Oh my gosh. I am so, so sorry for the huge delay in updating. My only excuse is my geology courses are keeping me much, much busier than I expected. I even went camping for two classes for a week (each). It was pretty awesome, but the make up work turned me into a crazy person.
My awesome beta, TheWindowView, helped me edit this story. Hopefully, this flows nicely. It's a little bit of action (very little), which I will admit is my weak point.
Thank you to everyone who has waited for this story and is still reading it despite the incredible neglect in updating. It shouldn't happen again until exam time, but I hold no promises. However, it will be updated, that I do promise. Feel free to send me messages to make sure.
And now, please read and enjoy!
"Rebecca, how is Micheal holding up?" The man asked, nerves adding making his quick movements appear almost jittery.
"Well enough. You sure they'll be able to fix this?" The woman asked, her eyes flashing with the fire he was so fond of.
"Absolutely. This is a Federation starship, the new flagship to be specific. It's got the best crew out there." Nicolai turned in his seat to grin at her. "They'll be obligated to patch us up and help us out how they can."
Rebecca sighed. "You should have let me kill him when I had the chance."
Nicolai matched her sigh. He did regret his decision. "Well, we may yet have another chance to fix this. We still have orders to follow through on, no matter the circumstances."
"Good." Rebecca said. "Good."
In an amazingly short period of time, the medbay was fully a prepped and Individuals from the stranded shuttle were beamed aboard. There was only one significantly injured enough to warrant being transported directly to the medbay, but both McCoy and Kirk felt that extra precaution was necessary.
Finding nothing more beyond slight malnutrition in some individuals, McCoy released the eight healthier members from the medbay. One remained behind to stay with their ill crewmember.
As McCoy decided to do a final check on the ill man, he looked around to try and find a familiar brunette. Frowning, McCoy wondered aloud "Where the hell did Verde get off to?"
Nia nearly yelped as she ducked the pair of pants that came flying past her head. "What in the-?" This time she failed to dodge the pillow. "Wena, what is going on?" Baffled, Nia surveyed the room, taking in the tossed bed sheets and strewn clothing.
Not certain if Wena heard her, Nia approached the grumbling woman. Wena was digging through her things and clearly hunting for something.
"What are you looking for?" Nia asked, offering her help.
"My shoes." Wena snapped. "I just took them off for a shower and now I can't find them."
"Seriously? That's what you've turned our room into a war zone for?" A little incredulous, Nia joined the search.
The hunt ended surprisingly quickly as Nia adjusted the part of her covers that had fallen on the floor and caught sight off the black shoes. "These them?" She asked cheekily as she held the pair up for her friend to see.
"Yes!" Wena exclaimed as she leapt up from her hunched position on the floor and snatched the worn shoes out of her friend's grasp. Spinning so that her back was facing Nia, Wena carefully felt inside the sole of one shoe. Hope confirmed, Wena allowed her shoulders to slump in relief.
"Wena?" Nia asked warily. She didn't know how to interpret or handle this change in the half-Paladian. She'd never been so stressed about a pair of shoes before.
Nor did Nia expect her friend to turn on her so quickly.
"Did you hide these from me?" Wena asked, furiously brushing back brown curls.
Nia let out a disbelieving chuckle. "What? No, why would I-"
"Do you think this is funny? What is your problem?" Wena snapped before stepping into Nia's personal space. "You need to stop screwing with my things." With a growl, the woman spun on her heel and stomped into the bathroom.
"Excuse me." Nia muttered then frowned furiously. "Excuse me?" Within moments, Nia was at the bathroom door, palm pounding against the flat surface. "Hey! I didn't hide your shoes. What is going on?"
Her response was a muffled "Go away."
"Oh no. You do not get to have an outburst like that and then go hide. You get your butt out here now. Skedaddle!"
Wena didn't open the door, but yelled back through barrier. "Do you even know what that means?"
Glaring at the barrier still blocking her, Nia snapped "It means get out here!"
"No. No it doesn't." Wena was feeling a bit hysterical as she clutched her shoes tight to her chest. This was getting so out of hand. Eventually Nia stopped hitting the door and retreated back into the main part of the quarters, presumably waiting for her to exit the bathroom.
As soon as she'd seen his face, the brunette knew she had to get out of the medbay, to find someplace and hide before he could see her. It was probably too late, but any chance she might have or could get, she was going to take. Maybe. Different variable existed this time, different people were involved. More capable people… maybe this could finally be fixed.
Hope blossomed in her chest as the half-Paladian struggled to stand from her couched position. A couple stumbling half steps and Wena was opening the bathroom door, mouth open to talk to her friend, to spill everything, to finally fix the mess she was in.
Wena had just made eye contact with Nia when the comm system came to life, spewing an eerily familiar voice.
Half an hour earlier.
McCoy was pissed.
Not only had Verde gone and disappeared, but once his patient had mostly recovered from the anaphylactic shock, the man had decided to no longer be his patient. Instead, he decided to be the hacker who locked down the medbay and was holding everyone hostage with the weapon he pulled out of… Well, McCoy wasn't certain he wanted to know.
The idiot had a partner, too. One of the two women in the group from the shuttle was covering his back and making sure no one moved out of place. It was her who had rather forcefully kicked McCoy out of his office. He hadn't protested too much. The way the pair moved was indicative of training of some sort.
While McCoy was trained to keep his cool under pressure, this situation was quite baffling. Save for the two humans who'd locked down his medbay, the rest of the group had left with a couple of security officers.
Jim was going to be pissed. No way in heck was this ragtag bunch going to be able to take over the Enterprise.
At least, that's what McCoy kept telling himself.
Jim Kirk stared at the odd little phaser aimed at his head and wondered just how this came to pass. Certainly, beaming the struggling passengers of the dead shuttle over to the medbay had been the right thing to do.
Out of the nine that had been beamed over, at least five were expert hackers. Five. None of them had even bothered coming to the bridge to complete the hacking.
No, Kirk would be willing to be that Scotty had a lot of unwelcome company right about now. Kirk supposed he should consider himself lucky that only two were securing the bridge.
The man had the phaser aimed at his head, while the woman had used her two phasers to stun the majority of his officers.
Spock would have leapt into action if it weren't for the fact that both the man and the woman had set their phasers to kill in response to the Vulcan merely standing. That and Kirk subtly signaled for the man to hold his ground. The woman had her phasers aimed at Chekov and Sulu, the only two still sitting upright.
"Alright, take it easy." Kirk tried. "Tell us what you need and we can work something out."
The woman snorted and Kirk spared her a glance. She looked human, maybe African in descent with dark hair cut short and spiked. Her uniform matched the man's, both a rather nondescript brown and lacking in any identifying details.
The man didn't move. Kirk didn't like the hardened edge to the dull green eyes watching him, nor the impassive expression covering the pale face.
Quietly, the man spoke. "First, you are going to redirect us out of here. Immediately."
"Well, where would you like to go?" Kirk asked.
"Captain," Spock made to interrupt, but Kirk swiftly shook his head.
The man stared at Kirk a moment longer. "Rebecca, give the navigations officer the first coordinate position."
"Yes, sir." She responded. Keeping her distance, Rebecca approached Sulu to give him the coordinates in voice as calm and quiet as her apparent superior.
Sulu was wary at the controls and looked to Kirk for direction. "Captain?" He asked. Was he really supposed to just fly off under the command of these people?
"Go ahead, Mr. Sulu." The blond man responded, still seated and staring at the phaser in his face. His mind was working the situation, trying to find a way to get control out from under the individuals attempting to control his ship. So far, his best option was time. Nine individuals was not a large enough team to take down this ship. None of Kirk's crew could even remotely be considered subpar. "What else?" Kirk asked.
Finally the man's expression changed. A very slow, dragging smirk crossed his face. "Contact Dr. Wena Verde and have her report to the bridge."
Kirk frowned. "I have a Dr. McCoy and a Dr. –"
"Don't try it." The man snapped. "You have a very special group of Paladian settlers on board, Captain. Very special. Now," His voice dropped low once again "contact her."
Biting the inside of his cheek, Kirk contacted the Medical Bay "Dr. Verde, report to the bridge."
There was a moment of silence before a gentleman's voice that Kirk didn't recognize responded. "Nice try. Verde's not here."
"And Dr. McCoy?" Kirk asked before Nicolai could stop him.
"Oh don't worry, the good doctor is alive and well."
"For now." The man in front of Kirk stated. "Thank you, Micheal."
"Yes, sir." 'Micheal's' tone was considerably more respectful once he realized his superior was listening.
Nicolai turned his attention back to Kirk. "Now that we have the health of your CMO established, why don't we try this again?"
Glaring at the man, Kirk snapped "Actually we don't have the health of my CMO established, what we have is the word of you man, Micheal, that he is fine."
Nicolai resisted the urge to roll his eyes. These honorable Starfleet captains were all the same. Pain in the asses, every last one of them.
After a couple moments silence, Kirk honestly thought he was going to get his way.
Instead, Nicolai spoke evenly "I believe I told you to contact Dr. Verde. Please do so, or else" He shifted his stance so that his weapon was aimed at Spock "I will be forced to kill your First Officer. A shame really, since I hear Vulcans are an endangered species."
Spock didn't react beyond a twitch of a single eyebrow.
Kirk gritted his teeth. "Since you have rather successfully hacked our computers, I have no way of knowing where Dr. Verde is. It's a rather big ship, as you can tell."
"And you are attempting to stall." Nicolai surmised. "Are you really that confident in you crew's abilities?" He smirked again. "No matter, just give a ship wide announcement. You've already proven you still have access to that comm system."
"You sure you want me to do that?" Kirk asked.
Smirk falling, Nicolai outright glared at the captain. "Believe it or not, you are in a very vulnerable position. Should your XO and yourself dispatch of myself and Rebecca, you will not be able to help your engineering department as the rest of my team fully disables your ship." With a particularly grim smile, he added "Also, we can't forget the individuals still trapped in the medbay. It wouldn't do any good for them to have all essential functions to shut down, now would it? All it would take is a signal or a lack of a signal, and my men will act."
While he didn't know the truth of the man's words, Kirk had to admit that the man was a very good talker. His tone was even and meant to convey the sincerity of his statements. His words weren't rushed or panicked; there was an underlying layer of anger that triggered warning bells in Kirk's head.
It hadn't escaped the captain's attention the way the pair had moved and precision with which they had executed their takeover of the bridge. The movements and fluidity suggested training. Possibly some rogue government faction, someone with the time, resources, and desire to train people how to take over a Federation starship. And maybe even those that aren't Federation.
Sensing Kirk's hesitance, Nicolai spoke again "Here, I'll make it easy for you. I'll make the announcement. I'm sure she'll come running upon hearing you and your crew are in immediate danger."
"Nia, don't! Who's being stupid now? Will you stop?!" Wena tried to keep her voice down, but it was difficult with the pace she was maintaining in an attempt to keep up with her friend who was currently swiftly running to the bridge. After the announcement, Wena had watched with growing apprehension as her friend's face flushed, paled, and then turned the deepest shade of pink Wena had ever seen. Then Nia had bolted out of the room, Wena trailing after fearing for the sanity of the other woman.
Rounding a corner, Nia aggressively shook off Wena's grasping hand from her arm. With surprising grace, Nia made her way to the bridge, repeatedly brushing Wena off. When the doorway was in sight, Nia stopped short.
Startled, Wena stopped next to her and breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness, I-"
"Stay here." Nia cut her off, and then turned away from her friend again.
Wena stood there, wondering if she should start pulling her hair out as her friend stormed onto the bridge.
In sending the announcement, Nicolai made one mistake. A small one, all things considered.
He turned his back to one of the doorways leading to the bridge. He was well aware of its presence and knew of the other doorway leading to the turbolift.
When it opened behind him, it cost him a split second to turn around and face the half-Paladian doctor he was fully expecting to see shaking in her boots as she approached him.
That split second would have been the time he needed to recover from the shock of who really came through the doorway at him. It would have been the time he needed to shake the memory of their previous meeting from his head.
And he would have been prepared for the fist that connected with his jaw, snapping his back with surprising ease and quite literally knocking his consciousness away.
Kirk, had half risen from his seat, shocked when the man's lifeless body slumped across him. Quickly, he shoved the man off of him. He was well aware there was another threat still in existence and all too aware that Nia's focus had been centered solely on the man now sprawled on the floor.
Nia felt only a small portion of her anger ebb at the sight of Nicolai sprawled on the floor. Satisfaction replaced that small portion, but only for a brief instance before her head was suddenly yanked back by a vicious grip on her hair. Struggling, Nia attempted to scratch at the hand gripping her hair.
"You stupid bitch!" was all she heard against the searing pain of her scalp before her attacker fell away from her.
Finally able to complete a turn, Nia spun to find a woman slumped on the ground and Spock was standing calmly behind her.
Nia's eyes scanned him quickly, fearing he was already injured. After hearing Nicolai's threat over the comm system, her Paladian instincts had been thrown into overdrive and her desire to protect him however she could struck her hard. She hadn't realized how powerful those instincts could be.
Seeing no injuries, Nia let Wena's voice pull her attention away. "Leave it to Nicolai to blow his whole mission by threatening your boyfriend."
Looking down, Nia rolled her eyes. "And leave it to Rebecca to freak." Turning to Wena, Nia asked. "And here I thought I was never going to see these two again."
"You and me both." Wena replied, arms crossed and hands rubbing her upper arms.
Stepping close, Spock reached out a hand to delicately lift a stray lock of hair. The captain was contacting Engineering, so Spock had a moment to confirm his suspicions. Fine line of glistening pink could be seen through the pale white of her hair. "You are injured." Spock stated.
Nia lifted her hand to delicately touch the stinging line of her scalp. Just as she applied the slightest pressure, Nia yelped and looked at her hand in appalled amazement.
Kirk, having somehow appeared next to her without her knowledge, gently examined her hand. "Bones will have to check this out, but I'd guess you've got a couple breaks. Someone needs to teach you how to punch properly."
Bristling, Nia resisted yanking her hand away from him. "It's not my fault! He has a steel plate in his jaw and I-" she frowned.
"How do you know that?" Kirk asked.
Wena snorted. "Looks like we have a story to tell."
Nia narrowed her eyes at her friend. "We?" She asked.
Sighing, Wena rolled her eyes. "Alright, fine. The story is mostly mine to tell."
A/N: Alright, there's the next step in this story. Seems like there has been some trouble brewing...
Thank you to everyone who has been reading this, and especially to ilovemedia18, The End That Wasn't, and SerenityAngels for reviewing and to all those who have favorited and/or added this story to their alerts list. I dearly appreciate you all and everything you have to say about my work.