As they reached the desired height over the drill, the alarms of the depressurization started blaring. In seconds they were ready, helmets in place and locked, rapidly they grabbed on to the hand-straps and stood on the lip of the Airlock. They were at the point of no return, Obi-wan was already calculating the odds of surviving this one. He would admit it, if just to himself that ignoring the safety equipment was reckless move on his part. He just trusted more in the Force then on their technology.
"Pre-jump, on one: three, two, one." The captain announced, the four in the back slammed against the roof as the gravity dies in the hold. Obi-wan resisted the urge to groan at the unexpected pain. "Good luck," Pike says before hitting another control and the doors opened, instantly the four were pulled out of the shuttle.
The four men where falling, in high velocity and mostly out of control. The first to rein in his speed and with practice ease maneuver his body, was Obi-wan and with subtle pushes with the Force, he assisted his comrades. They were all now falling face down, passing the cable tentacles that tethered the drill to the enemy ship; with the angel of their bodies they control the direction of their fall and aim towards the drill's control pad.
4 thousand meters above the platform Sulu and Kirk pulled their chutes. Obi-wan spreads his hands and legs out, instantaneously starting to use the Force to slow down his descent. Kirk and Sulu watched impressed, but meters below them, Olsen has yet to open his chute. His fellow Starfleet officers were screaming at him to open his chute, 1000 meters above the platform his pulls the string. Obi-wan felt it before it happened, the man was falling at to fast a speed, his landing was going to violent and most likely end in his death.
Not moments after, he witnesses the death of Engineer Olsen; his body slams into the edge of the drill, bouncing off hard and into its center, where the swirling vortex spins. He is instantly killed by the plasma light. Obi-wan closes his eyes, there was nothing he could do. He has to concentrate on his fall. Kirk and Sulu reach the platform before him.
Kirk also comes in hard and bounces though quickly regains his footing and auto-retracts into the pack. However, Sulu, isn't so lucky and 20 yards above the drill gets tangled with the cables, which jerk him upside down. The harsh winds blow Sulu sideways, his chute's lines start to break. Sulu grabs onto one of the cables.
Barely a second later, Obi-wan lands on the platform, kneeling, a loud thud vibrating through the metal. He stretches his hand out grabs Sulu in a Force Grip, holding him in case if he were to fall. Kirk sprinted towards his comrade, ignoring his astonishment at witnessing the 'Jedi's' landing.
The Force warned him not a moment earlier. A humanoid male appears from a hatch, Obi-wan cursed his luck and let go of the pilot, trusting Kirk to save the man's life. The male fired a sort of blaster bolt towards Obi-wan, which he easily blocked with his lightsaber and redirected the shot else where.
"I would surrender if I were you," Obi-wan commented confidently, standing between the Romulan and the Starfleet officers. The Romulan snarls and fires a few more shots, Obi-wan blocking them with ease, Kirk by now had pulled Sulu onto the platform and were unsure what to do. Their new friend seems to have the situation under control. Though as Kenobi approaches the Romulan another two climb out and Kirk and Sulu encage them in combat. In a normal situation, Obi-wan could easily handle the aggressors, yet he felt that this was a battle that they had to win by their own wits. He played around with his opponent for a few more seconds, ending with him slicing the blaster in two and pushing his opponent back; resulting in him smashing his head against the platform and knocking him out. Luckily, the other two were too distracted to notice his use of the Force.
Kirk's and Sulu's adversaries did not fare so well and both finished getting incinerated as they fell. The three turned towards the hatch, however none of them wished to entered.
"Any idea how we are supposed to stop this thing?" Sulu asked, letting go of the pipe. Kirk thinks for a second, looking around. Suddenly he picks up one of the Romulan blasters and aimed it at the power cords, following his lead, Obi-wan turns on his saber and slashed at the cables. Soon after, the plasma light disappeared, the three gave a sigh of relief.
Kirk turns and stared intently at the Jedi, "your story better be good."
Obi-wan chuckles and puts away his saber, "you have no idea."
A high pitch shriek distracts the three. It gets louder as whatever it is, gets closer. They look up just in time to see a pod descend into the hole. There is a moment of hesitation as they all wait for something to happen, soon it does, a billow of smoke emerges from the planet's core followed by a shockwave that blasts upwards. It is felt all the way up to where they are standing, the officers fight to maintain their footing.
At the same time, Kirk calls up the Enterprise. "They just launched something towards the planet!"
To their frustration Kirk doesn't receive an answer. Obi-wan, through the bond could feel Anakin's anxiety and determination. Something is going on up there.
-o-o-o-
In the bridge, warning alarms scream, the crew is running around frantic to figure out what is going on.
"Chekov, run gravitational sensors. I want to know what they're doing to the planet." Spock ordered.
Chekov without looking up from the controls answers, "aye Commander… Keptin, sorry Keptin."
Anakin nearly misses it and runs fast towards the screen, "they just shot something into the hole they created."
Spock frowns, but before he could ask, Chekov spoke up.
"Keptin, gravitational sensors are off the scale. If my calculations are correct that pod they launched is creating a singularity… that will consume the planet." The navigational officer informs.
Anakin eyes widened and raced over to Chekov's controls. He may not have understood the letters and what he imagined where numbers, but the diagram was general enough and he got the overall idea. The death toll was going to be astronomical. He couldn't just stand around and do nothing.
"They're creating a black hole… at the center of Vulcan?" Spock asks hoping for Chekov to deny it.
"Yes, sir," Chekov answers, hating to be the bearer of bad news.
"How long does the planet have?" He asks with a tad of apprehension.
Anakin straightened and with the Force felt the urgency to get away. "It has minutes," Anakin said, sparing the poor kid.
Spock didn't miss a beat and turned to Uhura, "alert Vulcan Command Center to signal a planet-wide evacuation. All channels, all frequencies, maintain standard orbit." He ordered getting up and heading out of the bridge. Anakin close to his heels. He could feel the Force telling him to follow the Commander.
Close behind them came Uhura, "Spock, wait! Where are you going?!"
The Vulcan barely slowed down, "to evacuate the Vulcan High Council. They're tasked with protecting our cultural history. My parents will be among them."
Anakin exhaled in understanding of the man's impatience, his family was in trouble. The other two discussed it for a couple of seconds, Uhura at the end relented. The two turned expectantly towards the Jedi, unlike everybody else, Uhura knew that the strangers weren't from this galaxy. Spock had confided in her a week ago.
"Skywalker," Spock said, "you will remain on the ship."
Anakin frowned, "I'm going with you, Commander."
"As your commanding officer…" the man started, but Anakin easily interrupted him.
"No offense, Commander, but you don't hold any authority over me. My Master and I are here under Captain Pike's request."
Uhura eyebrows raised in surprise, such insubordination does not happen often in Starfleet and even less twice during one mission. Spock visibly clenched his jaw, though turned towards the transporter room. He did not have time for this. If the man wishes to die, it wasn't going to be his fault.
Anakin smirked and left the gapping lieutenant behind.
-o-o-o-
The three man waited for some sort of responds from the ship, however, as they start to get impatient and worry. The drill's platform lurches and the cables begin to retract. The platform banks and Sulu barely having secured his footing from the shockwave of before, falls back and off the platform without a chute. Kirk manages to hold on and watches his fellow officer wide-eyed. Without even thinking about and before Obi-wan can stop him, Kirk runs and jumps after the young pilot.
Obi-wan holds himself with the Force and curses the impulsiveness of the heroic cadet. In some ways reminding him of his hyperactive Padawan. With a sigh and damning his luck, internally, he jumped after the two men.
Kirk managed to slam into Sulu in a mid-air tackle, which resulted in them tumbling together through the sky at death defying speeds. Kirk grabbed Sulu with iron tight strength; he was screaming at him to do something. Slowing his descend with the Force and making it more controlled, Obi-wan stretched out a hand and decreased their speed to the best of his abilities. They had to open the chute and fast.
Sulu manages to pull the chute, yet the added weight is to much and the chute rips away from them. Now with no chute and the three of them free-falling, Kirk can't help but panic and comms in the Enterprise.
"We're falling without a chute! Beam us up! Beam us up!" he exclaimed his voice rising in volume the closer they got to the ground. Obi-wan wasn't in a better position, normally he would be able to control his fall and land safely, but buy the other two more time, he couldn't aim his descent and was heading straight towards the hole.
Kirk noticed the free falling Jedi, he had not seen the man fall. He must have followed them, hoping in some way to help, but was to far away to do anything about it. Because of adrenalin and the situation, Kirk didn't notice the decrease of their speed, and even if he had, he would have sum it up as an illusion.
"Enterprise, the three of us are falling without a chute! Beam us up or we're dead!" Kirk yelled desperately.
-o-o-o-
On the Enterprise, his cry resounded over the newly restored communication, springing to another console, Chekov, let his fingers fly over the instrumentation. He had done this sort of thing a dozens, hundreds of times previously… in simulations. As he worked frantically he was shouting toward the console communicator.
"Transporter Room, come in! This is Ensign Chekov on the bridge. Emergency command override, transfer full control to the forward console!" the kid yelled taking control of the bridge.
At her station Uhura was hurriedly requesting, manipulating and entering information, "preparing to incept coordinate stand by for transfer!"
The officer who had assume the responsibilities of the science station when Spock had departed now looked up anxiously. "The singularity's expanding. We won't reach minimum safe distance if we don't leave, NOW!"
"Shut up!" Uhura and Chekov yelled simultaneously. Their reaction was not regulation, but it had the desired effect, grim-faced, the replacement science officer turned back to his console. Sweat was beginning to stream down his face as he confronted the numbers that implacably recognized an escalating sequence of physical events that were no less lethal for their mounting improbability.
At the forward transporter console, an increasingly fretful Chekov was desperately manipulating the manual target control. However, something was throwing his calculations to the mud, they weren't falling at the expected speed. Yet just as he was about to give up, there speed increased and with extreme luck he managed to catch their three signals.
"Got them!" the ensign yelled in triumph. His free hand slammed down on a large control disk.
In the Enterprise's main transporter room, several technicians glanced up apprehensively from the console and instruments they were monitoring. On front of them, the rematerialization of three bodies slammed against the deck with considerable force. Obi-wan grimacing from the nausea, still trying to understand why the Force had urged him to let go. Either way, from what he was seeing they were safe and back on board the ship.
Slowly the three peeled themselves off the transporter deck, holding themselves carefully. Kirk noticed that the Jedi looked particularly green… it reminded him of his reaction to the first time he was ever beamed.
"Th-thanks." Sulu says to the blond man slowly still recovering from the shock of falling and now being on the Enterprise.
"Uh huh," Jim replied weakly as he examined himself over, making sure that he was completely intact. "I swear we were so close, I could smell the dirt, especially when we started to gain speed."
Obi-wan flinched and started to walk, though that ended up being a bad idea. "Anakin will be glad to hear that I have discovered something I dislike more then his piloting."
The other two raised their eyebrows at the random comment. Yet, before they could reply the transporter room's door parted and Spock, closely followed by the younger cloaked male strode purposely into the room. Obi-wan ignoring the meaningful glance that the commander directed at him.
'What are you up to now?' he asked his determined Padawan.
Anakin shrugged subtly, sure that no one noticed. 'To rescue the ruling body of this planet.' He answered simple enough.
'Of course,' his master replied resigned that he wasn't going to get more information and he didn't even try to talk his Padawan out of going.
"Step or roll aside, I'm going to the surface." Spock said without waiting to see if the men on the floor were complying. He turned to the chief engineer. "You should already have received coordinates for a specific disaster shelter located near the city of Shi'Kahr. While physically design constraints prevent us from transporting inside, get us," he glanced with slight frustration at the man that was standing stubbornly next to him, "as close to the entrance as you can."
"Anakin ground yourself… what you're about to feel will not be pleasant." He instructed than as an afterthought he continued. "Don't access the Force, I'm unsure how the combination will affect us."
Anakin stared at Obi-wan confused, yet he knows that when in doubt following his Master advice was a good idea. "Yes, Master."
He strengthened his mental shields and without another word, the commander remained focused on the engineer. "Energize."
In an instant they were gone, Obi-wan had to blink and instinctively reached through their training bond. All he could feel were Anakin's iron tight shields. Transporting while thought of back in their galaxy, wouldn't be as useful and it was prohibited by laws older then the Republic.
-o-o-o-
Spock nearly lost his balance and fell as he rematerialized on the surface. Anakin a few paces behind him, nearly vomited, however by some miracle maintained his footing. It was than that Anakin, realized that it was his footing that was falling him, but the ground under him. While they varied in strength the quakes that were shaking the surface to pieces were continuous now.
Apparently the transport team had fulfilled the commander's instructions to the letter. The Jedi saw a wide entrance into something that look suspiciously like a shrine. Spock ran lightly, avoiding chunks of collapsing construction material and stone. Anakin was right behind, surprising the Vulcan in easily keeping pace with him.
Anakin had opened himself up to the Force, but kept his shields at the ready, the destruction of this planet could easily kill him if he isn't careful. They raced through the opening and passed the maze that were the corridors of the sanctuary.
A woman gasped, startled in seeing the two male burst through the gateway. She instantly recognized her son and with a quick glance around; he was by her side. The other stayed near the entrance, his posture making it obvious his anxiety.
"Mother, the planet is not safe. A singularity has been ignited in the core. There may be only seconds left." He turned and stared admiringly at the sanctuary. This would be the last somebody would bare witnessed to this majestic place. "We must evacuate this shelter immediately. Nothing is going to remain, nothing."
The last nothing was more for himself then for his mother. It still hadn't sunk in that his world was going to cease to exist. With a single look, though she didn't understand all he had said, Amanda trusted her son.
"Go and tell your father and the others." With great reluctance the group of elders emerged from their mind meld and picked up the ark from its pedestal. Anakin was tempted to pick it up with the Force, but he was unsure how they would react and they didn't have time to argue. The Vulcans carried the ark between them as they rushed out of the sanctuary.
As they emerged, they all stopped, the sight that greeted them was one none had been expecting. In all directions, as far as any of them could see, mountains and bluffs and ridges and desert were breaking apart and falling inwards. Vulcan was folding in upon itself.
Anakin stumbled back, the Force was screaming in pain and even his shields couldn't keep the screams out. Spock not letting the situation paralysis him, whipped out his communicator and spoke into the open channel.
"Spoke to Enterprise, emergency transport for eight additional in my immediate vicinity together with large object they are carrying… now!"
On the bridge of the orbiting starship, Chekov strained to simultaneously and accurately lock in a transport room full of strangers along with their cargo. He needed more time, which was exactly what he didn't have. It was on the other side of the room that a junior helmsman was staring fixedly at his instruments.
"Thirty seconds before we must leave or we never will."
Chekov grinded his teeth, "locking signatures, transport in five, four, three…."
The world crumbled around the group, Anakin was doing his best to center himself and ignore the pain that wouldn't leave him alone. Coming down here had been a mistake, yet something had urged him to follow the commander.
Amanda Grayson, turned and smiled sadly at her son. "It's okay to be scared." She told him quietly. All around them they solid world was becoming dust. And as the first stages of transport coalesced around them and they began to dematerialize. The ground beneath Amanda's feet vanished and she began to fall. On instinct and without thought, Anakin stretched his hand out.
"MOTHER!" Spock screamed and stretched out towards the falling human.
This was slightly longer then the last few chapters and well things are getting done... FINALLY! Anyway, I am not just using the movie and script, but also the novel version to fill in some blanks that the other two give. Hope you enjoyed and yes, this time the cliffhanger was on purpose and now you all have to suffer! Jejeje, well review... and I just might update the next chapter sooner, your reviews give me reason to continue writing.
Till' next time, AIR :*