Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 10 of Never Again. Thank you to those who have left reviews for this story. It really does mean a lot to me that you guys are enjoying this story. I hope that I don't fail you guys with this next chapter. Since I've been trying my best with trying to make the chapters as good as I can, and sometimes that doesn't always work out according to plan. Without further ado Chapter 10. ENJOY!

Chapter 10

Lhai stood next to her brother, slightly nervous of the whole idea of them now being caught in a confrontation with a ship that they had never seen before. Her hands were behind her back in a stoic position.

Uhura turned in her seat looking over at Captain Pike. "Captain, we're being hailed."

Nero appeared on the viewscreen. "Hello."

"I'm Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking."

"Hi Christopher, I'm Nero."

"You've declared war against the Federation. Withdraw. I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location."

"I do not speak for the Empire. We stand apart, as do your Vulcan crew members, isn't that right, Spock, Lhai?"

Spock moved forward slightly looking at Nero. "Pardon me, I do not believe that you and my sister and myself are acquainted?"

"No, we're not. Not yet. Spock, there's something I would like you to see. Captain Pike, your transporter has been disabled. As you can see by the rest of your armada, you have no choice. You will man a shuttle, come aboard the Narada, for negotiations. That is all."

The view screen went black.

Captain Pike got up to his feet slowly.

"He'll kill you, you know that." Jim said looking at Captain Pike, concern was written in his eyes.

"Your survival is unlikely." Spock pointed out knowing that the risks were much higher than anything else that the captain had done in his life.

"Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake."

"I, too, agree. You should rethink your strategy."

"I understand that. I need officers who have been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat." Captain Pike said, looking at everyone.

"I have training, sir." Sulu said, getting up to his feet.

"I have training as well, sir." Lhai said moving past her brother which caused Spock to look over at her with his brows quirking up in concern.

"Come with me. Kirk, you too. You're not supposed to be here anyway. Chekov, you have the conn." Pike said as he began to move.

"Aye aye Captain." Chekov said, looking back at the captain.

STARTREK

They had arrived in engineering to leave the ship and go on separate missions to make sure that they were able to get people safely off of Vulcan and get their ship safely away from Vulcan as quickly as they could.

"Without transporters, we can't beam off the ship, we can't assist Vulcan, we can't do our job. Mister Kirk, Mister Sulu, Miss Lhai, Engineer Olson, will space-jump from the shuttle. You will land on that machine they lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear. You'll get inside. You'll disable it, then you'll beam back to the ship. Mister Spock, I'm leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once we have transport capabilities, communications back up, you'll contact Starfleet, report what the hell's going on here. And if all else fails, fall back, rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian system. Kirk, I'm promoting you to first officer." Pike said as he looked at the four people who would be landing on the machine that was causing such a problem for them to do much of anything.

"What?" Jim questioned, whipping his head to look at the older man unsure if he had heard correctly.

"Captain, please, I apologize. The complexities of Human pranks escape me." Spock said, looking at Captain Pike as if he was making a joke.

"It's not a prank, Spock. And I'm not the Captain, you are. Let's go." Pike said, looking at the group.

"Sir, after we knock out that drill, what happens to you?" Kirk asked, hoping that they wouldn't have to get Pike.

"Oh, I guess you'll have to come and get me. Careful with the ship, Spock. She's brand new."

Spock turned his attention to his younger sister.

"Spock I'll be fine." Lhai said, giving her brother a knowing look.

Spock simply shook his head lightly. "Mother and Father wouldn't let me hear the end of it if something happened to you."

Lhai's lips quirked a little as she looked at her brother. "I'll be fine, we trained for such things like this, you know that."

Spock nodded his head slowly.

"Go to the bridge Captain. Your crew needs you." Lhai said as she moved to get onto the shuttle with the team that was leaving the ship.

Spock slowly went to leave knowing his sister was very much correct that they needed a Captain on the bridge to go through the motions that Pike had set up.

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This is the end of Chapter 10. I know there isn't very much going on in this chapter. But I promise you that there will be more going on in this story in future chapters. It's just taking time to write everything down and making sure that it is good enough of a read. I promise you at some point McCoy and Lhai will be talking again. It just won't be as soon as I want it to happen. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Reviews help me keep going when it comes to writing. It helps with my muse a lot. I hope to have the next chapter out soon. Until next time.