Losses
Kirk winced as he landed on the platform only moments after Olson had been sucked into the energy beam below the platform. He scrambled, reaching out for anything to hold onto as the chute caught the wind and tried to pull him right off the platform.
"Pull your chute in James!" he heard Victoria shout over the comms..
"Thanks," he called back sarcastically, "I NEVER would have thought to do that Victoria!"
"Just do it!"
He winced, reaching up with one hand to slap the chute back in and groaned as he rolled onto his back, taking a moment to breathe…only to look over when he heard a hatch pop to see Romulans rushing up onto the platform, heading right for him. He jumped to his feet just as one reached him, trying to pull his phaser out to defend himself when the Romulan knocked it out of his hand.
"Sulu!" he heard Victoria cry and glanced over for only a moment to see that the man had overshot the platform, his chute getting caught in a hole and leaving him dangling over the edge, but there wasn't anything he could do as the Romulans attacked him.
"Pull it in!" Victoria repeated to Sulu, watching from above as he slapped his chest to retract the chute, getting pulled up onto the platform in the process…only to realize too late that the hole his chute had gotten caught in wasn't just a hole…but one that shot out fire, excess from the drill. He grabbed out and took hold of the platform, trying to keep himself from being pulled in.
"Sulu!" Kirk called, trying to knock the Romulan he was fighting out, but the man was strong, luckily, Sulu managed to grab his sword and cut the strings attaching him to the chute, freeing himself just as a second Romulan ran out to attack him as well.
"Duck!" Victoria warned.
Kirk looked up for only a moment to see her about to land and threw himself at the ground, Victoria slamming into the Romulan, using him as a means to stop herself while also smacking him right off the platform, hurtling towards the planet. Kirk jumped to his feet to help steady her, slapping her chestplate to retract the chute before she could, not wanting what happened to him, Olson, or Sulu.
"Thanks," she let out a breath.
"Nice timing," he joked quickly, "Good aim," he nudged her, she really had one of the WORST coordination when it came to targeting things that he'd ever seen. Unless she was literally a foot in front of it, she could hardly ever hit a target with a phaser. The fact that she'd managed to hit the Romulan with her body while navigating the chute…was literally nothing short of a miracle.
"I…had no idea that would work," she admitted, she'd just…hoped for the best. She'd learned to do that a lot when it came to Kirk, just…leap in and hope.
"A little help!" Sulu shouted at them, trying to sword fight with the last Romulan, "Give me your hand! C'mon!"
Kirk grinned and winked at Victoria, before taking a running start and tackling the Romulan, not having expected him, right off the platform in a move similar to what Victoria had just done…Victoria rushing forward to pull him back by his pack when he nearly toppled over the side of the platform as well.
"Thanks," he mimicked.
She shook her head, "You're an idiot you…" she cut herself off, screaming and flinching, ducking down and covering her head when the fire erupted out of the hole Sulu's chute had been trapped in.
"Tory!" Kirk was at her side in an instant, kneeling beside her as she crouched down, panting with her eyes squeezed shut tight, "It's ok…"
"What's wrong with her?" Sulu frowned, trying to catch his breath from his own fight.
Kirk looked up at him, "She um…she doesn't like fire."
"She's a pyrophobic?"
Kirk blinked, "If that's what a fear of fire is, then yes."
"I'm fine," Victoria swallowed hard, seeing the fire disappear, "I…I'll be fine," she breathed, standing up shakily, Kirk staying right beside her, his eyes on her, "I'm fine Jim," she murmured.
Kirk nodded, they didn't…ever really call each other Jim or Tory often, it usually only happened when there were feeling something to the extreme, like alarm or some other frightening emotion. Sometimes, when they were very angry at each other, they'd call each other Jimmy and Vicky, but they'd been calling each other that one less and less the last few years. It had become their own little...thing...to call each other James and Victoria. At first it had been irritating, especially when someone else tried to call them that. It was a little amusing when they met someone knew and they heard one of them calling the other by their full name and assumed that was how they liked to be addressed. They'd instantly go on the defensive and tell them NOT to call them that, that they hated being called their full names, and to call them Jim/Tory.
The confusion evident on the faces of others when, right after that, they'd proceed to call each other James/Victoria always made them laugh. They didn't understand it themselves, why they were so ok with the other doing it but no one else. They'd always hated everyone calling them that, yet...there they were. It HAD started off with them being so irritated with each other, both using it as a means to just offend the other even more. But...slowly it had started to become more like a personal means of addressing each other. Then it became a thing that they could only stand to hear the other doing. Their parents still called them their full names, but...when the other called them it...it was just...different.
"Well that's great you're fine," Sulu remarked, "But Olson had the charges!"
"I know!" Kirk snapped, glaring t Sulu. He knew it was important to the mission, that they take out the drill, but…Victoria was important to him. He…didn't admit that often, ever really, but…there were times she'd be devastated or really truly scared and he'd just…it would hit him in the gut how much he actually cared about her. But then he'd try to push it away, Victoria would do something or say something that made him think she was just…his friend, and he'd push it down and bury it.
He'd make excuses. Yes, he cared about her, she was a good friend. Yes, he worried about her, it was the decent thing to do. Yes, she was important to him, she was his partner in crime as it were. All excuses, he knew, but he went with it. He just…he never had this problem before, liking a woman he was almost certain didn't like him in that way in return. Often it was he flirted and they fell for his charms, if just for a night or a short while, or he'd flirt but not care if they felt something back, or the girl would come onto him. But he'd never…cared about the other girl like this.
Because here he was, in the middle of his first ever Fleet mission…and he was more concerned with Sulu's disregard of Victoria's panic attack than the fact that they couldn't dismantle a drill and potentially save a planet.
"So what do we do?" Sulu called.
Victoria looked around, trying to see if there was something else they could use, if maybe the Romulans had had some sort of bomb or something to attack them with…it was a long shot, she knew, but…she smirked, they had rifles!
"Grab a gun!" she turned to grab them both, thankful that the Romulan she'd slammed into had dropped his while fighting Kirk, and tossed one to the man in question, before she turned to fire at the platform with it, Kirk following her lead, neither of them stopping till they heard the drill power down and the energy beam disappear.
They'd just turned to each other to smile…when the drill shook, something rocketing down through it to the planet.
"Kirk to Enterprise," he held up his comm., "They just launched something at the planet, through the hole they just drilled. Do you copy Enterprise?"
"Yes sir," one of the female Cadets responded.
Victoria shook her head, knowing that whatever it was wasn't good, especially not when a low rumble sounded from the planet, "Beam us up!" she called into the comm., just knowing that it could NOT be good, at all.
"Standby, locking on your signal…"
They all jerked as the platform started to rise, Victoria falling to her knees as Kirk stumbled back…Sulu though, fell right off the side.
"Sulu!" Victoria shouted.
"I can't lock onto you!" they heard over the comm., "Don't move. Don't move!"
"Help!" Sulu shouted.
"Sulu!" Kirk grabbed Victoria's hand and pulled her off the platform with him as he jumped after the man. They both had their chutes, they'd need it to keep their descent slow enough and calm enough to be transported in a fall.
"I'm going to KILL you James!" Victoria shrieked as they fell off the platform as well.
"I know!" he cried over the sound of the rumble, the two of them plummeting towards Sulu, just managing to grab onto him, "We got ya!" Kirk gasped as they grabbed Sulu, "Pull my chute!"
Sulu reached out and slapped Kirk's chest, trying to get the chute to extract at the same time Victoria managed to hit her own, Kirk's was blown out, the strings breaking from the sudden gust of wind, all of it seeming to be more turbulent with whatever was happening to Vulcan. Victoria's as well was nearly half blown off, only a few strings remaining but not enough to do much to help them.
"Kirk to Enterprise!" he shouted into the comm., "We're falling without a chute! Beam us up!"
"I'm trying!" was the frantic reply, "I can't lock on your signal, you're moving too fast."
"Well try harder!" Victoria cried, feeling like she couldn't breathe as half her chute tried to pull her up, but with the two men weighing her down it was like she was being torn apart, the harness that held it pressing against her chest as it struggled.
"Enterprise, where are you?" Kirk called as they got nearer and nearer the planet.
"Hold on, hold on!" they could hear Chekov speaking now.
"Now, now, now! Do it now! Now, now, now!"
"Don't move! Hold on! Computating gravitational pull and...gotcha!"
They gasped as they were surrounded in the familiar lights of the transport…and slammed right into the floor of the transporter pad aboard the Enterprise, Victoria letting out a loud groaning cry as one of the boys' (she wasn't sure who, probably Kirk though) elbows slammed into her stomach in the hit.
"Oh!" Chekov cheered, seeing the three of them safe, "Yahmyoo!"
"God," Kirk winced, rolling onto his back, but taking Victoria with him in the process…apparently her chute, in the transport, had gotten twisted around the men and, as he moved, he'd pulled her on top of her.
Victoria just let out a breath and let her head fall onto his chest, too…completely exhausted at the moment to care. And besides…Kirk made a good pillow, warm and soft.
Sulu swallowed and looked at them, "Thanks."
Victoria managed to lift her hand and wave it at him, brushing it off as no big deal, only for Kirk to lift his hand and capture her own, threading their fingers together as she dropped her arm, just…holding her tightly, and if he gave her an extra squeeze as his other arm wrapped around her well…no one had better say anything about it.
"Clear the pad," an order came as Spock strode into the room, "I'm beaming to the surface."
"You're doing what?" Victoria winced as they tried to get up, a few other Cadets moving to help them, seeing them stiff and weary.
"The surface of what?" Kirk mimicked, "What, are you going down there? Are you nuts?"
"Commander you CAN'T do that!" Victoria looked at him, "Pike assigned you captain for a reason! You cannot abandon your crew!"
But Spock just crouched down on the transport pad once it had been cleared, "Energize!"
"Spock!" Kirk shouted, but the man disappeared.
Victoria looked at the other Cadets, "I thought Vulcans were supposed to be logical?"
"His mother's down there," Uhura told them, having followed Spock in an effort to try and…well, she didn't know what, she couldn't ask him not to go there and save her and his family, the elders, "His father, the keepers of his planet's culture…"
"Mothers are overrated," Victoria muttered.
Kirk absently reached out and put an arm around her in comfort, knowing better than anyone there that she didn't have the best relationship with her mother, "And some aren't," he reminded her, giving her a small squeeze.
"You…" she pointed at him, before poking him in the cheek, "Still need to let me meet Winny."
He rolled his eyes at how she called his mother Winny, he was even more embarrassed to know his mother had TOLD her to call her that. Apparently Victoria had hacked into his computer once so that she could access his video feed that he shared with his mother, he'd talk to her from time to time, give her updates on things (defend against the notices she received for his various detainments), and introduced herself. He'd come back to his room to see her and his mother laughing their heads off…with his mother showing the most embarrassing baby pictures of him known to man.
It was NOT his fault his only female cousin had wanted a princess party for her 4th birthday and he'd had to dress up as one with the blonde wig and pink dress and all! ALL his other cousins, the few he had, had dressed as princesses too…but it seemed his mother was only showing her the ones of HIM.
He'd been horrified.
But ever since then, his mother would periodically want to talk to her and he'd let them bond, but they hadn't actually met in person despite him promising he'd go home for a holiday or two and take Victoria with him. His mother seemed to have it set in her head that the two of them were 'perfect for each other' and were 'destined to get married' or something. When talking to him in private and asking about how she was doing, she'd always call Victoria her future daughter-in-law. He'd tried to explain that if they didn't end up trying to smother the other person with a pillow by the end of the day then it was a good day, marrying her would probably put him in an early grave. She'd just laugh and insist he bring her over.
He did try, he did intend to, but…holidays came and went and it just…never happened. And it had nothing to do with him wanting to spend time with her for holidays before his mother completely embarrassed him and he did himself in. Not at all.
"And you still need to actually tell me your mom's name," he reminded her as well.
"Why?" she scoffed, "It's not like she'll be at graduation and…" she cut herself off, swallowing hard, thinking about her father, he might not even be there either…
"WE might not be at graduation," Kirk muttered.
"Thanks James," she rolled her eyes, "You HAD to go there."
He held up his hands in surrender, but before he could add more, Spock's voice came over the comm., "Spock to Enterprise, get us out now!"
Chekov, who was sitting at the controls, quickly moved to do that, "Locking on you. Don't move. Stay right where you are…" they looked over at the transport pad to see the lights starting to glow, vague forms appearing within it, "Transport in five...four...three...two..."
"NO!" they heard Spock scream as one of the forms disappeared, "No!"
"I'm losing her!" Chekov cried as an alarm started to go off, the small group watching in horror as one of the lights stopped working, the person being transported just…gone, "I'm losing her, I'm losing her! No…" Chekov let out a breath, "I've lost her…"
The transport solidified, Spock standing there, with his hand held out towards someone who wasn't there, a few other older Vulcan men and women behind him…
The Enterprise shook, turning sharply, and they looked out the window where they could see the planet imploding, as though it were being sucked into a straw and just…blinking out of existence, a blackness, a black hole, spreading into the space around it…all of them turning to Spock, the man completely shell-shocked to have lost his planet…and his mother…at the same time.
~8~
Kirk and Victoria sat in the hall outside the medical bay, Victoria refusing to enter it if she could help it and, since her injuries from their fight and fall weren't severe, she wasn't forced to enter. Kirk, when she refused to go completely in, refused to go in without her. Bones was sure it was some sort of ploy to try and get her to go in as well, like…he wouldn't get treated if she didn't…but it failed, because Victoria had just given him a look and rolled her eyes, before she went to sit on one of the benches in the hall. Kirk should have known, if that was his intent, that it wouldn't work. If he'd been seriously injured Victoria would have literally kicked him into the medical wing…and stayed outside the door.
"Acting Captain's Log," they looked up as Spock's voice came over the speakers, Bones rolling his eyes as he examined them, but more because he had to examine them…again…than because Spock was talking, "Stardate 2258.42. We have had no word from Captain Pike. I have therefore classified him a hostage of the war criminal known as Nero. Nero, who has destroyed my home planet and most of its six billion inhabitants. While the essence of our culture has been saved in the elders who now reside upon the ship, I estimate no more than ten thousand have survived. I am now a member of an endangered species."
"Quite the drama queen, isn't he?" Kirk muttered to Victoria.
She just sighed and leaned forward, rubbing her hands over her face before clasping them together and resting her hands on her chin, "At least they're capable of conscious thought and planning," she leaned back again, "Other animals aren't so lucky, need help and programs."
He nodded, "We good Bones?" he looked at the man as he took some notes on his datapad.
Bones gave them a look, one eyebrow raised, "Yeah," he remarked dryly, "Good as always."
"Wonderful," Victoria nodded, getting up…wincing as her stomach tugged a bit, Kirk following her lead and groaning as his bruised ribs moved too.
Bones rolled his eyes at them, "For two people who get in more fights than anyone I've ever known, and I've seen all out bar brawls, you both hate getting examined. Here's a thought, stop it."
Kirk just grinned and patted Bones on the shoulder as he passed, "Too much fun."
"James needs a babysitter," was Victoria's excuse.
"Victoria loves the thrill of the fight."
"Bones did you happen to bring a portable scanner?" she looked at him, "I think he took one too many blows to the head."
"Come on," Kirk rolled his eyes, reaching out to take her hand, tugging her closer as they walked on, Bones shaking his head as he saw Kirk squeeze her hand and not let go of it.
Those two…if they didn't get together after this mission…he was going to lock them in a closet together.
~8~
A short while later would find the crew gathered on the Bridge, Kirk sitting in the Captain's chair as Victoria spoke quietly with Uhura, having been 'promoted' by Spock when they'd passed him in the halls on his way to check on the Vulcans being tended in the medbay, to active Engineering Liaison for the Bridge now that Olson was gone.
They looked over when Spock himself entered, "Have you confirmed that Nero is headed for Earth?" he looked at Uhura.
"Their trajectory suggests no other destination, Captain," Uhura nodded.
"Thank you, Lieutenant."
"We can't be sure Nero won't attack other planets in the Federation on the way though," Victoria argued.
"Out of the chair," Spock moved to the captain's chair, ushering Kirk out of it.
"Well, if the Federation in general is a target, why didn't they destroy us?" Chekov crowned.
"Why would they?" Sulu shook his head, "Why waste the weapons? You know... we obviously weren't a threat."
"That is not it," Spock argued, "He said he wanted me to see something. The destruction of my home planet."
"How the hell did they do that, by the way?" Bones asked as he joined them on the Bridge, "Where did the Romulans get that kind of weaponry?"
Spock nodded at the logical reasoning in that question, slowly pacing around the room, "The engineering comprehension necessary to artificially create a black hole may suggest an answer. Such technology could theoretically be manipulated to create a tunnel through space-time."
"Damn it man, I'm a doctor, not a physicist. Are you actually suggesting they're from the future?!"
"If you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth."
"Sherlock Holmes," Victoria muttered.
"Yes."
"Then, what would an angry, future Romulan want with Captain Pike?" Kirk shook his head, THAT was the part that was bothering him. They'd had ample captains to choose from in the other ships they attacked, why pick Pike?
"As Captain, he does know details of Starfleet's defenses," Sulu reminded them.
"It's not that," Victoria countered, "They could have threatened any of the other ships in the Fleet that came to Vulcan," she swallowed hard, "They wanted him because Spock was his First Officer," she reasoned.
Spock nodded, that did make sense. If this was all about making HIM suffer, for whatever reason, to take his captain would certainly be one way to do it.
"What we need to do is catch up to that ship," Kirk spoke up, "Disable it, take it over, and get Pike back."
"We are technologically outmatched in every way," Spock turned to him, "A rescue attempt would be illogical."
"Nero's ship would have to drop out of warp for us to overtake him," Chekov agreed.
"We CAN boost our warp gear," Victoria countered, "All it would take is to just minimize some of the…"
"Remaining power and crew are being used to repair radiation leaks on the lower decks," Spock cut in.
"Yes, I understand that," Victoria blinked, "I wasn't talking about using other crew members or using more power. I can do it myself, I wrote a paper on maximizing warp gear with minimal use of power by altering the…"
"Unimportant," Spock shook his head, "We must gather with the rest of Starfleet, to balance the terms of the next engagement."
"There won't be a next engagement!" Kirk frowned at him, "By the time we've gathered, it'll be too late. But you say he's from the future, knows what's going to happen, then the logical thing is to be unpredictable!"
"You are assuming that Nero knows how events are predicted to unfold. To the contrary, Nero's very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the USS Kelvin, culminating in the events of today, thereby creating an entire new chain of incidents that cannot be anticipated by either party."
"An alternate reality?" Uhura stared at him, only slightly incredulous.
"Precisely," he nodded, "Whatever our lives might have been, if the time continuum was disrupted, our destinies have changed. Mr. Sulu, plot a course to the Laurentian system warp factor three."
"Spock, don't do that," Kirk stepped up to him, "Running back to the rest of the Fleet for a…a…a…"
"Confab?" Victoria supplied.
He pointed at her, "A confab is a massive waste of time!"
"Orders issued by Captain Pike when he left..." Spock began.
"He also ordered us to go back and get him. Spock, you are captain now! You have to be..."
"I am aware of my responsibilities, Mr.…"
"Every second we waste, Nero's getting closer to his next target."
"That is correct and why I am instructing you to accept the fact that I alone..."
"I will not allow us to go backwards..."
"Jim!" Bones shouted, looking at Victoria…confused as to why she wasn't trying to stop the man from arguing with his commanding officer, she was always the one trying to pull him OUT of trouble, but she was just standing there, watching the two men go back and forth like it was a tennis match.
"...instead of hunting Nero down!" Kirk finished.
"Security," Spock looked to the side, "Escort him out."
"Don't!" Victoria called as two guards moved to grab Kirk, the man all too willing to fight them off.
"Hey!" one of the men struggled with him as he squirmed in their grip till he was free and rounded on them, swinging away.
"No, Jim!" Bones rushed over with a sedative…
But Spock beat him to it with a Vulcan nerve pinch, sending Kirk to the ground, "Get him off this ship."
Victoria closed her eyes for a moment, shaking her head as they hefted Kirk up, she was so going to regret this…before she stormed over to Spock and spun him around by the arm, punching him across the face...and immediately trying to grab her hand as a pain shot through it, a very familiar pain that she'd felt when she'd punched Cupcake ages ago...and sworn never to punch anyone for James T. Kirk again...
That lasted long.
Unfortunately Spock grabbed her arm and twisted it behind her back, making her cry out in even more pain as Uhura flinched and Bones looked to the heavens exasperated, before he shoved her to a third guard who had come to help, "Her too."
Victoria winced as the guard took the sedative from Bones and stabbed her in the neck with it, unwilling to risk her trying to fight him like Kirk had the others. She couldn't blame the man though…this was…what she'd wanted to happen.
Fastest way to be expelled from a ship…attack the captain.
She honestly had no idea what possessed her to do half the things she did when it came to Kirk. Half the time it was her trying to keep him from getting expelled. For someone with a 'genius-level intellect' he really DID have a boy-brain. He thought with his fist more than his mind and THAT got him into trouble. She wouldn't have ended up in half the situations that sent her to detainment if it weren't for Kirk. She knew the rules of the Academy, of the Fleet, inside and out, backwards and forwards, she'd been raised on the principles of the Fleet. She KNEW them, so well, she knew the loopholes in them, she knew the extent you could push them to. And she was always very careful that she do things that she could justify or defend within the scope of the rules.
If she'd been given a chance to speak to the board before the attack on Vulcan had been made, she would have explained just WHY she'd agreed to help Kirk with the Kobayashi Maru, she could argue it in that...if it was so easily hacked, they needed to work on the program. It was a long shot, but it was an excuse that had gotten her out of quite a few situations in the past, that it was her way of showing the Academy where it was weakest to improve itself. But this...this was so far beyond anything she'd ever done, she was knowingly and willingly attacking the acting captain for the sole purpose of breaking the rules entirely to be expelled from the ship. There had to be something wrong with her.
And there was.
His name was Kirk.
She supposed that was what happened to you when you...er, cared...about someone else more than yourself. Kirk just...had this way of getting under her skin and, try as she might...she couldn't get him out. She tried not to let it show often, if she could help it, just how much she cared about him. She knew his reputation, she knew how he was around the ladies, and she just...she knew that was one reason Bones would make these warning little comments whenever Kirk said something to her that was even slightly suggestive. Neither man thought she heard him, but she did. Bones knew what Kirk was like as well as she did, and he was...protective of her. She'd heard him threatening Kirk on more than one occasion when it came to her. She didn't know why though...Kirk probably only saw her as the girl he could flirt with because 'nothing would happen' or something and she refused to let on that...she wished something would.
The last thing she heard before her world went black, was something about Delta Vega and escape pods…
A/N: Oh Tory, you just keep hurting your hand over Kirk lol. Very sweet moment for them next chapter though :) Imagine the two of them, somewhere cold, and trying to stay warm and worrying about each other but trying not to seem like it...in front of Spock Prime }:) SO much fun writing the next chapter ^-^
Some notes on reviews...
I can't say what they might be in Spock Prime's universe, but we'll find out very soon ;)
Oh Bones will be at his wit's end with the two of them teamed up definitely :)