"You need to get down here, Jim," Bones told her over comm. She passed the con to Pike and ran to medical. Marcus almost killed them.
"You better stop and think about what you're doing. You better think about what you did on Qo'noS. You made an incursion onto an enemy planet, and even if you got away without a trace, war is coming! Who is gonna lead us? You! If I'm not in charge, our entire way of life is decimated!" They used Harrison's knowledge of the ship to coordinate an attack to disable the weapons systems. Then the other ships sent over multiple away teams to secure the bridge. Unfortunately, the Vengeance had already destroyed the Bradbury and damaged the Enterprise's warp core.
"Ma'am, the central power grid is failing," Ensign Beckett informed her.
She nodded, "Switch to auxiliary power."
Harrison killed that idea, "Auxiliary power failing." They were going to be in trouble without power.
"Captain, our ship is caught in earth's gravity," Sulu told her.
She looked at him, "Can we stop?"
He shook his head, "I can't do anything, ma'am" Shit, this was not good. Trip and Chekov left the bridge to help Scotty; she would've gone too but she was needed here.
"Sound the evacuation order," Jamie told them. One of the officers acknowledged her. She looked around, "I order you to abandon ship. I'll stay and divert power to life support and evacuation shuttle bays." Nobody moved. "Get the hell off this ship!"
Sulu turned his chair to face her, "We're going down together. I meant it over Vulcan and I mean it now. We aren't going anywhere." He turned around and activated his harness, Jamie did the same. She wasn't sure if she wanted to be pissed at him or proud as hell.
"Gravity systems are failing. Everybody better hold the hell on!" she told the room.
Pike, who was at Chekov's station called out, "Emergency power at fifteen percent and dropping." He didn't have to be here, he didn't have to do anything but he was working side by side with her officers.
"Sulu, divert all remaining power to stabilizers," she ordered.
He nodded, "I'm doing what I can, ma'am."
Spock spoke from behind her, "If we cannot get the power and shields back online, we are going to incinerate upon re-entry." She was adding that to the list of things that she knew but wished she didn't. All of a sudden, they leveled off and the power came back on.
"Warp core is back online!" Pike told her.
She nodded, "Maximum thrusters, Sulu."
He was working on it, "Standby. Standby." The ship stopped falling and pulled up.
"Oh, that was close," Pike said to no one in particular.
"Captain, shields are restored. Power is online," Spock informed her.
Sulu chuckled, "Ma'am, altitude stabilizing."
Pike looked at her, "You believe in miracles, kid?"
She shook her head, "No such thing, that was Trip."
She should've known he'd do something crazy to keep them in the sky. The whole ship was a mess but she made it to sickbay faster than she ever has. Bones looked at her as she ran into the room, "He's alive, barely. He took a huge dose of radiation."
She nodded as Scotty looked at her, "The housings were misaligned and there wasn't time to put on any protective gear. I was gonna go but he wouldn't let me." Jamie smiled and took Trip's hand. If it had been anyone else in the warp core without gear, they'd be dead already.
"All that joking I do with him about alien medical tech… might be the only thing keeping him alive," she whispered.
Bones nodded, "You have any details about that stuff, it might help."
She shook her head, "I wasn't supposed to know about it at all. Phlox should have Trip's real medical records. I'll get him on comms for you." She walked into Bones' office and hit the command for the bridge, Uhura was about to call for her; Archer was on the line. "Sir."
He looked at her, "We got him, Kirk. Marcus is being transported to a secure S.I. facility. His ship will be sent back to the spaceport near Jupiter, we'll have a team get started on looking it over. You and your chief engineer are more than welcome to join them at some point. How are you? Uhura said you were in medical."
She nodded, "We got major damage, multiple casualties and Trip went in the warp core." Jamie told him everything that she knew and Archer promised to send Bones everything he needed, including full access to a secure medical facility. He ordered her to take the Enterprise to Starbase One.
"The Bradbury's crew, sir?" she asked.
The old admiral took a breath, "Massive losses but more than half of the crew is still alive. So, I'll take that as a win. Get back to your people, Kirk. Tell your husband to take care of our boy."
She smiled, "I will, sir." He cut the communication and a moment later, Bones' console beeped. "I bet that's from Phlox." She was right, he sent Bones everything there was on Trip. "I don't have to tell you how classified this all is, do I?"
Bones shook his head, "Nope. You should get back to the bridge, though." She almost left the room but she stopped at turned around. "Jim?" She walked around his deck, leaned over and kissed him. When she pulled away he looked at her, "We're okay, Jim."
She nodded, "We almost weren't." He wrapped his arms around her as he stood up. Jamie doesn't know how long they stood there in each other's arms but they had a ship and crew to take care of. He pressed a kiss to her temple.
"We got work to do, darlin'."
Fighting one of your own was something that Jamie would never understand. She could almost understand what Kodos was up too and she could even relate to Nero avenging his lost home but this… it was something that she couldn't wrap her head around. The fact that the admiral's daughter was on the ship only made it worse. Carol tried to stay out of the way but the crew heard what she said to her father. The fact that she stayed with them and fought next to them against her own flesh and blood earned the crew's trust. Jamie would have to remember to recruit her for the Enterprise.
"Captain on the bridge," Sulu informed the bridge crew. Pike made a move to stand but she held up a hand.
"My chair is yours, sir," she told him. He nodded and sat back in the chair. Jamie didn't even know where to begin.
"Breathe, kid," Pike told her. She nodded and took a deep breath before rattling off orders to various crew members. Uhura contacted Starbase One and it turned out that Archer was busy, by the time they got there, the station's crew was ready for them, Harrison's name was cleared and teams of medical and engineering officers met them at the airlock. Bones left M'Banga and Chapel in charge of medical before he and Trip were beamed out. Pike just watched, and Jamie caught a smile cross his lips.
"What's with the smile, sir?"
He looked at her, "This… this is what I saw when I recruited you in Riverside. This is the Jamie Kirk I remember."
She chuckled, "Are you turning into a sap on me, old man?"
He shrugged, "Maybe a little."