"Do we know what ship we'll be up against?" Hikaru asked her. They were ordered to participate in a war game. It had two purposes, testing combat readiness and command training.
Jamie chuckled, "I know plenty. You will be going up against the Enterprise and the La Forge."
He raised an eyebrow, "What?" The other officers at the table looked between the two of them.
"You will be in command of the USS Mayweather and Spock will be in command of the USS La Forge. You both get to pick your first officers. Your ships will be here in six hours," she smiled.
"You're serious. Jim…" Bones started.
Jamie held up a hand, "I didn't have anything to do with it. The orders came down from the brass when I got the assignment. Sulu being in command of a ship has nothing to do with me, Spock does his evals. You gotta give me some credit, Bonesy."
"I want Uhura and Riley," Hikaru interjected. Jamie looked at the communications officer. Nyota had a good bit of command knowledge and, if she was ever inclined, she could take the bridge exam to stand watch as the duty officer. Kevin was both an amazing engineer and a pretty good navigator.
Jamie nodded, "Done and done. Spock?"
"Doctor McCoy," the half-Vulcan said. Everyone at the table looked at Bones.
The southerner looked at Spock, "Dammit man, I'm a doctor, not a…" They all waited as Bones sighed, "I'm a Starfleet officer. I fucking hate you all." Jamie chuckled at her friend.
"Random question. If we all leave, who's gonna stop Jamie, Scotty and Pavel from doing every crazy thing the book?" Uhura asked. The three officers in question looked at each other with grins on their faces.
"Ye worry about your ship, we'll worry about ours, lass," Scotty told her.
Jamie chuckled, "This is gonna be fun."
"Are you sure you're okay with this?" Hiri asked her as he packed a small bag. The simulation was supposed to take course over a few days.
She smiled, "The hardest part will be trying to sleep without you… Or Bones to sedate me."
"You know what I mean. Are you okay with me in command of a ship?" he asked.
Jamie chuckled, "We've had this conversation. You're an amazing officer and I'm proud of you. I'm still gonna kick your ass, though."
Hikaru wrapped an arm around her waist, "I love you, gorgeous, but I'm gonna win." He closed the small gap between their lips and kissed her. Jamie wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. When Hiri's communicator went off, he reluctantly pulled away from her and answered it.
"My ship is here. I guess it's go time."
Jamie smiled, "Indeed it is, Captain Sulu." She gave him a quick kiss before he grabbed his bag. The others were in the transporter room when they got there.
"I don't like this," Bones grumbled.
Jamie smiled, "Because you're gonna be under Spock's command or because he's taking you away from me?"
Her best friend sighed, "I never even thought about it that way. I can't be that important."
"Except you are," she told him. "Have fun and don't be a complete ass to Spock. He really does respect you, Bones."
He nodded, "Yea, yea."
"Keptin, there is a veapons lock on us," Chekov warned her. The whole ship shuddered when they were fired upon.
Jamie looked at the young officer, "Where did that come from?"
Hannity answered from behind her, "Ma'am, we have Romulan signatures de-cloaking."
Jamie nodded, "Hawkins, get me a status on the Mayweather and La Forge. McKenna, take us out of safe mode and prepare to fire phasers."
She should've known that they couldn't do something as simple as a training simulation without it going sideways, at least they were on the third day. In all fairness, the Romulans shouldn't be here but she wasn't gonna think about it too much. Her main priority was her crew, all of her crew. Jamie ordered her officers to return fire when the Romulans shot at them. The whole ship shuttered again and powered down.
"What the hell was that?" Jamie asked.
Chekov looked at her, "A high energy pulse device. Similar to the one on the Narada. Ve're dead in space."
She nodded, "Can we hail the other ships?"
Hawkins nodded, "I can try, ma'am."
After a minute, some of the power came back and the Mayweather came on screen. To her surprise, Hikaru and Uhura were cracking up.
"Are you guys okay?" she asked.
Hiri sighed, "You mean because of the Romulans?" She nodded. Sulu smirked, "What Romulans?"
Hannity ran another scan, "I don't understand. Nothing on sensors, Captain."
Jamie looked at her boyfriend, "But we got hit with… Oh my God. That was you? How'd you do that?"
"We know how the Enterprise's computers and sensors work. The shots were real but not harmful, everything else was added by the computers. I told you I was gonna win. We took out Spock first, he's pissed. You should see his ears… bright green," he told her with a shrug.
Jamie looked at Chekov, "He tricked us."
The Russian nodded, "I vould appear so, Keptin." The kid looked as stunned as she felt. She couldn't even be mad at them, it was clever as hell.
Jamie smiled, "Well played, Captain Sulu."
"Where are you, babe?" Hiri called.
Jamie sighed, "In here." She took a deep breath and waited for him to step into the bedroom area.
"Hey, so… Whoa," Hikaru said. The look on his face was priceless.
She kept the most impassive expression as possible, "What was that, pet?"
"You look like Cara… How did you…? Where did you…? Oh dear God," he said before he bit down on his finger and gave her a look of pure unadulterated lust.
Hikaru had a thing for this book series called The Sword of Truth, more particularly, a character named Cara. In the books, there are these warrior women called Mord'Sith who usually wear these tight leather outfits in red, white or brown. Cara was a Mord'Sith who appeared in twelve of the fourteen books. She's described as a sharp witted blonde with piercing blue eyes and one of the most beautiful women you could ever see. Hiri says Jamie and Cara are similar in looks and skills, both broken to the point of excellence. And both unapologetic in their duties and loyalties. Jamie was sitting on the edge of her bed in tight red leather, her long blonde hair pulled back in a braid and all the trappings of one such warrior.
"I had some help from Gaila putting the whole thing together. I take it that you approve," she said as she stood.
Hikaru nodded, "I… I… I… I more than approve. Did you get a white one for when you break me?"
Jamie smiled, "I didn't think of that. I went with red because it's your favorite color. Wanna take a closer look, or are you planning to just stand over there?"
He slowly made his way across the room, "Permission to touch my mistress?"
"Granted," she said. Jamie felt like her skin was on fire as his fingers ghosted over the little details of the outfit.
"Is this your Halloween costume? Because, I gotta tell you, I'll have to slaughter anyone who looks at you," he whispered. They were so close that she could hear every word.
"No. This is for your eyes only," she told him.
Hikaru smirked, "Just for me, huh?"
"You're always doing stuff for me. I wanted to do something for you." He nodded before he pulled her against his body and kissed her, hard. Jamie was actually caught a little off guard by it. She was also insanely turned on. Hikaru can be aggressive if he really wants to be but he's never really aggressive with her… until now.
He broke the kiss and stared at her, his brown eyes darkened, "Please tell me there's a quick way to get you out of that?"
"I'm not entirely sure, babe," Jamie shrugged. "You're more than welcome to figure it out."
The next kiss wasn't as rough but just as passionate, Hikaru's hands undoing the buckles and zippers of her outfit as he kissed her. Even in his rush to get it off, he was still careful not to break any of it.
When her arms were free of the leather bodysuit, she pulled his uniform shirts over his head and moved to his pants. She has no idea when he kicked his boots off but they were gone by the time he stepped out of his pants and gently pushed her onto the bed. He tugged both her boots off before he pulled the leather bodysuit the rest of the way off her body.
"God, you really are trying to kill me," he groaned.
Jamie chuckled, "Why do you think that?"
Hiri smiled, "That bra is all sexy and lacey and I've never seen it before. I can't decide if I want to take it off of you or not." Jamie opened her mouth to say something but the words got stuck in her throat at the look on his face. He crawled onto the bed near her feet and slowly kissed his way up her body, his hands skimming the outside of her legs and stopped at her little black underwear.
"Yellow alert. All hands yellow alert," came Hawkins' over the ship's intercom.
Hiri chuckled, "I swear to all that's holy that it better be good. Cockblocked by an alert." Jamie hopped up and grabbed a clean uniform, "We'll finish this later, pet."
He kissed her neck, "Yes, mistress."
"What's going on?" Jamie asked as she and Hikaru stepped on to the bridge.
Spock stood from her chair, "We are being pulled into Questar M-17, Captain."
She nodded, "Full reverse thrust."
Sulu shook his head, "Helm's not responding to my commands due to hyper-gravity. We're two minutes off course, drifting to the right, Captain."
"Forward scanners on the star on the main viewscreen," Jamie ordered. Well, it was pretty, even if it was trying to suck them in. "Sulu, flank it. Speed ahead to make orbit around it, using it's pull to our advantage." He nodded and his hands worked as he followed her order. They spotted a huge, pod ship of unknown alien origin.
"It's emitting a radio signal, ma'am," Uhura told her. Jamie didn't bother to order Uhura to translate it, the other woman was already on it.
"Put us alongside her, Sulu. Spock, scans?"
Her first officer turned in his seat, "Readings indicate a temperature of absolute zero. There is no energy in the ship to support life or send the radio messages. The only thing our sensors have detected is a magnetic reading. However, that could be normal for the metal used in the ship's construction."
"Is there any way to identify the metal or the design?" she asked him.
Spock shook his head, "No, Captain, there is not. Both aspects of the craft are unidentified. The ship has been in the same orbit for over three hundred million years."
Jamie nodded, "Alright, field trip time. Mister Spock, you're with me. Uhura, have Bones and Scotty meet us in transporter room two. Mister Sulu, you have the conn."
"This is a huge ship," Bones muttered. Jamie nodded as they made their way through the large vessel. The ship appeared to have been built by an insectoid race; hexagonal windows aboard the vessel that look precisely like the individual cells in honeycombs of bees. However, the craft's metal, rather than having been cast or rolled, has remarkably been drawn into filaments and spun.
"This race might be spider-like. The metal reminds me of spider webs," Jamie whispered.
Spock nodded, "Captain, the metal is also lighter and stronger than any material currently available to the Federation according to my tricorder."
Bones nudged her, "What do you make of all the open pods, Jim. An accident?" They were all burst open from the inside, it looked like.
Spock answered before she could, "The systematic nature of the breakage suggests that the vessel's crew broke the pods themselves and essentially destroyed the craft."
Jamie nodded, "We just gotta figure out why, so we can get out of here."
Jamie commed over the ship and Uhura notified her that she is no longer receiving the radio signal from the alien ship, the transmission stopped when the away team beamed aboard, she was still working on a translation. Jamie ordered that the Enterprise keep a transporter lock on them.
"Captain," Spock called to her. She cut the communication with the ship and looked at him.
"Yea, Spock?"
He was looking at his tricorder, "I am receiving a slight energy reading. It seems that the ship is receiving the energy being generated by us. The energy is being stored."
Scotty nodded, "From my readings, it appears that the whole ship is designed to receive and store energy."
"Okay. Let's get to the bridge, or control room… whatever," Jamie said.
When the away team found the ship's control center, the doors sealed behind them and an interference field killed the comms and phasers. They all looked around and found that the source of the field was a device attached to the navigational console.
"It is not part of the normal equipment, Captain. It appears to be something jury-rigged during an emergency. The field's purpose seems to be to shield the control center from an intruder," Spock told her.
That was only confirmed when Jamie found a log entry in a bunch of languages, fortunately, she spoke two of them. "Danger! Danger! The dead star... we are being drawn to it! Rather than carry this malevolent life form to other worlds, we have decided to destroy our own ship! There is no other answer! If you understand this message, you are protected only for this moment in this room! This thing, it wants..." the insectoid captain warned before the entry cut off.
That's when the banging against the door started. Bones groaned, "That's why I like to stay on the damn ship."
Jamie chuckled despite the situation, "Oh, come on, Bonesy. This is fun."
He rolled his eyes, "Only you would say some stupid shit like that." Whatever was on the other side of the door broke through and set off a chain reaction of explosions. Luckily, the interference was gone and they were being beamed out.
"Let him go," Jamie said, the tear running down her cheek betraying her steely tone. After materializing in the transporter room, the away team discovered that the entity the logs warned them about had beamed aboard with them. It took over control of the ship's systems, using the Enterprise's phasers to destroy the insectoid craft.
The entity wants to use the Enterprise to take it away from the dead star. But Spock has placed the navigation console inside a static shield, so the entity cannot steer the ship. However, the entity has taken the crew hostage. Scotty was almost killed in engineering and now the damn thing was electrocuting Hikaru.
"Stop, you'll kill him," she pleaded.
"Remove the shield from the warp drive controls! Do it now!" the nearly invisible entity ordered.
Hiri's eyes locked with hers, "Don't… Jamie."
She already made her decision, "Okay. I'll do it. I'll obey, just let him go." The entity released Hikaru and he dropped to his knees. Jamie was all kinds of pissed off now.
In her head, she was formulating a plan to get rid of this thing. The creature spoke to them, "You will leave this orbit and plot course to galactic co-ordinates zero-three-six-point-two-three-one!"
Spock looked at her, "That is the heart of the galaxy, Captain!" She nodded and plotted a course into the helm, her left hand resting on Hiri's shoulder as he leaned against the chair. He was gonna need Bones, sooner rather than later. "Captain, this symbiote can reproduce itself by mitosis and take over every starship we encounter. It can control computer systems...whole planets."
"Well aware of that, Mister Spock," she said.
The entity had to butt in, "Complete repairs! Obey me!" She just rolled her eyes, this thing was about to get a rude awakening.
Jamie acted as if she was obeying the entity but her plan was to use the slingshot effect and break the Enterprise out of orbit. The trick was making it look like she was gonna crash into the star. It wasn't gonna be pretty but it should work.
After a minute, the entity yelled, "No! Accelerate! Do not destroy the ship! Obey! Obey! OBEY!"
"Obedience has never been my strong suit. Get the fuck off my ship," she growled. She hit the commands and flung the ship at the star, using it's gravitational pull to deflect them. The entity fled for it's life thinking that Jamie was about to kill them all.
Hiri looked up at her, "Is it gone?"
Spock nodded, "Affirmative. It fled the ship when it thought we would crash into the dead star. Impressive, Captain."
"I have my moments. You have the conn, Mister Spock. I'm gonna take Sulu to medical," she said as she helped Hiri up and pulled his arm over her shoulders.
"You know, McCoy is gonna flip at us," Hikaru said.
She chuckled, "If he didn't I'd be worried."
"You could always make me feel better," Hiri said to her.
Jamie sighed, "I would but Bones would probably kill me. He said that thing fucked with your heart and banned you from all strenuous activity… including sex. I had to promise before he let you out of sickbay. It's my fault you got hurt, anyway. I'm sorry I wasn't faster, Hiri." He tugged on her arm, for a moment, she gave him a bit of resistance. Hikaru raised an eyebrow and pulled her arm again, this time, she let him pull her onto the bed.
"This was not your fault. We got sucked in by that damn thing. You got us away. Watching you at the helm is hot, by the way. If it wasn't me, it would've been Spock or someone else. You did the right thing, babe," he told her.
Jamie nodded against his shoulder, "I know, but…"
He shook his head, "No buts. Now, since I'm laid up and I'm not allowed to do many of my favorite things, how about we cuddle and watch a movie?"
"I'm down for cuddling. I'll even put on the Mord'Sith costume again when Bones gives you the all clear," Jamie said with a smile.