Several days had passed since Lexie had told Kirk, McCoy, and Chekov about the death of her family, plus the nightmares that she suffered as a result and she had never felt so happy. Scotty had noticed how lively she was and that she had even started to talk a lot more to some of the other Engineers, even if it was to do with work, it still was a step forward. It was Lexie's day off, so she had decided to go and practice her fencing, she wasn't very sporty by any stretch of the imagination, the only sports she enjoyed were fencing, swimming, karate, and judo. As she entered into the gym she noticed that someone was already there, sword in hand. They were swinging it around, clearly they were warming up. "You're good, do you mind if I join you?" She asked politely, the person turned to face her and lifted up their visor. "Thank you and no I would love the company." Lexie smiled as she placed down her duffle bag and pulled out her fencing sword, "Say, aren't you Lieutenant Smith?" The man asked, Lexie turned back to face him and nodded.
"That would be me, but how did you know?" "Pavel told me about you. My names Hikaru Sulu, I work as the ships helmsman." He said with a hand out stretched, "Nice to meet you Sulu." Lexie replied as they shook hands, "Care for a match?" Sulu asked, "Always, but I must warn you I'm no newbie." They took their places and the match began, however it didn't last long since Lexie was able to land a hit on Sulu, no matter how he moved. They jousted for several rounds until they both called it even, "You're not bad Lieutenant?" Sulu stated as he wiped his forehead with his towel, "You're not too shabby yourself Sulu and please call me Lexie, Lieutenant sounds too formal." Lexie replied as she took a gulp of water, "Sure thing. Do you do any other sports?" Sulu asked as he placed his fencing sword back into his locker, "Just a few. Swimming..." Lexie had begun to answers when suddenly an alarm began blaring, Lexie knew what that meant. The Enterprise had been boarded by hostiles, she glanced over at Sulu who just nodded as he took back his fencing sword from his locker and removed the rubber tip, the two of them then quickly sprinted out of the gym.
Lexie and Sulu didn't make it very far down the hall before they were confronted with one of the beings that had boarded the ship, uninvited. They appeared human at first glance but, with closer inspection their skin was ash grey and their eyes resembled those which belong to the big cats of Earth. Sulu tightened his grip on his sword as he glanced over at Lexie, "You might wanna stay back." He said before charging towards the intruder, Lexie just rolled her eyes, she knew Sulu was just concerned about her safety, but she couldn't help feel a little mad. Sulu was trying his best against the intruder but he had underestimated them a great deal since he was now getting owned. The intruder slammed him against the wall so hard Sulu fell to the floor in a crumpled heap, coughing loudly as he was trying to breathe. As he glanced up he saw his attacker wielding a knife, Sulu just froze.
Suddenly the knife was kicked from the man's hand, it flew through the air and landed further down the hall way with a loud 'clang'. The man turned to see who had disarmed him, Sulu had also turned to see who had saved him and he was shocked at who it was. It was Lexie, she was stood with both her fists up and a smile on her face. "You should be more careful with those things. You could seriously hurt someone." She said smugly just before punching the man in the face, with such force that he was instantly knocked out, when she was sure that he wasn't going to be getting up anytime soon she turned her attention back to Sulu, who was still on the floor. "You alright?" She asked, he nodded slowly. "Yeah, just got the wind knocked out of me." Lexie helped him to his feet, "Thanks Lexie, if you hadn't disarmed him, I have no doubt that he would have killed me." Sulu said, slightly embarrassed. "Don't mention it Sulu, I wasn't going to let him hurt you." She replied, "We should try and meet up with some of the crew." Sulu stated, Lexie nodded, handing Sulu's fencing sword back to him and the two of them then quickly ran off down the hall once more.
Worryingly as they ran down the halls they didn't come across any of the crew or any of the intruders. "Something isn't right?" Lexie stated quietly as they pressed up against a wall, "Definitely, it's too quiet." Sulu replied, just then Lexie heard someone whisper their names. "Lex, Sulu. Over here." It was clear that Lexie was the only one to hear it, she glanced around to see if she could find it source. That's when she saw a hand waving at them from a room across the hall. Lexie quickly grabbed Sulu by the arm and pulled him across the hall, shoving him through the door so hard that he fell face first. She shut the door quickly and turned to see Sulu slowly getting up to his feet, "Ouch!" He cried to Lexie who smiled faintly. "Sorry Sulu." She looked around the room, it was only one of the ships cleaning closets, as she flicked her eyes around she noticed someone familiar sitting against the wall, a hand clutching the opposite arm tightly. "Pavel!" Lexie hurried over to him, Sulu following closely behind, the two of them knelt next to him. "I'm glad to see you two." Chekov whispered, "Right back at ya Pavel." Sulu replied.
Lexie placed her hand gently on Chekov's arm, "You've been hurt, let me see." Chekov moved his hand away from his arm to reveal a stab wound, not a very big one but it still could be very bad. "It's nothing." He said as he squinted in pain, "It's not nothing Pavel, it may have damaged your brachial artery. Sit still so I can treat it." Lexie's tone of voice was stern, so Chekov didn't dare protest, Lexie got up and wandered over to a nearby cabinet, she flung open the doors and grabbed several items from the shelves, then she returned to Chekov's side. She emptied the contents of her arms down on the floor, Sulu then watched as she opened a bottle of some kind of liquid and poured it over a cloth which she held in her other hand, "Now this is going to hurt Pavel but I've got to clean it, otherwise it will become infected." Chekov just nodded as he felt Sulu place a hand on his leg in a comforting way. Lexie then dabbed the cloth against the wound, Chekov couldn't help but twitch since it stung like hell, despite Chekov clearly being in discomfort Lexie carried on. She soon finished cleaning the wound and had wrapped it up with another cloth, "It's not perfect but it will do for now until we can get you to sickbay." Chekov glanced over at his arm and thanked Lexie for patching it up for him.
Chekov then explain to them how he got stabbed and what he knew about the people who had boarded the ship, turned out that most of the crew were being held in the ships Rec rooms apart from the command crew who were being held on the bridge, thankfully Chekov had managed to escape through the Jefferies Tube but he soon was seen by one of them. Lexie stood up, "You two stay here." Sulu just stared at her, "What do you mean? If you think we're going to let you go out there on your own, you need to think again." Lexie knelt in front of him, "Sulu, someone needs to stay here with Pavel, he's in no state to be defending himself if one of those men wanders in here." Sulu wanted to argue, so did Chekov but the pair of them knew that she was right. "Ok, but if you need backup just call." Lexie nodded. She soon left the room with her phaser drawn, being cautious that there were no hostiles in the hall. She didn't have a plan in mind since she had never had to do anything like this before, the last time the Enterprise was boarded by hostiles she had been down in Engineering with Scotty, who simply forced her to hide behind a console. All she knew was that she had to somehow take back the bridge, since most of the command crew were there they would be able to help. Lexie had climbed into one of the Jefferies Tubes by this point, she knew she had less chance of being seen that way, plus it would make it much easier to get to the bridge.
She soon came to the hatch which was located in the centre of the bridge's ceiling, Lexie glanced down through the slats to see what was going on. There were five of the ash-skinned men, all armed with phasers scattered around the room, beside each of them sat a member of the command crew with their hands bound behind their backs, all of them appeared unharmed apart from Scotty who had a gash on the side of his head, the only one she couldn't see was the Captain. Just then she heard someone shout, "Surrender your ship Captain!" "In your dreams!" Kirk yelled back, Lexie then saw Kirk fly into view as he slammed into one of the consoles, looking a little worse for wear with several cuts and a black eye. Lexie knew she had to do something and soon, before her Captain got hurt anymore, she turned to face a panel which sat on the wall of the tube. She quietly removed it and began fiddling with the wires, cursing quietly to herself since she had only replaced these wires last week after they became fused. As she fiddled around she heard yelling coming from the bridge, when she looked down the whole room was in darkness which is what she had hoped had happened. Lexie chuckled quietly to herself as she carefully opened the hatch and jumped down onto the bridge without making a noise. She could still see fine, her eyesight in the dark was much better than most peoples, with her phaser set to stun she began firing at the intruders knowing that the lights wouldn't stay off forever. Lexie had shot four out of the five before the lights flashed back on, she glanced around to see the different facial expressions on the crew's faces, they were mostly either of shock or amazement, or possibly even both.
Unfortunately, the last man standing looked to be the leader, who seemed to be slightly confused as to why all of his men were now lying on the floor. He glared at her, "You will pay for this!" He yelled; Lexie chuckled. "Make me." The man then charged at her but Lexie didn't move, not until the last possible moment. She simply stepped to the side, when he had regained his balance he charged at her again, however this time Lexie did move, she fort back. Lexie was throwing punches and kicks so fast it was almost a blur. With one last kick to the man's back he was sent flying across the bridge, hitting his head off a console when he landed knocking him out as a result. When she realized that he wasn't getting back up she raced over to her Captain and immediately started to untie his hands. "Are you alright Captain?" She asked as Kirk rubbed his wrist, "I'm fine Lieutenant, start untying the others while I get security up here." She nodded and quickly ran over to Scotty, "You're a sight for sore eyes lass." Scotty said happily as Lexie untied his hands, she then moved over to McCoy, while Scotty (Who completely ignored his own injuries) started freeing Spock, since Kirk was untying Uhura.
"Where the hell did you come from?" McCoy questioned, "Long story Doctor." She said helping him to his feet. A team of security officers had swarmed the bridge and had removed the intruders, just then she noticed Sulu wander in along with Chekov. "Lexie, you're alright!" Chekov cried; Lexie smiled at him then turned to face McCoy. "Chekov got injured, I patched it up to the best of my ability, but it would be best for you to see to it." Lexie stated, McCoy nodded as he wandered over to the Navigator and Helmsman. Lexie was glad to see that most of the officers who were being held on the bridge didn't seem too badly injured, she then noticed Kirk walking over to her, along with Scotty. "Lieutenant, how did you do that?" Kirk asked, Lexie stood to attention. "You see Sir. I was in the hatch just above me, watching what was going on. Using the panel which provides power to the lights I managed to shut them off for a short period of time, it was then I jumped down onto the bridge and well you saw the rest." Kirk and Scotty just stared blankly at her.
It was a few seconds before someone spoke again, "How did you know your plan would work?" Kirk asked, Lexie rubbed the back of her neck nervously. "Umm, I didn't Sir. I kinda just winged it." She replied slowly, from across the room she heard McCoy yell at her, "YOU WHAT!?" "Lieutenant, your lack of planning before conducting this rescue was illogical." Spock added, "For once I agree with the Hobgoblin." McCoy called as he finished up with Chekov's arm. Lexie felt as if she had done something wrong, but the look on Kirk's face said otherwise, "It would seem Lieutenant that you have learnt how to deal with this type of situation in the classic Enterprise way." Lexie tilted her head slightly to the side, "I don't understand Sir." Kirk smiled, "What I mean is, that you didn't make a plan prior to doing something which either was illogical or stupid or downright dangerous, or all three. That's the meaning of the Classic Enterprise Way."
By this point McCoy had made his way over to Kirk, "Basically you've been on this ship too long and you've been hanging around with Jim and Scotty too much." Lexie blushed slightly, "Am I in trouble Captain?" She asked quickly, much to Kirks surprise. "Not in the slightest, you saved us and the ship from falling into enemy hands." Lexie was relieved. It was then Scotty noticed that her hands were bleeding, "Lass, your hands!" Lexie was confused as to what he had meant until she had looked down, both of her hands were covered in cuts and burns from when she had been handling the live wires in the panel. "I'm fine Scotty, really I am." But Scotty wasn't convinced nor was her Captain or the CMO. "McCoy, take her down to sickbay and see how many other injuries we have. Scotty I suggest you go too, that cuts pretty bad." Scotty wanted to argue but decided against it, if he did McCoy would have just dragged him down to sickbay, so he just followed McCoy alongside Lexie, wiping away the blood which was dripping down the side of his face.
McCoy was trying to patch up the gash on Scotty's head, however the Scotsman wasn't making it easy. "God dam it Scotty, would ya sit still?" He growled, "Sorry, it just stings." He replied as McCoy touched his wound again, "I know it does, but the more you move around the longer this will take." Scotty knew he was right so tried his best to block out the pain, the door then opened and in walked Lexie. She had been taken care of by one of the nurses, her hands were both wrapped in bandages. "Is he ok?" She asked, McCoy nodded as he placed a bandage over the wound. "He'll live, but he's going to have one hell of a headache for a few hours." Scotty sighed quietly in disappointment, "Just be thankful it wasn't any worse Scotty, that guy could have easily killed you." McCoy pointed out; Lexie felt her heart skip a beat.
"Wait what?" She yelled; McCoy looked over at the CEO who just glared back at him. "Good job in worrying the poor lass, Doc." McCoy instantly felt bad, he knew that Lexie was already worried about Scotty, but he had just made it ten times worse. "What does he mean 'could have killed you' and how did you get hit in the head?" She asked, Scotty smiled at her as he patted the bed next to him, gesturing for her to sit down. "I was in the transporter room conducting some routine maintenance on the control console, when those wee beggars beamed aboard, they ordered me to take them up to the bridge and when I refused one of them hit me in the head with his phaser, warning me that if I didn't comply they would kill me, but I still refused which resulted in him hitting me again, I blacked out for a few seconds. When I woke up he said that he would make sure to kill every officer they came across, so with that in mind I complied. I didn't wish to see others get hurt."
Lexie had been listening in complete amazement, she always knew that Scotty cared a lot about others and his tale confirmed it. "Sounds rough, I'm just glad you're alright." She said softly as she hugged him gently, which he gratefully returned. From the corner of his eye Scotty could see McCoy standing with his arms folded, with a small, soft smile on his face. It had become clear to the Command crew over the last few days that the two Engineers were really close and cared a lot for one another, in a family way. "Are you alright lass?" Scotty asked as Lexie pulled away from hugging him, "I'm fine Scotty, just a few cuts and burns." McCoy wandered over with his tricorder in hand, he knew full well that she had already been treated, however he wanted to make sure. "How did you get these then?" He asked, "When I was fiddling around with the wires. I didn't have time to find some protective gloves, so I did it bare handed." McCoy rolled his eyes, he wanted to give her a stern talking too, but knew she was too stubborn to listen, much like Scotty. So just let them go back to work, yet again he knew trying to make them rest was going to be useless, so it was just easier for him to let them do what they wanted. They would only have disobeyed him anyway.