Chapter 7: In Pursuit

The bridge was so loud that you could swear that it was a large gathering of Klingons, Captain Kirk looked over the tactical station with Worf and continued to analyze the weapon and shields that the Vulcan ships were using. The ships were using technology comparable to the Romulans from their dimension, well Romulans from the twenty-second century. What Kirk couldn't wrap around his head is that how those types of weapons could damage their newly refitted ship. Kirk turned to Worf, "Worf, why do you suppose their weapons had such a devastating affect on our shields? I mean their weapons are practically out of date even compared to my old ship."

The burly Klingon kept looking down at the schematics of the Vulcan ship and raised his brow, "Captain, if one or two bees sting a bear it does not weaken it, but if a swarm does then the bear is as good as dead."

Kirk nodded at the Klingons reply, "Nice metaphor."

The force field emitters were almost all set in place with a few left to put in the very front of the prison but those could wait, the group had more pressing matters at hand. Data had came to to Archer and Rick alerting them to Michonne and Herschel being gone for over an hour but that wasn't an issue, or so Rick thought. As time passed by the more and more worried Rick had become. "Don't worry, I'm sure they'll be here soon Rick, Michonne can take care of herself." Archer said as he munched on an apple.

Rick sighed, "Yeah, I know it's just that they wouldn't be out this long looking for herbs. I know Herschel and he wouldn't have been out this long." Rick stood up and began to look around the inside of the now clean cell block. "You know, if it wasn't for you we wouldn't be eating like kings right now, I'd like to thank you for all that you've done for us and I'm afraid I might have to ask you to do us another favor."

Archer smiled, "Of course, I'm all ears Rick."

Rick chuckled, "Would you mind transporting Herschels ass into here so I can scold him for staying out too long?"

Archer smiled at his friends quip, "Alright, I'll do that right no..." before he could finish the prison rocked with intensity and a huge boom was heard over head. Shouts were heard from outside the prison and the sound of Daryl screaming for the others to take cover was heard. Rick and Archer ran out into the middle of the courtyard to see the Governor standing on top of a tank with a bunch of his men in two. The man wasn't what Rick had expected him to be, he wasn't too tall and he had an eye patch over his eye. Ricks eyes widened when he saw two of the governors men drag out two people to the front of the tank. Michonne and Herschel were tied up and thrown in front of the tank by the two men and looked like they had been beaten one too many times. Rick speed walked to the gate with Archer and Luke on his heels and nodded for Archer to speak up first. Archer stood his ground and stared the governor down, "I'm sure you've seen what we're capable of and you don't want a repeat of that, so I suggest that you let them go before more of your men end up dead."

The governor chuckled at Archers threat and held Michonnes sword to Herschels throat, "Nobody has to die if you leave this prison peacefully, and if you don't then these two die... starting with Herschel."

Rick pointed at the Governor and shook violently, "Let him go, there's more than enough room for all of us here, we could share this there are many more cell blocks here. We don't even have to see each other!"

The Governor shook his head, "After what you did in Mayberry I doubt the people I live with would want to share the same land with you. Now I'm giving you a choice to leave peacefully with no casualties or I'll kill all of you one by one starting with these two."

Luke stepped forward and waved his hand at the governor, "You won't kill these people, they're too good to be killed."

The governor felt something pushing into his mind, something telling him that this was not what he wanted to do and that this man was right, that he should let them go and be done with this. After all, he was right they were good people. No, no they weren't they had killed twelve of his men to get back the valuable hostages he had taken from their group to find out more about them and where they were situated but then again this man was so very convincing. But this wasn't the right thing to do, he had to kill these people to insure his safety and have a place for his prisoners to stay in so he could keep them exactly where he wanted them with little to no effort. The Governor fought with Luke in his head for what seemed like hours but in fact only lasted one minute. The governor faced Luke with an expression of anger on his face and his good eye twitching, "No, they're not good people, you're wrong." The governor raised the sword and swung it at Herschels throat only to have the blade fly out of his hand and in the air. Rick, Archer and the rest of the group far behind them watched in awe as Luke summer salted over the fence, ignited his lightsaber and began deflecting bullets with his lightsabre and cutting men down one by one. A man to Lukes left managed to stab the Jedi in the leg but that didn't phase Luke, he turned around and cut the man in two as he turned around to face the governor and his remaining men, but they were already running through the woods in a full retreat. Luke looked around, decided that there were no more hostiles and walkers in the area, cut the ropes that tied up Michonne and Herschel and put his lightsabre back into his holster.

Rick looked at Archer in disbelief, "You... You didn't tell me he could do that." Archer shrugged and smiled at his red faced friend and beckoned for him to help him open the gate and let their friends back in.

Captain Kirk gritted his teeth as the reports came in, they had to drop out of warp within the hour and the Vulcans were still not that far behind. If they sent a transmission back to Earth to alert the away team of their situation then the Vulcans would know exactly where to find it and even if they encrypted it they'd still be able to see that it was sent to Earth. And finding sophisticated subspace technology on twenty-first century Earth wouldn't prove to difficult to find once they got there. Kirk sighed as he pondered the situation and began to think back to his academy days. 'If these situations were only as easy as the Kobiashi Maru' Kirk thought as he started out onto the mainview screen. The sensors started to go off and Kirk turned around to face Worf who was at tactical. "What's wrong Worf, what are the sensors picking up?"

Worf gritted his teeth and looked at Kirk from his station, "According to my sensor reading where were are destined to stop has around fifteen ships of Vulcan design similar to the ones from our dimension."

Kirk got up out of his seat, went over to the Klingons side and began to study the star chart in front of them, "Yes, but from what I can tell this seems to be in the middle of the Romulan Star Empire, or at least that's what it was during my time."

The Klingon nodded at Kirk, "Yes, that's what I was afraid of sir. If the Vulcans of this era have Romulan like ships and they're aggressive then who's to say that these Romulans aren't even more so?"

Spock raised his eyebrow at the Klingon from the science station, "Perhaps they're not, if the Vulcans of this timeline are like the Romulans of ours then one can assume that these Romulans are like the Vulcans of ours... that would be the most logical scenario."

Kirk shook his head in agreement with his first officer and best friend, "Well, there's only one way to find out, maintain course."

Worf looked at the Captain with disbelief in his expression, "Captain, I must protest if we drop out of warp in their territory and they are indeed hostile then we will find ourselves fighting over thirty different ships!"

Kirk shrugged and looked at Worf, "Have any better ideas Worf? Because now would be the time to enlighten me." Worf looked down and defeat and shook his head, "I didn't think so, alright ensign maintain course, we should be there in about fifteen minutes to stay alert everyone." The bridge was relatively quiet until the red alert klaxons sounded and they jumped out of hyper space, "Ensign, how much time do we have until the Vulcans arrive and how long until we can jump to warp again?"

The female Indian ensign looked down at her station and replied with a heavy accent, "They will be here in approximately thirty minutes and we can jump to warp in forty sir." The ensign pressed a few buttons and looked at Kirk, "Sir, the Romulans or whoever that may be is hailing us, shall I put them on?" Kirk nodded and screen came to life.

On the screen was what looked like an average science commander in the early Vulcan years of exploration and he stared at Kirk with a hidden sense of curiosity, "I am Tovak of the Romulan Federation, how may I be of service?"

Kirk looked back towards Worf, threw him a grin and turned back towards the screen, "I'm Captain Kirk of the Federation starship Enterprise, we were examining a disease on Earth and trying to cure it when we went to the Vulcans for assistance and now they're hot on our heels trying to destroy us, we humbly request your assistance."

The Scientist nodded into the screen, looked down at something and looked back up towards Kirk, "You have been granted temporary asylum and we will help you with your endeavor to cure the humans, we have been at it for several months when we discovered the Vulcan made illness their but our attempts haven't been fruitful, we have a squadron of ten ships on their way to confront the Vulcans, by all means stay here as long as you need to repair your ship, Tovak out."