Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek. I do own anything you don't recognize as normal.
Dear, dear, I'm late posting, aren't I? I said a week ago. Bad me. I was busy with Trekkie Soul. But then there was a burst of inspiration at ten p.m., and by eleven thirty I had a chapter. I'm yawning today, but I'm also posting!
CHAPTER SIX
Things moved with remarkable speed after that. Once Kirk got going, he wasn't an easy person to stop. As the Starfleet officers discovered, to their dismay. They weren't quite used to dealing with someone who moved from idea to action to the next idea with barely room for a thought between. Captain Lowell didn't think or move that fast. Kirk did.
"First order of business: the armory," Kirk decided.
"Ve don't have an armory," Chekov said immediately.
"The hell you don't," Kirk retorted. "Think I don't know anything at all about starships?"
"Most non-Starfleet personnel do not know specifics," Spock observed.
"So? I'm not most people."
"Who are you?" Spock asked, hoping for some details of the past of this most unusual man. He didn't get any.
"I told you—Jim Kirk. Leader of the Sharks. And right now I'm going to the armory."
"We will remain here," Spock said.
"And call security the minute I'm out the door?" Kirk shook his head. "I don't think so. You're both coming with us. And don't try anything. The phaser's on kill."
They might have been inclined to argue but Kirk jerked the aforementioned phaser at them and they went. Spock and Chekov in front, followed by Kirk, followed by Carl and O'Riley.
"Which direction do you keep your armory in?" Kirk asked once they were in the corridor, which was deserted.
"Ve vill not tell you," Chekov snapped.
Kirk shrugged. "Suit yourself."
They continued down the corridor and Kirk directed them into the nearest turbolift.
Once inside, Kirk took hold of the handle and ordered, "Armory." There was a hum and the turbolift started. Kirk grinned at Chekov's frown. "I know a little about starships, remember? The computers are very user-friendly."
The rest of the ride was spent in silence, everyone occupied with his own very different thoughts. Kirk was, quite simply, exhilarated. He was in one of those moments where he knew exactly what to do and everything he did came up golden.
Carl was still thinking about who he was going to kill. Preferably starting with the short guy with the accent. Once he got the go-ahead from Kirk, of course. Carl was surly, aggressive and generally low in the IQ department, but he didn't argue with Kirk.
O'Riley was inscrutable. The plain man with the scar, which he had never told anyone where he got, no one ever knew what he was thinking.
Spock was biding his time. It was eminently clear that Mr. Kirk was an extreme threat. The trouble was how to negate that threat. Spock didn't know how. His options were disturbingly limited. The obvious course may have appeared to be to simply bodily attack Kirk and nerve-pinch him. Which is what Spock would have done except that an effort of that sort was obviously doomed from the start by the presence of the phaser, which had never once turned away from himself and Chekov. Even in the close quarters of the turbolift Spock was quite certain that he would be killed before anything could be accomplished. Therefore waiting to act on the basis that a better opportunity would surface was not a gamble but a necessity.
Chekov was having vaguely similar thoughts, minus the careful reasoning. He was bitterly resenting the phaser that prevented any immediate action, hoping that Mr. Spock had a plan while doubting that he did, and meanwhile forming wild plots of his own. A small corner of his mind, in stark contrast to most of his thoughts, did acknowledge with a certain satisfaction that, human enemies regardless, this was what Starfleet was supposed to be like.
It wasn't a long trip to the armory. Once there, the sign on the door left no doubt where to go.
Kirk started towards the door and Spock realized that there was never going to be a better opportunity. Not that the perfect opportunity had arrived; it hadn't. What had arrived was a certainty that things were only going to get worse, because within moments it wouldn't be one phaser to consider but many. Therefore, the moment had to be now. The phaser was still pointed in his direction, but Kirk's attention appeared to be focused on the armory. If Spock could just get one hand on Kirk's shoulder…he estimated that it would take only one or two steps.
Spock thought this out quickly, and his movements were even quicker. He came close, very close, his hand passing within centimeters of Kirk's shoulder.
But as fast as Spock moved Kirk moved faster. His attention must not have been entirely on the armory because Spock had scarcely moved when the phaser snapped to cover him and Kirk fired.
The beam was a direct hit and Spock crumpled to the floor, unmoving. [A/N: Should I stop here? No…I'll keep going.]
"I guess fighting's okay if you do it Vulcan-style," Kirk commented, bringing the phaser around to cover Chekov, which was wise but unnecessary.
Chekov was shocked. "You killed him!" he said, appalled.
"I stunned him," Kirk corrected.
"But you said it was on kill…"
Kirk didn't bat an eye. "I lied. I can't be trusted, remember?"
Chekov glared at him. "I remember."
"Good." Kirk turned towards the armory door, then paused. "Oh yeah. Somebody pick up Mr. Spock, we can't leave limp Vulcans littering the corridors."
O'Riley leaned over and slung the unconscious Spock over his shoulder, apparently without difficulty. It seemed that his relatively slim frame held considerable muscle.
That taken care of, Kirk jabbed the phaser into Chekov's back and prodded him towards the door. It slid open on their approach.
"You really ought to keep this door locked," Kirk commented.
"Ve usually don't need to," Chekov said shortly.
"Guess not." Kirk shrugged. "And I'd have gotten it open anyway."
They entered the armory. Chekov, then Kirk, then Carl, O'Riley and Spock. Chekov was unsurprised. He had seen the armory before and therefore was familiar with the racks of phaser rifles, the stacks of type-1 and type-2 phasers, as well as the relatively small assortment of other types of weaponry. Kirk was unsurprised; or if he was surprised, he didn't show it. Spock had no reaction. He was, after all, unconscious. Carl and O'Riley were impressed, and didn't bother to hide it.
"Damn," Carl said admiringly.
"No wonder Starfleet runs the galaxy," O'Riley drawled. "If we had all this, the rest of us might have a chance."
"Well, we've got 'em now," Kirk said, strapping a phaser pistol at his belt, then tossing a second one to O'Riley, who caught it with his free hand.
Kirk took more care giving a phaser to Carl. He kept his own phaser in Chekov's back, but turned his attention on the Shark. He extended the phaser. Carl took hold of one end of it. Kirk didn't let go.
"I don't want trouble," Kirk warned.
"That mean I can't kill anyone?" Carl sounded disappointed by the idea.
"Yes, you can't kill anyone!"
"Aw come on, not even one?"
"Not even one!" Kirk snapped. "We're not Orions, I've got standards!"
"Standards!" Chekov blurted. "How can you talk about standards? You are a pirate! A crook, a thief, a hijacker, a liar, a criminal, a traitor, a Cossack!"
This was a very foolish outburst to make while Kirk's phaser was still pressed to his back. Fortunately for Chekov, Kirk took it all with good humor.
"Guilty to everything," Kirk agreed. "But we're not murderers. And we're not going to be murderers." That last bit was at Carl, who frowned sullenly but nodded. "Alright, let's move. Control room next."
They found the control room the same way they'd found the armory, and it didn't take any longer. At the control room Reeves and the other Shark, Tony, were greeted with enthusiasm, and Spock was dumped next to the unconscious crewmember who had been on duty in the control room.
With a few direction from Reeves Kirk took over the control panel and started implementing command codes. Chekov would have loved to see those, but Kirk was careful to make sure that he was in no position to see. In fact, none of them were, not even Reeves.
After a few minutes of quiet tapping Kirk stood up from the controls. "I love starship computers," Kirk announced.
"You already said that," Chekov muttered. Kirk hadn't, actually, but he had implied it. Either way, he ignored Chekov.
"I've got all the codes in, how do I implement it?" Kirk asked Reeves.
"Hit the red button," Reeves directed.
Kirk did, and the computer crisply responded with, "New program has now been implemented."
Kirk rubbed his hands together. "Okay. Now it happens."
"Vhat happens?" Chekov asked suspiciously.
"Now I take over."
"Vith only four men?" Chekov's expression very clearly showed his disbelief.
"I could do it alone," Kirk countered. "That's the whole point of the codes. And anyway, why am I explaining it to you?"
With that Kirk stopped paying attention to Chekov and turned to the task at hand. First, he sealed the armory.
"Only security will be armed, that's about 15% of the crew, about 80 people…" Kirk said, thinking out loud.
"That still outnumbers us three to one," O'Riley pointed out. It is doubtful Carl could have done the math.
"Doesn't matter," Kirk said easily, turning to the communication panel. From there he called his own ship, apprised the Sharks of the situation, and warned them not to move without his order but to be ready. And then he announced his presence to the crew.
"This is Jim Kirk speaking from your auxiliary control room," Kirk's voice came over the intercom, echoing throughout the ship. "You probably don't know who I am. I'll tell you. I'm the leader of the Sharks. And we're taking over. We've got the control room. We're hacked into the computer. Resistance is pointless, you might as well surrender. The sooner you do, the less mess there'll be to clean up later. You have ten minutes. Kirk out."
They didn't surrender in the next ten minutes. Kirk took to the comm again, calling the bridge this time. "Obviously, this isn't going to be quick and easy. That's all right. I have time. You don't. I'm flooding the bridge with gas, expect to be unconscious in two minutes. Unless, of course, you prefer to surrender."
The bridge crew was unconscious in two minutes. Kirk sent O'Riley, Reeves and Tony to bring back the bridge crew. They did, stunning four security guards along the way, all of whom joined the growing pile of unconscious crewmembers in the corner. Kirk sealed off the bridge.
Ten minutes after that the engineering room was equally asleep. They were out of room in the control room, so Kirk sealed engineering with the crew inside. Ten minutes after that it was the communications central control. Then the dilithium crystal control room, then the security base, then the Mess Hall.
Fifteen minutes in there was a barrage of phaser fire outside the control room. The door was sealed, and the phaser fire had no effect. It was abandoned quickly.
Fifty minutes in the bridge crew woke up. Sulu joined Chekov where he was sitting against the wall.
"So what's he going to do, kill us?" Sulu asked quietly, eyeing Kirk warily.
Chekov shook his head. "No. He is a pirate, a rat, and a Cossack, but he is not a murderer."
"I'm glad," Sulu said dubiously.
"Likevise."
An hour after Kirk first went on the intercom, a call came in. "Mr. Kirk? This is Lt. Commander Gray, chief of security."
Kirk leaned back in his chair and grinned. "Something I can do for you, Lt. Commander Gray, chief of security?"
There was a long, unhappy pause. Then, "I'm calling to surrender."
There we go, lots of nice plot advancement. I think we'll do a little more of that…and then we won't.
As to reviews:
Wedge: So, it getting any easier to see Kirk as a crook?
Broken Infinity: Funny you should use the word intriguing. That's the word that kept chanting through my head when I first came up with this premise. And I can't spell it either.
Earnest: Believable? Excellent, that's the hardest part.
Nenya: Let's see, I already e-mailed you…I don't think there's anything I haven't already said. Hope you enjoyed this chapter.
CrystalTiger: I'm glad Lowell has one fan.
Samantha Quinn: : ) I loved that line too. And yes, I have read "Best Destiny!" I can't say for sure that it influenced this story (hey, how should I know how my mind works?) but it certainly might have.
I-am-bug: Thanks, I'm very interested by the whole thing too. Really, I mean it. Here's some more, hope you liked!
Sailor Vulcan: BLACK FIRE!! THANK YOU! I understand now! I finally know what the heck Keridwen was talking about in "Devil on your Doorstep!" Ahem. Anyway, thanks for that, and you can be happy, Lowell is in a coma.
RadarPLO: If you liked the dismissal of Surak, I'm already planning something else, several chapters down the line…hehe.
Emp: Continuing! See? Not quickly, but continuing.
Beedrill: "Dirty evil scoundrel." Music to my ears. And no, Kirk isn't all that different. Except for being a dirty evil scoundrel.
That is all. I hope to post again soon. First flashback coming up, and a little surprise…