A/N: Surprise! :D I know not everyone celebrates Easter, but I do and because of that I wanted to give you all a sort of 'Easter treat' with an extra chapter! :D We'll still be getting 3 more during this week as normal ;) I hope you like this little extra something ;)

~8~

Swarmed

Kirk stood slowly from his chair as he saw the way the swarm of ships was moving in the distance, it truly was too fluid to be a single ship. A deep frown grew on his face, especially when he took in the way a few key members of the crew were tensing at the sight, the pilots, Spock, and Victoria were on edge at the sight of it, which didn't bode well for them.

"Lieutenant Uhura hail them," he gave the command.

Uhura nodded, quickly getting to work, "Yes Captain," but a moment later, even she was tensing and giving him a serious look, "No response. I am picking up some kind of signal. They're jamming us."

"Magnify, Mr. Sulu," Kirk turned back to the viewing panel, watching as the screen zoomed in on the approaching craft, confirming it was a swarm of what seemed like thousands of small ships. He spun to shoot Kalara a look, "What is this?" he demanded of her, noting how startled and guilty she looked.

They had never asked what sort of 'critical malfunction' made her ship crash into the planet, and now they knew...it had been attacked. And likely by the ones speeding towards them.

"Shields up!" he shouted to the crew, "Red alert!"

Alarms began to blare as the crew got to work alerting the rest of the ship to the incoming attack. Everyone on the Bridge prepared for battle stations, Victoria quickly patching into Engineering, to warn Scotty of exactly what was coming. Most other parts of the ship should be fine to hold, but he'd had so many concerns about the engine room and an attack was not something they were sure they could handle right now. She had to be ready to warn Kirk if anything was going wrong below.

"Fire at will!" Kirk ordered and the ship fired at the approaching crafts, but they were far too small and quick, easily evading the blasts coming their way.

"Sir!" Chekov yelled, "Our phasers are having minimal effect and our torpedoes can't track their movements!"

"Fire everything we've got!"

"Captain," Spock turned to Kirk, "We are not equipped for this manner of engagement."

"And the engines are…" Victoria began to relay Scotty's report, only for the entire ship to jolt and jostle as the swarm slammed into them, sending nearly everyone on the Bridge to the ground.

The shields should have kept them out, but it seemed the ships were nearly immune to that. The viewing screens began to flash with damage report after damage report, the swarm had hit not only their weapons systems, taking out anything that could fire a blast at them, but also aimed right for the lower dish, where the shields originated from.

Victoria frowned, her eyes narrowing at that information, before she looked over her shoulder at Kalara, the woman struggling to pick herself back up from the last shake. HOW could this swarm know about that? It was too strategic an attack to be happenstance. The weapons, fine, yes, anyone would be able to take out a few of them, if they were being fired at their enemy would see where the blast originated from and could aim for it. But the shields? It was too specific for their enemy to not know where the shields were originating from because it could be generated from a different location depending on the ship.

Either the person attacking was familiar with the Fleet…or someone on the ship had told them where to aim…and only one person on this ship would sell them out to their enemies like that.

A person who was on the ship but not the crew.

A person whose own crew were in danger, and likely being held hostage...

...or never existed in the first place and were only meant to be a lure.

"Shield frequencies have no effect, sir!" Chekov called.

"We can see that!" Victoria shouted back to him, rolling back onto her feet and scrambling to her station to check in with Scotty. Right now, Kalara wouldn't be able to do anything, she was outnumbered if this was all a trap and she was really the enemy, they could deal with the woman later, there was no where she could go, but they had to stop the attack and fight back first or at least get out of range.

"They took out the dish!" Sulu added, reading the report to Kirk, "Shields are inoperable!"

"Warp us out of here, Mr. Sulu!" Kirk got to his feet.

"Yes, sir," Sulu nodded, and moved to do just that…

Only for the swarm to slam into the area the warp drives were stationed moments before he could.

"Why the hell aren't we moving?!" Kirk demanded when they remained in place.

"I can't engage the warp drive, sir!" Sulu tried frantically to do so but nothing happened.

"Liaison Pike!" Kirk turned to her for answers.

"They've hit the nacelles!" Victoria told him, without needing Scotty shouting in her ear to confirm it, it was the only reason why they wouldn't be able to warp after that last attack.

"They've gone!" Scotty called over the comm. in her station, confirming it.

"How the hell do they know about warping?" Victoria turned to Kalara, demanding an answer from the woman who was doing a very good job of looking terrified.

"Security!" Kirk opened the comms., "Engage all emergency procedures. Active protocol 28, Code 1 Alpha 0. All personnel to alert stations!"

Spock and Bones immediately headed for the lift, heading to their own positions, Spock to the halls to handle the crew while Bones headed to the medbay, ready for any and all injuries to come in, right as another set of the swarm began to focus on the base of the ship.

"Sir," Chekov called out, "I have hull breaches in levels 12-15, 6, 9, 31 and 21, sir."

"Damn it!" Kirk snapped.

"Lassie!" Scotty called out to Victoria, "There's a chance I can reroute the energy reserves from the warp core to…"

"To the impulse engines?" Victoria cut in, "Scotty, that's genius," she turned to Kirk, "Captain, we may have something. It's not a warp, but it'll move us, at least to the nebula."

Kirk let out a breath, "If we can get back into the nebula maybe we could lose them. Do whatever you have to, Scotty."

"I'll need all the help I can get though, Captain," Scotty warned.

Kirk nodded, turning to Victoria, "Go," he gave Victoria a nod that had her rushing to the turbolift to take down to the engine room to help.

Kirk took a breath and turned back to the viewing panel, if they could just hold on long enough for Victoria and Scotty to work their magic, they'd have a chance…

~8~

It was sheer and utter chaos when Victoria stepped off the turbolift, a floor above the engine room, something had happened and the lift would go no lower, and she could see why. All through the halls, there were spikes that had breached the walls of the ship and were sticking out everywhere.

"Shit," she breathed, racing across the hall to an emergency stairwell, she had to get to the engine room, NOW, because if these spikes were already this far down, then there was a large change the engine room was going to hell right now.

She gasped and spun around when a blast went off behind her, if she had been just a second slower it would have struck her head, she was sure of it. She nearly sagged when she saw that it had been one of the spikes launching itself through the wall, a spike which was now opening up to reveal an alien was coming out of it, a weapon in hand.

This wasn't just an attack, this was an infiltration, they were going to attack from within!

Damn it, if there are any spikes in the Engine Room there could be enemies there already.

She slammed herself into the door to the stairwell, her hand print on the side opening it to allow her down as only a handful of people had that clearance into the engine room from that location, hoping that the invading enemy hadn't seen her in the chaos. As she raced down the stairs she grabbed the phaser from her belt, needing to be ready for anything as soon as she got there. She was a horrible shot, unless she was reacting to something or surprised, but if there WERE enemies there, she could at least hope she'd be able to hit some part of their body even if it wasn't the area she was trying to hit.

She slammed into the bottom door, her phaser up and ready, and let out a breath when she saw that, while there was chaos, there were no enemies she could see just yet, no spikes in the wall, at least none that had breached into the room as this was one of the more fortified areas of the ship, to protect the crew if anything went wrong with the engines. She just had to pray the integrity would hold, even as calculations were running in the back of her mind for how long and how many more hits the room could take.

"Scotty!" she called, putting her phaser back and rushing to the man's side as he frantically tried to get his plan in motion.

"Here!" he tossed her a set of cables, not needing to tell her or instruct her with what to do, she wasn't a Liaison to the Bridge because she couldn't handle the engine room or didn't know what she was doing, it was because she knew, better than anyone, save perhaps Scotty himself, how the engines worked. She was just trained more to be able to relay that information to the Captain and the main crew in a way they could understand.

"Go it!" she nodded, racing across the room to get them set.

~8~

"I'm in, Captain," Victoria's report came over the comm. in the Bridge, "We're working on it. But the ship's been breached."

"Yeah, we know," Kirk huffed, "Damage reports an all levels."

"No, it's worse," Victoria warned, "Breached as in, enemy within."

"Shit, how!?"

"They were IN the weapons that hit us."

"And now they're in the ship," he ran a hand through his hair, racing to think of what to do, "Focus on getting the engines up."

"Captain," another voice came over the comm., this time Spock.

"Go, Spock."

"I have identified the individual who appears to be leading the attack party. He infiltrated the archive vault and removed the artifact from our mission on Teenax."

Kirk frowned at that, unable to think of a single reason that their attackers would want an old piece of junk from a broken weapon that didn't work any longer, "Hold your distance until..." he looked around when the comm. began to fail, static starting to come over it, "Spock! Spock!" he cursed under his breath and turned to two of the crew, "You two with me. Sulu, you have the comm.."

"Yes sir," Sulu nodded, getting up and moving to the captain's chair as Kirk ran out of the room with the two others.

Spock would never keep his distance without a direct order from the captain and he hadn't managed to give it. The Vulcan would go after the one who had taken the artifact and he had to be there, either to help or get the man out. They headed right for the archive where they had stored the old artifact, nearly skidding to a stop when they came face-to-face with the enemy, gathered and following one individual in particular. They ducked back before trying to open fire on the enemy crew and it was madness.

Kirk barely kept himself in check long enough to try and take aim at the men who had attacked his crew and killed a number of them. He couldn't focus much when the enemy returned their fire, blasts going back and forth, more damage occurring, more cries of pain, until it was just him and the enemy leader standing, both their crews taken out by the other. He was only able to cast a single glance at his fallen men before the enemy launched himself at him, tackling him back into the wall, a hand around his throat.

"Captain…Kirk…" the man snarled at him.

Kirk's eyes narrowed at that, knowing there was no way the man could have known his name unless someone had told him.

And he could only think of one person who would...

~8~

"Scotty!" Victoria shouted, nearly slapping the man in her frantic bid to get him to drop the cables he was holding, "Damn it, Scotty! They're live!" she warned him, knowing that the last two cables they had, the last two wires they needed to connect to get the ship going would be at full power and the man was about to try and join them together with his bare hands.

She turned, grabbing a pair of gloves specifically made to not conduct the voltage of the wires, and slipping them on, grabbing the last two wires he'd been going for and connecting them together, looking away as the spark nearly blinded her.

"Well done, Lassie!" Scotty cheered as the lights and power began to flicker back on, the engines whirring in an indication they had power again. He turned and ran for the comm., quickly connecting to the Bridge, "We're back in action, Captain!" he reported.

But it was Chekov's voice that replied, "Yes! We are at 100 percent impulse."

"Great work!" Sulu added, "Maximum impulse towards the nebula."

"Aye."

Victoria frowned and headed to the comm., grabbing it from Scotty, "Mr. Sulu, where's Captain Kirk?"

"The Captain went to assist First Commander Spock," Sulu informed her.

Victoria let out a breath at that, her heart freezing in her chest, "Damn it, James," she muttered under her breath.

She knew he would, she knew it, he would feel it was his responsibility, as the Captain, to be the one to take down whatever threat they were facing firsthand. But he forgot they were in the middle of an active attack and he'd just abandoned the Bridge where they'd be calling for his orders at every turn.

"Lass," Scotty called, reaching out to usher her to the doors, "Go," he urged her, knowing she'd be worried sick for Kirk, but also knowing that she shouldn't have been down there anyway. HE had been the one to call her down to the Engine room in the middle of a battle when her station was on the Bridge.

It was just…she always struck him as one of the few Engineers who actually appreciated the magnitude and beauty of what they'd achieved with the engines. She listened to him (with the exception of that one incident after her father had died), she helped him, they both tended to the engines when she wasn't on Bridge Duty. She knew the engines as well as he did and she was the only one he trusted to have helping him in all this chaos. Chekov had been transitioning, learning more about the Engine room, as had a handful of other crew. It was an idea Kirk had implemented about a year ago, to rotate the crew into different areas so that they would all have at least a basic knowledge of other parts of the ship.

Chekov showed promise with the engines, but in something like this, where they were in a high-stress situation, he'd rather have Victoria at his back with the engines, as she'd been trained for, than Chekov. The boy would be more useful as a pilot, like HE had trained for.

"Go!" he pushed her once more to the door. With the Captain off the Bridge, it was even more important for all Liaisons to be there in his stead.

"No," she shook her head, "No," she took a breath and turned back to him, steeling herself for this choice, "The engines are holding for now but we're under attack, Scotty," she swallowed hard, repeating how much she needed to 'do her duty' over and over, no matter how much she wanted to find Kirk and drag him back to the Bridge, "It may not last. I won't leave you short."

"You sure?" he had to ask, because HE was worried for the rest of the crew and he wasn't in a relationship with one of them. He had to admire her professionalism.

The only answer either of them needed was how the room shook as another attack slammed against the ship, sending sparks up across the room.

She gave him a look, "Let's get to work, Mr. Scott."

She pushed him back towards the engines, praying Kirk would be alright on his own. All she could do for him now was keep the engines going as long as possible, try to get them away from this attack, so they'd all be safe.

"Damn it!" Scotty snapped, turning to Victoria, "They've cut off the impulse engines!" he reported, having rushed to one of the scanners when the latest attack hit them.

"Maybe we can reroute..." Victoria began to say.

But Scotty's grim expression told her it was much worse than a torn wire or damaged circuit, "They've broken the engines off completely, Lass."

~8~

Kirk gasped for air as the brute that had grabbed him released him when the ship suddenly powered back up and began to tilt towards the nebula, throwing the both of them off their feet. The Teenax artifact fell to the ground and Kirk lunged for it, but it slid down the hall as the ship continued to tilt. He scrambled to his feet, sliding after it, managing to snag it in time to twist himself around a corner and race off, the brute hot on his heels.

He didn't stop running, going through the different turns and corners and stairwells, trying to throw the brute off, to give him more time. He paused only for a moment to get his breath when he was thrown to the ground once more, another set of the swarm attacking and slamming into the ship. He bit out a curse when the lights flickered and died, not needing to see it to know what it meant, but a look out the nearest window confirmed it...

The swarm had laid into the impulse engines, destroying them.

"Shit!" he cursed moving to a comm. near the window and hoping there was enough emergency energy to patch in, "Kirk to Bridge."

"We are losing the inertial dampeners!" Chekov reported.

"Systems are failing ship-wide, Captain," Sulu added, "Emergency bulkheads are sealing but structural integrity is at 18 percent and falling, sir!"

Kirk bowed his head a moment, angry with himself for not seeing the trap this was meant to be earlier, hating that his crew was in danger because he'd accepted his mission, but it only served to spark another thought, his crew, he had to protect his crew, "Abandon ship, Mr. Sulu!" he gave the command, slamming his hand onto the wall beside the comm. in his frustration.

He heaved a heavy breath, torn between wanting to get to the engine room, to Victoria, and his duty to return to the Bridge.

He swallowed hard as the alarms began to blare, announcing, "Abandon ship. All personnel."

The crew, it had to be the crew, after all they'd been through he knew Victoria would want him to focus on that.

"We need to give those pods a chance to escape," he spoke into the comm., "Can you lead those ships away?"

"Impulse engines are still trying to draw power from the warp reserve," Sulu warned him, "We cannot move until the saucer is separated."

"I'll handle it."

"Aye-aye, sir."

He looked up as the speakers continued to blare, "Abandon ship. All personnel evacuate immediately," before he turned to run down the hall, needing to get to the saucer now. He nearly stumbled when the ship turned again, unable to right itself or control its path with the damage it had sustained. He ran around another corner to see the crew trying to evacuate, one of them on the ground, injured, with another Ensign, Syl he recalled, at his side, trying to help him up.

"You ok?" the young, female alien was asking, "Oh my God. Get him up," she called around her for assistance, but the crew had already departed the hall, unnoticing of their fallen colleague, "Help him up. Got you."

Kirk grit his teeth and ran over to them, hefting the man up with Syl, "We've got to get you guys to an escape pod," he looked around, finding one and hurried to help the injured man towards it, "Go. Go! Ensign Syl," he reached out a hand to her to stop her following, the artifact box held tightly in his hand, "I need your help."

"Yes sir," she nodded, no hesitation at all to do her duty for her captain.

Kirk took a breath and opened the box…

~8~

"Abandon ship," the alarms reported, echoing through the engine room, "All personnel evacuate immediately."

"Maybe if we…" Scotty turned to Victoria, trying to think of something, anything, they could do to help the crew.

But Victoria was the grim one this time, shaking her head.

Engineering, for her, as a Liaison, wasn't just knowing how the engines worked and translating jargon into lay terms, it was about every facet of the craft itself, its structure, its integrity, the blueprints of it. Scotty was more engine-focused, there were other engineers onboard who were more prepared for repairing structural integrity, construction, and so on. As the Engineering Liaison, she had to be familiar with ALL aspects of engineering when it came to a Fleet Ship.

She knew how this one was built, its structure.

With the crew abandoning ship, with the damage it had taken already, the engines it had lost, it would be trashed. There was no way to salvage the ship, not while it was under attack. All it could be used for was bait, draw fire away from the escaping crew. And if the impulse engines were gone, the only thing that could even somewhat move it would be the saucer and it had to be disengaged.

"Mr. Sulu!" she moved to a comm., there was one thing she needed to know before she gave the OK to the engineering crew to abandon ship as well. Of all the crew besides the Bridge, those in engineering were the last ones off a vessel, they kept it functioning to the bitter end. She needed to know someone was on the saucer disengaging or she'd have to go do it herself, "Is anyone working to disengage the saucer?"

"Captain Kirk," Sulu answered after a moment of hesitation.

Victoria closed her eyes for only a moment, shaking her head and silently cursing Kirk for going after it himself, it was one deadly situation after another. He knew how to do it, he new the commands. He would, as captain, and as her partner, she didn't doubt he'd mange it, but the danger he'd be putting himself in between then and now…

It couldn't be helped. As much as she wanted to run out of there and help him, watch his back, the engine crew was still there, and they'd need to be evacuated.

She cut the comm. and turned to the others, "Evacuate," she gave the order, "Now."

~8~

Kirk skid to a halt as he entered the exact room he needed to disengage the saucer portion of the ship, lunging right for the controls, only to flinch away from it as two other enemies shot at him, narrowly avoiding being blasted with holes as he turned and jumped back. He grunted when the brute he'd faced before slammed into him, tackling him to the ground, leaving him little choice but to fight back against him instead of get the saucer away.

He managed to get himself up, throwing himself at the brute…only to spot Uhura near the command panel to disengage the saucer. He grit his teeth and got a grip of the alien, throwing him over his shoulder, over the side of the ledge they were on. But the alien had a grip on him, dragging him down with him, the two landing on a glass structure and falling off…right at Uhura's feet. The woman gasped and jumped at the sudden appearance.

The brute used the distraction of the fall to grab the artifact box Kirk had dropped at the landing. Kirk rolled to his feet, ready to begin fighting once more, to grab the box back, when Uhura finished the codes, disengaging the saucer.

The alien fired at Kirk, but it was too late, a wall had gone down, separating him from Uhura and the brute, the woman now trapped inside with the enemy. Kirk ran to the small window in the wall, but the only thing he could do was watch as Uhura and the alien fell away, growing farther and father on the saucer, leaving him helpless to stop it.

~8~

Victoria would thank her father, when all this was over, she was sure of it, for all the lessons he had given her over her life in how to defend herself in a fight. Just because she was in Engineering, and just because the last near 3 years had been calm, didn't mean she hadn't kept her skills sharp. She and Kirk would often go the gym portion of the ship when they were both too testy and irritable and spar against each other to blow off some steam. She was in top shape and her reflexes were still sharp.

So when the door to Engineering was blasted off its hinges just after she and Scotty, the final two, sent Keenser off in a pod, she had already whipped around, her phaser out, and fired at the two enemies that ran through the door. Her quirk of good aim upon surprise held true for the first enemy, Scotty firing at the second one when her next blast missed by a foot.

"Go!" she shouted to Scotty, pushing him further into the engine room, seeing more enemies behind the two fallen ones. She had bought them but a moment of distraction in how they had managed to take down two of them for their enemies to pause, but it wouldn't last long, they had to get to another set of pods.

As they ran they could hear the others entering the room. The engines were fried, there was nothing else they could do to help the crew, now they had to get out themselves.

"Go, go!" she shoved Scotty to the first pod they came to.

"But Lassie…" he tried to turn to her, but she shook her head and nearly threw him into the pod herself, "Alright, alright, ay!" he huffed, getting in but not ejecting, giving her a pointed look through the small window of the pod.

She rolled her eyes, rushing to the pod adjacent to his, one that would face back the way they came. She got in, turned around and was just about to close the pod when she saw one of the enemies appear around the corner. She quickly fired at it, getting it in the arm when she'd been aiming for the head but it was enough. She hit the button to close her pod, "Scotty to!" she ordered, waiting only until she heard the tell-tale sign of him ejecting to hit her own.

The last thing she saw of the engine room were scores of the enemy rushing towards her, but it was too late, she was out…

Though she didn't know if it was a better sight, their enemies trying to swarm her…or the literal swarm she saw in space, trying to grab other pods as they tried to escape.

The engine room was on another side of the ship, which was falling too close to Altamid, and so she and Scotty were fired off away from the swarm, but right at the planet.

It didn't change the angle or view she had of the ship tearing apart in space, still under siege, of watching her home be destroyed before her eyes…

"Please, James," she closed her eyes, praying, not wanting him to suffer the same fate as his father or hers, to die in the line of duty, "Please get out."

~8~

It was both heartbreaking and infuriating to Kirk, as he ran back to the Bridge from where the saucer had disengaged. To have to run past dead crew, dead enemies, destroyed parts of the ship, sparks and fires going off everywhere. He wanted to mourn his crew, but he didn't have time, and he wanted to murder the ones who attacked them, but didn't have the time. He had to get back to the Bridge, to make sure they all got off for they would be the very last to do so.

He skid into the doorway of the Bridge, just in time to see two of the enemy aliens about to attack as Chekov was reporting to the remaining crew, "Impulse engines drawing power from auxiliary generators…"

The two aliens fired at them and he quickly pulled his phaser and fired at the enemies himself, taking them down.

"Captain!" Chekov gasped, startled, when the enemies fell to reveal their captain.

"How many of the crew are still aboard the saucer?" he demanded, quickly getting to work as he entered the room, hurrying the two men to the pods.

"None," Sulu tried to move back to the monitor to show him something disturbing, "But, if I'm reading this correctly, the intruders are taking them."

"What the hell are they taking them for?" he shook his head, his mind already racing with too many possibilities for why, and none of them were good. Leverage, bait, ransom, food…there were too many to name. The only thing of any relief was the knowledge they were being TAKEN and not picked off or killed mid-escape. That meant there was still a chance for rescue.

"Captain," Chekov cut in, "We are caught in the planet's grawity. We cannot pull away."

"The ship is going down," he translated what Chekov didn't want to say out loud, looking at the planet getting closer and closer in the monitor. Without any sort of engine it would be impossible to get enough force to even just escape the pull of it. He let out a breath, turning to push them to the pods once more, "Get to your Kelvin Pods."

"Yes, sir," Sulu nodded, moving to the few remaining crew, Kalara among them, to hurry them off.

"Aye, Captain," Chekov agreed, going to help him, "Come on, let's go!"

"Let's go. Come on," Sulu pushed more, making sure it was just him, Chekov, Kalara, and the captain left before he got into his own pod and ejected.

"You both as well," Kirk called when it was only Chekov and Kalara left, "Now!" he moved to join them, Chekov quickly obeying and ejecting.

Kirk waited till he saw everyone else safely gone, till he saw Kalara eject, making sure the woman didn't try to escape, before he followed, hitting the button to blast himself into space.

It was a terrible sight to see, once the spinning of the pod began to lessen and the sensors and small engines began to do their job stabilizing the path. Because it gave him a front row view to the Enterprise, the place that had been his home, Victoria's home, for more than 3 years, the ship that had held so much…now in pieces, burned and charred, riddled with holes…and plummeting to the planet below.

Even as his own pod began to enter the atmosphere of the planet, the Enterprise was not easily missed, falling with even greater force, for it had no engines to ease the fall.

And so he was forced to watch as the ship crashed into the earth of Altamid, completely and utterly destroyed.

A/N: Poor Kirk :( Poor Victoria :(

To be put in this situation, has so many levels to it.

On the one hand, it really shows how far they've grown and matured that they both wanted to find the other person but forced themselves to put their responsibilities and duties first, to put the crew above the other :(

On the other hand, it's got to be devastating after what they nearly lost and did lose in the last story :( Kirk nearly lost Victoria to death, lost his crew and his position. Victoria lost her father, nearly gave her life to save her crew. And now they're losing it all over again :(

And on the third hand...(let's pretend people can have 3 hands lol)...everything they both have done since being given the 5 year mission has been to avoid this. To do things by the book, abide by the rules, do what the Fleet wants so they have no reason to take anything away from them again...and it happened anyway. They did everything right, they did what they were supposed to do, and it wasn't enough :'(

I wonder what it'll do to them as the story goes on...

I debated for a long time when and where and with who Victoria would end up on Altamid. Originally, I wrote out this chapter first, because it just would not get out of my head. And in that version, Victoria left the engine room when Scotty urged her to, went after Kirk, and helped him disengage the saucer. With her there, Kirk was swifter to pull her back and they both ended up on the right side of the wall with their enemy trapped in the saucer. When Victoria realized he was fully planning to go down with the ship (or be the last one out), she knocked him out with a punch and shoved him into a pod because she was NOT going to lose him like her father nor was she going to let him become HIS father, then ejected just after Chekov (having gone to the Bridge). Kirk would have ended up with the rest of the crew and Victoria with Chekov and Kalara. But as I wrote out the story more, it didn't feel right or true to Victoria being where she was at that point in the 3 year mission. She wouldn't abandon the engine room mid-attack, she'd stay till it was clear. It also felt a bit like she was stealing Kirk's thunder being the captain and his own dedication to the crew, taking that choice from him, and I think she learned her lesson from Khan and how she knocked him out so she could risk HER life instead of his. She begrudgingly admitted that the first version would have been what she WANTED to do and how she'd have wanted it to go, not how it really would :(

Lol, she tricked me into writing 2.5K words of pure imagination before going back and having to rewrite all of it :)

Some notes on reviews...

Kirk was definitely trying to propose something... ;) ;)

Kirk and Victoria are on the planet together, but in different locations. He ejected the same time as he did in the movie, but Victoria ejected at a different time and from a different location. I bet you can guess who she ends up stranded with ;)