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Impala

"Ash," Dean said thoughtfully, "get me the works on Bela Talbot."

The bridge crew blinked at their captain. The works? The last time Dean had asked for the works, Ash had found out that a very macho arms dealer had a rather embarrassing love for painting his own fourteen toenails very girly colours and Dean had used it to drive the alien absolutely mad.

"Legal or otherwise, dude?" Ash drawled, spinning in his chair lazily.

"All of it. I need dirt. She knows something she's not telling and she's not likely to tell until she thinks she has no other option, by which time it'll probably be too late. And while I'd love to just beam Spock over here, there are far too many nasty things in the universe capable of zapping a touch-telepath. I don't want to find out the hard way that Talbot's playing us and ends up putting Enterprise's first officer out of commission. We'll keep him as a last resort. So, all the dirt you can dig up."

"All right-y then. The works, coming up." Ash cracked his knuckles and vanished into cyber-space.

Enterprise

"Uhura, I need an update on everything in the Federation that may or may not be connected to this bug. If it gets loose in the transportation channels, we'll lose entire solar systems in a day. Spock, find a way to stop this thing. Pull Sam Winchester if you have to, but I want that bug neutralized before it starts hitting M-class planets on a wide scale. Move people!"

The Enterprise crew scrambled as their captain's voice cracked out like a whip, leaving Kirk to stare sightlessly at the blank view screen, theories, plans and scenarios whirling around in his brain at a million parsecs a second. Most of those scenarios didn't play out well for the Federation.

Which was why they had Enterprise.

Three hours later, the prisoners were still prisoners, Sam, Spock, Sulu and the doctors had come up with a chemical that would kill the bugs without harming most other life (Sulu cautioned it had to be applied correctly. An overdose would result in a very long list of nasty side effects) and the Impala was gearing up for a sprint back to the Federation.

Which brought them back to Ash and Chekov's little hacking project, namely one Bela Talbot.

"All right Ash, lay it on us," Dean asked, gesturing through the view screen to include the Enterprise crew.

Ash was sober and Chekov's face white and pinched. "I get why she didn't want Spock poking around in her head," Ash said lowly. "It's a stupid, stupid story. Bela Talbot was born under another name that I'm not going to mention in front of the cameras, with all due respect Captain." Dean shrugged. He could understand that. "Bela's family life wasn't great," Ash continued. "Judging from the evidence, her wealthy father sexually abused her from a young age, since before she could fight back. When she did get big enough to understand, she started to resist. One night, she fought back hard enough that he dropped her. She kicked his knee and he fell down the stairs, breaking his neck. Judging from early recordings from the Children's Aid Society, Bela thought she was free, that the system would now protect her if she told the truth."

Ash paused and Chekov's knuckles whitened on his console. "Bela's muzzer paid a wery large amount of money to have de inwestigation buried," he finished shortly, voice trembling with emotion. "Bela vas considered a budding threat to society and institutionalized until she escaped and dropped off the face of de planet. Literally. She vas eight."

There was earth-shattering silence on the bridges. "Is there any chance that the sanitized version is correct?" Uhura asked softly, wanting to believe the child had an overactive, disturbed imagination if only because the alternative was unthinkable.

Ash shook his head shortly. "The only reason an investigation like that is deep-sixed is because there's truth to be concealed. And the early evidence is downright damning towards her father."

There was a moment of stillness. "Right, well," Kirk broke it with a quick shake of his shoulders, "we can't use that against her. Not unless we're damn sure her silence will kill the Federation. Sam?"

The younger Winchester had that pitbull-stubborn look on his face again. "Yes," he replied. "Yes, I will absolutely make sure this wrong is righted to the fullest extent of the law as soon as we save the Federation. Again." He grinned lopsidedly.

A relieved titter ran around the connected bridges as everyone tried to yank themselves out of depressing thoughts. "Sam, you and me are going to talk to Talbot. Kirk, send Gabriel over before we leave. Cas, be ready to move out in fifteen minutes. If we can't crack Talbot in that period of time, we ain't gonna do it at all. Impala out."

Dean stormed out of the bridge with his brother on his heels, feeling a simmering, choking anger burning in his throat. He didn't really like Talbot (even if she did have great legs and a very good understanding of how to let a man enjoy some major eye candy). But no one deserved the horrific events hidden in her past and suddenly her capricious, superficial nature made a hell of a lot more sense. If you never gave out anything of value, it didn't hurt when it was snatched away and if you never took in anything of value, it couldn't claw out your insides when it inevitably turned on you.

Dean understood that, probably better than anyone other than Kirk himself. He glanced sideways, scanning his brother. Sam, the world's best first officer and kid brother. Yeah, Dean understood how Bela could guard her few shredded, threadbare emotions with smoke, mirrors and razor-cruel actions.

He paused outside the cell that was rather remarkably still holding a subdued Bela Talbot. Sinking into a squat, Dean sighed as he surveyed the huddled ball of a woman in the corner. Shit, he thought. She's absolutely terrified of us, surrounded by mostly men and although she's probably convinced herself that she no longer fears men, that little traumatized girl is still in there somewhere.

Aloud, he began. "We know, Bela."

She glanced over at him and tried to smile prettily, her eyes as terrified as a hunted deer's. "Know what?"

"About your childhood."

Her pretty face twisted into an angry, hurt grimace and she spat out "You know nothing of my childhood."

"We know you didn't have one," Sam said gently from where he stood in the shadows. Kind Sam, always reaching out to help with all the tact Dean lacked.

She snarled, spitting rage and fear all in one rippling string of words. "Fools. Then you've lost your one advantage over me and I'll keep my mouth shut out of pure spite. You had no right to go digging into my past."

"Would you have preferred a mind meld?" Dean asked with brutal honesty and Bela flinched. "We know you were hurt. We know you were abandoned but right now your mind is still your own and no matter what you think of us, we like to respect people's mental privacy."

Sam slid forward the case Jo had handed him on his way out of the bridge. "We're prepared to do business, Ms. Talbot. You'll be paid for the information you give us, as you originally requested." He popped the case open and Bela's eyes flickered to the cold, hard cash. "As you know," Sam continued, "The Impala's word has been solid thus far. We're making a run back to the Federation but we'll stop off at a planet of your choosing. Naturally though, we'll ask that you stay in the brig until we reach said planet. You have a nasty habit of stealing from us or betraying us and we can't have that, not on this run."

She stared at them, caught somewhere between disbelief and fear. "You're lying. You're going to double-cross me, strand me on a planet with no civilization or just deep-space me out of spite. You're lying!"

Dean stared back. "I don't really think you have room to talk about lying. And we haven't screwed you over yet. I think that should count for something. You've got nothing to fear from us as long as your information's solid and even if you think we'll backstab you in the future, your chances are pretty damned good at the moment given the amount of trouble the Impala's going to face on this run. There's a good chance we won't arrive at our destination. In which case, you'll have skipped out of this little encounter with a decent amount of cash and our secret will have died with us."

She stared at the glittering row of filthy, hypnotic lucre and then up at two pairs of empathetic eyes. Not sympathetic, not pitying, just something perilously close to understanding. The silence stretched on interminably and Dean wondered if Bela was thinking about what would happen if she trusted, if she reached out.

Sam snapped the case shut with a metallic snick and slid the prize through the bars, breaking the moment.

Bela stared at it briefly before pushing it back and slumped in on herself. "I don't know anything more, nothing of value except that there's someone in Starfleet who wants you and the Enterprise out of commission."

And it was the broken, shattered truth.

Dean sighed, a gusty exhalation of disappointment and stretched to his feet before striding out of the brig. "Sam, do what you like with her," he called over his shoulder.

Sam surveyed the hurting woman before him and buzzed the door open. "Come on," he said compassionately, carefully standing out of the way and projecting non-threatening vibes all over the place. "I'm going to introduce you to Ellen."

Enterprise

"So Talbot doesn't know anything," Kirk cursed, pacing across the front of the bridge.

Dean shook his head, sitting ready to leave in his captain's chair. "Nope and dude, we gotta head back Earth-way now. Gabriel's aboard and we've got the bug-spray. We're golden. What are you going to do next?"

Kirk shrugged. "We're going to try and determine where those fundamentalists in our brig came from and nip this thing off at the bud. That and we've still got Walker with us." Kirk's smile was decidedly unfriendly. "That should be interesting at the very least."

"Damn, why do you get to have all the fun while we go save the Federation, yadda yadda," Dean grinned. "Good luck. Don't end up dead."

"Likewise. Enterprise out."

The crew of the Enterprise watched the smaller ship zip away at top speed. "They'll make Federation space in approximately 9.35 hours, keptin," Chekov reported to the whole bridge, just in case anyone was wondering.

"Very good, Mr. Chekov. Spock! We're going to talk to Walker."

"Gordon Walker," Kirk said with a wide smile. "Feeling better?" The former IO and traitor was busy nursing an impressively bruised throat and a swollen jaw. He glared up at the smirking Starfleet captain, who loomed over him as Spock swung the brig cell door open. "How are the ribs?"

Walker surged unsteadily to his feet, growling irritably but Spock's silent presence and Kirk's cold eyes had him hanging back warily. "You can't assault me Kirk, they'll have you up on charges. You'll lose the Enterprise, your captaincy, your crew, everything."

Kirk leaned idly against the doorframe. "Of course, that's assuming they ever realize a crime was committed. Isn't that right?" He turned to his loyal first officer.

"Are we speaking hypothetically, Captain?"

"We are, Mr. Spock."

"Hypothetically, Captain, it would indeed be possible to erase all evidence of Gordon Walker's existence from the Enterprise. Personally, I believe the most efficient means of dealing with the body would be to return it to the destroyed space station via airlock. Any one who might discover it would assume he was caught in the explosion. It would be a simple task to execute." Spock's voice was flatter and colder than a window pane in the dead of winter.

"Well then." Kirk leaned forward with mild curiosity and unpleasant intent. "Why don't you answer my questions or I turn you over to oh, I don't know, the Winchesters. Perhaps Gabriel." Walker shifted nervously before mentally shaking himself, getting a grip.

"I'm not telling you anything."

"Or I can take you back to that nice planet where your witch of a boss drugged both Sam and I. Those natives, they're awfully hospitable and they really know their hallucinogens. That and they're very suspicious of anyone who might try to do them harm," Kirk rolled over Walker's declaration. "They'd love to meet a xenophobic human."

And then the Enterprise shuddered underneath him and Kirk whirled to the closest comm station as Spock slammed the cell door shut. "Sulu, what's going on?"

"Captain, you'd better get up here! We have a situation on the bridge!"

Impala

The run home had been, well, anti-climactic. Nine very, very boring hours. Sure, the Impala had broken yet another Starfleet record, but that was old hat for them. No Romulans, no Starfleet spies, no…trouble. They'd made it all the way to Earth.

It was making Dean twitchy.

It was making everyone twitchy, even Castiel, which was saying a lot.

"Starfleet Command, this is the USS Impala requesting permission to dock. We're carrying a bio-weapon capable of neutralizing the bugs currently attacking Federation planets," Sam said with false calm over the comm, drumming nervous fingers against his console as everyone kept a wary eye on the odd traffic configuration around them.

"Something's wrong," Dean voiced aloud.

"Impala, you are granted landing privileges. Stand by."

And the traffic continued to be strange. "There's too many ships just floating about," Ash drawled. "Almost like they're waiting for us."

"What was it Talbot said? Someone in Starfleet wanted us out of commission," Dean mused. "Still, running away solves nothing. We need Starfleet's ships to get that chemical out. Take her in, Cas."

When the Impala connected with space dock, the entire ship suddenly crackled with energy and fell dead as Dean swore and Sam and Ash scrambled to mitigate the damage. "Comm's dead. Everything's dead," Sam reported finally. "Some sort of massive electrical pulse designed to fry the ship. We're definitely getting arrested."

Dean couldn't help but agree. "All right people, no one resist. We haven't done anything wrong. At least, most of you haven't. Sam, has alpha shift behaved lately?"

Sam looked indignant. "Of course they have!" Cas turned an unnerving stare on the first officer as Jo snorted in disbelief and Dean scowled. "Mostly," Sam qualified. "Nothing that would get the entire ship arrested. I think."

"You think? Sam, you're the damn lawyer!" Dean growled as Sam smiled brightly in a transparent, weak attempt to reassure.

"Oh look, we're being hailed! Comm back online, but that's it."

"Captain Winchester, you and your entire crew are under arrest for treason against the United Federation of Planets. You have the right to remain silent. You have the right to representation. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You will remain on the USS Impala until further notified. You will not leave the USS Impala and you will not attempt to restore functionality to the ship or contact anyone off the ship. Do you understand?"

Every eye was glued to the captain, who shrugged. "I understand. I'll explain the situation to my crew."

"Good. Additionally, you will destroy the bio-weapon you have brought to Earth or risk immediate court martial."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, destroy it? We brought it back to exterminate the bugs!"

"You will destroy it Captain Winchester, or we will have your entire crew up on high treason instead of treason. You and you alone are currently charged with high treason. Additionally, if you continue to challenge us, we will flood your ship with nerve gas, killing everyone on board as you will have demonstrated by that point that you are a significant and immediate danger to the Federation."

Shit. High treason meant they would all be stuck on Pluto. Dean would survive. Sam could handle it. Bobby definitely, Jo, Ellen, Cas and Ash, they'd all make it on Pluto but Sam's science division? Ellen's gaggle of nurses? They'd be dead in a week. And that's providing whoever the traitorous bigwig was didn't decide to just gank the Impala even after they complied because they'd pissed him off.

"Captain Winchester, we have marked the bio-weapon on our sensors. You have exactly three minutes to dispose of it or those charges will be laid. After that, you have one minute before the gas is released. You will also wipe all research material and instructions for compiling the chemical from your data banks. Do you understand?"

Dean glanced at Sam, who nodded. "I get it, I get it. Hold your horses. Commander Winchester will dispose of all bio-weapon and bio-weapon related material. Can I hear the charges in detail, learn what exactly it is we did?"

"You may not. Starfleet Command out."

"Sam? Is that legal?"

"Nope, that's not legal. They have to tell us what the charges are, even under martial law. And nope, there's no legal way to get out of this mess. Last communiqué said they had imposed martial law and were locking down the planets. They'll hold a court martial in absentia, we'll get sentenced and then probably towed out to Pluto without ever having left the Impala." Sam punched a few buttons (evidently they had given him the ability to destroy the bio-weapon) and sighed. "The chemical's gone now. That gives us a few minutes."

"Right," Dean said, rubbing his hands together. "Well, since they say we're traitors, we really should live up to their expectations."

Enterprise

"Dr. Gain, what can I do for you?" Kirk asked as he sat back in his captain's chair, hiding his uneasiness and disgust behind a genial mask. Spock and Bones were backing him up, which helped but the foreboding feeling only intensified as the doctor smirked at him from a small trader ship.

Kirk couldn't help but notice that one decent shot from the Enterprise would reduce the witch to nothing more than scattered atoms. The thought would have been reassuring but Gain looked far, far too confident and Kirk had this sneaking feeling that he was about to lose all control of the events around him.

"Captain Kirk," Dr. Gain drawled, stretching the three syllables like fine morsels of meat. "I underestimated you the last time we met. My apologies. I promise, it won't happen again. Now, I need your ship. Your lovely, lovely Enterprise, turned over to me in one perfectly functioning piece. I promise not to scratch the paint."

Kirk's eyes narrowed and he leaned forward in his captain's chair, watching her like a hawk. "Why the hell would I turn my ship over to a sociopathic nutjob like you?"

Her thin lips stretched over protruding teeth like taut tomato skins, the messy red lipstick clashing with the pink tongue that slipped out to lick at the corners of her mouth with satisfaction and Kirk fought off a shudder of revulsion. Sometimes it was easy to forget that the scariest predators of the universe came from the very planet he sought to protect.

"You're going to do exactly as I tell you or I blow up a planet for every dissenting word that you or your crew utters."

Kirk glanced sideways to Spock, who nodded. Spock estimated that she was telling the truth, which only confirmed what Kirk himself thought. So far, Gain hadn't made any empty threats.

"Sulu, power down the shields. Gain, Enterprise is at your disposal. What do you want?"

She smiled again in an obscenely wide, delighted expression and her bright green eyes somehow seemed blacker and colder than the deepest reaches of space.

"Well for starters..."