Hello guys! Here's the next chapter! I have almost the entire story written out now, it's just in the editing and polishing process :) please review! I'm starving, I can't remember the last review I had. I love you all soo much, thank you for your amazing support!
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Sulu did as the Captain said, and soon we were in the tunnel-like expanse of stars that was warp speed. I found something in the back of my mind whispering that we weren't safe yet, but the rest of me felt a bit more relaxed and secure.
Abnormal vibrations interspersed with the occasional atypical jolt were enough to let me know that not everything was alright with the ship's engines. Despite that, every pertinent readout indicated that we were traveling at the specified speed. The Enterprise continued through warp space until indicators showed that they were approaching their destination.
"Uhura, contact Starfleet." Kirk said from his command chair, "Identify us and tell them we were pursued into the Neutral Zone by an unmarked Federation ship."
Uhura interrupted him. "I can't do that, sir. Comms are down. All ship auxiliary power is being diverted to warp."
I had just allowed myself to relax a little more when Carol Marcus came running onto the bridge.
"Permission to come on the bridge!" she exclaimed even as she was halfway to the command chair. Her expression was frightened, her tone urgent. Kirk eyed her uncertainly.
"Dr Marcus?" he asked incredulously.
"He's going to catch up with us, and when he does, the only thing that's going to stop him from destroying this ship is me. You have to let me talk to him."
"Carol, we're at warp/ He can't catch up with us."
"Yes, he can." she was utterly positive. "He's been developing a ship that has Mark IV capabilities, and-"
The sounding of the ship's proximity alarm interrupted her, its blare counterpointed by cries of surprise and astonishment from bridge personnel. Of course, Kirk diverted his attention to his helmsman.
"Mr. Sulu, what is going on?"
Scarcely looking up from his instrumentation, Sulu reported the impossible. "Captain, I'm getting a reading I don't understand. There's a - distortion, a big one. Something is in the warp tunnel behind us."
At that very moment, the ship was rocked violently by laser fire. I grasped the edge of my chair, trying not to fall off. I could hear various departments giving reports across the bridge, most of them very bad. Not one of them was in any way good.
"Damage report!" Kirk called out, grasping the arms of his chair. "Where are we?"
"Shields are dropping, all weapons systems are offline!" Sulu reported promptly, "We're twenty thousand kilometers from Luna."
"Almost home." Kirk muttered. "So close."
"Captain," Spock announced, "Marcus' ship clearly has advanced warp and weapons capabilities proportionate to her size."
Another blast rocked the artificial gravity on the bridge. I cringed, knowing that if we lost our gravity, we really would be helpless.
"Evasive maneuvers!" Kirk cried, "Get us to Earth now! Full impulse! Once we cross the halfway point between home and the moon, we can-"
"Shields are gone, Captain," Sulu broke in, "Impulse power failing! We're losing the last of our powered forward momentum."
Having been thrown to the deck by an earlier concussion, Carol Marcus finally managed to pull herself up and totter over to where Kirk was standing. Protocol forgotten, she stepped so close in front of Kirk that he could not avoid her.
"Please, we are going to die, all of us, if I don't talk to him!" she exclaimed, exasperated.
"Lt. Uhura, hail them." Kirk said.
The screen flickered to life, and Admiral Marcus' face appeared.
"Sir, it's me, it's Carol. I'm here, on the Enterprise."
"What are you doing on that ship?" Marcus replied, his tone harsh and demanding.
Father or no father, it was plain to see that she was scared of the man on the view screen.
"I heard what you said, Father. That you made a mistake, and now you're doing everything you can to fix it. But, Dad- I don't believe that the man who raised me is capable of destroying a starship full of innocent people to fulfill your aims. And if I'm wrong about that-" she paused for a moment, her face shifting from fearful to defiant, "-then I guess you'll have to do it with me on board."
A terrible moment of silence ensued as the Admiral pondered his daughter's declaration. Apparently reaching a decision, he leaned forward to peer intently into the video pickup in front of his command chair. Unsettlingly, he did not sound particularly concerned.
"Actually, Carol, I won't." He glanced to his left.
Both Carol's eyes and my own widened as the meaning of the admiral's words struck home. As an all-too-familiar set of lights began to swarm her, she turned helplessly toward Kirk.
"Can we intercept their signal?" he called out.
"No, sir!" a tech quickly responded.
Pushing past Kirk, Carol ran for the turbolift. While she couldn't hide from the other ship's transporter signal, if she could confuse it for a while, the transport would cease. I started after her, logic telling me that interposing myself into the field might just possibly throw it off enough to render at least the first transportation attempt a failure. I reached out and grabbed Carol's arm, but my idea did not prove to be reliable. My own logic had failed me, and I was no longer aboard the Enterprise.
Carol and I appeared on the bridge of the enemy starship, face to face with the Admiral as Kirk finished what seemed to be an apology.
The Admiral seemed impressed, but not moved. "Fire." his voice echoed through the bridge.
My heart fell through to my feet and downward. "No.." I whispered, tears streaming down my cheeks. Spock, Kirk, my new friends, they all would die, and I had been saved inadvertently through trying to save Carol. I silently sobbed, my world crumbling around me.
"Sir!" one of the bridge hands reported, "our weapons won't fire! Phasers and torpedoes alike are inoperative, shields are down, and we're losing power!"
"Someone in Engineering just manually reset every system on the ship, sir!" another tech called out, hands flying across his screens.
"What do you mean 'someone'?" the Admiral snarled, "WHO?"
"The computer doesn't give any identification codes, sir." the tech responded, "For all we know they're not even one of ours."
"How long until we're back online?" Admiral Marcus inquired angrily.
"Unsure, Captain. Could be five minutes," the tech replied, "and it could be an hour. I will keep you updated as we know more."
Amidst all of this confusion, a security team had taken myself and Carol's arms and pinned them behind our backs. No shackles had been placed but I was sure they would come soon enough. One shady move and we would both be in chains, with absolutely no hope of escaping. Not that our chances were very good right now anyway. It seemed an eternity before the Captain rose to talk to a different station's tech, and we were prodded into following.
"Admiral." the guard said in a dull monotone.
"I'll deal with you, in a minute." the Admiral said to Carol, then turning to me, added, "And you too, whoever the hell you are."
But it seemed that Carol had other ideas. Stepping forward and away from the guards, who apparently had relinquished their tight hold on her, Carol stood right in front of her father. She drew a hand back, and smacked her father across the face. My heart leapt to my throat, and the Admiral mutely stared at her, eyes wide.
"I've been trying to prepare what to say at this moment," she snapped at him, "and it all comes down to something fairly simple. I am ashamed to be your daughter."
Spotting an empty station seat to the side, with a step right next to it, the guards pulled us away from the Admiral. Presumably they didn't want to be reprimanded for allowing the prisoners to injure the Admiral. They shoved Carol down into the seat, and made myself to sit on the step next to it. Carol's eyes burned into her father's head, even when he wasn't looking at her. I wasn't entirely sure that the Admiral was finished with either of us yet, but whatever he had in mind had to take a back seat to a report from another officer on the bridge.
"Sir, we've just recorded an unscheduled opening and subsequent closing of an outer door on deck thirteen. It appears to have been initiated manually."
The Admiral didn't look very surprised. "Khan." he muttered. "Secure the bridge and all of it entrances. For the time being, no one goes out, and more importantly, no one comes in, is that clear?"
"Yes sir." the frazzled- sounding tech replied, and I heard doors locked from all directions.
"And set security teams out to find the intruders. There's got to be at least two of them, and they're most likely together right now." The Admiral ordered, "I do not want them anywhere near this bridge."
The tech acknowledged, and carried through with the Admiral's orders.
Left to my thoughts, I now had time to contemplate many things. Who's side was Khan really on? Could we even trust him to help us? What if this was a carefully orchestrated plan to kill everyone? Then my thoughts shifted. What was Spock thinking of right now? Did he think Carol and myself were dead? Was he in the rescue party that had snuck in? Or was he on the bridge of the Enterprise, trying to locate the two science officers that were now marooned aboard this leviathan of a ship? My mind swam, as even more questions were brought to my mind. Like how had Uhura seemingly known about myself and Spock aboard that vessel to Qo'noS? If I thought about these things for too much longer, I was sure that my head would explode.
I was snapped out of my thoughts by an officer speaking to the Admiral. "Power coming back online, sir."
"Excellent." the Admiral said, "Re-target the Enterprise."
My heart stopped for a moment, the tears returning.
"Fire all weapons on my order."
The doors to the turbolift snapped open and the three men who burst from within were firing before anyone on the bridge could react.
First to go down was the ensign in control of the starship's weapons systems, struck in the back of the head by the blast from Kirk's phaser. Throwing himself to one side, the captain brought down another crew member before he could draw his sidearm. As the crewman looming over myself and Carol moved to engage the intruders, Carol swiftly stood and placed an elbow to his shin, while I kicked his knees out from under him.
Though intense, the melee on the bridge did not last long. With all three men firing rapidly and Khan dealing with those who managed to avoid the phasers, it was only a matter of moments before the trio had gained complete control of the ship.
Before Khan could say or do anything else, Kirk nodded to the third man, and he fired once. The stun blast hit Khan square in the back, and he went down. Moving to the body, Scot knelt, and nodded at Kirk.
"Make sure he stays down, Scotty." Kirk said, and I realized the phasers must have been set to stun.
Keeping his own phaser aimed at the Admiral, Kirk now moved to stand closer to Carol and I. Captain and Admiral regarded each other across the open space of the bridge: one behind his weapon, the other behind his ire.
"Admiral Alexander Marcus, by authority granted me under the relevant Starfleet regulations governing the use of unauthorized and excessive force, I hereby relieve you of command and place you under arrest."
The Admiral sounded more exasperated than upset. It was plain that he was not about to go quietly. "You're not really going to do this, are you? Do you still really think Starfleet is about exploring 'strange, new worlds'? That's a fantasy, Kirk. The galaxy is wide, dark, and dangerous, populated by sentients who are collectively paranoid, warlike, and sometimes both. Their quest for species superiority has nothing to do with stealing other worlds' resources or enslaving an entirely different populace- it's all about bragging rights. About who is superior and who should bow down. If you think Starfleet was put together as a scientific enterprise, that's another fantasy. We're there to protect all the idiot scientists who don't give a rat's ass about war if they only get their next discovery."
Kirk seemed to think for a slight moment. "Get out of the chair."
"I want you to stop and think about what you're doing, Kirk." the Admiral tried again, "Not about some imaginary future confrontation. About right now, what you did on Qo'noS. You were on their home world illegally, unauthorized. The Klingons will see it as murder, not arresting and questioning. Nothing changes the fact that war with the Klingons is coming. And who's going to lead us? You? Think this over carefully, Kirk. Because if you think I'm abandoning this ship and leaving quietly with you, you're going to have to kill me."
"I'm not going to kill you, sir." neither the steady tone of Kirk's voice nor the muzzle of the weapon he held had wavered in the slightest. "But I could stun your ass and drag you out of that chair. But I'd rather not do that in front of your daughter."
I heard a muted snort from Carol, to which I almost smiled.
"You alright?" Kirk asked her.
"Yes, Captain." Carol said, her voice a bit shaken.
In a blur, Khan was suddenly on his feet and knocked Scotty out.
"Jim!" Carol and I shouted in unison.
It didn't matter how fast Kirk could react, Khan was faster. A leap, a grab, and a squeeze, and a body slam put Kirk down. Lifting the Captain as if he were weightless, Khan threw him against the far wall.
Carol scrambled to intercept him, and I followed, knowing she could do nothing alone.
"Listen, wait!" she shouted.
Contemptuously, Khan threw her and I to the floor. Though he pulled the kick he delivered to the right thigh of Carol instead of her face, the sickening snap and her high-pitched scream was enough to tell me he'd broken her leg. Only too late did I realize what was going on, and I was thrown against a wall, landing strangely on my left arm, pain racing through my wrist. Winded, I could only watch helplessly as Khan moved on.
Khan's lips tightened ever so slightly as he placed an open palm on either side of the admiral's head and began to squeeze. "You- you-should have let me sleep."
The snapping sound that followed was overwhelmed by screams. After a moment, I realized that they originated from myself and Carol. And I could only look on, unable to help.
Khan moved on as if nothing had happened, dragging Kirk to his feet and standing him in front of the captains chair. Khan hailed the Enterprise, holding Kirk up by the collar of his shirt. When the hail was received, I could hear Spock's voice through the comm.
"Captain?" he said uncertainly.
"I'm going to make this very simple for you, Mr. Spock." Khan told him softly.
"Captain." Spock said again, and I could just barely hear the fear hidden in his tone.
"Your crew," Khan continued, "For my crew."
I could just barely see the view screen from my spot on the floor. I sat up, clutching my broken wrist, to get a better view of Spock and the Enterprise. Spock looked conflicted, and it appeared that he made eye contact with me for a moment. But my imagined moment past, and Spock's face was once more an emotionless mask.
"You have betrayed us." Spock said evenly.
There was a pause, and then Khan smiled. There was pleasure in it, but no amusement. "Oh you are smart, Mr. Spock."
Kirk decided that now was the time to speak up. "Listen to me, Spock! Don't do-"
Khan cut Kirk off in mid-sentence with a blow from the butt of the phaser he was holding, dropping Kirk to the deck. As Kirk struggled to regain his breath, Khan turned back to the video pickup. It was evident that he was tiring of games of any kind.
"Give me my crew."
"What will you do when you get them?" Spock asked, and I wondered what on earth he wanted to know for.
"Continue the work we were doing before we were banished"
"Which is?" One eyebrow lifted quizzically.
"Making the world a better place." There was not so much ass a suggestion of irony in Khan's reply.
"Which according to my understanding, constitutes the destruction of any being you see to be less than superior." Spock replied, his voice firm.
"Shall I destroy you, Mr. Spock?" Khan snapped back, "Or will you give me what I want?"
"We have no transporter capabilities." Spock replied. I finally understood why he was doing all of this. He was stalling for time. But why did he need more time?
"Fortunately, mine are perfectly functional." Khan replied.
"If I do so," Spock responded, "I have no guarantee that you will not kill the captain and destroy the Enterprise."
"Ah, so let's play this out 'logically'." Khan sneered. "Firstly, I will kill your captain to demonstrate my resolve. If yours holds firm, I will have no choice but to kill you and your entire crew. So you see, you can turn over my crew to me and subsequently trust me to let you live, or I can kill you and your colleagues and recover my crew afterward."
"And yet," Spock replied, "If you destroy the Enterprise, you destroy your own people as well."
"Your crew requires oxygen to survive, mine does not. O will selectively target your life support systems located in the vicinity of the engine nacelles. Once everyone aboard your ship has suffocated, I will walk over your cold corpses until I recover my people." Khan said, his smirk both menacing and chilling. "Now, shall we begin?"
"Lower shields, Mr. Sulu."
"A wise choice, Mr. Spock." Khan said, kicking Kirk on his way over to another monitor. "If they're not mine, Commander, I will know it."
"Vulcans do not lie." Spock replied solemnly. The way he said that cued my intuition that Spock was not telling Khan everything about the six dozen torpedoes.
"Thank you, Mr. Spock."
"I have fulfilled your terms." Spock told him stiffly. "Now fulfill mine."
"Why not? It will make no difference, in the end." Looking over at Kirk, who was struggling to keep his balance, Khan spoke condescendingly. "Well Kirk, it seems that I have to return you to your crew, as mine has been returned to me. After all," he paused, "No ship should go down without her captain."
When the swirls of light had finished transporting all of us, we were trapped inside of the very cell that Khan had been placed in earlier. Scotty started pounding on the barrier, getting the security guard's attention so we could escape from here.
We were racing to med bay, Scotty and Kirk carrying Carol, with me in hot pursuit behind them. My wrist still throbbed, and it was a bit swollen, but nothing as painful as Carol's injury, I'm sure.
The loudspeakers throughout the ship sprang to life. "Crew of the Enterprise, this is Commander Spock. All decks prepare for imminent proximity detonation."
"What the hell is he talking about?" Scotty breathed, "Proximity detonation? What detonation?"
My eyes widened at the realization. He had stalled for time.. "The torpedoes. He armed the damn torpedoes." I said.
We dropped Carol off in the med bay, and I grabbed a brace for my wrist. I would deal with healing later.
"He killed Khan's crew. I don't believe it." Kirk breathed as we greeted McCoy on our way out.
"No, he didn't. Spock's cold, but not that cold. I've got Khan's crew." McCoy said, gesturing to med bay. "Seventy two human popsicles."
"Brace for impact." Spock's voice echoed again as I started for the bridge once more with Kirk and Scotty running to engineering, so the Enterprise could get going again.
I was almost flung through a wall at the concussion from the explosion, but I managed to shake it off and keep going. I reached the bridge as Sulu was giving a report.
"Given our present rate of decent, sir, there's nothing near enough to get anything big enough to us in time to halt our drive."
The lights flickered and went out, even the red backup lighting flickering uncontrollably.
"Commander, given what I'm seeing here," he said, "I can't do anything. If we can't get engine power or shields back online," Sulu declared as he worked his instrumentation, "we'll be incinerated on entry."
Spock's face was one of deep contemplation. "Lt Uhura, sound evacuation, all decks." spinning the command chair, he briefly acknowledged me, a strange look crossing his face before turning to speak into the comm. "As acting captain, I order you to abandon ship." A touch of a control set in one arm activated the emergency harness.
Although all eyes were on him, not one of us moved.
"I will remain aboard," he continued, "to re-route all remaining power to life support, gravity, and shuttle bays. I order you to abandon ship."
No one moved from their stations.
Spock repeated the command, more forcefully this time. "I order you all to abandon this ship!"
"With all do respect, Commander-" Sulu started, glancing around.
"But we're not going anywhere." I finished, pressing my own crash harness. Harnesses clicked into place all across the bridge.
"Mr. Sulu," Spock exclaimed as the ship began to plummet, "Divert all remaining power to stabilizers!"
"Doing what I can, sir." the helmsman replied as he desperately fought to comply, "Doing what I can."
I began working at the science station, gathering statistics about the power used throughout the ship, and where everyone was. The more I found out, the more I could streamline our power usage, maybe even find a little more energy to let Sulu use for stabilization. My mind worked frantically, my right hand not working alone nearly as fast as both would have, and not even close to as fast as I wanted it to. Freaking superman Khan and his moody decisions. It was a fast acceleration to death, but I wasn't giving in quite yet. Only when my console lost power, did I sit back, spin my chair around, and accept the inevitable. I wasn't going to make it off of this ship.
I looked at Spock, who turned to gaze at me in return. An unspoken conversation ensued with our eyes, and I could feel the tears streaking down my face. I didn't want it to end this way, not now. A great shudder and moan rocked the bridge, and my safety harness unclasped, pitching me into the floor. I cried out in pain as I landed on my braced arm, trying not to cry any more because of it.
I drug myself over to the captain's chair, content to sit next to it while awaiting my death. A firm but gentle arm pulled me up to sit in the chair, which surprisingly fit the both of us. Spock wrapped his arms around me to keep me secure, and I sheepishly gripped the arm that wound round my front side. I sighed, at least if I did have to die today, I would die in Spock's arms, his warm breath in my hair as my head lay on his chest. Under normal circumstances I would have been blushing like mad, and incapable of anything, but given this set of circumstances, I was silent and pale-faced.
Suddenly, the lights flickered back to life, and consoles lit back up.
"Full power back online!" Sulu exclaimed excitedly, with a bewildered expression on his face.
"Maximum thrusters, Mr. Sulu." Spock ordered immediately. I could hear his voice in his chest just as well as in the air, and a small part of me reveled in being so close to him.
"Stand by, stand by!" the helmsman shouted.
As I glanced out the forward view panels, the ship plunged through the first thick layer of cumulus clouds, the sudden and unexpected restoration of full sound and light taking me by surprise.
"Hold on!" Sulu ordered. I subconsciously gripped Spock's arm tighter, my entire body tensing.
Slowly, but surely, we stopped our rapid decent through Earth's atmosphere and began ascending to float above the clouds once more.
"Shields restored." declared an officer from his station.
"Commander, power online." added another.
I released my death grip on his arm, and sat up straighter as everyone released their safety harnesses.
"It's a miracle." insisted an ensign two stations away.
"There are no such things." Spock said, though his voice seemed unsure.
"Engineering to bridge. Mr. Spock?" Scotty's voice echoed through the comm.
"I am here, Mr. Scott. Since it would appear that congratulations are in order all around, I am pleased to-"
"Sir, you'd better get down here. Better make it fast."
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