hoping it would clear her vision, but it kept growing lighter and lighter…

Yet, through it, through the white haze, it was almost as though she could see a blur of blue and black within it…

~8~

"Yeah," McCoy grimaced at the sight of the shocks running through Spock from the cauterization, "They say it hurts less if it's a surprise."

Spock panted, blinking rapidly, trying to remove the black spots swimming in his vision, "If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar? I can confirm your theory to be horseshit."

He let his head plop back on the ship, the world swimming more than ever around him. He closed his eyes a moment, just…needing to focus, needing to push past the pain, when he felt a warmth on his hand. His head lulled to the side as he blearily blinked his eyes open but it was darker now, the black spots merging though there was a spot of blue and red getting bigger through the darkness.

"…Cora?" he murmured, frowning at he left side.

"Spock?" McCoy called, hearing him speak.

But Spock stared, he swore he could see Cora standing there, right next to him, reaching out and touching his hand…

~8~

Cora squeezed her eyes tight, feeling a numbness spread through her and reached to the place inside her mind and heart where she kept her thoughts of Spock, the calm she always felt from him, the peace. She focused on that, on him, on memories of him.

She could almost see him in the white of her mind. He was hurt, she knew that much, something had injured him in his side and then hurt him even more. He was panting, in her minds eye, he was laying against something she couldn't see, in pain. She couldn't bear it. She reached for him, for his left hand, and took it in her own, squeezing it...

Kirk frowned, watching as Cora slowly began to close her left hand, clenching it as though holding something he couldn't see…

~8~

Spock let out a breath, staring as Cora became clearer the longer he looked. She was crying, her cheeks trailing with tears, her teal eyes shining more through the red around it, and she was shaking. But as her hand touched his, as he squeezed his own around her grip, he felt a peace enter him, a calm, a comfort, and a strength. He could feel the pain in his side diminishing, receding as though the burning was being soothed, the fire in him extinguishing.

He felt his lips quirk up as he smiled at the image of her in his mind…

~8~

Cora inhaled deeply, Kirk watching closely as she seemed to calm, to find her way through the pain and torment she was feeling, breathing a little easier, though her eyes were still firmly shut…

Cora let out the breath, clenching her left hand more, feeling the pain that was radiating in her only moments ago starting to fade as she poured comfort and ease into the Spock in her mind, wanting to soothe him. As he began to feel the pain lessen, it was as though she could feel her own strength returning to her as well.

She began to smile when his lips quirked at her, feeling his relief at her being alright, his determination, his happiness to see her…

~8~

"Spock!" McCoy shouted a moment before a sting went through Spock's cheek, causing the man to snap his attention away from his left side and back to the doctor before him, a deep frown on his face even as McCoy shook out his hand from the stinging pain that went through him at smacking a Vulcan in the face. They were firm bastards.

"Doctor?" Spock asked.

He glanced back to his left where he knew he'd seen Cora just there but the woman was gone…though he still felt the effects of her within him, the pain in his side nothing more than a dull throb, feeling stronger than he had moments ago. He must have imagined it. It would be illogical to think Cora had actually been there with him when he and McCoy had been the only ones in the crashed ship. It had to be the pain, that was the only logical explanation, he had been in pain and imagined something comforting to cope with it.

"We got to get out of here," McCoy told him, glancing up where he'd seen a few ships flying above them as he'd been trying to get Spock's attention, fearing the man was going into shock or falling delirious from the pain, "Come on," he stepped closer, about to help Spock put his arm around his shoulders for support, but Spock surprised him.

The Vulcan merely pushed, albeit carefully, off the enemy ship and started to walk on his own.

"Damn pointy-eared hobgoblins," he muttered under his breath as he went to follow.

~8~

Cora shifted slightly, still panting, but not as harshly as before. Her eyes fluttered open slowly, her gaze instantly drawn to her left hand, clenched tightly. She stared at it as she opened it, bringing her hand closer to her face and looking at her palm. Her hand felt warm, not in a sense of how she'd had it clenched but a warmth that could only come from holding another's hand. She frowned slightly, feeling the pain she'd felt from the deaths of the crew that she'd been holding back and the stinging that had radiated from her side, dissipating. She turned her hand over a moment, but saw nothing but her hand.

She nearly jumped out of her skin when she felt a hand on her shoulder, almost having forgotten Captain Kirk had found her. She was vaguely aware of him trying to help her before, trying to comfort her, but the deaths had needed to work their way through her and then that sharp pain had come out of nowhere and overwhelmed her. The only good she could see from it was that it had distracted her enough for the deaths of the crew to fade while her body had been reacting to the pain in her side.

She looked to the side to seek Kirk crouched beside her, a hand on her shoulder, looking at her intently.

"Captain Kirk."

He let out a breath, hearing her talk, seeing the clarity in her eyes once more, "You stable?" he asked. It wouldn't help to ask if she was alright, she clearly hadn't been and wouldn't be for a while. It would take time for the tremors and the aftermath of what happened to full settle inside her, but for now he needed to know she was alright to move and stand, they couldn't risk being in one place too long.

"I am," she confirmed, reaching out her shaking hand to try and touch his hand on her shoulder.

"Oh no," he shook his head, "No wasting your strength on me. I'm fine. Pissed, but fine. Focus on stabilizing yourself, Cor."

"Yes, Captain Kirk."

He let out another breath, shorter, more bitter, "I don't have a ship, Cor, I'm not a captain right now."

"Yes, James T. Kirk," she amended, knowing that to call him Captain would only be a reminder of what they had lost, of the error in his judgement to think they could take on whatever Kalara had planned without knowing what exactly that was. She very much doubted the others would cease to call him 'captain,' but she could feel how genuinely it had pained him when she had and so she would refrain for the moment, until the crew had been rescued. His full name was still respectful enough.

"Can you sense anyone?" he asked her.

Cora took a deep breath, reaching out to press a hand to the tree behind her for help standing, Kirk helping her along the way with a firm hand on her elbow. She rested back against it and closed her eyes, reaching out to feel for any of her crew. She could feel Spock, she always could, he was her mate, but the others were trickier. Spock was farther away from them, but she could feel two more lifeforms close to them and from the fear and concern, and the cautious glee, she felt from them, along with the order the pods had launched, she could guess exactly who they were.

"Yes," she opened her eyes to look at him, "I feel Kalara and PAC. They are closest."

"Chekov, good," Kirk murmured, "It's a start," he looked around, "Can you lead me to Chekov first?"

"You do not wish to apprehend Kalara?"

"I'm not about to let her get to any more of my crew," Kirk gave her a grim smirk, "But she's not the only one who can lay a trap."

~8~

Not for the first time did Kirk thank god that Cora had landed relatively close to his pod. If he had to track down Chekov and Kalara on his own, he was sure he'd be even angrier with the situation than he already was. Cora had cut down the search time inordinately, and even with her small breakdown and getting to Chekov first, they still managed to reach Kalara just as the woman was getting out of her pod, which appeared to have been as stuck as Cora's had been. But he was not about to help the alien that had cost him his crew and ship.

"You knew," he stepped in front of Cora, his phaser out and aimed at Kalara, a second phaser hidden in the back of his belt, covered by his jacket. Cora would not touch a weapon and had given him hers from the provisions in her pod, "You knew we'd be attacked."

"You don't understand…" Kalara began.

"Do not lie to us," Cora stepped beside Kirk, not wearing the provided jacket from the pod but holding it in front of her, draped over her arms, for comfort of having something to do with herself and something to hold that wasn't a weapon or someone else's hand. Normally an Empathic would never speak so forcefully to another, but this woman was a hostile who had jeopardized her crew and caused events that injured her mate, she was due some anger of her own.

"Captain!" they could hear Chekov calling as he ran up to them, making a show of 'just finding them now' and not letting on that they had found him first, "Captain Kirk! Cora!"

"Yes, I lied," Kalara admitted, before she continued to lie more, "Our ship was attacked."

"Chekov, check the comms for survivors," Kirk ordered.

"Aye, Captain," Chekov called.

"Who is he?" Kirk demanded of Kalara.

Cora straightened subtly, using all the skill she possessed to NOT force the woman to tell the truth. Kirk was certain the woman would never admit the truth of her involvement, that she would continue to play the part of desperate crew member. If she suddenly blurted out her entire plan, she would know something was wrong. She might attack them, try to escape, and they could lose their connection to whoever did this. She clearly knew who it was and, if they were working together, where he was. If they had any hope of getting to the man who took their crew, it was through Kalara. And right now she might be their bargaining chip. They had to keep her thinking they weren't suspicious of her.

She was still to test the woman, to ascertain if she was being truthful in any way, but ultimately she was not to urge the woman to speak.

"His name is Krall," Kalara told them, "He took my crew. Like he took yours."

Kirk glanced at Cora as she looked down only at the second part of the woman's words. Anyone else would think it was her mourning her crew's fate, but it was their system for the moment. Any lie from Kalara, Cora looked down.

"How did he know so much about the Enterprise?" Kirk asked when Cora lifted her head again, shifting around so he could see Cora's reaction clearer without needing to turn to see it, not wanting Kalara to grow suspicious as to why he kept looking over at her.

"All I know is that if I did this, he would set them free."

Cora turned around entirely, her gaze low so Kirk would know Kalara was lying once more, "Have you found any communications from the crew, PAC?"

With time and focus she could locate them, she was certain of it. She could already feel a large mass of emotion in a specific direction…but without knowing the lay of the land or where exactly it was, they could end up in worse straits. They needed a specific location and they needed to know what they'd be facing first. They had gone in blind once, another repeat and they did not want to think what could happen to the crew. And that was not even taking into account that others of the crew might be wandering about the woods that she may not sense until she was close enough. She felt Spock, but others might be too far away for her to sense.

That, and Kalara could not know she could sense her crew.

"Nothing," Chekov looked at them, sorrowful, "What if zey..."

"No," Kirk cut in, not about to entertain that notion, that they'd been killed by Krall, "No."

"They are alive," Cora reassured him, giving him a meaningful look. She would certainly sense the death of the rest of her crew. She just couldn't say it with Kalara right there.

"He was taking them," Kirk agreed, "We have to find that saucer. Even minimal scanning systems will have more range than a tricorder."

"Aye, Captain, it's possible," Chekov nodded.

"Captain," Kalara spoke, "I was protecting my crew."

Kirk and Cora glanced at each other for the words. There was a truth to it, Cora could sense that, but there was also a glee drifting off the woman. She was happy this had happened, it was as though she had made her crew proud. Cora had felt that in the past, she had recognized it easily, but, at the same time, there was something even Kirk was picking up from the woman. He, of all people, knew what it was like to protect his crew, he knew what lengths a person would go to for it, he knew the emotion that came from failing.

And even Kirk knew Kalara was not exhibiting anything like that.

~8~

It didn't take long to find the Enterprise, there were still faint plumes of smoke rising into the air where it had crashed. It was…a sorry sight to see when they reached the edge of the forest above the plain it fell in. To see their home reduced to ruin was heartbreaking.

"Ze Enterprise," Chekov murmured, "She may not ewen have power to ze Bridge, Captain."

"She still has a few tricks up her sleeve," Kirk remarked, "I'd bet on it."

Cora glanced back at Kalara as the woman looked down at the fallen ship. She exhibited no signs of remorse or empathy at seeing another ship crashed. Even more proof she was not who she seemed.

"Come on," Kirk sighed, leading the way down to the ship.

~8~

"McCoy to Enterprise," McCoy spoke into one of the comms. he'd managed to keep functional despite their rough landing, "Come in. McCoy to Enterprise," but there was no response. He sighed, looking ahead to where Spock was leading them through what appeared to be a rock canyon, the Vulcan keeping up better than he expected but he could see the man struggling, his arm firmly pressed to his wound, paler than he should be, "Hey, take it easy there, Spock. That was just a temporary fix back there."

"I understand, Doctor," Spock murmured, not about to stop for anything short of finding Cora, the Captain, or the Enterprise herself. He slowed, though, when they came to a tunnel of sorts, what appeared to be a cavernous opening carved into the rock wall before them, "Fascinating."

"Ominous," McCoy corrected, "Dark. Dangerous…" he sighed when Spock moved right for it, "We're going in."

"Intriguing," Spock remarked a moment later when they managed to climb within, seeing odd symbols etched into the ceiling of the room, "These symbols are the same as those depicted on the artifact taken in the attack."

"You think it came from here?"

"It would seem so," Spock murmured, before groaning and stumbling into the wall, sliding down to sit as McCoy rushed to help him down.

"Damn it, Spock. Easy. Easy."

~8~

It had taken till nightfall to make their way down the paths to the plains where the Enterprise was resting, but they'd made it. There were a handful of hostiles in the area though, two from what they could see and Cora could sense, that they would have to get past in order to make it into the ship.

"Captain," Chekov reported, looking at a part of the comm., "It looks like zere is power."

"Alright," Kirk glanced at them, "Let's get to the Bridge and find the crew."

He led them down patches of upturned earth and rocks, waiting behind a large boulder until the two hostiles had passed. They jumped across the ditch and hurried up towards an entrance to the ship, a hole in the side of it. It was somewhat difficult to get to the Bridge as some of the saucer had been warped and some halls were on their side. But they managed it.

"Ze console is intact, Captain," Chekov hurried over to it, "I will try to reroute power to it."

"Work fast," Kirk called, "Once we get this place lit up we're gonna draw a lot of attention," he and Cora stepped closer to him as the power came back on, Kalara staying behind them though Cora kept herself ready to subdue her if she tried to attack. Right now the woman seemed content to wait for something, "What, do you think can you find them?"

"Aye, Captain. I am reconfiguring scanners to modulate for ze crew's signals."

"James T. Kirk," Cora spoke, earning his attention, "There is something of great importance I must recover from the ship."

"I can assist!" Kalara stepped forward to offer, "She should not be alone."

Kirk's jaw tensed at that, knowing it wasn't part of the plan where HE was to take Kalara to find something he 'left behind,' but Cora seemed to have amended it, "Report back in two minutes and keep comms. open," he ordered Cora, giving her his comm..

"Yes, James T. Kirk," Cora agreed, though she was tense, not truly wishing to be alone with Kalara, but she knew her captain and she knew she would be safe. There was more truth to her statement than if Kirk had said the same, and she didn't want to risk Kalara becoming suspicious. And so she turned to lead the alien out of the room.

"What are we recovering?" Kalara asked as she followed Cora down the halls and to a room. She looked around, confused, when the doors opened to reveal a bedroom of sorts, destroyed and torn apart by the crash, but clearly a bedroom.

Cora didn't answer immediately, merely making her way over to a small chest along the wall, shifting it and pushing some debris away so she could open it. She pulled out an old, worn pack and a small box.

"Was the artifact on the ship the whole time?" Kalara questioned her again, moving closer, her gaze on the box.

Cora turned and looked at her, clutching it to her chest, and preparing herself. Now that she had a better idea of what was affecting her abilities, she could work around it, build it up sooner in preparation for later, like now, "What do you think?"

Empathics could not lie, no more than Vulcans could, but she had not lied. She had asked a question.

Kalara seemed to interpret it in the wrong way, the exactly intended way, for she suddenly smirked and pulled out a comm. of her own, "Tell Krall I have the Abronath," she called into it, before pulling out the phaser she had taken from her own escape pod to aim at Cora, "You would do well to hand that over."

Cora tilted her head at her, "Did you know fear can paralyze the body?"

Kalara opened her mouth as though to ask what she was on about, when the woman felt her voice freeze in her throat as a fear began to creep through her. It spread through her body like a flood of ice water in her veins. She didn't know where it was coming from but she tried to fire the phaser, only her arm and hand were just as frozen as the rest of her.

"What…are…you?" Kalara managed to gasp out, her body shaking now, so much so she couldn't move or back away.

"My crew," a voice said behind her. The suddenness of the voice made her snap her head to look, it getting locked in that position as she saw Kirk there, with Chekov, both with phasers aimed at her, "My associate here is an Empathic," he told the woman, reaching out to pluck the comm. from her so she couldn't warn her partner in crime, Chekov moving to grab her phaser also, "Any emotion, she can make you feel. Fear is just one of them.

"Were you able to trace the comm. call, PAC?" Cora asked as she stepped past Kalara, pushing the box into her pack as she joined her captain and Chekov in the doorway. That had been the plan, using the console to track the next comm. transmission, not search for the crew exactly. They knew Krall was after the artifact, they knew Krall was aware they hid it, they just let Kalara believe it was on the ship. Once she thought she had it, they hoped she would contact Krall to report that to him, and she had.

"Aye, I have traced ze location," Chekov assured them.

"What does Krall want with the artifact?" Kirk demanded.

"To save you from yourselves," Kalara snarled.

Kirk smirked, "Truth," he remarked, "Another thing she can get from you. Cora?"

Cora looked at Kalara intently, pushing a need to be honest into her.

Kalara let out a hissing scream before grinding out, "He will use the artifact to wipe out your base, launch the stars into war with the bio-weapon, make humanity great again!"

"Thank you for your cooperation," Kirk smirked, before hitting a panel on the side of the door and slamming it shut, locking Kalara within, "Well…"

"Run!" Cora shouted, grabbing his arm to pull him on as two hostiles made it to the end of the hall and fired at them.

Kirk took the lead, moving them down the halls, sliding down walls, rushing around turns. There was only a brief moment where the firing stopped, when they heard a snarl and knew the hostiles had released Kalara as well. They managed to make their way into the engineering quarter.

"You alright?" Kirk looked at the other two.

"I am relatively well," Cora answered, gripping the pack tightly as she moved it onto her back. It contained…the only things she had left of her family. The box contained Spock's few precious possessions. Having the experiences they had, they had both taken to keeping their precious items in one place, together, in just such an event as needing to abandon ship. They hadn't been able to get to the items before, but she had now.

"Aye, Captain," Chekov agreed, "But we are trapped!"

Kirk moved his way over to the doors, trying to peek around when Cora reached out, "They are all there," she stopped him from getting fired at.

He sighed, looking to Chekov, "Can you get this thing started?"

"Are you intimating zat we should engage ze thrusters?" Chekov gaped at him, ducking down as they were fired at by Kalara and the others.

"I am open to other suggestions!"

"I can make them sleep…" Cora offered.

"It's not enough," Kirk shook his head, "We let them sleep, they'll wake up and go right for Krall. We can't let them escape."

"You mean to kill them," Cora realized.

"It's the only way right now, Cor," Kirk looked at her, "They are planning something to wipe out one of the Fleet's bases, they're trying to engage in acts of war, maybe even genocide. We have to stop them getting back to Krall."

"Captain," Chekov cut in, having moved to a control panel and attempting to do as Kirk bid, "Zere is a problem."

"What?"

"Ze fuel is primed but I cannot get it to combust…oy!" he cried when Kirk turned with his phaser, looking as though he were about to fire right down at the fuel himself, "Captain, we are basically standing on a wery large bomb. If you miss ze combustion compressor..."

"I'm not gonna miss, come on."

"Do you even know what ze combustion compressor looks like?"

"It's square, right?"

"No, sir," Chekov tried to tell him, but Kirk had already fired, "It's round."

"That's what I said."

Cora gasped and jerked back as the blast hit and sparked a large fireball that swarmed up towards them, "Run!" she called to them and they took off.

The blast was enough to send Kalara and the other hostiles running back as well as the ship began to move. They hurried in the same direction, nearly stopping at a crack in the floor where they could see two of the hostiles aiming their weapons at them. But Cora was prepared now and quickly sent them to sleep so the three of them could leap over the crack. Kirk turned, firing at Kalara who had followed them not just through the hall but over the crack. They struggled to keep going as the thrusters had the ship moving up and up, but the made it to the Bridge.

"Chekov!" Kirk shouted, firing his phaser at the window of the bridge, Chekov helping to crack it. They looked back just as Kalara appeared and grabbed Cora's arms, all three of them rushing at the glass and diving through it, sliding down the saucer as it moved more vertical with each second, trying to avoid being fired at by Kalara. Right when it moved straight up, they jumped off it, trying to maneuver themselves to the side, towards the edge of the ship. Kalara didn't seem to manage it, falling straight down.

"Move!" Kirk struggled to get them up from where they fell, seeing the saucer about to tip over, and pushed them along the base, the three of them jumping just past the edge of the saucer as it fell over onto Kalara, throwing them farther away with the force of it exploding behind them.

A/N: I hope the moment between Cora and Spock wasn't too difficult to follow. I was trying to write it like how you might see it in a movie, intercut scenes :/ Now, here's the real question...were they both imagining the other? Or was something else happening? };)

Poor Cora though, she just got a double whammy, feeling the aftermath of some of her crew dying in the attack and then Spock's pain :'( But she's come a long way from not willing to engage with a hostile, even to protect herself, and being willing to freeze Kalara in place with fear the way she did :) And at least she's landed with Kirk and Chekov, I debated where she should go, but I couldn't see her not being one of the last on the Bridge and landing somewhere between Chekov and Kirk and they found each other easily enough.

Some notes on reviews...

Lol, Cora trying to be threatening was fun for me to write :) it's also ironic, but we won't find out how for a while though ;) Spock is definitely desperate to get back to Cora, I agree :) For Piper, her story will be up as soon as Calm Before the Storm is finished, so around November ;)

I really wanted Spock and Bones to still be stuck together too, I feel like his bluntness will be something to help get through to Spock and help him realize some things he might have missed about the situation with Cora and New Vulcan ;) For Sherlock and Leena, their story will be up probably around December, only because I'm trying to get the other movie-stories updated first and they're sort of the not-a-movie but also not really a TV-show since its so few episodes ;) We'll have to wait and see about Eurus though, you bring up good points about Leena there ;)

Aww thank you so much! :') That really means so much to me to know you're enjoying the stories and the OCs :'D I've really been working on trying to pace myself and see what I can keep up with and what I can't and so far the updating schedule seems to be working. It might condense a little more once I finish some stories and get them caught up, as in I'll maybe focus on updating one or two stories at a time instead of five or six, but not for a while :) I'm really so touched, thank you :')

Cora's definitely grown a lot and there's still some work she's going to be pushing for :) She's stepped up in actively using her abilities against enemies and her crew, there's a revelation coming about the crew and her in a future chapter that will be quite important later in the series ;)

Lol, that is exactly how I'd picture Spock if his Pon Farr was now. Poor Bones, but then also poor Kirk and Chekov if Spock caught up to them. And then poor Cora because she'd have to basically sedate him when three grown men fail to keep him down long enough to treat his wound lol. And, depending if Scotty and Jaylah are around, she'd just be like 'Is this how your crew lays out a welcome mat?' :) Krall would certainly have been taken care of easily if Spock engaged him in combat lol :)