(New update! I hope you enjoy and I also hope that I didn't make Kat look weak or stupid in this chapter. I knew I had to make sure she ended up staying behind as a prisoner, but it was really hard to come up with a good enough compelling reason for her to send Grey off without her. In the end this is the best I could come up with so I hope you like it. If she does come across as a weak stupid damsel here, then I'm so sorry. Hehe I own nothing but my OC.)
...
Uurgh Cripers, what the heck just happened? Where am...Kat started and trailed off when she regained full consciousness and became suddenly aware of a pair of small hands roughly patting down her torso as a strange structure outside the port window of the pod above her came into focus.
"Mommy?...Mommy? Wake up!" Greysam's cries rang into her ears and as the memory of the sudden attack on the Enterprise returned to her, Kat quickly hit the release switch on her restraints and sat up to gather her frightened child close to her.
"Oh Grey!...Shh! Shh! Grey, everything's okay! We're going to be okay!" She tried to comfort him though she had little idea about where they were or what had happened to the rest of the crew.
Looking up at the window again, Kat moved slowly to try and push open the door of the pod.
Before she could get her fingers around the handle however, the door suddenly lifted away revealing a strange looking creature wearing battle armor and wielding an electro-spear in one claw like hand.
Kat blanched when she recognized the creature's form.
He looks...just like Kalara!...Could it be?...She wondered, slowly coming to her feet with Greysam in her arms as the creature spoke harshly in the same archaic language that Kalara spoke in, gesturing with his weapon for them to come out.
Slowly Kat complied, not taking her eyes off of the man who was speaking to her as she stepped slowly from the remains of the escape pod.
"Are you a member of Kalara's crew? My crew and I were en route to rescue you when we were suddenly attacked. Is everyone all right?" She asked, rubbing soothing circles on her son's back to calm him down.
The creature coldly smiled at the question and let out an eerie sounding chuckle before prodding her with the tip of his spear causing a searing pain in her side which made her cry out.
"Move!" The creature barked, jabbing towards her with his weapon again. Instinctively, Kat stumbled away turning her body so that she could protect Grey from being hit, only to come face to face with a long line comprised of men and women in blue, red and yellow Starfleet uniforms.
"Oh my God..." Kat felt the rest of the blood drain from her face as she recognized her crew mates, saw how they were being herded roughly into separate containment cells and realized what was happening.
There was no lost crew stranded here. No one was in need of rescue and recovery from the Nebula zone except for her, Greysam and whatever remained of the Enterprise crew.
It had all been a lie. A trap. They were all prisoners now of Kalara's crew.
"Where is the Captain?" A new deeper, gruffer and more terrifying voice suddenly boomed across the vast chamber, causing Kat to turn just as a second man only slightly larger than the one who had prodded her appeared from a dark entryway just behind the pod.
"We are still looking for him and the Commander, Krall." Kat's Captor responded in the alien language.
Surprised to hear the leader speaking basic, Kat summoned up her courage and addressed him. "How do you know our language?"
The second figure inclined his head to make eye contact with her.
"I...know your kind!" He snapped, speaking the words as if they were extremely difficult or painful to say.
Greysam buried his head in Kat's shoulder and she tightened her protective embrace around him as the creature approached her.
"My name is Ambassador Katarina Kirk of the U.S.S. Enterprise and you Sir, have committed an act of war against the Federation." Kat spoke clearly and distinctly.
"Federation!" The creature suddenly exploded, spitting on the ground as he glowered at the woman before him.
"Federation...is an act of war!" He growled.
Kat felt her eyes narrow despite how afraid she was of this man. "You attacked us. You sent Kalara to lure us into your trap. For what?" She demanded.
The alien man took a deep haggard breath. "For freedom...for the end of the Federation!" He huffed, sending a chill down Kat's spine as he towered over her. Greysam slowly turned his head to look at him.
"Tell me Ambassador Kirk...it is not coincidence that you share your Captain's name..is it not?" The creature asked, looking down and reaching a claw towards the back of Grey.
Kat instantly backed away, turning to place her body as a shield for her son. "Don't touch him!" She hissed in as menacing a voice as she could manage. The creature turned towards his subordinate who without hesitation jabbed Kat with his spear again.
Crying out with the pain that seared through her whole midsection, Kat stumbled to her knees, nearly losing her grip on her son as the pain puttered out to a stinging sensation.
"Mommy!" Greysam cried out at hearing her scream as they both hit the ground. Before Kat could reassure him, the boy slipped quickly out of her arms and ran to attack the creature who was still holding his spear, crying out in a raw, rage-filled way that would have sent shivers down any decent person's spine upon hearing it.
"Grey! No!" Kat tried frantically to stop her son, but the creature acted first, striking the boy cleanly behind his ear and knocking him senseless to the ground.
Another cry erupted from Kat's throat as she heard the sickening sound of her child's body hitting the floor. Frantically she scurried to his side, throwing her body over him just as Krall stopped his attacker from dealing another blow.
Laying her ear against his chest, Kat breathed in relief when she heard his heart beat.
"You Monster!" She spat at her son's attacker, carefully picking up his unconscious form from the ground and cradling him protectively against her. Krall merely smirked at her ferocity as if finding glee in her pain.
"The Captain is my brother..." Kat continued, breathing heavily as she attempted to get her emotions under control. "...and if he somehow made it off the ship, he will come for us...and then you can rest assured you will pay dearly for what you have done today, Krall." She threatened, remembering the name the creature had been addressed by earlier.
Sneering in response to her bravado, Krall closed in on the Ambassador, leaning so close that his foul breath hit Kat straight in the face.
"Oh...I am counting on that Ambassador Kirk." He smirked, releasing his grip and shoving her roughly towards the end of the long line of prisoners.
"Put her with the others!" Krall ordered speaking in the alien language again to his associate. Kat gasped when she felt the electro spear sting her back.
Keeping her arms wrapped securely around Grey, Kat shook off the pain and quickly stumbled off after the others, scanning over them as far as she could see for a familiar face.
Oh Spock...Kat bit down on her lip and looked back at Grey, feeling a tear leak down her cheek as she checked the bruised area on the side of his head. Wherever you and Jim are, please be safe...please find us soon!
...
"Ugh!...Oh I can't believe this!" Bones grumbled as he struggled to pull himself out of the remains of their stolen shuttle.
There seemed to be nothing around for miles and miles except for stone and scant traces of water.
No sign of other life or of the rest of the crew. Remembering what he had witnessed earlier, Bones grimaced and with a final effort threw himself out of the shuttle and into the stream directly below, turning sharply back around when he heard an agonized grunt.
"My God! Spock!" Bones rushed back to the pod and scrambled to help the injured Vulcan out without jarring the jagged piece of metal that was lodged into his abdomen.
Breathing painfully, Spock leaned gratefully against the Doctor's shoulder, stumbling a little when his foot slid on a loose stone.
"Whoa! Easy! Easy!...Let's get you to sit down over here." Bones tried to be reassuring as he carefully helped his crewmate over to sit on one of the wings of the shuttle which had broken on impact and was now lying mostly flat on the rocky ground.
Breathing shallowly with the steadily increasing pain in his middle, Spock collapsed weakly against the remains of their vessel, shutting his eyes as Bones knelt quickly by his side to check the extent of his injury.
"Okay...okay now just try to relax. You're going to be okay." Bones muttered as he took note of how much blood was staining Spock's uniform and still dripping off of his side.
"The forced optimism in your voice suggests that you are trying to ilicit a sense of calm in order to remedy-."
"Yeah cut the horse-s*** Spock." Bones cut the Vulcan off mid ramble, frowning at how serious Spock's wound was.
It was safe to assume with how much blood there was that the wound was deep and given what he knew about Vulcan anatomy and where the piece of metal had pierced him, Bones knew if he didn't do something fast, Spock would die.
"Doctor? I fail to see how excrement of any kind bears any relevance on our current situation." Spock responded, a reprimanding tone mixing with the obvious pain in his voice.
Bones started to roll his eyes at the comment when Spock suddenly clutched on to his shoulder and attempted to sit back up.
"Whoa! Whoa! Spock! What the h*** do you think you're doing?!" The Doctor exclaimed, placing his hand on the Vulcan's chest to stop him from getting up.
"Katarina and Greysam may be in peril of their lives Doctor! We must keep moving!" Spock groaned as he continued to struggle.
"Spock! You're the one in peril of your life right now! This thing has pierced your abdominal region!" Bones protested, as his crewmate slowly lost the fight against him.
"Time is a critical factor." Spock breathed laboriously, finally collapsing back against the shuttle.
"That's exactly what I'm trying to tell you, you green blooded hardhead! Look if I can't take this out, you're going to die! Okay? If I take it out and then can't stop bleeding, you're going to die." Bones snapped, losing his patience as he bent once more to check over the wound and survey his severely limited options for treatment.
Spock took another breath. "I can see no appeal in either option." He stated calmly, or as calmly as he might given the amount of pain he was in.
Bones shook his head. "Yeah well believe it or not, neither can I. Hold still for a moment." He ordered before getting up to check the inside of the shuttle for his medical supplies.
D*** it!..Bones's frowned deepened when he saw that his scanner was smashed to bits and whatever medicines he had packed in his small emergency pouch had turned into useless puddles and stains all over the interior of the shuttle.
Well, all except for one small sample of pain suppressant. Not enough to take care of what he's got, but better than nothing. Bones grimaced, taking the hypo anyway and grabbing up a busted phaser and another broken piece of metal before hurrying back to Spock's side.
"So...if I remember correctly, Vulcans have their hearts where humans have their livers. Is that true of you?" Bones asked, setting his tools down as Spock's eyes fluttered open again.
"You assume correct, Doctor." He gasped again and Bones quickly set to work. "All right, well in that case you're one lucky Vulcan. If that thing had hit you a little more to the left, you'd be dead already...how's your pain level?" He asked, grabbing a good sized stone with his right hand and smashing it against the safety on the phaser.
If he could break it off just enough for the laser to shoot freely, maybe he could use it to heat up his only and poor excuse of a medical tool and cauterize Spock's wound after he dislodged the foreign object.
"Continuing to increase at a steady rate, Doctor, but I am still...able to bear it. It is imperative however that you leave me for the present time and locate-."
"Okay you know what? I'm sorry I asked!" Bones snapped, falling back a bit when the safety on the phaser finally broke and a few sparks shot up from the broken weapon.
Spock turned his head carefully in the direction of the CMO. "Doctor, this is a Class M planet. You must seek out the surviving members of the crew, locate Kat and Greysam and find transport out of the Nebula as soon as possible." He continued to urge as Bones broke away the rest of the safety shield.
Bones sighed and rolled his eyes at his words. "Yeah we'll do that after I get you stabilized, all right Spock? You and I both know that Kat will kill me if I leave you here...and quietly frankly so will Jim." He muttered the last part, shaking out the broken phaser and testing it in the air.
"I am to blame." Spock said suddenly, drawing Bones attention back to him. "What?"
Spock took another slow agonizing breath. "You were right to reprimand me, Doctor. If I had not forced Kat to separate from me to escape from the ship, she and Greysam may yet be safe now...if they have fallen into peril..it is my fault alone." He murmured, a deep frown on his face as he stared seemingly aimlessly up at the sky.
Bones shook his head. "No one knew we were going to get attacked, Spock. Let alone that whoever attacked us would start taking people straight out of space! I mean this was supposed to be a search and rescue mission for crying out loud!" He knelt and after testing his grip over the trigger one more time, fired his improvised tool at the long piece of metal he had broken off earlier.
"Nobody thought we were going to get annihilated for some...doodad that the tiny people didn't want! This is...for lack of a better word, nuts!" Bones snapped, flinching when the weapon backfired on him.
Opening his eyes slightly, Spock moved his gaze back in the direction of the Doctor.
"It is unwise to trivialize that which one does not fully understand, Doctor. We can safely assume the attack was based on more than an attempt to secure a doodad." The Vulcan gasped a bit with pain as Bones resumed his work on his makeshift healing tool.
"I think you just managed to insult me twice, Spock." He muttered, carefully keeping his grip on the broken phaser. "Anyway, my point is you did what you thought was going to save your family. No one, especially Kat is going to fault for you that." He added softly, taking his fingers off the trigger when the piece of metal in his other hand glowed a searing hot red.
Spock only grimaced in response and clutched at a spot directly above where he was punctured as another increase of pain nearly caused him to cry out.
Tossing aside the weapon, Bones walked carefully back over to Spock's side taking note again of where the sharp piece of metal was lodged before raising the heated piece at shoulder height.
"Okay..." Bones nodded, hovering his free hand over Spock's wound. "Okay, I just got one more question for you, Mr. Spock. What's your favorite color?" He asked, mentally preparing himself for what he was about to do as Spock gave him a confused look.
"I fail to see the relevance-." He started to respond until Bones yanked the offending piece of metal out of his body, quickly pressing the searing hot piece to the open wound.
"Yeah..." Bones nodded, tossing aside both pieces of metal and wincing at the pain that still crossed the Vulcan's features as his agonized screams died away into heavy labored pants. "They say it hurts less when it's a surprise." He shrugged, checking over Spock's wound again before pulling down his shirt.
"If I may adapt a parlance with which you are familiar Doctor, I must confirm your theory to be...horse s***." Spock gasped, flinching at a sudden pinching sensation on his neck.
"There. That may not be able to take away the pain completely, but that's all I can do for now. Everything else I brought with me is history unfortunately." Bones sighed as he tossed aside the empty hypo.
Spock slowly nodded his head in acknowledgement of the Doctor's words. "Thank you Doctor." He said sincerely just as the sound of drones above caught his attention.
"Oh don't thank me yet." Bones muttered, barely suppressing a curse as he recognized the fleet that had attacked the Enterprise. "We got to get out of here before those things realize they missed something."
He reached to grab Spock's left arm and pulled it securely over his shoulder. Bracing Spock from behind with his other arm, he carefully yet quickly helped him to a standing position, pausing a moment when Spock stumbled again.
"Think you can walk a bit?" Bones asked, concerned when he heard the Vulcan's breathing pick up a little.
"I believe so." Spock responded readily already lifting a foot to take a step forward. Nodding, Bones walked with him.
"All right then. Let's go."
...
"!" Kat jumped when the door to the cell she was being held in was shoved open, letting in seven large hulking figures with the same deformed swollen heads that Krall had.
In their claws they each held a fully arrayed meal tray laid out with what appeared to be a small portion of some kind of meat, grains, some unidentifed green vegetables of some kind, a small piece of fruit and a small cup of water.
Around her, Sulu, Uhura, Keenser and two other crew members Ensign Syl from the science department and Ensign Korin from engineering, straightened in surprise at the sustenance they were being offered while Kat continued to fix their captors with a cold icy glare, letting them know with her slightly leaned in stance that she would not hesitate to spring on them if they made any move towards her still unconscious son behind her.
The jailer standing directly in front of Kat snarled something in his own language before slamming the tray of food down by her feet, spilling some of the water. The others followed his lead, leaving the food with the rest of the prisoners before stalking back out and locking the cell door again.
Sulu waited till the sound of their footsteps had receded before letting out the breath he had been holding.
"I thought we were hostages to lure the Captain. Why are they giving us a full course meal?" He wondered aloud, looking down at the contents of his tray as he spoke.
Keenser shrugged and made a high pitched humming sound in confusion, making no move to pick up the tray that had been placed in front of him.
"Maybe they tampered with the food?" Korin guessed, poking at his piece of meat with distrust.
Uhura shook her head. "They wouldn't have gone through the trouble of kidnapping us all if they were just going to poison us two minutes later." She reasoned, taking a hesitant bite of her own food first.
"It still makes no sense." Still scowling, Kat begrudgingly picked up her tray. "Even if they needed to keep us alive for some purpose, why give us good food? Most hostile groups like them would spare only the barest of sustenance for prisoners if even that." She carefully speared a small piece of the meat and after examining it to make sure it wasn't rotted or smelled of any suspicious substances, slipped it into her mouth.
"Ambassador Kirk is right. They're up to something and I think it might have something to do with the artifact we got from Tanex." Syl added quietly, taking a drink of her water.
She froze when her other crew mates turned to stare at her.
"Why would anyone tear a starship apart and kidnap its crew just for some ancient artifact?" Sulu asked, his brow furrowing as he tried to make sense of it all.
Syl averted her gaze and shook her head. "I don't know exactly. The Captain told me..." She started to explain and trailed off when a soft moaning sound came from beside her and Uhura.
"Kat! Grey's coming around!" Uhura alerted her friend and superior officer before abandoning her tray and turning to bend over the little boy who had been laying unconscious behind her since he and Kat were brought into the cell.
Kat scurried to his other side.
"Greysam? Honey, can you hear me?" She asked, frantically laying a hand against the boy's forehead just as he slowly opened his eyes.
Moaning in pain again, Grey looked around disorientedly for a second before his gaze fell on his Mother and he reached for her. "Mmm...Mommy?" He whimpered as if trying to speak caused him discomfort. Kat bent closer towards him.
"Yes Grey, I'm here. Mommy's right here. Are you okay? Does anything hurt?" She fretted, gently brushing her son's dark bangs from his face as he winced.
"Mommy? My head hurts." Greysam moaned, reaching with his other hand to rub at his ear. Hearing the pain in his voice, Kat nodded acknowledgingly feeling her heart sink as she realized she could do nothing to alleviate his discomfort.
"He might have a concussion. He needs to get medical attention right away." Sulu urged. Kat shook her head.
"He won't get any here. They're the ones that did this to him." She snapped, her chest constricting as she remembered how Krall's man had attacked Greysam for attempting to defend her.
Uhura gently put her hand on Kat's shoulder to get her attention as Grey began to cry. "Kat, he really doesn't look good. You need to get him out of here and find Dr. McCoy or-."
"How?" Kat demanded, whipping around to face her friend and former student. "We have no way of knowing where Bones is right now and even if we did, we're prisoners. How am I supposed to get Grey out of here without being caught and making things worse for him?"
"Well the guards must make a rotation at some point." Ensign Syl suggested. Uhura nodded at her.
"Syl is right. We'll take turns keeping watch and figure out about how long each guard rotation is. Then at night we'll bust you and Grey out and send up a distress signal from their communications hub." Uhura agreed.
"I saw it when they were taking me through their camp. It's not far from here I think." She added.
Kat started to respond to Uhura's plan when the door to their compound banged open again. This time Krall entered amongst the ranks and Kat stiffened at the sight of him, quickly moving to keep her son out of his direct line of sight as he stood in front of their cell and stared seemingly straight at her.
Quickly Uhura, Sulu and the others moved to do the same.
"It seems...your Captain and his Commander have truly managed to evade me, Ambassador Kirk!" Krall snapped, slipping a scaley filthy claw through the bars and lightly scratching the side of Kat's face.
"Do you think they'd come faster if they heard you scream?" He sneered, pulling his claw back suddenly as if he'd been burned. "...Or him?" He gestured at Greysam.
Despite the sickening nausea and fear that coursed through her body at the sheer glee she heard in Krall's voice, Katarina forced herself to remain outwardly calm and stoic knowing very well that sick mind games were part of nearly every hostile interrogation method.
"Why do you want to kill our Captain?" She asked causing Krall to return his attention to her. "What have you to gain from destroying us other than an all out war against the Galactic Federation?"
Krall hissed as if Kat had just dealt a low blow with her question. "I want..to show him, Ambassador!" He peered at her through the bars. "Show him and the world a life made free!" He rasped causing the others in the compound to glance at each other confusedly.
"Free from what?" Uhura asked with soft dread.
Krall snorted. "From themselves!...From the lie that is...the Federation!" He shifted his gaze from Uhura back to Kat. "Soon Ambassador, I will show you. Then you will understand. You will all understand!" Krall promised, motioning to his followers and barking in his strange language before turning to leave the compound.
"That's it." Sulu spoke first as soon as they heard the door shut and lock again. "We're getting both of you out of here tonight!" He turned and tapped Kat on the arm.
"I'll take the first look out." Uhura offered, moving to peer through one of the narrow slits in the wall. Kat started to object. "Uhura..."
"Mommy...?" Grey cut her off, more tears rolling down his cheeks as he gave up trying to rub the pain away. Kat swooped down and scooped him up carefully onto her lap, wishing she had even a small hypo of pain medication to give to him.
"Shhh, I know Baby. I know." Kat started to rock him, as if that would soothe him. Greysam continued to moan in pain curling towards her body with his small hands still clamped at his head, making Kat's heart break even more.
"Mommy?" Grey croaked. "Is Daddy going to find us?" He whimpered, looking up at her through his tears with a longing in in his expression.
Kat bit her lip. "I don't know Sweetheart, but I need you to be my big brave boy again okay? We will find Daddy soon and you're going to be just fine. Okay?" She tried to comfort him, though she felt no assurance in her own words.
Looking down, Kat's gaze fell on the still shining Vokaya pendant that was still around her neck and as she reached to touch it briefly before reaching for her only eating utensil and surveyed the contents of her tray.
Winding some of the vegetables around the fork, she turned and offered it to her still crying son, hoping she could at least get him to eat a little.
There was no telling how long they'd be trapped in here.
...
"McCoy to Enterprise come in!" Bones snapped, hearing only the lifeless sizzle of a dead connection as he desperately tried to get his COMM to work.
"McCoy to Enterprise! Anybody!" He tried again. Hearing nothing, Bones decided to give up on trying to reach anyone for the moment and returned his focus to Spock who despite his injury was moving rather quickly across the rough rocky terrain of the planet.
Bones flinched when the Vulcan stumbled slightly and clutched at his injured side.
"Whoa! Slow down there, Spock! That was only a temporary fix I did back there!" The Doctor reprimanded as Spock ducked under an archway of sorts to the entrance of a network of caves.
"I understand Doctor, but the situation is dire and we must..." Spock trailed off, pausing suddenly as Bones hurried to join him.
"You think I don't know our situation is dire? Look! I don't have any medical supplies left on me and the last thing I need is for you to start internally hemorrhaging while we're stuck wandering around the middle of nowhere with no way to get you proper treatment!" Bones snapped just as he noticed what Spock had.
"Fascinating. This area seems to have been previously occupied by some form of intelligent life." Spock stated calmly despite the fact that his pain level was starting to increase again.
"I'd say it's more like it's dark, ominous, dangerous. Let's get out of here. I can't get a proper signal around these rocks and these caves are giving me the creeps!" Bones shuddered as a flock of tiny screeching insects flew off from one of the upper openings in the caves.
Without replying, Spock moved to walk further into the caves making Bones' shoulders droop in dread. "Or I guess we could just keep going." He muttered, hurrying to keep up with his companion.
As much as Spock got on his last nerve one too many times, Bones was not too keen on having to face Jim and Kat without him. Especially not Kat.
"Doctor?"
Spock only stopped when he reached a stone structure in the middle of the quarry that didn't seem to be built in to any of the caves. Keeping his hand pressed to his side, he walked inside quickly taking in everything he could through the dim light that passed through various slots in the walls.
"This structure also appears to be abandoned. It is intriguing however. These symbols are the identical to the markings found on the artifact taken during the attack." The Vulcan noted, his breathing picking up steadily as he briefly studied the strange archaic letterings left on the walls.
"If only Katarina were here to attempt to translate the symbols. We might have been able to determine the exact reason for the attack on the Enterprise and the theft of the artifact." Spock continued, his brows creasing in a frown at the thought of his missing wife and son.
Bones looked around distrustingly at his surroundings as he reluctantly stepped inside. "You think the thing might have come from here?" He wondered half to himself as he followed Spock to the other side of the little building.
"It would seem so." Spock nodded, about to take another step when a searing pain tore through his side causing him to cry out and drop into a fetal position on the floor.
"D*** it Spock!" Bones cursed hurrying to the man's side and carefully turning him over to his back. "I told you not to push it you hard-headed ingrate!"
An agonized hiss slipped through the Vulcan's lips as Bones gently tried to get him to move his hand away from his wound.
"D***..." The Doctor cursed again after checking on the ugly gash mark. "You're starting to bleed internally! This was exactly what I was afraid of! If you don't take it easy now, you're not going to make it till sundown." Bones warned as he pulled Spock's uniform back into place.
Looking up to meet what he expected was Spock's usual unreadable gaze, Bones blanched when he realized the Vulcan had lost consciousness.
"Sh**! Spock!...Spock wake up D*** it! I'm not telling Katarina that her husband died on my watch! Come on!" Bones tried to rouse the Vulcan without doing more injury to him.
When Spock stirred and groaned a bit in pain, Bones breathed in relief then quickly moved to get him into a more comfortable position which would allow him to breathe easier and keep the blood flowing towards his heart.
"All right...now just lay still and try not to move too much. I'm going to go back outside and see if I can get a signal on my COMM...or find something that can help you." He ordered. "If I come back and see you trying to move so much as an eyelash I will tie you down and leave you here while I continue to search for the others on my own! You got that?"
Bones snapped, pulling his COMM from his pocket and heading towards the exit of the building as he spoke.
Spock's only response was a labored exhale and Bones took that as his compliance to the order before he flicked on the device in his hand and inputted the Enterprise's main call number.
"This is McCoy to Enterprise! Is anyone out there? We need help! Commander Spock is down and I have no medical supplies!...Come in Enterprise!"
...
"Kat, it's time." Uhura whispered to Kat who was sitting on the floor of the cell, rocking Greysam who had finally cried himself to sleep on her lap about an hour ago.
Krall and his guards hadn't returned since they'd been given food, but still Kat was uneasy and worried about what would happen next.
Most of all, she worried about Grey and what might happen to him if this plan failed and she couldn't get him away from this prison camp.
What did Krall mean a world made free from itself?...And how was he planning on showing me this? Kat wondered, knowing even as she wondered that it couldn't be anything good.
Not after how they were brutally attacked in the Nebula...not after how many people died at the hands of these creatures.
Looking back down at her son, Kat slowly rose to her feet, careful not to wake him as she shifted him into her arms.
Hopefully when he wakes, he won't be in this awful place anymore. Kat drew some comfort and courage with the thought as Uhura followed her to gate where Sulu, Korin and Keenser waited.
I just hope his head injury isn't as serious I think it is...
"Okay, we only have fifteen minutes till the next guard rotation. So we got to move fast once we're out there. Keenser, can you get the door unlocked?" Sulu turned to the tiny Engineer who leaned forward as if to examine the knob which held cell gate closed.
Suddenly Keenser sneezed sending a sticky spray of debris to splatter the knob. Kat and Uhura flinched just as the knob began to melt away disintegrating the locking system.
"Whoa...that's one heck of a sneeze." Korin remarked wide-eyed as Keenser turned and used his arm to wipe his nose.
"Great work Keenser. Kat, Uhura come on!" Sulu approved nodding to the two women standing behind him as he and Korin bent to pull the door open.
Kat flinched and tightened her embrace around her son when the two men managed to get the gate about halfway open before it creaked loudly. Freezing in place, the crew listened intently for a minute for any indication that Krall's guards were coming back to investigate.
When only the light evening breeze sounded across the planet's terrain, they relaxed and Sulu motioned with his head for Kat and Uhura to slip out under the door.
Nodding for Uhura to go first, Kat bent and carefully handed Greysam to her before crawling out after them.
Sulu came out last and he nodded for Korin and Syl to close the gate when an ear-piercing shriek suddenly cut through the silence like a hot knife.
Flinching at the sound, Kat, Sulu and Uhura turned nearly as one towards the source of the cry just as it was followed by more.
Oh no...Kat's heart sank as the horrible sounds echoed through the camp. They're torturing the crew! Or killing them...
"Okay, we don't have a lot of time. Their main control hub should be in that center structure. We'll find a way to get a distress signal up from there while you and Grey make your escape through there." Sulu nodded towards a dark alleyway that seemingly led straight into the forest that surrounded the prison camp.
Kat shook her head and extended her arm to stop Uhura when the other woman started to carefully hand Greysam back to her.
"No, Uhura, you take Grey. I'm staying here." She said softly, but firmly earning the shocked looks of her crewmates.
"Kat, what are you doing? You can't stay here! Krall has already targeted you!" Sulu protested. Kat shot him an unyielding look.
"That's exactly why I have to stay! Krall said he wants to show me something. He needs me to lure Jim and Spock here and there's no telling what he'll do to the rest of you if I turn up missing." She looked with tear-filled eyes from the helmsman to her Lieutenant then to where they'd heard the screaming a moment ago.
"We've already lost too many and who knows how many more since we got here. Maybe since I'm the Captain's sister, I can work out a compromise that will protect what's left of the crew until we're rescued."
Uhura shook her head. "But I'm not Grey's Mother, Kat. He'll need you when he wakes up. I won't know what to do if he starts freaking out because you're not there or-!"
"Lieutenant there is no time." Kat cut her off. "If you don't leave now, you'll never make it and Grey needs to get treated." She bit down on her lip as she walked closer towards Uhura and laid a hand gently on her son's face.
"Promise me you'll take care of him for me Uhura. Please? Tell him that I love him and that I'll see him again as soon as I can." She looked up pleadingly back at her friend and former student. "Take him and find Spock."
Gnawing on her own lips, Uhura slowly reluctantly nodded her head looking down at the sleeping child in her arms. Smiling slightly back at her in response, Kat bent to drop a quick last kiss to Grey's cheek before nodding towards the shadow of alleyway which led straight into the forest beyond.
Lifting a foot to take her first step away from the prison camp, Uhura quickly turned back around and fixated her superior officer with a fierce look of her own.
"I'll do this only if you promise that you'll find us again Katarina. I'll never forgive you if they kill you." The words came out as a threat, but Kat could hear the strain in her tone and she nodded, feeling a lump rise up to her own throat.
"I promise." Almost involuntarily, she reached for her necklace again. "Now go. They'll be making another round any moment now."
With a final nod, Uhura turned and ran towards the cover of the night, clutching Greysam close to her as the gravel shifted quietly under her feet.
Kat watched for them for a second until she heard Sulu behind her. "Kat, we need to go." He urged and the Ambassador nodded her head in acknowledgement before turning to follow him.
...
"Here it is. I'm pretty sure this is the Communications Monitor. We can send a distress signal from here." Sulu whispered, motioning to a strange looking monitor inside the control hub.
Nodding as she quickly surveyed the basic build of the computer, Kat quickly bent to input the needed coordinates and fiddled with what she thought was the range capability control of the transmitter device.
As she waited for the signal to go through, Kat began to explore the monitor until she found read outs for the previous transmissions sent from this station. As she read the first couple read outs, the color slowly began to drain from her face, shocking and intriguing her all at the same time.
"Oh my God!..."
"What?" Sulu asked, a little louder than before making Kat flinch before shooting him a warning look.
"According to these read outs, they've been piggybacking the subspace links between the probes. That's probably how they shut us down so quickly once we got into the Nebula zone." She looked up at the pilot who looked just as disturbed as she felt.
"Well, can you use those links to get a message back to Yorktown?" He asked, looking back at the screen. Kat nodded and minimized the screen showing the transmission records.
"Already on it. As long as it keeps up its speed, the signal should reach its destination in...three more minutes." She did a quick rough calculation.
Nodded, Sulu turned to survey one of the other monitors in the room and froze when he saw the image illuminated on the one directly behind the one Kat was using.
"You sure this was the right thing to do?...Sending Grey off without you, I mean." He asked quietly. Sighing lightly, Kat pressed her lips together.
"I don't really like it at all actually, but you know his head trauma could be bad and I can't bear losing him or any more of the crew than we already have. Besides if Uhura can at least find Spock then-."
"Oh my God...it's Yorktown." Sulu realized, cutting Kat off as he quickly skimmed over the analysis chart on the computer he was looking at.
Kat gave him a strange look.
"Yes, that's the main destination I inputted. Although if the Enterprise is intact enough it should be able to pick up on it too."
"No, I mean they've accessed the Yorktown database. From here!" Sulu's voice though soft was full of urgency and horror.
Kat finally turned away from her monitor. "What?"
"Starfleet data files, ship logs on every flagship commissioned by the academy...including the Enterprise." Sulu murmured, his brow creasing more in a frown as Kat peered over his shoulder to look at what he had found.
"So they have been tracking us." Kat realized just as the monitor behind her dinged a bit loudly signalling that the distress message had been su ccessfully transmitted.
Both Sulu and Kat jumped a bit in surprise since they hadn't expected the loud noise. Hearing the unmistakable sound of their captors calling to each other and scurrying through the prison camp, Sulu quickly grabbed Kat's arm and pulled her towards the entrance they'd used earlier.
"Come on! Our time's up."
"It certainly is...foolish humans." The same dreadful sounding raspy voice that Kat remembered hearing from the creature who had hurt Greysam.
Turning almost simultaneously, Kat and Sulu looked around to see that they were completely surrounded on all sides and each guard was holding a glowing electro spear.
Grimacing at the sight of the weapons, Kat took a deep breath and slowly raised her hands in the submission gesture, seeing Sulu do the same through her peripherals as they heard more guards running around outside the hub.
Uhura, you'd better have made it out. Kat hoped to herself thinking of her precious child again as the guards moved to restrain their hands and shoved them forward towards the exit.
Sulu turned his head as much as he could to give Kat a glance that matched the one she was probably wearing as well as they were marched out of the communications hub.
This cannot be good.
...
