I do not own Star Trek 2009, Supernatural or the other shows in this chapter (and I'm not telling who they are up here because that'll ruin the story).

"Captain Kirk, you have six minutes to surrender your vessel and return our august leader Starc to us or we start killing planets. And if you move from this location, you will have killed no less than five major trading partners who are seeking to join the Federation. Six minutes, Captain Kirk. Use them wisely."

Kirk took a deep breath and watched the clock count down. Scotty needed eight minutes to get the ship online. He had to bluff for two after the clock ran out. And that still didn't really change the predicted outcome – functional Enterprise or not.

"Cupcake, please tell me you have eyes on Starc," he requested over the comm, ignoring his complaining ribs.

"He's missing, Captain," Kirk's reliable chief of security replied, frustration threaded through the ever-present calm in his gruff voice.

Missing.

Shit.

"Walker?"

There was a slightly ashamed pause. "Also missing, sir."

And then the deck juddered convulsively under Kirk's feet and alarms began to whoop.

"Report!" Kirk barked.

"Sabotage, capt'n!" Scotty shouted back. "Someone set a bomb in the hull and we're losing atmosphere! Sealant systems are offline!"

"Evacuate and seal the breached decks! Cupcake, find me those men now." He stayed unwillingly rooted to the captain's chair. Kirk knew that if he ran off at this precise moment in time to chase bad guys, Bones would probably sedate him into the next century.

Four minutes and twenty one seconds.

Three minutes and fifty three seconds.

Three minutes and forty two seconds.

"Found Starc, sir but Walker's still at large," Cupcake reported, sounding harried.

Kirk rifled through a few more plans in his head and finally replied, "Bring Starc to the bridge and keep looking for Walker."

Three minutes and twenty three seconds.

"Deck sealed, capt'n and shields ready to go online. No engines yet though. We're still sitting ducks."

Bless Scotty.

Three minutes fifteen seconds. He needed more variables to play with, something to twist and bend into a viable plan.

Why did they need the Enterprise?

Kirk's entire thought process ground to a screeching halt as the stray thought tickled at his mind.

They needed the ship for something or they would have already blown Enterprise to kingdom come. These fundamentalists had enough ships that they didn't really need the flagship's firepower. Kirk knew his ship was capable of dishing out a lot but she wasn't geared to be a weapon of mass destruction like the ships around them.

Why did they need the Enterprise? Two minutes forty seconds.

He grinned slowly. The plan was laid out. It was a mad gamble at best but Kirk was suddenly feeling much better about what he was going to do.

Impala

It surprised everyone at first.

For all Dean's get up and go fire, his energy and his inability to sit still most of the time, when he was on the trail of something, be it person, ship or an event, he could wait with all the cool calculating patience of a hunting tiger.

That was what he was doing right now.

Sitting calmly in his chair, flicking through the day's reports and occasionally glancing sideways to a busily engaged brother, Captain Winchester looked like he had been waiting for the past five minutes for a routine mission to start instead of three agonizing hours of threats from Starfleet Command and several attempts to broach a passively resisting Impala.

And then Sam sat bolt upright and swore. "Long-range scanners, on screen," he ordered and Dean tensed, setting the PADD aside.

Six, seven, eight, nine unidentified ships popping out of warp and cruised right past all of Starfleet's sensitive detection equipment, most of it as good as or better than the Impala's. "Why hasn't Starfleet Command stopped them?" Dean asked in bewilderment.

"I don't think Starfleet could see them even if they were looking, Dean," Sam replied absently, punching buttons with a single-minded focus.

"What?"

"Well, it's kind of funny. A scanner update is logged in the tech database. Everyone in orbit or dock around Earth got this update except us. But," Sam put the code up on the screen beside the incoming ships, "the code doesn't do anything unless you combine it with a cleverly hidden, dormant subroutine in every Starfleet scanner in the area, including ours. And when it's active, this clever little thing can effectively block out an entire band of frequencies. Those incoming ships just so happen to be operating on those frequencies. We're the only ship in the area that can see them because our friendly little traitor jumped the gun and had us arrested and locked down before the update could be implanted in the Impala's datacore."

"Ash, what are the chances of us taking them on all by our lonesome?" Dean asked.

"Successfully, captain? Nil."

"Son of a bitch. Ideas, people?"

Castiel swivelled around in his chair. "Sam, you said all ships in the area had been updated?"

Sam frowned. "Yeah. So?"

Castiel's face lightened from 'impending Earth-ending doom' into 'there's a minor chance of death.' "Well, I have been communicating with Commander McGee and he has informed me that Captain Gibbs is…paranoid about new software updates." He nodded towards the slumbering Washington. "They are on shore leave but the ship should be unaffected."

"Sam, get the word to Gibbs. We can take on the incoming ships if there are two of us to divide, conquer and cover each other's asses."

Naturally, that was when the demand for Starfleet's surrender came in.

Enterprise

Twenty seconds left. "Uhura, hail the leader and someone make sure Starc keeps his mouth shut," Kirk ordered brusquely, standing confidently at the front of the bridge. Cupcake grinned humourlessly and poked his captive with a small device that had Kirk raising an eyebrow. Another Sam Winchester special and he didn't recognize this one.

The screen flickered to show a rather pompous, bald individual sitting on a very large, very opulent cushioned chair of brushed black metal, a large hanging banner behind him depicting a green stooping bird crushing some sort of Starfleet blue serpent. Corpulent lips stretched over browning teeth and Kirk hid disgust beneath his captain's veneer. The man had a low, heavy voice, one that said he took himself very seriously. This first impression was only reinforced by the man's introduction. "I am the Nameless One."

"I am Captain James T. Kirk of the Federation star ship Enterprise and we demand your immediate surrender and cessation of hostilities towards Federation allies and neutrals," Kirk recited calmly, posture open and relaxed, not showing a single whit of the tension currently whizzing around the bridge.

The man laughed uproariously, great rolls of fat jiggling merrily under black velvet and silk. "They said you were an amusing man, Captain Kirk. They said you had the courage of a lion. I had thought those rumours exaggerated. I am glad to see they are not. However, you have just killed five planets. Do it." He flicked a casual hand to someone off screen and Kirk fought to keep himself under control.

If he gave up the Enterprise, they would kill the galaxy and Starfleet would lose all control of the situation.

If he fought back, they would kill the Federation.

And right now, he was putting all his faith in the people sent off with the Impala.

He had to believe Winchester got the antidote out. He had to believe that they were simply out of communications range.

Because otherwise he might have been tempted to crash his beautiful ship and his family into the crust of the planet in a mad solution to the no-win scenario they were currently ensnared in.

"You won't want to do that," Kirk shot back swiftly, hoping to snare this Nameless One's attention (Kirk hereby dubbed him Bob. No walking cliché dressed in black silk got to call himself Nameless One without Kirk wanting to laugh in his face. Bob was a much safer appellation).

Bob paused, raising a hairless eyebrow. "Oh, and why not?"

Excellent. For all that the Corelians wanted to go back to their roots, they needed a military genius and (Kirk should know) geniuses were rarely normal. This one looked like the hired type and the childish hired type at that.

Kirk strolled back to his chair, knowing that Bob was watching every move with disconcerting attention. He settled into his seat. "Spock, that terra-forming module in place yet?"

Spock didn't even blink. "Yes, captain." Kirk allowed himself a small modicum of victory.

Bob paled. "Terra-forming?" The Federation was still years away from developing a reliable terra-forming method. Oh, they could work miracles with careful environmental manipulation and they could predict the weather with uncanny accuracy, but real, bona-fide terra-forming had yet to end well.

Kirk smiled coldly. "Yes. You remember that planet you ruined, killing every living thing on that vibrant jungle planet? I was given orders to release the experimental module on the planet. But you obviously know what could happen to your planet if I trigger that module on Corelis." And now he crossed his fingers, hoping that the Corelians would take the bait. Of course, Kirk was screwed if Bob was really just a mercenary and didn't really give two damns about Corelis.

Bob stared at him, clearly thinking over the new situation. Then he received some sort of signal off-screen and his face lightened as Kirk's heart sank. "I don't think we'd mind. After all, we just conquered Earth."

Impala

"Cut all the lights and take power to minimum! Ash, get in contact with Gibbs and don't get caught!" Dean barked orders as the propaganda tape dictating the terms of Earth's surrender came to an end. "Starfleet must know they're blind by now so they're all going to be panicking."

Ash scowled at his computer. "Sir, Starfleet's still jamming our communications and it'll take both Sam and I an hour or so to untangle that."

Dean growled. They didn't have an hour. They had maybe five minutes.

And then there was a little blinking light over on the bridge of the Washington. "Morse code," Castiel commented. "It says that Gabriel told Gibbs he might be needed and they're on standby, waiting for us to make the first move."

Dean grinned. "Well then, what the hell are we waiting for? Tell Gibbs I bet we nail more ships than he does."

Sam rolled his eyes but apparently blinked their own little light because Castiel suddenly looked primmer than a little old grandma. "I'm not translating that, sir. Suffice to say they are not going to allow you to win."

"Excellent. Cas, take us into battle and don't bother waiting for the bad guys to hit first. Sam, untangle our communications and it'd better damn well take less than an hour."

Impala darted out of space dock, the Washington hot on her tail, both ships sailing into battle. The nine enemy ships seemed more than a little surprised to see resistance of any kind and Ash used that to his advantage, making use of the unguarded moment to slam several ships' vital systems in a broad phaser sweep. Washington followed suit and Ash noted irritably that the other ship managed to hit four opponents while he only hit two.

The game was on and the battle for Earth joined.

Enterprise

Kirk barely kept his mouth clamped shut, holding back the desperately reflexive "You're lying." Instead, he forced a brief mask of blankness before regrouping. "If you've taken Earth," he said coldly, "then we have no reason to keep you alive. Spock, hit the terra-forming module. Enterprise, prepare for battle." And if Dean Winchester had let these idiot Corelians take their home planet, the Enterprise was going to kick Impala's ass to the edge of the universe and back.

"You'll kill millions of children," Bob said silkily.

Kirk stood in a movement his crew would recognize as steely resolve. "And how many have you killed in the past week?"

He wasn't sure how much longer he could keep up this façade when there was a shout in Bob's 'throne' room and the leader looked very surprised. Starfleet-issue phaser fire streaked across the room as Uhura practically bounced in her seat. "Sir! Los Angeles is hailing!"

A broad hand waved in front of Bob's camera, interrupting Kirk's order to put the Los Angeles on screen. "Commander Sam Hanna, Los Angeles calling the Enterprise. Situation on-planet is now under control. We also jammed the signal going out to those five planets. Feel free to raise a little hell, Enterprise."

The relief on the bridge of the Enterprise was palpable, quickly turning to red-hot anger. "Red alert. Not a single ship escapes today. Do you hear me?" Kirk demanded with all the controlled rage of a righteous man. "Starc, watch your fleet fall apart before your eyes. Uhura, patch Callen through."

The Los Angeles captain nodded shortly as soon as the screen stabilized. "Glad to see Enterprise in one piece. We were afraid the IO messenger was too late. As it was, I don't think we've ever run such a crazy, multi-faceted operation without any planning before this."

Kirk grinned briefly. "Damn, Gabriel's good."

"Gabriel?" Callen blinked in confusion. "The SIO? Was he supposed to come? Because I didn't know he was into this sector of space. He wasn't the one who contacted us. As far as I know, he's on Earth with Pike trying to keep Winchester from getting court-martialled for treason. No, this was a junior IO, pretty thing but in a real hurry to get us the information about the Corelian home planet, the locations of the threatened planets and the chemical to kill the bugs before she split. We dropped her off a few star bases back."

Kirk felt his jaw drop. "Brunette, big doe-eyes and a killer figure?"

"Yeah, you know her? Said her code-name for this run was Bell and not to worry about the bill, whatever that means."

Kirk threw his head back and laughed despite the situation. "Yeah, yeah I know her. She's long gone by now. We shouldn't waste this opportunity."

Callen eyed his fellow captain like he was going a little crazier than usual but shrugged and didn't argue.

Enterprise limped towards her enemies, phasers striking out as the Los Angeles darted in at maximum impulse, covering for her hobbled sister as Scotty cursed and beat impulse power online, giving them a fighting chance. And they managed to hang in there just long enough to put the run on the Corelian fleet.

The Enterprise bridge breathed a huge sigh of relief when the leader of the Corelian fleet surrendered and Kirk refused to hand off negotiations to Callen. No weaknesses would be shown, not until the Corelians weren't looking, and his bridge crew knew it. They sat stoic and grim as Kirk extracted conditions of surrender and ordered the Corelian captains into the Los Angeles bridge.

Then the screen snapped off and the Enterprise bridge breathed a huge sigh of relief, shoulders slumping, faces wincing and bruises prodded at gently as Kirk realized they'd done it yet again.

Impala

The aftermath of a battle was always Dean's least favourite bit of the whole shebang. A best case aftermath was always a lot of logistics and organizing and justification of actions taken. Worst case? Not really worth thinking about.

Right now, he was in the middle of the biggest justification of his career and internally vowing to never, ever mock Sam's inclination for law because right now a highly irritated commander was busy dressing down an entire board of admirals, point by point, play by play with an irrefutable, rock-solid case. The Admiralty had really made Sam mad when they threatened to court-martial the Impala despite having saved the planet and send the Washington into oblivion as well for helping out.

So Dean was enjoying the moment (he swore he saw Admiral Komack squirming) but also recognizing that his next few days were going to be miserable.

And then a flinty eyed Sam dropped the bombshell right out of the blue. "And Captain Winchester, as per his right under Federation law, is charging Intelligence Office Director Matthew Potts of high treason against the Federation, mass conspiracy, aiding and abetting two known Federation traitors and ordering the assault of multiple Starfleet vessels and their crews."

The Admiralty froze as Sam slapped the thick, printed and bound investigation brief onto the desk in front of him with a muted, weighty thump. Dean knew Sam had been building that brief for several months and it would have taken his geek-a-zoid brother less than an hour to add the identity of the individual and the most recent charges to his tome of accusations.

"This is preposterous!" Admiral Cartwright blustered, a close friend of Potts.

Dean glanced over at his brother, who nodded. Time for Dean to step up. "If you're going to deny and bury this, I swear to you," Dean began in a deadly serious tone of voice, "I will resign my commission, give up my ship and personally ensure that every single word of this corruption gets out to every major news network in the Federation."

The Admiralty bristled and several of the old farts turned to glare at a serene Pike, who shrugged, clearly agreeing with his wayward subordinate.

Dean paced up to the centre of the round table where everyone could see him. "This is a matter of integrity. No one is to blame for Potts' actions but Potts himself unless we choose to ignore what he has done. And if we do, then we are worse than Potts could have ever been. I refuse to believe Starfleet is that weak."

The words hung ugly in the air, given unprecedented weight when delivered by the usually cocky, light-hearted smartass that was Captain Winchester.

Admiral Pike limped forward, leaning on his cane. "Thank you, Captain Winchester. I'll take it from here. I understand you have a ship to look after?"

Dean saluted and spun on his heel, escaping the suffocating room with alacrity, Sam dogging his steps like a shadow.

"Admirals," he hissed under his breath. Sam chuckled beside him. "I swear, I'm never going to be one."

"Famous last words, dude," Sam smirked and Dean glared at him.

"No way in hell."

Sam grinned all the way back to the Impala and Dean had to resist the urge to deck him.

Enterprise

Right now, Kirk determined wearily, Callen was his new best friend. The Los Angeles crew was fresh, alert and hungry for battle, circling the tired Enterprise like a guardian of sorts as the flagship tried to pull herself together. The Corelians had surrendered and things were finally under control.

And Callen had donated a team of medics and his CMO Dr. Nate Getz as well as his first officer Sam Hanna to interrogate and keep an eye on the three high-profile criminals sitting in the Enterprise's hold so that the rest of the crew could get some sleep.

Kirk had kicked his crew off the bridge and was ignoring his pounding head in favour of running a few more diagnostics when the bridge lift swished open and Callen strode onto the bridge. "Bones says to tell you you're a workaholic idiot and to get your ass to bed before I send Hetty up here to sedate your ass into next week. I can tell you right now that while Hetty has many talents, gently employing a hypo is not one of them."

"Hetty?" Kirk asked in confusion.

Callen shrugged. "Apparently Nate isn't mean enough for Bones' taste. Come on man, you look like shit. Even Spock is off duty."

Kirk stared at the PADD in his hands for a minute before collapsing in on himself and admitting defeat. "Fine."

Callen grinned and offered him a hand out of the captain's chair. "That's the spirit. We'll make sure nothing happens to the Enterprise while you regroup. Everything's wrapped up and under control."

Kirk eyed the optimistic man with prejudice.

"Murphy's law, Callen. Why the hell did you have to say it?"