"Captain, I'm getting a reading I don't understand..."
The last time Lieutenant Sulu had uttered those words had been four years ago. Five seconds later, the USS Vengeance had caught up to the USS Enterprise when the ship had been at warp and unleashed a deadly assault on the unsuspecting crew. To say Captain Kirk was apprehensive was something of an extraordinary understatement.
"What is it, Sulu?" Jim allowed himself a brief feeling of triumph for maintaining a steady, calm tone despite feeling ready to shit bricks. Spock would be proud, if the damn pointy-eared bastard could feel such an illogical emotion...
Sulu verbalised his theory. "I'm picking up a reading that would indicate a ship similar to that of a Federation Star Ship, but it is not registered in the database, nor is it visible... I think it may be utilising some form of a cloaking device."
An uneasy feeling settled itself in Jim's stomach. They were at least a year away from the nearest Federation base if they travelled at maximum warp - which was now 5.1 thanks to a new upgrade courtesy of Chief Engineer Montgomery Scott - and in any case the Enterprise was the only Federation ship to have ever travelled this deep into space... The mystery vessel could not possibly be Federation approved... And the technology behind cloaking devices were known to be exclusive to Klingon and Romulan vessels - alien races whom he most certainly did not want to encounter this far away from backup.
"Shields up, Mr. Sulu. Take evasive manoeuvres if necessary." Jim ordered.
"Aye, Captain." Sulu said, and then, almost two seconds later; "Captain they've locked weapons on us!"
"Signal a ship-wide red alert!"
"Captain we're being hailed!" Came a warning from across the bridge. The usually musical voice of Lieutenant Uhura had become incredibly serious.
There was no time to respond before Lieutenant Chekov shouted, "Kepten zey 'ave disabled our zhields!"
Not good, not good... Jim spun in his chair to face Uhura, "Broadcast their hail ship-wide."
When the expressionless face of a member of the still-invisible ship's crew materialised on-screen, there were several things he'd been expecting. An angry Klingon hell bent on starting a war... Though that seemed unlikely considering the new peace negotiations... Perhaps an undiscovered alien race whose technology out-ranked that of the Federations?
None of the things he imagined were at all similar to the face of a human. Despite this, he recognised the face instantly.
"Jordan." He said coolly to the Federation's most wanted terrorist.
Daniel Jordan lifted his head defiantly, his blonde hair looking ridiculously spiky from the angle he held his face. "That is Captain Jordan to you, alien-loving traitor."
"I see you're still a xenophobic asshole."
Jordan smirked, and Jim heard Spock's voice for the first time in at least an hour. He was now standing behind the Captain's chair, having sauntered over from his console. "I do not think it is wise to aggravate Captain Jordan. He has disabled our transporter, shields, weapons, warp capabilities and currently has unknown weapons locked on our vessel. Should a confrontation erupt, I calculate the odds of our survival at less than point zero zero two percent."
Jim struggled to stop himself from grimacing - or rolling his eyes, either could have conveyed his thoughts in regards to this situation and would have been completely misinterpreted by his First Officer, if he even noticed - and planned to give Spock a well deserved and highly sarcastic Thank you, Commander, when Jordan's slightly amused, but cold voice broke into his train of thought.
"I see your half-human friend is not as stupid as he looks, Captain Kirk."
Spock's facial expression did not change. "In actual fact, my genetic make up contains less than three point four percent human DNA. I find the common belief that I am "half-human" to be not only genetically incorrect, but an illogical assessment of-"
"You will surrender your Vulcan First Officer and your Communications Officer to me or I will destroy the Enterprise." Jordan cut Spock off. "You have five minutes to come to a decision." He disappeared.
Jim stood up and faced his First Officer. He met his gaze for a second before he began giving orders to his crew members to get their transporter and shields working. He sent a message down to engineering to make sure they were hurrying the hell up with getting warp capabilities back online and then messaged Doctor Marcus in the weapons bay.
"They've completely de-stabilised our weapons consoles!" She angrily reported. "I may be able to manually shoot the photon bullets, but it will be at a rate of three bullets per twenty seconds, and that won't hold them off for long. Especially with the shields down and the minor issue that we can't see the damn ship!"
News from engineering didn't give Jim much more confidence.
"The mad bastard's reset the computer! It needs to be re-programmed before we can reach warp one! It will be at least six hours before I can get us moving again!" Scotty sounded angrier and distinctively more Scottish than usual.
Jim wracked his brain for a way out of this situation and noticed Spock staring evenly at him.
"Don't even think about it!" Jim said, his calm voice with more emotion behind it than he'd intended. "Oh, get that eyebrow down, Spock! You know exactly what I'm talking about. I am not handing you and Uhura over to that maniac! Starfleet does not negotiate with terrorists."
"Captain, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few-"
"Damnit, man!" Chief Medical Officer Leonard McCoy materialised on the bridge and interrupted Spock. "You're mad if you think Jim's going to let you on that ship!"
Spock regarded both men coolly. Uhura, who had alerted Starfleet to the situation joined the men in the middle of the bridge and stood next to Spock. She very much wanted to grip his hand, or for him to just hold her, but she knew Spock would neither appreciate it nor think she was behaving in a logical, professional manner. Hell, she knew her desire was illogical.
"Captain," Spock began, "Jordan has specifically requested, for reasons known only to himself, our presence on his ship. Such a specific preference has led me to assume he harbours no immediate threat to myself or Lieutenant Uhura, and therefore to maintain the lives of the Enterprise at large it is only logical that you give in to his request. I find it highly likely he requires something of us, and our deaths will only inconvenience him."
Jim's mind swirled. Spock had a valid point, but damn it he did not want to hand over two of his best officers to a xenophobic terrorist, particularly when said officers were so obviously supportive of interspecies relations.
Uhura spoke up. "Captain, our communicators contain tracking devices. If Commander Spock and I beam aboard their ship Mr Scott can track us provided the ship stays within range... And considering they have nearly rendered the Enterprise useless and we can't get a direct visual on them, I doubt they will be in a hurry to leave."
Rubbing his temples, Jim tried to let his body know that now was not the time for a migraine.