Stowaways
Kirk, Victoria, and Bones stood in the hanger of the Academy, all of them listening to one of the other Commanders giving out the assignments for each of them. The Academy was trying to split them all up based on their focus to create an even spread and create a crew that could work together, "…Regula I. Tracy, USS Farragut. McCoy, USS Enterprise. Vader, USS Hood," the man finished, looking away from his datapad to the Cadets standing before him, "Welcome to Starfleet, godspeed."
Victoria closed her eyes, hearing her own name skipped over, hers and Kirk's actually. She could guess what that meant. Their 'hearing' hadn't been finished, the academic board hadn't made their decision about whether to expel them or forgive them or whatever it was they might do, which meant they were technically on academic suspension till the vote could be cast. And suspension, she knew all too well, meant that they wouldn't be allowed to participate in any Fleet or Academy events, not even a rescue mission.
"He didn't call my name," Kirk frowned.
"Or mine," Victoria sighed.
"Commander!" Kirk rushed off for the man.
"James, don't…" she tried to go after him with Bones.
"Sir, you didn't call my or Victoria's name," Kirk told the man, "Kirk, James T. and…"
"You're both on academic suspension," the man cut in, but Kirk just stared at him, "That means you're grounded, until the Academy board rules."
Kirk shook his head, seeming devastated as the man turned and walked away to give more assignments.
"Figures," Victoria murmured, "First time out with the Fleet and we're stuck here."
As terrible as it was to admit, what with it being a sort of rescue mission and none of them knowing what was wrong on Vulcan or how serious it might be, she was almost hoping that it would help her decide if she even wanted to finish her Cadet training. She was in the program, yes, she'd gotten nearly to the end of it, her and Kirk, in 3 years instead of 4, something her father was infinitely proud of. She and Kirk, it seemed, through their bickering and competitions with each other had urged the other to keep pushing themselves and working harder in the process. They'd made it through in 3 years and were on the cusp of graduating. And now this.
But still, despite her being so near the end, despite having made it all the way through, she wasn't sure if she really wanted to see it through. She'd had fun, yes, she'd learned so much and grew and found friends worth sticking around for. But was it enough? She'd hardly been able to experience engineering in a real starship. The Academy had nearly exact replicas of the engineering rooms of the ships so it wasn't like they'd be thrown into the rooms and the ships with no experience. But…there was a difference between simulations and the actual thing. It wasn't even that she'd be alone or suddenly thrust into a position where she was running the warp drives or anything. She'd selected the more liaison role, being the one on the Bridge that communicated with Engineering, and went down to help tend to the different aspects of it when needed. It could be complicated, the engineering of a starship, it helped a captain enormously to have someone on the Bridge to interpret the information and readings and calculations that came to them from engineering.
She just…wanted to be on an actual ship and see how it all went before she decided if she wanted to commit herself to that life in graduating. To be on a ship instead of a simulation meant she'd be interacting with more than just other engineering Cadets, but with an actual crew. She'd have more responsibilities, she'd see more, and…maybe she'd see the wonders that her father had that just kept pulling him back into the Fleet. This…might have been her only chance to do that and now she'd lost it.
"The board'll rule in your favor," Bones tried to reassure them…until he thought about their track records and history in the Academy itself, how many times they'd ended up in detainment and nearly gotten suspended, "Most likely. Look, Jim, Vick," he glanced at them, "I got to go."
"Yeah," Kirk shook himself out of his thoughts, nodding him off, "Get going. Be safe."
Victoria rolled her eyes as Kirk gave Bones a sad smile and walked off dejectedly, that boy was a bigger drama queen than she thought he'd be. And, judging by Bones's hesitance to step onto the shuttle to the ship…he was falling for it.
"Damn it," Bones huffed, before pushing his way through the crowd and over to Kirk, "Come with me…" he turned to lead Kirk back towards Victoria, "You too."
"No," Victoria shook her head, "One of us you might be able to sneak in," she remarked before he could try and persuade her to go with him, "Two of us? No one'll believe we're both sick," that was the ONLY way she could see Bones getting Kirk into the ship, by 'playing doctor' and claiming he was seeing to a patient, "And I am NOT going to the medbay, sorry Bones…you're the only doctor I like, but I will NEVER like medical."
"What are you gonna do then?" he looked at her.
She just smirked, "I have my ways, I'll see you both on the Enterprise," she winked, saluting them before she turned to head off.
Bones watched her go, not having a clue what she was talking about, neither did Kirk it seemed, before he shook his head, realizing they HAD to move NOW and half-dragged Kirk towards the shuttle's entrance. There were three shuttles set for each ship and only two were open, the last one full and already taking off.
"Bones, where are we going?" Kirk hissed at him.
"You'll see," Bones grumbled, pulling him on but, unlike Kirk guessed, PAST the shuttle entrance and into the halls, yanking him towards the medical wing of the Academy.
Victoria watched them go, having blended into the crowd of Cadets still scrambling around to try and get to their shuttles, before she took a breath and headed for the second shuttle to the Enterprise.
"Sorry," one of the female guards held up a hand to keep her from entering the shuttle, not even needing to look at her datapad to know it, she'd been in the back of the hearing, she knew that the girl and the Kirk kid hadn't been given a final decision on the actions of the Academy, she knew that even if the girl was assigned to the Enterprise or not she could NOT serve on it, "You're not cleared for duty aboard the Enterprise."
Victoria blinked, "I'm not here to serve for duty," she countered, "As you are aware, the starships are open to immediate family," she held up her ID for the woman to see, "The Fleet allows the family members of her crew to board regardless of emergency standings or status in the Fleet itself," she lowered her ID, "But then again, you could always call the captain of the vessel and tell him how you're breaking regulations in denying a member's access to their family."
The woman's jaw tensed, before she stepped aside to allow her passage, "Apologies."
"Smart move," she smirked at the woman before heading in, being sure to keep her head down and take a seat at the very back so no one would see her. She took a breath, strapping in and looked out the window, hearing a hiss as the doors behind her came up and shut, she had just barely managed to make it on board…now she just had to hope that Kirk and Bones would do the same with the last shuttle.
~8~
Victoria quickly made her way through the shuttlebay of the Enterprise, she had to get in there and get changed into the proper uniform for the Cadets, the sooner she looked like a member of the crew, the sooner she'd be able to blend in and be unnoticed. Even though the ship was enormous, it would be easy to spot someone not wearing a Fleet uniform. The sight of the ship itself from the shuttle had been breathtaking. The Enterprise was the newest ship, the most up-to-date, the sleekest, and just…outstanding. She would have been thrilled (possibly) to serve on such a ship, but right now…she had to lay low till she could get to engineering.
She gasped and turned to the side, ducking behind a panel of equipment when she saw Commander Spock step out of a shuttle too. She waited, holding her breath, knowing how sharp his hearing was, until she saw him pass her. She let out the breath and snuck out as well, following a group of women towards what she was hoping was a changing room where she'd be able to sneak a red engineering uniform out.
She knew the taboo about the uniform, how the red was unlucky in the Fleet, it really wasn't a sort of bad luck though when one looked at the people and professions that wore the uniform. Gold was for the pilots and those in command positions, controlling positions, blue for the sciences, but red…was operations, that was the ones in engineering and security. Red were the ones working around a ticking bomb and facing down the threats to the ships. They WOULD be the ones most likely to be killed or die in a way. It was just…what came with the job and the responsibilities of it more so than the color.
She'd been very relieved when she stepped into a sort of locker room to see the uniforms hanging up in a large line from a rack. Every woman was expected to select the color pertaining to her field and the size that fit them best before heading out to do just that. She made quick work of finding the red uniform and headed to the very back of the room, trying to get as far away from the other Cadets so they wouldn't see her as she could.
She'd just found a spot when an announcement came over the speakers, "All decks, this is Captain Pike," his voice boomed out, "Prepare for immediate departure. Helm, thrusters."
She turned back to her uniform, hurrying to try and get dressed, they'd be hitting warp soon and she needed to be ready, it could be…jarring at first, the first few times you were on a starship, till you learned how the ship handled. For the most part it was unfelt, but when new to a ship and not knowing what all the little shifts in it meant, the jump to warp could be felt as a small sort of jerk, a gentle one, but it could unbalance you till you got used to it. And with the Enterprise being so new…no one really knew how it handled. She didn't want to risk falling over while she was changing, her falling down would definitely attract attention of the other women, a good majority of them having been at her hearing.
She'd just gotten her uniform down around her when she felt the gentle jolt that signaled they'd made it into warp and let out a breath, using a small bench behind her to stabilize her till the jolt passed. She looked around, quickly moving to the pair of boots she'd grabbed as well and pulling them on. The second she was finished she turned to make her way past the Cadets, pulling her hair out of the messy bun it was usually in so that it would hang around her face and keep it partially blocked from the view of others.
She'd only made it halfway through the room when another voice, a young man with a heavy Russian accent, spoke on the speakers, "May I have your attention, please. At 2200 hours, telemetry detected at an anomaly in the neutral zone. What appeared to be a lightning storm in space..."
She stopped dead.
Her eyes widened as she heard that last piece of information, a lightning storm in space was exactly how the crew of the USS Kelvin had described an appearance of a Romulan ship just before it attacked. She knew that was how it was described, she'd read Pike's dissertation on it, he told the story of the Kelvin so often during his recruiting sessions that she'd wanted to look more into it. It had to have been an amazing and epic ship for him to bring it up so often. He didn't exactly talk about the lightning storm to the Cadets…but he did, at length, in his paper.
"Soon after," the voice continued, "Starfleet received a distress signal from Wulcan High Command that their planet was experiencing seismic actiwity. Our mission is to assess the condition of Wulcan, and to assist in the ewacuations if necessary. We should be arriving at Wulcan within three minutes. Thank you for your time."
"Oh no," she breathed, before taking off, pushing past the various Cadets still in the room, stumbling out into the halls and looking around, trying to get her bearings and determine where the Bridge was in relation to where she was, before she saw a lift at the end of the hall. She ran for it, the Bridge was always at the highest point at the front of the ship…and that was where she needed to go.
Because he had said that they were three minutes away…and that meant Pike hadn't realized himself what they were heading for. Why would he? He'd written that dissertation more than 20 years ago, just after the Kelvin happened, he probably hadn't actually looked at it or reread it since, just keeping the bits of knowledge that he felt were relevant and useful with him. She doubted he even recalled the lightning storm as he'd sounded slightly sarcastic in her reading of it, more like he believed it wasn't an accurate description of what had happened, or that the crew had been seeing things, or were just too traumatized to remember seeing an enormous Romulan ship heading towards them and decided that a lightning storm was a better lead in to the unexpected attack.
She had three minutes to get to the Bridge and warn them NOT to go to Vulcan. She winced as she literally pushed one of the Cadets that were about to enter the lift out of the way and pushed the buttons to close the doors, taking it up as high as it could go, running out and around the nearest corner the second the doors were open. She nearly sagged with relief when she saw the Bridge at the end of the hall after she'd run around the corner.
She bolted down the hall and ran into the Bridge, "Stop the warp!" she shouted.
Captain Pike turned at the sudden intrusion and stood, "What are you doing here?" he asked her harshly, frowning at her, "You and Kirk are on academic suspension."
"I also have family onboard, in case you've forgotten," she snapped back, beyond trying to be polite to her commanding officer, not when the lives of everyone on the ship were in danger, "Or would you like to see me suspended from that as well?"
"Victoria…" the man shook his head, "You need to get off the Bridge, this is reserved only for authorized personnel…"
"This is a trap," she cut in, "The attack on Vulcan is a trap, you need to stop the warp."
"And you need to start following orders," Pike straightened, "Get off the Bridge, I will come find you and speak to you later about stowing away onboard a starship!"
"Just LISTEN to me!" she strode up to him, "You want to give me a demerit, go ahead, you want me kicked out of the Academy, fine, tell the board that, but just LISTEN. For once would you…"
"I will not stand here and be berated by a Cadet," the man snapped himself, making her flinch at how he was nearly shouting now, "By a Cadet who has constantly and repeatedly shown a completely lack of respect for authority, broken the rules and regulations of the Academy, and proven herself to be unfit for a position in the Fleet," he looked at her as she just…stared at him for what he'd just said in front of the entire Bridge, "You and James Kirk…" he shook his head, "You came on with MY recruitment," he looked at her a moment, his lips in a firm line, "And I have NEVER been more disappointed in either of you."
Victoria blinked, her mouth falling open just a little as she breathed out, Pike walking past her, ignoring the tears that had started to collect in her eyes from his berating of HER.
"Captain!" a voice shouted behind her and she closed her eyes, hearing that it was Kirk.
"Jim, no!" Bones joined him, trying to pull him back.
"Captain Pike, we have to stop the ship!" Kirk went right up to the captain.
"Don't bother," Victoria murmured, taking a breath and blinking quickly to keep the tears in, to clear them up, before she turned, "He won't listen, to anyone."
Kirk looked at her, starting to frown when he saw the wetness in her eyes, she hadn't actively cried, there were no tear tracks, her eyes weren't red but…he could see it, the glossy sheen in her eyes, the color more pronounced. Something had upset her, "What's…" he began to speak, to ask her what was wrong, but Pike cut in.
"Kirk, how the hell did you get on board the Enterprise?!" Pike glared, in NO mood to deal with this. He could understand how Victoria had gotten on, she DID have family there and it was within her right to ask for board because of that, but Kirk? Kirk he couldn't explain.
"Bones let him on," Victoria remarked, moving over to them, ignoring Kirk watching her intently, she was being…far too quiet, more quiet than she ever was.
"Uh, Captain," Bones tried to explain as the captain turned to him expectantly, not seeing Kirk giving Victoria a questioning frown or her shake her head at him to not ask, "This man's under the influence of a severe reaction of a Melvaran flea vaccine, completely..."
"Bones," Kirk shook his head, pulling his gaze away from Victoria, "Bones..."
"...delusional. I take full responsibility."
"Vulcan is not experiencing a natural disaster," Kirk shouted, "It's being attacked by Romulans!"
"Romulans?" Pike scoffed, "Cadet Kirk, I think you've had enough attention for one day. McCoy take him back to medical and you," he pointed at Uhura who was frowning at Victoria as well, "The one from the bar…"
"Uhura, sir," Uhura reminded him.
"Get her out of here," he nodded at Victoria, making her wince, "We'll have words later."
"Aye Captain," Bones agreed, moving to pull a struggling Kirk out as Uhura tried to gently guide Victoria to the door, but the woman refused to move.
"Look, sir, that same anomaly..." Kirk began.
"Mr. Kirk..." Pike gave a short snap.
"Neither Cadet are cleared to be aboard this vessel," Spock moved over to them, having been on the Bridge as acting Commander.
"Look, I get it, you're a great orator," Kirk shot back, "I'd love to do it again with you too but I've got Victoria here and she keeps me sharp enough…"
"I can remove the Cadets," Spock turned to Pike, ignoring him.
"Try it! These Cadets are trying to save the Bridge!"
"By recommending a full stop mid-warp during a rescue mission?" Spock narrowed his eyes at him.
"I tried to tell you," Victoria cut in, Kirk starting to smirk at hearing a familiar fire in her voice…this was his favorite Victoria, when she was angry and she was raging and not much about being witty as getting her point across even if she had to beat it into you, "It's a TRAP. It's NOT a rescue, we're headed right for an ATTACK."
"Based on what facts?"
"You REALLY want to go there?" Victoria stepped up to him, "Fine. The 'lightning storm in space' has happened before, hasn't it Captain?" she nearly spat the last word, looking at him as he frowned.
"On the day of my birth actually," Kirk agreed, "Right before a Romulan ship attacked the USS Kelvin."
"You, of all people, should know that, sir," Victoria sent him a glared, "Or had you truly discounted that little blip in your dissertation?"
"We've BOTH read it," Kirk told him, confirming his agreement with her.
"You talked about how the crew saw a ship which had 'formidable and advanced weaponry' and yet a ship like that was never seen or heard from again."
"The Kelvin attack took place on the edge of Klingon space and, at 2300 hours last night, there was an attack," he told the captain, recalling what he'd over heard Uhura say to Gaila when he'd been trying to swipe her keycard, "47 Klingon warbirds destroyed by a Romulan, sir. It was reported that the Romulans were in one ship, one massive ship."
Pike shook his head, overloaded with information, he recognized the parts from his paper, yes, but the other facts that Kirk had presented, that was new, "And you know of this Klingon attack how?"
"Sir," Uhura stepped up, "I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk's report is accurate."
"Now will you listen?" Victoria gave him a hard look, "We are warping right into the middle of a an attack! Whatever the reason, that same ship that attacked the Kelvin is attacking Vulcan right now."
Pike looked down processing that, when Spock begrudgingly spoke up, "The Cadets' logic is sound. And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics, we would be wise to accept her conclusion."
Pike nodded, glancing back at a man standing by the communicators, "Scan Vulcan space, check for any transmissions in Romulan."
"Sir, I'm not sure I can distinguish the Romulan language from Vulcan," the man frowned.
"What about you?" he turned back to Uhura, "Do you speak Romulan, Cadet Uhura?"
"And then some," Victoria answered for her, offering her friend a small smile, "She knows all three dialects."
"Relieve the lieutenant," Pike ordered her.
Uhura nodded and moved to do just that with a, "Yes sir."
"Hannity," he turned around to one of the other Cadets, "Hail the USS Truman."
The man tapped a few buttons and frowned at the readings, "All the other ships are out of warp, sir, and have arrived at Vulcan, but we seemed to have lost all contact."
"Sir," Uhura swallowed hard, "I pick up no Romulan transmission…" she looked at Kirk and Victoria, tense and alarmed, "Or transmission of any kind in the area."
"Not even from other Fleet ships?" Victoria had to add, NEEDING Pike to realize what was about to happen.
"None at all," Uhura confirmed.
"It's because they're being attacked," Kirk shot a look at Pike, stepping closer to Victoria, presenting a united front.
Pike looked between them, between the two most troublesome Cadets in the Academy, between the two that he had personally seen to entering the Fleet, between the two that were, he was entirely certain, had the MOST potential of all the Cadets in that room…and nodded, "Shields up, red alert."
Victoria let out a breath, turning away, sagging in relief at that, Kirk patting her on the back, moving his arm around her as she turned back, to half-hug her, it was his way of thanking her, had been for a while. He never said it openly, neither did she, but they had their own way of thanking the other. He'd slip his arm around her shoulders and give her a half-hug and she'd punch him in the shoulder before rubbing it. Right now he was thanking her silently for her effort in helping him. He had NO idea how she'd gotten onto the ship, he'd have to ask later, once this was all said and done and Vulcan was safe, just how she'd done it, but for now…he just wanted to thank her for agreeing with him. It was a rare instance, the two of them agreeing on something, but they'd both come to the same conclusion about the lightning storm, having both read Pike's dissertation, and he was just glad for that.
"Arrival in Vulcan," one of the pilots, a young Asian man, announced, "In 5 seconds...4...3...2..."
The entire Bridge stared in horror for only a split second as they arrived at the end of what looked like a massacre, pieces of other starships drifting past, bodies of other Cadets floating among the debris, everything just torn apart and mangled.
"Emergency evasive!" Pike snapped out of his shock first and gave the order as chunks of starships drifted towards them.
"Running sir," a Cadet reported.
"Damage report!"
"Deflector shields are holding."
"All stations," he gave the command and the room sprang into actions as he ran to the comm., "Engineer Olson, report!"
"Full reverse," a voice came from engineering, "Come about starboard ninety degrees, drop us underneath and..." the man trailed off as they stared at the massive Romulan ship that was sitting right in the center of the wreckage above Vulcan.
"Captain," Spock called from a control panel, "They're locking torpedoes."
"Avert auxiliary power from port nacelles to forward shields," Pike ordered…only for the room to jolt moments later as a torpedo crashed into the ship, "Sulu, status report!"
"Shields at 32 percent," the Asian man confirmed, "They're weapons are powerful, sir. We can't take another hit like that."
"Get me Starfleet Command."
"Captain," Spock shook his head, "The Romulan ship has lowered some kind of high energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere. Its signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter abilities."
"All power to forward shields. Prepare to fire all weapons!"
"Captain," Uhura reported, "We're being hailed."
Pike looked at her, glancing back at Kirk and Victoria, before nodding at the woman to patch it through, the viewscreen blinking to life and revealing a bald man with dark eyes, what appeared like tribal tattoos all over his face, clearly a Romulan.
"Hello," the man grinned.
"I'm Captain Christopher Pike," he began, "To whom am I speaking?"
"Hi Christopher, I'm Nero."
"You've declared war against the Federation. Withdraw. I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location."
Nero scoffed, "I do not speak for the Empire. We stand apart, as does your Vulcan crewmember," his gaze flickered to Spock, narrowing, "Isn't that right, Spock?"
Spock frowned and stepped forward, looking at the man curiously, "Pardon me, I do not believe that you and I are acquainted?"
"No, we're not," Nero agreed, "Not yet. Spock, there's something I would like you to see. Captain Pike, your transporter has been disabled. As you can see by the rest of your armada, you have no choice. You will man a shuttle, come aboard the Narada, for negotiations," Kirk looked over, feeling Victoria tense at that, though he was as well, they both knew that that…was exactly what had happened on the Kelvin as well, the captain had been taken to the other ship moments before it fired on the Kelvin, the captain had likely died as well, "That is all."
"Don't go," Victoria called as Pike stood, the screen blinking out, "You CAN'T go."
"He'll kill you," Kirk agreed, "You know that."
"Your survival is unlikely," even SPOCK had to nod at that.
"Captain," Kirk stepped up, "We gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake."
"I, too, agree. You should rethink your strategy."
"I understand that," Pike nodded at them, before looking around the Bridge, "I need officers who have been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat."
"I have training, sir," Sulu raised his hand.
"Come with me. Kirk, you too. You're not supposed to be here anyway. Chekov, you have the comm.."
"Aye aye Captain," the young Russian boy nodded.
"And me," Victoria stepped up.
"No," Pike shook his head, "You need to stay…"
"You JUST said you need people with hand-to-hand combat," she cut in, "I've had more defense training than most Cadets," she reminded him, "My father saw to that."
Pike looked at her a long while, seeing her not back down, and sighed, "Fine, with us," he turned and headed out of the Bridge.
"Victoria…" Kirk began.
"Do not make me punch you unconscious to prove a point James," she turned to him, "I knocked out Cupcake, don't think I won't do the same to you if it means I'm a part of this mission."
Kirk just held up his hands in surrender and gestured her ahead of him, a small smirk making its way onto his face as he followed her, a girl who could fight…she didn't need to prove anything, she'd knocked him on his ass on more than one occasion when they'd go at each other, but in a spar-type setting. He had no doubts she'd be able to handle herself on this mission…he was just worried for the Romulans.
~8~
Pike led the way through Engineering, Sulu, Kirk, Victoria, and another man, Engineer Olson after him, all of them dressed in space-jump suits. Olson and Victoria were in red, Sulu in yellow, with Kirk in blue.
"Without transporters," Pike began, explaining the situation and what would be expected of them, "We can't beam off the ship, we can't assist Vulcan, we can't do our job. Cadets, you will space-jump from the shuttle. You will land on that machine they lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear. You'll get inside. You'll disable it, then you'll beam back to the ship. Mr. Spock," he tapped a comm. on, "I'm leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once we have transport capabilities, communications back up, you'll contact Starfleet, report what the hell's going on here. And if all else fails, fall back, rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian system. Kirk," he pointed to the man, "I'm promoting you to First Officer."
"What?" Kirk blinked.
"James?" Victoria gaped at him, she knew that it was Kirk's dream to one day work to a captain's position, but…now?! He was going to appoint Kirk to a position just short of it, after he'd just let loose on her and told her how disappointed he was in the both of them?! What, was this his way of making it up to them, to appoint one of them in a position of power like that? Well she couldn't wait to see what the hell he did to apologize to HER.
"Captain," Spock's voice called, "Please, I apologize. The complexities of Human pranks escape me."
"It's not a prank, Spock," Pike sighed, "And I'm not the Captain, you are. Let's go," he turned to lead them into the shuttle.
"Captain," Victoria rushed up to him, "What happens to you after we stop the drill?"
"Oh," he looked at her, offering her what she was sure was meant to be a reassuring smile, "I guess you'll have to come and get me," he nodded, tapping the comm. again, "Careful with the ship, Spock. She's brand new."
And with that, he turned and entered the shuttle, heading to the pilot's compartment as they gathered in its belly, Victoria and Kirk tenser than the others at Pike's word. There were hundreds, thousands of recruiters in the Fleet, Pike was just one of many, but…a handful of those on the Enterprise were Cadet that he had recruited, the two of them among that number. The recruiters and their Cadets shared a special relationship, because the Fleet really did become like a family in the end. The recruiters were like the favored aunts and uncles or even second parents, to think that Pike…the man responsible for them both being there…was going to be in a situation where he'd be at the mercy of Nero and his Romulans…it alarmed them.
"Shuttle 8-9," they looked up, hearing one of the crew reporting to them, "USS Enterprise. You are cleared forward..."
Kirk looked at Olson, "You got the charges right?" he needed something to distract him from this.
"Oh yeah," the man grinned, " I can't wait to kick some Romulan ass. Right?"
"Just don't get your ass kicked in return," Victoria muttered as the shuttle started to rise.
"So…" Kirk turned to Sulu, "What kind of combat training do you have?"
"Fencing," Sulu deadpanned.
"Great," Victoria scoffed, "Looks like it's up to me and you James."
"What about the boomer over there," Kirk nodded at Olson.
She shook her head, "He's too cocky," she swallowed hard, nudging him slightly, "Like you were before you met me."
"I was not cocky."
"Arrogant then."
"Like you can talk," he scoffed.
"We made each other better," she settled it, "We can handle this with our brains…Olson…" she nodded at the man, "He's gonna get too into it and he'll get himself killed."
"Pre-jump!" they heard Pike call before Kirk could respond to that.
They looked at each other before they put their helmets on and got off their seats, crouching on the floor, bracing themselves.
"You are clear from USS Enterprise airspace," the Enterprise announced.
"Cadets," Pike sighed, "We're approaching the drop zone. You have one shot to land on that platform. You may have to fix this to pull your 'chute as late as possible. Three...two...one. Remember, the Enterprise won't be able to beam you back until you turn off that drill. Good luck."
And with that, the floor fell out from under them, sending the four of them rocketing down towards the planet, following the line of some sort of drill.
Kirk struggled a moment but managed to tap his comm., "Kirk to Enterprise. Distance to target, 5,000 meters."
"4,200 meters to target," Sulu added moments later as they flew.
"4,000 meters," Victoria reported, seeing that flashing in her helmet.
"3,000 meters!" Olson cheered.
"2,000 meters," Kirk called.
"Pull your chute," Sulu ordered, him, Kirk, and Victoria doing just that, Victoria having pulled it only a few seconds before Sulu did, right when Kirk had shouted out before. Olson though…did not.
"2,000 meters!" Olson continued to fall.
"C'mon, pull your chute, Olson!" Kirk shouted at him.
"Not yet! 1,500 meters!"
"Open your chute!" Sulu tried.
"Yeah!"
"Olson!" Victoria snapped, "Pull your goddamn chute!"
But Olson waited till, "1,000 meters!" he whooped, before finally pulling his chute…only to slam into the platform they were aiming for, falling past it, his chute getting sucked up into the energy beam that was the drill…disintegrating him as the trio watched in horror.
A/N: Ouch, poor Olson :( Poor Victoria too, for Pike to say that to her, but at least he looks like he's at least trying to make up for it after he realized they were right. We'll actually find out a rather large fear of Victoria's through her helping them with the drill ;) But not next chapter, nope, next chapter will be a small flashback of how the friendship began for Kirk and Victoria ;)
Some notes on reviews...
Lol, yup, little bit of Jara :) I always loved when Joss Whedon would put little references to his other works in different shows, I try to sneak little things in here and there :) Bones is definitely like a big brother and we'll find out why in the very last 'flashback' :)
I hope you enjoy your break :) Just think, tomorrow this story will be halfway over though :) I'm glad you're enjoying it so far :)