This is the end of an evil Romulan!
I'm in the flow :-) Thanks to all loyal readers and reviewers, mtcbones that means you!
o0o
It had been ages since he'd last been on the bridge. He'd sat in the captain's chair then, trying not to throw up from the horrific and swirling images in his head, while Jim had shielded him from the view of Delihan and Commander Tamulok, throwing insults at them, and threatening to start an interplanetary war. In the end he had vomited anyway, just before he'd fainted. Definetely not one of his best moments.
Now, the situation was different. Delihan was dead and Tamulok had disappeared. Kirk was sitting in the captain's chair, and Spock was the one the bridge crew was worrying about. When was the last time everything had been normal? He couldn't remember.
"Bones!" he was greeted by a slightly smiling Kirk.
"Hello Jim," he greeted back, and acknowledged Chekov, Sulu and Uhura who briefly turned to nod at him with a small smile.
"How's Spock?"
"It's why I came here. He's stable for now, but it seems I can't use those stem cells we're going to recieve from the P'Jem to produce the vaccine."
Kirk glanced at some readings on the arm of his chair before returning his attention to his CMO. "Why not?"
"Well, the donor was a half-Vulcan, half-human binary clone who died as an infant from a genetic deficiency. I'll have to do some more research when we get the sample, but it hardly is an ideal ..."
"Captain!" Chekov who was sitting at Spock's station interrupted him.
"Mr Chekov?" Kirk turned his chair to him.
"We are approaching the nebula. For the next 15 minutes, the radiation will disturb our sensors."
"Thanks for the warning, Mr Chekov. We don't expect it to be a problem, or do we?" Kirk smiled at the young navigator who was sitting in Spock's chair somewhat uncomfortably. He'd suggested to circumvent the nebula at first, but the captain had insisted they needed to meet the P'Jem as soon as possible. So now, they were going to go straight through it, not the best idea the captain had ever had, Chekov thought, but he hadn't protested any further. For all he knew, Spock's life depended on it, even though the doctor did not seem to be too concerned about him. At least time didn't seem to be as essential as the captain had made him believe.
"No, captain. The nebula was explored and cartographed by the Intrepid only 61 days ago. No disturbances showed up. However, our sensors won't be able to pick up any obstacles, other ships, or ..."
"You've still got eyes, don't you?" Kirk cut him off.
"Aye, sir," Chekov just said, thinking, however, that Sulu who was piloting the ship needed good eyes more than he did right now. What if an enemy ship was hiding in the nebula? More Romulans? Or Orions?
"Jim, you think it's a good …," McCoy started, but couldn't finish when suddenly a jolt went through the ship and the engines failed.
Not again! McCoy thought, and by the groans coming from his fellow officers he judged they all thought the same.
"Bridge to engineering," Kirk said cheerily into the comm in the armrest of his chair.
"I don't know, sir," Scotty replied exasperatedly, already having anticipated his captain's call, "We seem to have a power failure. Partial. This time. I don't know why, I wish ..."
"Okay, Scotty, don't fret. It happens to the best. Do we still have our weapons?"
"Och, uh. Aye. Weapons, shields, just the damn engines have gone."
"Right. Now, Scotty. You need to fix the engines so we can get out of here. So disable all systems except the instruments on the bridge, lifesupport, and weapons."
"Sir?"
"Safety procedures. Or do you want to crawl in the bowels of the ship with all systems running?"
"Well, we've done it a million times before, captain. We've just got to be careful."
"Mr Scott," Kirk returned sharply, "we'll do this by the book, understood? I'm not risking the lives of my engineering staff when it is not completely necessary to do so. So, disable all systems, but the weapons, lifesupport and bridge instruments."
"Aye, sir. I will disable the shields then?" Mr Scott asked, unsure if he'd understood correctly.
"You heard me."
There was a moment of silence before the lights dimmed and it became unusually quiet. McCoy was unsure if it was because everyone seemed to hold his breath or because of most of the running systems, including the shields, had been disabled at Kirk's command.
"Captain," Chekov said, "someone opened the hangar doors."
"Oh?" was Kirk's reply.
"Sir, shuttlecraft Copernicus is leaving the hangar," Sulu reported from his position at the helm.
"The Copernicus you say?" Kirk said, not sounding surprised at all, "Lieutenant Uhura, hail her."
"Ship to ship communication has been disabled, captain."
"Hmm."
"Wait, I may be able to …," she pressed a few buttons and was able to bypass, "You may speak now, sir."
Kirk raised surprised eyebrows, then smiled at her appreciatively. "Uh, Copernicus, this is Captain Kirk. You have no permission to leave the ship."
There was a moment of silence before a reply came:
"Enterprise, this is Velal of the Romulan Tal Shiar. I thank you for the ride so far, but I've decided to leave before it's getting too uncomfortable for me."
McCoy drew in a sharp breath. Was Velal responsible for the power failure? He was impressed. Part of him wanted her to escape, being a captive of Starfleet's secret service for the rest of one's life couldn't be fun.
"Velal! I … order you to return," Kirk shouted, earning himself a confused look from his CMO. Very creative, Jim.
"Order all you want, captain. I've sabotaged your ship, you can't do anything to stop me," she said.
Well, that wasn't true, McCoy realized with worry, they could still shoot at her. And Jim probably would, he wouldn't risk her escaping, or would he?
"Velal!" McCoy addressed her, not really knowing why he wanted to speak to her, or what he should say, "Uh ..., Tamulok may be out there. You must be careful."
There was a pause before Velal answered: "Goodbye. I'll keep you in good memory. … Velal out."
Then the line was cut off.
"Lieutenant?" Kirk turned towards Uhura with questioning eyes.
"Uhm, I'm not sure I can do anything, captain."
"Sir, there's a small vessel 5 km away, on three o' clock," Sulu informed them excitedly.
Kirk slid to the edge of his seat. "I see it, Mr Sulu. Could it be one of those vessels that left the surface of Fvillhail Three?"
"Could be, sir. Though we can't be sure without the senors," Chekov provided, beginning to suspect that Kirk had insisted on passing through the nebula for other reasons than wanting to take a shortcut.
"Uhura?"
"Sir, I … Wait, I'm getting something, ..."
She frantically pressed some buttons and after some static they could hear the voice of Commander Tamulok: "... thought it possible you'd betray your own people, Velal."
"You're the traitor, Tamulok. And the Tal Shiar wants you dead."
"YOU DARE CALL ME A TRAITOR? I didn't commit ADULTERY with a human NAKED MOLE RAT!"
McCoy felt his hand grip the armrest of Kirk's chair.
"Mr Sulu, aim photon torpedoes on Tamulok's ship!" Kirk hissed, dangerously quiet.
"I can't get a lock, because of the radiation," Sulu said, while his hands still flew over the console.
Kirk was up from his chair, striding over to him. "Aim manually!"
"Aye, sir," Sulu said with a mixture between a frown and a smile on his face. Firing photon torpedoes from the hip was something he'd never done before.
"He's got more backbone than you ever had, Tamulok."
Kirk checked Sulu's aim from over his shoulder.
"You enjoyed it? Well, I'll ..."
"Fire!" Kirk shouted to shut the Romulan up once and for all.
And Tamulok never did finish his sentence.
They all heard the sound of a torpedo being fired from Enterprise, and a millisecond later, an explosion was seen on the screen, right where Tamulok's ship had been.
There was silence on the bridge. It was a success for Starfleet, yes, but it had happened so … unexpectedly.
"Uhura, the Copernicus?" Kirk was the first to speak, as he slowly returned to his seat.
"I think she's able to hear you," she answered.
"Captain Kirk to Copernicus, Tamulok's ship has been destroyed. Return to Enterprise immediately."
Silence.
Kirk felt McCoy shift nervously beside him, and spared him glance. Intent blue eyes wanted him to understand a message, but he averted his gaze quickly.
"Kirk to Velal," he said again, a bit louder, "if you don't return our shuttlecraft we're forced to destroy it."
"This is Velal. Congratulations, captain. In the name of the Romulan Tal Shiar, I thank you for eliminating a dangerous enemy to both our empires."
"Now return to Enterprise," Kirk repeated.
"Captain," Velal said slowly, in a lecturing tone, "You don't seriously believe I will return to your ship to be handed over to the Federation and spend the rest of my life in prison?"
"I do. Or you will be destroyed," Kirk answered.
"Listen to him, Velal, he means it!" McCoy shouted and earned himself an annoyed stare from his captain.
"We'll see each other around," the Romulan said over the comm and they could see the shuttle engines being powered up.
"What about those engines, Scotty?" Kirk called his engineeer.
"Sorry, captain. But doing it "by the book" means taking more time. Another two or three hours, maybe?"
"Jim, you can't …," McCoy's voice implored from beside him.
"She's preparing to go to warp, captain," Sulu interrupted, knowing the signs.
"Sulu," Kirk was up from his chair once more, "aim phasers on engines."
Sulu had dreaded the order. It was tricky to disable a ship's engine without causing further damgage with working sensors, but doing so manually was a totally different matter.
"I'll do my best," he replied.
"Fire!"
He pressed the button, and at the same moment Enterprise's phasers shot out from under them aiming towards the Copernicus. A lightning, followed by a massive explosion, one that was much bigger than the one that had destroyed Tamulok's ship, was seen, and the bridgepersonnel had to shield their eyes in order not to be blinded by the harsh light. It took them several long seconds to be able to see again, seconds in which nobody said a word.
Sulu was the first to speak, to report what everyone already knew:
"Shuttlecraft Copernicus has been destroyed."