AN: Okay, so this chapter contains major spoilers for the movie and we're really getting into it now. So if you don't want spoilers TURN BACK!
Chapter Three
M'Ress was resting when she heard the first shots, blinking in confusion she hurried over to the window and gaped as she looked up and saw a ship firing on the building. The room began to shake as the shots were fired more frequently as the ship dodged any attempt to shoot it. M'Ress hurried out of her room, grabbing her pistol before running up the stairs.
She rounded corner along with several other Starfleet members she raised her weapon and looked in horror at all of the bodies that were being blasted by the unknown ship. She gritted her teeth and aimed at the ship through the window, trying not to be jostled by the other members of Starfleet who were running towards the conference room and out of it.
M'Ress was soon joined by her Captain, she briefly wondered what he was doing in the conference room before pushing that thought out of her mind as Kirk shot through the window causing the glass to break and cascade to the ground, the majority fell onto the ground outside but a few large pieces had managed to land on the floor in front of them. The two looked at each other before realising that just shooting at the ship wasn't working.
Kirk pushed on the wall behind them as M'Ress remained shooting, this time higher, aiming at the glass window at the front of the ship instead of the underbelly as she had been doing. Kirk came back, wrapping a fire hose around his own gun before launching it out of the window just as M'Ress' shots managed to crack the windows glass.
As the ship's propeller practically inhaled the weapon that had been caught in it, Kirk pulled her down to the floor and covered her with his body just in time as the wall where the hose was connected came flying off. Joining the rest of the hose inside the engine, and sure enough the ship started malfunctioning and exploding.
M'Ress peeked from under her Captains arm, just managing to see the ship start to fly out of control and lose height. Kirk helped her up and together they saw the man who was flying the ship. M'Ress didn't know who he was but Kirk visibly reacted.
The man smirked at the two of them, tilting his head in M'Ress' direction who narrowed her eyes at the man. He was enveloped in yellow lights that brightened as they whisked him away to an unknown location. What was left as the ship finally went down was an empty seat. M'Ress stayed there for a minute and turned to help the wounded Captains and First Officers make their way to med bay, she didn't see where Kirk went but assumed he was doing the same.
M'Ress held up one arm of Admiral Marcus who had been limping away from the room, he smiled down at her tightly clearly in a lot of pain. She reached over and hit the button for the elevator and they both waited in what she felt was a slightly awkward silence.
"Thank you for helping me Lieutenant." Marcus spoke as the doors opened and she helped him inside.
"It's no problem Sir." She observed her superior for a minute, he looked like he hadn't been too injured, just a badly cut leg which was bleeding slowly and steadily. She knew that he shouldn't be walking this much, instead he should be elevating the leg but he didn't seem to want to slow down. She pushed the button for the floor to med bay, knowing that Doctor McCoy would probably be down there somewhere, treating the influx of patients.
Once the doors opened, the Admiral seemed to be less inclined to lean on her for help, probably something to do with not wanting to hurt his Alpha status, she rolled her eyes and took his arm, pulling it over her shoulder when he started to limp again. There was no point in him hurting himself further by having too big an ego.
"Admiral." One of the doctor's gasped, handing over a just treated patient to one of the nurses and hurrying over. M'Ress left when Marcus started being treated and not seeing Doctor McCoy anywhere she felt there was no real reason for her to stick around.
"Lieutenant?" She turned before she reached the door, Marcus was sat on a bed with his leg being treated, all of the blood had been washed away.
"Yes sir?" She asked.
"Thanks for your help." He said before answering his communicator. She took this as her cue to leave and walked through the doors to med bay, managing to just avoid someone coming through the other side.
"M'Ress?" She heard as she walked back to the elevators. She turned as the doors just opened, spotting Doctor McCoy.
She bowed her head slightly in respect, feeling her tail wrap around her waist to keep it out of the way as the doors to the elevator shut. "Doctor." She greeted.
McCoy ran a hand through his hair. "I heard the attack, do you know if Kirk's alright?" His eyes showed the worry he had for his friend. M'Ress respected that.
"The Captain is fine Doctor, he has only minor injuries and scrapes that I was aware of." He let out a sigh of relief at her answer, nodding to her.
"Thanks, I'll see you on the Enterprise." He started jogging back to med bay as someone screamed in pain. "God damn it, I leave for two seconds and this happens!" M'Ress ignored this and pushed the button once more, this time finally getting inside and heading up.
It didn't take long for the doors to open and she found herself in amongst quite a few other officers, all of which were helping the injured out of the conference room in which they'd been attacked. She moved forwards, trying to find Kirk and perhaps put the attack into context. She wanted answers, like who was the attacker? And why did Kirk look like he knew him?
M'Ress couldn't find Kirk, but she was put to work but other Captains to help try find survivors in the slight rubble. Due to her Caitian capabilities she was the perfect choice as she had little trouble balancing and making her way through. She heard a groan from underneath the collapsed table and saw a hand twitching slightly. She lifted the table and was happy to discover a survivor.
"Hello Ma'am, I'm Lieutenant M'Ress and I'm here to help. Can you tell me where you are experiencing pain?" The woman groaned and clutched her side, where M'Ress could now see blood seeping through. She bit her lip, careful with her sharp canines and motioned some of the medical staff over where they swiftly put the woman on a stretcher and carried her out, working on treating her as they went.
M'Ress turned back to look for more people, other officers had made their way over the glass and other wreckage to follow her. She could see many bodies on the floor a little further ahead but was greatly saddened when everyone she checked had no pulse. After another hour of getting everyone out of the room M'Ress was dismissed.
There were a lot of higher-ups that had been injured and killed in the attack. Six out of the sixteen senior officers were killed, including Captain Pike. M'Ress had almost collapsed when she saw his body, it was the last thing she'd been expecting to see, Pike was always so strong it was strange to see him lying there so helpless and still.
She would never get that image out of her mind. All of this death had of course bought about memories of finding her mother dead in the bathtub, she felt that all of the death she'd been around in the past few days was building up to something even bigger. She wanted nothing more to do with death, but on the other hand she didn't want to stand by and do nothing when she could save lives. And that is the reason she would stay with Starfleet.
She was on her way back to her rooms when she was called. "Lieutenant." M'Ress startled and spun around to see who was addressing her.
"Commander." She bowed her head as she greeted Spock, a sign of respect that the Vulcan found illogical but knew that if he said something she would become offended as was in her species nature.
"Lieutenant. The Captain is asking for you." He said in his slightly robotic voice. No expression graced his face when he talked to her but she felt it only right that she smile at him.
"Thank you Commander." She started walking, taking it in stride when he began to walk with her. "Did that Captain tell you when this was about?" She asked, pushing open a door.
Spock walked through the same door. "Yes, it is in reference to the attack. The Captain has spoken to Admiral Marcus and has been given permission to follow the terrorist into space. He would like for you and Mr Scott to overlook the installation of new weaponry the Admiral has provided us."
She nodded along with his explanation as they got into the elevator, standing in silence as the two second ride was over and they landed in the bottom of the headquarters, they could see the reception from where they were. Walking past the receptionist in silence they passed through another door into a room that was full of life. Spock was the one to notice the Captain and he guided her over to him.
"Captain." M'Ress greeted, once again bowing her head. Kirk looked over at her greeting and motioned the two of them over, Spock took his place at the Captain's right hand side and stood by for anything that might happen.
"Lieutenant." Kirk greeted. "I'm sure Mr Spock has filled you in on the details." She nodded, following when he began walking. "Marcus has allowed us to apprehend the terrorist and to do this we need these missiles." He patted on gently as they walked up to it. M'Ress blinked at it, she really didn't know anything about these new missiles, they didn't look like anything she'd seen before. She grabbed her scanner out of her pocket and ran it over the side, nothing beeped and there were no red flags but still, she could sense something wasn't quite right with them.
Mr Scott apparently felt the same, she had only just noticed the aggravated man."I cannae let these missiles on board unless I know what's inside them, but I cannae be told what's inside them because it's-" He gestured to the big man dressed in black behind him.
"Classified." He spoke in a deep voice that offered no comfort or insight.
Scotty looked deeply annoyed. "Classified." He then went off on a rant, his Scottish accent becoming more and more pronounced the more annoyed he got. M'Ress would normally find it amusing but on a deep level she understood what he was saying, there was something going on here.
Why couldn't they see what was inside the missile. Scotty led Kirk over to an upper level where she could see them continue the argument.
M'Ress decided to join her fellow engineers and try and learn something from them but act like she knew what she was doing, the basics were all she really needed, fate had smiled on her and made her a fast learner.
She smiled at Chekov as he passed her and made her way over one of the big engines looking over her new data padd to see if anything was going wrong. Everything looked good to go, she chanced another look at the missiles that were now being moved into the ship they have been given to get to the Enterprise which had been given the once over to make sure everything was fine with it, usually she and Scotty and the rest of the Engineering team would have done it but with the mission finished they were given vacation time. She looked back at the Captain in time to see Scotty hand over his datapadd and walk away.
He didn't say goodbye to anyone, he just went. Kirk looked down at the padd before sighing and catching her eye. She nodded gently at him which made him snap out of his daze and jog down the stairs. "Lieutenant." He nodded, passing her as he boarded the ship that would take them into space. She looked at where she had last seen Scotty before following her Captain who was now being berated by Doctor McCoy. She hurried past them to find a seat, grinning a bit to herself as she remembered the times where McCoy would annoy her with his little medical tools.
"Bones, get that thing off of my face." Kirk sighed, turning to glare at the doctor and seeing M'Ress' smile. He rolled his eyes playfully causing her to smile. It was that in times like this that the simple things in life still bought amusement to her. She was glad to know that part of her hadn't disappeared.