CHAPTER SIX - Warpes and Worries
U.S.S. ENTERPRISE : DEEP SPACE

"Welcome aboard the U.S.S. Enterprise Cadets. For those of you who don't know me I am Commander McKay. You will approach me to receive your stations and collect your uniforms before reporting to your stations. Best of luck and godspeed." Cassidy greeted the hoards of cadets who stood before her. Starting the nearly impossible task of signing them all onboard. But the queue moved a lot faster than she thought it was. And before she knew it she had reached the end of the group of which had collected. But there was one person who had failed to report to her. Therefore, she collected his assigned uniform and communicator before starting her path towards the Medbay. Hoping that the reason he had not been stood with the rest of the cadets was because he was currently trying to stow a stowaway. And not because he had chickened out last minute due to his fear of space. 

Entering the Medbay Cassidy looked around at the staff of which had started their checks of the airway. Sorting through their emergency trollies, their controlled medication stocks, their lines and equipment. She caught sight of Doctor Puri stood in one corridor some sort of checklist in hand. She gently touched one of the monitors as she passed watching as it buzzed at her touch seemingly increasing in power and allowed her to do whatever she pleased. Technology after all did seem to bend to her will. 

"Doctor McKay." One of the nurses greeted and Cassidy turned to face her giving what she hoped was a polite smile. A welcoming one. "Please remove yourself from the monitors, you know we have to recalibrate every time you play with one." Or not.

"Sure sure, I'm here for my missing cadet." Cassidy nodded her head to the corner where she could see two figures dressed in red. The nurse let her go not before tutting and moving to the monitor Cassidy had touched to recalibrate it. She was quick to approach the medical cot that Jim was currently sat upon and able to hear the end of the two men's conversation. 

"Don't be such an infant." Leonard rolled his eyes as he administered some sort of medication to Jim.

"How long is it supposed to..." Jim replied before he was out. It was clear the man had been sedated and Cassidy went to help move the much heavier than she anticipated man properly onto the bed. 

"Unbelievable." Leonard grumbled before he looked up to see who had come to help him get Jim properly onto the medical bed. His eyes widened when he took in Cassidy standing before him. 

"Cassie." He greeted not caring if anyone in the medbay took notice of their close friendship. If he had his way everyone onboard would very quickly be aware that he was hers. 

"Hello Leonard, I had a cadet miss his induction. You wouldn't know anything about that?" Cassidy tried to remain impartial as she spoke but there was a hint of laughter he could see in her eyes. 

"Well..." Leonard paused "a very intelligent commander informed me of regulation Fifty-Four point 8." he tried to butter up, aware that he was indeed breaking rules by not appearing for roll call and onboarding "I hope that same commander can therefore understand the need to not be there at induction?"

"You are so lucky meu thessara." Cassidy stepped closer to the man, her hand touching his own. He thought she might reach out to properly hold his hand but something cold was placed into his palm. And soon after fabric was pressed into his chest. 

"Your communicator and uniform." Cassidy took a step back though she smiled as she did so. "I need to report to the bridge before we set off." She didn't want to part but she knew she had to. 

"Okay." Leonard agreed "Next time I'll see you we'll be in matching uniforms." He nodded to her blue dress of which she was now wearing no longer in the black staff uniform he had only seen her in before. 

"And that we will Doctor McCoy." Cassidy confirmed as she moved back towards the entrance of the medbay. Not before pausing and turning back to look once more at the man on the bed. "Best of luck with that one."

"Going to need it." Leonard responded not before trying to catch her on her way out "You'll have to tell me what that means Dr McKay."

"You wish McCoy." And she was gone from the medbay leaving a frustrated doctor behind her. Leonard looked down to the bed of which Jim was unconscious upon. 

"Honestly man, what am I going to do with you?"

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"Doctor McKay." The voice of her captain came through Cassidy's communicator

"Yes Captain?"

"Are all onboard accounted for?"

"Yes sir."

"Report to your station on the bridge." She was quick to follow his command knowing the Captain was excited to start the first voyage in the starship even if it was under not so ideal circumstances. 

"Doctor McKay on the bridge." A Russian tinted accent announced and Cassidy turned to look at who had announced her arrival. She took in the young features and she was able to identify the teenager instantly. 

"Thank you Ensign Chekov." Cassidy greeted before heading towards the station set up for her. As head scientific officer she was to analyse what they were encountering. Originally Cassidy knew this post was supposed to go to Spock, he probably was the only person who might have been able to take on the post as well as she could. But considering he had been chosen for the role as first officer she had been gifted the title of Science Officer. Though she knew that Pike would not have gone back on the promise he had made her for the Enterprise Science Officer role to belong to her. After all, an incredible amount of the science and everything that Starfleet had, had come from the work of her people and was constantly being built upon by herself. 

"Engines at maximum warp Captain." The helmsman spoke out, Sulu she onboarded the man as Sulu. 

"Russian whizz kid what's your name?" Captain Pike addressed Chekov as if Cassidy had not greeted the boy just minutes beforehand. Perhaps the effect of entering warp had rendered the old mans hearing inept. 

"Ensign Chekov, Pavel Andreievich sir."

"Fine Chekov, Pavel Andreievich begin shipwide broadcast." Captain Pike confirmed and Cassidy was unsure she could listen through the young boys desperate attempt at communication. And therefore, she turned her attention to the screens before her. The data before her was confusing, there were readings which should not make sense considering they were in deep space. Her brain whizzed into motion trying to make sense of the readings she was given. But she missing too much information to safely come to any conclusions. 

"Captain." A familiar voice came crashing through the doors to the bridge and Cassidy turned in her chair. Jim Kirk came running into the bridge with her doctor running close behind her. She made eye contact with Leonard as to try to ask him what was going on. But all she got in response was a shrug and a sheepish look. He had lost control of his patient, clearly. 

"Captain Pike, we have to stop the ship." Jim continued to push and Cassidy had to give it to the man, he looked like shit from whatever medical reason he was on board but he had gall to stand up to the captain like that. 

"Kirk, how in the hell did you get on board the Enterprise?" Captain Pike questioned the disbelief in his voice, initially he looked to the doctor who accompanied the cadet onto the bridge, but his eyes quickly cast over to Cassidy at her station. As if he had a feeling that a certain instructor against unfair punishment for cheating might have been involved. Cassidy just smiled at him, more than unashamed her actions. 

"Captain, this man's under the influence of a severe reaction of a Melvaran flea vaccine, completely -" "Bones, Bones." "delusional. I take full responsibility." Leonard stepped in, having already planned to take responsibility for whatever was going on, but he had caught the look the captain had given Cassidy and had no intent for her involvement, however small or suggestive it might have been, to get out to the public. 

"Vulcan is not experiencing a natural disaster. It is being attacked by Romulans." Kirk tried to push and Cassidy was trying to figure out what information the cadet had that she didn't. 

"Romulans, Cadet Kirk, I think you've had enough attention for one day. McCoy take him back to the medbay, we'll have words later." 

"Aye Captain." 

"Look Sir."

"Mister Kirk..."

"Mister Kirk is not cleared to be aboard this vessel." Spock joined the conversation, well it was an argument now. "I can remove the Cadet."

"Try it! This Cadet is trying to save the bridge." Kirk interjected and Cassidy stood from her own position, interested in just what Kirk was going to say. And seeing that it wouldn't be long until this argument turned physical. Well not if Kirk and Spock were including, the pair were going to get into a physical fight soon enough. Though she would have imagined that at least they would have been in space a little bit longer. 

"By recommending a full stop mid-warp during a rescue mission?" Spock's disbelief was evident and Cassidy couldn't tell if he was in disbelief by what was being suggested only or if it was because it was his home planet of which the distress signal came from. 

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

"Based on what facts?"

"That same anomaly, a lightening storm in space that we saw today, also occurred on the day of my birth. Before a Romulan ship attached the USS Kelvin. You know that Sir, I read your dissertation. That ship had formidable and advanced weaponry was never seen or heard from again. The Kelvin attack took space 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." 

Kirks information was brand new to Cassidy but she was quick to reach the same conclusion the stowaway had come to. The more she thought about it the less this seemed like a rescue mission and the more it seemed like they were about to enter a dedicated attack and it could be catastrophic. That was if the other starships which had entered warp before them had reached and remained safe. 

"And you know of this Klingon attack how?" Captain Pike seemed to also be thinking over the information being provided but he needed sources. Like all Captains he needed evidence to support the theory being presented to him. 

"Sir, I intercepted and translated the messaged myself. Kirk's report is accurate." Nyota Uhura confirmed and Cassidy could understand if Uhura had translated the message then it was accurate. 

"We're warping into a trap, sir. The Romulans are waiting for us, I promise us that." Kirk finalised and it was clear all those on the bridge were considering the cadets words. 

"The Cadet's logic is sound. And Lieutenant Uhura is unmatched in xenolinguistics, we would be wise to accept her conclusion." Spock agreed by Cassidy watched as the Captain turned to her for her input. 

"Doctor McKay, as our expert on well everything. What is your opinion."

"Lightening storms in space sir? Once is an abnormality but twice followed by another distress signal. We should be wise to consider that this is not a normal rescue mission." Cassidy confirmed. "We should immediately put up our shields, and figure a way to start evacuating Vulcan." Cassidy prepared an option. 

"And how do you propose we do that."

"Sir, if this is a targeted attack, we need to consider that when we arrive, we might be the only surviving starship, we cannot evacuate the entire colony aboard our one ship. She's big but she's not that big. Spock -" Cassidy turned her attention to the only Vulcan onboard who could give her an answer "Does your Stargate still stand?" The Vulcan nodded and she began to plan. 

"You wish to open their gate from up here?"

"Yeah like it'll be hard." Cassidy shrugged but she knew realistically she needed to be on Vulcan to be able to hold it open. "It would be best if I was down on Vulcan though."

"Okay, scan Vulcan space, check for any transmission in Romulan." Captain Pike commanded and the man stood at the communication board turned awkwardly to look at the captain. 

"Sir I'm not sure I can distinguish the Romulan language from Vulcan."

"What about you, do you speak Romulan Cadet?" Captain Pike looked at Uhura, she would be stepping up into her role much earlier than she probably anticipated. 

"Uhura. All three dialects Sir." Uhura confirmed and she looked quickly to the two instructors hoping that one of them would be able to assist her, perhaps one more than other. Yet all she got was ignored by Spock. 

"Uhura, relieve the Lieutenant." Captain Pike commanded and Cassidy watched as the Lieutenant took a step aside with a look of defeat upon his face. 

"Hannity, hail the USS Truman." Pike turned to Lieutenant Hannity in order to attempt to open communication between the two starships, hoping that he would be able to get a mutual plan in place. That was if his team had come to the correct conclusions. 

"All the other ships are out of warp sir, and have arrived at Vulcan, but we seemed to have lost all contact." Hannity replied as he furiously tapped at the monitor near his station, he was searching for any issues in which were preventing the communication from occurring. 

"Sir I pick up no Romulan transmission, or transmission of any other kind in the area." Uhura announced and Cassidy couldn't turn her eyes away from the people stood around the captains chair. Her gaze remained focused on Jim Kirk as she tried to understand what he was thinking, what was going through that duplicity smart brain. 

"It's because they're being attacked." Kirk protested and it appeared that finally the Captain of the Enterprise was agreeing with the evidence that was now fully provided. Just like a juror at a trial. 

"Shields up, red alert." Pike turned his attention back to the Helmsman.

"Arrival at Vulcan in five seconds, four, three, two." Sulu announced and Cassidy could not take her attention off what was surrounding them. She heard the gasp she had let out upon seeing the multiple wreckages before her. Parts of starships littered the area around them. And soon enough she was able to spot exactly why the Truman had not responded. Considering the discarded hull of the ship nearly collided with the brand new Enterprise. 

She could hear the commands from the Captain as he ordered evasive movements to avoid being struck by any of the other debris. Yet she could not take her eyes away from the large Romulan ship the moment it entered the space around them. She wasn't sure she had ever seen craft like this. Her brain went frantically through the knowledge of which she withheld, trying desperately to find if there was anything she had encountered before whether in reality or in her books which she had read. And even then, she was unsure whether she had encountered anything like this before. It was larger than Atlantis, it looked more terrifying than anything the Ori had sent to destroy the ancients. Unconsciously she had moved towards the spot where the Captain was stood, ending up closer to James Kirk than she had stood in years. Her eyes focused purely on the vessel of which was currently stood before them. She remained ignorant of the commands going on around her as her brain remained too focused on the spaceship.

She felt the incoming torpedo as it hit the Enterprise. As it bolstered the individuals around inside. Her footing slipped slightly and she found herself falling into the side of another. Who just so happened to be the only person onboard not in uniform. Mainly because he was a stowaway, one she had encouraged and allowed mind you. Jim Kirk reached slightly to stabilise her, his hands only coming in contact with the cloth of her uniform. And Cassidy turned to thank him, only to find his eyes already upon her. The pair would nod to one another deciding there was no need to say anything aloud. Unaware that a single southern doctor in the bridge cursed, not because he was not the one to catch her but because the pair had not had the proper contact needed. The one which would alert both of them to what was really there between them. 

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TRANSLATIONS:

meu thessara - my treasure