Montgomery

It was nice for Montgomery –Scotty if he can stand you, Monty if you're a close friend- to have people on the ship as smart as him, it almost never happens. Most of the people on this crew were idiots and he wasn't shy about saying so. Scott had been surprised when his former instructor had contacted him about the civilians; apparently, they did a good job on her ship and helped save another ship with next to no resources... in the dark. That's the kind of people that the fleet needed; screw thinking outside the box, the damn thing doesn't exist. After twenty minutes with Doctors Kirk and Loh, Scott wished he had their brains when he was that age. He was smart back then, just not as smart as they are at eighteen and twenty years old.

He could tell the pair of young engineers were bored. Their official job was an assessment of the warp system, Lieutenant Commander Hall was the chief engineer and class A bitch, she wouldn't let them do anything else. Scott was the one who their answered questions about the ship's systems and the one who showed them around. There was the transwarp transporter theory that he was working on, he asked Kirk and Loh to gave him some input; at least they'd have productive something to do. In a few days he would be leading the team from the Starfleet Corps of Engineers to work on the PXK reactors, maybe he could get CoE to allow them to help.

Chris

"You look miserable, J." She'd been gone for three weeks and, unlike her tour on the Yorktown, things weren't going so well.

"I am. The chief engineer hates us so we don't get to work on anything outside our assessments. Scotty, the guy One connected us with, has been letting us help with experiments and small stuff when she's not around, I even got to work on the PXK reactor but that only took four days."

Chris chuckled at her pout, "In other words, you are bored."

"Only a little." She smiled at him, "What about you? What's the crew of the Yorktown up to?"

"Waiting for our next assignment but we should still be here when you get back. We can figure out wedding details."

"We can just ask Archer or Barnett to perform the ceremony, I don't like or need the pomp and circumstance," she said with a sigh. "Hell, if anybody finds out that I'm getting married, it'll turn into a circus, especially since I'm marrying you. I can already see the headlines; The Kelvin Baby marries Fleet's Youngest Captain. Something quiet with a handful of our closest friends and family suits me just fine. " He didn't want to admit that she was right, it would be a feeding frenzy and he didn't really care as long as he got her, so, he changed the subject.

"You're wearing my shirt," he said with a wink. Jamie looked down at the Starfleet Academy sweatshirt and laughed.

"I thought we established that this is my shirt, you gave it to me five years ago."

He chuckled, "Well that's tr…" Chris stopped mid-sentence when everything on around Jamie rattled and the red alarm flashed.

"I don't know what's going on but I'm going to see if engineering nee…" the connection cut off, Chris got a bad feeling in the pit of his stomach. He comm'ed HQ; something bad was happening to the Lovell… and Jamie was there.

Jamie

Engineering was pure chaos. She looked around for anyone she knew and spotted the chief engineer, on the floor, dead. Hall was only the first of many dead officers as she made her way towards Scotty's voice, "Tha cannae work, we'll all die if we even try it, sir." That didn't sound good; another explosion rocked the ship and Scotty went down.

"Monty, Monty hey, you alright?" she asked after rushing to his side. He responded to her in little more than a mumble, she took a look at his eyes.

"Scott. Scott." His line to Captain Lucas was still open.

Jamie responded, "Scott's down, Captain. Concussion from the looks of it. Hall's dead, I counted at least nine others. We have major hull breaches, warp is down and impulse barely holding," She had taken a brief scan of the info that Scotty had been looking at.

"Who is this?"

She replied instantly, "Doctor Kirk."

"Consider yourself an acting lieutenant, Doctor. You're in charge down there, do what you can to keep us together until I can get everyone off the ship, bridge out." Jamie got to work stabilizing life support, power, and containment fields while keeping an eye on Scotty; this is what her parents must have felt like all those years ago.

John

"All hands, this is the captain, begin evacuation procedures." The evacuation alarm sounded. "I repeat, all hands, abandon ship. Godspeed." Loh ran through engineering, he was looking for Jamie, Scotty, or even Hall. He spotted two of the three.

"Jamie, we gotta get outta here!" he called over all the noise. She glanced at him.

"One more second, I'm diverting power to the evacuation shuttle bays and the turbo lifts. Grab somebody to help with Monty, he has a concussion." Loh looked at the woman in front of him, he had caught a glimpse of her like this on the Hernandez, but right now was so much more. If she wasn't wearing an over-sized sweatshirt and a pair of skinny jeans, he would have thought she was an officer. She was ordering him and other officers around while working on multiple consoles.

"Who died and put you in charge." He meant it as a joke as he pulled one of Scott's arms over his shoulder and a young crewman grabbed his other arm.

"Hall died, Monty's hurt and the captain made me a provisional officer. Anymore questions or can we get these guys out of here?"

Loh wasn't surprised, "After you ma'am."

The group made their way to a shuttle through more explosions, some were too close for comfort. There were four people in the shuttle they were aiming for already, and there was plenty of room for more. Loh watched as Jamie directed people into the shuttles. He had one of the other officers pull her through the hatch as he slowly sat on the floor.

"Don't think Chris would like it very much if you got yourself killed," he quipped.

"I was on the comm with Chris…" She didn't have to finish her statement, she sat down next to him. John gave her a quick once over.

"You hurt?" he asked.

She chuckled, "Not really, a couple cuts, burns and bruises. Slammed into a bulkhead; my shoulder is not going to be happy but that's it. You?" John looked down at his hand, it was covered in blood, he watched as she realized where the blood was coming from, "Oh, Johnny." He smiled; they were in an emergency shuttle, with a standard medkit and no one with enough medical knowledge to prevent him from bleeding to death before they reach the closest ship or Starbase.

"The joys of shrapnel. It's okay, girly. Knew this was a possibility when I signed up for this gig. Got to meet you, been a wild ride. Do me a favor; don't run from your destiny. Your father was the beginning but you haven't even started yet. Carry on his legacy with pride. Didn't know him, I think he would have been proud. I am." Sitting on the floor of the emergency evacuation shuttle; Jamie wrapped her arms around her friend and held him as he rested his head on her shoulder and took his last breaths.

Cody

This was day five. He felt like he was living in a nightmare. When the news of the Lovell being destroyed hit the network, Cody couldn't breathe. He was on campus; all he could manage to say to the people asking if he was okay was 'my sister, on Lovell." He almost cried when Zane showed up and took him to Chris and Jamie's place.

If Cody thought he was bad, Chris looked like death warmed over. Even if HQ let the Yorktown go out there, it would have taken a week for them to even get close. Cody knew that Jamie was a fighter; he just had to have faith. Everybody has been camped out at the condo since the beginning. Hobelia and Zane made sure they all ate and sleep, Charlie and members of the Yorktown's crew; Shran, Boyce and One, kept everyone sane.

Cody and Zane were lying in Jamie's bed –she hasn't slept in there since her birthday- when he heard the console ping in the main room. Cody and Zane weren't the only ones who heard it, Chris must have too. Charlie and Hobelia were already at the console when they got there.

"Got banged up but I'm alive." His knees almost buckled, she was alive but not okay.

"J," It came out almost as whisper but somehow, she heard her fiancé.

"Chris, I'm fine. Hey, cuz. Zane-iac. Is that One, Shran and Boyce back there too? Don't tell me you threw a party without me sweetheart, not fair." She tried to be humorous, but Cody could tell something was off, judging by the looks they all gave her, she wasn't fooling anyone.

"What happened?" Chris' voice was rough; Cody was sure the man was fighting hard to hold his composure. Jamie relayed what happened to the Lovell –damn Romulans, again- how she ended up with a provisional commission and the evacuation.

"And Johnny died in my arms, shrapnel."

Chris sucked in a sharp breath, "Damn. I'm sorry, Jamie… I liked Loh. Didn't take himself too seriously even though he could outsmart just about everybody."

Shran agreed, "One of the best men I ever had the opportunity to work with."

"He was an engineer she worked with at Warp Tech Dev. He was on the Yorktown too," Cody told his husband. Cody had only met the man once and while he was brilliant and attractive like most of the people Jamie befriended, there was something about him that just made you want to be his friend. Charlie spoke up, "Does he have a family?"

Jamie nodded, "His dad, a brother and a sister. This is gonna break their hearts, he was the oldest."

"I'll make sure they are notified." One added from behind Cody.

"Thanks, One. Scott's alright, by the way, says sandwiches are on you. No clue what that means, he had a 's how Johnny got hurt, he was helping Scotty."

"How about you, are you hurt?" Boyce, ever the doctor.

She smiled, "Minor stuff that's already been treated. I'm exhausted, we all are. Most of us should be planet-side in twenty-three hours. I would love to keep talking but the doctor told me to get some sleep. I love you, guys. I'm sorry I scared you, couldn't be helped." Everyone signed off in their own way, except Chris, Boyce gestured for them to go down the hall.

Chris

Chris didn't know what to say, she was there but still so far away. "Hi."

"Hi," maybe she was a loss for words, too.

"J, I'm sorry I'm not there," he told her.

She smiled sadly, "I'm not, the team on the bridge didn't make it. The CO and XO, the whole bridge crew were killed in the initial attack. Lost the chief engineer and a good chunk of her team. A bunch of the medical staff were killed too. I am very happy that you're at home, safe. I love you." He closed his eyes for a moment, he thought he might never hear her say that again.

"I love you more. Go get some rest."

Jamie

It had been a week since the survivors from the Lovell had returned home. Like everyone else, Jamie was debriefed, checked over by medical, offered psychiatric treatment and sent home. After three days of everyone hovering over her, she had had enough. It took her a couple of days to figure out how to get away from them. Jamie waited for her opening, slipped out when no one was paying attention –which was nearly impossible- and made her way to the Kelvin Memorial.

She wasn't sure how long she'd been out there when she felt someone sit down next to her. "I figured that this is where you would go." Of course, Charlie found her.

"Just wanted some space to think. I get where they're all coming from but I couldn't breathe. You've been there," she said to the older man.

He nodded, "I have, so has Chris, which is why he's keeping Hobelia, Cody and Zane from looking for you. Want to talk about it?"

"Wish I could have done more. I know what you're going to say 'you are a civilian, you did more than anyone could have expected' but that doesn't make me feel better. If I had been there when the red alert started maybe I could have saved a few more people." She looked up at the memorial. Charlie reached over and took her hand.

"We all feel like that, the question is; are you going to do something about it?" Chris' father asked. She thought about what this change would mean for her and for Chris. Jamie looked at the man seated next to her.

"I gotta talk to Chris," Jamie sighed.

"Yea, kiddo, I think you do."

Chris

"Where did everybody go?" Chris looked up as Jamie entered the condo.

"I told them to go home. You're here and you aren't going anywhere, at least for a little while, they can crowd you another day. Did you see dad, he said he knew where you went?"

She smiled, "Yea, he went to the right place. He said he'll see you later."

"What's wrong, J?" He could tell that something was bothering her. "I can't help if you don't tell me."

"Can you keep an open mind and listen? It's not bad, I promise." Chris didn't say anything, he just nodded. "Growing up, every time someone mentioned my dad it was always he got himself killed. That's the view I had on things sometimes, like when I think of Tarsus I think about being tortured or watching Hoshi die. John said something to me that had me think about it in a different light. As much as I surround myself with Starfleet, my job, you, Charlie; I kept finding reasons not follow my parents. I had myself convinced that the only reason everybody wanted me to join the fleet is to see me fail. I never considered that people want to see me succeed in spite of the crap I was dealt. My dad didn't get himself killed, he saved lives and yea, I was tortured but that was also to save people. Johnny told me not to run anymore. To embrace my father's legacy, because it's my legacy too."

"What are you saying?" Chris asked her.

"I've thought about this a lot. On the Yorktown, the Hernandez and after what happened on the Lovell I think I was always meant to take this path. I'm going to join Starfleet."