Hi all,

I've decided to continue despite the negative comments I received. It is my hope that it would be understood that this story is meant to be a slightly different interpretation of the original. After all, there is no female Kirk.

This chapter is far closer to the original than I would prefer but there aren't really any changes I can do while remaining relatively close to the basic plot. I am asking that you respect my interpretation of the original. Simply writing the same thing make it repetitive and dull. It has been done many times and I don't want that for all of you.

Tishbing

Chapter Six

Bones and Uhura struggled to keep up with Jim but were unsuccessful, only managing to follow at a fast run rather than overtaking her as she burst from the lift, sweating and swollen but determined.

"Captain Pike! That energy surge near Vulcan-"

A surprised Pike stared at her in disbelief before his eyes fell onto McCoy. "What is she doing here?"

"It's my fault, sir." McCoy resigned himself to one of the shortest careers in the history of Starfleet.

Pike gave McCoy a look that promised retribution later and turned to Jim. "Why are you on my bridge and this explanation had better be good."

Kirk steadied herself, ready to fight for her beliefs. "I checked the complete available scientific description of the energy surge that was reported near Vulcan. They're almost identical to what was detected just before the attack on the USS Kelvin by a romulan ship more than twenty years ago-the day I was born. Furthermore, sir, if you'll remember from your dissertation, it was described as a 'lightning storm in space'.

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. At 2300 hours last night, there was an attack; 47 Klingon warbirds were destroyed by Romulans and it was reported that they were in one ship, one massive ship! It's the same one!"

Jim's chest was heaving, her expression showing her desperation to convince Pike, to prevent another disaster from happening. It was her nightmare in bright technicolor. The dark shadows that haunted her dreams, the monsters under her bed; growing up they had always been Romulan.

Pike's expression darkened. "And you know of this transmission, how?"

Uhura shifted guiltily when Jim's eyes snapped towards her. "Sir, I intercepted and translated the transmission myself. Kirk's report is accurate."

Jim stepped forward, seeing a lieutenant in the corner of her eye moving a hand to reach for a side-arm to subdue her if necessary. She needed to make them understand. She needed them to see that she wasn't crazy. "We're warping into a trap, sir. The Romulans are waiting for us. I promise you, sir."

Pike considered her words and the implications behind them. He turned to Commander Spock. He needed a second opinion and he knew that the science officer considered facts and logic rather than his own personal opinions. "The cadet's logic is sound. Lieutenant Uhura's record in xenolinguistis is unmatched in recent records, Captain. We would be wise to accept their conclusion."

The fact that even Spock agreed that they were going into a trap; that the situation was likely far more grave than they had anticipated put him on alert.

He turned to communications. "Scan Vulcan space. Check for any transmissions in Romulan."

The Bolian at her station looked uneasy. "Sir, I'm not sure I can distinguish the Romulan dialect from Vulcan."

Pike saw Lieutenant Uhura straighten. "What about you?" He asked. "Can you speak Romulan?"

"All three dialects, sir."

He jerked his head to communications. "Uhura, relieve the lieutenant."

"Yes, sir."

Silence enveloped the bridge like a thick blanket, the crew's anxiety peaking with the unknown hovering above them. "Uhura, hail Captain Alexander aboard the Newton."

As she complied, Spock shot Kirk an attentive look, likely reconsidering his support of her interpretation of the facts surrounding his home planet's distress signal.

Uhura's response was confused and wary. "Sir, our hail's not getting through. There's some kind of us dose interference blocking us."

Pike grit his teeth. "Try Captain Garrovick of the Farragut."

Uhura worked the board, her fingers flying over the controls fluidly. "No response."

"A general hail, then. Any ship!" He snapped.

"Nothing, sir. No response from any of the fleet."

He turned to navigation. "Chekov, what's the estimated arrival of the fleet to Vulcan?"

The young ensign checked his readouts. "They should be arriving now, sir."

Pike considered his options to determine Kirk's prediction. He trusted it but he still wanted more data to prepare his crew for the possibility of attack. "Commander Spock, display their automated transponder signals. See if those are strong enough to get through the interference if it was only focused on communications."

Kirk watched as a window overlaid the starscape previously displayed in the view screen. Her unease as she saw the blue dots slowing. The Farragut, Excelsior, Armstrong, Defiant, Newton, and so on. A veritable armada. She watched as the ships suddenly moved erratically rather than the standard configurations when arriving at a planet. She knew it wasn't good.

"See, Jim. They're all there and fine." Bones insisted.

"Wait." She said low, her heart beating wildly as she watched a dot disappear. McCoy froze next to her.

"Captain, the Newton is no longer transmitting." Spock's voice was unusually calm and it grated on her. They all knew what that meant. The ship had been destroyed.

The bridge watched in horror as another dot vanished, the Excelsior. Then the Armstrong. The Farragut.

"Sir, there are only four...three...two ships transmitting."

Spock's calm voice seemed unnatural when compared with the devastated emotions of the crew permeating the bridge. They had all had friends, colleagues, and possibly significant others on those ships.

"Red alert! Ready all weapons!" Pike's voice boomed and Jim tensed in anticipation, one hand reaching out to Bones while the other gripped a console. She knew this was bad. She just hadn't known how bad it was going to become.

"Arrival at Vulcan in four...three...two..."

"Evasive!" Pike roared.

"On it, sir!" Sulu replied.

Bones shifted to grip Jim's shoulder as the ship struggled to compensate with the sudden turn to avoid debris. Jim saw a section of hull flaming with plasma, disintegrating and spinning out of control in space. The name Defiant barely distinguishable beneath the charred, twisted metal.

"Good God!" Bones gasped. Their eyes met and they both knew that they needed a miracle. McCoy turned and ran for the turbolift, likely going to the medbay. He knew with utter certainty that he would be needed.

It was chaos over Vulcan. Jim had never before hoped to be proven wrong but she had in this instance. Sadly, she had been right. This was the stuff of nightmares, the horror stories you hear from your academy instructors when they described the war with the Romulans over a hundred years ago before a delicate peace had been established.

The two remaining ships were engaged in a desperate and losing battle against an enormous craft. No one had ever seen anything like it. It was still against the backdrop of Vulcan as the two ships fired but nothing penetrated the shields. It was a futile battle. Meanwhile, an unending stream of torpedoes and phaser fire launched from the gargantuan, black craft and detonated against the ships, hammering away at their defenses.

"Get us in there! Now!" Pike ordered.

"No identifiable registry on the ship. Energy signatures, deployed weapons systems, design-all unknown." Spock's eyes were wide as he watched the view screen after delivering his report. Jim knew he had never seen or experienced anything like it, likely never experienced loss and chaos, only seeing it via a book and evaluating it with detachment. He was out of his element.

"Get Starfleet Command on subspace!" Pike shouted. "We need reenforcements, now!"

Uhura frantically worked the comm and her response was almost immediate. "Negative! All outgoing transmissions are subject to severe interruption emanating from the vicinity of Vulcan." She paused and looked up, her eyes wide. "I think I've detected the source. There's a signature-very advanced, but identifiable of a plasma drill operating in the atmosphere of Vulcan. Sir, they're drilling into the core of the planet."

Pike absorbed the words with as detached a manner as he could while focusing on the battle surrounding them. "Evasive maneuvers. Attack pattern indigo three."

The USS Agamemnon exploded in front of them as they returned fire. One ship left. "Get us between the hostile and the USS Cochrane. Provide coverage."

The Enterprise launched volley after volley of phaser fire but, like the ships before them, it seemed to make no difference. Their ship shuddered under the impact of weapons fire as the Romulan ship took notice of their arrival.

"Sir, ze Cochran is gone! Hull breach on decks four through ten. Sealing now with emergency bulkheads. Shields down to thirty-three per cent."

Jim had to reign in her fears for Bones. Medical was on deck five.

"Continue evasive, come about ninety degrees! Mister Sulu, try to get us under them. Their weapons systems may struggle to get a fix on us. Prepare to fire all weapons!"

Sulu turned to the command chair. "Their weapons are powerful. We can't take another hit like that."

"Captain, the Romulan ship has lowered some kind of high energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere. It's output is blocking all incoming and outgoing transmissions as well as transporter capabilities." Spock shouted above the din on the bridge.

Jim felt the fear that Spock had tried to teach her but it was accompanied by outrage and anger at the senseless destruction of so many lives. It was a familiar feeling that she had been intimate with several times in her life when she had been up against more powerful opponents.

Without any form of incoming or outgoing communication, no one would even be aware of what was happening. They couldn't warn anyone nor could they come to help.

As suddenly as the attack had come, it stopped. The sudden silence was deafening as no more shots were fired at the Enterprise. The bridge crew looked at each other in confusion and trepidation at the change of behavior of the enemy.

"Captain, we're being hailed by the enemy ship." Uhura told them.

"How are zey getting through interference?" Chekov shook his head at his instrument read outs.

"How are they drilling through a planet?" Kirk muttered aloud.

Pike had no time for casual speculation. Any minute they were not under attack was time they could use to make repairs and tend to the wounded, another minute for engineering to try and reinforce ships defenses. They needed every advantage they could get with the condition they were in. They were a literal David against Goliath.

"On screen."

The view screen changed and coalesced and the image left no doubt as to who they were dealing with anymore. The humanoid was Romulan, tattoos covering his face. He was calm and collected, no raised voices surrounding him or even hints that he had been in battle moments before.

"Hello."

"I am Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking?"

The Romulan's eyes darted around the bridge before he answered. "Hi, Christopher. I'm Nero."

Jim couldn't help the glare she directed at him. The lack of emotion, the condescending tone directed towards them. She felt sick with anger at the name that had haunted her dreams, that had taken her father and, by extension, her mother and brother from her. She knew that name, had read it in reports that she had hacked as a teen in a desperate attempt to make sense of her father's death. She had read it in Captain Pike's dissertation, had heard his voice before in her nightmares as a child.

Pike straightened in the chair? "You've declared war against the federation. Withdraw and I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location."

"I do not speak for the Empire." He interrupted. "We stand apart." He turned his gaze to the side of the bridge. "As does your Vulcan crew member. Isn't that right, Spock?"

All eyes fixed on the commander and the blond felt a sense of foreboding.

"Pardon me but I do not believe you and I are acquainted." The Enterprise's science officer replied coolly.

Nero's eyes narrowed at the lack of emotional response. "No. We're not. Not yet, anyway. Spock, there's something I want you to see." Returning his attention to Pike, Nero continued. "Captain, if you are not already aware of the fact, your transporter capability is disabled along with your communications. As you can see by the rest of your armada, you have no choice. You will man a shuttle and board our ship for negotiations." He smiled slightly. "By yourself."

The communication abruptly shut off. Pike thought hard and fast. How much time would this Nero allocate for talk when his vessel was clearly the superior one? How long could he hold out and stall the enemy?

"Sir, with all due respect, what are you doing? He'll kill you when he's finished with you. You know that!" She vehemently protested. She knew duty and honor but this was, not only her captain who she was supposed to protect, but her daughter's godfather, practically a father to her as well.

Behind them Spock added to her argument. 'It would be highly illogical to trust the word of-"

"I know that." Pike stood from his seat. "I need an officer skilled in hand-to-hand combat."

Sulu's hand shot up immediately. "I am, sir."

The older man nodded in his direction. "The you come with me. Mister Spock, also." His lips thinned in an angry line. "Kirk, you as well. You're not supposed to be here anyway."

As he headed for the lift, he added towards the bridge's youngest crew member. "Chekov, contact engineering and have chief engineer Olson meet us in the shuttle bay."

The journey to the shuttle bay took far too long and it allowed the knowledge in Jim's head to twist and spin, possibilities spewing forth and each one worse than the last.

"Without transporters we can't beam off the ship, we can't assist Vulcan, we can't do our job. Yourself," he looked to Jim, "Mister Sulu, and Engineer Olson will space jump from the shuttle. You will land on that machine being lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear, you will get inside, disable it, and then you will beam back to the ship." Spock looked behind him to view Kirk and Sulu. I will do my best to give you time to do this. While he is preoccupied with me, it is my hope that he will leave the Enterprise alone."

Pike continued. "I'll get you as close as I can without raising suspicion. A trio of of driverless free-falling humans should go unnoticed."

Jim and Sulu exchanged a meaningful look. It was the first time they had done so. A joint, potential, suicide mission had a way of forging bonds. She couldn't let her concerns about the baby growing inside her affect her duties. They needed to stop Nero at all costs for any of them to survive. She just hoped Bones would forgive her if it went south.

"Mister Spock, I'm leaving you in command of the Enterprise. Once we have transporter capabilities and communications back up with Starfleet you will contact them and report what the hell is going on and send for reenforcements. And, if all else fails, you will fall back to the Laurentuan system."

"Kirk, I'm promoting you to first officer." Pike said simply and it caused her to almost halt in her tracks, only the urgency of the situation forcing her to continue.

"Excuse me?" She said incredulously.

Spock was similarly confused and, perhaps, questioning the captain's sanity under such a stressful situation. "Captain, I apologize but the complexities of human pranks escapes me."

"This isn't a joke, Spock. And I'm not the captain. You are. While I'm gone we need to maintain the chain of command." He smiled tightly. "And you two make one hell of a team. I've seen it during your interactions despite your differences."

The vulcan looked at Kirk with barely veiled antagonism but she met his eyes with steely determination.

"If we-" She corrected herself. "When we disable the drill, sir. What happens to you? You'll be stuck on the Romulan ship and they sure as hell won't be too happy with the turn of events."

Pike offered a wry grin. "I guess you'll just have to come and get me." Focusing on the Commander-no, Acting Captain now, Pike finished his orders, attempting to invoke confidence. "Careful with the ship while I'm gone. She's new."