"Pull us out of warp!" Kirk yelled as several small objects popped up unexpectedly on the sensors.
Sulu complied and pulled them out, and a tangible sense of anxiety could be felt on the bridge.
Once the ship had skidded to a stop, Kirk observed their surroundings. Two Star Destroyers and a maze of TIEs.
"Captain, we're being hailed."
Kirk looked at the viewscreen resolutely.
"Put them on, Uhura."
"Aye, sir."
"This is Captain James T. Ki—"
"I am Kylo Ren, right hand to the Supreme Leader of the First Order. Your introduction means nothing to me."
Kirk paused for a second, more than a little ticked that this man, this Kylo Ren, had dared to not only surround his ship but to interrupt him.
"Fine. Why are you here? If you wanted to kill us, you would have done it already."
"And I still will. But first, you have something I want."
Now he was asking for a boon.
"What could I possibly have that you want enough not to vaporize us?"
"That scavenger scum you have on board."
Pavel's heart fell through the floor.
"You're asking me to give up one of my crewmembers like a sacrifice to appease the First Order? Not happening."
"There are over one thousand guns pointed at you as we speak. Hand her over, and you might be allowed to pass freely."
"Like you would let us do that," Kirk said under his breath.
He stood for a moment in silence.
"Give me one request. Five minutes to think."
"Or what, you will destroy us? With what? Your weapons? We have one hundred times your firepower."
"Or you won't get her at all and we'll all die. If nothing else, five minutes for goodbyes."
"You are all weak."
The transmission cut and a timer was displayed in its place.
"I can't believe that worked." He turned to face his crew. "What are our options, people?"
Spock gave his idea first.
"The logical decision would be to give her up. The good of the many outweighs the good of the one."
Kirk remembered his hunch. If she was a traitor, he'd be enabling Kylo to destroy them. If she wasn't, however, he likely wouldn't destroy the ship with her onboard.
He caught himself.
She wasn't even guilty yet. He was considering giving this scared lieutenant to the enemy.
In that moment, Rey turned to her captain, brows furrowed.
"That's not an option, Spock. We can't blast out of here, either. What if—hold on."
He contacted Scotty.
"Scotty, would we be able to blast out of here?"
"I noticed we skidded out of warp sir but what's happening?"
"We're surrounded by TIEs and two Star Destroyers. Could we just...ram them?"
"I wouldn't risk that sir."
"You're right. They'd catch us."
He sat in his chair, a mischievous smile gracing his face.
"What about at warp?"
A moment's pause from Scotty.
"NO SIR. THAT WOULD BE AN EVEN WORSE IDEA!" the man almost screamed.
"But would it work?"
Scotty took a nervous, annoyed breath. "I mean, theoretically, they wouldn't be able to catch us, and the damage would be the same. But there's a chance it would, I dunno, BLOW US INTO A MILLION PIECES!"
"But can we do it."
A long, dramatic sigh from the other end.
"I guess we could. You should just know that—"
"Hit it, Sulu."
He smiled. "Aye, Captain."
The timer was down to thirty seconds.
"Brace yourselves."
They did, and before they knew it, they had hit at least one TIE.
"We're out, sir!" Sulu exclaimed triumphantly.
"Good job, team. Pull us out if we're safe."
Sulu did so.
"Scotty, is the ship okay?"
"I'm afraid so, sir. Just minor damage and lots of jarring. BUT DON'T YOU DO THAT ANYMORE."
Kirk chuckled. "I won't, Captain Scotty."
"Thank you, sir."
"Everyone on here okay?"
Everyone responded that they were.
In the moment of silence that followed, Rey got up all the volume she could muster and squeezed out a shaky, "Thank you, sir."
"Of course. I'm not leaving anyone behind. Especially to them."
Later that day, Kirk sat in a meeting with Spock and Pavel.
"I thought you assumed she was on their side, Captain."
"She's not guilty yet. I'm not going to abandon her like that. Even if she is with them."
"That is partly why I suggested that."
"If she is with them, I'm not giving them what they want."
"Keptin, please. She isn't vith zem! I hef seen nothing else wrong! I believe in her!"
"I know you do, Pavel. Thank you for agreeing to my little mission.
"I did sir, but zat doesn't mean I don't feel awful about it."
"I'm sorry, Pavel. This is just new terrain for everyone and I don't want to—"
"I know. You don't want to make a big mistake. But consider this—you're making a big one right now by doing zis." And with that, the young Russian left the meeting to return to his post.
That night, Rey sat in her room rethinking the day's events. Kirk's risk meant a lot to her, though for some reason she felt a little apprehensive. Like he was hiding something. She'd started to notice things, even since her use of her powers yesterday, that she hadn't noticed before. She'd begun to notice something, deep inside, that she thought was fear in her Captain. Fear of her.
Calm down. You're new at this, you're probably wrong.
That led her to another thought, and she picked up her communicator. Setting in her upturned palm, she tried to do something on a smaller scale. She closed her eyes and concentrated on the task at hand, remembering the feeling she'd had when using her power those other times. And slowly, suddenly, she felt the communicator leave her hand. She opened her eyes in amazement to see it floating.
Her concentration broke and it fell back into her hand.
Kylo's words replayed in her head.
I'm like him. I can't become like him.
That fear coursed through her body once more as she remembered how he'd killed her crewmembers.
I can't let that be me.
His energy was dark. Remembering how it felt made her shiver.
A/N: That one was kinda short. I'm writing this now before my college classes start and I have four more chapters planned out that I plan to get done in like a week lol.
Anyway, I hope you enjoyed, and since you've made it this far, thanks for reading my story!
A/N from editing me: I actually got the whole thing done before my classes started! The only reason I'm editing them is because I'm on break now haha.