Chapter 9

Avery

BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP. The insistent blare of the alarm bells invaded my sleeping mind like an uninvited guest to a ball. I sat up silently in the bed. Bella's sleeping form stirred, and a few moments later, she too was up. "Good morning," she said blearily. I looked around. "What's happening?" I said, slipping out of the bed. Bella's cabin was much more roomier than my own quarters. Posters of ancient TV show characters were organized schematically on one wall, and the other had a collection of red uniforms, in different positions, some with arms folded, others with the pants legs crossed. It was quite amusing to look at. "Oh, just some sort of emergency alarm. Probably a drill," Bella said sleepily, slowly getting out of bed.

"So, uh, what do we do then?" I asked uncertainly.

"Don't worry. Scotty or someone will switch it off in a sec. Like I said, it's just a dri-" we both froze as we heard the shouts and hurried footsteps coming from the corridor outside. Her eyes grew wide. "Or not," she said softly. Running my hands through my tousled hair, I grabbed one of Bella's red shirts from its hanger and pulled it on over my bare chest. Bella leapt out of bed. She was still in her uniform from last night. Last night. I stopped for a moment, dwelling on all that had happened. But my reverie was shattered by Bella, who grabbed my hand and our communicators and rushed out into the corridor. It was pandemonium. Red, blue and yellow shirted people were rushing in all directions. I clutched Bella's hand. "Where to?" I shouted over the noise. "The bridge," she replied. I nodded curtly and dived into the crowd of oncoming people. A high pitched siren wailed through the corridors. We burst out onto the bridge, where a surprisingly calm Captain Kirk was spinning in his chair. "What's going-" Bella started.

"Klingons. Somehow boarded our ship." he replied. "Don't worry though. There's only about 5. it's just that someone," he looked pointedly at Chekov, who was staring at the controls, "insisted on sounding the alarm." he chuckled.

"But why?" I asked. I didn't even know what Klingons were, let alone why they would invade the Enterprise. "Why are they here?"

"Oh. Right. Because I may have accidentally declared war against them when we were looking for Khan. But, they were gonna kill Lt. Uhura, sooo…" he sat back. Bella rolled her eyes and sighed. Suddenly, Chekov's voice rang out from near the controls. "Keptin! Keptin! A whole platoon of zem have just boarded, sir! Zey now outnumber us, sir. By many."

The casual smile fell from Kirk's face. "Get all the red shirts," he ordered. "Send them down. We must not let them win." he said, his voice hard. He looked at us and gestured for us to do the same. Bella's eyes grew wide. "Yes, Captain," she said quietly, clutching my hand in her cold one. She turned and left the bridge, with me in tow. She broke into a run, pulling her phaser out of her belt. I did the same. "Wait," I puffed alongside her. "Do we have to-"

"Yes." she said, her eyes looking ahead of her.

"But I-"

"We're soldiers, Greyson!" she shouted, turning to face me. "That's what we do." Her eyes welled up for a moment. She blinked furiously and swallowed, then turned and kept running.