Chapter Text
"Change of plans," Colin announced as the crew continued to store gear and foodstuffs on the shuttle. "Scotty wants a crack at the Cornellian shuttle technology."
Damian grinned. "Kinda figured he would," he said as he directed the crew to put the two enormous wild beast carcasses in the shuttle's external storage. Kat and Cadman had done well, hunting with Tobin's permission for fresh meat for the Excalibur.
Damian motioned the communication equipment and dried stores toward the captured ship. He and Kat had considered destroying the ship some distance away but this would make it easier still to protect the planet from retribution. They could dump the ship's transmitters far away from the planet and remove any data about Tobin's world, just to be safe.
He poked Kat lightly and said, "Load up," as she was saying goodbye for the hundredth time. Presents were being exchanged and Anya handed Kat a crystal with a whispered goodbye.
"I'm still surprised she's not staying," Colin said thoughtfully as he picked up his gear and boarded Ming's shuttle.
Kat hugged Anya, then the village healer, the Kah-ryn crew and Tobin one more time before Damian pulled her away shaking his head, remembering a time when Starfleet missions ran on time. Then she dashed onto the Starfleet shuttle for a brief moment and reappeared before joining him on the pirate ship.
Damian shot her a questioning look and she sighed before whispering telepathically, "Colin gets motion sick."
"God, I love you," he whispered back and shot her an amused look as they followed Ming through the planet's atmosphere and toward the Excalibur. He saw the quiver in Kat's lip.
"You didn't have to leave you know," he told her.
She shook her head. "It's nice to be going home but I will miss them."
"Home," Damian said aloud as he touched her knee. "That sounds good."
They shared a look. "It does," she answered softly.
They landed on board the Excalibur and waited for the outer doors to close and the internal shield to drop before they left the shuttle and walked toward the Captain. They were joined by the rest of the team as Damian gave directions to the docking crew regarding the supplies.
Pike's eyebrow shot up at the sight of the huge beasts being lifted by portable hover winches. Damian had called ahead for Gus and the food chief examined the space-frozen meat before shooting Kat a look.
"You'll show me what to do with these beasties?" he asked. She nodded and he gave instructions for their storage.
Pike looked for a moment at Colin, remembering Colin's trepidation about Kat. He also noted the young officer didn't look nearly as green as he usually did after a shuttle voyage.
"So how was it?" he asked Colin, waiting expectantly to hear his thoughts after a lengthy mission with the woman of his concern.
Colin looked him in the eye and announced, "We were attacked by pirates. I cried like a baby but Kat saved me." He said this with a cheerful look as though he were reporting fair weather conditions or an engineering breakthrough by Mr. Scott.
The others looked stunned as Pike and Damian turned toward Kat.
"Motion sickness, hum?" Damian asked.
"I didn't say that was the only thing I fixed," she telepathed back. Damian looked to the ceiling of the landing bay and carefully schooled his features. The rest of the crew tried with varying degrees of success to hide their amusement but Pike just sighed.
"Welcome home, Commander," he said to Colin. "You are dismissed."
Colin strode off, humming happily as Ming snickered. Pike sent her a scathing look but the corner of his lip ticked.
"You are all dismissed. Officer debrief in thirty minutes," he said but pointed at Kat as she started to skitter off. "Not so fast."
Ming and Cadman gave her commiserating looks before abandoning her. Damian firmly planted himself at her side.
"I had hoped you and Commander Cabrera would have settled your differences," Pike said.
She shrugged. "He's breathing isn't he?"
Pike barked in laughter before he could help it. He gave her his most serious captain's look before motioning with his head. "Go."
She grinned cheekily and trotted after the rest of the crew.
"He is breathing," Pike said. "I take it that's a good sign?"
Damian nodded. "You have no idea," he said. "And the part about the pirates was true," he said. "As for Colin crying, I can't say. The rest of us were knocked out by some Cornellian device."
Pike glanced at the ship. "Busy little planet between Orci and Cornellian slavers."
Damian nodded. "We worked through some defense ideas with them and Colin built a brilliant warning system for approaching ships but it does seem as though the two scourges are converging more frequently."
Pike agreed. "Scourge is right. We sent the Orci tech to other ships to test and hopefully Scotty can pull something useful from this ship about the slavers. That business with the Hawking science station was too close. If the Atlantis had been a few minutes late the odds of a positive outcome would have been pretty slim."
"We got the message from the Admiral in the middle of the night. Something about the Atlantis crew needing a favor from Kat?" Damian asked.
"The Atlantis had a hunch about a slave ship that had kidnapped some scientists at a mine but they needed to get through the gate at the edge of their sector."
Damian whistled. "That couldn't have been cheap."
"The Admiral called in some favors and it turned out the gate operator is quite a fan of Kaitlyn. Now we have to figure a way to get her back across the galaxy to meet him and keep the promise. Thank heavens she was willing," Pike said.
"By all rights the Atlantis should have been stuck at the gate for hours even if Starfleet had authorized the fee but he sent them straight through. They not only rescued the miners but it turns out the Hawking crew had been taken as well. Elizabeth's team made quite the rescue and all hands are safely on board the Atlantis."
Damian considered the crew that had been rescued. "Good thing the gate operator has good taste in music."
Pike had to agree.
Damian asked, "How is Tabby?"
Pike answered, "Bones was starting to worry. The longer between treatments, the more rapidly she regresses. It seems a week is the limit. Which leads to an interesting scheduling dilemma."
"How so?" Damian asked.
"We have to get Kat to the Atlantis. Not only for the operator, but Scotty thinks McKay has some research into the Orci that would be helpful. How do you align the stars to only have Kat gone for a few days though?"
Damian whistled. "When does she leave?"
"We promised to have her there in two weeks," Pike said. "We need a miracle and the clock is ticking."
"No problem," Damian said. "I happen to know a young woman who is good with miracles."
Pike laughed and the men walked toward his office for the debriefing