Yorktown
There were no words to describe how relieved and elated the crew was when they got the Franklin into space and off the planet. But the relief only lasted a short while, because seeing the stars so clearly once again meant that they were all reminded of their mission and why they had fought so hard and risked so much to get off the planet. Yorktown, they had to get to the base as quickly as they could. They owed it to all the innocent people on the base, and to every person that had been lost to Krall to stop the brute.
There was no chance they'd make it there before Krall did, the Franklin was a rust bucket and they were sure Krall had been building his other ship for a while, it would be in better shape, better maintained than the Franklin had been even with Jaylah's care. But that wouldn't stop them trying to get there in time to try and slow Krall down or give Yorktown enough warning. Everyone got right to their designated roles, Sulu and Chekov piloting towards the base as fast as possible, Victoria on the comm. with Scotty to ensure the engines were going well, Uhura manning the feeds for whatever frequencies or signals the ship could pick up, Kirk and Spock quietly talking about a plan of action.
"Captain," Uhura called out, tense, "I'm picking up distress signals from every frequency coming from Yorktown. Krall's already started his attack."
Kirk bit out a curse under his breath and turned to Victoria, "What kind of weapons do we have?"
"Pulsed phase cannons and spatial torpedoes," she said quickly. That had been something she had looked into while she and Scotty had helped Jaylah with her ship, she needed to know what other weapons there were to defend themselves with if their enemies followed them or tried to find them. It wouldn't do much, it wasn't on the same quality or strength as the Enterprise, but it was something.
"Great," Kirk nodded, grim, understanding that as well, but knowing that it was better than having nothing at all, "Lock and load."
"It does not matter," Jaylah called out from where she was strapped down in the back, "You cannot defeat the bees."
"Maybe," Kirk agreed, and it was clear to all that that was the entire point of his order, because if they couldn't attack, if they could at least be a distraction and draw even some of Krall's 'bees' away from the attack, it would give Yorktown a fighting chance to either muster a defense or evacuate, "But we can lure them away," he looked at the crew on the Bridge, "How do we get Yorktown time to get people to safety?"
"No," Sulu shook his head, tense and fearful, his family was on that base after all, they had gone there just for him, to spend time with him and now they were in danger, and so were many others. He wanted so badly to believe they could do that, just arrive and stop the attack, but he knew enough of the ship just from piloting it to know he should NOT get his hopes up, he had to be realistic, for his family, or it would kill him if that too-built-up hope was shattered, "We are a horse and buggy compared to those things. We're barely holding together as it is, Captain."
"Captain," Spock stepped up, "The flight patterns of bees are determined by individual decisions. Krall's swarm formations are too complex not to rely on some form of unified cyberpathic coordination. I surmise that if we..."
"Spock!" Kirk cut in, "Skip to the end."
"What he's saying is that if we disorient the swarm we can kick its ass!" Uhura translated, more familiar with Spock's thinking and phrasing than they were.
"Precisely," Spock nodded.
"How do we disorient them though?" Victoria spoke the next most important question.
"Scotty," Kirk called over the comm., "Can you beam me onto one of those swarm ships?"
"Have you gone completely mad?!" Scotty shouted back, which was an expected reaction, Kirk thought, given the look Victoria was giving him right now that said she would kill him if he even tried it.
"Yes or no?"
"No!" Victoria declared, at the same time Scotty answered, "Yes!"
"Scotty!" Victoria shouted.
"Maybe," the engineer amended and they could practically hear the wince in his voice.
"Captain, my familiarity of the interior of those ships, however brief, makes me more qualified for this away mission," Spock stepped up, both because it was logical to offer, given his experience, and because he had been left out of the first rescue mission, he could not stand idly by when this through would be something HE could help with.
And, also, he knew his friend.
He had not seen this spark in Kirk for…many years, but he recognized it instantly. It was the look of the man when he was about to suggest something truly dangerous, but only to his person…or at least that was how Kirk would see it. If he sacrificed himself for his crew then his crew would be safe, never thinking of what that would do to his crew to have him take such a risk or considering the crew wouldn't risk themselves to save him.
He had come to see Victoria and Kirk as dear friends, anything he could do to protect either of them, to keep them from feeling pain, like Kirk putting himself in that sort of danger, he would do it.
"Spock, you're still hurt," Uhura spoke up.
"She's right, Spock," Victoria had to agree there. The way the Vulcan had glanced at her told her he wasn't just offering himself due to his short history with the ships but to protect Kirk, and herself by association. And while she appreciated that, she didn't want the Vulcan to injure himself even more for it.
"I acknowledge and respect your concerns," Spock gave a small nod to both women, "Perhaps you would feel more confident if I were accompanied by someone with familiarity of both the ship and my injury."
It took Kirk a moment to realize who Spock was speaking of, but as soon as he understood it was a reference to Bones accompanying him into the enemy ship for a second time...he couldn't help but smirk, "He's gonna love this."
Victoria had to roll her eyes at him for that, even as a small smile grew on her lips to see that energy restored in him. For so long he wouldn't even joke during a mission, wouldn't smirk or enjoy someone else's (Bones') discomfort. Now, even with the severity of it all, he was finding some joy, he was finding some lightness in it. They were going to save the day and they were going to rescue Yorktown or die trying, but they were going to do it their way. The Fleet's methods hadn't worked in the Nebula, and if Yorktown was already sending out distress calls, their way wasn't working at Yorktown either.
Now, now it was time for them to show what they could do unencumbered.
~8~
There was no way Victoria was going to miss Kirk telling Bones about his new mission with Spock. They weren't near enough to Krall's fleet to be picked up on their systems yet, even as they were on their way to Yorktown, she could spare these few minutes to be there in the transport room of the Franklin with them, no one was needed on the Bridge yet.
As expected, Bones did NOT actually love what was about to happen, all but demanding, "You want me to do what?!"
Spock was unperturbed by Bones' exclamation, merely walking past him to the teleport pad, "Come along, Doctor."
"Whoa!" he shook his head, "Wait a minute. Why you green-blooded ingrate! This was your idea!"
"It's a good idea, Bones," Kirk said easily.
"He brought up a lot of…logical…points," Victoria added, barely holding back her grin, "About why it has to be you going with him."
Bones shot her a nasty look for that before glaring at Spock even as he moved to the teleport pad with him, "You know, next time you have a piece of pipe stuck in your transverse, call a plumber."
Kirk grinned, watching Bones go on even as he complained about it. He knew Bones would do it no matter how much he might hate it or grumble. He WAS a Doctor after all, it wasn't in him to just leave someone with a barely held together wound off on his own in a dangerous situation. He knew how bad Spock had been injured earlier, he had worked tirelessly to keep Spock going and get him treatment. Even if it hadn't been part of his job or his oath to keep the crew's health strong and keep them safe, by now he'd put too much damn time and effort into keeping Spock alive for him to blow it and waste it all dying in one of those ships.
And he knew Bones knew he knew it too, the man was not happy to be manipulated in this way but, in the long run, Spock WAS right on the points he brought up.
That was something he'd learned over the last 3 years. It wasn't all on HIM, there were others around to help him, an entire crew. He knew there was, he saw them every day, but it was like, in that moment, it finally hit him how they were individuals but also a true TEAM. Yes, he was responsible for them, but equally they would do anything to help him if he would just ask them, delegate, trust them more. And they all had their own thoughts and opinions and ideas and it was ok to share his burden and questions with them. It didn't have to be just Victoria.
Looking over at her, he felt his heart both swell and ping at the thought of how much of his burden he had put on her also, even without realizing it. He trusted her, like he hadn't ever thought he could trust someone, and it was just natural to him to share his fears and concerns and problems with her, like she did him. But it was a lot to put on his shoulders and on hers. A burden shared was a burden halved, but there was a crew it could be split among, making it less of a burden and more of a shared problem. Anything he was facing as captain was something that would inevitably affect all of them anyway, they deserved to have a say in it or at least knowledge of it. Being a captain didn't mean being in control all the time, it meant trusting his crew and trusting that they could handle anything that came at them. He didn't need to be 'strong' around them, they would never see him as being less or not being right for the captain position, they would work with him, strengthen him, make everything stronger. That was the reason for a crew, to share, to space things out, to work together.
Yes, he led them, but that didn't mean he couldn't listen to them or speak to them or ask for help.
It didn't have to be all on him, and mistakes didn't have to be just HIS fault, like how Scotty had asked his permission with the teleport, it could work from him to them as well.
"Just make sure you find a way to break those things," Kirk spoke up.
"If it gets hairy I'll beam you straight back," Scotty assured them, having come up from the engine room to assist.
"Ready?" Victoria looked at the two men, standing on the pad, earning a glare from Bones and a nod from Spock.
"Energize," Spock gave the order.
"You're gonna do great!" Kirk called to them as the beam began to power up.
"Damn it, Jim," Bones huffed, one final protest, "I'm a Doctor not a f…"
Victoria snorted when his very clear curse was cut off by the beam completing and sending them to one of the ships. She looked over at Kirk, giving him a nod as the two of them hurried out of the room to head back to the Bridge. They would need to have more communication with the crew when Spock or Bones gave a report and the Bridge would be the best place to do it. Scotty would stay behind in the transport room unless they needed help.
"Spock to Franklin," Spock's voice called over the comm. only moments after they reached the Bridge.
"Spock," Kirk spoke up, "We read you."
"Captain, from what I can ascertain the ships do indeed share a cyberpathic link which coordinates their actions. Patching it through now."
Uhura moved over when she heard a noise starting to resonate over the speakers, "That's what that signal was," she realized, "They weren't jamming us, they were talking to each other."
"Now we just need a way to get them to stop talking," Victoria remarked, a furrow to her brow as she tried to work out what could do it. She looked around the room when Scotty entered, Bones and Spock now safe on their ship, "Any ideas?" she asked the crew.
"What about electromagnetic focusing?" Scotty asked, "We could use the transporters, disrupt their network."
Victoria shook her head, "The focus would be too specific," she said after a moment of thought.
"I concur," Spock's voice came up, "However, if we could plant some sort of disruptive communication signal inside the swarm, it might adversely affect their capacity to coordinate."
"It would have to be at a frequency they will not anticipate," Chekov warned, considering it.
"We could cause a chain reaction that would wipe out the whole swarm," Sulu confirmed, turning to Kirk.
Victoria began to nod when Kirk looked at her for her opinion, "If they're using a closed network, it could be vulnerable to VHF."
"Very high frequencies," Kirk nodded, catching on, "Radio. We can broadcast something from the ship to drown out their link. Something loud and distracting."
Scotty perked up so much at those words that it almost looked like he'd had a spasm of some sort, jerking to attention, "Loud and distracting?" he looked at Victoria and Jaylah, before grinning widely, "I've got just that thing!"
Jaylah looked a little confused.
~8~
Watching Scotty try to hook up an ancient looking boombox to the speakers, Kirk couldn't help the small smile on his face as Jaylah fretted around him as he maneuvered it all. It had been so long since he'd felt this energized. It probably meant something had to be wrong with him that he was this pumped given that they'd all nearly died and were heading to face almost certain death against a formidable enemy using a museum piece ship and music as their weapon. But he couldn't help it. Living by the book for years on end meant he didn't let things get so bad that the crew or ship was in danger often, everything went smoothly, too smoothly even.
It wasn't like there hadn't been opportunities, new planets they passed by, wars ongoing on certain planets, mysterious signals their comms. picked up. He could have investigated any of them, but he'd chosen not to, because that wasn't part of their mission or because he'd sent a request to the Fleet for permission to examine more closely and received a negative response. He looked back on them now and there were a few he should have looked into regardless of what the Fleet wanted, a handful where they might, at a stretch, fall within the parameters of their 5 year mission. It would have been something new, something exciting, something different.
It was his own fault he'd fallen into such a rut that THIS was something getting him raring to go.
"You're practically buzzing," Victoria murmured as she came to stand beside him for a moment. There wasn't much that could be done right now, it only took one person to set up the boombox and the pilots were still leading the ship towards Krall's but they weren't there yet.
"Yeah," he remarked quietly, almost feeling like it was wrong to do so, speak to her about something other than the mission while it was ongoing, it was so unfamiliar to him after the years reining himself in.
"Good," she spoke, earning a look from him, "You look more like you now."
He gave her a smile, reaching out to take her hand and just hold it, even in front of the rest of the crew. He could see the way she relaxed beside him at the simple gesture. Had she always been that tense these past years? He took it a step farther, lifting her hand to kiss the back of it, earning a soft look from her.
"You seem better, too," he remarked, eyeing her, being sure to speak quietly, as she had done. There wouldn't be any privacy on this ship, it was much smaller than the Enterprise, but that didn't mean they needed to make their struggles heard to the others. He was sure they'd reach a point where he'd be pulling her to sit on his lap on the Captain's chair like years ago, but he knew it would also be a transition back to that. Seeing what the crew was comfortable with and where to draw the line to inexcusable unprofessionalism.
She gave him a smile, knowing they would be talking about it more later, but he just wanted to make sure she was really ok. They had both been hurting and unhappy for a while, but hiding it from the crew, holding themselves together while doing their jobs, saying they were fine even when they didn't mean it. He just wanted to know it was real this time.
"I feel better," she nodded, squeezing his hand.
He gave her a nod in return, before looking over to Scotty, "How's it going, Scotty?"
"Almost done, Captain," he returned, followed by a scraping noise as he turned the boombox to get a better look at the back of it.
"Do not break my music!" Jaylah warned him in anger.
"Break it?" Scotty grinned at her, "You're getting an upgrade!"
"Swarm ships are 60 seconds from breaking through!" Sulu cut in, having been monitoring the attack on the base and the distress signals they were receiving from Yorktown.
"I've just got to reconfigure the VHF output into a multiphasic sweep…" Scotty tried to work faster, moving under the desk to try and get a better connection into the speakers and comm. system.
"Let me do it," Jaylah tried to nudge him away, crouching down to watch him work.
"Ah, Lassie…" Scotty tried to brush her away.
"Scotty, you may want to," Victoria tried to help. She wasn't as familiar with the ship as she was the Enterprise, and because of that she would have deferred to Jaylah on specifics because she would have known better, having lived there and worked on the ship for years on end, she'd know about any adaptions or changes made to the way the ship functioned. Scotty was a gifted engineer, specializing in the engines along with teleports, but not so much the comms..
Scotty looked like he was trying to wave her off, only for his hand to brush on a wire which sparked terribly and nearly electrocuted him. It had the benefit of seeming to make him realize he really should let Jaylah do it, and he quickly scrambled out from under the desk, "You do it."
Jaylah quickly took his place, finding the necessary wires and making easy work of getting them crossed and connected without even a spark, "There, see?" she pulled herself back under the desk, "Simple."
"Alright," he grumbled for only a moment, before turning to the amused expression on Kirk's face, "Captain, we're ready to broadcast."
"But the signal won't travel far," Uhura spoke, having been looking at their transmission range, "We have to get closer."
"How close?" Victoria had to ask, not sure she wanted to know.
Uhura didn't look like she wanted to answer anymore than she did, "Very."
Kirk let out a breath and nodded, "Intercept course, Mr. Sulu," he gave the order, "Put us right in the middle of that thing."
Sulu grew grim and serious, but began to put in the coordinates, "Yes, sir."
Kirk squeezed Victoria's hand once more, "Fire at will, Mr. Chekov, let's draw their attention away."
"Aye, sir," Chekov nodded, moving to signal to the engineers down in the engine room to ready the few weapons they had, the weakest ones, and fired at the swarm they were now close enough to see slamming against the shields of Yorktown.
It had the desired effect, that was clear. Th swarm scrambled back and then began to fly right for them.
"The swarm ships are doubling back! They are forming an attack wave, sir."
Victoria let out a breath and glanced at Kirk, "I think we definitely got their attention," she remarked.
He gave a grim grin, and called out to the pilots, "Hold steady, Mr. Sulu. Brace yourselves, everybody," he looked around, letting go of Victoria's hand so she could return to her seat for the upcoming hit, "Spock," he called into the comm., "Standby to drop out of formation. Scotty," he glanced back at Scotty and Jaylah, "You all cued up back there?"
"Aye, sir!" Scotty reported.
"Ready to broadcast at 57.7 megahertz," Uhura added from her station.
"Made your choice, Lassie?" Scotty turned to Jaylah as she found her loudest, most distracting song.
She nodded, "I have the beat and shouting."
"Let's make some noise," Kirk ordered, watching the swarm get dangerously close. He started to smile though, when rock music began to blast out, loud and distracting, just what they needed, "That's a good choice."
They all braced themselves as the ship flew right into the swarm, the music doing it's job, turning all of the little mechanical 'bees' into flaming fireballs as they passed.
"It's working!" Chekov cheered.
"Mr. Sulu!" Kirk grinned, "Head for the swarm."
~8~
It was either a testament to how overconfident Krall was or how mindless his 'bees' were that the Franklin was able to blast through so many of them before they caught wind to what was happening and turn in a different direction. They had flown through scores of the bees, so much so that it felt to the crew like the were just flying through a massive fireball, all the while music played over the speakers. Kirk was having the time of his life to see their enemy taken down by such a simple method and to know that they were crippling Krall's forces at the same time.
But eventually the bees did seem to wise up and turn away from them, heading for Yorktown's shields once more, either to break through on Krall's command or to get away from their looming attack they couldn't know, but it didn't matter anyway, the effect was the same, Yorktown was still under attack.
"Lieutenant Uhura," Kirk called out, seeing another opportunity to take out more of the bees if they all headed towards the object, "Make sure Yorktown has the frequency to broadcast."
Uhura nodded and quickly hurried to do just that, patching through not just the frequency but the music as well.
The crew let out a whoop of cheer when, moments later, the swarm turned into a massive wall of fire along the shield of the base, all of them falling away, useless, the base defended.
"Shit!" Victoria gasped as the ship shook, her gaze on the base, on where 3 larger ships, the non-bees, were hovering,. They'd been hoping that the destruction would take Krall down with it…but that didn't seem to be what was happening, "They got in!" she warned, what had to be Krall's ship, and two others, managed to make it past the shield through minor holes and weaknesses the bees had made.
"You two alright, Spock?" Kirk called out on the speaker, hoping that the two had been able to get far enough away where they weren't caught in the crossfire.
"We are fine, Captain," Spock returned, "But Liaison Pike is correct, there are still three ships heading into Yorktown."
"That's got to be Krall," Kirk murmured, "Keep on him, Spock. Do whatever it takes to stop him from using that weapon."
A moment later a single bee-pod shot past them on the view window, heading for the base after the three ships.
"Mr. Sulu!" Kirk called.
"On it, sir," Sulu nodded, not needing further instruction to know what Kirk meant, quickly directing the ship to follow Spock and Bones into Yorktown.
"Brace yourselves!" Kirk ordered the crew through the comms. as they approached the shields around the base, needing to get through before the holes in them repaired and closed again.
It was a difficult thing to do, Victoria grunted as she was nearly thrown off her chair with the way the ship began to shake and groan as they fought to get through.
"My house is breaking!" Jaylah shouted, a bit angry at the thought that the place that had become her home for so long was in danger of falling to pieces.
"We've lost the polarization of the hull plating!" Victoria shouted, getting a warning alarm on her station.
"I can reroute the power from the dilithium chambers," Scotty called out over the noise. He reached out and grabbed Victoria's arm, "I need you," he tugged, ready to pull her to the engine rooms if need be but she went easily, "And I need you, Jaylah," he moved to grab her arm, too, only for her to pull away and glare at him. He held up his hand in surrender, but led the way out, "Let's go!"
Kirk caught Victoria's eye for a moment before she left the room, giving her a firm nod as she went, before he turned back to the viewing window. It was going to be difficult flying for them, the ship, while not as large as the Enterprise, was also not small in its own right. And a base was not meant to have a Starship flying through it.
They could hear reports on the comms., saw some feedback Chekov had gotten hold of of Yorktown's efforts to stop Krall, their small police force failing to do so. Krall's ships were speeding by, rising up through a reflective waterway in the base and into the facility. They were close behind, but there was no way they'd be able to fly the ship through the waterway to follow, they were trapped in the undertracks.
"Captain," Spock called over the comm., "Intercepting all three ships is an impossibility."
Kirk frowned, his mind racing as he tried to work out a way to stop Krall and do it quickly, "Get me a schematic of Yorktown!" he called, and Chekov quickly did so, superimposing the screen. He tried to follow the direction Krall was heading, tried to guess where he was going and find a way to keep him away from it, to find somewhere to try and crash Krall's ship without harming others. And then he saw it, "There! Yorktown headquarters!"
It was the central location, the heart of the base, the most important building, in the event of an attack, it would be the first place evacuated, which would mean less civilians in danger.
"Mr. Chekov, can you do a bioscan of Central Plaza?" Sulu called over.
Aye," he nodded, "They are clearing civilians."
"Bones, there's a city plaza coming up," Kirk called out on the comm., "You gotta make sure Krall heads for it."
"Why?" Bones called back.
"Just do it! Sulu, get us up there," his jaw clenched as he watched the ship start to turn in that direction. He really, really hoped the piecemeal plan forming in his head would work. There was just one thing they had to do to succeed in his mind, "Get us there before Krall!"
"Hold onto something!" Sulu shouted out, accelerating the ship.
Kirk left the flying to the pilots, keeping his eye on the feed of Krall's ship, hoping Bones and Spock could succeed. It almost looked like they wouldn't, but then the single bee-pod shot out in front of Krall and turned, starting to race back towards him so there was only one path the enemy could take…to duck low and fly under, along the water.
"Pull up!" Kirk gave the order.
Sulu grabbed the controls and pulled them tightly towards himself, lifting the ship up and out of the water as quickly and as far as it could go.
They had only barely gotten ahead of Krall, and the sudden move was too quick for the other ships, they had no time to turn. And, just as Kirk had hoped, all three crashed right into the underside of the Franklin, smashed to the metal, their trajectory impeded and halted.
Yorktown was safe.
Kirk let out the breath he hadn't known he was holding when the alarms went off indicating a hull breach and they could see smoke rise on the viewing window, indicating that the ships had crashed, just as he planned it. Krall had been dealt with, he'd been stopped, Yorktown was finally safe. He probably would have sagged in relief had it not been for the fact that there was still more to do and he'd have to get a report to Yorktown officials for what happened.
He glanced at the viewing window, able to see that Yorktown had deemed it safe enough for a handful of Fleet members who resided there to rush from their safe areas to come assist the crew and any who might have been injured in the initial intrusion.
It was over.
A/N: Oh, Kirk, it's NEVER over lol }:)
We're going to see a little bit of Kirk and Tory putting their duties first in the next chapter, but I'm hoping that the Kirk/Tory moments that come before the end of the story will help make up for that ;) I think once Krall is truly dealt with and they can breathe and not be in constant worry for the crew, they'll be bouncing back in a pretty big way ;)
Some notes on reviews...
I'm not sure how I feel about Sulu, the way they portrayed it. On the one hand, I like that it was just sort of 'there' where he walks off with his husband and child like it's no big deal, because it's just normal and no one's making a fuss about it. On the other hand, I would have liked more of a build up in the first two movies that would have given us hints or references to his husband and child so when we do see them it's a 'yay, there they are!' moment and not a 'where did that come from?' thing :/ I like that it was treated as just another accepted relationship, but also wish it had been built up to :/
Oh I can say we will definitely see at least one OC for Star Trek throw up on that ride ;)
Aww thank you! I'm glad you're enjoying it :) I've always wanted to do a writing competition or that NaNoWriMo thing, I just don't have the time sadly :( While I was in school I did sort of kind of do something like NaNoWriMo, I wrote 50,000 words in a month because it was a project and had to be done for a grade, but after that life just seems to be like 'nope' whenever I try to find spare time to write more than I plan to :/ I do wish anyone who is participating in any writing competition or challenge the very best of luck with their works though! :)