Hi! Here's the next installment - all of my random dribblings and such are at the base of the page. :)

Disclaimer: Things that are true: I don't own Star Trek, Simon Baker looked to yummy for words at the Emmy's (my country did something right, at least!) and I own Charlie.
The chapter title is by a group called 'The Angels' and yes, I am aware that its an Animals cover but really, the cover is a bajillion times better. Plus, they're local for me thus will be heralded as such! Give it a listen if you like good, old fashioned rock.

Enjoy, my pretties!

Uhura and Charlie ran through the corridors of the Enterprise from the transporter bay to the bridge, bewildered crew who were wandering the halls staring aghast at the two panic stricken Cadets tearing past.

"Move!"

"They have activated the drill." Chekov called to the two women when they ran back onto the bridge, Uhura signalled one of the other Communications crew with a wave of her hand.

"Communications and transport are inoperative. Sulu, please tell me you have them. Otherwise we won't be able to beam them back." She stated and Charlie sank into the Captain's chair, worry pulsating throughout her. Jim was alone, she couldn't help him. Never ever did she want to give the command to fire with him still aboard. To execute her friends? She felt her stomach heave at the thought.

"Kirk and Spock are on their own now." Sulu had a pinched look on his face, eyebrows furrowed and he swore under his breath, slamming a palm into his console. Charlie stared out of the view screen grimly, glaring at the haze of orange dust that was hiding them and their warp signature from Nero and the Narada's sensors. After a moment she felt her skin crawling and glanced to the rest of the bridge to see more than a few eyes on her, looking to her for guidance. Taking a deep breath and setting her features into something that wasn't a glare or worry, she licked her lips and lifted her chin.

"We had to expect that this was going to happen. For now, we need to trust that Captain Kirk and Commander Spock are going to do what they set out for." Her voice was tight, reassuring and authorative but she felt anything but - she was just a little girl. An adult, yes, a Starfleet Cadet, yes, but equipped to deal with this? Hell no! Sure, she acted like she had balls of steel but that was only because she could run and hide behind Bones and Jim should anyone call her on it.

"Can we get a visual of Earth? Find out where the drill has gone in?" She didn't know why she was asking, it didn't matter, but there were still eyes watching her and it was unnerving. She felt like she had to look busy.

Earth came up on the view screen, a closer image than they could see behind the Narada and for a moment, the Narada's ghastly image was gone from in front of the bridge crews' eyes and everyone visibly relaxed. A snort could be heard from one of the crew and Charlie glanced over to see an Ensign looking over his console.

"The drill has been launched into San Francisco bay. Roughly 200 metres from the shoreline, roughly 100 metres from the bridge." He reported, Uhura glanced to Charlie.

"The Academy. Is that why they wanted Captain Pike?" She asked, Charlie resisted the tired urge to snap or roll her eyes – how the hell was she supposed to know?

"Not sure. If they're intending to create a black hole on Earth, then it really doesn't matter where the drill is situated." She murmured. God, her eyes were killing her.

"At least in the water it hasn't hit any civilians." Sulu offered and she threw him a thankful smile, glad for his voice of calm reason amongst the freakish stares that she was getting.

***

Bones was in surgery, using all of his concentration to repair the damaged artery of yet another guy from engineering – the amount of redshirts that crossed his path in Medical was astounding – and not think about Jim being aboard the Romulan ship, or Charlie in charge of the whole shebang at the moment. Though he'd rather think about any of the above than their more than likely impending doom.

"Doctor? We're running extremely low on saline." A voice said next to him and a nurse whose name he couldn't remember stood at his elbow, eyes blinking quizzically at him from behind the surgical mask that she held in place.

"How low?" It mightn't matter to be honest but he couldn't think that way, let alone voice it. Especially when this mystery nurse had puffy, red eyes – clearly she'd been crying at some point recently.

"Severely low." She replied in a flat voice and he glanced to Christine Chapel who stood in the doorway with another query, she nodded with a mask held over her jaw also.

"I'll see what I can rummage up. Also, Ensign Reiot just went into cardiac arrest again – he's back now but we're also running low on adrenaline. I can't even replicate the synthetic stuff - we don't have Command clearance." She told him calmly and he swore under his breath, leaning back in the small surgical room and hitting the comm. button with his elbow.

"McCoy to Houston."

"Charlie here." She sounded distracted and distant, no wonder why.

"Did Jim or Spock set you command clearance in the Enterprise system?" He asked, knowing without realising that she was more than likely staring at the comm. space with her head cocked to the side, the way she did whenever she was questioning something.

"I'm unsure. I have access to everything that I've needed so far. Can I ask why?"

"We're low on supplies and command codes are the only ones who can replicate drugs. I need you to give it a shot or we're screwed." He was demanding and that was what she needed – someone to bark at her, to not stare at her like she held their fate in her hands. Though there was no way that she was leaving the bridge, Bones was cooked if he thought that right now.

"You can use my code. It's 96837210. Let me know if it works, if not, I'll try to get a hold of another or get someone from engineering to hot wire it." She sounded distracted and he paused for a moment, it sounded like 'hot wiring' had been done quite a lot over the last day.

"Did you get that, Chapel?" He asked the nurse who nodded, already disappearing towards one of the replicators, "Okay. McCoy out." He sighed and turned back to the guy open across his table, his eyes flicking to the monitors to make sure that everything else was normal. He closed up the damage artery straight away and sent one of the nurses to deal with the rest, storming from the small surgical bay to the larger Medical bay that was still down on lighting, blackened and charred parts from the fire and still full to the brim with casualties.

Chapel caught his eye and shook her head and idea struck him, crossing the infirmary quickly to what had been Dr. Puri's office, the doors had come slightly apart in the small explosion that had happened and he pulled them apart enough to squeeze through, trying the CMO's replicator – it had to be programmed for such exploits, right?

Apparently not. He cursed loudly and kicked the cabinet, ignoring the blunt pain that encased his foot and cursing again for the hell of it – he had clearance at the Academy, why was this different? Oh, right – because he actually needed it now.

"No luck?" Nurse Chapel asked and he shook his head, pointing to Puri's computer.

"Can we access any records from here? Get Puri's code at least? Or Pike's? Hell, even that hobgoblin's would be useful! How badly do we need supplies?" He asked tiredly and the nurse met his eye evenly, blue and unwavering.

"Reiot has been crashing on the hour – adrenaline is the only thing working for him at the moment until he can get on the table. We've had a couple of crew go into shock induced cardiac arrest, and we're down to the last palette of saline. And, most importantly, we're starting to run low on morphine. Not as badly as the others, but if we're going into battle again, we'll be in trouble." She replied and he nodded, processing everything. Basically, they were screwed.

"Okay. Surgical rooms 3 and 4 are still unusable from the fire and 2 is being used as a makeshift morgue. Bring Ensign... whatever, the guy with the artery in here for recovery if there are no beds out there and prep Reiot for surgery."

"Yes Doctor."

"Either get someone to break into the crew files to get a command code or get a brain from engineering up here to try and hotwire the thing. Failing that, try the bridge again – " He barked, already walking back out in the infirmary with Chapel keeping pace at his side, being interrupted but by a voice that he knew well.

"Houston to Doctor McCoy."

"Here Charlie." He pressed the button on the wall tiredly, glancing at the six Vulcans that sat in the corner, still being fixed up for their injuries, wondering if they had been given temporary quarters yet.

"How did you go with the command codes?"

"Not good. We're trying to access command crew files at the moment but I doubt we have clearance for those - looks like we're hotwiring."

"Okay. Let me know how you go. Houston out." She hit the button on the chair at the same moment that a small ship that looked like a glowing white fish emerged from the Narada – it was the ship that carried the red matter, the ship that future Spock or other timeline Spock (her temples pounded at that) had created.

"Captain! There's a ship emerging from the Narada!"

"Small, looks to be... I don't know what kind of technology it is." An Ensign called, sounding confused and Charlie stood, as though getting to her aching feet would give her a better view.

"I do. It's Spock. Keep watch of the ship – we protect it at all costs, understood?"

"Aye Captain." Sulu replied, his hands moving over his console though he didn't look at it, she sank back into the chair in reply, "Spock's ship is entering Earth's atmosphere."

"Nero's ship is firing! Target missed." Chekov cried, sounding breathless with relief at the latter part of his statement and Uhura felt her hands shake, trying futilely to tap back into Spock's frequency.

"The ship is... has shot out the drill!" Sulu called and on cue, the bridge sprang to life – alerts went off, people started calling reports Charlie breathed a sigh of relief though it was small – Earth was saved, tick that one of her list, now she just had to worry about Jim, Spock and oh yeah, the rest of the Enterprise. Not to mention – who knew how many of those drill things Nero was packing?

"Scotty! Have you got a lock on Jim and Spock?" She called into the comm.; she heard an 'aye' and the start of another sentence in a heavy accent before another heavy accent cut him off, this time Russian.

"The Narada is firing again, Captain! The other ship has gone to warp!" The small ship with the intense light at the back disappeared into the stars right before their eyes and Chekov glanced back at her; Charlie kept her eyes on the screen and held up her hand.

"Wait. If we go now without the Narada moving, we expose ourselves. Hold steady, Mr. Sulu but prepare for – go! Pursuit course!" She barked, cutting off her own sentence as the Narada took off, bursting into warp also, she felt tightness in her chest – this was it. The final showdown.

She was going to die.

"All decks – red alert! Battle stations!" She commanded cogently into the speaker, hearing her voice bark over the entire ship, its force impacted further by the 'red alert' alarm that sounded somewhat more croaky than it should have been – obviously another casualty of the voyage.

A fervent pray to someone she wasn't sure she believed in as the Enterprise dropped out of warp, she gripped the arms of the Captain's chair, the historical moment of being the first female to captain the Enterprise lost for a later moment to be filed away in her mind for later scrutiny with everything else that had happened since she'd stepped on board.

"Fire! Fire!" She barked; surprised at the force and anger from her voice and the relief that washed over her when the first torpedo hit the Narada. Seeing it rattle and shake a ship of that size faltering at her hand was empowering, she wanted to destroy them but held back, partly wanting Spock or Jim to deal the final blow – it was personal for them. Sure, it was for her too, but she hadn't lost a parent at Nero's hand. Her fight for that was elsewhere.

Spock's small ship stopped and faced off against the Narada and for a second all three ships stared each other down. It was as though the Narada didn't know what to do, Spock was sizing up his opponent and the Enterprise was there to run interference.

Then everything happened at once.

The Narada fired missiles at Spock's ship at the same time that the small ship plunged into a collision course and every person on the Enterprise bridge gasped, their shoulders tensing – this was it. What was more than likely their final moments of life.

"Hold steady," She commanded for something to say and to break the silence, "Still got a lock, Scotty?"

"Say the word and they're back here, lassie." His voice was calm and sweet, Jim's rough voice cutting through the air.

"Enterprise, now!"

"Houston to Medical! Someone needs to get to Transporter Bay one – now!" She yelled, seeing Spock's smaller ship firing into the Narada as it rammed head first into the long tentacles of the Romulan ship, disappearing completely but pieces of broken Narada dropped into darkness and there was a small explosion – had Scotty gotten Jim and Spock in time?

Charlie's throat closed over and her command came out strangled, her voice low and but could be heard over the entire bridge.

"Fire." A single shot was to seal their fate and as a black hole opened and started to pull the Narada into it, the turbo lift doors opened. Sulu's hand relaxed over the weapons fire panel and Charlie felt waves of relief douse the flames that had been eating at her skin as Jim and Spock crossed the room to stand in front of the view screen.

"Keptin! The enemy ship is down; their shields are down, Sir." Chekov called happily, the crew sharing small smiles that once again, Jim Kirk had pulled a rabbit out of some orifice and managed to get onboard the Enterprise against all odds.

"Hail them now." He drawled, the two imposing figures walking shoulder to shoulder, eyes dark. Charlie and Uhura snuck a glance at each other with hidden smiles of victory.

"Aye." Chekov sounded vengeful, focussed now though happiness and relief were evident across his boyish features. In front of them, the Narada was being pulled slowly into the black hole that Spock and his ship had created; Nero's face appeared on the grainy screen.

"This is Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Your ship has been compromised. You're too close to the singularity to survive without assistance, which we are willing to provide." Jim rattled off confidently, proving that he had been awake in at least some of his classes and Spock turned so that his back was to the view screen, still shoulder to shoulder with Jim who turned also, his posture relaxing slightly.

"Captain, what are you doing?"

"Showing them compassion may be the only way to earn peace with Romulus. Its logic Spock - I thought you'd like that." Jim replied and Spock paused before a quirk of a real, human smile played on his lips.

"No, not really. Not this time."

"I would rather suffer the end of Romulus a thousand times! I would rather die in agony than accept assistance from you!" Nero roared, the transmission getting grainer and more muffled as the Narada neared implosion like the 5 billion Vulcan's earlier.

"You got it." And there was the Jim Kirk that Charlie knew. Cocksure, always had the winning hand, a way out – he was even smiling that charming grin. "Arm phasers, fire everything we've got!"

"Yes Sir." Sulu was smirking and already hitting the phasers before Jim had finished speaking.

Charlie scrambled out of the Captain's chair as Jim walked back over, seeing the ghost of terror written on her face – he'd heard through the comm. that she'd actually given the command. He'd had his ass kicked more times in one day than he could count, but giving the command to fire must have hurt her just as much.

"You're okay?" She asked as he dropped an arm across her shoulders and pressed a kiss to her temple, feeling her fingers grab his chin and her eyes checked him over. A few new bruises, another couple of cuts, laboured breathing – nothing that he didn't deal with every Sunday morning.

"I'm okay." He replied, the entire bridge crew watching the Narada explode and then implode into the black hole. Bits of debris broke off but were sucked into the gaping vortex and suddenly another alarm went off and the sign 'Warning – Gravitational Pull' appeared across the view screen.

As the Narada disappeared into the black hole completely, Captain Kirk's voice rang across the bridge, his words like water in a desert:

"Sulu, let's go home!" Resisting a remark about Jim now trying to bed his helmsman, Charlie walked back to her console and allowed the smallest of smiles to cross her face - the relief at what had just happened, what they had just seen and avoided was like an ache in her bones.

"Yes Sir!" The Enterprise was suffering awful turbulence, sensors all blinking and wailing overtime, the jarring and shaking of the ship making it hard for everyone to stay in their seats and the pull of going into warp that they had learned to expect didn't come.

"Why aren't we at warp?" Jim barked after a moment, Chekov's hands flew over the con so fast that his fingers were a blur.

"Ve are Sir!"

"Kirk to engineering – get us out of here Scotty!" He tried and there was an echo over the com of a panicked Scottish accent, 'You bet your arse Captain!' before Scotty's voice came over the bridge, loud and clear, "Captain, we're caught in a gravity well – it's got us!"

"Go to maximum warp – push it!"

"I'm giving it all she's got Captain!" Loudly, cracks and tears appear through the walls and rip up the side of the bridge and across the ceiling. The noise was deafening and worried looks replaced the relieved ones, a communal gulp could be heard across the bridge.

"All she's got isn't good enough! What else you got?!" Jim yelled over the ripping and cracking sound of metal, the ship still shaking and jarring violently. Scotty stuttered for a moment, before yelling down the comm., over the panic and work at either end of the line.

"If we eject the core and detonate, the blast could be enough to push us away! I canne promise anything though!" At his words, a huge crack travels across the view screen and a gasp can be heard – after everything that they'd been through, being sucked out into space to their deaths was not high on anyone's 'to do' list but looked likely unless they high tailed it away from the black hole that was sucking them in.

"Do it, do it, DO IT!"

Suddenly, a blinding light erupted and then the rumble of an explosion could be felt before the ship shook more violently than before. The feeling of being pushed forward created a small bubble of hope in the air and then there was a sudden jolt and another rumble so loud that nearly all of the bridge crew clamped their palms over their ears and attempted to duck the pieces of cracked, broken and falling debris that was once the hull of their ship all before a second explosion and a moment of perfectly smooth sailing before they were clear and home free.

The relief in the air was palpable and there were sighs of relief, cheers of delight, some more quiet tears shed and now the daunting task of returning to Starfleet and explaining the whole ordeal.

Charlie tried to catch the breath that she didn't know she'd been holding, exchanging liberated looks with Uhura, Spock, Sulu and Chekov before finally looking to Jim with a wide smile that felt foreign to her. Jim and Spock exchanged a glance to which Spock nodded respectfully at his Captain, the other man laughing slightly as the vestiges of adrenaline ebbed through his veins.

Author's Notes: They're alive! Who would have thought?
Righty- o. I'm having a shithouse week already and the only way that I see to remedy this is to hide from the world until the week is over. So my darlings, another chapter soonish (like tomorrow or the next day) is more than likely! I hope that's cause for a 'wahoo'! See, this is where I'd bribe you for reviews, but I'm not going to do that. At least here, anyway. ;)

HUGE thankies for reviewing to: Loquaciouslethality, Canna, WinchesterWench, Vulcanvamp, Yayyou, Hidden Relevance, RachyDoodle, crystalclear8050, Larxenethefirefly, (welcome aboard!), Jac Danvers, Duskborn, FuzzehDeath, mello-chic, and Raxsah003!!
Also, we have some newbies with us now, so everyone say 'hi' and 'welcome aboard' to: Skatinggirl2011, Lakeside and You've Got Gold! I bow down to you guys for reading my drivel in one hit!! I hope you like it now Nero's carked it... :) (I'm sorry that rhymes, but I really didn't mean for it to, promise!!)

And the bestest PM-ers ever, who keep me laughing insanely: loquaciouslethality, WinchesterWench, FuzzehDeath, crystalclear8050, VikingShadow, Vulcanvamp and Skatinggirl2011.
Vulcanvamp: I haven't forgotten my gift to you, it's coming - I promise!! Thank you so much again for your uber kind words. :)

And now for the begging and pleading, me generally looking pathetic time: The poll of who your favourite background character was/is is still on my profile if you haven't voted! Please do, if not only to see the bigger version of my pretty icon. :) After you review, of course!!

Xx