Thirteen: The Narada
This is what happened.
The Enterprise engaged the Narada a few miles off the the northwest end of Zanzibar's southern island, near the smaller island Tumbatu. The Narada was visiting villages up in the north, stocking up for what seemed like an overland expedition – probably back into the mainland to start another slave caravan.
They chased it, and exchanged cannon fire. In a twist of fate, the star-men ended up boarding the Enterprise – incredibly bold, Spock observed, as they knew that he was there on behalf of the Federation, and that he was out for their arrest.
"It's a pre-emptive strike you beetle-head!" Jimmy had shouted over the roar of cannon fire. "They're trying to kill you!"
Indeed they were, and while the Enterprise and it's ragtag special guests put up a good fight, the star-men managed to phaser Spock into unconsciousness and drag him off.
The Narada sailed off into the dusk, leaving the Enterprise drifting with a broken mast and several other major injuries.
"Is that why they were here this whole time?" Nyota demanded between deep pants as they caught their breath and watched the star-men sail away. "Do they just, I don't know, hate his people and want to get him?"
Jimmy, also panting and wincing, shrugged. "Could be," he said. "People do it all the time here on Earth."
The regular crew of the ship was in chaos, arguing about who should take charge. It seemed that Mister Scott, as the highest ranking, was the acting captain now with Commander Spock gone, but he was flushed and his eyes were wide and worried, only one thing on his mind.
"The Enterprise needs immediate attention," he said. "She's limping badly."
"You can still sail," Jimmy scoffed.
"The mizzen mast is almost broken clear off, James," Mister Scott said defensively. "And the engine! It's-"
"Well yeah but you can still sail," Jimmy said. "I mean it'll be tricky, but you have the main and fore sail, the boat will still move. We can still chase them and get Spock back."
"We need to get back to England," Kyle said.
"That is the – go to hell, teabag, my father died so I wouldn't have to take orders from you people." Jimmy scoffed.
That did it, and three of the uniformed crewmen launched on Jimmy. He drew back in a fighting stance, and Sulu budged in front of him, drawing his sword and giving a short, commanding order.
"You see!" Lieutenant Kyle said, pointing at the chaos and looking at Mister Scott. "They're barbarians! Put them off ship and let's get out of here!"
Another crewman took offense. "We can't leave Commander Spock!"
"Fine then," Kyle said. "Let's put it to a vote."
"Oh for the love of -" Jimmy scrambled up to stand atop a lashed down barrel and raised his voice. "Everybody shut up! I am the Pirate King Captain Kirk and I'm commandeering this ship! And if anybody wants to stop me they can go through Sulu and his sword first."
"Hai," Sulu confirmed with a wicked gleam in his eyes.
"Now we're gonna patch up the ship as best we can and go get your stupid star-man commander back, because it is the right thing to do," he looked accusingly at Kyle as he said it. "And we're going to either arrest or kill Nero in the process, because that's the whole reason we're here, and if you have a problem with that, just soothe yourselves with the thought that filthy pirates forced you to do it."
He jumped down from the barrel, and Nyota had to admit she was a little impressed. She had tried to speak up a few times but was never heard – and it seemed these men were far less likely to listen to her than her pirates.
"Pavel, can you help Mister Scott with the engine or whatever?" Jimmy said.
Pavel's eyes lit up. "Oh yes Jim Kirk, happy to!" He bounded over to Mister Scott, who looked completely befuddled when Pavel kissed him once on each cheek in greeting.
"Sulu, you've sailed on one of these right?"
Sulu nodded, grinning, thrilled to be back on a big, proper ship.
"Great, take the wheel, helmsman."
"What about us?" Nyota asked, from where she stood next to Bones. She wrung her hands a little nervously – being back on a ship like this reminded her too strongly of crossing the Strait – and she was out of her depth here.
Bones, for his part, stood with his arms crossed, smiling almost proudly at Jimmy.
"Anybody hurt?" Jimmy asked.
"A few," Bones replied.
"Well-" Jimmy spread his hands in annoyance. Bones grinned and stalked off to treat the wounded. "And you, Nyota Uhura," Jimmy said, taking her hand. "You're gonna help me come up with a plan."
Nyota shrugged. "Go on board and beat everybody up?"
Jimmy nodded. "They have disruptors, though. So we'll just have to be sneakier." He turned to the last remaining crew, Kyle and another man, standing defiantly. "The rest of you! Go fix something! And somebody get me a phaser!"
She was the last thing Nero would ever think was a threat.
She was barefoot, and skinny, and wore nothing but a kanga wrapped around her slim hips and another one twisted around her breasts. She still had scars on her wrists and back and legs from her time in slavery, and freedom hadn't done much to quell her temper. She had long, sleek straight hair tied up in a ponytail, and it fluttered in the breeze.
She stood at the hull on the port side of the Enterprise, her wrists tied demurely with rope. Sulu stood on one side, his hand on her shoulder. Jimmy stood on her other side.
The ship slid up alongside the Narada, and from this distance they could see the damage done to the aether-engine, visible through a hole in the deck, underneath the main mast.
Jimmy raised his hands in an open-palmed gesture. A white flag fluttered at the top of their mast.
One of the tattooed star-men peered out at them, holding a lantern. "What's this supposed to be?" he called out over the calm waters. The wind was still and the ships creaked in the night time.
"A surrender," Jimmy said. "This ship is wrecked. Can't do anything with it. Anyways I miss you, Ayel!"
The star-man frowned, looking at Jimmy suspiciously. "You were a mistake, Jim Kirk," he said. "We said we'd never bring another human into the crew after that."
Jimmy looked hurt. "Look, I'm not even with Bones anymore," he said. "I've got this guy now, Sulu Hikaru. He's absolutely crazy and he'll do anything I say."
Sulu tensed slightly by Nyota's side, and she could tell he was a little offended.
"And I've brought you a woman," Jimmy went on. Now it was Nyota's time to tense.
The whole thing was distasteful to her, of course, but there were few options for her getting to Nero physically, and she was willing to endure this if it meant he would die at her hand and not some man's. The idea of them boarding the Narada had just proved to be an impossibility, after all.
Ayel sneered at Nyota now. "We've had our fill of slave girls, to be honest," he said.
"Yeah but you'll like this one. She's got a talented tongue!"
"Jimmy!" Nyota whispered.
"Shh, sorry, just pretend you don't understand," Jimmy whispered back, his mouth set into a fine line.
Ayel considered for a while. "Why do you want to come back, Jim Kirk?" he asked. "You hated it here."
"Yeah but in hindsight it was better than the alternative. Like I said, I ditched Bones, and you guys captured Spock – I hate that guy! Whatever you're planning to do to Spock, I want in. He's as much my enemy as yours, and the enemy of my enemy, right?"
"What?" Ayel said.
"Huh?"
"The enemy of my enemy what?"
Jimmy was caught up short. "Is... my friend. You guys are my friends, is what I'm saying."
Sulu and Nyota rolled their eyes.
Ayel gave in, grudgingly, and put out a board for them to cross.
"I'm taking you straight to Nero," Ayel said.
"Of course!" Jimmy conceded cheerfully.
The Narada was just as big and impressive as the Enterprise, but not nearly as lavish or well appointed. It was depressing and dank, and Nyota got a sickening feeling just being there. Ayel led them through corridors towards the captain's quarters. Once they were below deck, in the corridors, alone with Ayel, Jimmy whispered: "Now Sulu."
Instantly, Sulu whipped around, drawing his sword. Ayel drew his phaser but Sulu nonchalantly brought the butt of his sword down, knocking the phaser out of Ayel's hand.
Jimmy produced his own phaser from his trousers, and shot at Ayel. There was a throm! and Ayel fell down in a flash of light. Jimmy was tossed back too, from the kickback.
"Whoa," Jimmy said. "That was a lot more than I was expecting. I um. I might not... know... how to use these things." He looked down at Ayel's dead body and blanched a little bit. Nyota thought Jim Kirk might be the first pirate she'd heard of that didn't like to kill people.
"Let's go," she chimed in. "If they heard that and find us, we're dead."
Jimmy nodded, his face still white. He touched her arm and led her down the corridor to the captain's quarters. She shrugged the rope off her wrists and held on to it.
"Here we go," Jimmy breathed deep at Nero's door. "Uh," he looked at them with big eyes. "I guess we just go in?"
He tentatively reached out to open the door – or knock – but Sulu leaned back and kicked the door in in one try.
"Fuck's sake Sulu!" Jimmy cried.
"Who the hell is that!" a voice bellowed out, and in the candlelit, dark cabin they saw Nero get up from a chair and cross over to them. He was big, a lot bigger than Nyota remembered, and fast, crossing the room in two steps.
Before Sulu could fly at him with his sword, Nyota took matters into her own hands. She ran at him, ducking under his arm and bringing the rope around his neck, pulling at it tightly. He scrabbled at the rope around his neck, and Sulu placed the tip of his sword against Nero's chest. They lowered him to the floor, where Kirk plopped down on his legs.
"Jim Kirk," Nero gasped out. "I should've known you'd come back like this, you little coward."
"Coward?" Jimmy cocked an eyebrow. "And here I thought I was being brave, coming all this way to save Commander Spock."
"Spock!" Nero sputtered out. "Did he and his people promise to help you? Like they promised to help Romulus? They're liars. They let us starve during the famine and they'll do nothing for this backwater world."
"Then we'll just have to help ourselves," Nyota said. Sulu glanced up at her and moved away, as she flipped around to sit on Nero's chest, keeping his arms pinned under her knees. Sulu kept his sword pointed at Nero and Jimmy pinned his legs down.
Nyota pulled her cutlass out of the band of her kanga in the back, unsheathing it, and put it to Nero's throat.
"Do you remember me?" she asked.
Nero sneered, even with eyes red from the previous choking. "One pitiful slave girl is the same as any other."
"You shut your mouth you scumbag," Jimmy said, drawing his phaser and pointing it. "We-"
"No!" Nyota batted Jimmy's arm away, and his phaser went sprawling. "Don't you dare take my revenge from me, Jim Kirk," she said. "This is mine."
"How sweet," Nero tutted. "And who are you avenging, my dear? I know quite a lot about revenge. Is it your husband? Your entire people, maybe?"
"No," Nyota's voice broke. Her eyes were full of tears but none fell. Her hand was shaky as it held the cutlass against Nero's throat. "Just one girl, a girl named Penda, who you killed."
Before anyone could say anything else, and before she could change her mind, Nyota pushed the cutlass deep into Nero's throat, and sliced it open.
He didn't die right away, of course, he sputtered and struggled, and all three of them had to hold him down. He stared up at with Nyota with those dark sad eyes that held, now, the smallest spark of regret. Nyota, clenching her eyes shut, slashed at his throat again and finished it. Blood spurted all over her, warm and fragrant.
No tears fell.
By some stroke of magic – perhaps Jimmy's pure luck – nobody had heard the death of either Ayel or Nero. The star-men drank a lot, Jimmy explained in whispers, and were probably all tucked up in the mess together commiserating the home world.
"Don't get me wrong," he said. "They're all just as bad as Nero."
He led them down to the brig, where Spock, still groggy and mostly unresponsive, lay tied behind a set of bars.
"Oh fuck," Jimmy said. "I always forget about prison bars."
Nyota's eyes went wide. "Wait," she said. She untied her ponytail and removed a pin she still used to keep the top of her hair tucked in; the same pin she had stolen from the star-men months ago. She moved forward and fiddled with it in the lock while Sulu stood watch at the entrance to the brig.
She and Jimmy rushed to Spock's side, untying his bonds. He lolled and looked up at them.
"Is this a rescue?" he asked, with that tiny tone of sassiness that made Nyota smile.
"It sure is, you dumb beetle-head," Jimmy said, helping Spock stand and propping him up on one shoulder.
"You? Have come to rescue me?"
"Well not all pirates are the same," Nyota said.
Spock looked at Nyota with foggy eyes. "Madam, you're covered in blood."
"I know."
Spock nodded solemnly. "So it is finished."
"Yes." She smiled sadly.
Sulu led the way back up to the deck. Somebody came up behind them but Spock – perhaps with some kind of extra star-man hearing - turned before the others knew he was there, and pinched the star-man on the shoulder. He fell to the floor.
"Yowza," Jimmy said softly.
The sun was beginning to rise as they crawled back over the board to the Enterprise, where Bones was waiting impatiently, a worried scowl on his face.
"Jesus Christ," he said when he saw Nyota and Spock. "This is the last time I'm helping with any of your crazy schemes, Jimbo. This is the last goddamn straw."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Jimmy said impatiently. He unceremoniously dumped Spock on the deck by Bones as Sulu pushed the board into the water, and he ran over to the wheel. There was a tube for talking nearby, and he shouted down it. "Now, Pavel!"
"Da! " came the enthusiastic response, and there was a great thrumming sound like Nyota had never heard before. She and Bones fell to the deck as the ship lurched forward and – upward?
By now the pirates on the Narada were swarming the deck, shooting at them with their disruptors and cannons. The Enterprise, however, drifted forward in the breeze, lifting a few feet out of the water and gaining speed.
"Cannons, now!" Jimmy cried out from the wheel and Kyle, or someone, shouted back an affirmative. Cannons rang out from the Enterprise, and at this vantage point in the air, they landed on the deck of the Narada, until one fell full force into the hold under the main mast and hit their aether-engine.
Which burst into flames.
"Full sails! Go!" Jimmy cried, as Sulu took the wheel.
Nyota clutched Spock on the deck to keep him from sliding all over the place, Bones at her side.
"Are we flying?" she asked Bones.
"God dammit," Bones said. "I think we are."