Chapter Four

Once they were safely aboard the Enterprise, James Kirk walked to the bridge to find his replacement engineer. He had briefly toyed with the idea that Lieutenant M'Ress may have been able to take the reigns on this but then he recalled several instances in which the humanoid looking increasingly uncomfortable with her surroundings in the engineering rooms. Perhaps he could find someone who believed in their own abilities while at the same time building up her opinion of herself.

He found Mr Chekov about to sit down at his station and called him over.

M'Ress was about to go down to the engineering room when Kirk stopped her. "Chekov is now the head engineer, I need someone on the bridge to replace him." M'Ress nodded, not comprehending the suggestion behind the words, Kirk realised this and sighed. "I mean you."

M'Ress grinned up at him. "Of course Captain."

He walked in front of her, muttering something about, "Almost as bad as Spock." M'Ress shook her head and wanted to do a little happy dance, however the aforementioned Spock was standing quite close to her. That would be embarrassing. Instead she smiled at him and walked to the bridge.

She was very thankful for her new post because although she liked working with Scotty she didn't like the feeling of not being in complete control because there was always a niggling feeling in the back of her mind that she may be responsible for killing everyone on board if something went wrong.

She didn't like that amount of pressure. She did however enjoy following Scotty around, he was a very enjoyable companion to have around.

She may have been trained at Star Fleet Academy but when they gave her a position they didn't really think it through enough for her liking.

Taking her new seat at the helm she spun around in the chair gently, pushing herself to and fro with glee. The smile was soon wiped off her face when Mr Spock walked into the bridge with such an air of importance that she felt that she had to immediately become more serious. She was now in charge of navigations on the ship and it was something she felt that she could do with a lot more accuracy and less failures than in engineering.

Her tail flicked around her body as the nerves began to grow as she checked everything on the monitors in front of her. She took a deep breath, double checking everything again and turned to look as the Captain walked in.

"Captain on deck." She spoke softly, but loud enough for everyone to hear. Kirk nodded and smiled at her before walking over and sitting on the Captain's chair.

"Retract all moorings, Mr Sulu. Inform Doc Command that we're getting under way and transmit the usual exit information. We've been cleared for departure for just under an hour and we've spent enough time sitting here." Sulu nodded, his fingers flying over the console as he did as his Captain ordered.

M'Ress watched the pilot with fascination, her lips pulling back over her sharp teeth as she grinned quietly and subtly to herself. One day she aspired to know her position as clearly as he did, to this day she didn't know why Starfleet put her in engineering.

Kirk pressed another button on the arm of his chair, leaning his body to that side. "Chekov, how are things looking down there?"

Chekov's youthful voice came through, the tone not matching his words. "All systems normal, Keptin."

M'Ress stopped listening to the conversation and instead entered the co-ordinates that had been given to her, frowning when the implication hit her. They were going into Klingon territory, she risked a glance back at the Captain as she contemplated the repercussions of such an act.

This could start a war.

And by the tense way the Captain was sitting, she knew that he was also thinking the same things. She looked away as he wrapped up his conversation with Chekov and spoke to Sulu. "All right, let's ride."

Sulu nodded and within seconds M'Ress felt the familiar feeling of going into warp speed. She recalled the first few times she had gone to warp, she had felt dreadfully ill and got what was known as 'space sickness', which was essentially sea sickness but in space.

"Uhura, give me ship wide." Lieutenant Uhura was the communications specialist on board, M'Ress had never really spoken to the other woman but it wasn't through a lack of trying. It always seemed that Uhura never wanted to speak with her and so M'Ress let her be. It was strange how interested Uhura was in her species and yet when provided with an up close and personal look she shied away.

What M'Ress didn't know was that it was because of how intimidating she came across to people who didn't know her. It wasn't her fault. Her species were generally seen as fierce and not one to cross, no matter how gently the disposition of the individual.

Of course Lieutenant Uhura would never admit that this was the reason, she was currently in a relationship with First Officer Spock who was half-Vulcan and that would be seen as hypocrisy. And if there was one thing that Uhura would not stand to be called, that was a hypocrite.

"Channel open sir." Uhura replied, not noticing M'Ress gaze on her. One person who did notice this however, was Mr Spock. His eyes narrowed as the Caitian didn't remove her eyes for a brief period of time, enough to make him interested in what she was thinking about. He watched as her eyes went back to her console and she typed in a few co-ordinates.

He turned back to his own console as the Captain's voice rang through the ship. "Attention, crew of the Enterprise. This is the Captain speaking. As most of you know, through official channels or otherwise, Christopher Pike, the former Captain of this ship, is dead." He paused, M'Ress shot another glance at him, knowing the two men were close and that this must have affected him deeply.

She saw him take a deep breath before continuing. "The man who killed him has fled our system, and is hiding on the Klingon home world. Somewhere he believes we are unwilling to go. We're on our way there now."

M'Ress looked at her console, knowing now that she had been correct on her original theory. This time, however, she didn't feel happy about it.

She locked eyes with Kirk as he continued, he had seemingly noticed her original hesitation in entering the co-ordinates before they went into warp. "Per Admiral Marcus, it is essential that our presence goes undetected. Tensions between the Federation and the Klingon Empire have been high from the time of the first contact and have in no way subsided since. Any direct provocation could lead to an all out war. Each of us should strive to see that does not happen. We will carry out our mission in secret and as swiftly as possible, before our presence can be noted and our ship identified."

He let this bombshell sink in before adding in a slightly softer tone. "These are our orders."

He had dropped his eye contact with M'Ress in exchange for a look with his First Officer. M'Ress had a look as well and saw that Spock did not look happy. Not at all. And to see even the slightest hint of emotion from a Vulcan told her that this was extremely serious, even more so than what she knew from the data Kirk had just bestowed on the crew.

Something else was going on here.

"Let's go get this sonofabitch." Kirk smiled, it wasn't a nice smile. It was one that promised revenge.

Those words were all that was needed for the crew to begin their preparations, mainly those in engineering and the weapons dock. There was a little pushing that Chekov struggled to keep under control. Back in the bridge M'Ress sat at her station and motioned surrounding space for anything that may jeopardise or slow down the mission. Such as meteor showers or other ships, Federation or otherwise.

She was so immersed in her duties that she didn't notice Commander Spock leave his station. Usually this would have grabbed her attention because Spock did not like to be away from the bridge when the Captain was there, it would seem he didn't trust the Captain to make the right decision without him being there.

Which was true, most of the time.

M'Ress snapped out of her trance as the ship stopped suddenly, she was pushed forwards into her station, the metal slamming into her stomach as the Enterprise dropped out of Warp. Her claws had automatically came out and dug themselves into the desk as she struggled to keep herself from going over the side. That would be the most embarrassing thing to happen to her. She coughed and pushed herself away from the desk as she struggled to regain her breath. Her tail snapped to and fro behind her, the anxiousness was obvious.

Sulu she saw, wasn't nearly as affected as she was, having been able to position himself in a way to ground himself with his chair. She glared at him, still coughing.

"What the hell was that?" Kirk demanded as he righted himself in his chair. He gave the crew a concerned look to make sure that everyone was alright. M'Ress slowly retracted her claws and stood up from her chair, drawing the Captains attention towards her.

She didn't notice his glance as she sat back in her chair, in a much more comfortable position than what she had been thrown in.

Sulu scanned over his station before replying. "Engineering manually dropped us out of warp, sir. Without the usual interstitial planning."

M'Ress sighed with relief at the fact that she wasn't down in engineering, especially at the Captain's next words. "No kidding." He replied, before sighing slightly and pressing a button on his chair. "Mr Chekov, did you break my ship?"

There was a pause when all the could be heard was static, before the young Russian's voice flowed through the helm. "Sorry... sorry sir! I don't know what happened! No one does, yet." There was a hesitation on his part. "There is... was... apparently a problem with the core. The usual fail safes responded with an emergency shut down, we don't know the cause yet. But we can't manually override the automatics, at least not until we can identify the problem." There was another pause. "Impulse only until then." The tone of dread was clearly heard in his voice and the implications of his words were not fully appreciated to the members on the bridge.

M'Ress was hit fully however, with a glance towards her Captain the same worried expression she was sure was on her face was currently plastered on his own. She turned back to her station and kept a keen eye on her radar, knowing that if indeed anything approached the Enterprise, she could be certain that it would not be a friendly encounter.

The Captains conversation with Sulu only emphasised what she already knew. The other members of the bridge were now coming to their senses, the shock having worn off there was now a serious feeling of anticipation and anxiousness flowing in the air.

Kirk rose from his chair, feeling a hundred times older than he was as he approached his pilot. "Mr Sulu, remaining time to our destination?"

Sulu struggled to remain professional as he announced the words that he felt sealed their fate. "Twenty minutes sir." He exchanged glances with M'Ress as he turned to face his Captain. "But that's twenty minutes in hostile space we weren't counting on, until we can settle in behind the moonlet we've chosen in our final coordinates." M'Ress checked her station to ensure the correct moonlet had indeed been issued. "We're through the Neutral Zone and well inside the Klingon influence."

M'Ress' ears had gone right back to her skull and she felt as though she should say something regarding the current crisis but all she could do was try her best to keep her claws retracted, finding it increasingly difficult to remain calm.

She had been through Klingon space once before, only once. That was on the way to Earth with her mother, they had been ambushed and were lucky to get away with their lives. They hadn't been alone however, a group of Caitians had been at the helm and it was through deceit and trickery that she lived through that journey. And now knowing that the same situation was becoming more and more likely was not sitting well with her.

However, she had no choice.

There was no going back now.

Captain Kirk must have felt the same way because he smiled tightly. "All right, we better hop to it." He suddenly looked towards Spock's station, realising for the first time that he wasn't there. "Where's Spock?"