Chapter 8: Into the Pit

"Layla come on snap out of it!" he grabbed Layla's shoulders and shook them hard.

He was relieved when he heard the small gasp of surprise.

"huh? What the…oh…"

Her eyes were wide as she looked down upon the green bleeding Romulan corpse below her.

"J-Jim what did i-" She spluttered her lips trembling her eyes bright as she began to look down on the dead body below her.

"Lay it's ok! It's ok! It's ok. You're ok"

"No Jim. I-I-I killed-I murdered-"

But Jim quickly grabbed onto the sides of her face and forced her to meet his gaze.

"Layla listen to me. It's alright. He would've killed you if you didn't do it. What you did was just self defence. Not murder. Just self defence alright? Alright?!" He repeated louder as he shook her shoulders.

He watched as slowly comprehension and understanding dawned and she gave a tremulous mutter.

"Right…self defence…the mission"

"That's right Layla the mission. Just focus on the mission." Jim sighed with relief as he pulled her up to her feet carefully, just in time to hear Sulu's loud yell.

"Guys! We've got a bit of a problem. Olson had all the charges."

Then suddenly as if released from under a spell, Layla felt her mind snap back to the present and away from the haze of terror and guilt that had been consuming her.

When she registered the helmsman's words she swore loudly and dashed over to the edge of the drill platform.

It was still raging on and they had no way of stopping it.

"Well that's just f-ing perfect?" she yelled loudly to her two friends "Now what do we do?"

Sulu was looking as peeved and as lost as she was. Jim on the other hand seemed to stiffen as sudden realisation dawned on him.

"We can't destroy it but we can stop it. Here take this" he tossed a dead Romulan's phaser rifle at her. "Shoot at the cords"

Layla blinked as Jim tossed Sulu another rifle before picking up one for himself and firing at a cable set into the juncture between the drill platform and the large cable connecting it to the ship.

Jim smirked as his two comrade's followed suit and began firing at the structure. Soon nothing could be heard over the loud crashes and bangs as all three young Starfleet officers began to demolish the drill bit by bit until finally the roaring of the plasma beam below began to dampen.

"I think we've got it" Layla yelled over the tumult of noise but Jim just shook his head.

"Keep going till its completely shut off"


Meanwhile back on the bridge of the Enterprise, a small beep alerted Nyota Uhura back at her communications station.

"The jamming signal's gone. Transport abilities are re-established." She announced to the bridge at large the members within all quickly scrambling at their respective posts to get their consoles up and running and ready for action.

Only one of them maintained a semblance of calm and that was Commander, or rather Acting Captain Spock, whose brow furrowed as he listened to the young Russian boy that sat before him at the navigations position.

"Transporter control is reengaged sir."

Spock inclined his head to show that he had listened, doing his best to keep his voice and face as neutral as possible as he nearly asked in a rush:

"Chekov, run gravitational sensors. I want to know what they are doing to the planet."

"Aye Commander-ah-ah! Captain. Sorry. Captain." Chekov nodded enthusiastically before wincing in embarrassment.

But Spock paid his slip up no heed as the voice of Jim Kirk made to speak through the reconnected communications link.

"Kirk to Enterprise. They just launched something at the planet through the hole they just drilled. Do you copy, Enterprise?"

"Yes sir." The voices of several officers at work drowned out the younger cadet as they bustled at their work station.

"Analyzing data now"

"Transporters are ready at your command sir"

"Captain," Chekov called over the top of all the others as he turned in his chair to look at Spock "gravitational sensors are off the scale. If my calculations are correct they are creating a singularity…that will consume the planet…" his voice wavered as it trailed off.

Spock's face for a moment was unreadable. It looked like he was torn between whether he wanted to choose fear or professional coldness.

But even as he spoke as calmly as he could, Chekov could hear the slightest of wavers.

"They are creating a black hole in the centre of Vulcan"

"Yes sir."

"How long does the planet have?"

"Minutes sir…minutes" Chekov's eyes fluttered down to the ground as his commanding officer quickly stood to his feet and strode away in the direction of the turbo lift.

As he passed Uhura he commanded stiffly:

"Alert Vulcan Command Centre to signal a planet-wide evacuation-"

"Spock wait" Uhura dashed after him but he only continued to prattle on.

"-All channels, all frequencies. Maintain standard orbit"

"Spock where are you going?" Uhura called as he entered the lift and turned to face her.

"to evacuate the Vulcan High Council. They are tasked with protecting our cultural history and my parents will be among them."

"Can't you beam them out?" Uhura asked, her eyes full of worry but Spock just shook his head.

"No, it is impossible. They will be in the Katric Ark. I must get them myself. Chekov you have the conn" he announced just as the glass doors of the lifts slid shut, Uhura's anxious gaze sticking to him even as he slid down and out of sight.


"Kirk to Enterprise" Jim yelled into the communications device linked into his blue EV suit. "Beam us out of here!"

"All right stand by. Locking on your signals" the voice of a woman responded from the ship.

But even as the last word hit all three of their ears the entire platform shuddered and shook violently.

"Sulu!" Layla cried out as the helmsman yelled in terror, his body teetering over the edge of the drill as he stumbled backwards off of it.

"I can't lock onto you. Don't move-Don't move!" the transport officer from the Enterprise cried out through the communications links. But too late.

Sulu had already fallen off.

"Come on!" Jim yelled dashing forwards to the edge of the platform and jumping off as well.

"Jim wait!" Layla yelled rushing after him, not heeding the commands and orders coming in from the ship through her suit.

She had just about reached the edge of the platform herself and was coiling her legs ready to dive off of it when a pair of hands grabbed at her from behind.

"Got you!" a voice snarled in her ear and Layla turned her head to see a tall shadow looming behind her. "Where are your friends to save you now? Girl?"

Oh crap! Oh crap! Enterprise quick beam me up! Beam me up!


There was a heavy thud as two bodies, one clad in blue and the other in gold, landed one on top of the other onto the large circular pad in a transporter deck aboard the Enterprise.

"Gotcha!" a young man's voice, Chekov's, Jim faintly remembered, whooped triumphantly as both Jim Kirk and Hikaru Sulu disentangled from one another gingerly, wincing as their battered bodies twinged with pain.

"Thanks" Sulu muttered clutching at his side.

"No problem" Jim wheezed as he struggled to all fours.

Just as both managed to get to their feet a tall pale figure strode onto the pad.

"Clear the pad. I'm beaming to the surface" Spock clipped as he strapped a phaser holster to his person.

"The surface of what?" Jim panted, but nonetheless made his way off the transporter pad with Sulu. But even as he reached the bottom step it all hit him like a frying pan.

"What are you going down there? Are you nuts? Spock you can't do that" he called out but Spock didn't listen to him as he readied himself into a crouching position, barking at the console above Jim's words.

"Energize!"

"Spock!"

But too late.

The golden rings of swirling light had enveloped the Vulcan and in a split second he was gone.

"Shit!" Jim swore as he turned around in his spot "Can you believe it Lay? He's-"

But he stopped abruptly when he saw that the familiar short head of long dark hair was not standing beside him or behind him.

"Where's Layla?"


"Let go of me!" Layla growled as she struggled against the Romulan that was holding onto her from behind. But he already had too much of a grip on her arms, one of which he twisted painfully as it pinged into operation.

"Sir, we can't get a clear lock on her" Chekov's voice announced loudly and clearly. "not without transporting her captor"

"Doesn't matter! We'll deal with him when he's aboard! Just get her out of there! Sulu get your sword ready" Layla's heart soared as she heard Jim's voice bark out the command.

He was safe and so was Sulu. The ship was able to beam them out again.

But all her hopes were crushed as the Romulan behind her sniggered quietly into her ear.

"Pike? Hmm now that is an interesting name" he sneered into her ear. "You wouldn't happen to be related to the captain that we've currently invited onto our ship would you?"

"PISS OFF JACKASS! Enterprise would you hurry up!"

"Oh so you are related. Well then I'm sure my Captain would be pleased to meet you as well. I daresay he might like to have a little chat with you. What say you?"

"I say you're full of shit!" Layla spat doing her best to stomp down on the larger man's toes, but he moved his foot quickly, chuckling in her ear as he did so.

"Wrong move"

There was a sickening crack and Layla yelped in agony as she felt all the bones in her wrist splinter and break.

There were many frantic yells from the communicator on her wrist. Layla could distinctly make out Jim's voice through all the hubbub.

"Chekov beam her out! Beam her out NOW-KSHRRR!"

"JIM!" Layla screeched just as something something heavy thudded on the back of her head.

Then everything turned black.


"JI-SKSHRRR!" all members present in the transporter room winced as white noise suddenly popped into existence all around them.

"Layla! Layla do you copy!" Jim yelled into a microphone on the console Chekov had usurped from a communications officer.

"I've lost her communications signal!"

"Then get her back!" Jim yelled.

"I'm trying sir" the young man yelped, his fingers flying over the buttons before him in a mad whir "Come on Mizz Pike, come on. come on, almost! No-no-no-no-no-no! NO!"

"What?" but then just as the word left his lips, Jim's voice fell in his throat.

The black dot on Chekov's screen had suddenly disappeared in the blink of an eye.

There was silence as everyone turned in their seats to watch as the young blonde haired cadet stumbled back from the console.

Many of the officers present had seen Jim Kirk before, even if only from a distance.

He had always been rather a prominent figure amongst the crowds of cadets, even as a first year what with his backstory, that charismatic grin and that exuberant light in his blue eyes. True he was a maverick and a rule breaker and yes his antics sometimes grated on peoples nerves. But it was also clear to see that his jest was only mischief and nothing truly malicious.

Which is why when all of the officers turned to look at him their hearts fell. His face was as white as a sheet, and his clear blue eyes strangely clouded and blank, devoid of any of their usual spark.

Sulu's usually guarded face softened with pity as the communications link beeped on again and Jim quickly turned his head to listen, only for it to fall as Spock's voice rang clearly throughout the transporter deck.

"Spock to Enterprise. Get us out now!"

"Right away Captain" someone called out at their station and suddenly as if a hypnotist had snapped them out of a magic trance, everyone shot back to work at their stations.

"Locking Volume sir. Don't move stay right where you are! Transport in five, four, three two" Chekov called, doing his best to focus on his work as the mixed sounds of frantic officers mingled with the various crashes and bangs from Spock's communicator as the planet below the ship began to implode on itself.

Then suddenly there was a scream.

It was that of a woman's, high and shrill and full of fear even as Spock's voice made to call out loudly.

"Mother!"

"I'm losing her!" Chekov's eyes were wide with panic as he tried his best to lock onto one of the signals on his screen that was darting out of reach of his fingers "I'm losing her! I'm losing her! No…no I lost her…I lost her…" his voice faded out as for the second time in that day a lump rose to his throat.

He couldn't believe it. So many times he'd been successful at working the transporters. It had been one of his best skills he'd developed in his time as a cadet. But now here he was working in the field for barely a couple of hours and already he had lost two people.

He couldn't bear to look up from his console as six figures manifested upon the transporter pad before him, the closest one holding his arm out as if reaching out.

But the spot before Spock was empty, for the person who should have been there had never arrived.


"Sir. She's waking"

"Pull her up. I want to see her face."

Layla grunted as through the darkness of her mind she felt two pairs of hands grab at her arms and tug her body backwards so that she sat on her knees.

She opened her eyes, only to wince as a bright yellow light suddenly flashed into her eyes from above. Whoever it was that had a hold on her chuckled darkly, as did a figure, who strode to crouch over her.

Layla squinted as the person's silhouette suddenly blocked out the light above her, so that his features were finally readable.

She shuddered.

She knew that face. She knew it because it was the face that had appeared on the Enterprise Bridge view screen barely two hours ago.

He had pale, green tinged skin, with pointed ears and a subtle V shaped ridge over his tattooed brow. He was currently tracing over the lines of her face, his dark eyes catching hers so that she could see the hungry calculating gleam in them. He rather reminded Layla of a bird of prey that had caught a mouse in its talons.

"Nero…" she breathed and Nero smirked triumphantly.

"Miss Pike, how kind of you to join us."

"Where is my captain?" Layla rasped her eyes narrowing as they darted over the room about her and her captor.

"Your father is safe…for now" Nero murmured with amusement. "He's not a very talkative man. But I'm sure you'll be able to help him open up in ti-ugh!"

He reeled back as something dark red and wet hit his eye.

"Go to hell sonofabitch!" Layla hissed derisively pleased to see the blood she had spat from her mouth sting the Romulan's eye which flashed as it glared down upon her.

She grit her teeth as she suddenly felt a hand strike hard at her cheek, a sharp claw like nail slicing the skin in one clean swipe.

The force was so strong that her jaw stung horribly even as Nero pulled his hand back and stood to his feet, looking at his two strong crew members that held on tight to the girl between them.

"Take her to the brig. No food. No water. NOW!"

And with that he turned on his heel, his dark clothes whipping out behind him as he strode away from his crew and the girl that was currently kicking, snarling and struggling between them as she was dragged down into the darkness of the Narada.


Hi guys i'm back.

So we're finally getting into the proper plot. god the spock's mum bit of the movie really was quite a sad scene. Seriously i'm not a big Spock fan but still there were just so many feels.

X(

But anyways keep on Reading and Reviewing if you liked and-

Oh wait a moment, just one more thing.

to those of you who have read my other Star Trek fic The Dark Before Dawn be sure to tune into the next chapter. I've got a little surprise in store for you guys. Something i think some of you will like very much*evilly chuckles*

See you next time ;)