"What the hell was that?" Bones asked. Jamie was thinking the same thing.

The red alert was going and the ship was jolted, then nothing. Everything went dark. Jamie, Bones, Braxim, Uhura, Chekov and Sulu were all in the turbolift to meet Gaila and Glorak for lunch –or breakfast for Gamma shift- when the whole ship seemed to die. Chekov took his PADD and started to input some commands.

"Da ship iz dead, zhere iz no pover," the kid told her.

Jamie looked in his direction, "Life support?"

"It'z holding for nov. Vhat do ve do?" Chekov asked.

Training exercise or not? That is the question. They had been tossed into a series of mock –based on real- assignments since they got on the ship a month ago but this one seemed different. They were ordered to assist a disabled ship by fleet command days ago; Jamie figured that they just got there. If this was a training exercise, they should be ok but Jamie had doubts that crew of the Republic would do something this big, when the ship jolted again, Jamie made up her mind.

"We have to get out of here. Without power, being in a turbolift was a bad idea. There's an emergency hatch above our heads. Brax gimme a boost," she told the others before Jamie hopped up onto her friend's shoulders and released the hatch; she climbed out and felt around for the ladder that she knew was there. The Jefferies tubes were every few levels, they just needed to get to them.

One by one, they climbed out of the lift and followed Jamie up the shaft.

"How do you know where we're going, Kirk?" Uhura asked from right behind her.

She thought for a moment, "I study ships, it's a hobby."

The truth was that she used to want to build spaceships but Kodos killed that. Everything he did turned her into a soldier, she was still brilliant, but now she used it to fight. Pike asked if she wanted to give her input on the new Enterprise but she didn't give him an answer yet. Jamie had figured out where they were when backup power activated. Their group was between decks nine and ten; she stopped when the ship-wide intercom came to life.

"Crew of the USS Republic, I am your new captain, Theseus. Soon, you will all be removed from the ship, you are not to do anything other than what we tell you or we will kill you and the person next to you. That is all."

Jamie looked at Chekov, "Can you hide us from the sensors and find our other friends?" He nodded and hit some commands into his PADD.

"Glorak iz in engineering, Mitchell and Keptin Pike are on ze bridge, and Gaila iz in ze galley. Maybe zhis Zheseus iz not going to hurt us, da?" the kid was so cute that she didn't really want to break his heart.

"No, he's lying. You don't need to be a communications expert to figure that out and I'm a communications expert," Uhura uttered from next to her.

Jamie nodded her agreement, "We're gonna need to take back the bridge and engineering if we want to get the ship back." Jamie sized up the people she was with, Chekov was small but he was the smartest, Uhura's hand-to-hand was as sharp as her tongue, Jamie sparred with Sulu so she knew he could hold his own, Brax was on her A.T.T. team and Bones was Bones. "Brax, Uhura and Chekov get to engineering. I don't know who's involved, but Glorak will back you up. See if you can't get Gaila's help without drawing any attention to her. Lock the system down if you have to. Bones, Sulu and I will head up and take the bridge."

"How?" Bones looked at her, "The lifts are out."

Jamie nodded, "This tube goes up in another twelve meters or so that way, they can also take it to go down." They moved to leave but Chekov stopped them and asked for someone's communicator, Bones handed his over.

"Zhis vay, ve can talk to each other." The kid punched something in and handed it back.

She looked at her friends, "Stay together and stay safe."

Jamie, Bones and Sulu went as far as they could go in the tubes, she knew they were under the bridge. Jamie listened at this Theseus person as he ranted and raved about taking over the ship and getting a good price for the hundred and fifty people on-board, on top of the ship itself. She could see where the staff and Pike were sitting and from what she could tell, they were okay. Jamie counted six hostiles. She knew that they could in through the vent panels above them.

"What are we waiting for?" Sulu mouthed at her.

"Chekov to cut the power," she mouthed back. Jamie motioned for Bones to hang back. He rolled his eyes and nodded just as the power went out. Jamie and Sulu moved fast, taking out Theseus' team before they realized what was going on.

"Stand down or I'll kill him," Theseus said as he held a phaser to Pike's head.

She looked at Pike, who winked at her, "Lieutenant." The word wasn't even out of his mouth before she threw the knife that was usually hidden in her boot. It stabbed Theseus in the hand, he dropped his phaser and went down to his knees. Sulu grabbed him since he was the only one they didn't knock out.

"Bones, it's clear." He hopped out with communicator in hand, "Bring back the power, kid."

"You okay, sirs?" she asked as she started untying people and checking them over. Pike, Bannock and Andrade looked at her and each other.

"No damage, Miss Kirk," Bannock told her.

She moved past them and helped her friend up, "Mitch, you good."

He chuckled, "Got my ass kicked, Jamie, but yea I'm good." She and Sulu secured the hijackers while Captain Bannock assured the crew that the ship was safe, ordered a security team to the bridge and requested status updates from all section leaders.

Once everything got settled, Pike and Bannock showed up in their quarters.

"Cadet Mitchell you are senior but you were on the bridge, so, who is going to speak for this group?" Bannock asked.

Jamie stepped forward, "I will, sir."

The Republic's commanding officer looked at her, "Why didn't you stand down, Cadet?"

She took a breath, "It's within our mandate to resist capture, sir."

Bannock nodded, "That wasn't my question."

She glanced at Pike, "The whole thing felt wrong, sir. Cadet Uhura and I could hear his deception and the fact that backup power didn't activate immediately meant that someone tampered with the system. It's was the most tactical option to retake the ship as quickly as possible. Personally, sir, I went through something like this before and too many people died before I could act. I vowed to never let that happen again." Bannock looked at her and then Pike, who smiled.

"This was not a training exercise as many of the crew thought, you actually saved the ship and all one hundred and fifty-two people on board. Cadet Gaila, your supervisor was impressed at your ability to disable the virus in the computer system and your assistance to Cadets Uhura and Chekov in retaking it. The security team is angling to get their hands on Glorak and Braxim. McCoy, you patched a few of us up without any equipment, you're a one man emergency room. Sulu, I don't know if I want to watch you fly or fight but you excel at both. Miss Kirk, I knew your dad, only thing more impressive than his brain, were his instincts. A trait you've seemed to have improved upon, I can't wait to see what you'll do next. Good job. Get some rest, all of you, Captain's orders." Bannock nodded at Pike and left the room.

"You saved our lives, all of you. You should be proud of yourselves, I am proud of you." Pike looked at her when he said the last part, she nodded her acknowledgment. He put his hand on her shoulder before leaving the room.

Gaila looked at her, "Ok, spill."

Jamie looked at her green friend, "Spill what?"

"You always hint that something happened to you growing up but you never tell any of us what you mean. And Pike seems to keep a closer eye on you than he does anyone else," Uhura said from her spot on Jamie's bed.

Brax nodded, "They have a point. What are you hiding?"