Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek.
Warning: The next few chapters will be violent. May contain Chekov/Eprouve and Spock/Uhura but I'm not sure.
Author's note: Sorry for not updating recently, guys! I just graduated middle school and my schedule got a little hectic. ^^' I should be updating more now, though. And thank you all for the reviews and favorites! You make me feel *uber special*!!!:D
"Bridge to Mr. Scott! Bridge to Mr. Scott! Scotty, come in!" Kirk commanded over the intercom, exasperated. A few drops of sweat clung to his forehead, his eyes flickering to Chekov's station as Spock and Pavel continued their attempt at restoring the previous coordinates.
"Aye, Captain, Scott here." The Chief Engineer answered, his voice full of mixed emotions.
"What's going on? Can you fix it?" Kirk pried. Scotty sighed, shaking his head left to right slowly.
"I'm not sure, sir." He said. "She's goin' at warp ten, and it's usin' up all the energy. If I enable the stabilizers, we may get a power outage."
"Well, are you able to slow the ship down?" Kirk interrogated, getting anxious.
"Not for another thirty minutes. The system needs to reset itself and cool down, but I'm working on it, Captain." Mr. Scott explained, adjusting something in the engine room. Kirk groaned.
"We don't have thirty minutes, Scotty. We'll be in Klingon territory in twenty. You need to work faster!" Kirk insisted, wiping some sweat off of his brow, eyes flickering to the First Officer who was still tampering with Chekov's station.
"It's not a question of how fast I'm working, Kirk! I canna change the laws of physics, I've got to have thirty minutes!" The Engineer retorted, glaring hopelessly at the intercom. "You need to change the coordinates. It will be easier than resetting the system before its ready, at least."
Kirk sighed. "All right, just keep trying. Kirk out." The Captain stood up, wobbly due to the unsteadiness of the starship. He walked up to Chekov's station and examined the situation. Kirk sighed, he didn't know how he'd be able to get them out of this. If they went to Klingon…he didn't even want to think about what would happen. But losing power wouldn't be good either. The Captain started pacing around the bridge as he gave his orders. "Now listen here." He commanded. "Someone get Ms. Eprouve up here and let her have a try at hacking the system. We need to get the coordinates straightened out as soon as we can. If we're not back on course in ten minutes, then…" Kirk walked over to Nyota. "…You'll need to contact Starfleet, and possibly Klingon, Ms. Uhura." The Captain said. "Once everything's back to normal, have security find Mr. Sulu."
The crew acknowledged their captain and proceeded to carry out his orders. Spock and Chekov were still furiously doing everything in their power to change the coordinates to no avail. The replacement helmsman found that he could not raise the starship's shields, much to Kirk's dissatisfaction. The rocking of the Enterprise wasn't helping much, either. Even Spock was starting to show signs of annoyance.
"Captain's log, supplemental. Three officers were showing signs of aggression toward the rest of the crew, one of these being the helmsman Lieutenant Sulu. While Sulu was alone on the bridge, the ship's coordinates changed from Argus X to Klingon and the stabilizers were deactivated. We can neither restore the coordinates nor the stabilizers, and with The Enterprise traveling at warp ten, our chances of survival are…slim. If our young Ensign Eprouve cannot hack into the system, Lieutenant Uhura will be forced to contact Starfleet. If worse comes to worse, we may even need to contact Klingon and explain the situation before they see us as a threat. I don't know what I'm more concerned about—the three possibly ill officers aboard The Enterprise, our energy running low, our lack of stability, or the fact that my ship is on an unstoppable trek to Klingon territory."
Kirk ended his log as the Tactical Officer entered the bridge. She looked somewhat skeptical, as only the officers on the bridge were aware of what was transpiring. "Captain, what exactly is going on?" Eprouve coughed, confused.
"We have three insane crewmen on the loose, our stabilizers are down and we're headed straight for Klingon at warp ten speed." Kirk mechanically explained in one breath. The Ensign's eyes widened.
"Oh. Well, shit!"
"Chekov and Spock can't reset the coordinates and our shields won't go up. Think you can hack the system?" The Captain questioned. Eprouve strode over to the navigator's station and examined it thoroughly, coughing quietly into her shoulder.
"I don't know, sir…" Emily started, sounding unsure of herself. "I've never seen anything like this, whoever made this happen must have had very specific, broad, sophisticated training." She said, starting to type in some useless codes. Kirk had an expression of defeat clear on his face, his tone grew pale.
"So, in other words, you have no clue how to fix it." The Captain muttered. Eprouve sighed and pressed down two buttons while rapidly jabbing a few keys. Spock raised an eyebrow, curious about the Ensign's methods of hacking into complex systems.
"Pretty much." She flipped numerous switches repeatedly. "But the old-fashioned way never fails." The officer went on clicking the buttons and typing in codes. Kirk groaned.
"Old-fashioned way, Ensign?" Spock inquired, watching the girl closely.
Eprouve kicked part of the system that was under Chekov's station as hard as she possibly could, making Uhura, Kirk, and Chekov jump. Suddenly a small LED light on the compboard flickered on, and Ensign Eprouve checked the screen again. She smiled proudly. "Yes, Mr. Spock. Poking random buttons and beating the bloody hell out of the hardware. Maybe not the most professional way to reset a system, but definitely the fastest." Emily explained as she stood up and motioned Chekov toward his station.
The Russian officer examined his post as the starship suddenly took a sharp ninety degree turn. He almost fell into the young girl, but he managed to get a grip on his desk before he lost his balance. (Sulu's replacement, however, was not so lucky—he slid out of his chair and landed flat on the ground, and Uhura had to help him to his feet for the second time.) Chekov stared at his screen for a few seconds, then let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"The ship has changed course, Captain. We are now on our way to Argus X…the coordinates are no longer set to Klingon." Pavel announced, shaking his head with a slight smile on his face. Kirk stared at Eprouve, astounded.
"And our shields are able to be enforced, sir, though I no longer believe they are necessary." Declared Sulu's replacement.
"Fascinating…" Spock muttered, slightly shocked that a female human teenager had the capability of fixing a technical problem that he was unable to. Emily coughed quietly, grinning with pride.
"Wow. Thank you, Ms. Eprouve." The Captain said, his voice a mixture of relief and disbelief. "Now, as helpful as it is to not be on course for Klingon, we still have other pressing matters to attend to. If you would be so kind as to go to the Engineering room to assist Mr. Scott in reengaging the stabilizers and slowing down the ship, that would be most obliging."
"Aye, Captain." Eprouve replied with a nod. She swiftly pivoted and left the bridge to go help Scotty. Spock returned to his station as did Uhura. Chekov went on marveling over the miracle that just occurred, mumbling grateful Russian praises as he continued his duties. The Enterprise was still rather rocky, but now that they were back on course and Sulu wasn't at the helm, Kirk felt much less stressed. The familiar whistle sounded at the Captain's station, so Kirk took the few steps back and switched on the intercom.
"Kirk here."
"Jim, what's happening? Why's the ship so—" Doctor McCoy started, but was cut off when the starship gave another lurch forward. The Captain figured he must have lost his balance or something. McCoy composed himself. "…So unstable?" Bones asked. Kirk lowered himself into his chair, exhaling deeply as he did so.
"Trust me, you don't want to know. It should be back to normal in fifteen minutes or so." Kirk replied. "How is everything down there? Any injuries?" He inquired, lightly changing the subject. Bones hesitated, possibly desiring to argue the point but then deciding it was better not to irritate the Captain.
"We've been better," The doctor admitted. "But we've also been worse. The bad news is I have a good thirty patients down here. The good news is most of them aren't critical, it's mostly minor injuries." McCoy explained, looking over his shoulder at the many patients. "It would be really helpful if The Enterprise would stop rocking around so much, though." Bones scowled.
"I'm sure Scotty is doing all he can, Bones." Kirk assured the doctor. "And I just sent Ms. Eprouve down to help him. Once the ship is stable again and all of the injured crewmen have been taken care of, we'll get security to find Mr. Sulu and the others for you to examine." The Captain stated.
"All right, but take it easy, Jim. We've been having so much trouble lately that I'm worried about your stress…it wouldn't be good if you had a panic attack on us." McCoy warned his friend.
"Sure." The Captain replied emotionlessly, knowing he would probably not be able to keep his word. "Kirk out."
Just then, the lights on the bridge flickered a few times, then darkness crept over the entire starship. The Captain stared forward into the nothingness, and held his palm out in front of himself. He saw nothing but blackness. It looked as if his fellow crewmen had all but disappeared. Kirk groaned quietly as he groped around for something to hold onto to keep him steady as the ship continued to twist and turn violently. "Mr. Spock?" He asked loudly, looking for an explanation and trying to talk over the loud bumps and murmurings coming from the hallway.
"I believe Mr. Scott did state the possibility of a power-outage, sir…" Spock declared, unsure of the whereabouts of his Captain.
"Lieutenant Uhura," Kirk called. "Please tell me you where able to contact Starfleet before the blackout?" he pleaded.
"Negative, sir…" Uhura replied glumly. "It seems that our communications are down as well."
Kirk blinked his eyes a few times, attempting to adjust his vision to the darkness of the ship. "Well, that's wonderful. Just perfectly great news. Honestly. I've never heard anything better than that in my entire life. We're floating through space with no power and no stability, we have three insane crewmen reeking havoc on the ship, over thirty injured officers and no way to contact—"
"Please, sir," Chekov interrupted the Captain's ramblings. "Perhaps you should rest, Captain, I do believe you are beginning to stress…" The young navigator rose, though he could see neither his commanding officer nor the ashamed face of Nyota Uhura.
"Rest, Ensign? At a time like this?" Kirk retorted. "I will rest whenever I see fit, and I don't think that this moment is a good time to—" He cut himself off as the lights switched back on, their illumination so bright compared to the blackness that had just ruled the bridge that it was almost blinding to the crewmen. The ship tilted from side to side, this time managing to knock over every officer on the bridge as a whistle went off at the captain's chair.
"Scott to bridge." Scotty said over the intercom and the Captain hoisted himself up off the ground and back into his chair.
"Yes, Mr. Scott," Kirk sighed as Chekov stood up and gave him a disappointed glare. The Captain looked away sheepishly, not willing to deal with petty problems at the moment.
"I'll be able to reactivate the stabilizers within five minutes, sir." Scott reported, wiping the sweat off his brow. "But, as you probably noticed, we might not have enough power to last five minutes. Stabilizing the ship may result in the whole system short-circuiting." The Scotsman stated, the situation looking grim.
"Use the emergency energy reserves and stabilize the ship. We'll land at the nearest Federation planet or space station to refuel." Kirk responded mechanically. "We'll keep trying to contact Starfleet, but for now just focus on keeping the power on and getting the ship stable."
"I could do with some help, Captain." Scotty mentioned. "Most of my men were injured and are in sickbay right now." He explained, fiddling with the controls and examining his nearly empty station. Kirk raised an eyebrow in confusion.
"I sent Ms. Eprouve down to help you a few minutes ago," Kirk replied, puzzled. "She should have been with you by now." He said.
"That's strange," Scotty muttered. "Oh, well, the ship's a bit unhinged, I'm sure she's on her way here." He stated lightly. The Engineer pulled a lever on the control panel, and the Enterprise gave one final stagger before it regain its steadiness. "There we are. Everything's runnin' perfectly now, sir, though I recommend we refuel."
"Of course, Mr. Scott." Kirk answered with a sigh of relief. "Thank you."
"Aye, sir." The Engineer replied with a sad smile. "Scott out."
