Here is the next chapter and a lot sooner then I thought I would get it done. But honestly, with all the attention this story is getting, I really got inspired and started writing. When I started this story, I never imagine the reception that it has gotten and because of this, Ive decided to dedicate more time to writing it. I hope that it reaches all of your expectation and that you all enjoy it.
Anakin couldn't help but stare out the bridge's large window and watch as the galaxy was warped around them. Just by watching the stars and how they passed by them, he noticed the differences between the Warp Speed and Hyper Speed. And going by what the Captain said, they could even vary the speed in which they traveled between systems.
The crew worked to put the ship in shape for the next hour and a half of travel. Sulu turned to the captain with a now more confident look.
"Engines at Maximum Warp, Captain."
Pike nodded and turned to the navigator, which he had heard was prodigy from Russia. "Russian whiz kid, what's your name again… Chanko… Cherpov?"
A male, even younger then Anakin turned around and beamed a bright smile at the aging Captain.
"Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreievich, sir." He provided with a heavy accent, not bothered by the Captain mispronouncing his name.
"Fine Chekov," he stated not even trying to pronounce the rest of his name. it would just be a waste of time. "Begin ship-wide mission broadcast."
"Yes sir, happy to," Chekov replied and looked down at the consul, "Ensign authorization code: nine-five-wictor-wictor-two…"
Obi-wan raised an eyebrow at the unconventional form of authorization, the ensign's accent was only going to prolong matters. His prediction coming true as the computer denied him access and asked him to try again.
The Russian sighed with exasperation, "Aigh, thees is the 23rd century, what good is woice recognition that doesn't recognize your woice?" he asked no one in particular and repeated the could make a conscious effort in his pronunciation.
The computer this time, to the ensign's relief accepted the could, Anakin chuckled though decided to pay close attention to what the kid was saying.
"Your attention, plees, at 22 hundred hours, telemetry detected an anomaly in the Neutral Zone. What appeared to be a lightning storm in space. Soon after, Starfleet received a distress signal from the Vulcan High Council that their planet was experiencing seismic activity. We then lost contact with Vulcan entirely. Our mission is to assess the condition of Vulcan and assist in evacuation, if necessary. We should be arriving at Vulcan within a half hour. Thank you for your time."
Anakin turned questioningly to his master, he had felt the commotion that was going on in the lower decks. And as the minutes ticked by, Obi-wan nodded, and took a step back from the bridge's main door. Things where about to get interesting.
It wasn't that much later that the doors whooshed open and a blond male with blue eyes raced in followed by two other humans. The man dressed in blue was clearly some sort of medic, he kept scanning the blond over and murmuring terms that made Obi-wan frowned, reminding him of being in the Healer's Wing.
"Captain Pike, sir, we have to stop the ship!" was the first thing that the blonde exclaimed, confusing everybody in the process.
"Mr. Kirk! How the hell did you get on board the Enterprise?!" Pike demanded ignoring the ensign's previous exclamation.
Obi-wan raised an eyebrow, recognizing the name. So this was the kid that had been giving the captain so much trouble. With a slight shake, he told Anakin to stay out of this. It was the captain's duty to deal with this.
The dark skinned woman with them looked around nervously, she was aware that she didn't have the authorization to be in bridge.
"This man is under the influence of a severe reaction to a vaccine. He is delusional and I take full responsibility for…" the blue uniformed individual tried to explain, but Kirk interrupted him and spoke as though he hadn't been asked a question.
"Vulcan isn't experiencing a natural disaster; it's being attacked by Romulans."
The crew stared at him in shock. No one like that particular idea one bit.
"Cadet Kirk, I think you've had enough attention for one day. Dr. McCoy, return to medical, we'll have words later." Pike ordered. The doctor easily accepting them.
Anakin frowned, he knew what it felt to be ignored, yet the kid was going at it the wrong way.
As the doctor made to exit and subtly steered Kirk out, the Commander decided to add his two cents to the conversation.
"As you know, Mr. Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel. By Starfleet regulation that makes him a stowaway."
Kirk grimace and instantly replied trying to brush the older man off. "Yeah, I get it, you're a great arguer, I'd love to do it again with you, too."
"I can remove the cadet from the bridge, sir…" Spock offered, however he was interrupted by said cadet.
"Try it!" Kirk challenged, "this cadet is trying to save the bridge!"
Obi-wan sighed, all this arguing was useless and was only giving him a headache. Yet he could feel the tension and anger between the two men, this was deeper then just being on board the ship. If he had to guess, it may have something to do with the hearing of earlier that day.
"By recommending a full stop in trans-warp in the midst of a rescue mission?" Spock asked stoically.
Anakin wondered if the Vulcan would be so against the idea if it weren't his home world that was being affect. Though however much he hates to admit it at times, some of the Jedi's teaching can be useful in situation such as this. However, his master was still giving him the sign to stay out of it.
"Its not a rescue mission… listen to me!" Kirk demanded, now becoming frustrated with the people around him. "It's an attack!"
"Based on what facts?" Spock questioned trying of dealing with the cadet.
Kirk looked around the bridge, at last noticing the weird dressed men which where standing next to bridge's large screen. Whatever, now wasn't the time to think about them.
"Fact: the same anomaly, a lightning storm in space that we saw today, also occurred on the day of my birth before a Romulan ship attacked the U.S.S. Kelvin." He turned and looked directly at the Captain, silently asking him to listen and to trust him on this. "You know that, I read your dissertation. Which was good.
"Fact: this ship, which had formidable and advance weaponry was never seen or heard from again. Fact: The Kelvin attack took place on the edge of Klingon space and at 11-hundred hours last night there was an escape from a Klingon prison planet… Rura Penthe. Fact: the escape prisoners were Romulans, sir, and it was reported that they stole a ship from the prison dock."
Pike exchange a look with the elder of the cloak man. It seemed that even Obi-wan saw the logic in the cadet's argument. And in all honesty it was a better argument then Anakin's usual 'I have a feeling Master', though for a Jedi that was enough cause to at least consider it.
"And you know of this prison escape how?" Pike asked. The Jedi taking a few steps closer, this could of some interest to them.
Kirk pointed at the woman next to him, who sent him a glare for involving her in this mess and however reluctantly answered the Captain's question. "Sir, I- I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk's report is accurate."
Kirk now stood more confident, pleased that it wasn't just him saying all of this. Uhura in her own way was supporting him.
"We're warping into a trap, there are Romulans waiting for us, I promise you that!"
All eyes were on the Captain, who turned to his second in commanded, silently asking for his opinion on the matter.
"The cadet's logic is sound," Spock relented in a neutral tone. "And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics, we would be wise to accept her conclusion."
Instantly and as one both master and Padawan flinched and stumbled a few paces back, grabbing whatever was closer to them to help them regain their place. All eyes were now on them.
The younger was looking at the older man with a sorrowful expression.
"Master…?" he asked, hoping that whatever he had felt was just his imagination.
Pike took a few steps closer to the men, Kirk was now confused… this was a turn he had not been expecting.
"Knight Kenobi…?" the Captain asked, not sure what to ask.
"Hundreds if not thousands of life have just been extinguished. Their screams of pain and fear vibrate through the Force." The older one explained in a far away voice.
Anakin shook his head, "so many innocent lives… they never stood a chance against such an unexpected and brutal attack. The cadet is right; we're heading into a battlefield."
Pike frowned and without anymore arguing turned to the comm's officer. "Scan Vulcan space, check if any transmissions are being made in Romulan."
The officer frowned, "sir, I'm not sure I could distinguish the Romulan language from Vulcan."
The captain turned to the cadet that had come in with Kirk, "How about you… you speak Romulan cadet…?"
Uhura looked around unsure, but knew that now wasn't the time to hesitate, Spock home world was in danger. "Uhura, sir, all three dialects." She answered, in a matter of fact tone.
Pike nodded, "Uhura, relieve the Lieutenant, Mr. Hannity, hail the U.S.S. Truman." He commanded hoping that whatever the Jedi had said wasn't the truth.
Kirk was surprised by the quick turn of events, plus the unexpected backing of the unknown man. Nonetheless, he still didn't understand what happened a few seconds ago, but he wasn't going to be ungrateful… when the results were in his favor.
He slightly stepped back and stood next to the doctor.
"Any idea who those two are?" Kirk asked.
McCoy shrugged and murmured back. "No idea, though I did hear some rumors… of an incident on Starbase 1, a week ago, however command decided to keep it all quiet."
Uhura takes the console and works around the controls trying to get some sort of signal.
"The other ships are out of warp and have arrived at Vulcan, sir, but we seem to have lost all contact." Hannity informs the bridge.
"Captain, I pick up no Romulan transmissions or transmissions of any kind in the area. There seems to be something jamming all communication around Vulcan." Uhura added.
Kirk perked up, ready to make his case once more. "It's because they're being attacked, Captain, please."
He was to the point of begging. He just knew that once they got out of warp something bad would be waiting for them. This ship couldn't have the same fate as the Kelvin's.
Anakin frown, he was now sitting down. "That part has passed; the rest of the fleet has already been destroyed."
The bridge stood silent, processing the stranger's words, yet Kirk wasn't in the mode to hear it.
"I appreciate you backing me up before, but you have no way of knowing what is going on over there." Kirk argued, hating the man's pessimist attitude and giving the rest of the fleet up for dead.
Anakin looked up at the cadet, normally he would agree with him and would argue none stop with any naysayer that the ships were alright, but since he hadn't been shielding and his connection with the Force was stronger then usual… the blow had hit him head on. He couldn't deny it, even if he had the energy to do so.
Luckily it was Kenobi that answered for him. "Cadet, you can trust us when we say that the others aren't there anymore. We felt it when they left this realm of existence." He turned to his Padawan, the purity of the Force here had made them reckless. "Anakin put up your shields, the residual energy will prove harmful to us."
Anakin nodded, "don't have to tell me twice, Master."
Spock's eyebrows raised in surprise, "you are telepaths."
Anakin shared a look with his master and nodded, "also empaths if you want to get technical about it."
Dr. McCoy snorted, "great just a load of mumbo jumbo."
Pike refrained himself from asking any further, now wasn't the time and it also went against Federation regulations. He turned to the rest of the crew, the mystery of the Jedi would have to wait. The problem was Vulcan and how they were going to survive that.
"Shields up, ready all weapon." The Captain commanded, the lights around the bridge turned red. The crew was dreading what was to come. The two man were no standing and were calming look out the window, though there was a sense of trepidation from them.
"Arrival at Vulcan in five seconds! Four… three… two…" Sulu counted down as the ship jumped out of warp. The first thing they saw was the wreckage that was left and the flaming hull of a Starfleet ship barreling straight towards the bridge.
They have reached Vulcan and the action is about to begin, if you enjoyed this chapter review... review even if you didn't. You give me reasons to keep going. Till' next time... AIR.