Saving Yorktown, Part Two

"Montgomery Scott!" Cora cheered as they were able to move some of the debris away from the door that had trapped Scotty and Jaylah, freeing them, "Jaylah! Are you well?"

She wasn't sensing any pain off of them, nothing that indicated they had been injured. They both seemed tense but also reassured and now very grateful for being freed.

"We're fine, Lassie," Scotty reassured her.

"Scotty," Kirk cut in, "I need you to link into the Franklin database. Find out what you can about Balthazar Edison."

They could have gone back to the Bridge for it, used one of the monitors there as not many others throughout the ship were in working order. But there were more crew on the Bridge than in engineering and if they were right, he didn't want to alarm anyone. He wanted to be sure before he informed Yorktown or anyone else. Cora had said he wasn't on the ship any longer, so they were safe for now, it was Yorktown they had to worry about.

That, and he needed access to the database, to the Captain's log. He needed to know what Edison's endgame was. WHY was he doing this? Why was he so keen to launch biological warfare on the Fleet? Edison had been a Starfleet captain, what had caused him to turn on the Federation the way he was? If there was any hope of understanding, it would be in the Captain's log, that would be where the man was most honest. And even if he wasn't, he was hoping that Cora might be able to gleam something, some emotion he wasn't revealing, that would help this all make sense.

"What, the captain of the Franklin?" Scotty asked even as he began to move over to a nearby monitor to access the ship's records.

"Yeah," Kirk replied.

"Sir, he'll be long dead."

"We have made a startling discovery that Captain Balthazar Edison is still alive," Cora informed him.

"What, how?!"

"No idea," Kirk sighed, "But somehow Edison is Krall," they watched as Scotty managed to hack into the records sifting through the crew.

"That is Kalara," Cora pointed out, when Scotty filtered past an image of Jessica Wolff, a woman whose face bore a striking similarity to Kalara's.

"Well, I'll be…" Scotty blinked, realizing it was true. He'd only caught a glimpse of the woman when they were heading back to the ship before he'd gone to Engineering.

"He is Manas," Jaylah added, when Scotty got a few more profiles in, to an Anderson Le.

"I don't think there were any others that survived," Uhura murmured, "There was just Kalara and Manas. The others all seemed to be the same species but serving under Krall."

"I'm not sure if I should be happy there were only three," Kirk began, "Or feel sorry for the man that he lost all of his crew but two."

Cora leaned over to whisper to him, though the others could clearly hear her, "You are feeling relieved there are no more."

"Yeah, thanks Cor, but that was rhetorical," Kirk pointed out.

"My apologies."

Kirk just waved it off, frowning when Scotty got to Edison's profile, "What'd you find?"

"Uh," Scotty squinted a bit as he read through it quickly, "Well, his record goes back way before the Federation even existed. He was a major in the United Earth Military Assault Command Operation. A lot of off-world combat…"

"He was a soldier."

"Aye, sir. And a pretty good one. His military service came to an end when MACO was disbanded."

"Why, what happened?"

"The Federation, sir," Scotty glanced back at him, "Starfleet."

"Starfleet is not a military agency and is not to engage or initiate war," Cora murmured, sounding as though she were recalling a lesson from the Academy, though there was an odd tone to her voice that had Uhura looking at her in concern, it sounded almost…regretful but that couldn't be the right word for it, Empathics were naturally peaceful people and were less likely to war than any other species in the galaxy. She wouldn't be saddened that the Fleet wasn't a war machine…

"Aye," Scotty agreed, "So they made him a captain and gave him the Franklin."

"Scotty, bring up his logs," Kirk added.

"Aye, sir."

A moment later the monitor flickered to reveal a very human looking Krall, Balthazar Edison as he once was, looking happy and proud and eager, "Captain's Log..."

Kirk shook his head, knowing the systems would start with the very first, "Last entry."

It was a stark difference from the first entry to the last, where Edison appeared very worn, weary, exhausted, and just broken down. He looked as though he'd been through hell, "Captain's Log...I don't remember the stardate," he huffed, sounding devoid of all care at all, "All distress calls unanswered. Of the crew, only three remain," Kirk let out a breath, Kalara, Manas, Krall, the only three crew, at least that was confirmed, "I won't allow it!" Edison suddenly shouted, before the image cut to him hunched over, looking somewhat determined but also angry, "The indigenous race abandoned this planet long ago. They left behind sophisticated mining equipment and a drone workforce. They have some sort of technology that prolongs life. I will do whatever it takes for me and my crew. The Federation do not care about us. You'll probably never see me again. But if you do…be ready."

"He is resentful," Cora spoke a moment later, thinking through all the emotions she'd seen displayed on his face, heard in his voice, noticed in his body language, "Angry, hurt, abandoned, desperate, fearful, determined, pained, hopeless, bitter, exhausted, weary and wary, vengeful, resentful. He believes the Fleet abandoned them when their calls went unheard through the nebula. He lost his crew, he would not lose any more of them."

"But then why was he so willing to kill ours?" Uhura wondered, recalling how the attack had caused them to lose some of their crew. She reached out to put a hand on Cora's shoulder when the girl flinched at the reminder.

"Why has he not used his weapon yet?" Jaylah added, if he had such a weapon and wanted revenge on the Fleet, why was the base still there?

"Cause he wants to find somewhere to inflict maximum damage," Kirk realized.

"He needs a distribution system," Uhura agreed.

"Will it be through air or water or infection?" Cora wondered out loud, looking up when the four of them turned to stare at her, "Leonard McCoy complains very vocally about the different ways infection can spread with each planet we send a landing party on."

Kirk probably would have laughed at that, how she was probably the only one who still paid attention to Bones and his paranoia about disease, but this was far too serious, and she was far too right, "Lieutenant, you saw the weapon in action?"

Uhura nodded, "From what I saw of it, it was an airborne weapon."

"And it only attacked organic matter?" Cora asked, in case it affected where Krall would release it, Uhura nodded.

"They have to circulate air here right?" Kirk looked to Scotty.

"Aye, sir," Scotty typed something in and quickly brought up the schematics of Yorktown, looking for just that, the largest center of air distribution, "There's an atmospheric regulator at the core."

Kirk let out a breath, "Lieutenant, contact Yorktown. Make sure they shut it down until we find Krall."

"Yes," Uhura hurried off to do just that.

"How would he access the core?" Kirk asked Scotty.

"Uh, well," he zoomed in on the blueprints, "There's a maintenance tower at the station's gravitational nexus. That's the only way."

"Scotty, you get over there. Make sure it gets shut down. Cora, you go with him, MAKE them shut it down if you have to."

"Captain Kirk," Cora reached out to grab his arm as he moved to leave, "I may be able to assist you more."

"Cora…"

"With such a present danger, Yorktown will do all that is necessary to stop the threat, I would be redundant with Montgomery Scotty. If the bio-weapon attacks organic matter, I may have a way to assist you, as a failsafe, should it be released."

"And how are you going to do that, Cor?"

"Flowers."

"What?"

Cora gave him a small, apologetic smile, "I cannot elaborate more, Captain Kirk. It is not the custom of Empathics to do so until we have spoken with our cherished one."

Kirk frowned, confused, "You can't tell me because you haven't told Spock about flowers?" she nodded that he was correct. He shook his head, he didn't have time to argue with her, if she said she could help, he'd just have to trust her. She wouldn't be disregarding an order from her captain if she didn't think she could truly help HIM with Krall, "Let's go."

~8~

Kirk held a hand out, helping Cora jump down from the ship after him. They ran across Yorktown, as fast as they could, heading for the core. It had taken some doing to get out, needing to make sure that Uhura's call had gone through while Scotty and Jaylah left the ship through a clear path from Engineering. They should have been in the control center of the base by now, Uhura's message had been received, the air system should have been down by now, but, looking up at the system, it was clearly still functioning.

"Get Scotty," Kirk called to Cora as they ran, him with a phaser, her with a comm., "Why isn't it off?!"

"Montgomery Scott," Cora called into the comm., "Captain Kirk requests to be informed as to why the regulator has not been shut down."

"We're working on it!" Scotty replied back, "But as you can imagine there's a lot of safety protocols surrounding the thing that, you know, keeps everybody alive."

"Figure something out!" Kirk shouted over to the comm..

"Captain Kirk," Cora shouted, continuing only when he turned to her, "I need to gather the yellow flowers," she pointed over to the side, seeing a small patch of what humans called 'sunflowers' a few feet away, "I will, as humans say, catch up."

Kirk shook his head, but kept running, not about to even stop to question it. He'd learned that Spock and Cora were odd in their own rights, just going with it seemed to work out in the end though. So he continued to run towards the building that would give him access to the core.

Cora could vaguely hear Scotty warning Kirk that the gravity would be off the closer he got to the center before he disappeared inside the building.

She did not like this, she did not like being so separated from everyone. Most of her crew were still on the Franklin or being taken to medical on the base, Spock and McCoy were trapped in an enemy ship, Scotty and Jaylah were rushing to the control center, and her captain was heading to face a terrible enemy. And she was running over to sunflowers.

She knew what each flower in the Enterprise garden was, she spoke to the crew that maintained it, curious as to what they were and what some did. The crew often would have to pollinate the flowers themselves so they would create new flowers. Almost all the flowers were like that, except the sunflowers. The sunflowers had seeds within themselves, had parts that allowed them to pollinate themselves. And that was what she needed, she needed the seeds, and she needed to know that, in the worst case, it could create more seeds.

She dropped to her knees beside the patch, reaching out to examine them, looking for the ones with the most seeds and plucking them. When she was sure she had enough, she moved to get to her feet again when a terrifying thought struck her.

Would she still be able to do what she had promised her captain?

The journey to Altamid had not been easy, nor had the aftermath of losing part of her crew, nor had the fleeing enemy fire or the takeoff from the planet.

Would she still be able to muster the same energy that had caused the buds to bloom on the Enterprise?

She swallowed hard, glancing at the core and back to the flowers. She needed to know, she needed to be certain now before she attempted this up there and failed. She took a breath and looked at one of the remaining sunflowers, one that still had a bud that hadn't opened and held a shaking hand over it.

Nothing happened.

She looked away a moment, shaking her head, this needed to work, and not just for her. She closed her eyes and tried to push past the anxiety and fear and concern she felt over the situation, tried to ignore the terror she could feel swelling within the base itself, to the emotions she'd felt on the Enterprise, to the curiosity and hope and peace…

She opened her eyes when she felt something brush along her palm.

The bud opened.

She didn't allow herself even a moment to process the reason behind it, just focused on the fact that it had worked, pushing herself up and running towards the same building as Kirk.

~8~

Cora had only just reached the top of the building, when she felt a flash of fear strike through her. She had rushed into a lift, the first one she saw when she ran into the building, taking it all the way to the top, as high up as it would go. She didn't know exactly where the hatch was that Krall was going to try and use, but she assumed it would be easy to find if she just went higher and higher.

She had certainly been frightened on the way up, worrying for her captain and what she would find when she made it to him. She had kept her comm. on the entire time, she had heard the struggle Kirk had gone through and the things she had heard from Krall when he spoke only served to make her feel cold and uncomfortable.

He had been raging about how he'd found his purpose in life when he'd lost his humanity. How he wanted to bring the galaxy back to war, because he felt that fighting and conflict was what made humanity strong.

He had clearly never been to Hestia.

The Mas'heirs had essentially invaded, launched a war of their own, and the Empathics had NOT grown stronger for it. They had not found a unity, they had not found a purpose of their own, only what the Mas'heirs told them they could and would do.

She couldn't help but think, the small voice in the back of her mind speaking up, that when Kirk spoke of how Krall underestimated humanity, that it was similar to herself. Her enemies underestimated her, because of her culture and her people, and they often found out how wrong they were.

It had not pleased Krall to hear such a thing, he had continued to rage about how it wasn't fair the Federation made peace with the enemy to stop the wars, how it should have been a fight to the true death. He resented the ship and position he'd been given, to go from a soldier to an explorer, that wasn't his calling. He was a soldier.

Krall didn't want to hear anything about how the war had been won, how HE had won the war for humanity and gave them peace. Peace wasn't what he had been born into, and now he was going to end it.

She had heard crashing and fighting, pained noises coming from her captain and she knew the strike of fear she'd felt was from him.

A moment before the doors opened, she could hear Kirk shouting, "No!"

She ran down the hallway the doors opened to, working to get the exit at the end open, as she heard another shout of, "NO!"

The door opened just as she caught sight of the artifact, now activated and with a black mist starting to swarm around it, floating up through an opening in the ceiling, a hatch opening, up to the center. Krall had followed through with his plan. The man, though, didn't appear to be watching it as he focused on Kirk, who had run at him. He did not appear as though the alien she had heard he appeared to be, but instead looked more like he had in the video Uhura had seen, though there was a distortion she could see even from behind, an unnatural paleness, a smoothness and bulging in other places that gave off an alien feel, as though he were caught between two worlds.

Krall had gotten the captain by the throat, holding him back against a wall, both men had a hand to the other's throat, but it was clear to her that Krall had the upper-hand in terms of strength and rage, fueling his actions.

"Captain!" she could hear Scotty shouting over a fallen comm. of Kirk's own on the ground, "We have to stop the processor now or everything breathing in Yorktown is dead!"

Cora tried to work out what to do, if she used her abilities, Kirk would undoubtedly get caught in the crossfire of it and it would serve no one any good if that happened. And then she realized, Krall didn't appear to notice she'd reached them, he was too fixated on Kirk. She looked down at her hand and up at Kirk, catching his eye over Krall's shoulders. She held up her hand in a sign, her expression grim and reluctant, but she gave him a nod, telling him she would do it.

Kirk began to smirk as he focused back on Krall, "Your crew's dead, Edison," he spoke, half taunting the man to keep him focused on him and not Cora as she got closer, "Mine isn't."

"Your crew will not be able to stop me," Krall growled out.

"Maybe," he admitted, "The crew won't. ONE of them will."

"You?" Krall scoffed, tightening his grip on Kirk's neck.

Before he suddenly released him, collapsing to the ground with a cry of pain, something having just tapped the back of his neck.

His vision swam as his body seized, a mixture of pain and numbness surging through him, paralyzing him, but weakening him as well, settling deep into his bones. He managed to move onto his back, having fallen on his side, blinking as rapidly as he was panting, trying to clear his vision from the white that had invaded it. The ringing in his ear only just subsided as his vision refocused on Kirk smirking down at him.

"No," he answered Krall's last question, "Her," he nodded over at Cora, who looked unsure of what to do and so she just gave him a small wave. Kirk straightened and looked over at Cora, "Always the secret weapon."

Cora shifted a bit at that, looking down at Krall. It had been a good thing that she had anticipated needing to use some of the more negative emotions against Krall, to subdue him, to protect her captain. It had been truly hard to cause the man pain, despite the pain he had caused others. She had had to truly force the emotion to the forefront in order to bring down Krall the way she had. But he was down and her captain was alive, and there was still a chance to contain this.

"Cora, now would be the time to use your secret weapon," Kirk remarked, looking up as the artifact started to make its way into the main chamber.

Cora nodded and quickly knelt down, sifting through the flowers.

"You can't stop it," Krall murmured, wheezing, "You will die."

"Better to die saving lives than to live with taking them," Kirk countered, "That's what I was born into. Cora?"

Cora stood a handful of seeds in her hand and she moved to the hatch, Kirk watching as she carefully made her way up towards it, gripping into the edge of the room to keep from floating up as well, but releasing the seeds.

Kirk gaped as he watched Cora intently focus on the seeds, as they began to grow as they floated up, without soil, without true sun, without water. They grew, their roots connecting as the stems entwined, moving to try and surround the black mist of the artifact. He shook his head as the mist was contained. Each time a strand tried to escape, one of the flowers would release seeds, attracting the mist back to it instead of expanding outwardly.

"Since when can you do that?!" Kirk called up to her.

"I do not know the exact point," she told him, not wanting to lie and so she interpreted his words to merely mean make the flowers grow. She honestly hadn't known if she would be able to weave them the way she had. She hadn't intentionally tried to. She merely tried to extend more emotion in some areas to draw the roots or stems in that direction. She did not think admitting to such a thing would help comfort or reassure him, but there was one thing she could not lie about "I am not certain how long I can maintain it."

"Right," Kirk nodded, looking over at Krall once more, before leaning down go grab his comm. again, "Scotty!" he called into it as he began to make his way up the hatch after Cora.

"Captain," Scotty replied, "I think we can redirect it. There's a sealed construction hatch that will let you vent the weapon into space. Now we can override the locks from up here but you will have to activate the hatch."

"Cora," he looked over at her, "Can you maintain it for that length?"

Cora's face scrunched, "I believe so, but I will ask for haste, Captain Kirk."

"On it," Kirk nodded, starting to move along the walls of the center, being sure to keep close enough to them so as not to tempt the mist, "So I just hit a button," he stated into the comm..

"It's not a button, sir," Scotty told him, "It's a silver lever under a white panel."

"Got it!" Kirk spotted them and began to get to work, heading for the first one, keeping Cora in the corner of his eye as he went.

"And there's four of them," Scotty added, "Once you've primed the hatch you'll have to exit the chamber immediately. If the hatch is open when the processor cycles and you're in it, you're gonna get sucked into space."

Kirk got the first lever set, "What happens if the hatch isn't open?"

"You're gonna get sucked into a big fan with the weapon," Scotty told him as he got the second lever set, "And we all die."

Cora almost looked over when she heard the sound of Leonard McCoy over the comm., unaware the line to he and Spock had been open as well, but she caught herself in time and kept her focus on the flowers once more.

"Damn it, Jim!" McCoy shouted as Kirk got to the third lever and set it, "You won't make it out in time!"

Cora could hear Kirk grunting as he struggled with the last lever.

"The vent!" Jaylah's voice echoed through the room, "Get out of there Jim!"

Kirk glanced over, hearing a loud grinding noise and spotting the vent to space beginning to open, but he needed to get this working or they'd lose their window.

"I believe the last lever is stuck," Cora called out to the comm. for him.

"Cora?" Spock's replied, "What are you…"

But he was cut off by Kirk calling, "Scotty, the last hatch won't open! Scotty!"

"Work fast, Captain," was all Scotty could offer, "Time's running out! You've got seconds!"

Cora gasped, seeing Krall starting to float into the cage, having recovered from the experience of her abilities, the man grabbing a shard of glass as he went. If she tried to stop him, she would lose focus on containing the artifact, but if she didn't, he could hurt her captain for she could sense no helpful intent off him. She looked over at the edge of the center, where the glass had shattered and up at Kirk, hoping she was making the right decision, that she would be fast enough.

"Captain Kirk!" she called out, moments before Krall moved to stab him, and released her efforts on the artifact to turn her focus to Krall.

Kirk glanced over his shoulder at her call, just in time to see Krall tense behind him, jerking back in a natural reaction, and sailing right into the black mist as it consumed the flowers and began to surround Krall as well.

Right at that moment, the vent opened and the vacuum began, but the hatch and fan were still in the way, the air being sucked towards it and towards space. It took Krall and the artifact with it, but also began to suck the two of them towards it as well.

"No!" Kirk struggled, focusing on the lever, not seeing Cora cautiously making her way to the glass, grabbing tight to the bottom of the center as she went. He grit his teeth, "No!" and slammed his hand on the lever, finally getting it to move, turning the fan off and allowing Krall to be pulled straight into space with the artifact.

"Manual override engaged," a computerized voice called out.

"Captain Kirk!" Cora shouted, grabbing his arm as he was nearly pulled out by the forced of the vacuum, grabbing onto the edge of the case with one hand and trying to hold onto him with the other. It was difficult, the vacuum was too strong, "I cannot hold much longer!" Cora warned him, her grip not on his hand but on the edge starting to slip.

"Cora, let go of me," Kirk ordered her, knowing she'd have more of a chance of holding on with two hands.

"No!"

He didn't even have a chance to shout to her about how she had actually disobeyed an order from her captain, when she lost her grip and the two of them went flying away.

They didn't get far though, not even remotely close to the vent or the fan, as Spock and McCoy arrived. Kirk would not have put it past Spock to demand McCoy turn the ship over to them the second he realized Cora was in the center with him.

They scrambled to try and grab onto some part of the ship, but it wasn't till the hatch on top opened and Spock stood within it, that they found it. Spock reached out to grab their arms, but only managed to grab Kirk's from the force of how they were being pulled and the odd angle the change in air currents had moved them.

Cora gasped as their flight was interrupted, her arm stinging from the sudden shift and jolt, but this time it was Kirk's turn to hold onto her as he was pulled to safety. The second he was stabilized on the ship, he and Spock both reached out to take an arm each and pull her in more, the two of them joining Spock and McCoy inside the ship, as they collapsed to the ground with pants of relief.

Though Kirk had to smile and shake his head when he realized Cora had somehow collapsed half on Spock's lap, though the Vulcan made no attempt at all to push her away, instead winding his arms around her to hold her closer to him in his relief that everything was alright once more.

"Whoo-hoo!" McCoy cheered from he controls as he piloted them away, the vent closing behind them, Krall already lost to space with the artifact.

Kirk reached out to pat Spock's shoulder, "What would I do without you, Spock?" he asked, "You or your mate," he let out a gentle laugh, leaning back to rest against the side of the ship, his head thumping back as his eyes closed.

Spock didn't think much more on what Kirk said when he felt a contentment and a joy, a relief and a sense of elation that could only come from doing good, fill him. He knew Cora was projecting, she had to be, for him to feel her emotions so strongly, though Kirk and McCoy did not show any outward signs of feeling the same, he was sure they did.

He let out a breath when he felt her thoughts echoing in his mind, about how she was fine, she was well, she was safe. They both were.

He looked down at his mate in his arms, her eyes closed as she rested against him. He closed his eyes as well, resting his forehead to hers as they just took a moment of relief and reassurance that they had both survived.

Kirk peeked an eye open to smile at the sight of them, cuddled up and connected at the forehead. He didn't need to be an Empathic to know they were both reveling in being safe and together once more.

And so was he, his crew was safe and together once more.

A/N: I apologize this wasn't up yesterday, I went out to meet a friend to catch up and thought I'd be back sooner than I was, but we ended up going to see a movie too and I didn't get back till late :( But it's up now :D

I felt like it was odd, how the artifact surged around the room in the movie but then just stayed condensed and together in the air center. Like I get gravity, but that was a powerful force and it was just floating there? :/ So I wanted to come up with another reason why it was, Cora trying to use the planets to keep it contained and distracted :)

But next we get a bunch of conversations and revelations and a huge twist ;)

Some notes on reviews...

Lol, I can imagine Cora wanting to keep the Tribble from the last story, but with how they reproduce so quickly, I think they sort of had to force her to give it up :)

I'm not quite sure what your mini-story had to do with Cora and Yorktown, but it was interesting to read a little mini-fic of Cora if she were Sailor Pluto. I would probably equate her more as a mixture of Neptune and Saturn though, very calm and poised, deeply intuitive, but not really having the greatest past and having endured pain :( It was very amusing to read :)

We may see kittens one day, you never know ;)