Mine (A Reboot Fic) Chapter 1: Waiting Tables
Chapter 1: Waiting Tables
Jemima “Jim” Tiberius Kirk was a rebel. It was almost written into her DNA, what with her mother being who she was, let alone her father. So it was no surprise that when she hit on a random cadet at that bar in Riverside, the only thing she came away with was the answer to a dare.
Christopher Pike was a shrewd negotiator, reading her like a book, and she couldn’t resist. She spent the night before the shuttle trip driving around Iowa, as far as she could and still make it back in time. She ended up at her childhood home, abandoned after her mother’s last trip to space, when she had emancipated herself and moved into a flop house. The house was in pretty good repair for being uninhabited, and she found herself making her way into her old room, which had never been a haven, even when Frank was at his worst.
She wasn’t sure why her time in that room steeled her resolve, except that it brought back Pike’s words. ‘So your dad dies. You can settle for a less-than-ordinary life. Or do you feel like you were made for something better?’
She had always wished, when she was little, that someone would carry her away, away from the life that had been forced upon her. But that had all changed after living with her aunt, in a place that didn’t even exist anymore, except in the memories of 9 people, 7 of them children at the time. But looking at this room brought those dreams and wishes back.
So she pulled up to the Shipyard and gave the random worker her bike, the one thing that had been her constant in a constantly shifting world.
“Four years? I’ll do it in three.”And that was the start of a very interesting tenure at Starfleet Academy. She saw the cadet again, and got a very satisfying smile out of her, which was progress. She also met her lifeline, though she didn’t know it at the time. Leonard Horatio McCoy, country doctor turned Starfleet recruit by an ugly divorce, and an aviophobe to boot. He was amusing, was her first impression.
Over the next three years, that impression was reinforced and expanded upon. He was the one she went to after a fight, the one she went to after a breakup. He was the older brother she never had. Her real big brother, George “Sam” Kirk, had cut out on the family when she was only 9, prompting her to drive her step-father’s antique convertible over the quarry cliffs, nearly killing herself.
Bones was her constant, and she never consciously said anything, but he had to know how she felt. Especially after the Kobyashi-Maru, at least the first 2 times. The third time, she knew he was a little iffy, but compromising her new-found morals slightly to pass a test had never bothered her before, and a judicious makeout session with Gaila, the Orion Computer Technician, was hardly a compromise. The tribunal 2 days later, though, was a true test of their friendship. She was up for charges, and they were irrefutable, but she could get out of it if she proved that the test she had cheated was already compromised.
The problem with that was the test’s designer, the only Half-Vulcan in the Universe, and the only Vulcan in Starfleet. He punched holes in her admittedly skewed logic, but also punched holes in her. She was a strong person; having an absentee mother and an abusive step-father, let alone the horrors of her early teenage years, had ensured that. But for some reason, his calm, cool words about her father’s sacrifice made her want to launch across the hall and scratch his eyes out with her non-existent nails. The distress signal from Vulcan was the only thing that saved him, and her, from a very messy situation.
Unfortunately, it created another sticky situation. She wasn’t allowed to go, due to being on Academic suspension. The suspension wasn’t anything new; she managed to land on the list at least once a semester, but the fact that this would be the first real mission she could have and she wasn’t allowed to go threw a rift up between her and Bones, one that seemed insurmountable when she hugged him quickly and told him to be safe, before standing around like an idiot in the middle of a busy hangar. That rift swiftly disappeared when he came back for her, dragging her into a medical-supply room.
“You call this a favor?” was her only comment as her brain leaked out of her ears and she was dragged to one of the last shuttles leaving for the Enterprise. She flirted with everyone, as was her habit, even whilst being dragged, half-conscious, into her least favorite place, a Medical Bay. She complained bitterly before being sedated, and her last conscious thought was that she was glad she wasn’t in that ridiculous cadet uniform, but had been given pants and a shirt, which fit surprisingly well.
Just her luck, that when she woke from her sedation, not only did she have the honor of being the only one to understand what was really going on, she had hands the size of cantaloupes, or grapefruits if you wanted to be generous. After the mad dash through the ship to locate Uhura, her favorite communications cadet, she led both Uhura and Bones on a wild chase to the bridge, where everything fell apart, once again.
“Kirk, how the hell did you get on board this ship?” Pike asked, livid in his misunderstanding.
“Captain, this woman’s suffering from a sever allergic-“
“Bones, Bones, BONES!” she screamed, talking over her friend. She knew what he was trying to do, but he didn’t know what she was trying to do. “Vulcan’s not experiencing a natural disaster, it’s being attacked by Romulans!”
“Romulans? Cadet Kirk, I think you’ve had enough for one day. Doctor McCoy take her back to SickBay, we’ll be having words later.”
She pulled away when Bones tried to drag her backwards. “Look, sir, that same anomaly we saw today…” She was interrupted by Spock, who was once again, only trying to do his job, but making hers harder. She argued with him until he said she was just disrupting the bridge.
“This cadet is trying to save the bridge!”
“By recommending a full-stop mid-warp during a rescue mission?” She turned back to Pike.
“It’s not a rescue-mission. Listen to me, it’s an attack.”
“Based on what facts?” Spock said, and she detected the edge of true anger in his tone, which she would have to watch for. From what little she knew of his father-race, he could snap her in half like a toothpick.
“That same anomaly we saw today, a lightning storm in space, also occurred on the day of my birth, before a Romulan ship attacked the USS Kelvin. You know that, sir, I read your dissertation.” She was looking from Spock to Pike, to make sure both of them were listening, and was distantly pleased that she had their full attention. “That ship, which had formidable and advanced weaponry, was never seen or heard from again. The Kelvin attack took place on the edge of Klingon space, and at 2300 hours, last night, there was an attack. 47 Klingon warbirds, destroyed by Romulans, sir, it was reported that the Romulans were in one ship, one massive ship.”
“And you know of this Klingon attack, how?” Pike asked, obviously suspicious. She turned to Uhura; it was time to see if the woman would stand up for her own findings, or leave her in the lurch. Everyone turned to her, and she looked nervous for a moment before she straightened her spine and spoke.
“Sir, I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk’s report is accurate.”
“We’re warping into a trap, sir. The Romulans are waiting for us, I promise you that,” Jim added, hoping that with this evidence, she would finally be heard. Uhura was one of the best at the Academy, so her words should carry some weight. Pike looked to Spock, who looked pensive for a moment before responding to the unspoken question.
“The cadet’s logic is sound. And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics. We would be wise to accept her conclusion.” Jim almost breathed a sigh of relief, but the crisis was only beginning, and anyone with half a brain could see as much.
“Scan Vulcan space. Check for any transmissions in Romulan,” Pike ordered the bridge communications officer.
“Sir, I’m not sure I can distinguish the Romulan language from Vulcan,” the man replied, looking honestly baffled. She felt sorry for him for a split-second, because he couldn’t help it that he wasn’t trained correctly.
“What about you, do you speak Romulan, Cadet…”
“Uhura, sir. All 3 dialects.”
“Uhura. Relieve the Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.” Inside, Kirk was cheering. She genuinely liked the girl, even if most of their interaction involved rebuffed flirting and rolled eyes.
“Hannity, hail the USS Truman,” Pike ordered, looking to another Communications person.
“All the other ships have dropped out of warp, sir, and have arrived at Vulcan. But we seem to have lost all contact.” Kirk got a bad feeling in the bottom of her gut. It’s starting.
“Sir, I pick up no Romulan transmission, nor transmission of any kind in the area,” Uhura said, listening intently even as she spoke.
“It’s because they’re being attacked,” Jim said, her tone full of resignation. She wished it didn’t have to be this, but it was. Pike looked around the bridge for a second before moving back to the command chair.
“Shields up, Red Alert,” he said, and activity exploded around Jim, who once again felt like a fish out of water. She quickly moved up to a railing, ready for anything to occur. Bones wasn’t so lucky. When the pilot announced that they were coming out of warp, her grip tightened even as she stared intently out the front view screen.
They descended into a massacre. Pieces of destroyed ship were everywhere, and immediately, evasive maneuvers were implemented. She winced when Bones was thrown to the bridge floor, but couldn’t do anything about it as the sharp turns and abrupt changes of direction and speed rocked the entire area, forcing her to tighten her grip more or risk being flung around even more.
“Full reverse. Come about Starboard 90 degrees, drop us underneath it Sulu.” It was the gutted remains of the disc of the USS Farragut, and Jim felt a pang go through her, even though she didn’t know why.
The sight of the massive Romulan ship stunned her into inactivity, and she could practically feel the shock radiating off of those who were looking around her. It was beautiful, in a weapon-of-mass-destruction kind of way, and her breath caught reflexively at the sight.
“Captain, they are locking torpedoes,” Spock said in a would-be calm voice, and she closed her eyes for a moment, the realization that she was about to die hitting her like a ton of bricks. She’d tried, and it was all for naught.
“Divert auxiliary power from port nacelles to forward shields,” Pike said commandingly, and her eyes snapped open, a burning hope nestled between her breasts. At least one of the torpedoes hit them broadside, and she nearly went down from the force. “Sulu! Status report!”
“Shields at 32%. Their weapons are powerful, sir, we can’t take another hit like that!”
“Get me Starfleet Command.” Pike’s voice was like steel, and she drew strength like a plant draws life from the sun.
“Captain, the Romulans have lowered some high-energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere. Its signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter ability,” Spock said, and Jim felt like she could just fall into a puddle right there. No communications meant no hope, no chance.
“All power to forward shields, prepare to fire all weapons,” Pike said, and again, the strength in his voice gave her the same, an indomitable feeling that they would not go down in this fight, at least not without trying to take the other down with her. [i]This is a good way to die,[/i] his words seemed to say. [i]Doing what’s right, instead of what is easy.[/i]
“Captain, we’re being hailed!” Uhura said, jumping up from her station to face the view screen. A non-descript Romulan appeared on-screen, the air of command settling on him like a cloak.
“Hello,” he said genially, and Jim felt a shiver down her spine. This man killed her father, and his captain, in cold blood and for no discernable reason.
“I’m Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking?” Pike asked cautiously, and the Romulan’s reply made Jim feel like running out of the room, for all that it was courteous in the extreme.
“Hi, Christopher. I’m Nero.”
“You’ve declared war against the Federation,” Pike said, and all Jim could do was stare at this Romulan, who was cocky enough to show himself on-screen to a fully-manned military vessel. Problem was, he had the power to back it up, and that’s what scared her. “Withdraw, I’ll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location.” Jim was irrationally angry at Pike, who was trying his damndest to try diplomacy first, when that option was already long gone. But he was doing things by the book, and she couldn’t think of anything to say, so she kept her mouth shut and watched.
“I do not speak for the Empire,” Nero replied calmly. “We stand apart. As does you Vulcan crewmember. Isn’t that right, Spock?” Jim was confused. Why was this Romulan worried about Spock? Nero had killed her father, and he was focusing on Spock?
“Pardon me, I do not believe that you and I are acquainted,” Spock said, standing next to her at the railing.
“No, we’re not. Not yet. Spock, there’s something I would like you to see.” The Romulan turned his attention back to Pike. “Captain Pike, your transporter has been disabled. As you can see by the rest of your armada, you have no choice. You will man a shuttle and board the Narada for negotiations. That is all.” As soon as the transmission cut off, Jim found her voice, and her words. She knew what she had to say here. Spock had moved next to the command chair, and was voicing much the same opinion.
“He’ll kill you, you know that,” she said, keeping the hard edge of fear out of her voice by sheer force of will.
“Your survival is unlikely,” Spock seconded, as Pike moved toward the side of the bridge.
“Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake,” she continued, voice stronger now, words harder.
“I, too, agree. You should rethink your strategy.” Had this been any normal situation, she’d have been goggling by now at the fact that she was being agreed with by the same creature that had, only a few hours before, tried to get her removed from Starfleet.
“I understand that,” Pike said, and Jim knew right there that all argument was useless. She recognized the tone; it was one she herself used often to keep people from questioning her decisions. “I need officers who’ve been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat.” The pilot raised his hand.
“I have training, sir.” Jim watched the by-play between the pilot and navigator, and felt sorry for Pavel, who was one of her friends; he looked like someone had just told him his babushka had lung cancer and only had hours to live.
“Good. Come with me. You, too, Kirk, you’re not even supposed to be here.” She followed him, surprised. Females usually weren’t sent on these kinds of missions, and a martial mission it was, because of the off-hand comment about training. But she wasn’t a normal woman, had never been normal, so she went along with it.
As they went through the halls, she found herself thinking back to 3 years before, when her idea of a good time was hitting on a random being and starting a brawl with men who were afraid to hit her because of her size. Now here she was, about to do something even crazier, in a bid to save a planet, and her ship.
“Without transporters we can’t beam off the ship, we can’t assist Vulcan, we can’t do our job,” Pike said as he led them to an elevator near the Engineering deck and the shuttle bays. “Miss Kirk, Mr. Sulu, Engineer Olson, will space-jump from the shuttle. You will land on that machine they’ve lowered into the atmosphere that’s scrambling our gear, you’ll get inside it, you’ll disable it, then you’ll beam back to the ship. Mr. Spock, I’m leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once you have transporter and communications back up, you’re to contact Starfleet and report what the hell’s going on here. And if all else fails, fall back, rendezvous with fleet in the Laurentian system. Kirk, I’m promoting you to First Officer.”
“What?” Jim was stunned, as was Spock, it seemed.
“Captain? Please, I apologize but the complexities of human pranks escape me.”
“It’s not a prank, Spock, and I’m not the captain; you are. Let’s go.” Jim obediently followed Pike into the elevator, voicing only one question.
“Sir, after we knock out that drill, what happens to you?”
“Well, I guess you’ll have to come and get me.” Just before the doors closed, Pike looked at Spock. “be careful with the ship, Spock; she’s brand new.” The doors closed on a mildly pleasant look of Spock’s perplexed expression. Jim followed Pike and changed into her jumpsuit in silence. She was going over every bit of her combat training, which was extensive, given that she’d been assistant instructor for the advanced class since the beginning of her second year at the Academy.
Once they were on the shuttle, she found herself placed between a very excited Engineer, and Sulu, who seemed cool as a cucumber. “You’ve got the charges, right?” she asked the engineer.
“Oh yeah,” he said quickly.”I can’t wait to kick some Romulan ass. Right?”
“Sure.” As they left the hangar, she turned to the Asian. “So what kind of combat training do you have?”
“Fencing.” She was mildly alarmed by this answer, but let it go. Now was not the time to make fun of someone who was risking their life, just like she was, to disable a dangerous device.
“Pre-jump,” Pike said from the command chair of the shuttle. They all stood and put their helmets on, Jim having a little difficulty due to the length of her hair, which Bones had convinced her to grow out. “Lady and gentlemen, we’re approaching the drop-site. You have one shot to land on that platform. They may have defenses, so pull your chute as late as possible.” They each reached for the railing that dropped from the ceiling in front of them. “Three, two, one.” The gravity in the back of the shuttle was reversed, plastering them to the ceiling of the launch area. “Remember the Enterprise won’t be able to beam you back until you turn off that drill.” His voice softened. “Good Luck.”
Jim felt that with those words, she would never see that man again, which saddened her in the few seconds she had before the floor opened up and she was hurtling through space next to a giant drill structure. The pressure was incredible, and she felt like she would implode before they reached atmosphere, but they did, and she began reporting distance to target, as did the others. At 2000 meters, she and Sulu opened their chutes, bringing their free-fall to a swift halt, their descent slowed by the billowing fabric snapped taut. Olson continued his fall, releasing at 1000 meters, and disintegrating after breaking nearly every bone in his body from the impact with the platform.
She had no time to dwell on his departure from life, because the platform was suddenly there, and she went skittering across it like a stone over water, he parachute pulling her horizontally toward the same fate as the engineer. She finally got a hand in a crevice and managed to recall her chute, allowing her to stand on the platform without danger of falling. She removed her helmet and pulled off the hood, allowing the few strands that had escaped her hasty bun to fall free, just as one of the hatches opened and a male Romulan stepped out. She attacked recklessly, before he was aware of her, deathly silent when normally she would be bantering. Now wasn’t a time for talk, but for action.
He had an obvious advantage of strength, but she had a few tricks up her sleeve, those self-same tricks that had made her an instructor in combat. She managed to wrest the rifle away from him, but not before shots were fired, and began slamming him across the face with her helmet, in a calculated move to cause brain damage. Another Romulan appeared, and she switched targets, her first at least momentarily subdued. She began trading blows with her second opponent as Sulu finally landed and began his own assault. She felt the crunch of her cheekbone breaking, but didn’t let it deter her from her goal, which was incapacitating or killing the Romulan in front of her. There was no pain, no fear in this. There was only the fight, and she was determined to win.
She ended up being thrown over the side, the only thing keeping her from death being the grip of her hands to the raised lip of the platform. The Romulan began playing hot potato with her hands, stamping down as hard and fast as he could. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sulu fighting the other one, and absently redefined his answer to her of ‘fencing’ as ‘super-cool ninja shit that happens to use a sword.’ Then her attention was caught by the Romulan, who had managed a direct hit on her left hand, crushing every finger with his weight.
Before he could stamp her other hand and send her careening toward the ground, a sword was suddenly sticking out of his chest, covered in his copper-based blood. He fell over her and she swung quickly to avoid the dead weight, her left hand hanging uselessly by her side.
“Give me your hand!” Sulu screamed, and with Herculean effort, she was pulled up to the platform. “Olson had the charges!” he continued, as they were hunched over, catching their breath.
“I know!” She scuttled for one of the dropped phaser rifles, heedless of her injury.
“What do we do?!”
“This!” she screamed. And began shooting the mechanism. He joined her, and sparks soon were flying as the drill sputtered and died. They dropped the rifles, which were now useless, and she watched as something flew past them and into the hole.
“Kirk to Enterprise! They’ve launched something into the hole they just drilled!” she commed frantically. “Do you copy Enterprise?”
“Yes, sir,” a tinny voice answered.
“Kirk to Enterprise! Beam us out of here!”
The transporter room replied with an admonishment to stay still as they were locked onto. They were both jolted when the platform shifted, Sulu falling from it with an abrupt yell of her name.
“KIRK!”
“SULU!” she screamed, jumping after him, heedless of the danger. He’d just saved her life; now it was her turn. “Hold on!” she yelled, even though she knew he couldn’t hear her, and then she had a hold of him. “Pull my chute!” He did, and it deployed, only to snap off at her back, plunging them into abrupt free-fall once again. “Kirk to Enterprise! We’re falling without a chute! Beam us up!”
“I can’t lock on!” the panicked Ensign replied.
“Beam us up! Beam us up!” she continued to yell, even as the Ensign continued to whine. Suddenly Pavel’s voice was heard, yelling for manual control. “Beam us up!” she screamed again, knowing that her friend would be able to do it, but irrational fear causing her to continue her desperate pleas.
“Hold on, hold on!” Pavel yelled back, and she tried to wait, really she did.
“Enterprise, where are you?!”
“Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on!” came the frantic cries of her young friend.
“Now, now, now! Do it now! Now, now, now, now!”
“Okay, okay, okay! Hold on! Compensating grawitational pull, and…” Her words tapered off into screams, as did Sulu’s, and just before they would have splatted onto the Vulcan soil, the familiar feeling of transporter energy surrounded them, and she instead landed half underneath Sulu, and their combined weight broke the transporter bubble beneath them.
“Yamayohr!” Pavel yelled, and all Jim could do was roll onto her stomach in an attempt to stand.
“Thanks,” Sulu said, helping her up.
“No problem.” They were forced off of the pad by Spock, who was beaming down to the planet to collect his parents and the rest of the Vulcan Council, who were apparently somewhere the transporter wouldn’t reach.
“Clear the pad. I’m beaming down to the surface.”
“The surface of what?” Even Jim knew that something was going on down there; as they had fallen, she had noticed rocks of various sizes breaking off and falling exponentially faster than normal toward the center of the planet. “What, are you going down there? Are you nuts? Spock you can’t do that!”
“Energize.”
“Spock!” she shouted; but it was too late, he was already disappearing in the white light of the transporter. She moved to stand behind Pavel, a hand on his shoulder, as they monitored Spock’s progress. He disappeared for a few moments, but reappeared with four more signals.
“Spock to Enterprise! Beam us out of here, now!”
“Locking wolume,” Pavel replied, already inputting commands to lock onto the group as a whole. “Don’t move, stay right where you are.” As the transport started, one of the signals dropped, and she could see that Pavel was fighting frantically to stay locked, to keep that signal from disappearing. “I’m losing her! I’m losing her! No, I’ve lost her,” he trailed off, as four of the five in the group appeared on the pad, Spock still reaching out for the fifth.
Jim felt her heart breaking for him; his face showed naked anguish, the fist real emotion she’d seen from him since they’d met. She quickly came to the realization that that signal, the only fully human one in the group, must have been his mother. Pavel was simply staring at the controls, and she saw Sulu put a hand on his shoulder. As Spock stepped toward the empty pod, part of her wanted to rush in and hug him, though she knew that would be highly inappropriate and most probably unwelcome.
She, Sulu, and the what was left of the Vulcan Council were chivvied to what was left of the MedBay, and Jim felt an irrational relief at seeing Bones, alive and well, treating injusries among crew and Vulcan alike. She herself was treated for the broken hand by a competent nurse, who wrapped the broken appendage swiftly and carefully, since the regenerators were all in use. She was checked for signs of a concussion and told that her cheekbone would have to wait, which she didn’t mind in the least. A few minutes later, she got a quiet moment alone with Bones, who pulled her into a storage room.
“Damn it, Jem,” was all he said before he pushed her against the shelf and kissed her, hard. She was surprised for a moment, but then returned the kiss with equal fervor, pouring her terror and grief into it. Nothing in it was romantic; there was too much negative emotion in both of them for that. Instead, it was a kiss that translated fear, and relief, and so many more things that she couldn’t catalogue. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, Jemima,” he ordered roughly once he pulled away. She was still dazed, and could do nothing but clutch at him, hugging him for all she was worth, the stray thought that everything was different, that even their relationship had changed, floating into and out of her brain.
Soon enough he was called back into the main sickbay, and he kissed her again, this time softly, tenderly, before leaving her to go back to his duties. She stayed in the storage room for a few minutes, until Sulu found her, telling her that she was needed on the bridge. She followed him, as if lost in a dream, for a moment allowing herself to feel the wonder that was trying to suffuse her body, that Bones felt something that strong for her. Once they entered the bridge though, she had herself back under control as the discussion started.
Dead tired, she sat in the command chair, since nowhere else was open to sit. As Spock entered the bridge, he asked the million dollar question. “Have you confirmed that Nero is headed for Earth?”
“Their trajectory suggests no other destination, Captain,” Uhura answered, and Jim detected a brittle undertone to her words, as if she were feeling the recent loss of the planet far more than the Captain himself.
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“Earth may be his next stop,” Jim said, leaning forward. “But we have to assume that every Federation planet’s a target.” Instead of answering her, Spock said something immensely amusing, at least to her.
“Out of the chair.” She obligingly stood, ignoring her cracked ribs that she had neglected to tell even Bones about, and walked closer to Pavel’s station.
“Well, if the Federation’s a target,” Pavel said. “Why didn’t they just destroy us?”
“Why would they? Why waste a weapon? We obviously weren’t a threat,” Sulu said bitterly.
“That is not it,” Spock said, cutting them off before an argument could begin. “He said he wanted me to see something, the destruction of my home planet.” Bones spoke up, and Jim realized she hadn’t even noticed him enter the bridge. She moved closer to him as he spoke.
“How the hell did they do that, by the way?” he said, and by the end of his question she was standing so close that the backs of their hands brushed, the comfort gained by such a small thing immeasurable, at least for her. “I mean, where did the Romulans get that kind of weaponry?”“The engineering proficiency necessary to artificially create a black hole may suggest an answer. Such technology could theoretically be manipulated to create a tunnel through space-time.”
“Damn it man, I’m a doctor, not a physicist,” Bones griped, and she felt him pulling away from her. She allowed it, knowing that he would want to rant with full range of motion. A wave of fondness rushed over her, and she felt a smile tugging at the edges of her mouth, even in the middle of such a serious discussion. “Are you actually suggesting they’re from the future?”
“If 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?” she asked, finally breaking back into the conversation as Bones came back beside her.
“As Captain, he does know details of Starfleet’s defenses,” Sulu said, and the fear raged in her for a moment, before a latent touch from Bones made her come back to herself.
“What we need to do, is catch up to that ship, disable it, take it over, and get Pike back,” she said, pushing away from the railing and Bones, walking into the center of the room.
“We are technologically outmatched in every way. A rescue attempt would be… illogical,” Spock said, and she felt anger rush through her.
“Nero’s ship would haf to drop out of warp in order for us to overtake him,” Pavel said, and she glared at him. The traitor.
“Then what about assigning engineering crews to try and boost our warp yield?”
“The remaining power and crew are being used to repair radiation leaks in the lower decks-” Spock said.
“Okay! All right,” she said, moving from her place in the center and walking toward him.
“And damage to subspace communications, without which we cannot contact Starfleet.”
“There’s gotta be some way - “ she said, coming closer to him.
“We must gather with the rest of Starfleet, to balance the terms of the next engagement,” he said, cutting her off, and again, she was wary of the sheer anger in his eyes. She pressed on though, because she knew she was right.
“There won’t be a next engagement!” she shouted over him. “By the time we’ve gathered, it’ll be too late! But you say he’s from the future, knows what’s gonna happen? Then the logical thing, is to be unpredictable!”“You are assuming that Nero knows the way events are predicted to unfold,” Spock returned, taking a step toward her. She grudgingly gave ground, backing away until she hit a wall of muscle that happened to be Bones. “The contrary, Nero’s very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin and culminating in the events of today, thereby creating an entirely new chain of incidents that cannot be predicted by either party.” She felt Bones’ weight against her back and stood her ground as Spock stepped even closer.
“An alternate reality,” Uhura said quietly, breaking out nonverbal stalemate. He turned to her with a nod.
“Precisely. Whatever our lives might have been, if the time continuum was disrupted, our destinies have changed.” As he spoke, Spock took the command chair, and she allowed herself to sag against Bones for a moment before standing tall again. How much differently would this conversation have already gone if he hadn’t been in the room? “Mr. Sulu plot a course for the Laurentian system, warp factor 3.”
“Spock don’t do that,” she said, rushing up to the command platform. “Running back to the rest of the fleet for a-a Confab, is a massive waste of time!”
“These are the orders issued by Captain Pike when he left the ship,” Spock said over her, and she was infuriated by his calm tone. Why was she the only one worried about this, when she wasn’t even supposed to be there?
“He also ordered us to go back and get him. Spock, you are Captain, now! You have to make - “
“I am aware of my responsibilities, Miss Kirk.”
“Every second we waste, Nero’s getting closer to his next target!” she cried, knowing that her voice was getting louder with every word, but unable to help it. This… this man was going to condemn some planer to total destruction because he couldn’t fucking make up his mind that the correct course was to pursue the hostile ship and disable it.
“That is correct, and that is why I am instructing you to accept the fact that I alone am in command.”
“I will not allow us to go backwards!” she yelled, truly incensed now. Bones touched her arm but she shook him off, too angry to let him distract her.
“Jim, he’s the captain!” Bones said, trying to divert me.
“ - Away from the problem, instead of hunting Nero down!” she finished, over Bones’ protests.
“Security, escort her out,” Spock said, meeting me eye to eye as he stood. She looked up at him defiantly, unwilling to back down from her position. Two red-shirted personnel grabbed her by the arms, gently herding her toward one of the exits. Halfway across the bridge, she struck, taking down four of them to the sounds of Bones desperately telling her to stop before she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, and she knew no more.
Jemima “Jim” Tiberius Kirk was a rebel. It was almost written into her DNA, what with her mother being who she was, let alone her father. So it was no surprise that when she hit on a random cadet at that bar in Riverside, the only thing she came away with was the answer to a dare.
Christopher Pike was a shrewd negotiator, reading her like a book, and she couldn’t resist. She spent the night before the shuttle trip driving around Iowa, as far as she could and still make it back in time. She ended up at her childhood home, abandoned after her mother’s last trip to space, when she had emancipated herself and moved into a flop house. The house was in pretty good repair for being uninhabited, and she found herself making her way into her old room, which had never been a haven, even when Frank was at his worst.
She wasn’t sure why her time in that room steeled her resolve, except that it brought back Pike’s words. ‘So your dad dies. You can settle for a less-than-ordinary life. Or do you feel like you were made for something better?’
She had always wished, when she was little, that someone would carry her away, away from the life that had been forced upon her. But that had all changed after living with her aunt, in a place that didn’t even exist anymore, except in the memories of 9 people, 7 of them children at the time. But looking at this room brought those dreams and wishes back.
So she pulled up to the Shipyard and gave the random worker her bike, the one thing that had been her constant in a constantly shifting world.
“Four years? I’ll do it in three.”And that was the start of a very interesting tenure at Starfleet Academy. She saw the cadet again, and got a very satisfying smile out of her, which was progress. She also met her lifeline, though she didn’t know it at the time. Leonard Horatio McCoy, country doctor turned Starfleet recruit by an ugly divorce, and an aviophobe to boot. He was amusing, was her first impression.
Over the next three years, that impression was reinforced and expanded upon. He was the one she went to after a fight, the one she went to after a breakup. He was the older brother she never had. Her real big brother, George “Sam” Kirk, had cut out on the family when she was only 9, prompting her to drive her step-father’s antique convertible over the quarry cliffs, nearly killing herself.
Bones was her constant, and she never consciously said anything, but he had to know how she felt. Especially after the Kobyashi-Maru, at least the first 2 times. The third time, she knew he was a little iffy, but compromising her new-found morals slightly to pass a test had never bothered her before, and a judicious makeout session with Gaila, the Orion Computer Technician, was hardly a compromise. The tribunal 2 days later, though, was a true test of their friendship. She was up for charges, and they were irrefutable, but she could get out of it if she proved that the test she had cheated was already compromised.
The problem with that was the test’s designer, the only Half-Vulcan in the Universe, and the only Vulcan in Starfleet. He punched holes in her admittedly skewed logic, but also punched holes in her. She was a strong person; having an absentee mother and an abusive step-father, let alone the horrors of her early teenage years, had ensured that. But for some reason, his calm, cool words about her father’s sacrifice made her want to launch across the hall and scratch his eyes out with her non-existent nails. The distress signal from Vulcan was the only thing that saved him, and her, from a very messy situation.
Unfortunately, it created another sticky situation. She wasn’t allowed to go, due to being on Academic suspension. The suspension wasn’t anything new; she managed to land on the list at least once a semester, but the fact that this would be the first real mission she could have and she wasn’t allowed to go threw a rift up between her and Bones, one that seemed insurmountable when she hugged him quickly and told him to be safe, before standing around like an idiot in the middle of a busy hangar. That rift swiftly disappeared when he came back for her, dragging her into a medical-supply room.
“You call this a favor?” was her only comment as her brain leaked out of her ears and she was dragged to one of the last shuttles leaving for the Enterprise. She flirted with everyone, as was her habit, even whilst being dragged, half-conscious, into her least favorite place, a Medical Bay. She complained bitterly before being sedated, and her last conscious thought was that she was glad she wasn’t in that ridiculous cadet uniform, but had been given pants and a shirt, which fit surprisingly well.
Just her luck, that when she woke from her sedation, not only did she have the honor of being the only one to understand what was really going on, she had hands the size of cantaloupes, or grapefruits if you wanted to be generous. After the mad dash through the ship to locate Uhura, her favorite communications cadet, she led both Uhura and Bones on a wild chase to the bridge, where everything fell apart, once again.
“Kirk, how the hell did you get on board this ship?” Pike asked, livid in his misunderstanding.
“Captain, this woman’s suffering from a sever allergic-“
“Bones, Bones, BONES!” she screamed, talking over her friend. She knew what he was trying to do, but he didn’t know what she was trying to do. “Vulcan’s not experiencing a natural disaster, it’s being attacked by Romulans!”
“Romulans? Cadet Kirk, I think you’ve had enough for one day. Doctor McCoy take her back to SickBay, we’ll be having words later.”
She pulled away when Bones tried to drag her backwards. “Look, sir, that same anomaly we saw today…” She was interrupted by Spock, who was once again, only trying to do his job, but making hers harder. She argued with him until he said she was just disrupting the bridge.
“This cadet is trying to save the bridge!”
“By recommending a full-stop mid-warp during a rescue mission?” She turned back to Pike.
“It’s not a rescue-mission. Listen to me, it’s an attack.”
“Based on what facts?” Spock said, and she detected the edge of true anger in his tone, which she would have to watch for. From what little she knew of his father-race, he could snap her in half like a toothpick.
“That same anomaly we saw today, a lightning storm in space, also occurred on the day of my birth, before a Romulan ship attacked the USS Kelvin. You know that, sir, I read your dissertation.” She was looking from Spock to Pike, to make sure both of them were listening, and was distantly pleased that she had their full attention. “That ship, which had formidable and advanced weaponry, was never seen or heard from again. The Kelvin attack took place on the edge of Klingon space, and at 2300 hours, last night, there was an attack. 47 Klingon warbirds, destroyed by Romulans, sir, it was reported that the Romulans were in one ship, one massive ship.”
“And you know of this Klingon attack, how?” Pike asked, obviously suspicious. She turned to Uhura; it was time to see if the woman would stand up for her own findings, or leave her in the lurch. Everyone turned to her, and she looked nervous for a moment before she straightened her spine and spoke.
“Sir, I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk’s report is accurate.”
“We’re warping into a trap, sir. The Romulans are waiting for us, I promise you that,” Jim added, hoping that with this evidence, she would finally be heard. Uhura was one of the best at the Academy, so her words should carry some weight. Pike looked to Spock, who looked pensive for a moment before responding to the unspoken question.
“The cadet’s logic is sound. And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics. We would be wise to accept her conclusion.” Jim almost breathed a sigh of relief, but the crisis was only beginning, and anyone with half a brain could see as much.
“Scan Vulcan space. Check for any transmissions in Romulan,” Pike ordered the bridge communications officer.
“Sir, I’m not sure I can distinguish the Romulan language from Vulcan,” the man replied, looking honestly baffled. She felt sorry for him for a split-second, because he couldn’t help it that he wasn’t trained correctly.
“What about you, do you speak Romulan, Cadet…”
“Uhura, sir. All 3 dialects.”
“Uhura. Relieve the Lieutenant.”
“Yes, sir.” Inside, Kirk was cheering. She genuinely liked the girl, even if most of their interaction involved rebuffed flirting and rolled eyes.
“Hannity, hail the USS Truman,” Pike ordered, looking to another Communications person.
“All the other ships have dropped out of warp, sir, and have arrived at Vulcan. But we seem to have lost all contact.” Kirk got a bad feeling in the bottom of her gut. It’s starting.
“Sir, I pick up no Romulan transmission, nor transmission of any kind in the area,” Uhura said, listening intently even as she spoke.
“It’s because they’re being attacked,” Jim said, her tone full of resignation. She wished it didn’t have to be this, but it was. Pike looked around the bridge for a second before moving back to the command chair.
“Shields up, Red Alert,” he said, and activity exploded around Jim, who once again felt like a fish out of water. She quickly moved up to a railing, ready for anything to occur. Bones wasn’t so lucky. When the pilot announced that they were coming out of warp, her grip tightened even as she stared intently out the front view screen.
They descended into a massacre. Pieces of destroyed ship were everywhere, and immediately, evasive maneuvers were implemented. She winced when Bones was thrown to the bridge floor, but couldn’t do anything about it as the sharp turns and abrupt changes of direction and speed rocked the entire area, forcing her to tighten her grip more or risk being flung around even more.
“Full reverse. Come about Starboard 90 degrees, drop us underneath it Sulu.” It was the gutted remains of the disc of the USS Farragut, and Jim felt a pang go through her, even though she didn’t know why.
The sight of the massive Romulan ship stunned her into inactivity, and she could practically feel the shock radiating off of those who were looking around her. It was beautiful, in a weapon-of-mass-destruction kind of way, and her breath caught reflexively at the sight.
“Captain, they are locking torpedoes,” Spock said in a would-be calm voice, and she closed her eyes for a moment, the realization that she was about to die hitting her like a ton of bricks. She’d tried, and it was all for naught.
“Divert auxiliary power from port nacelles to forward shields,” Pike said commandingly, and her eyes snapped open, a burning hope nestled between her breasts. At least one of the torpedoes hit them broadside, and she nearly went down from the force. “Sulu! Status report!”
“Shields at 32%. Their weapons are powerful, sir, we can’t take another hit like that!”
“Get me Starfleet Command.” Pike’s voice was like steel, and she drew strength like a plant draws life from the sun.
“Captain, the Romulans have lowered some high-energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere. Its signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter ability,” Spock said, and Jim felt like she could just fall into a puddle right there. No communications meant no hope, no chance.
“All power to forward shields, prepare to fire all weapons,” Pike said, and again, the strength in his voice gave her the same, an indomitable feeling that they would not go down in this fight, at least not without trying to take the other down with her. [i]This is a good way to die,[/i] his words seemed to say. [i]Doing what’s right, instead of what is easy.[/i]
“Captain, we’re being hailed!” Uhura said, jumping up from her station to face the view screen. A non-descript Romulan appeared on-screen, the air of command settling on him like a cloak.
“Hello,” he said genially, and Jim felt a shiver down her spine. This man killed her father, and his captain, in cold blood and for no discernable reason.
“I’m Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking?” Pike asked cautiously, and the Romulan’s reply made Jim feel like running out of the room, for all that it was courteous in the extreme.
“Hi, Christopher. I’m Nero.”
“You’ve declared war against the Federation,” Pike said, and all Jim could do was stare at this Romulan, who was cocky enough to show himself on-screen to a fully-manned military vessel. Problem was, he had the power to back it up, and that’s what scared her. “Withdraw, I’ll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location.” Jim was irrationally angry at Pike, who was trying his damndest to try diplomacy first, when that option was already long gone. But he was doing things by the book, and she couldn’t think of anything to say, so she kept her mouth shut and watched.
“I do not speak for the Empire,” Nero replied calmly. “We stand apart. As does you Vulcan crewmember. Isn’t that right, Spock?” Jim was confused. Why was this Romulan worried about Spock? Nero had killed her father, and he was focusing on Spock?
“Pardon me, I do not believe that you and I are acquainted,” Spock said, standing next to her at the railing.
“No, we’re not. Not yet. Spock, there’s something I would like you to see.” The Romulan turned his attention back to Pike. “Captain Pike, your transporter has been disabled. As you can see by the rest of your armada, you have no choice. You will man a shuttle and board the Narada for negotiations. That is all.” As soon as the transmission cut off, Jim found her voice, and her words. She knew what she had to say here. Spock had moved next to the command chair, and was voicing much the same opinion.
“He’ll kill you, you know that,” she said, keeping the hard edge of fear out of her voice by sheer force of will.
“Your survival is unlikely,” Spock seconded, as Pike moved toward the side of the bridge.
“Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake,” she continued, voice stronger now, words harder.
“I, too, agree. You should rethink your strategy.” Had this been any normal situation, she’d have been goggling by now at the fact that she was being agreed with by the same creature that had, only a few hours before, tried to get her removed from Starfleet.
“I understand that,” Pike said, and Jim knew right there that all argument was useless. She recognized the tone; it was one she herself used often to keep people from questioning her decisions. “I need officers who’ve been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat.” The pilot raised his hand.
“I have training, sir.” Jim watched the by-play between the pilot and navigator, and felt sorry for Pavel, who was one of her friends; he looked like someone had just told him his babushka had lung cancer and only had hours to live.
“Good. Come with me. You, too, Kirk, you’re not even supposed to be here.” She followed him, surprised. Females usually weren’t sent on these kinds of missions, and a martial mission it was, because of the off-hand comment about training. But she wasn’t a normal woman, had never been normal, so she went along with it.
As they went through the halls, she found herself thinking back to 3 years before, when her idea of a good time was hitting on a random being and starting a brawl with men who were afraid to hit her because of her size. Now here she was, about to do something even crazier, in a bid to save a planet, and her ship.
“Without transporters we can’t beam off the ship, we can’t assist Vulcan, we can’t do our job,” Pike said as he led them to an elevator near the Engineering deck and the shuttle bays. “Miss Kirk, Mr. Sulu, Engineer Olson, will space-jump from the shuttle. You will land on that machine they’ve lowered into the atmosphere that’s scrambling our gear, you’ll get inside it, you’ll disable it, then you’ll beam back to the ship. Mr. Spock, I’m leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once you have transporter and communications back up, you’re to contact Starfleet and report what the hell’s going on here. And if all else fails, fall back, rendezvous with fleet in the Laurentian system. Kirk, I’m promoting you to First Officer.”
“What?” Jim was stunned, as was Spock, it seemed.
“Captain? Please, I apologize but the complexities of human pranks escape me.”
“It’s not a prank, Spock, and I’m not the captain; you are. Let’s go.” Jim obediently followed Pike into the elevator, voicing only one question.
“Sir, after we knock out that drill, what happens to you?”
“Well, I guess you’ll have to come and get me.” Just before the doors closed, Pike looked at Spock. “be careful with the ship, Spock; she’s brand new.” The doors closed on a mildly pleasant look of Spock’s perplexed expression. Jim followed Pike and changed into her jumpsuit in silence. She was going over every bit of her combat training, which was extensive, given that she’d been assistant instructor for the advanced class since the beginning of her second year at the Academy.
Once they were on the shuttle, she found herself placed between a very excited Engineer, and Sulu, who seemed cool as a cucumber. “You’ve got the charges, right?” she asked the engineer.
“Oh yeah,” he said quickly.”I can’t wait to kick some Romulan ass. Right?”
“Sure.” As they left the hangar, she turned to the Asian. “So what kind of combat training do you have?”
“Fencing.” She was mildly alarmed by this answer, but let it go. Now was not the time to make fun of someone who was risking their life, just like she was, to disable a dangerous device.
“Pre-jump,” Pike said from the command chair of the shuttle. They all stood and put their helmets on, Jim having a little difficulty due to the length of her hair, which Bones had convinced her to grow out. “Lady and gentlemen, we’re approaching the drop-site. You have one shot to land on that platform. They may have defenses, so pull your chute as late as possible.” They each reached for the railing that dropped from the ceiling in front of them. “Three, two, one.” The gravity in the back of the shuttle was reversed, plastering them to the ceiling of the launch area. “Remember the Enterprise won’t be able to beam you back until you turn off that drill.” His voice softened. “Good Luck.”
Jim felt that with those words, she would never see that man again, which saddened her in the few seconds she had before the floor opened up and she was hurtling through space next to a giant drill structure. The pressure was incredible, and she felt like she would implode before they reached atmosphere, but they did, and she began reporting distance to target, as did the others. At 2000 meters, she and Sulu opened their chutes, bringing their free-fall to a swift halt, their descent slowed by the billowing fabric snapped taut. Olson continued his fall, releasing at 1000 meters, and disintegrating after breaking nearly every bone in his body from the impact with the platform.
She had no time to dwell on his departure from life, because the platform was suddenly there, and she went skittering across it like a stone over water, he parachute pulling her horizontally toward the same fate as the engineer. She finally got a hand in a crevice and managed to recall her chute, allowing her to stand on the platform without danger of falling. She removed her helmet and pulled off the hood, allowing the few strands that had escaped her hasty bun to fall free, just as one of the hatches opened and a male Romulan stepped out. She attacked recklessly, before he was aware of her, deathly silent when normally she would be bantering. Now wasn’t a time for talk, but for action.
He had an obvious advantage of strength, but she had a few tricks up her sleeve, those self-same tricks that had made her an instructor in combat. She managed to wrest the rifle away from him, but not before shots were fired, and began slamming him across the face with her helmet, in a calculated move to cause brain damage. Another Romulan appeared, and she switched targets, her first at least momentarily subdued. She began trading blows with her second opponent as Sulu finally landed and began his own assault. She felt the crunch of her cheekbone breaking, but didn’t let it deter her from her goal, which was incapacitating or killing the Romulan in front of her. There was no pain, no fear in this. There was only the fight, and she was determined to win.
She ended up being thrown over the side, the only thing keeping her from death being the grip of her hands to the raised lip of the platform. The Romulan began playing hot potato with her hands, stamping down as hard and fast as he could. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Sulu fighting the other one, and absently redefined his answer to her of ‘fencing’ as ‘super-cool ninja shit that happens to use a sword.’ Then her attention was caught by the Romulan, who had managed a direct hit on her left hand, crushing every finger with his weight.
Before he could stamp her other hand and send her careening toward the ground, a sword was suddenly sticking out of his chest, covered in his copper-based blood. He fell over her and she swung quickly to avoid the dead weight, her left hand hanging uselessly by her side.
“Give me your hand!” Sulu screamed, and with Herculean effort, she was pulled up to the platform. “Olson had the charges!” he continued, as they were hunched over, catching their breath.
“I know!” She scuttled for one of the dropped phaser rifles, heedless of her injury.
“What do we do?!”
“This!” she screamed. And began shooting the mechanism. He joined her, and sparks soon were flying as the drill sputtered and died. They dropped the rifles, which were now useless, and she watched as something flew past them and into the hole.
“Kirk to Enterprise! They’ve launched something into the hole they just drilled!” she commed frantically. “Do you copy Enterprise?”
“Yes, sir,” a tinny voice answered.
“Kirk to Enterprise! Beam us out of here!”
The transporter room replied with an admonishment to stay still as they were locked onto. They were both jolted when the platform shifted, Sulu falling from it with an abrupt yell of her name.
“KIRK!”
“SULU!” she screamed, jumping after him, heedless of the danger. He’d just saved her life; now it was her turn. “Hold on!” she yelled, even though she knew he couldn’t hear her, and then she had a hold of him. “Pull my chute!” He did, and it deployed, only to snap off at her back, plunging them into abrupt free-fall once again. “Kirk to Enterprise! We’re falling without a chute! Beam us up!”
“I can’t lock on!” the panicked Ensign replied.
“Beam us up! Beam us up!” she continued to yell, even as the Ensign continued to whine. Suddenly Pavel’s voice was heard, yelling for manual control. “Beam us up!” she screamed again, knowing that her friend would be able to do it, but irrational fear causing her to continue her desperate pleas.
“Hold on, hold on!” Pavel yelled back, and she tried to wait, really she did.
“Enterprise, where are you?!”
“Hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on!” came the frantic cries of her young friend.
“Now, now, now! Do it now! Now, now, now, now!”
“Okay, okay, okay! Hold on! Compensating grawitational pull, and…” Her words tapered off into screams, as did Sulu’s, and just before they would have splatted onto the Vulcan soil, the familiar feeling of transporter energy surrounded them, and she instead landed half underneath Sulu, and their combined weight broke the transporter bubble beneath them.
“Yamayohr!” Pavel yelled, and all Jim could do was roll onto her stomach in an attempt to stand.
“Thanks,” Sulu said, helping her up.
“No problem.” They were forced off of the pad by Spock, who was beaming down to the planet to collect his parents and the rest of the Vulcan Council, who were apparently somewhere the transporter wouldn’t reach.
“Clear the pad. I’m beaming down to the surface.”
“The surface of what?” Even Jim knew that something was going on down there; as they had fallen, she had noticed rocks of various sizes breaking off and falling exponentially faster than normal toward the center of the planet. “What, are you going down there? Are you nuts? Spock you can’t do that!”
“Energize.”
“Spock!” she shouted; but it was too late, he was already disappearing in the white light of the transporter. She moved to stand behind Pavel, a hand on his shoulder, as they monitored Spock’s progress. He disappeared for a few moments, but reappeared with four more signals.
“Spock to Enterprise! Beam us out of here, now!”
“Locking wolume,” Pavel replied, already inputting commands to lock onto the group as a whole. “Don’t move, stay right where you are.” As the transport started, one of the signals dropped, and she could see that Pavel was fighting frantically to stay locked, to keep that signal from disappearing. “I’m losing her! I’m losing her! No, I’ve lost her,” he trailed off, as four of the five in the group appeared on the pad, Spock still reaching out for the fifth.
Jim felt her heart breaking for him; his face showed naked anguish, the fist real emotion she’d seen from him since they’d met. She quickly came to the realization that that signal, the only fully human one in the group, must have been his mother. Pavel was simply staring at the controls, and she saw Sulu put a hand on his shoulder. As Spock stepped toward the empty pod, part of her wanted to rush in and hug him, though she knew that would be highly inappropriate and most probably unwelcome.
She, Sulu, and the what was left of the Vulcan Council were chivvied to what was left of the MedBay, and Jim felt an irrational relief at seeing Bones, alive and well, treating injusries among crew and Vulcan alike. She herself was treated for the broken hand by a competent nurse, who wrapped the broken appendage swiftly and carefully, since the regenerators were all in use. She was checked for signs of a concussion and told that her cheekbone would have to wait, which she didn’t mind in the least. A few minutes later, she got a quiet moment alone with Bones, who pulled her into a storage room.
“Damn it, Jem,” was all he said before he pushed her against the shelf and kissed her, hard. She was surprised for a moment, but then returned the kiss with equal fervor, pouring her terror and grief into it. Nothing in it was romantic; there was too much negative emotion in both of them for that. Instead, it was a kiss that translated fear, and relief, and so many more things that she couldn’t catalogue. “Don’t you ever do that to me again, Jemima,” he ordered roughly once he pulled away. She was still dazed, and could do nothing but clutch at him, hugging him for all she was worth, the stray thought that everything was different, that even their relationship had changed, floating into and out of her brain.
Soon enough he was called back into the main sickbay, and he kissed her again, this time softly, tenderly, before leaving her to go back to his duties. She stayed in the storage room for a few minutes, until Sulu found her, telling her that she was needed on the bridge. She followed him, as if lost in a dream, for a moment allowing herself to feel the wonder that was trying to suffuse her body, that Bones felt something that strong for her. Once they entered the bridge though, she had herself back under control as the discussion started.
Dead tired, she sat in the command chair, since nowhere else was open to sit. As Spock entered the bridge, he asked the million dollar question. “Have you confirmed that Nero is headed for Earth?”
“Their trajectory suggests no other destination, Captain,” Uhura answered, and Jim detected a brittle undertone to her words, as if she were feeling the recent loss of the planet far more than the Captain himself.
“Thank you, Lieutenant.”
“Earth may be his next stop,” Jim said, leaning forward. “But we have to assume that every Federation planet’s a target.” Instead of answering her, Spock said something immensely amusing, at least to her.
“Out of the chair.” She obligingly stood, ignoring her cracked ribs that she had neglected to tell even Bones about, and walked closer to Pavel’s station.
“Well, if the Federation’s a target,” Pavel said. “Why didn’t they just destroy us?”
“Why would they? Why waste a weapon? We obviously weren’t a threat,” Sulu said bitterly.
“That is not it,” Spock said, cutting them off before an argument could begin. “He said he wanted me to see something, the destruction of my home planet.” Bones spoke up, and Jim realized she hadn’t even noticed him enter the bridge. She moved closer to him as he spoke.
“How the hell did they do that, by the way?” he said, and by the end of his question she was standing so close that the backs of their hands brushed, the comfort gained by such a small thing immeasurable, at least for her. “I mean, where did the Romulans get that kind of weaponry?”“The engineering proficiency necessary to artificially create a black hole may suggest an answer. Such technology could theoretically be manipulated to create a tunnel through space-time.”
“Damn it man, I’m a doctor, not a physicist,” Bones griped, and she felt him pulling away from her. She allowed it, knowing that he would want to rant with full range of motion. A wave of fondness rushed over her, and she felt a smile tugging at the edges of her mouth, even in the middle of such a serious discussion. “Are you actually suggesting they’re from the future?”
“If 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?” she asked, finally breaking back into the conversation as Bones came back beside her.
“As Captain, he does know details of Starfleet’s defenses,” Sulu said, and the fear raged in her for a moment, before a latent touch from Bones made her come back to herself.
“What we need to do, is catch up to that ship, disable it, take it over, and get Pike back,” she said, pushing away from the railing and Bones, walking into the center of the room.
“We are technologically outmatched in every way. A rescue attempt would be… illogical,” Spock said, and she felt anger rush through her.
“Nero’s ship would haf to drop out of warp in order for us to overtake him,” Pavel said, and she glared at him. The traitor.
“Then what about assigning engineering crews to try and boost our warp yield?”
“The remaining power and crew are being used to repair radiation leaks in the lower decks-” Spock said.
“Okay! All right,” she said, moving from her place in the center and walking toward him.
“And damage to subspace communications, without which we cannot contact Starfleet.”
“There’s gotta be some way - “ she said, coming closer to him.
“We must gather with the rest of Starfleet, to balance the terms of the next engagement,” he said, cutting her off, and again, she was wary of the sheer anger in his eyes. She pressed on though, because she knew she was right.
“There won’t be a next engagement!” she shouted over him. “By the time we’ve gathered, it’ll be too late! But you say he’s from the future, knows what’s gonna happen? Then the logical thing, is to be unpredictable!”“You are assuming that Nero knows the way events are predicted to unfold,” Spock returned, taking a step toward her. She grudgingly gave ground, backing away until she hit a wall of muscle that happened to be Bones. “The contrary, Nero’s very presence has altered the flow of history, beginning with the attack on the U.S.S. Kelvin and culminating in the events of today, thereby creating an entirely new chain of incidents that cannot be predicted by either party.” She felt Bones’ weight against her back and stood her ground as Spock stepped even closer.
“An alternate reality,” Uhura said quietly, breaking out nonverbal stalemate. He turned to her with a nod.
“Precisely. Whatever our lives might have been, if the time continuum was disrupted, our destinies have changed.” As he spoke, Spock took the command chair, and she allowed herself to sag against Bones for a moment before standing tall again. How much differently would this conversation have already gone if he hadn’t been in the room? “Mr. Sulu plot a course for the Laurentian system, warp factor 3.”
“Spock don’t do that,” she said, rushing up to the command platform. “Running back to the rest of the fleet for a-a Confab, is a massive waste of time!”
“These are the orders issued by Captain Pike when he left the ship,” Spock said over her, and she was infuriated by his calm tone. Why was she the only one worried about this, when she wasn’t even supposed to be there?
“He also ordered us to go back and get him. Spock, you are Captain, now! You have to make - “
“I am aware of my responsibilities, Miss Kirk.”
“Every second we waste, Nero’s getting closer to his next target!” she cried, knowing that her voice was getting louder with every word, but unable to help it. This… this man was going to condemn some planer to total destruction because he couldn’t fucking make up his mind that the correct course was to pursue the hostile ship and disable it.
“That is correct, and that is why I am instructing you to accept the fact that I alone am in command.”
“I will not allow us to go backwards!” she yelled, truly incensed now. Bones touched her arm but she shook him off, too angry to let him distract her.
“Jim, he’s the captain!” Bones said, trying to divert me.
“ - Away from the problem, instead of hunting Nero down!” she finished, over Bones’ protests.
“Security, escort her out,” Spock said, meeting me eye to eye as he stood. She looked up at him defiantly, unwilling to back down from her position. Two red-shirted personnel grabbed her by the arms, gently herding her toward one of the exits. Halfway across the bridge, she struck, taking down four of them to the sounds of Bones desperately telling her to stop before she felt a sharp pain in her shoulder, and she knew no more.