Author's Note: Hello Hello! We are back again with another chapter! All I have to say is a big THANK YOU for all the support and love for last weeks update! You all are wonderful, beautiful people!
Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek! All rights belong to JJ Abrams (movie references) and Gene Roddenberry (TOS references). Any grammatical errors or mistakes you find I hope you can forgive me! Happy reading everyone!
My pod had crash landed, touching down on the Class-M planet Altamid, but the journey down wasn't as easy as I had hoped. There were a few instances that I had thought my pod would slam into a few of the rocks that jutted out from the mountain side, there were clusters of trees that stretched up to the sky that my pod had just barely grazed upon that caused a slight panic each time I heard the screeching against my pod. I thought I was going to die a couple of times, and it was only when my pod was safely on solid land that I was able to breathe a sigh of relief. I was thankful that the intruders hadn't taken my escape pod as well.
Now, safely on solid land, I could concentrate on rescuing my crew…wherever they had taken them, and I knew just the person who could provide me with the answers I needed. If I could find them, and if they made it off our ship alive.
I had changed out of my uniform, dressing up in the blue suit that was packed inside my escape pod, packed for emergencies only. It was necessary for the situation we were in considering my standard starfleet uniform would attract attention compared to the dark blue uniform. I also grabbed for the extra phaser that was hidden in the side compartment in the pod since mine had been dropped back on the Enterprise. In the distance I saw another of our Starfleet Kelvin pods resting against a tree that had splintered on impact with a familiar head of brown curls messing around inside of the pod.
I was just about to call out to the Russian kid before something else had caught my attention. I saw a parachute deploy nearby, watching as it got shredded by the dense trees, and I only caught a glimpse of the person in the pod before taking off full sprint in its direction. Seems like Lady Luck still favored me. "Chekov!"
I ran over to the Kelvin pod that held Kalara, hell bent on getting the answers that I needed even if I had to force it out of her. My ship was destroyed, my crew was wiped to in a blink of an eye, all those innocent lives that were under my care and who were my responsibility, gone! Because she had held back important information, my friends, those who trusted me with their lives…and Carol. I was regretting how I treated her in the time before we reached Yorktown, instead of being honest with her, I pushed her away because of my own problems that I thought I could shoulder on my own.
'I promise,' I thought as I raced towards Kalara. 'I promise when I find you I will apologize profusely and ask you to forgive me for being an ass.'
But there was something more that bothered me, something that still didn't seem right with Kalara and I was going to get to the bottom of this mystery.
"You knew." I growled as I stalked over to the woman who was keeled over, resting her hands on her thighs as she took deep even breathes. "You knew we'd be attacked."
"You don't understand." Kalara's translator translated the second she opened her mouth, and I couldn't help the rage that overtook my body, winning over all other emotions, as I reached for my phaser at my side and pointed it right at her head.
"Captain!" Chekov's voice grew louder the closer he got to where Kalara and I stood. "Captain Kirk!"
I felt Chekov's presence come up from behind me, hearing a shallow pant at having ran here to catch up, but I simply kept my sights trained on Kalara. Watching as her eyes darted to the boy behind me before addressing me with her hands clasped meekly in front of her nervously.
"Yes. I lied. Our ship was attacked." Kalara confessed.
"Chekov, check the comms for survivors." I ordered without taking my eyes off the woman in front of me. "A-aye, Captain" "Who is he?"
"His name is Krall." Kalara responded as her eyes seemed to glaze over. "He took my crew. Like he took yours."
"How did he know so much about the Enterprise?" I continued with the interrogation while Chekov continued his work.
"All I know is that if I did this," Kalara grimaced as she looked at me sadly. "He would set them free."
"Chekov, are you picking anything up on those scanners?" I called back behind me.
"Nothing, sir." Chekov gave me the news that I didn't want to hear, didn't want to believe for I knew that was wrong. They had to have survived. "What if they…"
"No, no." I shook my head in denial, recalling what Sulu had told me just before we abandoned ship. I thought of a plan, a gamble, but if my assumption was correct then this was going to be worth taking that chance. "He was taking them. We have to find that saucer. Even minimal scanning systems will have more range than a tricorder."
"Aye, Captain, it's possible." Chekov confirmed my theory.
"Captain." Kalara started to shake her head, almost pleading with me with her eyes, asking me to lower my phaser to understand her reasoning. "I was protecting my crew."
'No, you weren't protecting your crew.' I thought with a scoff as I hesitantly lowered my weapon, playing the part as I studied the woman in front of me as I remembered that Spock had gotten no reading of any life forms on this planet. My anger flared up once again as I clenched my jaw, biting the inside of my cheek to prevent myself from saying anything to this woman. 'You survived, and mine didn't.'
We've been walking for a while now, following the direction that Chekov's scanner pointed to after having located where our ship had crashed. Through the thick forest, the closer we got to the wreckage of the ships the leaves on the tree started to lessen, the grass grew high and thick reaching just above our knees, causing us to exert more energy to walk through the thick foliage. From all around us floated what looked to be dandelions dancing through the air. I had to make sure to keep my mouth shut in case one flew into my mouth, which on a few occasions it had.
When we came to the end of the tree line, a field opened up before us and right before our eyes I saw what remained of the Enterprise. It had landed just at an angle with metal remains scattered all over Altamid's open field, the sight that greeted me broke my heart and the rage I felt that had extinguished on our walk emerged in full as Kalara turned back to look at me before leading the way.
"The Enterprise." Chekov whispered. "She may not even have power to the Bridge, Captain."
"She still has a few tricks up her sleeve." I said, though I wasn't necessarily talking about the ship itself as my eyes traveled from the Enterprise to look to where Kalara had gone off to. Chekov had come to stand beside me as from the corner of my eyes I saw him follow my line of sight. "I'd bet on it."
There was a bit of distance between us and the woman who was the reason behind the destruction of our ship, and I took this chance to speak to Chekov about what was going through my mind.
"Chekov," I whispered, keeping my eyes on Kalara, making sure she couldn't hear what we were saying. "when we reach the bridge I want you to continue to trace and locate any transmission on all frequencies."
"Captain?" Chekov whispered back.
"Just a precaution...anyway, let's hurry. We need to find everyone and get off this planet." I said sending Chekov a small smile before letting out a sigh. "Once we return to Yorktown, I'm gonna ask for a leave extension for everyone."
"Aye, Captain." Chekov smiled in return.
By the time we got close to the ship, the sky had darkened and the only light source we had was what was coming from the fires inside and around the Enterprise. We had to be careful when approaching our ship. Krall and his men had been hell bent on getting their hands on that artifact that he had easily, without any regard for the lives aboard, destroyed our ship just to take it from us. He would've realized by now that the artifact was missing from the container it was held in and would send his men to search the wreckage of the ship. It would be something I would do, what anyone would do, if they were searching meticulously for a specific item.
When we did a full check around the perimeter, even if the readings came back negative, we still had to make sure to watch our steps as we ventured into the Enterprise. We stuck close to the ground, working up to a crawl to see that the lights were still functioning on the outside of the hull structure.
"Captain, it looks like there is power." Chekov whispered.
"All right, let's get to the Bridge and find the crew." I said as we looked over the edge from where we were laying just in time to see a couple of Krall's men patrolling the outskirts of the Enterprise. "Be careful, and quiet."
As soon as the two had passed, I quietly slid down into the crater with my phaser pointed in their direction, watching as they turned the corner and out of my site before motioning for Chekov and Kalara to come out from where they were hiding. They had scurried down the hill, running behind me and uphill toward the ship.
We had a long way to climb, with multiple holes in the hull created by Krall's attacks we had to be careful where we stepped else we'd fall straight through. Not to mention the jagged metal that was sticking out from the holes that we could fall and impale ourselves on.
"Captain, over here." Chekov whispered as he motioned toward one of the openings that would be the closest to where the bridge was located. An entrance that wasn't on fire, lit up, or any dangerous metal that could take our heads off.
I slowly peaked my head in, pointing my phaser inside before patting Chekov on the shoulder for a job well done. "Good job Chekov, looks safe enough."
I took point, walking further into the remains of the ship until we got to the bridge. Everything was totaled, the bridge that I've become so familiar with over the years was unrecognizable. It still feels like a dream, things had gone from zero to a hundred the second any of us could blink. One minute we were in space preparing for a rescue mission, the next? We had no ship or crew. This rescue mission was for ourselves.
"The console is intact, Captain." Chekov's raspy voice called out to me. "I will try to reroute power to it."
"Work fast." I said as I observed the contents of the bridge, searching for anything salvageable. "Once we get this place lit up, we're gonna draw a lot of attention."
I heard the console start up, Chekov's grunted from bending under the console to connect whatever cables and wires that had come undone, before he let out a positive response.
"What do you think, can you find them?" I asked, quickly going over to see Chekov's work.
"Aye, Captain." Chekov nodded his head. "I am reconfiguring scanners to modulate for the crew's signals."
I took a glance at Kalara, giving Chekov's arm a momentary squeeze as a signal that I hoped he caught onto, before making a move to leave. I needed to put my theory to the test and to do that I needed this woman to follow me. "You're with me. I left something behind."
With our ship completely turned on its side, it was impossible to walk the usual path as we were walking on the side of the walls instead of the usual hallway. We were getting closer to where I had 'hid' the artifact in one of the vaults of our ship, but we still needed to be careful where we stepped. We needed to make as little noise as possible to avoid alerting those patrols going on outside.
"Captain," Kalara's translator spoke up as I leaned down to access one of the vaults. "the artifact was on the ship the whole time?"
"I couldn't afford to get caught with it, so I hid it in here." I said as I knelt down to retrieve what I needed before I saw a knee come up and slam into my face. I had fallen back and dropped my phaser in the process, stunned as I rolled away to avoid another possible hit to my face or body.
"Tell Krall I have the Abronath." Kalara had my phaser pointed at me as she spoke into the communicator and I couldn't help but secretly smirk, scoffing at the situation she just walked right into. She started to reach down to the very compartment I was reaching into as her eyes were trained on me, a triumphant smile directed at me. "Do you believe every sad story you hear?"
As she opened the compartment I saw Chekov from behind stealthily moving closer to where we were, it was empty of course as she looked back at me in disbelief.
"Not every." I stated as Chekov's phaser powered up, pointing it directly at the back of Kalara's head.
"Put the phaser down." Chekov ordered. "Please."
Kalara let out an exhale, a bit irritated that she had fallen into our trap, but I didn't care. My crew was my top priority, and she gratefully gave us their location. "You get it, Chekov?"
"Aye, Captain, I have traced the location of her call." Chekov nodded his head as I reached out to take back my phaser and went over to the boy's side.
"What does Krall want with this thing?" I asked, more commanded as I was done playing nice. I've given her enough chances, no more. She messed with the wrong captain.
"To save you," Kalara simply stated with a smirk on her face. "from yourselves."
"Captain!" Chekov yelled out in alarm as he fired his phaser at having seen the guards coming up from behind Kalara. As the guards were returning fire we made a run for it, I had wanted more answers, but we've overstayed our welcome. We had hopped down one of the slanted hallways and allowed gravity to guide us, an easy and efficient way to escape our pursuers.
We were running, to where? I had no idea, I just knew that we needed to put enough distance between us and them. The only thing on my mind was following the hallway we were on and hoping that an opportunity to escape would show itself.
"You all right?" I called back to Chekov as I stopped at an open gap in our path.
"Aye, Captain, but we are trapped!" Chekov exclaimed as he looked around for another route.
'Yes, we indeed are.' I thought as I backtracked the way we had come, taking cover behind a broken doorway before carefully peering around the corner only to quickly duck back as a green beam was shot just beside my head. I ducked behind the corner as more shots were fired. 'Nope, not that way.' I ran back toward where Chekov was kneeling and peered over the railing. "Can you get this thing started?"
"Are you intimating that we should engage the thrusters?" Chekov asked, animatedly waving his hands as he motioned toward the opening, hoping that he had heard me wrong.
"I am open to other suggestions." I looked back to where our enemies were, hearing the constant firing that wasn't letting up as I blindly returned fire.
"O~okay. Uh…" I heard Chekov tapping away on one of the working consoles nearby. "There's a problem, sir." "What?" "The fuel is primed, but I cannot get it to combust." I looked back the way we came and then leaned over the railing that overlooked where the compressor was and I took aim. "Oy, Captain, we are basically standing on a wery large bomb. If you miss the combustion compressor-"
"I'm not gonna miss, come on." I harshly and quickly bit back, slightly panicked at knowing full well what would happen if I did indeed miss, but I didn't need to be constantly reminded about the consequences! I could do without the unnecessary pressure. "Sir, do you even know what the combustion compressor looks like?" Chekov was panicking, and understandably so.
"Oh, it's square, right?" I asked just as I fired my phaser.
"No, sir, it's…" Chekov had given up at the last second the moment I had opened fire at the compressor. "round…"
"That's what I said." I called back as we waited for my shot to hit, fire sparked as I saw the single thruster burst before an inferno erupted to life from the bottom of the pit. "Run!"
As the thrusters engaged, the ship started to tilt upward sending our bodies sliding down, and when we had come to an area we could safely walk upright we continued to run. We needed to get off this ship immediately before it turned completely over.
There was another gap in the ship, a gap that we had to take a step back from due to having been fired at from the level below. Chekov and myself had tried to double back to find another way, but Kalara came rushing from around the corner successfully blocking our path back. She had made an attempt to fire at us, but not before I fired first causing her to recoil and take cover as I motioned for Chekov to jump across. "Go!"
The two of us jumped across the opening, and when I landed on the other side I fired at Kalara just enough to buy us some time to make our way to another area of the ship.
We had no specific direction in mind, yet we had found our way back to the bridge, an area that had no opening or places to escape out of. I had considered going back the way we came until my eyes fell on the glass window that had remained intact during the crash.
"Chekov!" I called for the boy to continue to follow me as I shot at the glass screen, causing a spider like pattern to form. I wanted to completely destroy the barrier, but there was no time for that as Kalara and the two patrol guards had caught up to us, making their way onto the bridge.
In a panic, Chekov and myself ran at the glass, shattering it on impact as we started our 90 degree descent straight down the front of the Enterprise. Kalara and her goons must've followed us out the window as green beams shot past our heads on our way down. I reconfigured my body, turning myself to slide on my stomach as I turned my phaser upward to return fire as the ship continued to lift and flip over.
After a couple seconds of falling, with how much the saucer was tilting, we couldn't slide any longer. Our bodies were thrown and flung off the saucer hitting the ground hard, and before we could relax I looked back to the saucer to see the hulking machine coming straight for us, threatening to flatten us.
"Chekov! Move!" I warned as I reached over to pull the boy back to his feet as the two of us continued to run with all our might to get to a safe distance to avoid being crushed.
We had kept running in hopes of getting as far away as we could, and when the Enterprise had flipped over the force of the impact had caused our bodies to fly. Thankfully we got out of that ordeal with only slight scratches and bruises all over our bodies.
"How far are we from the coordinates of that call?" I asked Chekov as slow even beeps came from the scanner in his hands, the sun was barely rising as we trekked through the rocky mountain terrain, continuously moving without any rest to put enough distance between us and the wreckage of the Enterprise. The noise along with the flames would have attracted more of Krall's men and we couldn't afford to get caught with how close we were to finding our crew.
"Still a ways, sir." Chekov answered as he closed his scanner, the two of us catching a slight breather as I glanced down to make sure to watch the next steps I took to make sure I wouldn't slip and fall. "Captain?"
"Yeah." I let out a huff in exhaustion as I turned back to Chekov.
"When did you begin to suspect her?" Chekov asked, a question though altered, I continue to ask myself as well. Why had I not suspected her sooner? I couldn't give Chekov a definitive answer as I pushed passed him.
"Not soon enough." I said as I continued to walk forward. If I had, then maybe I could've saved more of my crew.
"How did you know?" Chekov asked.
"Well…" I grunted as I used my hand to assist me in getting down to one of the steeper levels below. "I guess you could say I got a good nose for danger."
Chekov started to laugh at my attempt at a joke, but it seemed like my joke had only jinxed us. Luck had run out and the second I stepped forward I heard the sound of a machine start up, it wasn't the same beep that had come from Chekov's scanner. From all around us large fumes of brown smoke filled the area around us, threatening to consume us.
I glanced down to where I stepped and saw right under my foot a tiny activation pad and I could only shake my head side to side in annoyance. My shoulders slouching at how much of an idiot I was, with good luck comes bad luck I suppose, and I will berate myself later with how careless I had been. "Run!"
We didn't get very far, the second we were caught in this cloud it was already too late for us to escape. When the cloud had hit the air it had us trapped giving us no chance to escape. Whatever this substance was, it had congealed and hardened around us just as we were in the process of jumping out of the trap. We were stuck, forced to wait for whoever these traps belonged to. I had to come to terms that we had been caught by Krall and his men, now I just had to think about a way to escape when they came to free us and take us to their base.
I heard a twig snap close to where we were stuck, and we could only wait until our captures made themselves known.
But it came to a surprise when instead of seeing Krall or any of his goons, I saw a woman with white skin followed closely by Scotty and Khan from behind, the latter seeming to laugh at the predicament we were in.
"Captain?" Scotty's voice squeaked, staring up at us in shock as the unknown woman turned back to my chief engineer.
"You know these men?" The woman asked as I saw Scotty dispose of the rock that was in his hand before crawling his way over to us.
"Aye, lassie." Scotty pointed up to us. "That wee man there is Pavel Chekov." "Hello." Chekov attempted to greet. "And that handsome bastard is James T. Kirk. They're my mates."
"Two out of a few hundred." I heard Khan mumble.
"It's good to see you, sir." Scotty smiled back at us in relief before I saw the woman suddenly shove Scotty away, I watched from where I was stuck to see her tinker with whatever that weapon was that she held in her hands.
"What is she doing, Scotty?" I asked as I slightly began to panic. If she was going to hurt us, then I needed Scotty or Khan to stop her. But if she was going to set us free, then I needed them to stop her either way! If we fell from this height we would hit the boulder below us hard! We were mid jump after all, practically suspended in the air!
"Don't hurt them. Because-" I heard Scotty plead to the woman who continued to tinker with her weapon and watched the staff elongate after she had inputted whatever it was into her weapon.
"No, don't!" I started to panic before glaring at the augment that was leaning lazily against the boulder behind him. "Khan, hit her!"
The woman had taken her staff and smashed it against the substance that had trapped us, shattering the brown substance as Chekov and my body were free to fall onto the boulder that was sticking out from the ground below us.
"You're free, James T." The woman commented as I groaned in annoyance, slowly getting up as Scotty had gone over to help Chekov to his feet.
"Mister Scott." I saw Chekov from where I was still splayed out on the ground reach out to hug the man, happy to see some familiar faces, hell I was so happy to see them that I was tempted to go over and give Khan a hug…if I wanted to die afterwards that is.
I used the boulder to hoist myself back to my feet, giving Khan a nod in acknowledgment to which he returned before I glanced at the woman. "Who's your new friend here?" I looked back the way we had come, staring at the remains of whatever that brown substance was. "She sure knows how to throw out a welcome mat."
"This is Jaylah." Scotty introduced our new friend as Chekov, being the brave and innocent boy he was, went over to Khan and smiled up at the augment, just as happy to see him as he was with Scotty.
"I do not know what is a welcome mat." Jaylah stated, and for a second I wanted to comment, thinking that she was joking, but decided to keep my mouth shut when she just stared back at me in all seriousness.
"You find anybody else?" I asked Scotty.
"No, sir. I'm sorry, you're the only ones." Scotty looked at me sadly. "What the hell happened up there, Jim? Why were we attacked?"
"They were after the artifact we brought back from Teenax." I answered as Chekov came running back to join us with Khan following close behind, him and Jaylah sizing each other up as I conversed with Scotty. "Did they get it?" "No."
"Have they got it?" Khan asked.
"No." I sighed. "I had to get it off the Enterprise, put it on a shuttle." "You hid it in a shuttle." "Yes." Scotty nodded his head, accepting my answer before I hesitated, what I did wasn't quite what I would call hiding it in a shuttle. "And no. Anyway, we cannot stay here, Krall and his men are searching meticulously for that artifact, and they won't stop till they get it. We need to get it before they do. What have we got to work with on relocating our crew?"
"Ah!" Scotty excitedly jumped as he reached over and started to lead me away. "You're not gonna believe what Jaylah found Jim!"
"What did she find?" I asked as I could only follow where Scotty was leading me.
"Better to show you, then to tell." Khan stated as he came up to walk in time with me.
"It's good to see you alive Khan." A small smile tugged at the corner of my lip, and if I turned my head to the side…squinted just a tiny bit? I think I saw the ever stoic man smile back.
"You as well, Kirk." Khan said as he picked up his pace, following wherever this Jaylah was leading us.
"It's a ship!" I looked around in awe, having climbed up the long ladder and stepping onto a platform just behind Scotty as he motioned around him to what I could only assume was the bridge of the ship.
"This is the USS Franklin, sir. Can you believe it?" Scotty asked as I walked further in. "First Earth ship capable of warp four. Went missing in the Gagarin Radiation Belt in the early 2160s."
"I remember that from the Academy. Captain Balthazar Edison. One of the first heroes of Starfleet." I said as I made my way around the bridge before coming to a stop just in front of the viewscreen that overlooked the whole planet. I was in shock at having found such a piece of our history stranded on this planet. "How the hell did this ship end up here?"
"There's a lot of theories, sir." Scotty said. "Surrendered to the Romulans. Captured by a giant green space hand."
"All superficial theories, logically with this ship being so far out in the galaxy, from the Gagarin Radiation Belt to here, one would suggest a wormhole displacement." Khan walked about the bridge, going over to one of the consoles with Chekov.
"Can she fly?" I asked curiously.
"She's missing a few drive coils and the EPS conduits are fried, but Jaylah has done a marvelous job of getting the ship's systems back online." Scotty commented as he motioned back to where Jaylah was.
"Thank you, Montgomery Scotty." Jaylah took the praise and came over to sit in the captain's chair at the same time as I was going to do, I would've bumped into her if I had not seen what she was planning to do.
"Pardon me." I stared down at Jaylah, expecting her to move and when she didn't I set my attention elsewhere. "Mister Chekov, can you plug in the coordinates. See if you can track the crew's location from the ship's sensors."
"Aye, Captain." Chekov got to work as I heard Scotty mumbling something to Jaylah. "He likes that seat."
"Mister Scott." I stared at the man who jumped in surprise at having been caught, attempting to cover up his comment. "Tour."
"Yes, the mess hall." Scotty looked to the woman seated in the captain's chair. "Jaylah, if you will."
"Yes." Jaylah agreed, getting up and off the chair before leading us to the mess hall. However, just before following Jaylah and Scotty I had reached out to pat the captain's chair. Though I was having doubts about being captain, I did indeed like the seat.
The mess hall was quite tiny, you can clearly tell how far our technology had come judging off what I was seeing cluttered around the hall. Learning from the past, building and improving our ships along with its computers and weapons, it was amazing what we had accomplished…to see how far we've truly come. One of the computers in the hall was still functioning, though fizzing out every so often, on the screen there were records of the missing crewmen that was assigned to the USS Franklin.
I reached over to access the ships logs, picking one at random as the video began to play. From what I could see from the recording a celebration was clearly going on as everyone in the video seemed excited about the voyage that they were soon to embark on.
"No clue what happened to the crew, huh?" I asked as I continued to stare at the screen.
"Uh, no, sir. They'd be dead a hundred years by now." Scotty replied and when I turned my head something else had caught my attention, and I couldn't help but smile.
"Is that a…" I walked over to where the beauty was being proudly displayed in the corner of the room. "That's a PX70!" I chuckled in excitement as I walked down the small flight of stairs to where the motorcycle sat. Bending down to get a better look at her, and I couldn't help but wonder if she could still run with how old she would be. "Wow." I muttered in amazement, taking a trip down memory lane to when my mother used tell me stories about the time she spent with my father. "My dad used to have one when he was a kid. My mom said he'd put her on the back of it, drive her nuts."
I smiled, reaching out to brush off the top layer of dust that had accumulated, lost in thought as I pictured my father riding such an amazing machine.
"Sir." Scotty's voice snapped me back to reality, and I couldn't help but feel a little embarrassed at letting my guard down like that in the presence of our host.
"So you're telling me this thing's been here this whole time and…no one's ever noticed it?" I asked as I saw Jaylah and Scotty share a knowing glance.
"We have to go further up to show you." Scotty smiled, giving Jaylah a nod as she started moving back toward the ladder.
"Go up?" I asked as I followed the two engineers.
"The top of the ship, sir." Scotty smiled as he eagerly began climbing the ladder to follow after Jaylah.
I was taking up the back end, and when Jaylah opened the latch on the top of the ship I had to squint at the sudden brightness coming from the sun after having been so used to the darkness of the inside of the ship. When I had stepped out of the tunnel, I realized why no one would be able to even tell that a ship was here to begin with. "She's rigged up image refractors. Here." Scotty started to point out where all the refractors were located as Jaylah made to move around the top of the ship to do some checks on her equipment.
"So, like some sort of holographic camouflage." I glanced around in awe, seeing the holographic refractor flicker, briefly showing the ship that we were standing upon before going back to being completely hidden. I must admit, this woman was indeed a genius for being trapped on this planet most of her life with no proper lessons.
"Captain!" Chekov's voice called from the tunnel back where we came, his body emerging from the opening as his eyes shone bright with pure excitement. "I have intercepted a weak communication transmission, sir. It's a Starfleet frequency."
That would mean that someone other than us had escaped, or at least they hadn't been taken away by Krall. I rushed back down into the ship with Chekov leading the way, and when we were back on the bridge I saw Khan tinkering away at the station that showed there was indeed a weak transmission that this ship had picked up.
"Can you lock on to the signal?" I asked Khan and Chekov.
"Yes, but how do we get to them?" Chekov asked.
"I have an idea, sir." Scotty volunteered, holding up his hand before pointing directly at me. "But I'm gonna need your permission."
"Why would you need my permission?" I asked in confusion, feeling slightly on edge at such a statement.
"Because if I mess it up, I don't want it to be just my fault." Scotty stated bluntly which was alarming. Was Scotty's plan that dangerous? Now, the question was did I take the chance? Do I risk injuring or killing whoever was attempting to make contact? Or leave them there to survive until we could physical get to them.
I looked back to Scotty who was waiting patiently for my response. I hope I wasn't going to regret this. "Uh…permission granted…"
Everyone is experiencing their own 'adventure', their own struggle until they slowly come together and become a bomb ass team once more! I think I kind of like this compared to flashing back and forth on different perspectives. What do you think? Also, I'm sorry if I wasn't that descriptive when showing the moving scenes, I found I lack in that area a lot lol, but I hope the scenes were still recognizable!
If you are enjoying yourself and my story: review, follow, and favorite! But it's not mandatory =) just knowing that you gave my story a chance, and decided to read my creation makes me incredibly happy! I hope everyone is continuing to stay safe out there wherever you may be in the world!
-SO