2.16 - Collision Course

~~*~~

Spock ran through the unfamiliar corridors, knowing the path he needed to follow thanks to the mind meld, as Jim ran several feet behind, trying to catch up to the surprisingly fast Vulcan.

Then Spock found his destination and the two come to a stop. Breathless and awed.

They were stood several meters away from a fairly large futuristic shuttlecraft, placed centre and on display in a gigantic multifloored room, possibly the ship's shuttle bay. It stood out among the messy interior of the main ship with it's blueish-silver smooth and clean flat circular body.

Without a word, Jim started again, running towards the ship, this time Spock following him as they made their way underneath the body. Jim paused briefly as he reached the metallic silver stared entrance to the ship, spinning to look around for any threats while Spock made his way on right away.

The inside was all clean and white, in stark contrast to the rusty looking ship it was kept inside. In the centre of the main room was a large cylindrical container standing from floor to ceiling with clear walls. Stored inside was a strange red sphere. While it floated perfectly in place a foot or two from the ground, the sphere was reflective and appeared to be made out of solid, and yet liquid matter.

"I foresee a complication." Spock announced as they made their way into the middle of the ship, "The design of this ship is far more advanced than I've anticipated."

"Voice print and face recognition analysis enabled. Welcome back, Ambassador Spock." A computerised Vulcan female voice announced as soon as Spock had spoken.

"Wow, that's weird." Jim said in dismissal, looking down slightly as he passed the Vulcan into the main control bridge, so not to meet Spock's eyes.

"Computer, what is your manufacturing origin?" Spock questioned, looking around the mysterious ship in confusion.

"Stardate twenty-three eighty-seven. Commissioned by the Vulcan Science Academy." The computer replied robotically.

Spock quickly turned and made his way after Jim, who was leaning against one of the large windows that surrounded the control chair. "It appears that you have been keeping important information from me." Spock commented accusingly.

"You'll be able to fly this thing, right?" Jim questioned, ignoring Spock, believing something bad would happen if the spoke of the information Spock was questioning.

"Something tells me I already have." Spock replied, raising an eyebrow at the man.

"Good luck." Jim wished, making his way off of the ship in order to complete the other half of the mission.

"Jim." Spock called making Jim pause and turn to face the Vulcan, "The statistical likelihood that our plan will succeed is less than four-point-three percent."

"It'll work." Jim assured him with a nod and went to turn back around to leave before being interrupted by Spock again.

"In the event that I do not return, please tell Cadet Caliaire—"

"Spock." Jim interrupted, not wanting to even think about the possibility of either of them not getting back to their angel, "It'll work. You can tell him yourself."

Spock stayed standing where he was as Jim made his way off the ship for a moment, his mind still racing about the possibility of not seeing the Polyvore again. Not getting to tell him... What was he even going to ask Jim to tell him?

He slowly shook the thoughts away and moved towards the front of the ship, taking a seat on the triangular chair. As he sat, it suddenly began turning slowly, orienting itself so that he was facing the controls. "Fascinating." Spock said aloud, an eyebrow raised and a slight nod of his head.

~~*~~

Jim ran off the ship as he heard it begin to come alive, stopping and turning to look up at the window, spotting Spock in the seat, as the entrance closed.

Inside, the compute announced, "Start-up sequence initiated," as the feet of the ship began retracting and the ship pulled upwards, beginning to take flight.

The inner ring on the ship and the tendrils that surrounded the beak like thruster at the back began rotating and spinning as the head of the Jellyfish rotated vertically and Spock drove it through the open hub of the outer ship.

Jim watched it go momentarily before turning suddenly and running back the way he came, on his way to find Captain Pike and hopefully stop the drill if possible.

~~*~~

Jim made his way quickly through the ship. As he got to a large sewage like tunnel, complete with water trapped in the uneven floor, he slowed his pace to a more even, though still brisk, walk. Though it was eerily quiet throughout the ship, the only thing he could hear being the general hum always found on spaceships, his own still fairly heavy breathing, and the water splashing with each step below his feet, he still stayed on his guard. His phaser was still placed in between his hands in front of his, the red end glowing slightly in the dark tunnel.

As he got to the exit of the cramped tunnel, he was stunned again by the ginormous size of the ship. There was so much empty space, random walkways and paths scattered like a web. His eyes flickered all around him, both to take in the ship and where he was, and to look out for any threats to himself, since he was still in enemy territory.

Then he suddenly raised his gun and pointed it up at one of the dead-end paths, raised a few meters from the ground in front of him. There, stood ominously still, looking down at him, was Nero.

Jim glared down the sight of his phaser at the man that had caused so much destruction and death for revenge on a man that did him no wrong. "Nero order your men to disable the drill or I will--"

Kirk was interrupted as he was suddenly decked violently from the left with the barrel of a phaser rifle, throwing him to the floor and making him lose grip on his phaser, which slid off the edge of the path he was on. Jim groaned as he fell to the floor, lifting his arms to cover himself before they fell weakly to the floor with the rest of him, on either side of his head. He stared up, dazed, trying to catch his breath as he was winded by the sudden attack.

Jim could hear as Nero ran over to him. He could see him standing over him as he tried to recover. "I know your face, from Earth's history." Nero announced, not giving Jim any more time to recover or even reply as he suddenly bent down to grab Jim's black shirt and pulled him up to his feet violently before throwing him further down the thin and haphazardly built path.

Nero pulled Jim up again, this time to his feet and immediately punched him repeatedly in quick succession. He didn't let Jim have any time to block or fight back as he was punched in the gut twice, making him bend over only to get his back slammed down on, knocking him once more to the floor.

Jim groaned on the floor. But this time, as Nero pulled him up, Jim managed to get a hit in, punching Nero with a right hook to the cheek. Unfortunately, Nero immediately backhanded Jim, causing him to lose his footing and stumble onto a slightly lower level. He gasped out in pain as his back hit the thick metallic flooring again.

"James T. Kirk was considered to be a great man." Nero taunted and he crouched down over Jim and began choking him. "He went on to captain the USS Enterprise, but that was another life." Jim tried to fight, his hands desperately clawing at Nero's to try and get him off as he felt his lungs scream to be allowed air for the second time that day. "A life I will deprive you of, just like I did your father."

As Nero enjoyed feeling the life slip from Jim, his struggles useless as he quickly began turning blue, he was interrupted by a voice of his crew on the comm. "Captain Nero, the Vulcan ship has been taken, the drill has been destroyed."

Nero stumbled, having to lean against the raised floor next to him as he suddenly felt weak, his hands leaving Jim's throat and allowing air to finally reach him again as he violently coughed and gasped below Nero. "Spock!" Nero shouted, stumbling to his feet and off of Jim, "Spooockk!"

Jim watched from the floor, trying to catch his breath, as Nero suddenly ran for the edge of the platform and jumped, landing on a lower walkway that was below.

Jim quickly used the opportunity to roll over, using the raised floor as a support to try and push himself up. As he did, the second Romulan, the one who had taken him by surprise and knocked him over, stepped over menacingly, smirking down at Jim, his rifle still in his hands.

Knowing he couldn't fight against the gun, Jim quickly got to his feet and ran. He went right for the edge of the platform Nero had ran to and jumped, flailing as he begged whatever god, or gods, were out there that he didn't fall short. But then he did. His torso slammed painfully into the edge of the platform and he quickly clawed at the metal floor to try and get some sort of grip, ignoring the pain in his ribs, as he began slipping further off.

He was so distracted with trying not to slip of to his death, he almost forgot about his Romulan attacker until someone suddenly landed effortlessly in front of him. The Romulan leaned down and grabbed Jim by the neck, lifting him up to eye level as his feet continued to dangle over the edge helplessly. Jim grabbed onto the wrist of the Romulan, clenching his eyes at the pain that was now all over. "Your species is even weaker than I expected." The Romulan mocked, faintly amused by the pathetic Human's desperate struggles.

"I can't..." Jim gasped out, once again going purple from lack of oxygen.

"You can't even speak." The Romulan mocked again, pulling Jim in closer mockingly, "What?"

Jim smirked at him, leaning himself so that he was almost whispering in the Romulan's ear. "I got your gun."

Before the Romulan could even process the words, the sound of a phaser went off and he dropped Jim. Jim quickly caught himself, once again holding onto the edge of the platform as the Romulan slowly crumpled over and fell limp down the giant metallic rabbit hole beneath them.

Jim managed to pull himself up, collapsing onto his stomach as he gasps for air, finally safely on flat ground and not dangling over the precipice. His eye caught the hand phaser that had fell to the floor just next to his head after use and snatched it, pushing himself up to continue on.

~~*~~

While Jim was fighting for his life, Spock was flying the Jellyfish ship around Nero's ship, trying to get their attention. It worked quickly as Nero's face suddenly appeared on the small screen in front of him.

"Spock, I knew I should have killed you when I had the chance." The Romulan sneered, glaring through the screen.

Spock was unbothered by the man, simply continuing on his mission, hoping Jim was alright and was doing the same. "I hereby confiscate this illegally obtained ship and order you to surrender your vessel. No terms."

Nero, obviously not accepting Spock's offer, fired eight advanced and highly deadly photon torpedoes at the Jellyfish. Spock quickly and easily manoeuvred his way around them all and quickly jumped to warp, heading in the direction of Saturn. Nero's ship quickly jumped to warp to follow.

Spock dropped out of warp in an area of empty space further away from Earth to reduce the risk of its involvement and closer to where the Enterprise was hidden and quickly turned back on himself as Nero's ship appeared behind him. He faced down the much larger ship and didn't stop even when the computer announced, "Ambassador Spock, you are on a collision course."

Dozens of missiles were fired from all over the larger ship, heading for Spock, but he kept on course. "Incoming missiles. If the ship is hit, the red matter would be ignited."

"Understood." Spock acknowledged darkly, not deterred.

Suddenly, the Enterprises warped into the battle and fired all phasers, targeting the missiles, destroying them before they got too close to Spock as he continued his collision.

~~*~~

Jim quickly found his way to his destination, Romulan phaser raised as he shot a guard. Strapped to a metal slab table in front of him was Captain Pike, who looked completely exhausted and beaten-up making Jim dread to think what they had done to him.

"What are you doing here?" Pike asked tiredly, eyes following Jim as he moved round to the other side of the table and worked quickly on undoing the straps.

"Just following orders." Jim replied with a smirk trying to ignore his painful voice as he pulled the straps from Pike's chest and legs. Behind him, Romulan guards suddenly start filing into the room. Pike quickly grabbed the gun from Jim's holster and fired over his back, defending them while Jim worked on freeing him. Jim quickly picked Pike off the table, his arm around his waist to support him while Pike's arm went over his shoulder. "Enterprise, now!" He ordered just as the Jellyfish collided with the Narada.

~~*~~

Jim, supporting Pike, appeared on the transporter pad while Spock appeared next to him in a flash of swirling white light. They looked to each other briefly, both looking pleased to see the other made it.

Jim smiled brightly, looking over to the transporter controls to see Scotty. "Nice timing, Scotty." He congratulated, moving off the pad with Pike, following Spock who moved off just before.

"Ha ha ha ha! I've never beamed three people from two targets onto one pad before." Scotty cheered loudly in celebration of himself.

The doors opened and in rushed Bones and his medical crew. "Jim!" He called to his friend, thankful to see him looking relatively uninjured and safely back on the Enterprise.

"Bones!" Jim replied, just as thankful to see his old friend as the medical team all approach and move to Pike.

"I've got him." Bones assured as he took him from Jim, allowing him to run on after Spock, needing to get to the bridge.

"That was pretty good." Scotty cheered again just as Jim and Spock left the room.

~~*~~

As Jim and Spock rush onto the bridge, Cali quickly made his way over, grabbing onto Spock's arm and placing his hand on Jim's shoulder, making them both look down at him. "We told you we'd be back." Jim assured, smiling into Cali's relieved eyes before rushing forward again. Cali turned to Spock who nodded, a faint smile at seeing his concern before he too moved forward.

"Captain, the enemy ship is losing power. Their shields are down, sir." Chekov informed Jim quickly as he happily spotted him.

"Hail them now." Jim ordered.

"Aye."

Nero's face appeared on the viewscreen as a large blackhole formed in the centre of the Narada, threatening to swallow the ship whole.

"This is Captain James T. Kirk of the USS Enterprise. Your ship is compromised. Your too close to the singularity to survive without assistance which we are willing to provide."

Spock turned away from the viewscreen, leaning into Jim to talk quietly into his ear so Nero wouldn't pick it up. "Captain, what are you doing?"

Jim turned around too, whispering back to explain himself. "Showing them compassion may be the only way to earn peace with Romulus. It's logic, Spock. Thought you'd like that."

Spock nodded once with a thoughtful face before looking into Jim's eyes. "No, not really. Not this time."

Nero's voice over the comms pulled them out of their own conversation as they both turned round to face him again. "I would rather suffer the end of Romulus a thousand times. I would rather die in agony than accept assistance from you."

"You got it." Jim replied with a smug smirk. He and Spock turned and made their way to their positions. "Arm phasers, fire everything we got."

"Yes, sir." Sulu replied happily.

They watched as the Narada was hit dozens of times by the Enterprise's weapons, tentacles being damaged and destroyed as their targeted before it all shattered and disappeared into the black hole.

"Sulu, let's go home!"

"Yes, sir!"

Despite the order, the Enterprise didn't move away from the black hole. The entire ship shook violently as it fought against the gravitational pull.

"Why aren't we at warp?" Jim shouted over the alarms and metal straining.

"We are sir." Sulu answered, trying desperately to go faster to escape their destruction.

"Kirk to engineering. Get us out of here, Scotty."

"You bet your arse, Captain." Scotty replied through the comm before it shouted again, more scared sounding. "Captain, the gravity well has got us!"

"Go to maximum warp. Push it!" Jim ordered, his eyes turning to look at Cali, who was staring fearfully at singularity on the viewscreen.

"I'm giving her all that she's got, Captain!" Scotty shouted.

The strain on the Enterprise begins to teat apart the hull as the entire bridge's attention is stolen by large cracks forming above their heads.

"All she's got isn't good enough. What else you got?"

"Okay. If we eject the core and detonate, the blast could be enough to push us away! I cannae promise anything, though!"

The viewscreen started to crack making Cali fearfully grab onto Jim's hand, his heart pounding. "Do it, do it, do it!"

They watched through the broken screen as multiple warp cores were launched behind them into the black hole. As they detonated, they sent a giant powerful shockwave towards the Enterprise. The entire ship lurched, almost knocking Cali to the ground before Jim grabbed him with his other arm to steady him, and alarms of warning went off all over the bridge.

Everyone sighed in relief, looking to each other with breathless smiles as the shaking and alarms stopped, the Enterprise having been successfully pushed to safety by Scotty's idea.

Jim looked up at Cali as he was able to stand up fully. "Are you okay?" Jim questioned, eyes focused on him in case the turbulence had somehow injured his angel.

"Are you?" Cali parroted, meeting Jim's eyes. He hadn't missed the way Jim was slightly limping, the way he winced when his arm bashed into his ribs from the turbulence, or how the bruising around his neck had gotten significantly worse.

Then Cali spotted out of the corner of his eye, Spock looking over at him. He looked up and over at the Vulcan, only to see their question mirrored in his chocolate eyes.

Were any of them really okay after all of this?

~~*~~

One more chapter left! I hope you enjoyed.

One weird observation that I never noticed until critically watching the movie for the book, Jim get's almost choked to death three times in the span of a couple of hours, yet he doesn't have any bruising, nor rough voice. And he recovers so quickly from the second and third times. I know it's a movie so they could do whatever they want with Jim's reaction. Just something I noted.