Chapter 7: Just Chute Me
Layla Serena Pike had not been one of the best students at high school…or rather at any high school she had tried to attend.
Her short temper and her sharp tongue often got her into arguments and fights with many people including her superiors. Her sometimes distant and stern disposition was also very disconcerting to strangers who had yet to talk to her. Her unusually superior physical strength had always been terrifying to even the toughest of bully's.
It seemed for a long time that she would never fit in anywhere or in any place save for home.
However three years following her joining of Starfleet had changed all that. Her peers, though suspicious of her at first, now admired her. Her tutors and lecturers acknowledged and encouraged her to be more ambitious with her goals. True she was one of the shortest and youngest of her year, and yes her personality had a few kinks that had yet to be worked out. But she was usually smart and level headed in stressful situations.
Or so she had been until the Enterprise had suddenly jerked out of warp and into a giant debris field over the planet of Vulcan.
CRAP THIS IS NOT A DRILL! CRAP THIS IS ACTUALLY NOT A DRILL!
She swore loudly as with wide eyed terror she began to press buttons on her station. Even though she knew by heart each and every one of the functions she had to perform in her course of duty, at the forefront of her brain only one sentence managed to compute.
THIS IS REAL…ALL OF THIS IS REAL!
She was not the only one who was thinking that.
"Emergency evasive" she faintly heard her father, Christopher Pike, bark from the captain's chair just as someone almost fell on top of her as they stumbled about the shaking bridge.
"Sorry kid" Leonard's gruff voice wheezed as he gripped hard onto the back of her chair as the ship jerked again. "Gah!"
"Hold on doc!" Layla leant back as hard as she could doing her best to keep herself stable as the entire ship tilted and veered only to come face to face with a looming large fragment of a ship.
"SULU! Bring her down NOW!" she called out to the helm where Sulu was busy trying to type in a command.
"Shit" he swore as he looked up and saw the giant piece of wreckage coming up fast in the bridge viewing window.
There was a small tug as the Enterprise suddenly dipped it's bow down into a steep dive. The disk of the hull just about made it under the giant chunk of space debris, however…
"Captain! we've got damage to one of the aft…nacelles…" a tactical officer beside Layla shouted only for his voice to fall away.
He was not the only one.
The Enterprise had temporarily entered a small clear section of the space above Vulcan and now the entire bridge could see through the large window before them…one massive ship.
It was nothing like any ship any of them had ever seen before. It looked rather like a gigantic mutated jellyfish. It was dark in colour and gargantuan in size, easily dwarfing the silver constitution class starship several times over.
There was a beeping sound and Layla turned quickly back to her screen to see a message that made her face go paler than chalk.
"Dad they're locking torpedoes on us!" She bleated, not caring for protocol or the fact that her voice was shaking.
"Divert auxiliary power from port nacelles to forward shields" Christopher called out his hands gripping hard onto the arms of the captain's chair. "Sulu status report."
"Shields at 32 per cent" Sulu called his brow drenched with sweat as his fingers flew over his console just as the bridge shook violently. "Their weapons are powerful sir we can't take another hit like that"
"Get me Starfleet Command" Christopher looked to the Communications stations just as Spock made to call loudly from his position in Sciences.
"Captain, the Romulan ship has lowered some kind of high-energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere. It's signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter abilities."
"All power to forward shields. Prepare to fire all weapons" Christopher yelled to the tactical and combat stations who all, Layla included, immediately began to issue out commands through their station to their respective crew members on duty in different sections of the ship.
"Ensign Hanson status report" Layla gulped to the crewmember beside her as the ship shuddered again.
"We're ready to fire" Ensign Hanson nodded and Layla quickly called back to her father.
"Dad we're set to go"
"Right. Ready photon's prepare to fire on enemy ship on my count. Three…two…"
"Captain we're being hailed" Uhura steamrolled over the Captain jumping to her feet as the ship finally levelled out.
There was a short pause in which everyone held their breath as the bridge finally stopped shaking and shuddering.
The enemy's weapons were still locked onto their position, however there were no signs of anything being fired at them again…for now…
Layla was breathing heavily as she leaned forwards in her chair. She could faintly feel the chill behind her and looked back to see that Leonard was no longer there. in fact he was stumbling quickly out the door towards the turbo lift, swearing and cursing to himself fluidly as he swayed ominously.
She would've laughed at his almost seasick behaviour, but she could not.
She looked over the rest of the crew.
Most of them were in their seats all looking about as exhausted as she did. But Jim was still on his feet, straightening up just as he caught her eye.
She nodded to his unasked question just as Christopher made to speak to Uhura who was standing at her station, looking just as terrified as Layla felt.
"On screen"
Layla turned back to the bridge's large viewing window just in time to see an image appear on it, an image of a man's face.
He was pale, with a slightly green tinge and slightly pointed ears.
A Romulan
Layla frowned as she took in the tattoos on his bald head, however no matter how much she observed of the new face nothing could've prepared her for the words that left his mouth.
"Hello"
There were small confused glances between all officers now. Even the captain was looking perplexed, though he did his best to keep a straight face as he answered.
"I'm Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking?"
"Hi Christopher I'm Nero" the Romulan on the screen sneered.
His voice was so casual, but there was an edge to it that made Layla shudder unpleasantly. It was as if thousands of ants were crawling just under the surface of her skin even as she looked into the magnified dark glassy eyes that were assessing their captain with smug disdain as the latter made to speak once more.
"You've declared war against the Federation. Withdraw and I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location-"
"I do not speak for the Empire" Nero's eyes narrowed severely "We stand apart. As does your Vulcan crewmember isn't that right, Spock?"
There was silence as all heads turned to see the Vulcan Commander stand to his feet rigidly to address the screen before him, his face blank save for one quirked eyebrow to voice his own confusion.
"Pardon me but I do not believe you and I are acquainted."
"No we are not…not yet…" the corners of Nero's mouth twitched upwards ever so slightly into a smirk. "Spock, there's something I would like you to see. Captain Pike" Nero now turned towards Christopher his eyes glinting with undisguised malice "Your transporter has been disabled. As you can see by the rest of your armada, you have no choice. You will man a shuttle and come aboard the Narada for negotiations. That's all"
"And what if he doesn't" Layla jumped up to her feet before she or anyone else could stop her.
"Then you can take his place. If you're so eager" Nero smirked with cold amusement as he looked the young girl up and down before turning back to Christopher. He was so pale Layla thought he would faint even as he spared her a stern glare before facing the Romulan once more
"I must commend you Captain Pike, you've got such a loyal crew. That's a very difficult thing for any good captain to find." Nero's sneer widened victoriously. "So if you do value them as much as they value you, you will comply with my requests. That is all"
Everyone watched with bated breath as the screen suddenly flickered off so that only a window into the decimated space battle field was left.
Christopher however was already getting out of his seat quietly, his face stern, worried but thoughtful all the same.
Layla knew that look all too well but it did nothing to alleviate the dread mounting within her.
"You're going to go" she breathed.
"Yes" Christopher muttered only for her to stride up to him and block his path, her eyes bright as she glowered up at him.
"Even though you know for a fact that he may kill you or worse?"
"Your survival is unlikely" Spock piped in as he stepped forwards to be level with the two Pike's, just as Jim made to frown.
"Captain we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake"
"I too agree." Spock nodded "you should rethink your strategy"
But even as Layla watched Christopher she felt her stomach drop to her feet. There was no way her father was backing down this time.
"I understand that." he paused his eyes steely as he looked to everyone else on the bridge "I need officers who've been trained in advanced hand to hand combat"
"I have training sir" Sulu nodded calmly as he put his hand up.
"As do I" Layla nodded.
Christopher opened his mouth to refuse but upon catching her rather fierce icy defiant glare, he shut it hastily and nodded. It was no use, he knew, to sway her from her decisions once she'd made them. Maybe they weren't related by blood but he certainly had passed on his own stubbornness when raising her, not that he was too happy about it himself.
"Fine. Come with me. Kirk you too" he added towards Jim with a snort "You're not supposed to be here anyway. Mr Chekov you have the conn"
"Aye-aye Captain" Chekov mumbled softly, his eyes wide and slightly bewildered as he watched the captain, the three officers and the stowaway walk off the bridge and into the turbo lift, which shut at once, leaving behind a very stunned bridge crew.
As soon as the doors to the lift were shut Christopher turned his head down to narrow his eyes at his daughter. Spock, Jim, and Sulu all tactfully averted their gazes though the latter two couldn't help but gulp when their captain made to hiss softly.
"What were you thinking? Revealing yourself to the enemy like that?"
"And what were you thinking when you chose to negotiate with a madman" Layla spat back.
"I'm the captain of this ship Layla" Christopher growled softly "It's my job to protect my crew in a way that minimises the losses."
"Oh yes and sending the head of the entire ship to the slaughterhouse is a great way to minimise losses" Layla rolled her eyes.
"Take that tone of voice again with me young lady and you will be ground-."
"Uh…Captain Pike" Sulu gulped only to flinch as both Layla and Christopher snapped back at him.
"What?"
"The…the lift" Sulu pointed towards the lift doors and both Pike's turned to see that they were open and ready to go.
"We'll finish this discussion later." Christopher sighed heavily before striding out into an Engineering corridor of the ships lower hull. Layla followed behind in a huff as Spock, Jim and Sulu came up level with her just in time to hear her father yell:
"Without transporters we can't beam off the ship. We can't assist Vulcan, we can't do our job. Layla, Mr. Kirk, Mr Sulu, Engineer Olson, will space jump from the shuttle. you will land on the machine they've lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear. You'll get inside, you'll disable it, then you'll beam back to the ship. Mr Spock, I'm leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once we have transport capability and communications back up you'll contact Starfleet and report what the hell's going on here. And if all else fails fall back and rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian system. Kirk I'm promoting you to first officer"
He added as he stepped in front of another turbo lift and typed in a command into the console before him.
"Captain?" Spock's eyebrow was quirked upwards so high that even a very disgruntled Layla was tempted to laugh. "Please I apologise but the complexities of human pranks escape me"
"It's not a prank Spock." Christopher smirked with faint amusement "and I'm not the Captain, you are"
Spock stayed still as Layla, Sulu and Jim all followed Christopher into the lift, the lattermost asking quietly:
"Sir after we knock out that drill what happens to you?"
"Well I guess you'll have to come and get me. Careful with the ship Spock she's brand new" Christopher replied calmly as the doors shut and Layla snorted softly under her breath.
"When you get back mom's so going to kill you"
"Shuttle 89, U.S.S. Enterprise you are clear forward"
"Wow you actually found a midget suit-ow!" Jim winced as Layla's smaller hand reached up to wrap him hard over the back of his head as she, Sulu and Jim followed their captain into the shuttle and sat down in the back section of the craft.
"It's not midget just petite" she growled as she made to adjust the red EV suit's belt over her waist, much to Engineer Olsen's amusement.
"You got the charges?" she turned an imperious eye to the Engineer beside her who was also decked out in Operations Red.
He was a tall man, with short dark hair and eyes and a distinct British accent that was almost shaking with excitement as he replied:
"Oh yeah! I can't wait to kick some Romulan arse right?"
"uh…yeah" Jim nodded before quickly exchanging an uncertain glance with Sulu at his other side.
"So…what kind of combat training do you have?"
"Fencing" Sulu responded breathlessly
"Don't worry Jim he's good at it" Layla grunted as she adjusted her helmet over her head just as her father at the front made to manoeuvre the shuttle through the hangar bay doors out into space.
There was a shared moment of silence as the occupants of the shuttle all took a moment to gaze nervously at the looming figure of the Enemy's ship in the distance.
It looked even more frightening up close.
"Pre jump" Christopher yelled from the cockpit of the shuttle and at once all four officers behind him quickly made to shove on their helmets onto their heads.
They were each decked out in Environmental Suits of the different division colours; Olsen in Operations Red, Sulu in Command Gold and Jim in Sciences Blue and Layla in the Stealth-Operations Black.
"Gentlemen, we're approaching the drop zone-" Christopher spoke up through a microphone just as the doors between the cockpit and the main hull of the shuttle were shut airlock tight with a small clang.
Everyone stood up and took their spots at the handles above their heads, or rather all the men did whilst Layla had to jump up to actually reach the damn metal rod.
"-We have one shot to land on that platform. They may have defences so pull your chute as late as possible. Three. Two. One"
She barely heard her father's words as she suddenly felt the chamber around her and her friends depressurize, and the zero gravity painfully push them backwards flush against the shuttle ceiling.
"Remember the Enterprise won't be able to beam you back until you turn off that drill…Good Luck…"
There was a click and the grinding of metal and suddenly the floor of the shuttle slid away leaving its four occupants to suddenly drop down to the red brown surface of the planet below.
Christopher watched them drop through the glass of his contained space in the cockpit, his eyes fixed solely on the small black figure that had been in-between a blur of blue and red.
"Stay safe…" he murmured softly.
The floor to the shuttle now shut…leaving it empty save for one Starfleet Captain all alone at the pilot's seat.
There was nothing but silence as Layla, Jim, Olsen and Sulu all fell down towards the surface of Vulcan.
Silence and emptiness, save for their breaths as they all did their best to calm their nerves and focus on streamlining their bodies.
As they fell Layla spared a glance down at the long huge metal tube that they was flying by them as they descended down further into the Planet's top layers of atmosphere. It oddly enough reminded her of a bizarre version of the Beanstalk from a fairy story her mother had once read to her as a small child. A magic beanstalk that reached up to a giant's castle.
Well it's certainly big enough to be home to a giant
She gulped as her mind thought back to the monstrous ship that was floating just above their bodies.
But she didn't have any more time to dwell on the topic, not when her body suddenly jolted as it finally passed through the top barrier of air that separated Vulcan's skies from Outer Space.
"Avay team is entering the Atmosvere sir" She heard Chekov's heavy accent through the comm installed into her helmet. "Twventy thousand metres"
Layla bit her lip as she faintly heard Sulu and Jim's deep breaths and Olsen's grunts through the comms and quickly looked about herself.
What she saw made her gut drop. She was already dropping further ahead of all three taller men as they fell towards what appeared to be a disk like platform that was rapidly growing larger and larger.
"Approaching platform at fifty eight hundred metres" Chekov's voice informed them.
"Kirk to Enterprise. Distance to target five thousand metres" Jim grunted to the ensign.
"Mizz Pike at Forty six hundred metres to platform" Chekov called out sounding slightly worried even as the four officers all began to fall faster and faster.
"Forty-five hundred metres to target"
"Three thousand metres! Three thousand metres!" Olson announced and Layla was astonished to see that he was grinning even as he passed her by on the drop.
"Twenty five hundred metres" Layla called her hands flying to her chute straps "Get ready to deploy chute in five, four, three, two, NOW!"
"Pulling chute" Sulu yelled loudly and at once chutes, one yellow, one blue and one black all expanded out of the hard packs on the back of three of the officer's suits. The red one however…
"Olson?!" Layla growled as she steadied out watching as the red figure of the Engineer zipped straight past her within a split second.
"Two thousand metres".
"Come on, pull your chute Olson!" Jim yelled but Olson only gave an excitable whoop.
"No! Not Yet! Not Yet! Fifteen hundred metres"
"Olson pull your chute" Now Sulu was yelling along with Layla and Jim as they watched as the Engineer cackled as he hit one thousand metres and finally tugged on his chute.
"NO!" Jim yelled as Olson's legs hit the metal platform…only to continue scraping along the surface and making him trip so that he was rolling over towards the edge of the disk.
"Olson hold on!" Sulu called out desperately but too late. Gravity and momentum were already at work dragging their victim over the edge only for his parachute be sucked into the large beam of hot plasma that the great mechanism was drilling down into the planet.
"OLSON!" Layla screeched as with one final cry of terror Olson followed his parachute's trajectory over the edge and into oblivion.
He was disintegrated in blazing heat before he'd even realised where he had fallen.
"Holy shit" Sulu breathed as he and his two remaining fellow officers descended down fast but controlled with their chutes full of air.
The lattermost just stared wide eyed at the platform his brain numb for the first time in his life as he tried to comprehend what had just happened.
Space jumps were not easy drills to learn, and there had always been some casualties, but even so the three cadets had never been prepared for anything quite like this.
But then again what could ever prepare you for death?
Jim was wrenched out of his numb state of mind by Chekov's voice sounding through his helmet's communications link.
"O-Olson is gone sir… Mizz Pike iz everything alright?"
"Yes… Yes I'm fine" Layla spoke though her voice thick as she made to gulp down a choked sob, only to squeak as she looked down on Jim "Look out!"
Jim swore softly as he looked down and saw that the platform was rapidly approaching his feet.
He hit the surface hard bouncing off of it thanks to the slightly lower gravity of the elevated height. He rolled over like Olson had done only moments before, his chute collecting air and dragging him back off the edge.
However unlike the dead man, Jim had just enough sense left in him to quickly grab onto a crack in the metal plating and hold on tight by his fingers tight. But it was a hard slog. His chute was collecting more and more air and he could feel the strong tensile cords attaching it to his suit strain and pull on his shoulders.
With a massive grunt he released one of his hands from the crack and slammed down hard on the button for his chute.
He felt his body thud down flat and secure against the ground just as the chute retracted back into its compartment on the back of his suit.
Shit that was close
He panted as he gingerly made to stand to his feet just as someone landed a little way away. It was Layla.
She had withdrawn her chute whilst still airborne and had grabbed onto the gigantic coil attaching the drill to the ship above. Once she was secured she had then jumped down to the disk below, landing in a carefully calculated roll that brought her up to her feet and a safe distance from the edge.
But not a safe distance from the opening hatch behind her from which a tall shadow with a phaser rifle was clambering stealthily out ready to strike her down.
"Get Down!" Jim roared as he charged forwards and Layla quickly jumped to the side just in time to miss the heavy clunk of metal the Romulan had just swung down.
She rolled to the side and whipped out her phaser from her hip holster and set it to one of the higher stun levels.
She quickly fired it at the Romulan only for a flash of green energy to blast it out of her hands as another Romulan made his way out of another hatch to her left.
Quick as thinking she threw her helmet at the new opponent and he caught it. It wasn't enough to send him to his feet but it was enough of a distraction for her to leap at him with a raised fist.
She smirked as she heard the crunch of his jaw bone against her knuckles and quickly dropped down to sweep her leg out under him.
Now he fell down hard, landing on his back almost in the way of Jim as he and the first Romulan began to throw punches at one another after each of them had disarmed each other of their phasers.
There was a zip of gold in the corner of Layla's eyes and she turned just in time to see Sulu jump to his feet. He was cutting off the strings to his chute with a long retractable katana which had gotten torn and snagged on the top of the drill and had almost dragged him into a flaming exhaust vent.
WHAM!
Layla cried out in pain something heavy collided into her, hitting her head and pinning her down hard to the metal below.
"You human runt! You'll pay for that!" the Romulan man above her leered as he grabbed onto her throat with one hand as the other reached down to his belt. Layla struggled hard, rasping as she caught sight of the large jagged metal dagger flicker in the light of the hot Vulcan sun.
"Scared runt?" the Romulan hissed as he raised the blade higher and was pleased to see her eyes widen as she spluttered for air "Well then Pity I'm not in a merciful mood"
He tightened his grip on her throat but Layla's eyes narrowed as she hissed.
"yeah…well neither am I!" and with the last word she spat, expertly directing her spittle directly up so that it splattered directly into her enemy's open eyes.
The Romulan above her roared in pain and his grip on her neck slackened as he reeled back from her. Layla seized her chance at once and before the Romulan knew what was happening she'd bowled him over onto his back, snatched the dagger from his hand and struck down hard towards his midriff area.
Right where she knew the Romulan's heart was…
But even as the tip of the blade made contact with the clothed fleshy body beneath her, Layla's mind went black...
"LAYLA!" Jim called as Sulu finally pulled him up from the edge of the platform from where he had just been dangling. He'd been on the brink of life and death, clutching onto it by only his fingers when the helmsman had finally managed to push the Romulan attacking him over the edge and down into the plasma drill.
Now he was running over to where a petite young woman was sitting astride a limp body a knife held tightly in her hands…a knife with green copper-based blood dripping from its edges and pooling out onto the ground...
MUAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Actually no i probs shouldn't be laughing about something grim or greusome like that (ugh! green blood). but on that note since Vulcans and Romulans have similar roots that means that they have their organs positioned similarly, so that would mean that their heart is positioned where a human might have their liver...right?...
anyways i hope you enjoyed that chapter and Keep Reading and Reviewing for more