I do not own Star Trek or anything to do with said franchise. However, I own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck and this plot. This fic is based on the new movie, and thus, takes place in the alternate universe of the movie. It's rated for lots of bad language and some sexual scenes (let's face it, it is Captain Kirk we're talking about), and violence and some drinking. You know, standard stuff. Should be lots of fun and I apologize in advance if any of the information about Star Trek is wrong. I've tried to do research, but hey, with eleven movies, five live-action shows and one animated show, along with multiple books and such, getting all the facts straight is kind of hard. Anyways, enjoy.
Ain't No Rest for the Wicked
Chapter Twelve: Stranded in the Dark.
Alianna returned to her console just in time to see it start lighting up like a Christmas tree. She sighed and reluctantly let go of her left shoulder, the injured joint protesting and making the security officer gnash her teeth to keep from screaming in pain; she seemed to be incapable of remaining in one piece since she'd met Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise. Keeping the injured limb pinned as tightly to her side as she could without the aid of her good hand, Alianna took the ship to red alert, the lights running on backup power and informing those who may not know what was going on that the Enterprise was in trouble. Her green eyes took in the reports as they flew across the screen. Hull breaches around engineering, failing systems... She set her jaw, keeping herself in business mode.
Kirk appeared at her side, her console being the easiest to access in the chaos, and peered down at the same reports. "Are the emergency force fields holding?" he asked, his quick eyes finding the reports of the hull breaches.
"Yes." Her hand flew over the faintly glowing screen, seeking to confirm her suspicions. "All systems except for life support and the emergency back-up power are down." She ran one finger down the side of the panel, over the line of red lights indicating the reports of failing systems and brought several messages up to view at once. "They knew where Engineering was," she breathed with realization, her green eyes moving rapidly back and forth, taking in the information. "The hits were too clustered for it to be coincidence."
"Looks that way," the Captain said, peering over her shoulder.
"Which means they have some in with the Federation or some stolen ship blueprints or something..." Alianna sighed angrily. "This is not good. First their weapon—"
"But that couldn't have been the weapon they were using on the other ships," Sindari interjected from the other side of the increasingly smoky bridge. "We'd all be dead if it was."
Alianna looked at her sister, narrowing her eyes to peer through the smoke. Sindari looked shaken. Her eyes were wide and showing a lot of white, and her hands were gripping the edge of her console tightly. In fact, everyone on the bridge except for the Vulcan science officer looked like they could use a break. Sindari made her way across the bridge, walking with her knees stiff, like she was expecting the ship to shake again. Her progress was joined by Spock and Chekov, who had spent the most time with the readings from the alien weapon. As the other bridge officers went about their assigned emergency tasks, the small group crowded around Alianna's console, a knot of cerebral action amidst all the hustle and bustle.
"It is logical to assume if the Klingons were experiencing problems with their cloaking system, that it was not the only one they were having problems with," Spock said.
"The modifications they made to their phaser banks might have overloaded several systems," Sindari chimed in.
Chekov nodded his agreement. "Their ship is not new. The modifications were probably too much for the ship to handle."
Kirk looked at his officers and opened his mouth to say something, but was cut off by a sudden yell from the console in front of him. "Captain! I'm losin' control down here! Everything I fix just breaks again!"
Kirk used his thumb to press a button near his hand, connecting him to his Chief Engineer. "Scotty, slow down."
"Sorry Cap'n, but there's no time! I can nae get anything back online or fix anything. My teams are running around the ship, fixing whatever they can get their hands on, but she's not holdin' together!"
The young Captain huffed and ran his hands backwards over his light brown hair. "Just keep doing what you can," he said, pressing the button again. "I'm coming down."
He let go of the button and turned to his senior officers assembled around him. Kirk didn't say anything, but the stress of the situation was clear in the bunched muscles of his jaw and the uncharacteristic darkness of his eyes. Spock, Uhura and the rest knew what they were expected to do, and as their Captain turned and headed for the turbolift, they returned to their consoles to monitor and contribute to the attempted repairs of the ship, a few of them running to the other turbolifts to attend to situations on lower decks. Alianna, on the other hand, quickly glanced at her console, then to her sister before holding her injured arm tightly to her side and following the Captain; Sindari looked at Spock, who was the only other one who noticed the occurrence, and then shrugged before getting back to her work, analysing the weapons systems.
Alianna managed to get into the turbolift just before the doors closed, the hydraulic device slamming into her injured shoulder as she manoeuvred into the small, round car. She couldn't suppress the gasp of pain, hard as she tried.
"You should head down and get Bones to look at that," Kirk said, the barest smile pulling at one corner of his mouth. It was gone quickly and replaced by the grimace of deep thought that had been there before. "You don't want it hampering your ability to work, now do you?"
She groaned and leaned against the wall, sparing enough energy to shoot her Captain a glare, half-hearted and accompanied by a small grin though it was. "There are people with worse injuries who should be attended to first. My time and energy will be better spent in Engineering. I'll get Bones to look at my shoulder when the Enterprise is moving again."
"And what makes you think you'll be of any help in Engineering?"
"Well," she said, groaning again as she adjusted position, "aside from being a capable pilot and a more than capable security officer, I'm also quite adept at fixing things. I spent a lot of time downstairs on the Marissa, and I'm a fast learner." Alianna levelled her gaze at Kirk. "That enough for you?"
Kirk couldn't suppress another grin. "Just don't get in the way."
"I won't."
The turbolift dropped into place and the doors sighed open, revealing the chaos of red and yellow pipes and red-shirted officers running around, data PADDs and tools in hands, attempting to fix what was ailing the Enterprise. A team pushed the officers out of the turbolift with hurried apologizes. Alianna followed Kirk down the only visible walkway to a large, square platform where the Scottish Chief Engineer was barking orders at his subordinates and waving a wrench around in one hand. There was a short alien at his side, with rocky-looking skin and protruding black eyes. When Scotty realized who was standing next to him, he turned and sighed, looking somewhat relieved.
"Captain, am I glad to see you. You know more about this ship than any of these fools," he said, with a glare at the nearest crewman. "And no offense Commander, but what are you doin' here?"
"Commander Lordeck assures me she'll be of assistance."
Scotty looked at the Captain and shrugged. "We can use all the help we can get." He started walking, heading towards the back of the ship, the little alien, Keenser, following at a surprisingly fast walk for someone of his size. Kirk and Alianna fell in step as well, the latter having to jog slightly to keep up with the men. "I've got teams workin' on all the primary systems, but none of the repairs are sticking. Everything just keeps breaking..." As they turned a corner, Scotty patted a bulkhead, and said, "C'mon lass. Hold it together." It was clear he was talking more to himself and the ship; it was almost like he'd forgotten the people following him.
Keenser's eyes made a strangely liquid noise as he rolled them.
Eventually, they reached their destination: a complicated tangle of pipes, bulkheads, computers, wires and other assorted pieces that was evidently a source of quite some trouble. Scotty immediately set to work, informing his "assistants" on what was to be done. Before setting to work, Alianna got Kirk to help her remove her red outer tunic and then tie it tightly around her injured arm, pinning it to her body and leaving her right arm free, all the while assuring him that she could in fact do what was needed with one hand. In her short-sleeved black undershirt, Alianna climbed into the pipes in order to reach a breached conduit. Kirk handed her a tool kit before setting to his own assignment at the nearby computer console, every once in a while, peering over his shoulder to make sure she was still secure in her perch on the pipes.
Similarly to its rival, the Klingon ship was fighting its own internal battles, trying to keep the ship moving and functional enough to support life. The normally obscure bridge was clogged with nearly opaque air, and pervaded by yelling Klingons, the popping noise of broken computer consoles and, from somewhere, dripping water. Krang was seated in his command chair, his right arm bloody and burned, along with most of his hair on that side; he had been too close to a console that have overloaded. His great Klingon jaw was moving as he chewed, his jaw muscles bunching in anger.
In front of him, stood the human: the Green-Eyed Man. His hands were tucked into the opposite sleeves of his voluminous robe, and his lined face set in a supremely nasty scowl.
"It is your fault we are having these problems!" Krang's first officer barked from his position behind the command chair. His dark knuckles were mottled as he gripped his phaser; the only thing keeping him from shooting the human was a reluctant order from the Klingon Captain. "We took the weapon on your word! We betrayed the Empire on your orders! And now we sit here, stranded and just begging to be attacked!"
"Enough!" Krang bellowed. "Speak, Green-Eyes. Tell us what you are thinking." His voice was tight, on the edge of breaking. If the human said the wrong thing, he would be shot, point-blank, no questions asked.
The man rolled his eyes at the nickname, but as he had not given them a name to call him, it was better than some things. "As my wife left, I have nothing to return home for. We must repair the damage done to the cloaking device and to the phasers. Once the primary systems are fixed, we can fix the weapon. Something happened to it when you fired the normal phasers at the Enterprise." He sighed and ran one long-fingered hand back over his short gray hair. "We will have to be more careful when approaching the flagship."
"Why?"
"If they haven't already, the Federation will be sending reinforcements. As powerful as the new weapon is, we will not be able to take on more than one Federation ship at a time."
There was a chorus of growls from around the bridge. The human was doubting the capability of the Klingons, and that was not something normal people would get away with. But, since he was the only one who would be able to find scientists capable of fixing the modified phasers, the Klingons were going to have to put up with some abuse.
"It is just good sense. You don't want to die because of a mistake, do you?" the human snarled in response.
Krang seemed to mull that over. Something in his Klingon mind must have been addled because he found himself agreeing. "Fine. Start repairs and keep watch for the Enterprise or any other ship." He turned his dark eyes to the human he had to regrettably let aboard. "We cannot trust that this man gave us the knowledge to disable the Enterprise."
That was answered with raucous laughter.
Author's Note.
See? I can update. Although I should be studying... Oh well.
By the way, Good Eats is an awesome show. Best cooking show evar. If you're into cooking shows, go watch it, RIGHT SHMEOW. You want proof that it's good? It can make me want to eat ham and mayonnaise, two foods I HATE. That's how good this show is. Makes me want to try food I normally would avoid like the freakin' plague.
Anyways, enjoy this chapter! And... sorry it's a short.
Next Chapter: Sitting Duck.
