There is quite a bit of technobabble in this chapter. Worldbuilding is still happening. This is the chapter where you also really begin to see this is almost a Supergirl/StarTrek crossover, but it's more of an AU fusion, heavily Star Trek and Mass Effect inspired but using Supergirl elements. Aspects of this chapter may seem familiar to fans of the 2009 Star Trek movie. Enjoy!

-SQT


It is aboard the Venture, surrounded by her crew, their murmurs and cold looks that Lena feels the most at home. Even before the war, when Lex had yet to show her his true colors, Luke and Captain Sinclair had made her feel welcome. Not a small task considering how withdrawn she was at the time. Luke had thought it was the hoverchair, but that had never been the issue for her.

Standing on the bridge, Lena watches the crew at their work, only a few briefly glancing her way, most preferring to avoid her gaze. Only two weeks since graduation and she is already back where she belongs, only now she's not in training. Given the rank of Commander, Lena is now chief Science Officer and second-in-command of the ESF Venture.

Everyone wears uniforms of various colors and designs that indicate one's department. Lena's role as science and command displayed by her red shirt with gold trim, with three pips on her collar indicating rank. Embroidered over her heart a design of one large planet surrounded by several smaller ones, the Spaceforce insignia.

All Tactical, Security, Flight, and Command operations are coordinated from the bridge, each having their own station. In the center of the bridge, on a slightly raised dais, is the Captain's Chair. Next to it is Lena's science station, from where she can check data on all spatial anomalies and distortions and quickly relay the information to the Captain. At the far end of the bridge, is the viewscreen, where the crew can get a sense of what space looks like and communicate with other ship's crews.

The captain emerges from her ready room off of the bridge, her gold shirt drawing all eyes. She catches Lena in her gaze and nods. Captain Veronica Sinclair commands attention, she knows what needs to happen and expects to be obeyed. It's that same air of authority that she demands of Lena. One Lena has tried to reject in favor of building comradery with her crew.

Sinclair takes her seat in the captain's chair. Lena positions herself next to her, ready to begin as a flurry of reports flow from the crew.

"We've cleared spacedock Captain." Eli pips in from a console in front of her chair.

Behind her at the security console stands Luke, his shirt and ranking indicating Chief Security Officer. "All stations are ready."

"Commander Luthor" Sinclair turns in her chair to Lena.

Lena fills her in. "SpaceForce has detected an anomaly on the edge of the Kryptonian neutral zone. We've been ordered to investigate. Command suspects that Krypton is amassing a fleet. Though long range sensors are returning very little data."

"And what are your suspicions?"

"The energy signatures don't match any known Kryptonian vessels. Command is chalking it up to sensor error, though the data is clear. There has been a large spatial distortion on the Alliance border consistent with a fleet, or possibly, a single massive vessel."

Sinclair nods. "Thank You Commander. Cadet Wessler, set a course for the anomaly."

"Aye Aye Captain. Course laid in and engines at maximum." Eli finishes manipulating the controls at his console.

"Punch it."

Eli throws a lever forward on his console and the Venture is thrust forward through space at maximum speed. The stars swirl in the viewscreen, blur, and disappear as they enter hyperspeed.


She was fourteen when Luke stumbled upon her, a lone girl in a hoverchair out past curfew. She had tried running away before, but tonight was the farthest she'd got without being caught by Luthor Private Security. And when he'd stepped into the ally she was hiding in Lena thought it was all over, another faceless brute come to take her home. But when the streetlights hit his face, she saw a deep kindness in his features. Even then Lena hadn't been sure if she could trust him, but when she saw the girl with him, stepping out of the shadows, her long dark hair pulled back in a braid, an imposing figure who Lena wanted nothing more than to follow to the edges of space. Luke introduced himself and his companion, Veronica Sinclair. It was her eyes that drew Lena in the most, sensing the girl didn't see her in her chair as something to be pitied, but a person with certain limitations just waiting for a taste of freedom.

That night Veronica had got her into a night club that only served Spaceforce cadets. Veronica herself was prized in Spaceforce, on her way to being the youngest graduate and some said, to being the youngest captain ever.

Inside the club was unlike anything Lena had ever seen. The only times she had ever gone out were with Lillian & Luthor to their science investment Galas and other even more boring events.

The club was filled with SpaceForce cadets of all ages, all wearing vibrant clothes that drew your eyes. The club had a zero-g dance floor, so Lena could make as much a fool of herself as all the other people, and without drawing eyes. "Dancing" with no gravity was different from what she remembered of regular dancing, and it was one of funnest experiences of her young life.

After that night Lena begged to be allowed to live on the Venture with Veronica & Luke. Captain Graves had consented eventually, and with her father's blessing and against her mother's protests Lena moved on board.

At first she had shared a room with Veronica. But as Lena started to notice things about the other girl, her eyes, her hips, her breasts, her legs… it became too much and Lena requested her own room. Though she did want to explore these new feelings. And so one night she had hovered up to Veronica's door and paged. Veronica let her in and that night Lena learned some amazing new things about her body, and that her paralysis need not prevent her enjoying herself.

Their relationship continued on like that for a while, Lena going to Veronica's door, learning all the ways to bring a woman pleasure. They talked, laughed, loved and Lena opened up to her about her dreams and her fear of being consumed by the darkness in them. They had gone on like this until Lena learned why everyone called Veronica Roulette.


The blur of the stars slows, swirls, and stops all together as the Venture exits hyperspace. Slowly, and then faster and faster as the sensors realign to the new region of space, readings begin to flood the Venture's instruments.

Lena checks the scanner for signs of the disturbance.

"Uh, Captain, Commander, I don't think we have to look very hard." Eli's voice sounds choked as he stares at the viewscreen.

Bearing down on the Venture is a massive ship, of which only a small portion can be seen through the ship's default cameras.

"Adjust for negative 200 zoom." Veronica shouts out.

Lena's fingers fly across her console, the adjustment made before the order was fully given. The viewscreen adjusts in response and the massive ship shrinks to fit. Even at a viewable size the ship is massive.

"Commander, what are we looking at?"

"I don't know. There's nothing like it in the Spaceforce records. I am seeing something in the martian's records regarding a legendary ship the size of a small moon, but they never found anything to substantiate it."

"I think we may have." Sinclair's voice is tight and restrained, whatever she's feeling remains hidden.

Lena's console beeps. "I have something. Captain, they've locked weapons on us."

"Evasive pattern Delta-four!" Veronica's voice competes with the now blaring alarm.

Eli moves as fast as he can, inputting command after command to keep the Venture out of range of the enemy's weapons.

"Incoming fast." Mercy's screen flashes. "We've got got three incoming torpedoes."

"Get rid of them."

"On it Captain." Mercy adjusts the firing mechanism and is able to hit one of the torpedos with the ship's laser.

The third impacts with a thud, sending shockwaves throughout the ship.

"Damage report."

"Hyper-engine capabilities have been knocked out. We can get them back, but I've never seen anything like that." A voice pipes in over the intercom from engineering.

The ship is wracked with another explosion, throwing Veronica and Lena to the floor. Lena quickly scrambles to her feet and offers a hand to her captain. Sinclair ignores it and comes to her feet on her own.

The view screen flashes and is flooded with static, when it clears there is an image of a grey-skinned alien filling the screen. "We are the Diasporans. You will surrender your captain and she will come aboard our ship via shuttlecraft prepared to negotiate a ceasefire. That is all. "

The image disappears and Veronica turns to Lena. "Follow me. Luke you too." Lena glances at Luke.

"Mercy, you have the bridge." The young officer nods and turns back to her station.

Roulette marches onto the turbolift, Lena and Luke hot at her heels.


Lena trails after Veronica. Tonight wasn't just another night. Veronica had finally agreed to show Lena what she gets up to when the Venture docks.

"With a war on, it's important we all get a chance to unwind, relax, and most most importantly release all the aggression and anger we keep bottled up inside that allows us to fight as long as we do."

Lena nods. It make sense, though Lena can't help wondering why if it's so great, Veronica's never brought her along before.

Veronica leads them down the corridor and they arrive at a unassuming door. Veronica knocks and whispers in reply to an unheard question, and the door opens.

Once inside Lena is surprised to see an empty room, save for a transporter pad and the person who let them in.

"Up you go." Veronica motions to the pad, and Lena maneuvers herself onto it. Lena has only gone through the new transporters a few times, enough to know they only take one person at a time. Veronica nods to the operator and the tiny room around Lena disappears and is replaced by a much larger, much louder one. She's only alone for a few seconds when Veronica appears at her side.

"This is Eternity, Alpha's most exclusive club. Even you would have a hard time getting in without an invitation. Lucky for you, tonight you're a VIP." Veronica answered Lena's unspoken question.

"There's no way you took me through the dirtiest parts of the space station just to get me into a club."

Veronica leans over Lena, her dark braided hair falling over her shoulder. "Lena, love, of course I did. Now, be careful about asking questions, the wrong ones to the wrong people will get you killed, and there's nothing I or your brother can do about that."

As they push through the crowd the patrons nod to Veronica each saying the same name, Roulette.

"Why are they calling you that?"

"You'll see."

Lena follows Veronica into the depths of the club, revealing a cage at its heart which draws all eyes. A large crowd is gathered around it, waiting for something to begin. She finds a place where she can sit comfortably as Veronica strolls into the center of the cage, spotlights appearing on her. She motions with her hand and the chatter of the crowd dies down, and Lena almost sees a different person.

"Welcome to Roulette's Rumble. Tonight we have two very special guests, one who we've barely been able to restrain. I expect to see a new contender for Champion! So those of you betting on Lobo, tonight you may want to hedge your bets."

"Our other guests is none other than Lena Luthor, you may know her as the daughter of SpaceForce scientist Lionel Luthor, but I know her as the woman who saved fifty Alliance lives and prevented a Kryptonian invasion of Daxam. Tonight's fight is in honor of her."

Lena feels a creeping sense of dread. A fight? In honor of her? How could Veronica not know this is the last she'd want? Lena balls her hands into fists.

Veronica walks out of the cage and a bell rings. On one side of the cage a door opens, and dark-skinned human looking figure stumbles out into the cage, now filled with a deep red light.

"Our challenger is a Kryptonian soldier captured during their failed invasion, he's killed many an Alliance soldier, and tonight we show him how hospitable we can be. I give you Val-Zod, the Super-Man of the Argo Fleet." Roulette spits.

The crowd hisses and boos as Val-Zod stands in the ring, exuding fear and danger.

From the other side another door opens and a hulking grey figure bursts through the opening.

Veronica's voice echoes over speakers. "Our Champion, The Main Man, Lobo!"

Lena hears the figure shouting through the crowd's cheers. "The Main Man is here for only one reason. To Rumble! And to Kill a Kryptonian! Ooooraaahh!"

Another bell sounds and the fight commences. It's over quickly and ends with Lobo standing over the body of Val-Zod, his head smashed into pulp.

Lena catches Veronica making her way towards her, only to feel like she knows nothing of the woman coming her way. She thought maybe she was falling in love with the reckless commander, but now? Lena senses hatred pouring off Veronica, enough to seriously hurt her if she wasn't already dampening her powers to survive the crowd.

"So, love, what do you think? Impressive no?" Veronica flashes Lena a smile.

"So they call you Roulette because you gamble over people's lives?

"So many of those Kryptonian bastards never face justice. We die, but they never do. Bringing them to our little fight nights, is a great way to get revenge for all the lives they've destroyed, like your father's."

"You aren't doing this for me."

Veronica points out into the ring.

"You see that body? Val-Zod is the one responsible for killing your father, and if you hadn't stopped him he would have killed thousands more. I brought you justice tonight."

"Veronica, this is wrong. You know that. This isn't what we're supposed to…"

"Supposed to what, Lena? Be good girls and do what the admirals who've forgotten what war is like and diplomats who've never faced it, tell us to do? They send us off to get killed fighting an enemy who can't lose. They don't care about us, why should we care about their vaunted values? Truth and Justice don't matter out here."

"The Main Man is ready to accept payment now! Give me what you promised Roulette!" Lobo shouts at them from inside the battle cage, still illuminated by the red glow. A red glow that Lena senses must be important.

"You're right. The Admiralty Board doesn't care about us, but you… You found a way to kill them, and you're keeping it for yourself, this here, this is murder."

"What does it matter if we kill them here or out in a battlezone? Here we have an advantage, the only known way to kill them, otherwise we're just sending our fighters to the slaughter."

"If you shared this with Science Command, instead of trying to impress me with your warped sense of justice, we might actually be able to win the war."

"Slow down. I found nothing. Lobo here is responsible for everything. He brought this device that emits the red light you're seeing; it weakens a single kryptonian to a point they can be killed, he calls it the Light of Rao. But it's useless to us, only he knows how to use it, and he won't give it up unless he loses. That man has never lost a fight." Veronica turns from Lena towards the cage.

"Give him his payment. He's earned it." She turns back to Lena. "As for you, you're welcome to stay or go. Hatch whatever scheme I know you're cooking up. But know that if you try to report this, they'll never find it."

Lena watches Veronica walk away as she makes the decision to return to the ship. For the time being she isn't going to say anything, as there is something much more important on her mind. Lena and Lionel's research into Kr100 had proved not entirely successful, they'd only been able to develop it enough to act as a barrier; however, that red Light of Rao could provide the answer Lena needs to finish their work. And maybe change the tide of war.


After a few seconds the turbolift door opens again onto the shuttle bay and Veronica, Luke, and Lena step out. Veronica steps toward a nearby console and opens the hangar bay doors, beyond is cold space kept out by level atmospheric force fields.

Veronica turns to Lena "Lena you're the captain now. And Luke I'm promoting you to first officer."

"Captain..." Lena starts to object but is cut off.

"You're the captain now, not me. You two, take care of eachother. And my ship."

Luke glances at Lena, a pained look on her face. "We will, I'll keep her out of trouble."

"That's a good man."

Veronica turns and climbs into the nearest shuttle, Lena climbs in after her.

"Veronica, what are you doing? You can't just leave like this, the captain of a starship can't just surrender herself."

"Oh my sweet girl. I'd have thought you'd learned by now that victory doesn't come by following the rules. We have to be willing to take risks and flaunt the rules." Veronica reaches out and cups Lena's cheek. "Don't let Luke kill himself protecting you, and remember that just because your dreams frighten you doesn't mean you have to avoid them."

Lena climbs out of the shuttle and the door closes, separating her from her former captain; She reaches for Luke's hand as the shuttle takes off towards the Diasporan's ship. It passes through the open hangar doors and the atmospheric force field.

The shuttle moves out of the range of the Venture's shields, growing smaller and smaller the further away it gets. As it nears the hulking monstrosity a red beams shoots out from the hull of the Diasporan vessel and tears through the shuttle.

Lena screams and the ship rocks beneath her, she grabs Luke to steady herself before she falls.

Through the open door of the hanger Lena sees the shields flickering as they are bombarded by laser beams from the enemy ship.

"Bridge this is the Captain, tell me what the hell is going on."

"Lena?" Mercy's voice comes through the intercom, intercut by static. "Where's Captain Sinclair?"

"She's gone." It's all Lena can do to keep her voice from breaking. This is what's she's trained for, and she has a ship and crew depending on her. Veronica Sinclair was gone now, yet… She was her still her captain.

Lena and Luke fly across the room as the ship rocks again.

"What's the status of the shields?" Lena demands.

"Thirty percent Captain. Their weapons are stronger than anything an alliance vessel has ever faced."

Slowly rising from where she was thrown to the floor, Lena begins issuing orders.

"Mercy, divert power to the shields from recreation and non-essential research areas. Eli, show us some of that fancy flying."

"Yes ma'am!" They both respond over the comm.

"Luke, I need you to get teams together and send them deck by deck to make sure everyone has made it to safe areas. Once that's going get to the bridge and make sure Mercy & Eli don't lose our ship."

"What about you?"

"I've got to make sure our visitors leave us alone."

Luke turns and passes through the turbolift door but Lena's voice stops him before he's gone completely.

"And Luke?"

"Yes?"

"Stay alive."

Luke grins at her. "You know it!" And with that he's gone.

Lena runs over to the nearest computer console and pulls up the display for the Venture's internal transporters. She locates the material she needs from the engineering deck and cargo bays and directs them to her location. A container of stabilized dark matter, wiring, detonation and activation devices and other pieces from engineering materialise and she sets to work.

What she wants to do is make a bomb and get it aboard the enemy ship, but without knowing who and what is aboard that thing, there's no way of knowing what exploding it will do. The next best thing would be something like an irradiating pulse, if she can set the dark matter to release when it comes in contact with radiation and program the device to release enough of the irradiated dark matter that it would incapacitate everyone on board within seconds of release..

Looking out through the hanger bay doors, which are now jammed open, Lena can see how Eli is trying to maneuver the Venture away from its assailant, but no matter how far they pull away the Diasporan ship is always right back on top of them.

The device is coming together in her hands when Luke's voice pops in over the comm. "Commander, I mean Captain, our shields are at 2%, whatever you are planning, it better happen now, once the shields are down their weapons can tear right through our hull!"

"Just keeping the hangar atmo field from going out, I'm working on…"

Lena is interrupted by an explosion, before she can regain her bearing, four Diasporans appear in front of her. She grabs for the gun at her side only to have it knocked out of her hand by one of the towering grey figures.

"Captain?"

A grey hand reaches out and Lena feels it's grip on her throat as she's lifted from the ground.

"Captain? What's going on?"

Her lungs struggle to fill with air as dark spots appear in her vision. She tries to pry the creature loose, neither her hands or her mind accomplishing the task. As the edges of her vision blurr and the world grows dark, the last thing she sees is the creature's ugly scowl as Luke's voice screams her name over the comm.

An eternity passes before the hold on her neck loosens slowly and then all at once. Lena crumples to the ground, her neck sore and her breath coming in gasps. The Diasporan that was holding her is nowhere to be seen as the other three are engaged in battle with an armoured figure in a red cape. Her vision clears and her breath evens out. Standing slowly Lena grabs her gun from where it fell and raises it at the Diasporans.

Except all four of them are out cold, and the caped figure stands over them, exuding strength and invulnerability.

Lena immediately activates her comm.

"Luke, please tell me we haven't lost this ship."

"Lena? You're alive?" Relief floods Luke's voice. "Not yet, but they've managed to beam over boarding parties to just about every deck, we don't have the firepower to deal with all of them."

"I'll think of something. We may have some unexpected help. Don't ask, I'll fill you in later. Lena out." She shuts her comm down and turns her attention to her saviour.

"I don't know who you are but just because you saved my life, don't think I won't throw you in the brig for trespassing." Lena's threat is empty, after all if the intruder can take out four Diasporans on their own, what can she do?

The figure turns to her, red and blue armor reflecting the light of the fire, Lena can't see the face clearly through the mask that covers the eyes. Emblazoned on their chest is a symbol she's only ever seen on the newsvids, a Kryptonian symbol resembling an S. The Symbol of the House of El, and the Kryptonian war hero Flamebird.

Looking at Flamebird with her long blond hair, is like looking at a storm of fire of which she is the calm center. "Are you okay?" When she speaks it's almost as if Lena knows her voice and it frightens her.

"I'm fine." Lena projects as much strength as she can muster, it won't do to look weak now. "Thank you for that. Now how did you get on my ship?"

The hero poses arms on hips matching Lena in projecting strength. "Same way they did, punched a hole through your shields."

Lena sighs. "I've got it from here. You can go back to whatever it is you were doing before."

"That Diasporan had you. If I hadn't stepped in you'd be…"

"Dead. I know. I said thank you. You can go."

"What are you going to do against a ship full of those monsters?" Flamebird's voice is hard and oddly concerned, something Lena doesn't expect from a Kryptonian warrior.

"I have a plan." She doesn't know if it will actually work, since she's going to have to modify her device to avoid killing those aboard.

Flamebird bores into Lena with her eyes and the only thing Lena can sense is the storm whirling around her. After a moment the hero drops her pose.

"As you say Commander Luthor."

"It's Captain now."

"Captain Luthor." Flamebird nods, and rising from the floor, flies out through the atmospheric field and hangar doors.

"Computer, seal the hangar bay with the emergency blast doors and don't let anyone else on my damn ship."

The computer beeps in the affirmative and four interlocking doors close over the open doorway.

Lena turns back to her device. "Lena to bridge." The intercom flickers on.

"Bridge here. Orders Captain?" Luke's voice crackles through the static.

"Can you get a lock on the intruders? Beam them off ship?"

"Negative Captain." Mercy's voice. "As long as they are awake they emit some kind of interference, we can't even tell how many there are."

"Alright, listen carefully. I'm going to release an irradiated dark matter pulse throughout the ship, it is going to knock out all sentient organic life on the Venture. Program the computer to transport all Diasporans into space once it can get a lock on them and plot a course for the nearest Alliance star base. Hopefully we'll have woken up by then."

"What if we can't beam them off the ship?"

"Then we'll just have brought a hostile force inside Alliance space. No time for questions Lieutenant, just do it."

Lena puts the finishing touching on her dark matter bomb just as the turbolift doors open and another squado of Diasporans marches into the hangar bay.

"Captain, we're ready."

"See you on the other side." Lena activates the device and slowly at first then all at once a glowing energy bursts from the machine and the last thing she senses is it passing through her.

"Now approaching Starbase Beta 15. No sign of the intruders or their ship."

Lena walks out of the turbolift into the bridge, head pounding from her altercation with the Diasporans and the unexpected nap.

"We're all clear ma'am."

"Thank you Commander Perec. Let's tend to our wounded and let SpaceForce know what just happened."

"Lena, are you okay?" Luke's voice comes through their private chanel.

"I was just rescued by a fucking Kryptonian warhero, of course I'm not okay. Keep this between us please Luke, the last thing we need right now is the press coming around asking questions."

"Or the Admirals."

"Exactly. Let's just get back and hope we don't have to answer too many unanswerable questions."