"Wait!" The word was strained and maybe a bit desperate.
The ship's captain stopped, his knowing grin meeting Spock's contained surprise. He turned around. "What?"
"I will stop your vessel. But you will not return me to this cell afterward," the Asgardian asserted.
The captain regarded the prisoner, his initial reaction not to accept anything the god may offer but he also realized that he didn't have too many options. "Okay," he said finally. "I give you my word that you will not be put back in that cell if you also agree not to harm any of my crew." Kirk would have liked to be even more specific but he was acutely aware of the lack of time he had to convey his demands.
Loki frowned, his discontent with the conditions obvious.
"I need your answer…" Kirk demanded, burying his worry beneath the frustration.
Spock turned away from the cell. "Captain," he said barely above a whisper.
Kirk knew that his first officer was highly troubled over their course of action. Even he was plagued with a worry that what he was allowing loose on his ship was no better than Khan in control of the Vengence. But he refused to turn and give the Vulcan his undivided attention.
Spock voiced his unease just the same. "There is no guarantee that this being will even commit to what he says. You may be unleashing him upon…"
"I know Spock," the young captain stated firmly.
Although the prisoner couldn't make out everything said, he knew without a doubt that the Vulcan was expressing his worries about the plan. Choosing to keep any hint of it to himself he finally relented, "You have my word."
With his agreement, the strained tension in the room quickly lifted as Spock immediately went to the desk the duty officer sat at. "Notify security to report here with additional personnel to engineering. Their phasers are to be set on kill."
Kirk returned to the glass and met the prisoner's gaze once again. "All I ask is that you stop the ship…if you can…and keep it in one piece."
Loki nodded without a word, his slight grin possibly indicating a personal victory was unsettling for the captain.
"Take down the force field," Jim Kirk ordered. He could only hope that he was making the right decision and that it wouldn't make matters worse.
And as quick as the hum of the energy field disappeared, the cell's occupant also vanished.
It was not a first time for Carol Marcus to witness the god's actual teleportation but still she couldn't help her mouth drop with his disappearance. She looked over her shoulder as the security guards arrived and swarmed the brig, their arrival late and useless.
Kirk frowned but was hardly surprised. The tension he had made him feel as if he had been holding his breath for the past several minutes. Uncertain he pulled his communicator out and flipped it open. "Time Chekov?"
"We are at one minute fifteen seconds, Keptin."
There was a brief pause before Sulu exclaimed in the background. "I just read a slight surge in that same energy reading we've seen before sir."
"Where?" Kirk asked as Spock and Lieutenant Marcus joined him.
"Main engineering."
At least there was hope that their situation might improve. With this thought in mind, the captain turned to his first officer. "We still need to take control of this ship from the computer."
"I have a theory Captain, which may allow us helm control."
As always, the Vulcan appeared to be working several dilemmas at the same time, a talent that his captain couldn't have appreciated more than at this moment. He nodded with an understanding and trust, knowing that if anyone could fix it, Spock could.
The first officer quickly headed off down the corridor, his steps taking him to the lift and eventually back to the computer core.
It was almost ironic in that Loki appeared in the center of what could only be classified as controlled chaos. With the loss of any manual control of the ships engines, the red shirted engineers were seen rushing about between stations trying everything they could think of to have any kind of impact but so far there was nothing substantial enough to report.
The deepened hum of the core itself indicated the stress the engines were under as they were pushing their limits. Loki had been right while in the cell, the ship was "flying" at an incredible rate of speed. In itself he would have been interested in delving into understanding the vessel's propulsion but as it was he was now inclined to halt it.
"Loki, is it then?"
The god looked to the man in red who had spoken. "Tell me exactly what needs to stop," he demanded.
Commander Scott could not have looked more suspicious remembering the fun that same god had at the crew's expense. Fun indeed. However, he pointed behind him at the main metal housing buried beneath piping and tubing with large covered stems directed up into the frame of the ship. "That, there is the main reaction chamber for the matter/antimatter mix that supplies the energy to the nacelles. It is contained within magnetic fields which would then be directed through these conduits…why are you lookin' at me like that?"
The Asgardian's brow had furrowed, his eyes narrowed and mouth open in total bewilderment as he took in the explanation directed at him. Even he knew that there was an urgency needed in his actions and listening to the technology being explained was useless and a waste of time for him.
The chief engineer sighed. "We are pushin' the limits of me system here and she canna take much more of it."
"Oh for Odin's sake…" Loki grumbled and went straight to the heavy chamber. He placed his hands upon it, his magic reaching out and easily penetrating the unit's fail safe containment shields. Picking up the massive amount of energy being produced he briefly wondered about capturing it for himself. Perhaps it would add to his energy and make him even stronger.
"We have ten seconds before we enter the neutral zone," the red shirted engineer informed him from one of the closest terminals.
Loki frowned mildly disappointed. Time did not permit for him to ascertain whether it was safe to draw from as its creation was entirely different from his own. Instead he surrounded it with his own magic and canceled it all out.
Captain Kirk entered the bridge just as the ship dropped from warp, shuddering and tipping with the sudden disappearance of the fields normally sustaining it at faster than light speed. Thrown sideways into the wall, he maintained his feet, although at the expense of his ankle which painfully reminded him of his hastily healed injury only 24 hours before.
The rest of the crew fought the surge to maintain their seats, their eyes glued to their mostly unresponsive systems.
"Status report," Kirk stated with a grimace, otherwise hiding any other signs of pain. He swayed a bit along with the ship until he reached his chair.
"We just dropped out of warp. I've got impulse engines on line and compensating for the change of speed Captain," Sulu informed him. Almost as soon as the words were out, the ship's ride eased.
"Can we change our heading ensign?"
Pavel Chekov gave a frustrated sigh even as he tried to manipulate his controls. "That is a negative, Keptin. And we are looking at the doorstep of the neutral zone."
"All stop Mr. Sulu. I need a continuous long range sensor sweep of the neutral zone. I don't want anyone coming up on us unannounced."
"Aye sir."
"Weapons status?"
Chekov shook his head. "Weapons controls are still dead."
With a foreboding sigh Kirk opened the comlink to engineering. "Scotty, what is the status of our engines?"
When the Scotsman answered it was readily apparent he was fit to be tied. "Well, you bloody well wanted the god t' stop the ship, so he stopped the ship for you."
The captain's eyes were closed silently imploring his chief engineer not to go off and offend Loki into doing something drastic. Finding another one qualified as much as he would be hard this far out in space. "Is he there with you?"
"No…he disappeared when security showed, right after he removed everythin' from the warp core."
Kirk's relief was postponed. "What do you mean removed?"
"Captain, there's nothin' there. He just made everythin' disappear out of the reaction chamber, matter and anti-matter both."
"Well, can't you just…start it back up?"
Scotty sounded surprised with his commander's analogy. "This isn't a car…"
Kirk ground his teeth at the remark. "How long are we looking at, Mr. Scott."
"As long as it would take a brand new ship that's not had its first run. I would need t' run tests, restart the system, recalibrate, allow for build up…"
"How long?!"
"Eight hours. But I might be able to push it to six…"
Kirks mouth dropped. "Scotty, we can't be sitting on the edge of the neutral zone for six hours!" He paused as he realized the entire bridge crew's eyes were on him not only for his outburst but as they also understand the risk as much as he.
"That's all I can give you, captain," the engineer said regretfully.
Subdued, Kirk nodded. "Just do what you can." He closed the channel.
"Lieutenant Uhura…" he turned to the communications officer.
She answered before he could finish. "Monitoring all frequencies for Romulan transmissions Captain. Nothing so far."
Kirk nodded. "Good. Let me know if you hear anything." Almost as an afterthought he turned back to his navigator who also served as the chief of security. "Mr. Chekov."
"Yes, keptin."
"The transporter room has the codes to the transponder on our...guest." He paused chewing on the inaccurate analogy he used for the so called god. When he continued, his frustration and annoyance was obvious. "I need a security team tracking him at all times. If he takes one step out of line put his ass back in the brig."
"Aye sir."
