Authoress Note: Welcome to Chapter 17 of Never Again. I want to thank those who have left reviews for this story. I do apologize if Chapters aren't as long as they could be, but I am trying. Hopefully I don't fail with writing a Vulcan character since some of their characteristics are fairly hard to write. Without further ado Chapter 17. ENJOY!

Chapter 17

L'hai sat at her computer as she worked. Her brows furrowed slightly as she ignored the flashing on her screen since it wasn't part of her job to even deal with such things that dealt with the ship. She was a science officer, not in engineering and commanding.

Chekov looked up from his computer as he got the alert. "Captain Spock, detecting unauthorized access to the water turbine control board."

Spock looked up at Chekov. "Bring up the video."

L'hai got up from her seat and went behind the Captain's chair. Her brows furrowed together.

"Security, seal the engineering deck. We have intruders in turbine section three. Set phasers to stun." Spock said into his comm.

"Spock… what are you."

Spock held up his hand silencing his sister. He didn't have time to hear what his younger sister was saying.

L'hai shifted her attention to the door as Scotty and Jim were brought into the room.

Spock looked at the second man that was brought into the room. "Who are you?"

"I'm with him." Scotty said, pointing his thumb at Jim.

"He's with me." Jim said firmly as he looked at Spock defiantly.

"We're traveling at warp speed. How did you manage to beam aboard this ship?" Spock questioned looking at Jim like he had done something very wrong.

"You're the genius, you figure it out."

"As Acting Captain of this vessel, I order you to answer the question."

"Well I'm not telling, Acting Captain. What di... What, now, that doesn't frustrate you, does it? My lack of cooperation. That, that doesn't make you angry."

"Are you a member of Starfleet?" Spock questioned looking at Scotty.

"I.. um.. yes. Can I get a towel, please?" Soctty questioned softly, hoping that he would be able to dry off.

"Under penalty of court martial, I order you to explain to me how you were able to beam aboard this ship while moving at warp."

"Well…"

Jim looked over at Scotty. "Don't answer him."

"You will answer me."

"I'd rather not take sides." Scotty admitted looking at the two of them

"What is it with you, Spock? Hmm? Your planet was just destroyed, your mother murdered, and you're not even upset." Jim questioned looking at the man.

L'hai swallowed the lump in her throat. She knew that Spock was upset, but she knew right then and there Jim was up to something and hopefully it wouldn't end badly.

"If you're presuming that these experiences in any way impede my ability to command this ship, you are mistaken."

"And yet you were the one who said fear was necessary for command. Did you see his ship? Do you see what he did?"

"Yes, of course I did."

"So, are you afraid or aren't you?"

"I will not allow you to lecture me about the merits of emotion."

"Then why don't you stop me." Jim said, getting into Spock's face.

"Step away from me, Mister…"

"What is it like not to feel anger or heartbreak or the need to stop at nothing to avenge the death of the woman who gave birth to you?"

"Back away from me…"

L'hai closed her eyes not liking what Jim was saying. She knew that this was very bad of what Jim was doing. She forced her hands to stay at her sides. She reminded herself to not show emotion; it was something that she was known not to do.

"You feel nothing! It must not even compute for you! You never loved her!"

L'hai jumped back as her brother and Spock began to fight one another. Her heart clenched in her chest as she moved quickly towards her brother trying to break up the fight between the two of them, but Spock had knocked her out of his way as he went to strangle Jim with his bare hands on the helm console. L'hai looked from her place on the floor as her father came out onto the helm.

"Spock!" Sarek yelled at his eldest son.

"I am no longer fit for duty. I hereby relinquish my command, based on the fact that I have been emotionally compromised. Please note the time and date in the ship's log." Spock said releasing Jim and moving off of the bridge.

Sarek followed his eldest son off of the bridge.

L'hai got up to her feet dusting off her science blue dress. There was a green bruise starting to form where Spock had hit her knocking her down in his anger. She knew that he didn't mean to do it, but in her heart she felt that Spock would be very upset with himself for hurting her, since he had sworn to protect her.

"I like this ship! You know, it's exciting." Scotty said with a smile.

"Well, congratulations, Jim. Now we've got no Captain and no goddamn first officer to replace him." Leonard said, looking at Jim.

"Yeah we do." Jim said as he moved to the Captain's chair.

"What?"

"Captain Pike made him first officer." L'hai said softly, keeping her voice voided out of emotions. She couldn't allow anyone to know that she was hurting inside. She needed to keep stoic and try to help get things done.

"You've got to be kidding me." Leonard said with a groan.

"Thanks for the support." Jim said, looking at his friend.

"I sure hope you know what you're doing, Captain." Uhura said as she looked at Jim.

"So do I." Jim admitted softly, hoping that he was right. "Attention crew of the Enterprise, this is James Kirk. Mister Spock has resigned commission and advanced me to Acting Captain. I know you were all expecting to regroup with fleet, but I'm ordering a pursuit course of the enemy ship to Earth. I want all departments at battle stations and ready in ten minutes. Either we're going down, or they are. Kirk out."

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This is the end of Chapter 17. I hope that you guys enjoyed this chapter. I know I kind of kept to the movie at the moment and added some things in, but it will take some time. I hope that I won't fail writing the last few chapters that are in this story. After I finish this one I think I will be working on the other Kirk story that I have out there. I'm trying to make sure that I finish all of my book 1's before working on any other series. I still have a Loki fic going which is being updated weekly and is being updated one chapter at a time after finishing a book or even that half of a book if the book is really unfinished, but I promise I am going to get all of my books finished that I have written now before working on any season 2 books. Please leave a review and let me know what you think. Reviews help me keep going when it comes to writing. I hopefully will update next week with a new chapter. Until next time.