I do not own Star Trek or anything to do with said franchise. However, I own Alianna Lordeck and co-own Sindari Lordeck and this plot. This fic is based on the new movie, and thus, takes place in the alternate universe of the movie. It's rated for lots of bad language and some sexual scenes (let's face it, it is Captain Kirk we're talking about), and violence and some drinking. You know, standard stuff. Should be lots of fun and I apologize in advance if any of the information about Star Trek is wrong. I've tried to do research, but hey, with eleven movies, five live-action shows and one animated show, along with multiple books and such, getting all the facts straight is kind of hard. Anyways, enjoy.

Ain't No Rest for the Wicked
Chapter Nine: Does it Still McFly?

"Are feeling okay Jim?"

Kirk raised an eyebrow at the inquiry, but otherwise didn't move as Bones removed the brace off his nose. He didn't want to do more damage by doing something as stupid as moving when he shouldn't have, when he'd been told not to. "Yeah," he said once his face was clear. His voice was a little cautious as he was unsure what exactly his friend was after.

Bones fixed his friend with a look that said he knew the younger man was lying, or at least hiding some important details, but Kirk just shrugged and turned his blue eyes to the floor. That gesture just made the doctor keener on finding out what was bothering his friend and his captain, since Kirk was not someone to back down from a fight, be it a staring contest, interrogation or a life-or-death battle. As he was examining the bruised bridge of Kirk's nose, Bones took advantage of the only opportunity he was sure he was going to have to question his friend without him running off.

"The crew are talking about your little chat with Alianna on the bridge last night," he said. Okay, so it wasn't a question, and it wasn't obvious how it related to the way Kirk was feeling, but it was direct enough and seemingly random enough that it just might get the stubborn captain talking.

It sure as hell got Kirk looking confused. "What are they saying?" he asked.

"Nothing overly incriminating, but from what I've overheard, they think you acting as casual as you were with Alianna was odd, and I agree." The doctor narrowed his eyes at the yellow of the healing bruise and then turned away from the table, confident Kirk wasn't going to vanish while his back was turned. Once he had located the stiff tape that would replace the brace on Kirk's nose, he turned back around, the searching look in his eyes once more. "So, I ask again: are you feeling okay Jim?"

Kirk was silent as Bones worked at positioning the tape properly on his nose, his eyes just staring ahead. He was trying to remember the conversation he'd had with Alianna last night, trying to recall why the other bridge officers might have found it unsettling or weird or whatever it was they found it and trying to figure out why the behaviour would alarm Bones so much. The more he thought about it, the more he realized it had been a casual conversation and that it had probably been out of line, but there was something about Alianna that made him not care. As Bones stepped back and fixed his friend with an answer-expecting glare, Kirk sighed and closed his eyes. "I've been feeling fine, just… overworked and overwhelmed, I guess. This Klingon ship…" Jim looked at Bones a little more solidly, the muscles in his jaw working as he tried to find words to express what was going on with him. "Starfleet's on my ass because people keep dying and I don't have the slightest clue beyond hunting these Klingons down how to stop more people from dying. They have a weapon we've never heard of, we don't know how to defend against and they're targeting the Federation." The young captain chewed over his next words, his eyes falling to the floor. "I don't know what to do… I feel like I'm leading this crew into a battle we can't win."

"You feel useless."

Kirk looked up, a glare and biting words prepared. But they fell away. "Yes," he finally admitted, his shoulders falling and the usually cocky captain deflating; James T. Kirk wasn't someone who admitted he felt useless or weak in anyway.

"So you want to help Alianna and Sindari because you feel you can do something for them."

The captain narrowed his eyes, but his face softened abruptly into a familiar smirk. "You seem to know what you're talking about, Bones."

The doctor smiled. "Look, Jim, you've given them a place on the bridge and replaced what you could of the life they lost. There's nothing more you can do for them, and besides, Alianna and Sin can take care of themselves. I realize you feel they're the only ones you can really help right now, but you're not going to solve this Klingon problem by ignoring it."

Kirk was silent for a moment. "Sin, eh?"

Bones opened his mouth to give a retort, but closed it and turned away, to hide that he was flustered. "Speaking of the Klingons," he said, changing the subject as smoothly as he could. "I can give you more proof that they are who we're facing and that they have modified their weapons. Maybe it'll help get Starfleet off your ass." The doctor retrieved a data PADD from his office and handed it to his captain. "Doctor Peters contacted me with those images. Radiation burns have appeared on the bodies of the Marissa's crew, and the burns are consistent with those from a Bird of Prey's phaser banks."

"So they modified their ship's weapons? I've never heard of anything like this. Not to this degree, anyway."

"I'm starting to believe that they have made some sort of alliance with someone possessing more sophisticated technology."

"Me too." Kirk looked at the PADD for a moment longer before handing it back to the doctor of the Enterprise and sliding off the table. "Let me know if Doctor Peters shares any more research or if you come up with something. We're on the way towards the next ghost ship. I'll let you know when we get there."

"Sure."

Bones watched Captain Kirk leave sick bay and then looked down at the PADD in his hands. The black burns were gruesome things and would have been even if they weren't plastered all over the dead, grey flesh of the Marissa crew members. He shut the PADD off and placed it on his work desk just as Sindari came striding in the room, a determined look in her eyes and a smile on her lips. She looked rather satisfied with herself. She leaned against the table beside him and crossed her arms under her chest, her expression shifting into her normal, wide grin.

"Guess what," she said, her green eyes sparkling mischievously.

Bones looked down at the yellow-clad weapons officer and shrugged, spreading his hand to either side, admitting defeat. "I'm stumped. What?"

Sindari frowned and playfully scowled at her friend for not actually guessing. "Well, I know this may not be the best time to have been thinking about this, but I've decided to go through and finish my medical training once we get back to Earth"

The doctor couldn't help but smile. Sindari had helped out in sick bay a few times and her help had been much appreciated and her desire to learn much needed. Bones had no doubt she would make an excellent medical officer once she was fully trained. "Well, good luck. And while you're stuck on the Enterprise, why don't you get a jump on your training?" He smiled as he made the proposition, knowing how she would respond.

"Really?"

"It's been a while since I took the basic medical courses at Starfleet, but I'd like to think I still have some wisdom to impart."

Sindari's answering grin was infectious. She ran her fingers back through her short red hair and then crossed her arm again. "Why don't you show me that report you said Dr. Peters was sending over? You said she found something on the bodies of the Marissa's crew."

It took Bones a minute to recall that he had in fact discussed Dr. Peters' report with the younger Lordeck. In his thoughts, he paused, because for a moment, he understood why Kirk seemed to act differently around Alianna, and it wasn't just out of a desire to help her. There was something compelling about the Lordeck girls. They would make excellent interrogators.

Bones picked up the PADD and handed it to the red-head in front of him, impressed at her quick return to the business at hand. "Those burns appeared a few days ago and they're consistent with burns from Klingon weaponry."

"But for the burns to be the same on everyone on the ship, the Klingons would have had to modify the phaser banks on their ship." Sindari skimmed through the rest of the report and her cheeks turned faintly red. "Oh, it says that," she whispered, looking sheepishly up at the doctor.

"And the Captain's already knows about it too, but that's okay. You know, you process situations and information quickly."

"Yeah?"

"That's good for a doctor, especially a field medic."

Sindari gave that beaming smile again, but any words she might have had were cut off by Alianna's abrupt entrance into the medical bay, hands balled into fists as her arms swung viciously by her sides. Her long hair was unbound and there was a slightly wild look in her eyes, one neither her sister nor Bones found that surprising. She crossed the room and looked at Sindari, not seeming to register who she was seeing immediately. When she picked up that it was her sister, she nodded once and then turned those wild eyes to Bones, crossing her arms over her chest, mirroring her sister; the stance was a little more frightening on Alianna.

"I need something for pain that won't put me to sleep."

The doctor sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alianna, you just worked an overnight shift and if your hand it hurting again, you should get some rest." Bones lifted a hand to shut her up when she opened her mouth to protest. "You're going to make yourself sick if you keep going at this pace. You need to slow down."

"I have to go on that away team!"

"Why?"

Alianna opened her mouth but closed it again, her eyes falling to the floor. "I just have to, okay? And there isn't time to take a nap before we reach the coordinates of the ghost ship, and it's not my hand that hurts anyway. It's my head. I have a headache." When she looked back up at the doctor, her eyes were still stubborn, but the wild fire had gone out of them, replaced by the pain she was actually feeling.

"Oh, you are so lying," Sindari said, snickering.

Bones raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything to Sindari. "Go lay down," he said to Alianna. "Doctor's orders."

Alianna narrowed her eyes. "Fine," she snapped as she turned around. "But I hate you."

"I figured you might."

As the angry Lieutenant Commander left the medical bay, Bones turned to Sindari, who was smiling at him knowingly. "Need a translation?" she asked, a small smirk on her face.

"Well, if you're offering one. Your sister is..."

"Confusing? Chaotic? A mess?"

"I was going to say 'interesting' but you adjectives work too. So what's eating her this time?"

"What isn't eating her?" Sindari hopped on the bed Kirk had vacated moments before and started swinging her legs back and forth. "Sometimes, I wonder if Ali even knows what's wrong with her. She's just so based in instinct and emotion... she just goes with what her gut tells her, and it makes her great at interrogations and security work and kicking ass, but not so great at other social interactions." Sindari sighed and ran one hand back through her hair again. "She's still angry and upset about the Marissa and she's mad that her hand is broken and, from what I've heard from the night shift about what happened last night, flustered or something about Captain Kirk." The younger Lordeck looked at Bones, her face a lot softer than it had been when she'd walked into sick bay. There was also a heaviness to her shoulders that hadn't been there a moment before. "There's always so much going on with her..."

Bones looked at the young woman, contemplating everything she'd just said and the new slant to her appearance and demeanour. "You've spent your whole life looking out for her, haven't you?"

She looked startled, but she recovered quickly. "Uhm... Yeah, I guess I have, but don't take that the wrong way and hold it against her or something. Alianna would do and has done anything and everything I needed her to. She's a good sister and she knows how to take care of other people when she has to, but she never learned how to handle her own emotions. She never learned how to really take care of herself, so I do my best to help her. Alianna may be fiercely independent, but she needs someone to subtly guide her. If she doesn't have that than she'll just go off."

"And beat herself up? What does that accomplish?"

"It makes her angrier." Sindari smiled at her joke, but it faded quickly. "None of the conventional treatments have worked. She's had therapy and about every other treatment you could think of, but nothing helps, except for being able to snap at something. She's a lot less volatile and unpredictable when she's allowed to explode every once in a while."

"That doesn't make any sense."

The Junior Lieutenant rolled her eyes and smiled, shrugging a bit as if to say "that's Ali for you". Her eyes, and probably her memory, wandered for a few moments, a range of emotions playing quietly across her face as she remembered what Bones assumed to be key memories having to do with Alianna's volatile nature, one of the more recent of which was probably when she broke Kirk's nose on the back of her head. "Hey," she said suddenly, drawing herself and Bones out of their respective thoughts and sliding off the table. "Are you going to start teaching me or just question me about Ali?"

Bones pretended to think about it briefly before he gestured to his office, a small area in the back corner of the medical bay, separated by panels of glass and metal. Sindari smiled warmly, gave a little but dramatic bow and walked past him into said office, quite obviously excited to start her training.

"Distance to the U.S.S. Castiel?" Kirk asked as he settled himself into his command chair and absently scratched at the skin around the tape on his nose.

Instead of getting the answer he was after, he got a better one. "We are picking the ship up on long-range sensors, Captain," Spock said from his place at the science station. Kirk nodded and as if Spock could see the gesture through the back of his head, he continued speaking. "There are no life signs and there are no systems left operational, not even life support." The Vulcan turned his chair so he could face the captain, his face placid as usual. "It would seem the Klingons have changed their methods."

"It would seem..." Kirk spun in his own chair until he was staring straight out the viewer. "When we're within range, I want the ship on screen," he said. "Mr. Spock, why would they stop boarding the ship after attacking it?"

"I can only speculate, Captain, but logic dictates some circumstance changed and forced them to adapt. Perhaps something went wrong with their vessel and they were not able to complete the attack the way they normally would. Or perhaps they perfected their weapon and no longer needed to board the target vessel to check for survivors."

Kirk frowned and scratched at his face again. "The first option could work to our advantage, while the second one may prove disturbing..."

"We're within range, Captain," Chekov said. He slid his fingers over his console, brining a rather disturbing image onto the viewer at the front of the bridge.

The U.S.S. Castiel was a smaller ship than the other ghost vessels had been. It was a science vessel and wouldn't have stood a chance a regular attack from the Klingons; science ships just weren't equipped to handle much firepower. As it was, the ship was a wreck. Evidently, all systems had been disabled by the blast that had taken out much of the lower decks, and the resulting hole trailed debris and bodies as the ship moved slowly forward, propelled by whatever momentum had been left to it. Kirk's initial response was to ask if they could somehow get the containment shields back on and prevent any more of the Castiel's crew from slipping into space, but he knew that wouldn't be possible, not in any reasonable amount of time anyway, so he did the next best thing he could think of.

"Bones," he said, pressing the comm. button on the arm of his chair. "The Castiel has lost all systems. We're going to beam the bodies into sick bay and take them to the nearest starbase. I don't want to lose anymore crewmen while we're towing the ship."

"How many bodies are we talking, Jim?"

"Standard science vessel compliment."

"I don't know if we're going to have enough room down here."

"Then use some of the empty quarters. We're not losing any more bodies."

"All right. We're ready down here whenever."

Kirk sighed and went to pinch the bridge of his nose between forefinger and thumb, but stopped, remembering at the last second that doing so would probably hurt like a bitch. "Mr. Scott," he said, pressing the comm. button again.

"Aye Captain."

"Lock onto the crewmen in space and beam them to sick bay. Then beam those still on the ship up to the transporter pad. Some of the medical staff will be there to take them to some of the empty guest quarters." Kirk sighed again, the weight of the situation settling on his shoulders. "That's the best we can do for them."

"I'm on it Captain."

As his crew moved about their tasks, Kirk settled further into his chair and stared at the ship hanging nearly motionless in space. "Are there any ion trails in the area?" he asked. He didn't direct the question at anyone, because he know only Spock would answer.

"Negative."

Kirk sighed again, feeling again as if his control was slipping away. There was still no sign of the Klingons, and now they had another ship full of dead Starfleet officers to take to another starbase, and someone, back on Earth, was going to be charged with the task of informing the families of those who were lost. As that thought entered his mind, Kirk thought of the families who had lost someone on the other ghost ships, of Alianna and Sindari who had lost their entire Starfleet family on board the Marissa. He had witnessed their grief first hand, and he knew there would be many families across the Federation who suffered the same sadness. The young Captain of the Enterprise put his face in his hands, careful to avoid his nose, and put his elbows on his knees so he was leaning forward.

"Captain?"

He sat up abruptly and pressed the comm. button. "Yes Mr. Scott?"

"All the crew are on board. We're ready to head out."

"Thank you Mr. Scott." Kirk left his finger from the button. "Mr. Chekov, get that ship and a tractor beam, and Mr. Sulu, set course for the nearest starbase and inform me when we reach it."

When he had confirmation on his orders, Kirk pushed himself out of his chair and left the bridge, following the path he had only half an hour ago down to sick bay. The formally nearly empty bay was now almost full of bodies, lying still and stiff on the tables and on the floor, all covered by blankets and all being respectively checked over by Bones and his staff. Kirk was mildly surprised to see Sindari moving about the dead crewmen, using a tricorder to collect data, with a blank look on her normally very expressive face.

Kirk headed to Bones. "Where's the Captain?" he asked.

"She's in one of the empty guest quarters, down the hall from Alianna's room," he said without looking up. His voice was lower than normal, indicating he was focused on work above everything else.

Perfectly okay with that, the captain left the medical bay and headed back towards the turbolift. He punched the buttons that would take him down to the proper deck and leaned against the wall. At that moment, he was feeling more than useless and powerless. There was no immediate solution, and all he could think of to do was, after they had taken the ship and the bodies to the nearest starbase, to return to the location of the Castiel and try and find some sign of the Klingons. He didn't want to just fly around and wait for word of a Klingon ship or another ghost ship, not only because he knew Starfleet would demote him for sure and take the Enterprise away from him, but he wasn't sure he could bare it if any more people died because he couldn't find one damn ship.

The turbolift doors open and Kirk headed down the hall at a fast walk, intent on getting to the guest quarters without anyone seeing him, without anyone needing him to be their captain. He did make it, but when the doors to the quarters opened, he found two medical officers scanning the bodies and Alianna, standing with her arms wrapped around herself as she stared down at the body of the captain of the Castiel, lying on the bed.

Kirk navigated through the room carefully until he was standing beside her. His appearance didn't seem to distract her, so he didn't say anything, just stared down at the middle-aged captain and wished silently there weren't any children waiting for her back home. She was tall and thin with dark brown hair than blended nearly seamlessly with her dark skin. There was something dignified about her, even in death, and Kirk guessed she had been an excellent captain as well as intelligent; only the smartest on the command track were given science vessels to captain.

"I knew her," Alianna said.

Kirk looked sideways at her, frowning slightly. "Oh?"

"She was strict and proud. Excellent captain. Brave." Alianna looked up at Kirk, her face blank and unreadable. "She would have tried to fight them, right until the last second, like you."

He blinked, but didn't say anything. He took the compliment for what it was and nodded once. "Does she have any family?" he asked. Might as well quell the fears right away.

"Just a brother and an elderly mother, but that was several years ago, so I'm not really sure."

Kirk nodded. "I'm glad she had no children."

Alianna frowned slightly, put off by the initial impact of that statement, but her face softened as she gathered what her captain meant, agreeing with a curt nod. "Where are we taking them?" she asked.

"The starbase on the outskirts of the Sol system. It's the nearest one. I'll contact Starfleet once we get there and let them know what we found before we head out again and try to find these Klingons. We need to end this soon."

"You think Starfleet is going to leave you in charge of this investigation?"

Kirk smiled bitterly and crossed his arms loosely across his chest. "No, but we're going to do something about it regardless. I'm not leaving this in the hands of anyone else."

Alianna shifted so she was standing with her hands on her hips, a similarly bitter grin on her face. "So we're going to chase these Klingons regardless of what Starfleet says?" Kirk could only nod before Alianna continued speaking. "I'm game with that." Her green eyes turned back to the deceased captain on the bed beside her and she sighed. "We can't lose anyone else. We can't lose any more officers."

After another moment of silence, the two senior officers left the room, leaving the medical officers to their work, and started down the hall towards the turbolift.

"What did you find with the Castiel, sir?"

Kirk turned his head to look at Alianna as they walked. Her eyes were locked on the path she was walking and she was playing with one of her hair sticks, one long finger running idly along the bladed edge. Her lapse into formal speech was abrupt, but Kirk realized it was a way to avoid the emotions boiling inside, and with Alianna there was no other word. Her emotions just boiled and boiled over. So, Kirk would keep with the tone to keep her from giving into those emotions. "All systems were disabled and a large portion of the ship was destroyed," he said.

"The Klingons didn't board this ship?"

"Not that we can tell."

"It seems they're in a rush. They're must more disorganized."

Kirk frowned in thought, because neither he nor Spock had mentioned that possibility outright. "Are you suggesting they're devolving?"

"Yes sir."

He hadn't studied serial killers beyond the mentions in Earth history, but he knew the terminology and knew devolution was a pattern most, in Earth's history anyway, followed. To suggest the Klingon ship was behaving as sort of a collective sociopathic mind was something he probably never would have landed on. Spock might have gotten there eventually, but it was an interesting idea regardless of how it was reached, and it was, he realized the more he thought about it, quite possible. Maybe something had happened to their ship which necessitated the devolution.

As they neared the turbolift, the comm. system kicked in. "Bridge to Captain Kirk."

He stepped up to the panel on the wall and pressed a large button with his thumb. "Go ahead Uhura."

"We've reached the starbase, sir. They've agreed to take the Castiel and her crew and contact Starfleet if you leave a message with them. There's also a gentleman docked who claims to have some information about the Klingons."

Kirk looked at Alianna, who was frowning slightly, lost in her thoughts. "Bring him over to the Enterprise. I'll meet him in my office. Mr. Spock can handle the transfer of the Castiel's crew."

"Aye sir."

When the connection died away, Kirk turned to Alianna. "Why don't you head up to the bridge and start your shift early?"

Alianna nodded, her tight bun bobbing slightly at the back of her head; the hair stick was back in place, and she looked immaculate as usual. Kirk watched her climb into the turbolift, and as the doors closed, he turned around and headed towards his quarters. He sat down behind his desk and waited, knowing the man who apparently had information wouldn't be long in arriving from the starbase. Kirk was correct, as about five minutes later, the chime sounded, and once he had admitted entrance, a short and slightly round man crossed the room at a brisk pace and dropped into the chair across the desk and shoved an older model of the data PADD across the desk, a lopsided grin on his round face.

Kirk smiled a very business-like smile and picked up the device, the thing responding quickly at his touch. A crystal-clear image of what looked like a hunk of metal floating in space appeared. Kirk frowned. "What is this?"

The man cleared his throat. "Well, sir. I'm not exactly sure, sir." He cleared his throat again and then continued speaking in his thin voice; there was something about the man that screamed merchant, and probably one who dealt in illegal things, but he wasn't something Kirk had to worry about right now. "It flew past my ship on the edge of the system, sir, and I thought it looked like a Klingon Bird of Prey... Or, the wing of one at least."

Captain Kirk peered at the image, and then zoomed in on the picture, the PADD automatically focusing the image as it moved. It was a colour somewhere between grey and green, with lines of rust between the panels making up the hull. It was definitely a part of a ship and it was made up of all sharp angels. It did look like a Bird of Prey, but Kirk had never heard of only a part of the cloaking device becoming disabled on a Klingon ship, and that made it all the more likely that it was the ship they were looking for. He stared at the image for a moment longer and then looked up at his guest and forced another business smile.

"Where was this image taken?" Kirk asked.

"On the edge of the Sol system, sir. Your first officer already had all the information transferred into your ship's computers, sir."

Kirk rolled his eyes at all the sirs but didn't say anything. It was clear the man was anxious. "Thank you. This will be useful. If you head back to the transporter room, Mr. Scott will see you safely back to your ship," Kirk said as he handed the PADD back to its owner.

The man opened his mouth to say something, but took one look at the hard expression on Kirk's face and closed it again. He gave a little nod of the head and then turned and hurried away, leaving the Captain sitting at his desk, contemplating the new information. Kirk was only at it for a moment, before he got to his feet and headed for the turbolift that would take him to the bridge, and there was a smile on his face because not only did they finally have another lead, but it seemed maybe he wasn't as useless as he had been feeling.

Not to mention this, along with Bones' report, would almost certainly get Starfleet off his ass.

Author's Note.

UNINTENTIONAL SYMBOLISM! Let's see who can find it… I'll give you a hint. It has to do with Kirk's broken nose, and it's something I didn't mean to put in my story. Shauna, you don't get to guess.

Hey, this proves my theory that some of the symbolism and crap English teachers find in books is accidental! Go me!

Anyways, moving on from the insane chatter of an insane author, if you can even do that…

I'm going to finish the first book of my Supernatural fanfiction (only one chapter left) and then I'm going to concentrate on this fic and Chances Are, my fic that goes along with The Dark Knight. Once finished, I will work on Joke's On You and possibly the sequel to this story, depending on how the end of this fic is received.

That's the plan.

And dude, I got a new laptop with Windows 7. I kinda love it. I haven't quite gotten used to everything yet though, so we'll see how long that takes me...

By the way, in case anyone is wondering, Bones is using bandages and stuff because in the new movie he uses them and in several instances in The Original Series, he gives actual pills and using physical medical stuff rather than just hyposprays and whatnot.

Enjoy the chapter! (Does anyone else find it weird that I always say this at the end of the chapter?)

Next Chapter: Another Lead.