Red What?
The debris was unimaginable. It took Hari’s mind a precious second to understand she was seeing flying chunks of destroyed spacecraft.
Hari’s Occlumency barriers slammed down around her mind.
Spock lurched to a workstation, and Hari pulled herself after him. She grabbed one hand onto the workstation and one on Spock’s clothing. There was an unholy screech that vibrated through the ship as debris tore into the hull.
Hari planned within the cool resolve of her shields. If a hole was smashed into the bridge, Hari could layer shields over Spock and her. Purely magical shields could keep them relatively safe. An enlarged bubblehead charm could entrap some air. Sticking charms could keep them here. She could pull Spock under the workstation then encase them in surrounding metal. Spock would learn of her magic, but – thank goodness for Vulcan training – wouldn’t freak out. Most likely.
“Captain, they’re locking torpedoes,” came Spock’s loud but even voice.
Thank goodness for Occlumency.
Hari felt the vibration of the explosion.
It didn’t hit the bridge.
They were still alive.
Sulu shouted, “Shields at thirty-two percent! Their weapons are powerful, Sir, we can't take another hit like that!”
Pike yelled, “Get me Starfleet Command!”
Spock was focused on his workstation. “Captain, the Romulan ship has lowered some kind of high energy pulse device into the Vulcan atmosphere – its signal appears to be blocking our communications and transporter abilities.”
“Captain, we're being hailed!”
A bald, tattooed man appeared on the screen. It was the first time Hari wasn’t thrilled to see a humanoid with pointed ears.
“Hello,” he said.
“I am Captain Christopher Pike, to whom am I speaking?”
“Hi Christopher. I’m Nero,” he said, flippantly.
His tone was jarring.
Pike continued, “You've declared war against the Federation. Withdraw, and I'll agree to arrange a conference with Romulan leadership at a neutral loca–”
Nero interrupted. “I do not speak for the Empire. We stand apart. As does your Vulcan crew member... isn't that right? Spock?”
No. No one gets to hurt Spock.
“Pardon me. But I don't believe you and I are acquainted.”
Nero glared at Spock “... no, we're not. Not yet. I would like you to see something, Spock.”
The hair on Hari’s neck stood up. Time travel?
But then Nero dismissed Spock. “Captain Pike – your transporter capability is disabled. You will man a shuttle and come aboard the Narada for negotiations. That is all.”
Nero disappeared from the screen. The view showed nothing but flotsam.
No one moved for a moment.
Then Pike stood up.
“He’ll kill you,” said Kirk. “You know that.”
“Your survival is unlikely,” agreed Spock.
“Captain, we gain nothing by diplomacy. Going over to that ship is a mistake,” pleaded Kirk.
“I, too, suggest you rethink this strategy,” said Spock.
“I understand that,” said Pike. He turned to the rest of the bridge crew. “I need officers who have advanced hand-to-hand combat training.”
“I have training, sir!” said Sulu, raising his hand like the student he was.
“Come with me,” said Pike. “You too, Kirk.”
Hari followed them.
They power walked through a maze of corridors. No one seemed confused about the route except Hari.
“Without transporters, we can't beam off the ship, can't assist Vulcan, can't do our job. I'm creating an opportunity: Mr. Kirk, Mr. Sulu and Mr. Olson will space-jump from the shuttle. You'll have chutes. You'll land on that machine they've lowered into the atmosphere that's scrambling our gear. You'll get inside, disable that thing, then beam back to the ship.”
Wow. That was crazy enough to sound like one of Hari’s plans.
“...ok.” It sounded like Kirk agreed.
“Mr. Spock, I'm leaving you in command of the ship.” said Pike. “Once we have transport capability and communications back up, you'll contact Starfleet and report what the hell's happening here. Something you've got only precious few minutes to figure out. If all else fails, fall back and rendezvous with the fleet in the Laurentian System. Kirk. I'm promoting you to First Officer.”
“What!?!” asked Kirk.
“While I'm gone we need to keep the chain of command. And you two make a swell team.”
That didn’t seem to fill Kirk or Spock with confidence.
Everyone was focused on Pike. No one noticed Hari.
There was one thought pounding through Hari’s mind. Pike is walking to his death, willingly. Her chest tightened. Her palms felt sweaty. It hurt to think about this. The reminders of her walk into the forest. It hurt.
A psychopathic asshole demanded she present herself for death. And she did. No one stopped her or saved her. She wouldn’t have let them.
Did Pike feel the same now? Was his heart beating frantically, as if knowing it will still soon? Were the colors brighter for him? He wouldn’t let anyone save him.
Well. She didn’t have to let him know.
First, she cast a Notice-Me-Not charm on herself. Then an Invisibility charm. And then…Death’s Cloak settled around her shoulders, never farther than a thought away.
Her hand caressed the Elder Wand.
She levitated near the ceiling of the shuttle while Pike, Kirk, and the others readied themselves. Kirk, Sulu, and another guy put on the coolest space suit armor combination; Hari wanted one.
Hari followed Pike to the pilot’s cabin. He sat in the pilot’s chair and hit a button. The door snapped closed and sound from Kirk and the others was cut off. Pike put on a seatbelt – Hari used a sticking charm to fix herself to the wall out of his way. She put a silencing charm around herself.
Pike hunched forward, closed his eyes, and gave a shuddering breath. After a few seconds, he breathed in deeply, held his breath, and breathed out. And repeated. Soon, he put his shoulders back, opened his eyes, and flew the shuttle.
Hari wanted to reassure him. Hug him. Do something so he wouldn’t feel like she had.
But it would ruin everything.
Instead, she reinforced her Occlumency shields and watched the Romulan ship grow larger in the viewscreen.
Pike hit his controls to release Kirk and the others on their mission.
And then he continued his flight; only the sound of his slow, even breaths filled the cabin.
Eventually, they docked. He unbuckled, stood, and walked to the pilot’s cabin. He paused for a second, hand hovering over the controls, before opening the door to the rest of the shuttle. Hari followed closely as he moved toward the airlock.
Hari cast two separate tracking charms on him.
Pike opened the shuttle to the Romulan ship.
A large, armed Romulan was waiting in the airlock.
Politely, Pike said, “I’m here to negotiate with Nero about–”
The Romulan stepped forward and slammed the butt of his weapon into Pike, who fell to the ground unconscious. The Romulan stepped forward and looked at Pike’s body. Hari was poised to intervene if the Romulan tried to kill Pike, but he hauled Pike up and over his shoulder, walking into the Romulan ship without a second thought.
Hari hurried into the alien ship.
And it was alien.
The corridors, the rooms, the spaces – nothing was designed by a human mind.
The Romulan carried Pike through several corridors into an eerily open space. And there was Nero.
Nero barely spared a glance. “Restrain him in the surgical bay.”
That sounded all kinds of bad.
Hari…had absolutely no idea what she was looking at. She was tempted to Legilimize Nero, but what if he had telepathic shields? She shuddered at the thought of ripping through someone’s mind like Snape had done to her.
The sound died.
“The drill’s been sabotaged, sir,” said a Romulan at a workstation.
“Launch the red matter. Now!” yelled Nero.
Uh. No. Hari had no idea what red matter was, but if Nero wanted it launched then Hari was going to thwart his plans. Hari was very skilled at thrwarting peoples’ plans.
The Minion – as Hari decided to name him – carefully walked with a cylinder in his hands. The cylinder looked like it had glass walls, with a red dot suspended in the middle.
Red matter?
She dove into the minion’s mind and wanted to hurl. He was terrified that one misstep would cause the red matter in his hands to ignite, creating a black hole.
Red matter causes black holes.
And the minion was about to put the red matter into a device that would send it to the center of Vulcan. They were drilling deep into Vulcan to destroy the planet. Genocide. Of her people.
No.
Imperio.
She meant it. The minion would obey her, and there would be no black hole.
Stop moving and gently hold the red matter container.
He did.
This caught Nero’s attention. “What are you doing, you–”
Obliviate. Stupefy. Accio. Incarcerous. Hari felt a thrill of satisfaction at knocking out Nero, the genocidal asshole. She summoned everything in his pockets, alarmed at the number of knives. Hari added many layers of bindings, levitated him up a pillar, and added a sticking charm. Even if Romulan’s didn’t stay knocked out for long, he wouldn’t get out of this.
Hari walked forward, still invisible, plucked the cylinder from the Minion’s hands, and tucked it under the Invisibility Cloak.
She followed this Minion’s fear to the red matter contained in another part of the ship. White, shiny, smooth edges, and a lot of red matter. She knew how to find it.
Obliviate. Stupefy. She wiped the encounter from his mind, knocked him out, levitated him to another room, bound him, and locked him in.
Hari followed her tracking charm to Pike. He was unconscious, strapped to a table, and looked worse than before. She wasn’t sure what they had done to him. It hadn’t been long. But some people don’t need long.
A Romulan walked toward Pike with a syringe holding a brilliantly green liquid. Hari doubted it was a kale smoothie.
Stupefy. Incarcerous. The Romulan hit the floor, unconscious. She bound him, levitated him to a closet, and sealed the doors.
Alohamora. Mobilicorpus. She released Pike and levitated him next to her, adding an Invisibility charm.
She hightailed it through the corridors toward the large repository of red matter.
A Romulan walked out of a room. She knocked him out, blasted him back into the room, bound him in ropes, and sealed the door.
Hari sprinted.
And finally, there it was. A ship within a ship? It was never one of Hari’s life goals to be a real Matryoshka doll.
And what would you know? A Romulan guarding the small, white ship took an unexpected nap. He thumped to the floor and Hari banished him through a corridor.
Hari ran into the ship. It was bigger than it looked. She used a shutting charm to close the ramp.
It was easy to find the repository of red matter. It was a huge, creepy, wavy, floating, red ball in the center of the ship. Who thought that was a good idea? Sure…let’s put a ton of black hole dots in the middle of a ship. Great idea. Not.
Ok, so maybe Hari was feeling spicy.
She stuck an unconscious Pike to the floor by what Hari hoped was the command console, cushioning his head.
Hari sat in the chair, and it spun around. The console lit up.
Don’t let it see your fear. It’s just nice, shiny, technology.
“Computer, open communication with the Enterprise.”
A startled Spock and chaotic bridge showed up on the screen.
It worked!
“T’Aria!”
“Spock. I’m onboard a ship within the Romulan ship. And–”
“How did you–”
Hari held up the small cylinder. “This is approximately one centimeter in diameter of red matter. Do you know what it is?”
Spock shook his head.
“I didn’t either until a few minutes ago,” continued Hari. “This is enough to make a black hole. Spock, their goal is to create a black hole in the center of Vulcan.”
The Enterprise’s bridge crew made sounds ranging from shock to disbelief.
“There’s a cache of red matter behind me. About one meter in diameter. Spock, you need to tell me how to command this ship to a place far away from Vulcan or any inhabited planet. Then you need to take the Romulan ship. Do Not Blow It Up! I think I have all of the red matter here, but better safe than…genocide.” Hari winced.
Kirk demanded, “Where’s Pike?”
Hari nodded. “I have him onboard with me. I grabbed him. But he’s unconscious. I don’t believe his wounds are life threatening, but I couldn’t leave him there.” She turned back to her brother. “Spock. Find a destination where I can fly this ship.”
“I’ll come aboard and–”
“There isn’t time. I will not allow our planet to die. Now, Spock!”
“There is a planet with a small Starfleet base nearby. When you get there, stay in orbit. Send out a distress call so someone can–”
“No!”
Spock looked shocked.
“What if the Romulan’s aren’t all on this ship? I’m not announcing my location. Not with this alarming stockpile of red matter. How do I get to the base?”
“You say, ‘Computer, plot a course to Delta Vega.’” said Spock.
“Command accepted, Ambassador Spock,” came the even voice on the computer.
Spock’s eyebrow launched for his hairline. But he didn’t need time to recover. “Computer, add command access for T’Aria.”
“Voice imprint required,” chimed the computer.
Spock looked at her.
“Errr. I’m T’Aria. Plot a course to Delta Vega.”
“Command access granted to T’Aria.”
Hari used a spell to sharpen her eyesight. There was a panel in front of the ship with a graphic of what looked to be a large door halfway open. Here’s to hoping… Out of the frame of the viewscreen, she levitated a box that was on the hanger floor outside of the small ship and flew it into the graphic.
The hanger door opened into space. It was a mix of deep black and shiny, broken ships.
That was…lucky.
“Can I just tell the computer to maneuver 300 meters outside of this ship, avoiding debris?”
“Granted,” said the ship, and it started to move. Hari held on to the seat’s arms like an ‘oh shit’ handle.
“Spock, are there any commands I need to know?”
“Once you arrive, order the ship to maintain a high, circular orbit above Delta Vega.”
“High, circular. Got it.”
Hari took a few breaths.
“Spock?”
“Yes, T’Aria.”
“If it’s not too dangerous, will you come find me?”
“Yes.”
“Spock?”
Spock arched an eyebrow.
“Spock, if something goes wrong–” Hari swallowed and tried again. “Tell our parents…I don’t want them to be sad like before. I’m…glad to have met them.” She breathed in. “Thank you–”
“Thanks are illogi–” Spock broke in, but was cut off.
“--for being you. You’re the best big brother a girl could ask for.”
Emotion drained from Hari’s face as her Occlumency shields kicked in to their fullest. She winked at Spock and said, “Computer, fly to Delta Vega.” And then she was gone.
Spock turned to the bridge crew. In a clipped tone, he said, “Cadet Kirk. Let’s take control of that ship.”
Kirk grinned. “Yes, sir.”