Author's Note:

Greetings and Salutations good people. Here is Chapter 12 and it has a fair bit of action in it and remember that anything Lientov and Pavel say which is in italics is spoken in Russian. Thank you for all your support and I hope you enjoy this chapter.

I own nothing.

The Price of Darkness

"Admiral, we're picking something up on our sensors! There is some sort of ship coming out from between the stars."

Archer moved like lightning and quickly responded, "Understood Mr Sulu. I'm on my way up now."

He was out of the briefing room before McCoy could react and the doctor rushed to catch up with the admiral's rapid walk. They quickly reached the bridge and Hikaru was swift to report, "It started to show up as it pulled away from the stars, it's now within visual range and still moving."

Archer gave him a nod, "Onscreen Lieutenant."

The helmsman did as he was ordered and then looked at the screen along with the rest of the bridge. At first all they could see were the two stars but then they noticed the artificial object moving towards them and as it got closer its shape became clearer. It was largely composed of a massive sphere but it had two cylindrical protrusions from what seemed to be the top and bottom. There was very little in the way of lights across its surface making it appear dark and ominous against the brightness of the two stars and if it wasn't for the speed it was moving you could almost believe that it was dead in space.

Spock had already begun to study the scans they were taking of the vessel and was reporting his findings, "It appears to be a large space station and has no warp engines that are detectable. It is currently moving on impulse power and it is likely that it cannot maintain its current speed for very long. Its hull is made of an unidentified alloy which has great similarities to the kind used for vessels which are used for extremely hostile environments."

"Do we know why it has left the proximity of the stars?"

Archer had spoken and Spock turned from his station to answer, "Scans indicate that the station has modified versions of the solar collectors that were used to power the Helios Device when it was in operation. These collectors appear to be damaged which means that they can no longer protect the station properly as such it is logical to assume that the station had to leave its close proximity of the binary star system to prevent its destruction."

"Is it possible to beam anyone aboard since its shields are weakened?"

"Though the shields are indeed weakened they still produce too much interference for effective beaming. The only way would be to get a manual lock on one of our crew already aboard the station."

Just as soon as Spock had finished speaking Uhura called from her station, "Admiral, we have a communication coming from the station! It's Mr Scott sir."

"Patch me through Lieutenant."

The very familiar accented voice of Scotty came through the comm. and Archer quickly cut across him, "Lieutenant Commander Scott, this Admiral Archer aboard the USS Enterprise. Give me the status of you and the others."

"Ah'm currently at a comm. desk in the Engineering section of Lientov's station and uninjured. When Ah last saw Captain Kirk he was on his way tae the top of the station tae find Lientov. Ensign Chekov was kept separate from us but unless the Captain has already found him then he'll most likely still be with Lientov as his prisoner."

"Understood Mr Scott, keep this channel open."

"Aye sir."

The admiral turned to face Spock, "I'm assuming we now have a lock on his position."

"You are correct Admiral, we can beam a team to the station now that Mr Scott's communication has allowed us to lock in on him. With your permission I request that I may lead a rescue team to the station immediately."

"Request granted Commander; get them back safe as soon as possible."

"Understood Sir."

As soon as Jim recovered himself from the sudden shake of the station indicating Scotty's success he began to move even quicker. The corridors passed in a blur as he continued to push upwards. His pace was such that any of Lientov's men in his way could not react quickly enough to stop him; he took turn after turn without hesitation as he trusted his instincts which seemed to be telling him exactly which way to go. It wasn't long before he found himself sprinting up a spiral staircase and bursting into Lientov's office.

It was empty.

All that was left was a body of a man with a phaser blast mark on his forehead and Jim didn't bother to check for life signs, since the man would have been killed in an instant, and looked instead for any indication of where Lientov went. He was certain that it was his former captor who had killed the man and if he was now killing his own men then the chances were that he was going to try and make his escape taking Pavel with him. Though there was no proof that Pavel was even with Lientov, Jim could feel it in his gut and his instincts had yet to be wrong so he about turned and shot back down the stairs to begin his relentless hunt again.

Lientov dragged Pavel through the station.

They had been going at a fast pace and Pavel had no idea where they were going. It was soon revealed as they arrived at what appeared to be some sort of control room but it looked like it had been hastily vacated and one look at the veiwscreen revealed why. It showed the Enterprise and Pavel's heart soared at the sight of her, he guessed that with the station damaged and away from the protection of the stars Lientov's men had realised that they were in big trouble and were trying to escape arrest. As such they were evacuating the station, a quick look at some other screens showing the departure of several shuttles confirmed it. Lientov shoved him roughly into one of the seats and began to rapidly program something into one of the consoles muttering as he did so, "I'll show those cowards that no-one bails out on me."

He slammed his hand down on one final button and Pavel watched in horror as sections of the hanger on the screens began to explode taking the shuttles and all the people with it. The explosions rocked the station and the lurching flung Pavel out of the chair causing him to land painfully on the floor. He struggled to get up without the use of his arms and eventually managed to get himself in a sitting position, Lientov was once again tapping away madly at the controls and Pavel took stock of where he was now positioned. He realised that he was next to some sort of communication console and an idea suddenly jumped into his mind. Shifting as quietly as he could he manoeuvred himself so he had his back to the console, he then managed to get his legs underneath himself and levered himself into a standing position. His uncle was still focused on what he was doing so Pavel began to fiddle with the console behind him as well as he could with his bound hands, he had just finished pushing the right buttons when Lientov turned and saw him.

"What are you doing!?"

He strode rapidly towards Pavel and he tried to quickly think of an excuse but found that he couldn't come up with anything. His uncle came closer with pure rage on his face and Pavel began to shake with fear at what was about to happen.

Then Jim Kirk burst into the room.

Pounding through the station Jim was suddenly sent sprawling as the station was rocked a second time. He quickly got up again and resumed his mad dash somehow putting on more speed. There were more tremors and Jim struggled to keep his balance as he charged onwards, he saw a set of doors ahead and he knew without a doubt that Pavel and Lientov were beyond them so he sprinted at them and heedlessly burst into the room.

Right afterwards he realised that his approach wasn't the best but he knew it was too late now to change it. Lientov was startled for only a moment but before Jim could take advantage he recovered and swiftly grabbed Pavel, clapped a hand over the teen's mouth and held a phaser against his side. The boy tried to struggle but Jim gave him a sharp command, "Pavel Stop!"

He instantly relaxed and stilled and there was silence as Jim and Lientov gauged each other. Jim spoke first his voice steady and threatening, "Give up Lientov, your plan as failed and your base is no longer hidden. Let Pavel go and surrender yourself."

The man snarled, "No! I will never surrender and this is not finished. Even if I only escape from here with the boy then I will have been successful."

At that moment a familiar noise was heard and Jim and Lientov suddenly saw three figures materialise in the room. Their bodies fully formed to reveal Spock, Hendorff and a security officer and they were all armed with phaser rifles. Jim smirked at Lientov, "I don't think you're escaping anywhere."

Pavel's spirits soared as he watched Spock and the others appear even as he felt Lientov press the phaser barrel harder into his side. Spock silently took in the situation until Jim spoke to him while never taking his eyes of Lientov, "You took your time Spock."

Spock replied mildly as if he hadn't just beamed into the middle of a volatile hostage situation, "I apologise Captain. Finding your location was a difficult and time consuming process. We would have taken longer had we not received the coordinates to beam to this room which I believe were sent to us by Ensign Chekov."

Pavel felt a small jump of triumph at Spock's words, pleased that his awkwardly sent coordinates were correct and useful. His elation was short lived as Lientov suddenly moved away from them dragging Pavel with him; Pavel let out a small cry at the sudden movement which was muffled by his uncle's hand still clamped over his mouth. Lientov shouted manically, "You're not stopping me, none of you! This boy is coming with me, he's mine!"

He got no further as at that moment a sudden blow from behind sent Lientov flying, Pavel was also sent tumbling forwards but he was prevented from crashing to the floor by someone's arm. He turned his head to see who it was that was now supporting him and was met by the face of Hikaru. He gave him a quick grin before starting to release the straps binding him, as the last of his bindings fell off everyone staggered as the station shook violently. Lientov, who had been lying prone on the floor, suddenly sprang up and sprinted away out of the room before anyone could stop him. Jim made to go after him but was stopped by Spock, "Captain, this station's propulsion and shields must have been severely damaged. It is highly likely that it is now being dragged towards the stars so its destruction is inevitable, we must leave now!"

The station lurched again and Jim quickly replied, "Understood Spock, tell the Enterprise to get us the hell out of here."

The station continued to jerk and shake as Spock spoke swiftly into his communicator, "Spock to Enterprise, beam us up now!"

Light swirled around their bodies and moments later they found themselves back in the transporter room of the Enterprise being greeted by the relived face of Scotty.

Lientov ran through the dying station grinning madly.

He was going to escape from the station and have his revenge. He had it all sorted, he would use his transporters to sneak aboard the Enterprise. He'd then find a way to rig the ship to explode, then he would secretly take Pavel and escape in one of their own shuttles. Moments later the rigged explosion would wipe out Kirk, Archer and the whole ship along with its crew before they knew what was happening leaving no-one to pursue him. He could then use his connections in somewhere like the Romulan Star Empire or the Orion Syndicate to escape the Federation allowing him to work on the plans he had for the boy unhindered.

He chuckled to himself as he tried to override the lock on the transporter room door completely ignoring the warning messages he was being given by the computer. He finally opened the door and then discovered his mistake.

The entire room was gone and all the door was now was an opening straight into space. Time seemed to slow as he saw a starship seemingly framed by the doorway with the writing on the top of her disc clearly visible.

U.S.S. ENTERPRISE, NCC-1701

It was the last thing he saw as he was pulled into the merciless vacuum of space with his great station built through crime, deceit and evil being pulled to pieces behind him and then dragged into the roaring inferno of the stars to be utterly destroyed forever.

Lientov was most definitely no more.

PS-So there you go and I did just kill Lientov off, it's kind of a shame as I quite enjoyed writing him. So there will probably only be one more chapter after this one dealing with the aftermath so keep an eye out for it and please let me know what you thought of this chapter.