I do not own Star Trek 2009 or Supernatural.

Although not exactly a sequel as such, this follows after Diplomatic Conflict Resolution and may shape up to be the next saga-length story. Let me know what you think!

Prologue

Impala – Neutral Zone

"Well, we are officially way up shit creek without a paddle," Captain Dean Winchester declared with false cheer from his command chair, trying and failing to keep himself from counting the large number of hostile ships arrayed against the Impala. No warp speed, no weapons, faltering shields and no communications, Impala was deep in the middle of nowhere with no allies to back her up.

"Or a canoe," his brother added unhelpfully, wiping at a sluggishly bleeding cut on his forehead and coughing on the haze of smoke choking the battered bridge.

"Yes, thank you Commander Obvious."

Lieutenant Luke Castiel swivelled around in his chair to face his captain, mild confusion written all over his face. "I do not understand. There is no such thing as Shit Creek in space and we do not need a paddle or a canoe in this instance."

Dean chuckled, causing Castiel's confusion to shift over to annoyance. The kid still didn't get most colloquialisms and it was always funny to watch the pilot try and puzzle out the hidden meaning.

He wished he could have saved Cas and Jo at least. They were the innocents on board, the ones who hadn't had cynicism beaten into their cells by life just yet. He didn't dare think that about Sam – if the younger Winchester knew Dean was considering leaving him behind, Sam would nail his ass to the closest wall before Dean could blink.

"Dean?" Sam asked and the captain was yanked from his thoughts. They still hadn't made visual confirmation with the jackasses threatening them although if Dean had to guess, they were probably extremist Romulans. Again. At any rate, the enemy was deadly serious. Impala had been out with the Hokkaido running tag-team tests on a certain section of empty, harmless space when the trap had been sprung. Despite Captain Hiroshi's prudence, experience and highly-reliable crew, the Hokkaido was now so much space dust swirling around the Impala. Dean's ship had survived only thanks to Bobby's inventive engineering.

The Hokkaido's sister ship hadn't even managed to save one single life.

That fact sat in Dean's gut and burned like a red hot coal.

He sighed and reluctantly came to the only decision he could feasibly make. "Tell our new friends that they can go to hell and activate the self-destruct. Impala doesn't negotiate with terrorists."

Then Captain Dean Winchester prepared to bluff for his life and the lives of everyone under his command.

Earth, Starfleet Command, three weeks later…

Captain Jim Kirk stared at the convened Admiralty with flabbergasted dismay. "What do you mean, you're not sending a ship to extract the Impala?" he demanded in tones dangerously close to insubordination.

Admiral Vance sighed and rubbed his forehead, lines of stress and exhaustion deepening in the face of Kirk's righteous outrage. The rest of the admirals, Pike included, had the grace to flinch at Kirk's stridently disbelieving voice. "If any Starfleet ship crosses into Romulan territory, the Romulan ruling council will take it as an act of aggression. They don't know where the terrorists took the Impala but have promised to look into it. Additionally, we still don't know if the Impala survived the encounter and as such, if there is even anyone to rescue." Vance's voice was weary and carefully paced so not to show tension.

"Bullshit. Sir." Kirk snapped, slamming a fist down on the table he had been pacing around with enough force to make a few of the more sedate Admirals jump. "That's a load of posturing crap and you know it."

"Watch your tone, captain," Cartwright shot back. "None of us are happy about this – I now have to figure out how we're going to get a vital vaccine to an area of space that only the Impala could reach in time. But the fact of the matter is we cannot take action without angering the Romulans. They don't want a Constitution-class ship poking around the more private areas of the Romulan Empire. And we cannot send the Federation to war over one Miranda-class crew, even one so famous as the Impala. That's our final word on the matter. And Kirk," the old man leaned forward without his usual animosity, "if you should decide to take action yourself, successful or not, we will have to act accordingly to appease the Romulans. The entire Federation cannot be jeopardized for the sake of one small crew."

In short, if Kirk went AWOL and saved his friends he'd probably end up in jail for a very long time if he was lucky enough to miss getting handed over to the Romulans by Starfleet as a sacrificial lamb. And if he took anyone with him, they'd suffer the same fate.

Muscles jumped along Kirk's jaw line and the sound of grinding teeth could be heard even by the slightly deaf Admiral Sennchal. Kirk had to concede Cartwright's point. Especially since Cartwright may have been a douche in the past but for months now he had been treating the Enterprise and Impala with unparalleled, impressively impartial professionalism. Kirk could now see how in his younger days, this had been the admiral who had successfully run a gauntlet of Klingon ships in an unarmed shuttle to rescue a diplomat's daughter.

"Do you understand?" Pike asked finally, speaking for the first time. Kirk was had pressed not to shoot the admiral a look of betrayal. Pike had always been firmly in their court, always backing the Enterprise or Impala in whatever they did. Still, Kirk managed to nod neutrally and swept out of the conference room feeling very much like a ticking photon torpedo. On one hand (the rational, Spock-like hand), Kirk understood. Really, he did. Pike was caught in a hard place between the Federation Council and a crew he had picked personally – risk billions of lives, thousands of planets, all for less than three hundred people?

Still, Kirk couldn't imagine making the decision.

Good thing he wasn't an admiral.

Instead, he stormed down the halls of Starfleet Command, face set like a thundercloud as he tried to puzzle out how this happened and what he was going to do about it.

He came to one conclusion.

He had a ship to steal.