It was a strange feeling, really, Asha thought as she went plummeting out into space. A mix of feeling airborne and oddly buoyant with the lack of real gravity, but also like a deadweight as the orbit created by the two spaceships made her shoot out into space while the energy propellers on her suit flew her towards the Vengeance.

It felt like it should be dramatic, with the loud whoosh of wind rushing against her, but it was silent as a grave as she travelled like a projectile through the vacuum of space, between the debris and towards her target.

"Captain, there is debris directly ahead." Spock called sharply, and Jim noted: "Copy that."

He swerved to dodge the large piece of broken spaceship – or rather, piece of Enterprise after Marcus's attack damaged their ship – while Khan and Asha flew onwards, following the path their tracker indicated.

It was almost like one of those car racing games, where you followed the curved paths and the track lines that the screen provided – except, the consequences for mistakes were slightly more dire.

"Whoa, Jim." Bones called sharply at that moment. "You're way off course."

"I know, I know, I can see that." Jim answered a tad testily.

"Miss Sanders," Spock called, "there is debris directly ahead of you."

"Copy that." Asha answered as she swerved, avoiding the debris before correcting her path instantly as she followed Khan. "And call me Asha – Miss Sanders is too long."

"Duly noted." Spock said a little dryly, while Sulu called: "Use the display compass, Captain. You must correct precisely 37.243 degrees."

"Got it, I'm working my way back." Jim answered as he used his compass and tracker lines to correct his direction. "Scotty, you're gonna to be ready with that door, right?"

There was no answer, and Jim repeated urgently: "Mr. Scott, where are you?"

"Captain, he can't seem to hear you." Uhura informed him. "I'm working on getting his signal back. Standby."

"Damn it." Jim suddenly cursed, and Spock asked immediately: "Captain, what is it?"

"My helmet was hit." Jim responded, and Asha frowned worriedly. "Uhura, tell me you have Mr. Scott back."

"Not yet, I'm still working on a signal." She replied. "His communicator is working, I don't know why he isn't responding."

"Khan, Asha," Spock interjected warningly, "use evasive action there is debris directly ahead."

"We see it." Khan confirmed, as he flew left while she flew right, both narrowly avoiding the collision.

"Asha, you're also going too far out now." Bones warned, and she sighed: "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"Asha." Khan warned sharply, and she narrowed her eyes.

"All right, fine, I'll be serio-" She broke off as she swerved sharply, narrowly missing a piece of debris that had come flying at her face.

Unfortunately, in doing so, she was hit in the knee, the impact sending her sharply to the side.

"Asha, look out." Spock called sharply in warning as her path took her right into another piece of debris, but she wouldn't be able to dodge the impact in time.

"Asha!" Khan called sharply, as he swiftly changed direction while streamlining himself even more to gain more speed, shooting like a bullet towards her.

Asha braced herself just as Khan came flying in, catching her and turning them right before they hit the debris.

On the Enterprise bridge, Spock's eyes widened as they abruptly lost signal on both Khan and Asha.

"Mr. Sulu did we lose Asha and Khan?" Spock asked instantly, and Sulu admitted as he worked on his console furiously: "I don't know, Commander, I'm having trouble tracking them in all this debris."

"Were Asha and Khan hit?" Jim asked concernedly, and Spock answered grimly as he also pressed buttons furiously in the Captain's chair: "We're trying to find them now."

"Captain," Sulu interjected sharply, "you need to adjust your target destination by 47.3 degrees."

They watched as – onscreen – Jim's blip shifted, clearly trying to do as Sulu had said, but he wasn't having much success. Sure enough, two seconds later Jim stated grimly: "Spock, my display is dead, I'm flying blind."

The air on the bridge shifted instantly, becoming alarmed, but Spock remained calm as he fired back: "Captain, without your display compass, hitting your target destination is mathematically impossible."

"Spock," Jim bit back, "if I get back, we really need to talk about your bedside manner."

"Commander," Sulu called as he turned to look at Spock directly, his face worried and pained, "he's not going to make it."

Spock glanced at Sulu, wide-eyed, as they all realized they were going to lose their Captain. And pushing aside what Jim's failure meant for the whole Enterprise crew, that loss alone was a huge blow for all on the bridge.

As Spock opened his mouth – although he had no idea what he could say – the screen suddenly lit up as two blips reappeared to the left of Jim's position while Khan's voice called: "My display is still functioning."

The bridge crew looked up in shock as Asha confirmed: "As is mine – and we see you Jim."

Jim glanced to the side as Khan added: "You're 200 meters ahead of me, and 300 meters ahead of Asha, at our one o'clock."

Jim quickly spotted the two speeding figures to his left, true to Khan's word, as Asha added: "Cut to your left a few degrees, and follow us."

Jim was quick to do as they said; using his propellers, he swerved himself around in a large arch, manipulating his direction so that he fell in right behind the two Augments as Asha sped up slightly to fly directly beside Khan. Khan glanced back once to check Jim was following before he refocused ahead, while Asha nodded briefly to acknowledge she'd seen Jim as well.

Keeping right on their toes, Jim called: "Scotty, we're getting close, we need a warm welcome. Do you copy?"

Asha's eyes narrowed as the hangar door they were heading for remained shut while Scotty didn't respond, and Jim shouted: "Do you copy, Scotty!?"

"If you can hear us, Mr. Scott," Spock added, "open door in 10…"

"Scotty!" Jim yelled, and Khan grit his teeth.

"9, 8…"

Khan reached out, grabbing Asha and pulling her against him.

"7…"

"Mr. Scott where are you?" Jim yelled as Asha wrapped her arms around Khan's waist while he did the same to her, their propellers pushing the pair as one unit.

"6…5…"

"Scotty, where are you?" Jim asked desperately, while Khan braced himself as Asha buried her face into his chest… to avoid being hit when Khan manually opened the door.

"4…"

"Scotty, please!" Jim yelled.

"3…"

Though, if Khan punched his way through, they wouldn't be able to close the door again. But Asha decided that would be a bridge to be crossed when they got there. Hopefully Scotty would get that door open in-

"2…"

"Mr. Scott open the door!" Spock ordered, while Jim yelled: "Open the door!"

"Asha?" Khan bit out and she replied sharply: "Ready."

"Mr. Scott, now!" Spock shouted over the pair's swift conversation, and Asha was relieved when the hangar does suddenly opened right before they had to crash into it.

She and Khan flew in, Jim coming in behind them, and she was briefly puzzled when a strange man flew passed them and out the open hangar door.

For a fraction of a second, she wondered if that had been Scotty and if the man hadn't anchored himself well enough, but her concerns were laid to rest almost instantly as the hangar doors slammed shut once more behind them.

Unfortunately, that meant they lost their buoyancy, and she, Khan, and Jim went crashing to the ground as gravity took over. Khan rolled them in the air in the second before impact, so it was he who hit the ground on his back first, absorbing most of the impact while Asha was held safely against his front.

Jim hit the floor on his stomach, and they all went tumbling, rolling over and over as their momentum threw them across the enormous hangar floor. All three grunted as they went spinning across the floor, before finally coming to a screeching stop right by Scotty's feet where the Scotsman was sitting, panting, while still tied to the hangar's main console.

"Welcome aboard." Scotty gasped in greeting, nodding at them as the three groaned at his feet.

Well, Jim and Asha groaned – Khan sat up with gritted teeth, pulling Asha up with him as he checked her over quickly, his blue eyes raking over her sharply before letting her go, satisfied, while Jim lifted his head and greeted: "Good to see you, Scotty."

"Who are they?" Scotty asked warily, looking at Khan and Asha as they pulled themselves to their knees to look around swiftly, already mostly recovered from the rough landing.

Jim sat up with much more difficulty, wincing as he introduced: "Asha, Khan - Scotty. Scotty – Khan, Asha."

"Ah, the lady. And her friend." Scotty deduced, before nodding at the pair as he greeted: "Hello."

"Hi." Asha said distractedly, while Khan forewent any pleasantries as he stated sharply: "They'll know we're here. I know the best way to the bridge."

"Right." Jim groaned as he struggled to get to his feet while Khan stood up fluidly, helping Asha up as she took a moment longer than him to recover.

"Er, okay…" Scotty mumbled, a little disconcerted by the new additions – well, the man mostly, if he even was a man, which Scotty somewhat doubted.

"What happened earlier?" Jim added, looking to the two Augments as he finally managed to get to his feet.

Khan ignored him, looking around as he kept watch with sharp eyes while quickly stripping from his spacesuit. Asha was doing the same, removing the thicker suit to reveal the standard Starfleet black combat gear she'd changed into before leaving the Enterprise. But she, at least, had the manners to answer Jim's question.

"Khan punched a hole through the debris so that we could get through it." Asha answered briefly as she finished removing her suit. "We lost signal with you for a while whilst we were trying to get out of the debris clusters."

"He… he punched through debris?" Scotty repeated in shock, while Jim just nodded once, glancing at Khan as he also removed his spacesuit.

The Augment didn't even look fazed, just keeping his eyes on their surroundings as his body remained tensed, as though ready to leap into action at a moment's notice.

And Jim was slightly perturbed to see Asha mirroring Khan's actions, no hint of the lighthearted woman she could be sometimes left as she looked around with wary green eyes.

'She's a fighter.' Jim realized. 'No… more than that. She's a warrior.'

And he had to suppress a shiver at the thought.

At least he now had a better idea of how to handle his current situation. Jim thought grimly. Before, he'd been uncertain about where Asha Sanders stood, and that meant he was uncertain how to deal with her. But now…

He finished removing his suit as he made his decision, but kept his face carefully neutral as he set down the small case that had been attached to his suit. Opening it quickly, he removed a phaser nestled inside, and – powering them on with a click – he held one out to Khan.

"It's locked to stun." He informed them as Khan took the phaser and Jim held another out to Asha.

"Theirs won't be." Khan pointed out, not even looking at Jim as he kept his eyes and ears trained on their surrounding, so he missed the disapproving look Jim gave him as he answered: "Try not to get shot."

Khan glanced back at Jim, examining the other man's gaze for a moment as Jim also watched him, even as he handed a third phaser to Scotty before arming himself.

After a beat as they stared at one another once more in a silent test of wills, Khan whirled on his feet and strode off, leading the way without another word. Asha glanced at Jim before she followed the other Augment, cocking her phaser experimentally as she went.

Scotty looked after them nervously, before also looking at his Captain. Jim just nodded at his chief engineer, silently urging him on, and he and Scotty ran after Asha – and Khan – as well.

On the Enterprise, Uhura turned in her station and called: "Commander, I have that transmission as requested."

Spock turned to face her from his place at the Captain's chair, and he requested: "On the screen, please."

"Standby." Uhura answered as she pulled up the transmission onto the central viewscreen, and Spock turned to look just as a familiar, elderly Vulcan appeared on the large display.

"Mr. Spock." The Vulcan greeted warmly – as warmly as Vulcans could get at least - and Spock greeted back as he stared at his older, alternate dimension counterpart: "Mr. Spock."