Surefoot 09: Rising Star

She straightened up. "Colonel Dominika Semyonovna Bunina, Mission Commander."

"Mission Commander? Me too. Small galaxy, huh? Well, Colonel, I'm more than happy to help you catch up with current events, but maybe we can do it while I help rescue your people? At least it'll be more efficient?"

She regarded him for a moment, before nodding and leading him to a large round hatch. "They are trapped inside Battery Room 3. The fire control system has ceased, and we are detecting hairline fractures in the portholes." She paused and watched Jonas kneel by the door, setting aside his medical kit to open the engineering kit, retrieving a tricorder, passing it over the locking mechanism. "We believe the power couplings overloaded in the explosion-"

"They did," he confirmed, checking the readings. "But they also fused one of the clamps. I'll have to cut it."

She drew closer, staring in wonder over his shoulder at the tricorder screen. "Amazing. Your technology, that teleporter of yours. What else can you do?"

He set down the tricorder and prepared the phaser cutter. "Well, we have ships that can reach Warp 9.75, replicators that convert energy into useful things, holodecks that recreate interactive environments-"

"Weapons?"

He paused, raising the cutter to the clamp. "Yes, those too, though we try to use those only as a last resort."

"And you managed all that despite being invaded by Aliens? How did you defeat them?"

Jonas swallowed, pretending to be busy cutting into the clamp, not knowing how to broach the truth to her.

*

On the Sureswift, Yeager leaned back in her chair, looking smug as they continued to listen to the transmission from Jonas' combadge. "He's gonna get himself killed."

Rrori shot him an angry look. "You could have helped, instead of taking the coward's way out."

She scowled. "It's not cowardly to not want to beam into certain death. And I did try to help. I tried to warn him, warn all of you, of the danger."

Soolamea frowned. "They don't sound dangerous."

"Look them up yourself! Assassinations, bombings, mass destruction, mass murder!" Yeager looked at each of them in turn, angry and anxious. "Those terrorists were taught from birth to hate non-humans, and those humans who collaborated with them! They'd kill you two just as soon as look at you."

Soolamea looked to Rrori. "What are we going to do?"

The Caitian frowned too. "Jonas... Jonas isn't equipped to handle something like this. But we can't bring him back until the thoron interference is cleared."

She pursed her lips. "What if- what if I beamed over to an unoccupied area near the thoron generator, disable it and beam back before I'm spotted?"

"It's risky. We couldn't get you too near the generator because of the selfsame interference. Perhaps I should go?"

"Are you being chivalrous?"

"Well, with my strength and reflexes, if I get found out-"

"-You'll get killed, and then we'll be left stranded in a shuttle without a pilot." She looked to Yeager. "Unless you want to volunteer for this?"

"Forget it."

"Yes," Rrori growled. "We can count you out of just about everything, can't we?"

"Don't try taking the moral high ground with me, Pussycat. At least I'm honest and upfront with all of you. You used your friend, and me, to get a chance at going Bumpers with Soo out here."

He bristled. "That's not true-"

"Of course it is. If I'd been a Horta you'd have still convinced yourself that Jonas and I would have made a cute couple, so long as it gave you an excuse to get out here for a taste of Rigelian quim."

"Classy," Soo muttered.

Rrori glared at Yeager, before looking to Soolamea. "Get an engineering kit, I'll find you a suitable place to beam into..."

*

The heat from the phaser cutter was starting to get to Jonas, this close to the orange-red beam, but Jonas didn't feel like showing any weakness in front of the young Colonel. "So, you're the Mission Commander, huh? And what is your mission?"

"What's yours?"

"Ooh, you want to play hardball, huh?" he joked.

"I do not play games, Mister Ostrow."

He smiled to himself. "You remind me of my friend Eydiir. Well, Colonel, our mission was to come here and study what we thought was an abandoned wreck. We had no idea that it was the Rising Star, or that it still contained viable capsules. Your turn."

She squatted beside him, watching his work. "My team and I were awakened by the ship, to complete the planetary survey and confirm its suitability for the location of New Earth."

"New Earth, huh? I should warn you that there have been more than a few worlds out there who have beat you to that. New Earth, Earth II, Terra Nova, Nouvelle Terre, Nova Tero... and also, you and the others I've seen here seem rather young to shoulder such responsibility."

"We were trained on Earth for years for this responsibility! We are more than capable of facing whatever challenges awaiting us!"

"Hey, I don't doubt it. But I would expect a ship like this would also include a senior flight crew. Where are they? On the planet's surface?"

"They..." The girl's voice became subdued. "The flight crew were meant to awaken first. But there was a malfunction. They..."

Jonas felt his expression sober, having heard horror stories of cryostatic chamber failure. "Sorry to hear that." He set down the cutter. "There. Now we just need an independent power source to open the door."

"Marco!" she barked. "Get a power unit from Engineering!"

Jonas half-listened, studying the equipment in his kit. "I might be able to jury-rig something." He retrieved a capacitance plate and cutter battery. "So, how long have you been awake?"

She continued to watch him, seemingly distracted by his work to let her talk more freely. "Over a year now. At first there was just the three of us, and then we arranged for another nine to join us, a large enough number to take the place of the flight crew without depleting our supplies too quickly or overtaxing our recyclers. We studied the necessary systems: power generation, shuttle operations, cryostasis maintenance. The warp core is depleted of fuel, but most everything else seems to function."

"Twelve of you, huh? How many remain in stasis?"

"Fifty. Including Mr Golov, of course."

"Of course." He frowned; that was the first confirmation that Maxim Golov was onboard and alive. It was probably a good thing that Nancy hadn't come along with him or she might have gone looking to literally pull his plug. "Why haven't you revived Mr Golov? Wouldn't he be-"

"You talk too much," she snapped.

"Sorry." He pressed the jury-rigged tool against the door's power connectors. "Open it."

She frowned dubiously, until she complied, and then made a sound as the door opened. "You did it, Mister Ostrow."

"I have my moments. And call me Jonas." He rose and carried the medical kit inside. Much of the battery room interior was charred, with a tinge of acrid smoke still in the air despite the recyclers - and the fractures in the small portholes.

He suppressed the urge to seek and make repairs to focus on the three injured crewmen here. His stomach churned at the sight and smell of the charred flesh, taking him back to That Day on the Vulcan freighter, and the attempt he made on his own life, an attempt that nearly took his best friend Kit.

He used Kami's techniques to distance himself from the memories as he ran the tricorder over the first injured person. "Third-degree burns, fractured femur, minor fractures to ribs." He grabbed a hypospray and inserted an appropriate ampule. "40cc of ambizine to stabilise, then a cycle with the osteo- and dermal regenerator. Have you got medical facilities?"

"Yes, though I think our Autodoc is like a box of stone knives and bearskins compared with the tools in your kit."

He moved onto the next person. "I'm sure it'll do, and I'll show your people how to use these instruments."

"You are a good medic, Jonas."

He shrugged. "Engineering is my Primary study, Medical is my Secondary - but I only chose it because I thought I'd spend most of my time fine-tuning the tricorders and autosutures. I do better with equipment than people." He treated the third, allowing the others to carry them out, before facing her again. "Colonel- I don't suppose we can be on a first-name basis at this point? Mission Commander to Mission Commander? Dominika, isn't it?"

"Nika. Nika is a - what you call - nickname, to be used by friends. Or lovers."

He smiled. "I'm hoping we can be at least one of those... Nika."

She smiled.

Then something caught his eye at the porthole. He drew closer. "Nika... do you know we're moving?"

"What?" She followed him, seeing the image of the planet starting to fill up more and more of the view. "That's not possible, the main drives are cold and the manoeuvring thrusters are off-line."

Jonas tapped his combadge. "Rrori, what's happening with us?"

"The explosion kicked you out of your orbit and sent you moving towards the planet. If you fire up your thrusters now, you should get back in with no problem-"

"Colonel!"

Before Jonas could continue, one of Nika's people showed up at the opened hatchway - pressing the muzzle of a pistol into Soolamea's face. "I found this Alien in Engineering, sabotaging our generator!"

Nika reached out and snatched the combadge off of Jonas' uniform, and then his tricorder. "It's a trick! Get him out of here! Get them both out!"

Jonas' heart stopped. "No, wait! Let me explain-"

Someone behind him struck the back of his head with the butt of a pistol.

*

On the Sureswift, Rrori's heart pounded in his furry chest. "Jonas! Soo! Mother's Cubs..." He looked to Yeager. "Can you get a lock on them?"

She glanced over the readings, frowning. "No, there's still thoron interference. Looks like she didn't have time." She grunted. "I warned him about going over there. Idiot-"

"Do yourself a favour, Nancy, and shut up for a while." He opened a hailing frequency. "Sureswift to Surefoot: Emergency!"

*

Jonas and Soolamea sat on the floor of the main section, their backs to a wall, watching as Nika and her people talked amongst themselves or studied the confiscated Starfleet equipment.

"Are you okay?" Jonas muttered, keeping his voice and movements as slight as possible so as not to antagonise their captors any more - or antagonise the headache growing following getting hit in the back of the skull.

"Yeah," she replied, equally quietly. "You?"

"Never mind me. What the hell are you doing over here?"

"We were getting worried about you. Rrori and I thought it would be a good idea for me to come over and try to disable the thoron generator, in case we needed to get you out quickly."

"Nice to know my status as Mission Commander is being respected." He grunted. "But then, it was just a joke anyway, wasn't it? How did Nancy put it? Something to make me feel like a man?"

Soolamea swallowed. "I'm sorry you had to hear that. Nancy shouldn't have said anything. Rrori didn't mean-"

"I was building trust with their leader before you showed up, trying to convince her that all you filthy Aliens weren't enslaving humans or laying eggs in us."

"We were worried! Nancy was telling us more horror stories about these terrorists-"

"I'm sick of hearing about Nancy. You and Rrori seem more interested in what she had to say than me. I shouldn't be surprised." His headache was definitely blossoming. He knew he might just be naive about them - and attracted to Nika - but his instincts, such as they were, told him a different story. "These kids... they may spout Golov's manifesto, but they're really here to help start a New Earth. A new beginning here.

But it's going to end before it begins if we burn up in the atmosphere. The flight crew is dead, these kids have been studying the manuals, but that doesn't make them qualified to handle an emergency of this magnitude." Louder now, he called out, "Nika, we have to talk."

She ignored him, though she obviously heard him.

"Colonel," he continued. "There's no time for this. Your ship is in danger of burning up. You, and everyone in stasis here, including Golov."

Now she reacted, along with others, as she turned and approached, one hand resting on the top of her holstered pistol. "There is nothing to talk about with you. It was a trick. You distracted me, while your Alien mistress here tried to sabotage our weapons generator."

"That's not what happened. And she's my crewmate, a friend, not my... mistress. Her name is Soolamea. Her people are from Rigel V; they were visiting Earth when you were still there, and their genetic therapies helped repair a lot of the damage caused by radiation from the War. And they're members of the Federation."

Nika grunted. "More of that Federation nonsense."

"It's not nonsense, Nika. The Federation is stretched out over thousands of light years, comprised of hundreds of worlds, keeping the peace and expanding the frontiers of knowledge. And we did it in partnership with races like Soo's-"

"More lies!" She looked at Soo. "How do you enthral humans? ESP? Cybernetics? Mind parasites?"

Soolamea smirked. "I find a good pair of boobs usually does the trick."

The Russian gritted her teeth. "You think this is some joke?"

"No," Jonas interrupted. "We think this is some crisis. I promise you, Nika, I didn't know she'd come over. And she wasn't trying to sabotage your generator, just fix a thoron leak."

"Leak? We detected no leak, at least none exceeding our safety standards."

"For you it's within safety standards, because thoron radiation doesn't affect any of your systems. But it does ours: our sensors, our transporter. With that leak continuing, I couldn't beam back. If you were on another unknown vessel, wouldn't your people be taking steps to ensure your safety against potential hostile forces?"

She paused, as if looking for an avenue of further argument.

He didn't give her a chance. "We have more important matters. Your orbit is decaying, I don't know how long you've got, but we've got to do something about it." He rose, making her back off and tighten her hold on her holster, while her people drew their weapons. Jonas ignored them, focusing on her. "Tell me the truth now, Mission Commander to Mission Commander: are your people capable of righting yourselves in time? Or could you use our help?"

"Why should I trust you now?"

"Because I give you my word I'll stay with you until you and everyone else is safe." He shrugged. "Also, if we don't do something, we'll burn up with you as well. And I gave up on suicide a while back."

Nika's expression softened a little. "Fine. You will help, under our supervision."

One of the men drew closer. "Colonel, you can't trust them! I vote we push the Alien and the Collaborator into an airlock and make them kiss space!"

Nika never took her eyes off Jonas. "I'll take that under advisement, Marco - when we become a democracy. For now, we go to the bridge to determine how much time we have."

*

USS Surefoot, Deck 1, Captain's/Counselor's Quarters:

Hrelle tried rolling onto his back, wincing at the response from his tail - he had to get used to sleeping on his side or belly again, he guessed - and turned his back on his wife, staring at the far wall.

Kami sat up over her, draping her short mane over his head and shoulders, hands on his furred, muscular arms. "Hey, don't be like that. You just got out of surgery, you can't expect to be your old horncat self right away."

"Yeah, sure," he agreed, unconvincingly.

She reached over and smacked him on the snout. "Maybe something other than your penis is bothering you?"

He sighed. "Should I have done this? Should I have got myself fixed up? I told myself months ago I wouldn't, that I wanted others to be reminded of what I went through, that the Universe, while mostly a good place, was still capable of hurting people. Now, hearing that aloud, that sounds pretentious."

"And not the full story, either."

He looked up at her. "What do you mean?"

She shrugged. "Well, you also wanted people to feel uncomfortable... and guilty, for not knowing you were enslaved, and rescuing you."

"That's stupid. It wasn't anyone's fault."

"I never said it was a *rational* motivation."

He looked down again. "Yes, well, now all that's changed. Why?"

"Because you changed, like the rest of us do, all the time. You're not the same man as the scarred survivor I first met at Starbase 74, nearly two years ago. Or for that matter the loving husband to Hannah before that, or the aggressive captain of the Furyk before that, or the eager, insecure young cadet at Starfleet Academy. That you've changed now doesn't invalidate the decisions you've previously made."

"But, you... You like the way I look now, right?"

She made an amused sound against his skin. And reached down past his belly. "Maybe this is all just a big deception on your part, and you're just looking for a little extra attention from me?"

"No, no..." Then he started purring. "On the other hand, if you want to do that-"

The Red Alert klaxon filled the room, and he almost shoved Kami off the bed in his haste to jump to his feet and slip into some shorts, before grabbing his shirt and trousers and forgoing his boots as he bolted out of their quarters and down the corridor, feeling the ship accelerate from a standard warp speed to something much higher.

He almost bumped into T'Varik as they reached the bridge at the same time, the Vulcan ignoring his state of undress as he strode up to the Captain's chair. Sasha rose from it, momentarily startled by seeing him in just his boxers, before reporting, "Sir, we received a distress signal from the Sureswift! There are people on that old wreck, and they've taken Jonas and Soolamea hostage!"

T'Varik was immediately at the Ops station, examining and collating data, as Hrelle dressed in front of everyone. "Hostage? How-" He shook his head. "Never mind. What's our ETA to their position?"

Sasha glanced at the helm. "At current velocity, 6.6 hours." She swallowed. "Sir, I know I took it on myself to go to Red Alert and order the course change before summoning you-"

"Yes, you did, Cadet," he agreed, slipping his shirt over his head. "And you did exactly the right thing, so let's leave it at that. Go to Red Alert Silent, get the Counselor and Lt. Abed up here, if they're not on their way already, and resume command."

"Resume, Sir?"

"Yes - the grown-ups are gonna be in the briefing room doing grown-up stuff; raise the Sureswift again and have them stand by, we'll need more data from them." He smiled reassuringly at her anxious expression. "They'll be fine, Sash. Unless, of course, this is all some drunken prank on their part. In which case, be afraid. Be very afraid..."

*

"Oh, shit."

Jonas never turned to look at Soolamea; there had been enough swearing from her, and the others, and himself, since arriving on the engineering deck. And with good reason: the readings on the bridge gave them about forty minutes before burn up, and down here, the warp core was as dead as it could be, and the impulse drives needed more work than could be done in the time they had left. The Sureswift had a tractor beam, but the Rising Star was far too massive in comparison to make an appreciable difference.

The only hope was to get some power rerouted to the manoeuvring thrusters; they wouldn't be enough at this point to get the ship back into a safe orbit, but they would assist in an emergency landing.

Now he was starting to feel a shuddering, the tell-tale signs of the ship beginning to touch upon the outer envelope of the planet's atmosphere.

"Well?"

He looked up. Nika stood there, doing her best to suppress her anxiety for the sake of her crew and maintain a commanding persona as he told her, "You're going to have to land this ship."