Spock and Eliza were going to be parting ways over the break between first and second year. They had finished packing up their things when Eliza approached Spock and handed him a small metal device.
"What is this?" Spock asked her.
Eliza smiled, "It's an iPod, it plays music," She told him. "I put some of my favourites on there. You can listen to them if you miss my..." Eliza smirked, "Enlightening presence."
Spock's face was blank for a moment, and Eliza was finding it hard to tell what Spock thought of the little gift.
"I... thank you," Spock replied after a moment.
A Few Weeks Later...
Spock was becoming slightly restless during the first parts of his visit to Vulcan. Eliza sent him video messages from time to time during her various escapades on Earth. Spock looked down at his bag, which had still not been fully unpacked, and saw the iPod that Eliza had given him.
He placed the earbuds that were plugged into the iPod into his outer ear and pressed play.
"Ooh, Saturday sun, I met someone, out on the west coast, I gotta get back I can't let this go. Ooh, Saturday sun, I met someone, don't care what it costs, no ray of sunlight's ever lost." The smooth voice of a man sang into Spock's ears. Eliza had told him that this was her favourite song. The lyrics were... oddly speaking to Spock.
He spent the next few weeks listening to it before sleeping, and even sometimes only being able to go to sleep when listening to her music.
Eventually, near the end of his stay on Vulcan, Spock had an insight into an action he certainly had to take. That evening, he contacted Starfleet academy, informing them that he was requesting Eliza as his roommate once again for the next semester.
Soon, Spock was headed back off to the academy, and something he found himself irrationally excited about was seeing Eliza again. He did get many updates from her, but it was always of her doing dangerous activities. Surfing off the coast of Malaysia, climbing mountains in Switzerland, snowboarding in Canada, hiking in the Russian wilderness. He had been... worried about her.
He arrived at the assigned dorm first. It was, in fact, the same quarters that himself and Eliza had shared the previous academic year.
When he heard a knock on the door, he went to open it with a small smile.
Eliza's face smiled back, "Well, I'm sorry, I seem to have the wrong room."
Spock's smile faltered, "What? I-"
He was cut off when he was tightly embraced by Eliza, "Just joking." She pulled away after a moment, "So, how was your stay on Vulcan?"
Spock nodded slightly, "Perfectly satisfactory, but I am..." Spock trailed off and looked at her, "More than pleased to have returned here."
"Me too," Eliza said with a smile.
In the two years that followed, the pattern continued. They would spend nearly every waking moment together when at the academy, but during the summer break in between years, they would have little contact; desperately missing each other.
This year, however, they were set to graduate. and Eliza was uncertain about the wants of her friend.
"So... Spock?" Eliza asked, getting his attention. He turned to face her, "Do you exactly have any plans for after graduation? I know it's a little early to think about, but some people have already come and talked to me about different positions, and I just... I just wanted to know what you were planning on doing."
Spock nodded, "I too was planning on asking you what your plans were after we graduate," He replied with a slight smirk.
Eliza smiled, "Well, I've been offered positions as a tactical officer on nearly every ship in the fleet, but I've also been offered a teaching position at the academy."
"I too have been offered similar options. Might I ask if you have also received news of the construction of the USS Enterprise?" Spock asked.
She nodded, "Yes, Captain Pike offered me the position of First Tactical Officer when it was completed."
"I was offered the position of First Science Officer," Spock said. "I would... prefer that we work with each other. I have grown very accustomed to your company."
Eliza smiled at him, "Me too." There was a pause where they both took a moment to feel pleased that their goals seemed to match up well with each other. "So... what should we do during the next four years?"
Four Years Later...
James T. Kirk was a stubborn man. He ha joined the academy three years ago, and even though his sister taught several classes, he managed to avoid her, and any wor of her too.
It was why, when he was called up in front of the academic council, that he was surprised to find that his accusers were a Vulcan named Spock, and his twin sister Eliza.
"Please step forward," The Academy President spoke. "This is Commander Spock and Commander Kirk, Commander Spock has programmed the test with inspiration on the scenario and outcomes from Commander Kirk. They are our two most distinguished graduates."
Kirk looked at his sister for the first time in nearly eight years. She looked... so different. She was only seventeen when she left, now she was 25. She used to be so scrawny and lean, but now she was toned and strong. She was still short though... he remembered when she used to be taller than him... he remembered when she used to help him with his homework... he remembered her looking at him with pure hatred, like she was now, whenever he got in trouble with Frank... he remembered waiting, every time, for her to finally step in and stand up for him, but she never did... Jim looked away.
Spock looked at Eliza to see if she wanted to speak, and when she made a small gesture towards him, he began.
"Cadet Kirk, it is obvious you somehow managed to install and activate a sub-routine in the programming code, thereby changing the conditions of the test."
"Your point being?" Kirk asked with an arrogant nonchalance.
Eliza was desperately trying not to become completely enraged, but she had to say something. "In other words," Eliza started with a hint of venom in her voice, "You cheated."
Kirk shrugged, "Respectfully, define cheating."
"To deceive through trickery," Spock answered immediately.
"Now let me ask you something I think we all know the answer to. The test is rigged, isn't it? You programmed it to be unwinnable," Kirk asked.
Eliza raised an eyebrow and nearly scoffed, "You believe life is winnable?"
The academy president cleared his throat, "Cadet Kirk, I do not understand how questioning the intent of the exam is relevant."
"Because if I'm right, the entire test is a cheat," Kirk argued.
"Your argument precludes the possibility of a no-win scenario," Spock replied.
"I don't believe in no-win scenarios," Kirk replied back sharply.
"So then you didn't just cheat, but you also didn't get the point," Eliza chimed in.
"And what's that?" Kirk asked angrily, his volume was beginning to increase. This reminded him of how they used to fight as kids, she would never take his side, she was always against him, always.
"You, of all people, should know, Cadet Kirk," Spock spoke coolly, "A captain cannot cheat death."
This was when Kirk's face went eerily blank, "I of all people?"
Eliza was also about three seconds away from her breaking point. "Yes, you of all people. You seem to incapable of putting the lesson together yourself so let me help you. The purpose of the test is to be afraid. Afraid of certain death and still maintain control over your ship, your crew and yourself. Like our father did the day he sacrificed his life for ours and the hundreds of people under his command."
The crowd became silent, that was the first time Eliza had actually directly stated that they were siblings, even though everyone already knew... some people were surprised by Eliza's bluntness. "Also, there's another lesson you seem to have never caught onto. Life has given you very hard blows, and any decent Starfleet Captain would take them and learn from them. It seems to me that you never learn, that as soon as you encounter something you cannot overcome with ease, you turn to cheat."
Eliza's words hung in the air for a moment, and it was silent.
Then, a redshirt suddenly came rushing through the room and handed the president a datapad. There was a moment of tense silence as he read it. He then looked up at the crowd and announced, "We've received a distress signal from Vulcan."
Eliza's heart dropped, she ignored the rest of his words to Kirk and looked up at Spock. His hand slightly tremored when he looked down at her concerned face.
"I'll meet you on the Enterprise," Spock said quietly to her before going to help prepare.
Eliza looked across the room at Jim and they locked eyes for a brief moment. Eliza turned away.
Nearly everyone was aboard the Enterprise bridge when Eliza arrived. Her presence turned a few heads, mostly because of what she was wearing. Part of her job was tactical command, and that could include hand to hand combat with intruders and dealing with hostiles. So she had a custom combat suit made that was outside the usual shirt and skirt of a female officer. Eliza was actually hoping that by wearing this as her uniform, more women would feel comfortable asking for the ease of trousers rather than a fairly short and restrictive skirt.
Her combat suit was black and red, with long pants and long sleeves that fit tightly to her body.
Captain Pike nodded to her as she entered, "Commander Kirk, good to see you."
"You too Captain," Eliza replied. She took her seat next to Spock and looked at him. He seemed tense, which would be about right, they were responding to a distress signal from his home planet. She wanted to reach over and squeeze his hand, but she knew him well enough to know that he wasn't a huge fan of touch as a form of consolation.
Every second wasted was another second that they waited getting to his family, hence why he was a little tense to get going. Sulu's slight mishap was not helping.
Then, Chekov's announcement was made, and one line made Eliza freeze in her seat. "A lightning storm in space." Chekov's words echoed.
Eliza stood and made her way to the Captain's chair, "Captain Pike, the description of the anomaly is eerily similar to the phenomenon that was reported before the destruction of the USS Kelvin," Eliza spoke calmly. Under the surface she was concerned, she wanted to get there as quickly as possible, but she wanted to be cautious.
"And what would you suggest that we do?" Pike questioned. He knew she was the unparalleled expert in all things tactics, and he took her opinion on these matters very seriously.
"I want to get there as fast as the ship can take us, but I would like to have the ship put on alert and have the front shields on max," Eliza told him.
Pike nodded, "Do it."
They hadn't been in warp for long when suddenly, who else barged onto the bridge but Jim.
Eliza and Spock both instantly stood as Jim stumbled towards Captain Pike with McCoy right behind him, trying to pull him back.
While Pike and McCoy shouted over each other trying to explain the situation, Jim began to explain his theory.
"Vulcan isn't experiencing a natural disaster, it's being attacked by Romulans!" Jim shouted.
Everyone fell silent to look at him incredulously. "Cadet Kirk, I think you've had enough attention for one day," Pike said before turning to Bones, "Dr. McCoy, return to medical, we'll have words later."
"Yes sir," McCoy replied quickly.
Eliza was livid, Jim should not be on this ship. She was extremely angry that Jim seemed to be set on intruding on her life.
She leaned over to Spock and said quietly, "Can you get him off this ship?"
Spock looked at her and raised an eyebrow, but approached the arguing Captain and Jim nonetheless.
"As you know, Mr. Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel. By Starfleet regulations that makes him a stowaway-" Spock began but was cut off by James.
"Yeah I get it, you're a great arguer, I'd love to go at it again but-" James was cut off by Eliza.
"Sir, I can remove this Cadet from the bridge," She said to Pike.
"Try it! This cadet is trying to save the bridge!" Jim shouted.
"On what facts?" Spock questioned.
"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," Kirk started.
Pike glanced at Eliza, "Yes, Commander Kirk has already alerted us to this fact, we have taken certain precautions."
Jim glanced at Eliza with slight surprise, it hadn't really occurred to him that she would have said anything, but Jim wasn't quite done with his evidence.
"Fact: this ship, which had formidable and advanced 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 attack near a Klingon prison planet. Fact: they reported that the attackers were Romulans, Sir."
"And you about this how?" Pike asked.
Kirk turned to Uhura, who had followed them in, "Sir, I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk's report is accurate."
"We're warping into a trap, there are Romulans waiting for us, I promise you that," Jim said desperately.
Eliza looked at Spock to see what he thought about the theory, she could tell he appreciated the actually well-formed and thought-out theory.
Pike also looked to Spock, who replied, "The Cadet's logic is sound."
"If Uhura translated the message herself, I believe her," Eliza added.
Jim looked at Eliza slightly hurt, so she had no problem standing up for her Vulcan friend, or for Uhura, but when it came to him... she was not so protective.
Jim and Captain Pike and Uhura took a moment to figure out the communication issue, Eliza spoke quietly to Spock, "If we find the people who killed my father... I'm not sure that I will be able to control myself." Spock raised an eyebrow in confusion, he wasn't sure what she was trying to tell him. "If I start making bad decisions... please tell me."
Spock nodded, "And I trust that under the circumstances, a threat to my homeworld, that you would do the same for me."
Eliza looked up at him, "I won't have to, because everything is going to be fine."
Before Spock could respond Pike an the others quickly jumped into action, "Shields up! Ready all weapons!" He called.
Eliza quickly moved back to her station to prep all weapons. Her heart was pounding, they were about to drop out of warp, and she wasn't sure what she was going to see. What was she prepared to see, and what was she prepared to know?
"Emergency evasive!" Pike shouted as the wreckage of the entirety of the Starfleet fleet suddenly appeared in front of them.
Sulu brought them under the wreck, and then they saw it. A massive ship, unlike anything she'd ever seen before appeared in front of Eliza's eyes, and she knew... she knew that whoever the captain was of that ship... that was the person who killed her father.
A red blinking light suddenly appeared on Eliza's dash, she immediately called out the signal, "Captain they're lock torpedoes!"
"Full reverse, come about Starboard ninety degrees! Drop us down underneath them! Prepare to fire all weapons!" Captain Pike ordered.
Suddenly they were hit with one of the torpedoes and the ship rocked violently.
"Shields at 32% sir!" Eliza yelled over the chaos.
"Captain, the Romulan ship has lowered some kind of high energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere. Its signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter abilities!" Spock called out.
"All power to forward shields!"
"Captain, I can try to shoot their torpedoes out of the sky with our plasma cannons, it may cause a proximity detonation," Eliza said.
Pike nodded, "It's our best shot, put out the proximity detonation alert and-" Suddenly Pike was cut off by the face that appeared on the screen.
"Captain we're being hailed," Uhura said.
"Hello," The man said.
"I am Captain Christopher Pike, to whom am I speaking?" Pike questioned firmly.
"I... am Nero," He spoke.
Eliza now knew... Nero was the one that killed her father.
"You've declared war against the Federation. Withdraw, and I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral locat-"
"I do not speak for the Empire. We stand apart. As does your Vulcan crew member... isn't that right? Spock?" Nero questioned. As soon as the mention of Spock came out of his mouth, Eliza stood. Nero's eyes widened slightly, "Ah, isn't this a pleasant surprise, Commander Spock and Commander Kirk on the same starship."
Spock stepped in front of Eliza and walked over to the captain's chair, "Pardon me. But I don't believe we are acquainted," Spock spoke about himself and Eliza... and this Nero figure.
Nero grinned sickly, "No... not yet." He paused, "I want you to see this Spock." Eliza stepped back in front of Spock, so she was standing right beside Captain Pike. Nero looked at Eliza and Captain Pike with a wicked gleam, "One of you two will take a shuttle to my ship for negotiations."
There was a moment of silence, Eliza looked down at Captain Pike who looked up at her.
Eliza looked away, "Nero likely wants information on the Starfleet inter-planetary defence system. You have that knowledge, not me. I'll go."
Jim stepped forward at the same time Spock froze in place.
"He'll kill you! You know that!" Jim cried.
"No I don't, not if I kill him and his crew first," Eliza spoke back with a chill in her voice. Jim suddenly realized just how different Eliza had become. Before she was a shy girl that liked to rock-climb, and now she was confident enough that she believed that she could kill a ship full of Romulans, and she was willing to get tortured on the chance that she was wrong. She was dangerous.
Jim realized that he wasn't going to be able to change Eliza's mind so instead he turned to Pike. "Captain, we gain no advantage by going over there. It's a mistake!" He pleaded.
Spock then stepped forward, "Captain, if I may..." He gestured to the situation, Pike nodded. "I agree with Mr. Kirk, we gain no advantage by either of you going to Nero's ship," Spock then turned to look at Eliza, "And I believe you are wrong in guessing the motivations of Nero. He said he wanted me to see something, and as he knows who we both are, I believe the logical conclusion is that he would rather show me your suffering than learn anything of the Starfleet planetary defence."
Jim and Pike both looked at Spock with confusion, while Eliza's cool facade fell in the face of her friend who wasn't willing to let her go.
Suddenly, Pike came up with an idea, "I need officers who have been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat!" He called. Eliza locked eyes with him, and she could tell that he wasn't meaning her.
"I have training sir," Sulu said. Eliza smiled at him, he had been one of her best students in hand-to-hand combat at the academy.
Pike nodded, "Then come with me," Pike paused and looked at Jim, "You too Kirk, you're not supposed to be here anyway." Pike turned to Chekov, "Radio the engine room, have Chief Engineer Olsen meet us at Shuttle Bay Five."
"Yes, Keptain," Chekov replied.
Captain Pike left the bridge, followed by Spock, Eliza, Jim and Sulu.
"Captain, what's the plan?" Eliza asked.
"Without transporters, we can't beam off the ship, can't assist Vulcan, can't do our job. I'm creating an opportunity. Mr. Kirk, Mr. Sulu and Mr. Olson will space-jump from the shuttle. You'll have chutes and you'll land on that machine they've lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear. You'll get inside, disable that thing then beam back to the ship," Captain Pike explained.
Sulu and Jim shared a glance, what have they just signed up for?
Pike turned to face Eliza, "Commander, I'm leaving you in command of the ship, once we have communications back up, contact the rest of Starfleet and relay the situation. If all else fails, fall back and regroup with the rest of the fleet."
"Captain!" Eliza cried, "Please, let me go. I can't... I can't captain this ship, sir. And you're more valuable than I am."
Pike shook his head slightly, "No, Eliza," Pike said softly. "Now, you have your orders. Spock you're promoted to first officer, Kirk," Pike paused, "God help us if it comes to this, but you're the second officer."
Eliza would have protested his decision if she wasn't feeling as though her world was about to come crashing down.
Pike turned to Eliza with a grin, "The ship's brand new Captain, be careful with her."
And suddenly, Eliza was the Captain of the USS Enterprise.