Fifteen

"Lieutenant?"

"What?" snapped Victoria, unable to hide her irritation.

Someone cleared their throat behind her, and she turned away from the numbers she was watching like a hawk, only to see Hikaru looking at her with raised eyebrows. She coughed. "I mean, yes?"

Hikaru inclined his head to the side slightly. "You're welcome to take a break. Lieutenant Homer has volunteered to monitor the seismic activity until Beta shift."

"I don't think –" began Victoria, but Hikaru cut her off smoothly.

"Excellent, coffee you say? I'll join you." And he began to lead her out amidst the influx of people that suddenly came onto the bridge, clearly for the incoming shift change.

Victoria was too confused to argue, and they were in the turbo lift when she was finally able to turn to him, arms folded across her chest accusingly. "What was that?" she demanded.

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "Jim said to make sure you actually got some sleep while they were planet-side."

Victoria huffed. "Can't a person be worried without dealing with an intervention?"

"Not on this ship," Hikaru smiled as they began their walk towards the mess hall. "Come on, I'll even show you where they keep the good coffee."

"There's good coffee?"

Hikaru rolled his eyes. Victoria stuck out her tongue, following him with reluctant curiosity towards the storage room where there were a few people milling about, none of whom looked up in surprise when they came in. Smirking at Victoria, he indicated a corner of the pantry piled high with crates of dehydrated vegetables, and motioned for her to look behind the boxes. Giving him a look, she did, and almost squealed at what she saw.

"You have this," she turned to him reproachfully. "And you never told me?"

"We got this after Yorktown," said Hikaru, smiling at her excitement as he made his way towards the old-fashioned coffee machine. "Dr. McCoy had it installed. When he's not in medbay, he's normally here. I didn't think you'd want to run into him."

Hikaru didn't miss the way Victoria's smile had faltered slightly when he said McCoy's name, nor could he ignore the way she busied herself with an empty coffee mug, trying to avoid his eyes. "I think I'd have risked blowing my cover for some good coffee," she said, but the playfulness was gone from her tone.

Hikaru waited until she had made herself a mug, then sat down on an upturned crate next to her and patted her back reassuringly. "They're going to be fine, Tori," he said quietly. "You're one of the smartest people I know, you know they're going to be okay," Victoria waved away his words, but he persisted. "What is this about? You know you can tell me."

"Of course I can," said Victoria immediately. Her shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry, Hikaru. It's just I have a bad feeling, and it's impossible to shake. The last thing I wanted was for Jim to go down there alone."

"You've felt responsible for him since you were a teenager, but he's a grown man now and he makes his own decisions," Hikaru's wise words had always made Victoria smile. There was no one better suited for her scatter-brained and slightly immature brother, after all. "He thinks the world of you, you know."

Victoria blinked. "He does?"

Hikaru nodded, smiling at Victoria's changed demeanour. "Spock agreed to let you on the ship after what Jim told him, about what you did for him when he was a kid."

Victoria looked away, a blush creeping up her neck. "I've done countless things for him when he was a kid," she shrugged, trying to play it off.

"He specifically mentioned the stolen car incident."

"Ah," she sipped her coffee. "I remember that day."

"You're a hero to him," Hikaru smiled. "I think he wants you to see he's a hero too. To the people on this ship, at least, Jim's pretty damn incredible."

Victoria smiled. "But to me, he'll always be the little boy who cried if I put him down for a nap alone, Hikaru."

"He won't cry if you let him be on his own this time, Tori, I promise."

Victoria sighed. "I hope not."

!

"It's been forty-eight hours."

"I am aware of that, Lieutenant."

"Are you also aware –"

"– that six earthquakes have hit the surface of the planet since our team went on the ground? Yes, Lieutenant, I am."

"Then why the hell are they still there?"

"Woodville!" Victoria groaned as Homer came up behind her. "Here, now," he snapped. Without argument, Victoria followed him to a corner of the bridge, away from the science officer who clearly wanted to strangle her. To her surprise, the look of annoyance on Homer's face vanished when they were alone, replaced by one of worry. Instead of speaking, he shoved a PADD at her. "What do you make of that?" the man was practically biting his nails with fear.

Eyes narrowed, Victoria did a quick scan of the charts in front of her. Her heart practically stopped. "This cannot be happening."

"I know, right?" said Homer. He sounded as though he was going to be sick. "But what if it is?"

Victoria shook her head. It couldn't be true, but there was no other explanation. Out of the sixteen people who had gone down to the surface, only three still had active tracking devices. It was rare for a tracking device to be destroyed even if a ship crashed mid-warp, so a few tumbles through the ground during a quake wouldn't cause much damage. Vital signs for all personnel were also fluctuating rapidly, which was never a good sign. Victoria's quick analysis told her they couldn't even pinpoint who to save or where to go. It was clear that the team were either very deep underground where the signal couldn't reach, or possibly all dead or dying. Neither scenario was appealing. "You need to send someone down there."

"I can't," Homer was shaking now. "The Captain said if none of them made it back then we had to fly out because it wouldn't be safe to stay in one place for too long. But we can't leave them behind."

Victoria paled. She knew why Jim had said that. It wouldn't be safe for them to stay because of her. Because it would be possible for someone to zone in on her location, and then they'd all be screwed. What an idiot. How dare he try to protect her when she was –

"Woodville?" Homer was still talking. Victoria snapped out of her daze and focused on him again. "What should we do?"

He was asking her for help? Victoria frowned, her terror momentarily forgotten. "How am I supposed to know?"

"Because you're better at this than I am," said Homer honestly. "I don't know why you're not my superior officer, I really don't, and I'm not too proud to ask for help. Can you think of anything we can do?"

Victoria glanced at the charts again. There was one option, but if it went wrong they were all screwed. Then again, if it went right, she'd make damn sure Jim Kirk was still alive. It was an easy choice. "We have twelve hours before the next scheduled quake strikes, right?"

"Right."

"And we can have a shuttle ready in three?"

"Two. Scotty always keeps a few prepared in case of emergencies."

"Okay," she nodded. "That gives us roughly nine hours on the surface, even if we leave immediately before the quake."

"We?" Homer gulped.

Victoria didn't look up from the screen. "You're staying here. I'll go down with another team," she handed him back the PADD with an expectant look. "I can fly the shuttle. Can you get me a crew of seven?"

Homer nodded. "Aye. What will you do till then?"

Victoria winced. "I need to have a chat with Uhura and Sulu."

!

"This is a terrible idea," hissed Hannity.

"Is this even sanctioned?" asked M'Benga.

"No ship can land on that kind of terrain!" snapped Scotty.

"I don't think –" began Homer, but Victoria was already striding past them all, deep in conversation with Sulu, who seemed to be trying to convince her how terrible of an idea it really was. She was listening to him politely, but she was clearly not going to take his advice.

"Tori, it's suicide," persisted Sulu. "You can't be serious!"

"I'm very serious," was Victoria's calm response. She turned to Homer. "Did you get me a crew?"

Homer nodded, even as Scotty took over for Sulu and planted himself in front of Victoria, blocking her path. Victoria didn't even blink, merely sidestepped him and reached for one of the ground team uniforms that Homer was handing out.

"Yer all gonna go down into the ground if yer not careful, lassie!" persisted Scotty as Victoria pulled the suit over her head. "One wrong move –"

"I'm a geoscientist, Scotty, I know what I'm getting myself into," sighed Victoria. She patted his hand reassuringly. "Just focus on what I asked, yeah? Keep an eye on the transporter room and beam up anyone once you get a signal."

"How will I get a signal through all that shit anyway?"

Victoria smirked. "That's my problem. Are you guys ready to go?" she turned to the people Homer had assembled, doing a quick headcount. She spotted two security officers with Hannity, along with Dr. M'Benga and two other scientists whom she knew were cleared for away missions. She got a few nods in response, and indicated for Homer to lead the way to the shuttle.

"I have a question," said M'Benga. Victoria raised an eyebrow at him, gesturing for him to walk with her. He folded his arms across his chest. "Is any of this allowed?"

"Allowed by whom?" asked Victoria, already flicking through something on her PADD.

M'Benga jogged to keep up with her. "Captain Kirk? McCoy? Hell at this point I'd even take Spock's approval!"

"Since none of them are currently showing as active life-forms, doctor, I'd say getting their permission for a rescue mission would be a little difficult, wouldn't you?"

M'Benga gulped. "None of them?"

Victoria fought to keep her tone factual. It wouldn't do any of them good if she went hysterical like Homer was no doubt about to end up. "Captain Kirk's signal is weak, but by far the strongest out of them all. He was last monitored heading in the opposite direction of their shuttle, which leads me to believe he thinks he has a chance at saving someone," they entered the shuttle, and took their seats. Victoria went to the pilot's side without hesitation, and was only faintly surprised when M'Benga sat next to her as co-pilot. She flipped a few switches and watched the engine power up. "Of course, I'm hoping we can get to them all before he does something stupid," M'Benga didn't speak. Victoria flipped another switch. "Can you hear me, Uhura?"

"Loud and clear," came Uhura's voice. "You know this is a terrible idea, right?"

Victoria rolled her eyes. "You want your boyfriend back or not?"

"That is beside the point," said Uhura matter-of-factly, but Victoria remembered the terror on her face when she had shown her the readings from the planet's surface. "Jim is going to kill you for this."

"Yeah, well, I need to kill Jim first for making me do this," Victoria tapped a few keys. "Can I count on you to make sure my comm doesn't die on me?"

"If you keep it to the level we discussed, I'll keep you online."

"Not below seven thousand feet, yeah. Anything else?"

"No, if I can catch your signal I should be able to get Scotty to beam up whoever is with you even if they haven't got a tracker on them."

"Great," Victoria flipped off the communication switch and ran a hand through her hair tiredly. "You ready to go on an adventure, Dr. M'Benga?"

"You going to tell me who you really are first?" M'Benga's voice was so low, so knowing that Victoria let her guard down for a spilt second, and her eyes flashed to him incredulously. He didn't even blink. "I'm not stupid, kid. Does Jim know you're an imposter?" Victoria didn't answer, keeping her eyes glued to the screen in front of her. The engine reached full power, and she exited the hangar with slightly more force than necessary. M'Benga grunted as he was pushed back into his seat with the pressure of her acceleration. "Knock it off, Woodville. I don't care what your situation is, I've kept myself alive on this ship by keeping my nose out of other people's business. But McCoy's my friend, and a damn good doctor, so I'm going to break my rule here. What do you know about him?"

Victoria huffed. "I'm not trying to kill McCoy, M'Benga, sheesh! Are you crazy?"

"I meant what do you know about him now," grumbled M'Benga. When Victoria opened her mouth, he held up a hand. "If you say you have no idea I won't believe you. That story you fed me was a load of bull, one look at McCoy's face when he spotted you leaving medbay was enough to tell me there's something going on. You're not an old flame of his, so you can tell me that story, or you can tell me this one."

Victoria glared at him, but knew when she was beaten. "Dr. McCoy's signal is somewhere in the opposite direction of Jim's," she said reluctantly. "I think they split up into two different groups, and when the quake struck the trackers either got damaged or they're too deep underground for us to get a signal. Jim wears his here," she indicated her shoulder. "There's always less of a chance of it breaking since the neck would cushion it."

"McCoy keeps his up his sleeve," said M'Benga. "All medics do. If our hands or arms break we're as good as useless anyway, so we always keep them safe."

Victoria winced. "Dr. McCoy's fluctuates, but I've got Homer sending me updates of their locations so we can track them. Spock's is very difficult to pinpoint, Homer thinks he may have fallen into a deeper chasm, which is why I wanted people with experience in this kind of terrain. When we get to the ground, we need to split up and try to get them all before the next quake."

M'Benga was quiet after that, and Victoria was able to steer for a while in peace. They had just hit the planet's atmosphere when he spoke again. "Your name isn't really Natira Woodville, is it?"

Victoria almost smirked. "You can call me Tori."