Chapter 2 – Injuries and Drama
X-Five Years Later-X
"I can't believe this! One week! We've only been on this god damn five year mission one week, and already we've got unknown forces attacking us for - as of now - no real reason!" A blue eyed, pissed off dirty blond was trying his best to get the shields up, his hands flying across the controls. "Does /anybody/ know where Mr. Spock went off to?!" he asked.
"There was something in his quarters he said he needed to grab, sir," Mr. Sulu answered him.
"God damn it, Spock! Mr. Sulu, you have the com!" He unfastened the harness that held him in while the ship rocked and he bolted for the turbo-lift.
"Kirk! It's dangerous! Please get back in your seat!" Uhura shouted.
"Some girlfriend you are, Uhura! I would've expected /you/ to be the first one to ask where Spock was after your whole beef with him about nearly /dying/! I'm more concerned about him as his /Captain/ and /friend/!" Kirk snapped at her, stepping inside and he shut the door before she could respond. The nerve of that woman!
Quickly darting through the corridors he turned a corner and saw Spock just as the ship jolted and rocked, knocking the Vulcan into a wall. "Spock! Spock, over here! What the hell is that?!" he hurried to his side and looked at the grey cube in Spock's hands.
"I was entrusted with this before we left. I believe it is the reason why we are being attacked. I am uncertain of this, however," Spock admitted, his lips pressed firmly together in frustration. Did Uhura even notice those small little quirks he did?
"Well, now you have it, let's get back to the bridge and try and contact them," Kirk nodded, and grabbed Spock's arm, tugging him along through the halls. Then they were hit by something /big/ and he shouted while he heard Spock just gasp, the stoic bastard...but they were thrown backwards. He hit the floor with a /thump/ on his back, and he swore he heard a /crack/. Scrambling to his hands and knees he saw Spock...unconscious, on his side. It looked like his head had hit the edge of the corner between corridors. "SPOCK!"
Oh god, oh god, where was Bones when you need him?! "Spock! Spock, please still be breathing!" he tried not to panic but if his First Officer died like this...fuck, fuck fuck! Belatedly noticed the cube was nowhere near the man, and he looked around, and saw it...and a woman standing right in front of it, her green eyes wide as she was frozen in shock. Behind here was a blurry image of a grungy kitchen.
His worry for Spock overrode anything else and he snapped, "Well don't just stand there! Can you help me?! He's bleeding!"
She dove to Spock's side, "Where? What happened?!"
"His head hit the edge of the wall," Kirk answered, "I hope to god he didn't crack his skull!"
"I need my first aid kit," the brunette cursed.
"B-Bria?! Where did you go?!" called another female's voice.
Bria jumped up and went to the portal, "Sarah! I need my first aid kit!"
"What?! Why?! What's going on?!" Kirk couldn't see Sarah but he bet her eyes were huge.
Growling she jumped back through, "A man's /dying/ for fuck's sake! Why else?! I'll get it!"
Another brunette peeked her head through the portal, and indeed Kirk's assumption was correct, her eyes /were/ wide...and they were the most gorgeous pale green-blue color he'd ever seen. He had Spock's head in his lap, and he was quite thankful the attacks had stopped. Probably Sulu's work. He could be damn scary when he wanted to be. Ayano their new medical assistant who was with Bones could be the same way. Japanese and their ways... He felt Spock's precious green blood flow across his hands more as seconds ticked by, "Hurry!"
Bria jumped through again and popped the lid to her first aid box...which had stuff in it he had never seen. He only knew about the gauze, medical tape, and the wrap. The package she opened was odd, and she moved the hair on the back of Spock's neck, trying to find the injury. He winced at the gash, and his eyes widened as she poured...something that looked like grey salt over it. Spock hissed, but otherwise did not move or show he had woken up. The bleeding had stopped, though. Next she put on the gauze and did a quick wrap.
"What the hell did you just use?" Kirk demanded.
"It's called quick clot, now shut up and lift him. We need to get him to a proper doctor!"
"What about your friend?" Kirk asked, "Make her come, too. I don't know how that thing works or if the portal will stay open." He slipped his arm under Spock and heaved, putting one of Spock's arms across his shoulder.
"Sarah! Grab our stuff!" Bria ran over and jumped through the portal. He frowned. What...no, he stopped asking that question. It wasn't important right now. Spock was. He hobbled across the hall towards the turbo lift and got through it. "Med-bay, /now/!" he ordered it, and he was whisked off.
X
Bria buzzed around the bedroom, grabbing a suitcase and then the bag Sarah handed her, "Grab your suitcase, we're leaving. Don't argue, there's nothing for us here." She was shaking, unsettled by the green.../green/ blood on her hands.
Sarah's face contorted into a firm, but still worried, expression as she forced Bria to stand still for a moment. Having dealt with blood basically all her life, even the sight of the...green blood hardly bothered her. "Bria, /stop/! Look at me!" She ignored the pointed look she was given, as she locked eyes with her best friend. "We don't know /anything/ about what's on the other side of that portal. I...I know we basically gotten over the whole...thing with portals and...and all this.../Sci-Fi/ stuff, but we /have/ the be smart about this, sis. If...if we have to go, we have to make this decision with a clear head okay? Nothing good comes from irrational actions. You know I will follow you where ever, but I will not allow us to go somewhere while in a panic like this." She wanted to be the calm one right now. She wanted to be the pillar to be leaned on, like she always tried to be for her best friend...but this...this was terrifying. The brunette hadn't seen Bria so panicked since... "Are you /sure/ about this, sis? I...I have a feeling if we choose this...there's no going back."
"I have no idea how long that portal will even be there. One second I was walking through the kitchen, the next I was standing in that corridor staring at the blond man who looked terrified for who I can only assume was his friend. It also looked like the ship was being attacked." Bria shook her head. The suitcase had everything she ever needed or wanted to save should they need to move from their current location due to raids or bombing or anything. Nothing else mattered besides what was inside, and Sarah. "I've wanted to leave this forsaken place ever since Max died, and you didn't see the cube. It was the /same one/, Sarah. If...if you don't want to go, then I'll drop my suitcase right here, right now. If you're going to go with me, grab yours."
Sarah opened her mouth to say something, but...nothing came out. She wanted to play it safe, to stay where they were until they needed to leave again. Then they would just find somewhere else that was safe. She...she was terrified, always being the coward of the two. All she ever wanted was for Bria to be happy and for the two of them to be safe for more than a few weeks... Somehow, Sarah knew they would never be safe here. Looking over to her bed, the brunette walked over to pull her worn, tan duffle bag out and slung it over her shoulder. "Alright...let's go before I change my mind..."
With their suitcases in tow, they jumped through the portal and Bria reached down, scooping up the cube. Her chest, specifically where the mole was, burned and she frowned. It wasn't painful enough to make her stop, however, as she looked around. The area where the man with green blood was stained with said liquid and she turned around, "There! It looks like an elevator!" She hurried over to it, sparks flying around them. The ship jerked and she gasped, but threw her stuff into the area and grabbed Sarah, holding her close. The door closed with a 'swoosh' but didn't go anywhere, and there weren't any buttons. "Think it's voice activated?" she asked her sister in a whisper.
"I-I have no clue," Sarah gulped, clinging to Bria with shaky hands, "I've never seen this kind of...tech before." Biting her lip, the younger woman took a deep breath. Calm. This was a time to be calm and think. Okay...if it's voice activated then they just needed to say where they wanted to go... "O-okay...that guy you helped would need medical attention so let's try this...Take us to Med bay!" She screamed a little when the elevator-thing set into motion all at once. "I-I guess that worked..."
"I'm impressed," Bria blinked, but she was shaking just as badly as the woman in her arms. The thing stopped after only a minute, faster than any elevator she had come across, and it opened them into a hallway. Dropping their suitcases to the side, Bria led her to the first door they ran into and jumped when it slid open at their presence, peeking around the corner.
"That's her!" shouted the same blond man from before and she jumped. The man that had been hurt...he was already sitting up, though still holding his head. Advanced tech or not, he'd have a migraine for a while. "You! Uh-uh...Bria, right? Come here! Is your friend with you? Where's the cube?" he hurried around the medical bed and around another brown-haired man wearing a medical coat. The med-bay Dr. by the looks of it.
"Captain Kirk! Please stop!" A...Japanese woman? Jumped in front of the man, "Let's take it easy, okay?" The ship rocked again, but the med-bay seemed highly more secure than the rest of the ship, no flashing red lights and it barely moved, "We can bombard them with questions later. Let's get the aliens attacking us off our tail! You need to go back to the bridge!"
Bria tugged Sarah with her, "We'll be safe here, Sarah, I'm certain."
Kirk growled a little in frustration, "Ugh! You're right, Ayano," he patted her arm as he went passed, "Spock'll be okay, right Bones?"
"Of course he will," Bones stated gruffly, annoyed that he was being questioned while tending to the injured Vulcan. "Ayano's right, Jim, you have to get the ship to safety first or else we're all going to be up a creak without a paddle." He shot the unknown women a once over to see if either of them were hurt. All this mumblo-jumbo about portals and such could wait until they were all safe and he had taken care of the other injured on board.
"/Sis/," Sarah hissed lowly, dragging her feet and staying behind her. "We don't know them! For all we know they could be the /enemy/!" The Captain's head jerked around to face her, apparently hearing her. She yelped quietly and bowed her head to avoid eye contact, a big issue with her. She...hadn't meant for him to hear...
Jim walked to the girls, "For what it's worth...Sarah? Bria saved my First Officer and you can determine if we're enemies or not later. For now, we're going to treat you with hospitality and provide you with whatever you need. Now, I have to get back to the bridge."
At Sarah's confusion Bria was glad her grandfather had been a lover of old-time ships that sailed the sea and often talked about them, "The bridge...is that the deck of the ship where you command everything?" He raised a brow at her and nodded, "Sarah's my sci-fi nerd, maybe she can be of assistance? Your shields are probably about to go down. You've played Halo, right, sis?"
"That's completely different!" Sarah's eyes widen in horror as she shot Bria a look. "In Halo you find a spot until they're back up! I have no clue how to work /anything/ here! That think with the elevator...I-I went off of what you suggested! I put together that injuries needed to be taken to a medical center. I just...guessed about all of that. I /can't/ help!"
Glancing at Bria, Jim noticed the woman's breathing was shallow and she was starting to bounce in place. In all honesty she looked about to have a nervous breakdown, just barely keeping her wits together. "It's called a turbo-lift, and you're coming with me. Maybe you can help some other way. Spock usually works the science station, and if you're knowledgeable enough in that you can figure it out," he had gone into Captain mode completely now, calm and self-assured as always. He reached out and took Sarah's hand, dragging her into the turbo-lift with him, "To the bridge!" the door shut with a 'whoosh' just as Sarah tried to jump out, and he held her before she hit the glass. "Sorry...but if you don't help me we could all die," he grumbled.
"Oh! /Thanks/," Sarah snapped, jerking away from the man to press against the opposite side of the el-the tubo-lift. "Because /that/ will /motivate/ me!" Oh...she was feeling sick. This...she had been in serious situations before, and like all the other times, she had been forced into them. "I...I...I can't do this okay? I've only seen this thing and the med-bay and I already know I can't help you." Like she had a choice at this point. Huffing and shooting the Captain a glare, Sarah grudgingly said, "/Fine/...Like I can /run away/ after you /dragged/ me here..."
"Yell at me all you want. I'm pretty used to people not liking my decisions, but you know what? They turn out alright in the end. So shut up and deal with it," Kirk snapped back. They were both stressed, her in a world she obviously didn't know. He had no idea what dimension or time she was from, but things weren't messed up yet so maybe they hadn't been of any importance there to affect history. She cowered away and he felt like an asshole, but he shook his head and when the door opened, he strode confidently inside, grabbing her arm, though gently, and guided her to Spock's usual station, "Here. Have a seat," he let her go and headed to his Captain's chair.
"Who iz vat, sir?" Chekov asked curiously.
"None of your concern as of right now. Mr. Chekov. How are shields and weapons?" Kirk demanded.
"Not good, sir," Chekov and Sulu answered.
"Can we warp at all?" Kirk frowned.
"Not under this amount of pressure," Sulu grunted, his fingers flying all over the place.
Sarah glared after the Captain before timidly taking a seat in front of the screen. Oh gosh if she wasn't worried before, she was now. Nothing made sense. Nothing! Absolutely nothing on that screen jumped out at the brunette in any coherent form. It was...all numbers and...and words...equations. Sure she was good with math and stuff...but /this/ made her feel like she was in pre-k again! Her leg bounced as she tried to figure out /something/ that she could understand...
"Ouch!" Sarah hissed, cupping her right eye as an almost...needle-like prick stung the said area. Blinking a few times, she frowns in confusion at the screen again. Wha...? She...she could understand.../everything/. Tilting her head, the woman hesitantly began to type away at the keypad before her, noting the numbers and such that flashed before her on screen as her typing increased with confidence. Sarah's eyes darted around before she jumped up, racing to where the young man, probably around her age but younger, sat. "Up!"
"W-wha-" he stuttered in confusion as the brunette practically shoved him out of the seat to work furiously at the controls, "Captain!"
Sarah's head snapped towards the blond man in, what she assumed was, the Captain's chair, "It's your turn to shut up and deal with it." Sarah hissed, to her surprise, when he looked as if he were going to tell her to move, "You wanted me to help, so here I am /helping/." Returning to the controls, she continued...whatever she was doing...oh her eye hurt...
"Chekov, it's alright, let her do her thing. Take Spock's seat for now and sit tight," Kirk told him gently.
The man nodded meekly, "Y-Yes, Captain..." he went to the said chair, watching the newcomer apprehensively.
"Sarah, what /are/ you doing?" Kirk asked as he looked over Sulu's shoulder at the console, "Mr. Sulu...are the shields...going /up/?" he was surprised. They had been at sketchy 17 percent, one more hit and they would've been in serious danger. Now they were rising quickly and he blinked at the number in disbelief.
"Twenty-five...thirty percent now, Captain," Sulu confirmed, "Thirty-five...fourty..." It was jumping by five percent intervals, "I don't know anybody who can do that besides Scotty, sir!"
"Neither do I..." Jim watched Sarah, astonished.
Jumping up from the seat once again, Sarah darted to another part of the brig, shooing another person out of their seat. She...couldn't stop. There were numbers flying through her head. She had once heard about geniuses, mathematical whizzes that saw numbers and figures in everything they did, but...Sarah /never/ thought that she would be performing fusion-particle...wishy-washy, blah blah equations in seconds. Her head felt like a hyped up computer. Input data, export results.
Once the shields were at their max, Sarah looked over to where Sulu sat and pointed to him, "You should be able to go to warp now. I've diverted the pressure to be channel out into the surrounding space through reverse ducts now that we're shielded." Did...she say all that? And it made sense to her? What was going on in her head?
A tiger spoke up while Sulu nodded and he started up the warp, "Would you be able to amplify the weapons?" He asked, "These aliens could follow us, and we need to be ready to fire on them. Right, Captain?"
"Yes! Arashi is right, Sit back down at the science station, Sarah, and buckle in while we warp," Kirk commanded, "You've done an amazing job, thank you."
"We're about to go into Warp 1! Hang on!" Sulu warned.
Sarah rolled her eyes, hurrying to the seat to begin work on /that/ now. She knew when they went into warp, not because of the jerk and pull of the ship traveling at extremely high speeds, but rather the lurch in her stomach. Okay she /really/ was going to be sick. Sarah had always had bad motion sickness, and this...this was about to kill her. Taking deep breaths while holding onto the console, she whimpered, "I'm going to be sick..."
"Mr. Sulu! Gradually take us to Warp 5 and level us out! We need to give Sarah time to fix the weapons so we're ready for the aliens!" Kirk demanded and he was met with a hasty 'Yes, sir!' Jumping from his seat he wobbled over to Sarah and gripped the chair as soon as it was in reach, "Close your eyes, it helps. Deep breaths, slow, in, out..." he gently instructed in her ear.
"I...hate...you..." Sarah grumbled, not actually meaning this, but she was pretty sure that she would fair better in the med-bay had he not dragged her up here. Still, she did as he instructed, though...it only helped her enough that she could keep her stomach down. And when his breath hit her ear...okay that butterfly feeling /really/ didn't help. She felt his hand on her shoulder and immediately shrugged it off. "Don't touch me...please."
"Oh, touchy," Kirk chuckled and he stood straight as things felt normal again, "Similar to a certain Vulcan I know. Okay, I won't touch you then," he shrugged, "Please, Sarah, work whatever magic you've been doing, it's going great so far." He went back to his Captain's chair and pressed Com for Engineering, "Scotty! How's things down there?"
"I'm really confused Cap'n!" Scotty admitted through the speakers, "One minute teh core was under a lot of pressure, the next she's roarin' back to life!"
"I'll have you meet the cause of that when this is all over. We have some new additions to the ship," Kirk smirked.
"Come again? From the enemy ship?" Scotty asked.
"No idea where they're from, but one saved Spock and the other just saved us," Kirk explained.
Sarah paused in her efforts to frown back at the Captain. Additions? So what? She and Bria go through a portal and they suddenly become a part of a ship? Her lips pressed together as she returned to fixing the weapons. "I restored the power to the weapons. They should be online now." Sarah stated, her stomach doing a flip again, "/Now/ can I go lay down before I throw up everywhere?"
"You have three minutes to get to the med-bay and lay down before we come out of warp," Kirk told her after cutting com to Scotty, "Thank you, Sarah. You saved us."
Sarah stood wobbling, trying to get her bearings before heading towards the turbo-lift. She stopped by the Captain, sighing in defeat. He had been right, much to her astonishment...and she had been a bitch to him... Biting her lip, she knew she should continue on and save this for later when she wasn't risking embarrassing herself in front of these people. However, the need to do this out-weighed the safety of running away. Closing her eyes, she forced her stomach to settle before opening and staring just under Kirk's eyes in a cheating manner. What? She avoided eye contact as much as possible.
"I'm sorry...for what I said and how I acted...I...I tend to snap when stressed. Believe me, I've rarely been /this/ stressed before..." If she wasn't pale and slightly green in the face, Sarah knew her cheeks would be bright red. Her face /always/ turned red when she had to apologize or spoke with a stranger, let alone a guy...a really hot guy at that. Bria always teased her over this, making her blush whenever she could. "You were-"
The ship dropped from warp smoothly, but the sudden decrease in speed made Sarah's stomach do triple turns. Sinking to her knees, the brunette let everything settle before laughing breathlessly from embarrassment, "Oookay...I guess I didn't make it to med-bay...Just...give me a minute and I'll be out of your hair." She waved off the concern look, wishing that the floor would open up and swallow her. Was there /ever/ going to be a time that she didn't do something that resulted in her utter embarrassment?
Just then the door opened, and a woman with platinum blond hair walked in, "Captain! I noticed we went into warp. Are we out of danger? And...Who's this?"
"Carol! No, we aren't yet. That's Sarah. Chekov! Get back to your seat, and Carol, you take up Spock's station," Kirk told her.
"Where's Mr. Spock? Is he alright?" The two quickly got in their respective spots while Kirk jumped up.
"He's in med-bay," Jim answered and he went to Sarah, reaching down and picking her up, "Hurry up and get to med-bay, okay? It'll be fine, we'll destroy these crazies. You go get yourself checked out and stuff. Bone's will take care of you now."
Sarah blushed darkly, despite her nausea, at the contact from the Captain. Only managing a meek nod, the woman waited until he released her to hurry to the turbo-lift, leaning her head back against the glass on the opposite side once the doors shut. Okay, heart stop pounding. He was just concerned for her because she had...apparently saved the ship. And how the hell had she done that to begin with? Those numbers...she didn't understand why she suddenly had been able to see them, and to...fix everything. Her eye still stung a little too, but she...just knew that she shouldn't bring it up...not yet at least. "Uh...to med-bay."