Thank you to everyone who is still following and reading this story. I'm so sorry for the delays between updates, but I promise you they will pick up soon. As in a couple weeks. After finals (and I'm filled with dread just thinking about those horrible tests).
Word to the wise, there may be a few typos in this chapter. I edited it myself and while I caught a few, I don't always catch my own errors. If you see an error, please forgive me.
I hope everyone who celebrated Thanksgiving had a very happy one! I'm still eating left overs...
Please, read and enjoy:
"So, this story? I suppose it will explain why this group tried to take over my ship and cover exactly how you know two of them?" Kirk phrased it as a question, but the others knew the subtle demand of information for what it was.
Wena faced him after muttering "I told you to wait" to the current medbay captive.
Spock stood quietly beside Wena, both standing beside the biobed Nia was laying upon while McCoy examined the Paladian's hand and scalp. Kirk stood at the foot of the bed, body language bordering on aggressive.
"Oh shush." Nia returned, ignoring the captain to glare at her friend. "Can you honestly tell me you expected a different out come?"
Wena stared pointedly at the damaged hand in McCoy's care as an answer. Her stare was disregarded.
Whining, Nia resisted the urge to yank her hand from the doctor as he used the bone setter on the fractured metacarpals.
McCoy growled at her in response. "Quit your fussing, I'm almost done."
Nia settled for glaring at the man as her left hand practically vibrated at her side in a way to try and control her reaction to the pain.
Without paying further attention to what was happening on the bed, Wena reached down and grabbed the bouncing appendage. Taking a deep breath, the half-Paladian gave a half-hearted chuckled. "I don't know where to start."
"The beginning is preferable." Spock stated.
The brunette rolled her eyes. "Well, in the beginning –"
"Don't start." Nia grumbled, squeezing the hand she held harder before releasing it. She sat up. McCoy had finished with Nia's hand and moved on to the tear in her scalp.
Nia hissed as McCoy lifted thin layers of her hair to examine the skin beneath. The delicate sound caught Wena's interest.
"It's stopped bleeding at least, but it is going to be a real pain to clean with those scabs to worry about." Wena observed.
"You're telling me." Nia muttered and then turned to McCoy exasperated. "Isn't there some better way to do this?"
He pulled away from the task of cleaning away the crusted fuchsia blood. Scalp wounds were always troublesome to clean, what with the hair that gets caught in the wound and any movement from the follicles causing irritation. "Yes, there is, but you just had to damn well insist on being the last person I treat and as a result the blood has clotted and caked itself around the wound."
"But the engineers had burns!" Nia protested. "I know from experience those are worse and more painful." Working in a lab wasn't field work, but it had its own dangers.
McCoy's snort showed just how strong he found her reasoning. "Only two engineers were burned. The rest were the idiots who underestimated this crew."
"Definitely underestimated the crazy engineers." Nia had often wondered if a torch could be used as a weapon. Now, she had her answer.
With a devilish gleam in his blue eyes, McCoy tapped the side of his head as he said "We're all mad here."
The responding giggle was cut short when the doctor returned to the task of tending to her scalp. Scowling, Nia gave up any thought of protesting and instead settled for pressing the fingers of one hand against the hairline of her forehead to try and ease the jerking of her scalp as he pulled on her hair.
Kirk almost snorted at the all too familiar resigned grimace on the Paladians face and then again he held back a snort when he thought of his engineers.
A cutting torch as a weapon? It shouldn't surprise him, it really shouldn't, but that hadn't stopped his eyebrows from skyrocketing when he heard what tools the engineers had used to defeat the would-be hijackers.
Actually, the captain still wasn't entirely sure how it happened; he had only been privy to the results. When Kirk had arrived in Engineering, five severely burned and restrained hijackers were huddled beneath the piping where Keenser sat, waving a torque wrench victoriously.
Lieutenant Casey was a surprising life saver. The short and robust woman was able to counter hack the hijackers' programming that had locked down the vital parts of the ship. Kirk was quite glad to have her on board.
Of course, by the time the engineers were taking back control of Engineering Nia had been a woman on a mission and was storming down the halls filled with what turned out to be a quite violent emotion. Or violent enough to prevent her from truly thinking through the fact she was even able to storm on to a bridge where the lives of the first officer and the captain were being threatened. Not to mention poor Sulu and Chekov. Casey was the reason behind Nia's easy access to the bridge, and Nicolai's disadvantageous surprise at her sudden presence.
Security officers took care of the two in the Medical Bay, and finished apprehending the pair on the bridge. Given the bridge crew's reputation, the officers were hardly surprised to find half the work already done by the time they had arrived. After the happenings of the Narada incident, many had learned not to underestimate the physical capabilities of Sulu, Kirk, and definitely not Spock.
With a sigh, Kirk returned his mind to the present situation. "Alright, let's start with how you two" he gestured to Nia and Wena "knew the two on the bridge. You've already stated you don't recognize any of the others." It was a passing comment shared upon arrival to the medbay, but Kirk had caught it anyways.
The two women shared a long look, silently deciding who would speak first.
After only a few seconds, Wena turned a sheepish look in the captain's direction. "Well, Captain, you see," she sighed. There was no easy way to admit this. "I was engaged to Nicolai, the man – the idiot, really – who pulled the phaser on you."
Silence reigned over the group as even McCoy was distracted from his task (to Nia's temporary relief) by her statement.
Wena bounced back on her heels. "Yeah…" She let the word drag in the awkward quiet.
"You have my sympathies." Kirk finally quipped.
"Thanks." Wena replied sardonically.
Nia snorted then chuckled, before giving up and outright laughing.
Her friend just shook her head in self-deprecating humor and rolled her eyes when Nia when quiet from laughing so hard. "It really isn't that funny. Will you stop laughing? You know, I actually might have loved the guy." Wena waited, but Nia's laughter didn't ease in the slightest. She decided the embarrassment factor might work. "Seriously, you look mentally challenged when you clap your hands like that." Exasperated and mildly amused by the Paladian finally struggling to calm herself, Wena turned back to the captain. "Nicolai and I parted ways a few years back and then he seemed to disappear. I figured he'd gotten that off world government job he'd always wanted and ran with it."
"This guy told you he wanted a government job?" Kirk asked. While it didn't necessarily mean anything, telling her such a thing might make Nicolai a liability for covert operations… On Earth. Off Earth, he could be put with a team of specialized individuals to work for virtually anyone. Something Kirk was already suspecting and piecing together that the man had done.
"I know what you're thinking." Nia stated. "Nicolai has always had a tendency to be very arrogant. He's very intelligent, but severely overestimates his people skills. Or at least used to." She shrugged. "With training, that could have changed. He was thorough to an obsessive degree when planning everyday activities. Outings were always arranged in advance." With a humorous expression on her face, Nia looked at Spock pointedly. "Organizing and planning is good, but so much that a person can't handle a change not to their favor without a conniption of unbelievable proportions transcends the terms annoying and irritating to stick firmly in the infuriating category."
Kirk whistled low.
Spock raised an eyebrow.
Wena just shrugged. "I kinda liked it."
McCoy snorted. "Of course you did." He frowned at the female doctor. "What about that damned plate in his jaw? It's damned archaic nonsense if you ask me."
This time roles were reversed when Wena chuckled while Nia struggled not to look too embarrassed. Or proud.
"I was the maid of honor, what else did he expect?" Nia finally snapped at Wena, causing the other woman to laugh. With a frustrated look at Kirk, Nia told him "He didn't show up for his wedding. Some of us went looking for him. I found him." She took a deep breath through her nostrils. "Apparently he had a very gratuitous change of plans because he was quite busy with someone else."
"The woman, Rebecca, to be specific." Wena pitched in.
Kirk sucked in a deep breath. Well, if that didn't muddy the waters at all.
Continuing, Nia said "I was understandably upset, and stormed out of his apartment rather aggressively. I made it out of the building to where some construction was happening."
Wena picked up the story. "Nicolai, not knowing how fiercely loyal Paladians are and expect others to be, chased after her. He caught up with her near where a construction crew was renovating a couple older building, the ones with a significant amount of wooden structuring and –"
"- I hit him with a two by four. It was the first thing within my reach and I'm lucky he didn't press charges."
"His jaw was basically pulverized on one side. The plate was just easier than trying to use the bone setter."
"And his 'girlfriend' has never liked me since." Nia finished. "Speaking of Rebecca, you guys need to learn how to pull hair when fighting. Females tend to do it all the time, and it's surprisingly effective." She grumbled as McCoy finally got to the task of mending the tear.
Eyeing the new look to Spock's eyes, Wena stage whispered to her friend "You may regret that suggestion. Then again, maybe you want -" She grunted as Nia's elbow collided with her side.
Ignoring her, the blond man shook his head and ran a hand through his hair. He was somewhat baffled. "So how does that explain why he was on my ship? It can't have been revenge or some ex-lover's quarrel. It's too big of a risk to take."
"Indeed, if the matter were merely of a personal nature, would not attacking a Federation starship be deemed as illogical and unlikely to succeed?" Spock agreed with his commanding officer.
Nia gave a sly look to a suddenly very uncomfortable Wena. "That's something I would like to know as well."
Flushing a deep red, the brunette tried to speak, but her voice cut out. Clearing her throat, she tried again with little success. Wena seemed to be debating the subject internally. "If I give you the answers you are looking for, it will implicate several individuals." She tried to make the men understand. "This implication will put every member of this ship in danger."
The three men gazed at each other, all thinking similar things.
Kirk smiled at Wena. "It wouldn't be the first time and likely won't be the last." He stated matter-of-factly. "What's the problem?"
Letting out a breath, Wena let her shoulders slump. "As you know the crash wasn't an accident."
"It was the gentleman, Bakor, who caused it." Kirk stated before looking at Wena's expression with a dawning understanding. "Wasn't it?" He asked, now uncertain as to the answer.
Shaking her head negatively, Wena gently stated "No. That was a lie."
Nia went very, very still next to Wena.
"How?" Kirk asked softly.
"I don't know the how." Wena told him, shaking her head again. Tears filled her eyes. "I suppose I should start with the beginning of this mess as I know it."
Any response to that statement was held back as Wena gripped the edge of the bed with one hand and tugged a shoe of with the other hand. Folding back the tongue gave Spock a clear visual as she pealed back the inner padding of the sole to reveal a small indentation. Delicately, Wena used her thumb to slide out a thin, flat, and rectangular object that she handed to Spock.
He examined it briefly before passing it to his commanding officer.
The captain cradled the fragile looking item in the palm of his hand. He knew what it was he held. "Bones, if you're done with Sargent I would like to continue this conversation in a more secure setting."
The item was approximately the size of his thumbnail and glossy. In and of itself, the item could cause no physical harm beyond irritation if jammed in someone's eye. No, the simple shape and structure of the item was not what twisted Kirk's gut with foreboding. The shiny look and smooth texture didn't frighten him or give him a reason to be wary.
No, it was the information held inside the small, inconspicuous memory chip that was going to cause trouble for his crew. The trouble that Wena was surely referencing.
Oh yeah, this small piece of material was going to shake the Enterprise.
A/N: Any guesses as to what is on the foreboding chip? What do you want to be stored on there? I'd love to hear what you think.
Thank you, thank you to ilovemedia18 and SerenityAngels for reviewing.
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