FIC: Divergence 22/26?
En route to Vulcan: USS Enterprise, year 2246
‘Captain, I’m picking up an echo on the emergency channels…’
Jim spun around from where he was bent over the engineering console, tensing at the odd expression on Uhura’s face. Across the bridge, Spock met his gaze. He didn’t know if he should be relieved that something was finally happening or wanting to run away as fast as possible.
‘It's coming in coded over telemetry,’ Uhura said tersely. ‘There’s something weird about it. I'd say their audio was down except that it's coming over the lowest grade signal capacity.’
Jim caught her look and felt his throat tighten. Back in their days at the Academy together, communications students would sometimes refer to that as the "panic channel" because it read like a last resort. His inner alarms began to sound. ‘Accept and decipher, Lieutenant.’
Uhura didn’t bother to respond with an aye-aye, her fingers already dancing across her console. ‘It’s some form of SOS…some of the coding suggests Federation, possibly Denebian…’ She worked more swiftly as an unnatural stillness permeated the bridge, everyone turning to watch her. The usual hums, chirrs, and buzzes of a starship's bridge on automatic, typically lost underneath chatter, suddenly seemed like a dull roar in Jim’s ears.
‘I've lost them!’
To fight the nauseous feeling in his gut, he went to the centre chair and grasped the chair back. ‘Try again. Did any other ships respond to the message?’
‘Negative.’
‘Sir…?’ One of the science ensigns interrupted from the starboard upper deck as she peered into her viewer. She frowned at her screen and trailed off into silence, her brow furrowed. Jim waited for her to finish her sentence, barely managing to keep a lid on his impatience.
‘Captain!’ The ensign snapped, ‘I’m reading antiproton flushback on the long-range sensors!!’
Every single person on the bridge stared at her in shocked disbelief before abruptly flying into action. The shields snapped up, departments were called, Blue Alert status was logged and people scrambled around preparing for battle stations or worse.
Jim spun around, ‘Spock, can you confirm the readings?’
The Vulcan was already there, peering gravely down the viewer of the long-range sensors. He gritted his teeth and fought against the urge to shout for Spock to hurry up. Deciding not to wait, he dropped back into the chair and said tersely, ‘Sulu, set a course for the origin of the flushback and engage as soon as Spock has the coordinates.’ He hit the button on his armrest for ship-wide address. ‘All hands, this is your captain, prepare for emergency warp!’
Sulu and Chekov did not respond verbally to his commands, their concentration upon their consoles and each other’s actions. Though they seemed to ignore each other, Jim knew that they were utterly in sync and were in their own way communicating. A stray lock of Chekov’s hair sprung free from the careless side brush and hung over his eyebrows teasingly. The young Russian ignored it and kept working.
Jim spun around to face his Science Officer but before he had the chance to speak, Spock turned to him. ‘Flushback confirmed, captain. It is emanating from the Virginis Beta sector, Zavijava System - bearing 335-4-1.’
Dammit, that was close enough to the Romulan Neutral Zone to be a target! They exchanged looks, Spock’s eyebrows drawing tightly inwards. Was it Nero or a false alarm? Jim flashed his First a small grim grin and switched on the armrest intercom. ‘Kirk to Engineering - prepare shields for forward-starboard antiproton flushback.’ Then he immediately turned to Uhura, ‘Initiate code one emergency.’
She went straight to her controls. Within seconds, her voice thrummed through the Enterprise corridors and decks, brittle with urgency. ‘This is the bridge… all hands on deck, code one emergency, I repeat, code one emergency!’
Instead of the usual yellow lights of general alert status, bright electric-blue alert lights began to flash across the bulkheads. His armrest comm. whistled and Scotty voiced leaped up at him, “Scott to bridge! Verifying orders - did you say flushback, captain??”
‘Yes Scotty,’ Jim said tersely, ‘flushback.’
“Ah,” even with half a ship between them, he didn’t miss the flinch in the Chief Engineer’s voice, “Scott out.”
The intercom switched off. The noise on the bridge increased as people called departments, and departments began to call back with updates on their preparation progress. Science deck reported all hands ready, dangerous substances secured, systems backed up. Engineering notified all crew members were on standby, relief crew being called in. Sickbay confirmed that they were prepped and ready.
‘Jump to warp in five.’
Jim straightened and stared resolutely forward as the ship shot into warp, the stars distorting into long streaks. Flushbacks didn’t occur in nature. Unless this was some new technology they had yet to encounter, an antiproton flushback this strong could only mean one thing: a heavy cruiser warp engine had exploded out there and it hadn’t been an accident.
---
The sound of the alert alarms startled both of them from sleep, making them jump and huddle even closer together on instinct before they recognized what it was. Spock leaped from the top bunk to turn on the lights, his senses on full alert.
‘What’s going on?’ James shouted over the noise, one hand over his ears.
As if to answer their questions, the intercom crackled to life: “This is the bridge… all hands on deck, code one emergency, I repeat, code one emergency!”
James looked to him, eyes wide in fright. ‘…Code one emergency?’
From out of nowhere, a shockwave slammed Spock to the deck, the entire ship seeming to flip on its side. Overhead James cried out in surprise and toppled off the bed. Once the shaking had stopped, their pillows and bed covers were strewn across the other side of the room, and they were both lying face-down on the deck. The lights went out, plunging the room into total darkness.
‘James!’
‘S-Spock!’ came the weak reply, ‘are you okay?!’
‘Yes, I am uninjured. Are you?’
‘I think so.’
Spock scrambled to his feet then helped a shaken James to stand. Leading the other boy, he found the cabin door and fumbled blindly with the controls. For a moment, he feared the door would not react but then it slid open sluggishly with a harsh hiss.
The Klaxon alarms were even louder in the chaotic hallways as crew members brushed past them, most half-dressed, some simply in their sleeping clothes. The wall intercoms shrieked as every department on the ship tried to get through, calling for back up. A medical team was jogging down the long corridor and checking crew members before giving them permission to man their station. He recognized Doctor Talleria almost immediately and was about to call out to her when the ship lurched violently sending him into the wall with a hard thwack. Spock bit back a cry of pain, his head throbbing. Cries of surprise filled the air as the corridor plunged into darkness, leaving only the emergency lights.
Suddenly the blue lights flashing down the walls switched to red and a new message blared over the intercom. “Red Alert! This is not a drill! Code one emergency! I repeat, code one emergency!’
The noise level in the corridor increased, people struggling against one another to reach their departments and stations. Spock could no longer make sense of anything. He snapped from left to right, trying to see, trying to find James. His insides were shuddering, his muscles were tense as if they might snap, and he - and he - he was afraid.
‘Spock!’
Spock’s head snapped up at the shout, eyes searching the crowd before finally landing on the other boy’s worried face. Spock felt his fear subsiding into a low-burn beneath his ribs as James crawled over to him.
‘I am well.’ He spoke preemptively, examining James in the dimness. Spock relaxed when he found that there was no visible injury or signs of unnatural movements. Joining hands, they stumbled to their feet and leaned on one another as the turbulence continued.
James’ head snapped around to follow one of the crew members who jogged past them, ‘Chief Johnson!’ The crewman didn’t look back, disappearing down one of the emergency shafts. James met his eyes with a stricken expression. ‘I have to go to Engineering, Spock! They might need me!’
No! He tightened his grip on James’ hand. Though there was no truly safe place on a starship during a battle, the engineering deck was the least safe place to be. ‘James, the standard procedure is for civilians to report to Sickbay during an attack! The auxiliary bridge is-’
The boy shook his head, fear and determination fighting for dominance on his face. ‘No, Spock! I need to help them! I need to -’ the boy pulled away abruptly.
Spock frantically reached out to seize a hand, a wrist, a scrap of clothing but James was already sprinting down the hall.
---
Deep Space Hazards 101, Sulu thought in a daze, remaining in his chair by force of will alone, they taught about antiproton flushback and ion storms in Deep Space Hazards 101, an introductory course for all first years and those signing up to be crewman. Commander Spock and the Captain’s shouted discussion flung back and forth over his head but he could hardly concentrate on it. At the corner of his eyes the readings for the waves of antiproton flushback hitting the ship seemed almost like some kind of harmonic composition broken down into graphic form. It felt more like a giant hammer.
‘Captain we’re not going to be able to hold warp!’ Sulu warned, his readouts showing critical stress on the ship’s shields, engines and power systems.
The intercom buzzed noisily on every bridge speaker including his. It was Scotty’s voice, so badly distorted that the helmsman had a hard time making it out. “Engineering to …she cannot…save the shields! Main power’s already… offline until… losing the warp engines!”
It was the only warning they got before the main lights cut and the ship lurched out of warp.
Everything went red. Proximity alarms erupted into the momentary silence. His console flashed critical warning messages from three different sources. Around him the noise level rose to a shriek as the viewscreen cut from the distorted lines of starlight to a hot molten wall of red. His heart leaped hard in his chest. Heat flared across his skin painfully. They had stopped mid-warp in front of a star.
--
The ship shook like it was falling apart, making his teeth clack together and his stomach quake. Then without warning, gravity took a nosedive to the left. Crewman who weren’t hanging onto something rolled and tumbled along the tilted deck with grunts and cries. James grabbed the edges of the console for dear life as powerpacks and hyper spanners smacked into him. Just as abruptly as it started, gravity righted itself. Alarms continued to moan, though one couldn’t tell the difference anymore between the red alert and the various other warnings also screaming for attention.
He looked down to the main level of engineering deck, filled with officers running everywhere and then to Lieutenant Dimitriadis, one of the officers whom he usually worked with. ‘What’s going on?’ He cried, because this wasn’t the same - it wasn’t like before, when the entire ship was caught in a big wave. This felt like something had them in its grasp, like- like a tracker beam! ‘What’s happening??’
---
The helmsman stared at the burning plasma monstrosity swallowing up the entire viewscreen, frozen in shock.
‘Sulu, get us out of here!’
The intercom crackled loudly as someone’s voice erupted from it in a burst of defiance then fell silent.
‘SULU!’ The captain’s yell cut through his astonishment.
Impulse engines! Impulse engines! His heart pounded away in his chest as his numb hands flew across the console, faster and faster until he couldn’t tell if his heart was beating or not. Sulu’s fear fell away as training took over and he anchored himself to the sounds of Kirk and Chekov’s voice, shouting orders and directions. He felt a dull roar rumble through his skeleton as if he were the ship, impulse maneuvering thrusters flaring into life to halt their descent.
His grip was firm on levers as he took control. This was what he knew, this was what he was good at, Hikaru Sulu reminded himself forcefully, brushing away the panic that gnawed at the edge of his consciousness. He ignored the sweat of panic that broke out across his body and hard turned the ship, flipping it onto her belly as Kirk shouted for radiation shields six, seven and eight to be boosted. Like an extension of himself, Sulu felt the Enterprise’s horrible screech as she strained to comply, the inertial dampeners and artificial gravity protesting as they were worked to the max.
The ship dove downwards hard, her nose pointed aft starboard. For an eternity it seemed as if blistering heat licked at his cheeks, and then at an almost agonizing slow pace, they were moving. Sulu felt sweat drip down his temples and his neck as he stared at his display, watching the triangle that was Enterprise turn from the star and then- and then...
The triangle moved, and then again, and then again - each pulse showing an increasing distance from the star. The proximity alarms went silent.
On the viewscreen, a sliver of dark space appeared as they scraped past, skimming along but never touching that hot molten ocean until, utilizing that momentum they shot outwards with a sudden burst of speed.
Air came in an explosive gasp as his lungs unfroze. They were clear, Sulu thought in a daze, they were clear.
---
Jim Kirk took a deep breath as he ordered the ship to hold their position behind the concealing mass of the first planet in the system before finally letting go of the death-grip he had on his chair arms. The noise level on the bridge rose, but the sense of relief and victory was short-lived. The intercom went crazy as officers started reading off the damage reports and casualty estimates. Disorientation receded as reality set in.
Shit, we almost melted ourselves in a fucking star!
Jim swallowed thickly. He never appreciated Sulu and Chekov more than right now in moments like these.
‘Where exactly are we?’
‘The Zavijava system, sir.’
Well, at least they’d reached the system. ‘Critical damages?’
‘Warp is offline, we’ve still got impulse, shields, weapons-’ Sulu looked up from his console, ‘the cloak’s totally gone, sir. Engineering reports that it’s not feasible to attempt any repairs at this time.’
Jim waved it away - he couldn’t care less about the cloaking device right now. He looked to Uhura, ‘Get me a direct line, discrete, I want to talk to Engineering.’
She nodded and a moment later looked up to him from her board, ‘Mr. Scott on line one, sir.’
‘Scotty, how bad is it?’
“Just hanging on, captain! I’ve got some injured - sent whoever I could spare to Sickbay, but I can’t seem to get through,” the Scotsman shouted through the speakers, his voice crackling on every second syllable. Jim looked to Uhura, ‘Get someone down there.’ She nodded.
“…leak in sections 4 and 5 - I got my best man on it.” From the sound of his heavy breathing and distorted voice, Scotty was wearing a respirator and probably moving through engineering deck, harried on all sides by repair crew. It went unspoken that whatever they just went through was no mere antiproton flushback. “Main power coupling’s a wee bit overloaded - between the shields and the warp engines, it just couldn’t handle any more. We’ve got auxiliary power running just fine though and…’
‘Captain,’ Spock’s voice cut through the noise on the bridge and drew Jim’s focus from his conference with Scotty, ‘I’m reading five ships, on the edge of the Zavijava system, mark 88 point five.’ The Vulcan didn’t shout but everything about him screamed urgency. He met Jim’s gaze from the science console, ‘I am positive based on the readings that the Narada is among them - it appears the other vessels are under attack.’
Nero, Jim exhaled roughly, we meet again - if we never meet again it’ll be too soon. Bridge activity went into a temporary lull at the announcement. Slowly, one by one, the crew looked to him for instructions. He gave a curt nod, refusing to be influenced the palatable tension in the air. ‘Nearest civilian population?’
‘Two billion spread across two colonies and an asteroid field mining operation.’ Spock replied without waiting a beat. Fuck. If the battle drifted close enough, even just the blast from a ship’s warp core going critical could cause a disaster - unless the colonies had some kind of artificial or natural shielding in the upper atmosphere, the casualties could run into the millions. They needed to get the Narada away from the colonies and those ships, and…
Jim went back to his intercom, ‘Scotty, can you get me warp?’
“You can have warp, captain, just don’t expect it for longer than five minutes!!”
He allowed himself a small smile at the man’s long-suffering tone. ‘All I need is thirty seconds, Scotty.’
“Captain, this is no joking matter! She’s in no condition for a fight! I need at least ten more minutes to get main power up and recharge enough for any serious pummeling and even then we haven’t got the power to just be-!!”
‘Scotty, you’ll get your ten minutes - in fact, I’ll get you twenty. Just tell me you can give me warp and full weapons for the next three minutes, then another ten minutes of warp to get us to the next sector.’
“Aye, sir, I’ll see what I can do, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!”
Jim jumped to his feet his expression feral, ‘Helm, lock in course for the ships and jump to warp on my mark. Phasers and torpedoes ready to -’
Sulu spun around, ‘Warp within in a star system? That’s -!’
‘Yes lieutenant, warp - it’s that or we’ll be too late for the funeral. Keeping the fight away from those colonies is our highest priority.’
‘Captain?’ Spock stepped down from the upper deck, apprehension in every line of his stiff form. ‘I agree with the lieutenant’s assessment - warp within a system is highly unorthodox and known to be hazardous. Based on Mr. Scott’s assessment, we are not in a position to render assistance; I do not understand what you hope to achieve by this reckless move.’
Jim met the Vulcan’s steady gaze and his lips quirked in a smile. Two years ago, Spock wouldn’t have even implied that he had any sort of plan at all, only that his young captain was as usual jumping in with both feet without thinking. These days, they knew each other better. ‘Commander, did they have cats on Vulcan?’ His First Officer tilted his head to the side. ‘A predator will always go after the one that runs. Besides Spock, he who is prudent and lies in wait for an enemy who is not, will be victorious.’
He saw the flare of recognition across the Vulcan’s face - yes Spock I’m quoting Sun Tzu, try not to faint. Jim turned to Chekov and Sulu, ‘Helm, lock in a course to rendezvous with the ships.’
‘Captain,’ Sulu protested. Spock cut him off with a curt, ‘You have your orders, Lieutenant.’
The helmsman surreptitiously glanced at the Vulcan for some sort of confirmation and receiving it, went to his task. He conferred with Chekov and decisively typed commands into the helm that were too quick for Jim’s eyes to follow. Finally Sulu spun in his chair to face him, face impassive. ‘Course laid, sir.’
He gazed back steadily acknowledging with a nod the subtle show of support. Taking the command chair, Jim opened the ship-wide intercom. ‘Attention all crew, this is the captain speaking. We have the rogue Romulan vessel Narada in sight. I’m issuing Special Order 44593…we’ll be engaging the enemy shortly - you all have your duties…Kirk out.’
He looked to Sulu, ‘Once we’re there, Sulu, I want you to be ready at any point to get us the hell out of there upon my mark. Let’s not outstay our welcome - Chekov,’ the young navigator gave him an apprehensive look, ‘as soon as we drop out of warp I want you to target that ship and fire everything we’ve got. Where’s the nearest empty corridor?’
Chekov blinked, ‘Sir?’
‘I don’t want to give that bastard any leverage. When we bail, I want an uninhabited system or better yet, get me some prime real estate between.’
Uncertainty drained from his face as Chekov realized what he was trying to do. ‘Yes sir!’
Jim sat down and finally permitted himself a glance in Spock’s direction. ‘Let’s go and get their attention.’
---
Zavijava System: USS Frenzotal, year 2246
The ship buckled, shaking hard enough that her neck cracked from the force. No one called out where they’d been hit, but her arm console screeched a warning at her. Many of the bridge crew lay injured or unconscious on the floor, half-buried under scorched panels and plastic wires. A support beam had crashed down from above, killing the captain and leaving her in charge. They’d almost suffered a warp core breach two torpedo blasts ago, but the Chief Engineer had given her life to stop it from going critical giving them a few precious minutes. Several more had given limbs, blood and pain to keep the shields up, though they were barely holding. The only thing working was the life support and that was touch-and-go.
They were going to die. That much was clear. Gingerly, she pressed a hand to the wound on her head and peered out with her one eye. She would initiate General Order Thirteen if she didn’t know that their attacker was just going to shoot down the evacuation shuttles. She’d seen it with the Weatherby - their captain had made the call, and no sooner had the shuttles taken off than the vessel fired on them, killing everyone.
‘SIR, another ship just dropped out of warp!’
First Officer Mendel of the USS Frenzotal snapped up to an incredible sight, distracted from the impending torpedoes streaking towards the battered cruiser. A white ship constructed in the classic-style of Starfleet cruiser-type vessels dove underneath the alien vessel, lashing at it with long strips of red. Dozens of red bursts flew from the unknown ship, hitting their attacker and neutralizing the torpedoes that had been meant for them.
The alien vessel stopped its attacks, seemingly indecisive before starting its barrage again, this time with the new ship as the target. Sparks lit up the darkness as those torpedoes ran into the shields. The ship buckled but pressed on, executing beautifully an upward swing. Her breath caught. Red phaser beams lanced out again and again, furiously pounding the fearsome exoskeleton of the alien vessel, as the ship completed its circumference and then slipped underneath to escape a barrage of torpedoes.
‘Who are they?’ She demanded.
Across the bridge, one of the few officers left conscious scrambled over the debris to reach the communications console. ‘No transponder ID.’
But they were Starfleet! They had to be - that ship design was Starfleet for sure! That move - it was the Hyzy maneuver, something top pilots learnt in Academy.
‘They’ve drawn the vessel’s fire…’ someone whispered in shock.
‘Hail them!’ She ordered the officer at the communications board.
‘I can’t, sir! Same interference!’
Mendel refused to flinch as she saw torpedoes gouge into their rescuer’s shields, saw the flickers of the shields struggling to maintain integrity, and saw the ship buckle underneath the onslaught. Something inside of her choked up. Run, she wanted to scream, run away. In the chaos of the silent battle raging in front of her, she didn’t catch the flare from the long warp narcelles before suddenly the ship was gone, and a moment later, the alien vessel as well.
‘They’ve jumped into warp… they’ve drawn the vessel away!’ Someone behind her gasped.
Silence descended abruptly and as if aware that it was no longer under threat, everything went dark and consoles stopped responding entirely. Even the viewscreen telemetry displays flickered out, leaving it simply as an observation port. The Jonah-class ship listed silently to the side in the darkness of space, adrift. Scorch marks had been scratched down its sides, its innards were showing in several large hull breaches and there were still parts of the hull sparking from the burn, red and painful like open sores.
But they were alive. Around her the remaining officers broke into cries and cheers, confused but jubilant and alive.
For the first time in what felt like days Mendel allowed herself to take a deep breath. Then another. And then another.
part twenty-three
Link to other parts
A/N: the next part will be out quickly cos I half-wrote it as part of this bit and then found it too long so had to chop -- can't wait until it's over. Not that I dislike the fic or anything, but when it's over I will be able to rejoice. :D Plus I'm using way too much time writing the Star Trek Pern AU thing right now... is anyone interested in that??