A/N: SORRY AGAIN I'M A HORRIBLE PERSON. Here's a super long chapter to make up for my absence. Ugh, school again. Any dialogue or events you recognize are not mine. I just messed a little.

Jim looked back at Bones as the navigator announced the ship's arrival at Vulcan. There was a jolt as the ship fell out of warp, and multiple crashes as the ship hit what appeared to be all that was left of the other ships. Pike called for evasive maneuvers, and Sulu, the navigator, swung low to avoid the hull of a starship, but he was not quick enough. The Enterprise hit the hull and Jim was knocked back into McCoy's arms. He gave her arm a reassuring squeeze as he steadied her.

Those on the Bridge were stunned into silence when an enormous ship came into view. A massive ship, with spires and tentacle-like attachments, the Narada dwarfed the Enterprise.

"Captain! They're locking torpedoes!"

"Full reverse!" Pike ordered. "Come about Starboard ninety degrees. Drop us down underneath them and prepare to fire all weapons!"

The bridge rocked as the Enterprise was hit by the Narada's torpedoes. Sulu looked at his consol. "Shields at thirty-two percent. Their weapons are powerful, sir. We can't take another hit like that."

Pike turned to Uhura at communications. "Get me Starfleet Command."

"Captain, the Romulan ship has lowered some kind of high energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere," Spock noted, his voice calm despite the chaos around him. "Its signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter abilities."

Pike's eyes darkened as he turned around. "All power to forward shields. Prepare to fire all weapons."

"Captain!" Uhura cried from her station. "We're being hailed." At Pike's go ahead, she switched the comm to the viewscreen.

A Romulan with tattoos covering his forehead appeared on the screen. He looked calm, and glanced over the entire bridge crew.

Pike stood. "This is Captain Christopher Pike, to whom am I speaking?"

The Romulan turned his attention to the Captain. "Hello, Christopher. I'm Nero."

Pike was a little taken aback by his nonchalant tone. "You have declared war against the Federation. Withdraw, and I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral loca-"

Nero cut him off. "I do not speak for the Empire. We stand apart. As does your Vulcan crew member." His attention turned towards Spock. "Isn't that right, Spock?"

Spock stood slowly. "Pardon me. But I do not believe you and I are acquainted."

Nero chuckled under his breath. "No, we're not. Not yet. There's something I would like you to see." Turning back to Pike, he continued. "Your transporter capability is disabled. You will man a shuttle and come aboard the Narada for negotiations. That is all." The screen cleared, leaving a view of the debris field in the space surrounding Vulcan.

It was silent for a moment, until Jim spoke up. "He'll kill you, you know that."

Spock agreed. "Your survival is unlikely."

"Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake."

"I, too, suggest you rethink this strategy."

Pike took this information in silently. He looked at the crew. "I need officers who have been trained in hand-to-hand combat." Sulu's hand went up. "Come with me. Kirk, you too- you're not supposed to be here anyway. Radio the engine room," he told Chekov. "Have Chief Engineer Olsen meet us at Shuttle Bay Five."

"Aye, Keptin."

"Let's go."

Pike, along with Spock, Kirk, and Sulu, hurried to the Shuttle Bay. "Without transporters, we can't beam off the ship, meaning we can't assist Vulcan, can't do our job. I'm creating an opportunity: Mr. Kirk, Mr. Sulu, and Mr. Olsen will space-jump from the shuttle. You'll have chutes- you'll land on that machine they've lowered that's scrambling our gear. You'll get inside, disable it, then beam back to the ship. Mr. Spock, I'm leaving you in command of the ship. Once we have transport capability and communications back up, you'll contact Starfleet and report what the hell's happening here."

The two men and Jim nodded. Jim and Sulu shared a look of concern.

"If all else fails, fall back and rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian System. Kirk, I'm promoting you to First Officer."

Jim's mouth dropped open in shock. Spock looked as appalled as a Vulcan could. "Captain, please. I apologize, but the complexities of human pranks escape me."

Pike stopped and turned to him. "It's not a prank Spock. And I'm not the Captain. You are."

"Once we knock out that machine," Jim said, "Sir, what happens to you?"

"Well, I guess you'll have to come get me." Pike looked at Spock. "Careful with the ship, Spock, she's new."

When the Captain and Jim left the Bridge, McCoy went back to his post in Sick Bay, finding it in disarray. It had been one of the decks hit worst in the Narada's attack. He quickly set about triaging patients and clearing debris. A scream came from one of the nurses. Dr. Puri's body was found under a fallen beam, dead. A beeping sounded. He rolled up his sleeves and hit the button.

The Vulcan's voice came over. "Dr. Puri, report."

"It's McCoy. Dr. Puri was on Deck 6… he's dead."

There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Then you have just inherited his responsibility as Chief Medical Officer."

"Yeah," McCoy scoffed, "tell me something I don't know." He hit the button, ending the conversation, and went back to work.

Jim, Sulu, and the Engineer Olsen, sat in the back of the shuttle, suited in jump suits with retractable chutes. Olsen couldn't sit still, bragging about how he wanted to "kick some Romulan ass". Jim rolled her eyes. 'Men', she thought. She looked at Sulu and the calm façade he put forth. "So what kind of combat training do you have?" she asked.

Sulu glanced at her. "Fencing."

Jim's eyes grew large. A feeling of nerves grew in her stomach as the shuttle lifted out of the bay. This is what she trained and prepared for for three years. She could do this. The three put their helmets on.

Pike's voice came over the speakers in the back of the shuttle. "Pre-jump." The doors that separated the cabin from the holding area shut with a hiss, pressurizing the cabin from the outer doors opening. "Gentlemen, we're approaching the drop zone. You have one shot to land on that platform. They may have defenses, so pull your chute as late as possible." He counted down from three and released a lever turning off the gravity to the back of the shuttle. "Remember, the Enterprise won't be able to beam you back until you turn off that drill. Good luck." With that, the doors on the floor of the shuttle opened and the jumpers released their hold and began to fall towards the planet below. The only sounds were their breaths.

As they fell, they shouted their distances to the platform. The drill was round, maybe a thousand meters in diameter, with a fiery spout at the bottom that went straight to the surface of Vulcan. At two thousand meters to the platform, Kirk and Sulu pulled their chutes, but Olsen did not. Jim shouted at him to pull it, that it was getting too close for safety, but Olsen waited too long to pull his chute. At less than one thousand meters, he pulled the chute. The windy atmosphere was too unstable for the chute to release properly. Olsen was whipped onto the surface of the drill's platform. He rolled to the edge where his chute was again caught by the wind and Olsen was pulled into the fiery drill.

Jim landed on the platform first with a thud. The wind caught her chute and began to pull her towards the edge of the platform, sending her towards the same fate as Olsen. She fumbled for a hold, and finally found one on a grate. She beat her hand on the button that retracted her chute. She felt safe for a moment and then looked up to see a Romulan twice her size headed for her. Jim lept to her feet and pulled her helmet off. With a roar, she jumped for the Romulan's gun and in the struggle, shots were fired, punching holes in Sulu's parachute. The Romulan wrenched free of her, and she immediately pulled her phaser. The Romulan swung for her hand and her phaser was lost off the side of the drill.

As another Romulan appeared from the drill's innards, Jim used the only weapon she had (her helmet) to beat her opponent. He grabbed her shoulders and they began to wrestle, inching closer to the edge of the drill every second. The Romulan picked her up by the waist and flipped her over his shoulder. She hit the platform and rolled off the edge, barely holding on with her hands. He tried to stamp on her hands to kick her off, and managed to get loose her left hand, when a sword was thrust through his chest. Green blood dripped from the sword as it was pulled back out of his body and the Romulan fell off the platform. Sulu, who had landed apparently during Jim's fight, stood over the edge. He reached down and heaved Jim back onto the drill.

Realizing that their original plan to disarm the drill had died with Engineer Olsen, Kirk and Sulu picked up the guns the Romulans had abandoned and laid fire on the drill. The machine sputtered and flickered until it finally stopped working. They watched as the Romulan ship launched an object into the hole in Vulcan's surface. Without the connection to the planet's surface, the platform became unstable and Sulu, standing too close to the edge was flung off. Jim jumped after him. She grabbed ahold of him, and they engaged her chute, but the weight was too much and the cables snapped.

"Kirk to Enterprise!" she screamed. "We're falling without a chute! Beam us up! Beam us up!"

Seconds before they would have crashed onto Vulcan, the familiar sensation of the beaming and they slammed onto the pad in the transporter room. The Russian ensign shouted something foreign in celebration. Spock entered and abruptly ushered them off the platform.

"Spock, are you going down there? What are you nuts? You can't do that!" Jim yelled at him as he knelt on the pad. The Vulcan disappeared in a flash.

Spock was gone for what seemed like an eternity. Those in the transporter room heard his call for the transport of himself and five others as the planet's core collapsed. Chekov tried to get a lock on them all, but the ground beneath one collapsed before he could lock on. The party was beamed aboard, four distraught Vulcans and Spock reaching where his mother had stood. She was lost. The transporter room was silent, and Jim's heart went out to Spock. She knew the hurt of loosing family members.

Hours later, the bridge crew stood discussing their next course of action. It had been confirmed that Nero, the Romulan commander, was headed for Earth.

Jim sat in the Captain's chair. Her hand had been bandaged from the fight earlier. "Earth may be his next stop, but we have to assume every Federation planet's a target."

"Out of the chair," Spock said while nodding. Jim rolled her eyes and stood up. Bones hid a chuckle behind his hand.

Chekov asked why they were not destroyed if the Federation was the target. Sulu pointed out that they were poorly undermatched for the Romulan ship.

Spock disagreed. "He said he wanted me to see something. The destruction of my home planet."

Bones spoke up. "How the hell'd they do that, by the way. I mean, where did the Romulans get that kind of weaponry?"

"The engineering comprehension to artificially create a black hole may suggest an answer. Such technology could be theoretically be manipulated to create a tunnel through space-time," Spock stated.

"Damn it man, I'm a doctor. Not a physicist. Are you actually suggesting they're from the future?"

"When you eliminate the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable must be the truth."

"How poetic."

"Then what would an angry future Romulan want with Captain Pike?" Jim asked.

"As Captain, he does know details of Starfleet's defenses," Sulu suggested.

"What we need to do is catch up with that ship, disable it, take it over and get Pike back."

Spock clasped his hands behind his back. "We are technologically outmatched in every way. A rescue attempt would be illogical."

Chekov pointed out that it was near impossible to catch up at their best available speed to catch Nero's ship. It was also impossible to attempt boosting their warp yield as all available crew were assigned to radiation leaks.

Jim and Spock began speaking over each other. "…we cannot contact Starfleet…" Spock was stating matter-of-factly.

"There's got to be some way…" Jim argued back.

"…we must gather with the rest of the Fleet to balance the terms of the next engagement."

"There won't be a next engagement! By the time we've gathered it will be too late! You say he's from the future, knows what's going to happen? Then the 'logical' thing to do would to be unpredictable!"

"You are assuming he knows how events will unfold. The contrary, Nero's very presence here has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the USS Kelvin, culminating in the events of today thereby creating an entire new chain of events that cannot be anticipated by either party," Spock said cooly. "Whatever our lives were before the disruption, our destinies have changed. Mr. Sulu, plot a course for the Laurentian system." He sat in the Captain's chair.

Jim stood in front of Spock. "Spock don't do that! Running back to the fleet for a- a confab is a waste of time! What about Pike? He ordered us to go back and get him. You are captain now! You have to-"

"Cadet Kirk, I am aware of my responsibilities…"

"I will not allow us to go back! Every second we waste he gets closer to his next target!" She began to yell. Her fists clenched at her sides.

McCoy tried to calm her down, to no avail. "Jim he's the Captain now-"

She cut him off. "We need to track Nero down!"

"Security escort her from the bridge," Spock said while standing back up.

Two red shirted security lieutenants stepped up and grabbed her roughly by the arm. Jim, without thinking went into defense mode. The bridge watched as she fought off the men, punching one in the throat. She moved to disable the other when Spock walked up behind her and pinched a nerve in her neck. The world went black and she crumpled to the ground.

Jim woke to a loud beeping. She groaned and asked the computer where she was. Her location was identified as Delta Vega, an unsafe icy Class-M planet. Great. Breathable air but unlivable conditions. Jim was even more convinced that Spock was an asshole. She pressed the release button on the door and began to climb out of the hole the escape pod had dug into the icy surface. When she reached the top, she put on the winter jacket from her survival kit and began to walk in the direction of an outpost her computer had located.

Jim pulled out her log and began a new entry. "Stardate 2258.42...3...whatever. Acting Captain Spock," she said disdainfully, "has marooned me on Delta Vega in what I believe to be a violation of Security protocol 49.09 governing the treatment of prisoners aboard a star..." She stopped recording, hearing something in the distance. Jim looked around her but the snow was too thick to see anything. She squinted and slowly a large object appeared, running in her direction.

Jim's eyes widened and she began to run. The animal chased after her. She slipped on ice and fell down a hill. She got up and continued running. A larger animal, red with large claws and hundreds of eyes erupted from the ground near the other animal. Red killed the first and turned on her. Jim ran into a cavern she saw off to her right. The animal clawed it's way through the small opening. It roared and caught her leg with it's tongue. She fell to the ground, grasping and slipping on the ice.

A figured appeared from the depths of the cavern. He held a torch and waved it at the animal's face. It released it's hold on Jim, and scurried back out into the snow. The man turned and pulled down his hood, revealing the ears of a Vulcan. He looked at Jim, and his face showed recognition. "James T. Kirk. How did you find me?"

"Excuse me?" she wondered aloud. "How do you know my name?"

The man held his hand up and spread his hand in the traditional Vulcan salute. "I have been and always shall be your friend."

Jim shook her head brushed the hair from her face. "Look," she chuckled under her breath, "I don't know you."

The man stared her down. "I am Spock."

Jim did a double take. "Bullshit."

The man called "Spock", because she found it very hard to believe that this was in fact Spock, took her further into the cavern into a small area where he had built a fire. Jim sat down immediately and began to warm her hands.

"It is remarkably pleasing to see you again, old friend, although in a somewhat different form than I am used to. Where I am from you are a human male." He poked at the fire. "It is good especially after the events of today."

Jim stood and began to pace the chamber. "Sir, I appreciate what you've done for me, but if you were Spock, you would know we're not friends. At all." She laughed derisively. "You marooned me here for mutiny!"

"Mutiny? You are not the Captain?"

"No. You're the captain. Pike was taken hostage. And what did you mean, I'm a guy?"

The man sat in silence for a beat. "By Nero."

Jim turned to look at him. "What do you know about him?"

"Spock" looked into the fire. "He is a particularly troubled Romulan." He stood and walked towards Jim. "Please, allow me. It will be easier."

Jim batted his hand away from her face. "Whoa, what are you doing?!"

"Our minds, one and together." He placed his hand on her face, connecting his thumb to her chin, index finger to her nose, and middle finger to her temple. He began to narrate as a stream of images and emotions flooded her mind.

He did indeed come from the future, as did Nero. Romulus orbited a sun that was near a nova stage, and Spock was sent to neutralize it with red, or anti-, matter. The red matter would absorb the energy of the exploding star, but Spock arrived too late. Nero, on a mining mission, watched as Spock injected the star with a canister of red matter, and assumed that he was causing the sun to explode. Despite Spock's efforts, Romulus was destroyed by the sun's explosion energy, and the red matter created a black hole, a path through space-time. Both Nero's ship and Spock's were sucked into the hole, Nero arriving years before Spock. He waited and captured Spock's ship and marooned him on Delta Vega, a planet with a perfect view of Vulcan. Spock was forced to watch as his home was destroyed.

Spock Prime released Jim from the mind meld. She fell to the floor, overcome with emotion, feelings of loss and failure. Spock Prime helped her back to her feet. "Forgive me. Emotional transference is an effect of the mind meld."

Jim choked back a sob. "So you do feel?" She took a few deep breaths to try to calm herself. "Going back in time, you changed all our lives."

Spock Prime nodded. "Jim, we must go. There is a Starfleet outpost not far from here."

"Wait. Where you came from, did I know my father?"

"Yes. Your counterpart often spoke of him as your inspiration for joining Starfleet. He lived to proudly see you become Captain of the Enterprise, the youngest in the history of Starfleet. A ship we must return you to as soon as possible."

Spock sat in the Captain's chair in the center of the bridge receiving updates on the ship's status when Dr. McCoy arrived on the bridge. McCoy walked to the Acting Captain. "You wanted to see me?" he asked gruffly.

Spock stood, "Yes. I am aware that James Kirk is a...friend of yours. I recognize that supporting me as you did must have been difficult."

McCoy raised an eyebrow. "Is that a thank-you?"

"I am simply acknowledging your difficulties." The men walked towards the wall of the bridge.

"Permission to speak freely, sir."

"I welcome it."

McCoy rolled his eyes. "Oh do you?" He stopped in front of Spock and stared him down, unleashing all of his fury for the harshness of Jim's treatment earlier. "Are you out of your Vulcan mind? Are you making the logical choice, sending Kirk away? Maybe, but the right one?" He shook his head. "You know, back home we got a saying. If you're going to ride in the Kentucky Derby, you don't leave your prized stallion in the stable!"

"A curious metaphor, doctor, as a stallion must first be broken to realize it's potential."

McCoy stared in disbelief. "My God, man! You could at least act like it was a hard decision!"

"I attend to assist in the effort to reestablish communication with Starfleet. However, if crew morale is better served by my roaming the halls weeping, I will defer to your medical opinion." Spock looked over McCoy's shoulder and observed his father entering the bridge. "If you will excuse me."

McCoy watched him leave the bridge, stunned at the Vulcan's callousness. "Green blooded hobgoblin," he muttered under his breath.