Thank you to everybody who read or review the last chapter. I apologize for the longer wait between chapters this time. I had family visiting and it took me a while to get through the proofreading on this. However, I did go to the International Spy Museum, which gave me some ideas for this story.

Chapter 23: Jim Kirk is Crazy Prepared

If her captor Eric hadn't slipped up and told her what planet she was on, Nyota would've figured it out by the architecture of the structure she was in. As a student of languages, especially Vulcan-based languages, she did spent a lot of time on the now deceased planet. She recognized key elements of Vulcan architecture such as the long arches and earth tones. However, this building was young and put together fast. It had all the telltale signs of any structure built on New Vulcan. At first glance the structure looked entirely Vulcan, but underneath there are human undertones, such as the use of common earth building materials.

She wonders if she is in one of the main settlements or in part of the uncharted territory of the planet. If she escaped, would there be any other settlers in the area or would she be the only person around for hundreds of kilometers? She was trying to figure out a way to escape, but what would be the purpose of escaping if she is going to be stranded in the uncharted wilderness of a planet that was just newly colonized. However, she could probably survive in the wilderness for weeks if she had to, even without supplies. Because Jim is her Captain, she has gone through extreme wilderness survival training. Because of Sulu, she can identify most edible plants on the new colony.

She stops thinking about this as Eric and three of his goons take her to an empty room with just a computer and chairs. She is actually shocked they even gave her a chair to sit in. That can easily become a weapon. In her mind she was already trying to figure out how to use it to knock out those holding her hostage and get out of here. However, once she realized that the chair is bolted to the ground and her guards quickly change her to said chair she realized that they're not worried at all of her misusing the item.

"Now that we are up here, what do you want from us?" Jane asked defiantly even though a vintage gun was pointed squarely at her back.

"Your research." Eric said bluntly as he chained Jane to the other chair in the room.

"Good luck getting that." Jane voice was dripping with false cheerfulness. "I don't even have access to my files anymore. Everything on planet was either scrubbed by Enterprise or destroyed by your idiots who damaged everything. I have a good memory, but it's not that good."

"We made a copy first." Eric grout. Dr. Jackson started to laugh at that, but it was a malicious type of laughter.

"And it probably destroyed every single computer on the network your goons tried to decrypt it on." Considering the look the scientist was receiving from their captor, that's exactly what happened. "You don't think I would have protected my research by any means necessary?" The doctor asked viciously.

"We don't need that copy anyway when we have her." He placed a hand on Nyota's cheek and stroked it in a sexual way. She just pushed him away.

If his hands touched her anywhere else, she would break them. Eric may be twice her size, but she has killed 10 people today or maybe it was yesterday. She had no trouble whatsoever making him number 11. He made baby David a motherless child just like her. He will pay for that. She wanted to scream that at him, but she didn't. She needed to do whatever possible to stay alive long enough to actually get out of here.

"I've been a part of Starfleet long enough to know that Enterprise made copies of all pertinent files. According to my source, due to conflict of interest and to avoid the appearance of impropriety, you were Acting Captain at the time of the investigation of what happened on NCX17. That means you have access to all the files." The look he gave her made Nyota's skin crawl. It made her think that if she didn't have any useful information she would probably be dead at the moment. Or worse, much worse.

It's obvious that useful information in the form of her credentials is the reason why she's here. She should've known that she was kidnapped for some reason other than her linguistic skills. They needed the files before they could translate them and they didn't even need her to translate or decrypt if Dr. Jackson were to cooperate. Of course, considering the things she said about Eric on the elevator ride up to the main level, Nyota was well aware any cooperation was a façade. She didn't know anyone else who knew that many curse words in that many languages.

The entire scenario brought up images of Christopher Pike's damaged body after suffering torture at the hands of Nero. She knew that they would do similar things to her to get the necessary access codes. Actually it would be worse. She was female and her captor already looked at her like he would want nothing more than for her to be naked and screaming underneath him. Yes all Starfleet members were susceptible to sexual assault as a war crime and torture technique, but the probability was higher for female officers.

Maybe if she served under anyone else she would be worried about being forced to give away Starfleet secrets under threat of death, torture, and/or rape. She now felt Eric's weapon dig into the side of her back. If she worked for anyone else she knew her only option was to endure whatever torture they would give her in order to protect Starfleet secrets.

But she worked for Jim Kirk and the man is the king of taking a third option and being prepared for any outcome. After what happened to Christopher Pike, Jim and she developed a contingency plan for when a member of the senior staff was abducted for the sole purpose of gaining key information regarding Starfleet. It looks like she gets to be the one to test Jim system. She just hopes that they are actually able to trace it back to her.

Spock looked sadly at the lifeless body in front of him. This should never have happened. She was just another life lost due to the harshness of this timeline, triggered by his own failure to prevent the destruction of Romulus. If he had just been a little faster, this time line would've never existed and he would not be responsible for the deaths of billions of people including this world's Carol Marcus or now Christine Chapel.

The Christine Chapel of his first life became a doctor and saved thousands. That Christine lived long enough to have a life outside of Starfleet. She even found true love. The Christine in front of him died before her 30th birthday with no family to actually mourn her. Even her aunt died during the battle of Vulcan. It was another thing not fair about this timeline.

"There you are." Spock heard Gaila say, pulling him out of his thoughts with a gentle kiss to his shoulder.

"I've been looking everywhere for you. You disappeared when I went to talk to Jim about what's going on." Spock left because he felt he would be of no use in the captain's makeshift ready room. Despite being shot hours earlier, the James of this world was surrounded by his trusted allies trying to piece together what happened. He could not offer any insight because these events strayed too much from his own world's timeline. Alexander Marcus was long dead before Spock made the acquaintance of his daughter or grandson.

He felt like everyone in the room was blaming him for this in one way or another. He was responsible for the changes of this timeline. Even beyond that, he is the one who chose not to inform others of David's existence. If he had just spoken up, would Carol be here right now? Would Christine be alive? At the very least they could've been more prepared for Alexander Marcus's bitterness.

"I am here." Spock replied absently, not really paying attention to his lover.

"I see that. Did you know Christine?" She asked as she grabbed his hand for support. It was one of the ways she reminded Spock of his Jim. She just knew what he needed of her without saying a word. It was very rare to find someone like that, even rarer to find a second person like that in a second lifetime.

"Not this version of her." Spock said with eyes closed. Spock spoke to her briefly during his latest trip on Enterprise and once when he visited Carol and the hospital after the London incident. Other than anecdotes from Carol, he knew very little about this Christine Chapel.

"That means you did know her." She smiled at him. "It also means your mourning two people right now instead of just one. The woman said wisely as she brushed her fingers against his lips.

"I knew a woman who lived to 105. Not someone who did not even make it to 30. There were so many things she could have accomplished and now it will never come to fruition." He also thought of Carol at that moment. He had yet to decide if a world without the Genesis device would be a good thing. But the fact she would never get to see the man that David would become might be the saddest thing of all.

"This is of no concern for you. Why did you come looking for me?" Spock asked trying to change the subject. He no longer wished to dwell on the all too short life of this Christine Chapel.

"During the meeting with Jim, Agent River asked me to get you. Because of something they found at the crime scene, they wanted to know if you know anything about a necklace/pendant that Amanda would be wearing that would allow her to escape the attackers?" At her words his fingers went to the bracelet that he himself wears. He chose the bracelet over the pendant because he felt it would be less conspicuous on him. In addition to the emergency transporting capabilities, the device could also be used to track the individual in question.

"This I can assist with." The elder said as he left the room of the dead. He could not help Christine Chapel, but there were still others that he could and Amanda was one of these individuals.

Chris woke up in a room that was too bright and contained too much white. He recognized it as being one of the recovery rooms at Starfleet Medical. He remembered that as he tried in vain to get the color scheme changed for the last two years.

Considering that he was the one in the hospital bed, he had obviously done something stupid that put him in this room. It took a few moments, but he eventually remembered Lume's assistant shooting him. He also remembered Jane pushing a hypo in his neck. He is pretty sure that's the only reason why he's waking up at all. He was almost positive that the assistant's phaser was on the kill setting.

"Where am I?" He asked groggily. He wonders if he's on any pain medication.

"Starfleet Medical." He hears Admiral Lume reply gruffly. "The doctors are currently trying to figure out why you're not in the morgue considering my mole of an assistant shot you at point-blank range on the kill setting. Actually they're trying to figure out why your spine is healing itself. However, you and I both know what happened."

"Jane?" He said the name as a question, not sure if he was asking about her or asking if she was the reason why he was no longer dead.

"We don't know." The admiral said gravely. "They left you behind probably because you really were dead. But they took her. They did make use of one of the transporter rooms before the facility was put on lockdown, but they jumped around so many times that we lost track after the third jump to London."

At the words Chris tries to get up from the bed, but he's pushed down by his boss.

"Rest. Your body is recovering. Others are taking care of it." She said helping him back into the bed.

"I feel fine." Chris said, trying to get up again, but the older women would not have any of it. She kept her hand planted firmly on his chest.

"That's because Jane gave you her last prepared dose of AH 325." His expression darkened at those words.

"That was the prick I felt." Chris said almost absently. "I told her I didn't want it." Maybe there was a part of him that wanted to play catch with T'Pay and dance with Amanda, but there were too many consequences to the supposed miracle drug. Mainly, that it made you a target for Alexander Marcus.

"It was better that she injected you then allowing you to die. The attackers probably didn't even realize what she injected you with. Not only are you still alive, but she made sure that they couldn't get their hands on a sample that they could synthesize."

"So injecting me with some experimental drug with unknown side effects is better than letting me die?" He asked with a touch of annoyance in his voice

"Yes and it's a lot better than letting the enemy get their hands on this super soldier serum/miracle cure-all." His boss had a valid point that Chris did not want to acknowledge. This was dangerous and apparently injecting him with it was the lesser of all evils.

"Also the drug has been tested and trust me it's safer with you, much safer. Jane discovered that your personality affects how the drug reacts. I don't think we have to worry about you trying to enslave the human race." Lume deadpanned.

"So the violent and genocidal tendencies that we originally attributed to..." He began to ask, but wasn't sure how to phrase the question.

"Those tendencies would have been there regardless. It's just that the super strength and super intellect allowed them to be more ruthless in execution." His boss explained. "On the other side, a Good person would use those gifts for good things. It's the reason why I'm not worried about you staging a coup d'état."

"Why am I not surprised?" Really, he shouldn't be surprised at all. Jane was nothing like what the history books said that she should be. Of course at that point, he tries to get up again and once more a gentle hand pushes him back down to the bed.

"Do I have to order you to stay in bed?" She asked annoyed. "I have no trouble whatsoever moving your chair to the other side of the room. I don't think the drug has worked well enough for you not to use it yet."

"I do consider Dr. Jackson to be a friend and she is missing right now. We both know she's probably being tortured for the drug. I'm not going to just sit here and wait for your team of super spies to bring her back."

"They are your team of super spies. And that is exactly what I am ordering you to do. You are not to leave this room or even this part of the hospital under any circumstances." His boss said forcefully.

"Why can't I at least watch over things from the situation room?" Chris countered.

"They think that they killed you and that's one of the few advantages that we have right now." She finally confessed.

"How do you know that they think I'm gone?"

"Marcus sent me an asinine condolence email."

"That's not at all surprising." Chris replied with a roll of his eyes.

"It's Marcus, nothing is surprising." She scoffed. "The man is evil incarnate. They went after you for a reason. I want to find out what that reason is. To do that, I need you to play dead or at the very least, stay out of sight."

"Fine, but you do realize that as soon as Amanda gets here I'm sneaking out." At the name, her face became extremely grave.

"Where is Amanda?" Because if he really thinks about it, Amanda should be there instead of the woman in front of him.

Before Lume could respond, a young woman with short black hair walked into the room with a dark expression and PADD in hand. Chris is pretty sure she is one of his now. He vaguely remembers her picture from one of the dossiers that he has read.

"What is it, Lt. Carter?" She said, grabbing the device from her.

"It's an emergency communication from the ops center. I was told to give it to you and wait outside for your orders." The lieutenant said as she left the Admiral already engrossed in whatever the PADD contained.

"Someone has just accessed or at least tried to access Enterprise remotely using an ID that is technically valid, but does not match anyone who is supposed to have credentials." Chris closed his eyes. He didn't think that Jim would really put his crazy plan into effect, but then again it's Jim. At least he hopes this is Jim's crazy plan in effect.

"What name was used?" He asked tentatively. If the name she gave him matched one of the five identities that Jim created for such an emergency, he knows that it's a member of Enterprise pretending to cooperate with their captors and not an actual attack. Even though he told Jim not to employ the strategy, Chris is certain that he did so anyway.

"Cmdr. L. Organa," Chris just closed his eyes at that. What did he do in a past life to get someone like Jim Kirk?

"This means something, doesn't it?"

"It means that somebody that is part of Jim's inner circle has either been kidnapped or coerced into breaking into Enterprise. Jim created fake identities that would simulate entry into the system, but would in reality, give the team time to extract whoever is missing." Chris is sure that Jim would only give out the special IDs to his top people.

"Commander Uhura. She's been missing for 6.2 hours." She would definitely be someone who Jim would give the codes to. Also considering what Jane told him before she was abducted, they would need a linguistics expert to break the code that the documents were written in.

"Is Amanda with her?" He asked with an uneasy heart. He just knew that was what they were trying to keep from him.

"We don't believe so. Although she could be now. Thanks to ambassador Selek, we have a mechanism to track her. Her last known whereabouts was a ship owned by a Vulcan government official en-route to the New Vulcan capital. That seems to be close to the location of the person breaching the system." Lume explained

"Why do I believe that she's not there voluntarily?"

"Because she's not and we believe that David is still with her. Another Vulcan elder is also missing. She was abducted from the embassy 7.3 hours ago." He had a sick feeling he knew which Vulcan official was responsible for this. Apparently he was the one planning a coup d'état.

"You need Jim. He is the only one who knows how the system he created works. We need that location." He knew that going after the commander was the right thing to do. He wanted to go after Amanda, but he knew he needed to stay and the mindset of a Starfleet admiral. He just hoped that Amanda would be with the commander.

To be Continued