2.7 - The USS Enterprise

~~*~~

As much as he wanted to look around the beautiful new ship that he was stationed on, Cali didn't have time as he was already changed into his new uniform, red shirt like his last but a lot more comfortable, and on his way to the bridge as soon as he stepped foot off the shuttle. Everyone had to report immediately to stations, this was an emergency mission.

As he stepped off the turbolift, Cali spotted a few familiar faces and felt a lot more comfortable as he set himself up at his station, one of the science stations closest to the left turbolift that was facing away from the main viewscreen.

Sat at the helm and weapons, he recognised Sulu and Chekov respectively and of course, he knew the captain, Pike, who was stood to the side in the doorway to his ready room. After a moment, Spock stepped off of the turbolift, doing a sweep of the bridge before taking his seat on the station next to Cali's.

As Spock entered, Captain Pike spotted him, moving from his standing place and over to his and greeted him, since he was the first officer on this ship, "Mister Spock."

"Captain." Spock acknowledged, "Engineering reports ready for launch."

"Thank you. Ladies and gentlemen, the maiden voyage of our newest flagship deserves more pomp and circumstance than we can afford today." Pike announced to the bridge crew as he walked slowly to his chair, drawing everyone to turn their chairs and selves to look at him as he spoke, "A christening will just have to be our reward for a safe return. Carry on." As he finished, taking his seat in the captain's chair, everyone turned back around, immediately getting on with their work. As Cali turned back in his chair so he was facing away from the captain, he heard him use the communicator in the arm of the chair, "All decks, this is Captain Pike, prepare for immediate departure." As he finished, he turned to Sulu, "Helm, thrusters."

"Moorings retracted, Captain. Dock control reports ready. Thrusters, fired. Separating from Spacedock." As he said that, Cali could feel the ship move slightly. Although all ships had automated gravity and stabilisers ensuring limited interference with the crew while the ship moved, you could always tell if the ground beneath you was turning, at impulse or at warp. "The fleet's cleared Spacedock, Captain. All ships ready for warp."

"Set course for Vulcan." Pike ordered.

"Aye aye, Captain. Course laid in."

"Maximum warp. Punch it."

Cali heard as Sulu pushed the ship into warp, but then frowned when it didn't move. As he turned to see what was wrong, he saw everyone else on the bridge had also turned to look at Sulu.

"Lieutenant, where's Helmsman McKenna?"

"He has lungworm, sir. He couldn't report to his post. I'm Hikaru Sulu."

"And you are a pilot, right?"

"Uh, very much so, sir. I'm, uh, not sure what's wrong." He admitted, looking back to his station to try and work out what he had done wrong. Cali felt bad for Sulu, knowing that this was the first time he had piloted such a large starship.

"Is the parking break on?" Pike asked jokingly, turned to make eye contact with Spock, who had been in charge of assigning posts for his ship.

"Uh, no. I'll figure it out, I'm just, uh..." Sulu laughed awkwardly, feeling the pressure.

"Have you disengaged the external inertial dampener?"

Freezing for a moment, Sulu realise that the Vulcan was right and silently pressed a few buttons, "Ready for warp, sir."

"Let's punch it." Pike ordered again, smiling in amusement, as Sulu actually managed to put the ship into warp this time.

Cali had heard from Jim that Pike was always a nice captain, him being the person who had persuaded Jim to actually sign up to Starfleet in the first place and had turned into a father figure for the man. Now he could see what he meant. A lot of captains would have replaced Sulu immediately for messing up on such an important mission.

~~*~~

Cali zoned out of the goings on of the bridge as he focused on his own work, until he heard Chekov giving his announcement.

"May I have your attention, please. At twenty-two hundred hours, telemetry detected at an anomaly in the neutral zone. What appeared to be a lightning storm in space. Soon after, Starfleet received a distress signal from Wulcan High Command that their planet was experiencing seismic actiwity. Our mission is to assess the condition of Wulcan, and to assist in the ewacuations if necessary. We should be arriving at Wulcan within three minutes. Thank you for your time."

Lightning storm in space? Cali couldn't remember why, but the phrase was familiar to him. He shrugged the feeling off as he turned back to his workstation, but quickly flipped back around when people suddenly ran onto the bridge, one voice sounding all too familiar.

"Captain!" Jim shouted, just as he entered the bridge, being chased by Uhura and Bones, both trying to stop him, "Captain Pike, we have to stop the ship!"

Pike stood from his chair, frowning at Jim at the intrusion, "Kirk, how the hell did you get on board the Enterprise!"

Both Cali and Spock stood up from their chairs at their stations, having easily recognised the intruder. While Spock tensed at Jim's arrival, Cali relaxed. He hadn't even realised that he had been tense, not knowing Jim's fate, until he had appeared in front of him. Spock noted Cali's reaction to his side, but also noticed how he subconsciously took a step closer to himself rather than Jim, as if sensing Spock's tension.

Jim spotted Cali as he stood up, looking to Jim questioningly. He couldn't help but feel glad knowing that Cai was on the same ship as himself, knowing he'd be able to protect him better. Spotting the Vulcan next to Cali, he reluctantly felt a little more relieved, knowing he would likely look after him as well, able to tell that they two had somehow mended their broken bond at some point recently.

"Captain, this man's under the influence of a severe reaction of a Melvaran flea vaccine, completely delusional. I take full responsibility." Bones explained, trying to get Jim to shut up as he shouted "Bones" several times over the man to interrupt. What was wrong with him? Cali wondered, giving Jim a worried look over at Bones' words, but he looked fine.

"Vulcan is not experiencing a natural disaster. It's being attacked by Romulans."

"Romulans? Cadet Kirk, I think you've had enough attention for one day." He stated, sounding rather disappointed and angry at Jim before turning to Bones, "McCoy take him back to medical, we'll have words later."

"Aye Captain."

"Look, sir, that same anomaly—"

"Mister Kirk—"

"Mister Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel." Spock announced, stepping forward in annoyance at the cadet being on board, even if he had spotted Cali's shoulders loose their tension at seeing the man.

"Look, I get it, you're a great arguer. I'd love to do it again with you too." Jim commented, looking to Spock, though he could see Cali behind the man giving him a look, telling him off.

"I can remove the Cadet—" Spock offered, taking a step towards the captain and cadet, but was interrupted by Jim, snapping at him.

"Try it! This Cadet is trying to save the bridge."

"By recommending a full stop mid-warp during a rescue mission?" Not able to see any logic in his claims.

"It's not a rescue mission, listen, it's an attack."

"Based on what facts?"

"That same anomaly, a lightning storm in space that we saw today, also occurred on the day of my birth. Before a Romulan ship attacked the USS Kelvin." Jim explained, looking to Pike, "You know that, sir, I read your dissertation. 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 twenty-three hundred hours last night, there was an attack. Forty-seven Klingon warbirds destroyed by a Romulan, sir. It was reported that the Romulans were in one ship, one massive ship."

"And you know of this Klingon attack how?" Pike questioned. Jim shouldn't have had information like that.

Jim turned to Uhura, who looked reluctant for a moment, before speaking up, confirming what Jim had said. "Sir, I intercepted and translated the message myself. Kirk's report is accurate." Uhura stepped forward, vouching for Jim. Cali never thought he'd see the day she'd agree with him.

"We're warping into a trap, sir. The Romulans are waiting for us, I promise you that."

"The Cadet's logic is sound. And Lieutenant Uhura is almost unmatched in xenolinguistics," Spock assured, his eyes flicking back to Cali for a moment, that didn't go unmissed by the captain, "we would be wise to accept her conclusion."

Pike turned to Cali, "You cadet?"

"Cadet Caliaire, sir." Cali replied.

"Can you scan Vulcan space, checking for any transmissions in Romulan."

"I can sir, but I'm only fluent in two of their dialects."

Pike turned to Uhura. "What about you? Do you speak Romulan, Cadet?

"Uhura. All three dialects, sir."

"Uhura, assist the cadet." Pike ordered.

"Yes sir." Uhura nodded, immediately moving to Cali's station. Cali gestured for her to take the seat while he stood to the side, each of them holding an ear piece so they could scan for the transmission while also keeping an ear on the bridge.

"Hannity, hail the USS Truman."

"All the other ships are out of warp, sir, and have arrived at Vulcan, but we seemed to have lost all contact."

Uhura and Cali looked between each other with frowns as they listened to silence on the earpieces. "Sir, we are picking up no Romulan transmission." Uhura announced as Cali pressed a few more buttons, trying to pick something, anything up.

"Or transmission of any kind in the area." Cali continued, looking over at the captain just as worried before his eyes flickered over to Jim and Spock.

"It's because they're being attacked." Jim said finally, looking pleadingly to Pike. He was right, he knew it. And now Pike knew it too.

"Shields up, red alert." Pike ordered, taking his seat and everyone immediately turned to their stations again, having all been watching the argument with fearful interest. Spock and Jim moved to stand by the railing behind the Captain's seat so they were out of the way. Cali moved out of the way of Uhura, trusting her to man the station while he kept the second ear piece in just in case they heard something, and moved over to Jim, making sure he was okay.

"Arrival in Vulcan in five seconds... four... three... two..." Sulu announced, counting down causing Spock and Jim to look between each other, both spotting Cali just behind them.

Suddenly, the ship dropped out of warp. It immediately shook as large pieces of debris out in space crashed into them. Everyone standing up lost their footing for a moment as they were thrown forward, but most had a place to grab onto.

Spock and Jim braced themselves on the railing, but Cali, who was still stood behind the two, only had them. He grabbed onto their forearms, catching their attention as they both quickly used their inner arms to steady him, both suddenly worried about him getting hurt. After steading himself, he let go with a nod to his helpers, allowing himself and Spock to rush back to their stations while Jim stayed where he was, not having anywhere to go.

Suddenly more debris hit onto the ship, causing it to shake again, luckily, it wasn't at bad that time and Cali was able to stay standing by holding onto the back of Uhura's chair.

"Damage report." Pike shouted over the blaring alarms. "All stations. Engineer Olson, report."

Then, as Sulu managed to piolet them under a large piece of circular debris, everyone spotted the Romulan ship in the distance. It was huge. Much larger than the Enterprise or any Starfleet vessel. It was made up of hundreds of thinner parts going off of the main head.

It was terrifying.

"Captain, they're locking torpedoes." Spock announced, spotting the warning on his station screen.

"Avert auxiliary power from port nacelles to forward shields." Pike ordered as the ship swerves to try and avoid the incoming torpedoes, though the whole ship shook to the side again as there was an impact. "Sulu, status report."

"Shields at thirty-two percent. They're weapons are powerful, sir. We can't take another hit like that."

"Get me Starfleet Command".

"Captain, the Romulan ship has lowered some kind of high energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere. It's signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter abilities." Spock announced. That explained why Cali still couldn't hear any transmissions happening on Vulcan or the enemy ship.

"All power to forward shields. Prepare to fire all weapons."

Just as Pike ordered it, Cali spotted a hail coming through from the Romulan ship. "Captain, we're being hailed." He announced, turning around to face the front just as Uhura did the same and the image of a Romulan man appeared on the screen

"Hello." He greeted as he appeared, making the whole bridge go silent for a moment, everyone turning to the view screen so they could see the people that were attacking them and had killed everyone on the other ships.

"I'm Captain Christopher Pike. To whom am I speaking." Pike questioned.

"Hi Christopher, I'm Nero." The man greeting normally, a small nod of his head as a hello making Cali frown. His speaking sounded like that of a child. It was unnerving.

"You've declared war against the Federation. Withdraw. I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral location."

"I do not speak for the Empire." Nero interrupted, looking away from the captain and behind him, at Spock, "We stand apart. As does your Vulcan crewmember, isn't that right, Spock?"

Cali looked over at his friend as he stood up to address the Romulan. "Pardon me, I do not believe that you and I are acquainted?"

"No, we're not. Not yet." He answered cryptically, making Cali take a step closer to the Vulcan protectively. "Spock, there's something I would like you to see. 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, come aboard the Narada, for negotiations. That is all." Nero explained simply before moving whatever he was using to hail us causing it to end.

There was a tense pause as everyone looked to their captain, waiting for him to tell them what they were to do. Then he stood up.

"He'll kill you, you know that." Jim told Pike, the worry in his voice making Cali immediately walk over to him to offer comfort.

"Your survival is unlikely." Spock agreed quickly.

"Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake." Jim went on, grabbing Cali's hand next to him to squeeze. Cali knew that Jim thought of Pike as a father figure, something he desperately needed.

"I, too, agree. You should re-think your strategy." Spock jumped in again, making Cali internally smile that they were getting along.

"I understand that. I need officers who have been trained in advanced hand-to-hand combat."

"I have training, sir." Sulu replied, raising his hand to volunteer.

"Come with me." He called as he began walking off the bridge, making Sulu stand up and follow behind. "Kirk, you too. You're not supposed to be here anyway." Jim didn't say anything, simply following after his captain. Cali was going to return to his station, but Jim kept a tight hold on his hand, pulling him along so he was forced to follow along with Bones and Spock. "Chekov, you have the conn." Pike ordered finally before stepping off the bridge with his several tails.

~~*~~

I apologise for all of the high dialog chapters like these ones to come. Unfortunately, action movies are pushed along by words or very fast pace but short fight scenes meaning it's hard for me to write anything other than to the script.