Chapter Text
"Tyger Tyger, burning bright,
In the forests of the night;
What immortal hand or eye,
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?
In what distant deeps or skies.
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?
And what shoulder, and what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? and what dread feet?
What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?
When the stars threw down their spears
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb, make thee?
Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?"
William Blake, "The Tyger."
Act one
"Captain's log, entry number 433.
“Earth's date April 17th, 2255, 21:48 PM standard ship's hour.
“We are ten hours and twenty-three minutes away from completing our objective. As I record this, the Enterprise is closing in on target and gets ready to destroy it.
“We have been chasing the Voyager one prob, beyond the boundary of known space for two years and seven months now, after successfully destroying Voyager two at the border of our solar system.
“Ship is in great condition, we have enough fuel to get back to Earth once done, our armory is stacked full and our food supply depletes within an acceptable rate. This might not be a suicide mission, after all.
“However, I….
“Honestly speaking…
“I find it difficult to maintain a leveled head at the final hours of our pursuit.
“We cannot fail, we cannot let anything go wrong, we cannot allow Voyager one to escape us.
“Bones advised me to take a pill and have at least a six hours' worth of snooze, and he's probably right, but something tells me, call it my Captain's hunch, that everything is about to turn horribly wrong.
“Or maybe… maybe I'm just warn out, having the ‘last mile of the marathon’ syndrome. No one is immune to cabin fever, not even the captain…. "
The doorbell to his quarters rang.
"Alright, enough of that, I promise my next entry would be after we destroy the Voyager, but I might be drunk at the time. Kirk's out."
He finished the recording and pressed on the entry button. "Come on in."
A man and a woman entered, their eyes shining and their lips curved up, suppressing their latest giggle. The man could hardly let go of the woman's hand, and they both needed some time to gather themselves enough to stand in attention.
"At ease, Lt. Tomlinson, Ensign Martin." Kirk smiled at the young crew members. "Do seat down. How may I help you?"
Tomlinson pulled out a chair for Martin to sit on, and she suddenly looked up at the clock. "Oh, no… I hope we're not intruding."
Kirk followed her gaze "There are still nine minutes left to my visiting hours."
"We only need five, sir." Tomlinson assured him, taking the woman's hand back into his own, and she blushed and lowered her head.
"Very well." Jim relaxed into his seat. "What can I do for you?"
"Marry us." The woman blurted out and the man chuckled.
"Honey, you're a bit rude." He mumbled then turned his smiling blue eyes to his captain. "Sir, Angela and I wish to be wed, and we'd be extremely honored if it is you conducting the ceremony."
"Marry?" Kirk smiled as well and swayed on his chair. "So soon? After only four months of dating?"
"Five.” Angela giggled” and every month on this ship is worth ten years, sir. Feels like I've known Robert forever."
"And she still would have me." The Lieutenant shrugged "I'm a lucky man."
They leaned close together, looking into each other’s eyes and would kiss, if not in front of their Captain.
"Don’t you want to wait until we're back on Earth?" Jim tried.
"No, sir." They both turned to him and answered at the same time.
Then the woman continued alone "It has been almost three years since we last touch grass, sir, and we can wait no longer. We'll return home as husband and wife."
Jim chuckled at the decisive declaration, and raised up his hands. "Well, you've heard the lady, Robert, I gave it my all."
“Much appreciated.” Robert nodded and his handsome face glowed.
"So, is that a 'Yes', Captain?" Angela asked, smiling.
"A resounding positive." Jim agreed, but his own smile faded as the ship's yellow alert lit up and started flickering.
"Excuse me." Jim opened the comm. "Kirk to bridge."
"Captain, we need you up here." Answered the Beta shift commander.
"Alert the Alpha crew, I'm on my way." Jim closed the comm and got up, and so did the young lovers.
"We'll take our positions at the torpedo room." Robert reported.
"Of course," Kirk agreed "We'll continue this conversation soon. Be safe."
"You as well, Captain." Said Robert and Angela added a stressful smile.
The three departed at the hallway, needing to take different turbo lifts, one up to the bridge and two down to the weaponry deck.
*********
Lt Rogers got off the chair as the captain entered the bridge and straighten up in attention.
"At ease." The captain nodded at the dark-skinned officer,
Kirk took back his chair and his eyes were immediately drawn to the big screen before him.
He saw nothing out of the ordinary on the display and a further inspection of the data feed streamed to his personal station showed nothing in particular as well. If not for the dancing yellow light flooding the bridge, it seemed like another regular night shift, yet Jim trusted his crew not to sound the alarm in vain.
"It is a bit difficult to notice at first." The beta shift commander spoke while walking towards his station." but we have conformation from both the Engineering and the Science departments."
"Conformation of what?" Jim tried his best not to sound impatient.
Rogers reached his Tactics station and worked its touch-pad. "Here… I'm magnifying this sector…. We ran into it almost by accident…."
The view on the screen changed, blurring in and out as the Ship's AI struggled to solve resolution disorders and pixelization.
While Jim watched the screen, more people flowed into the room to man the deserted stations of the beta shift. Lt Uhura took her position at Communications, Commander Sulu grabbed the helm, and Lt. Stiles took over navigation.
"We got lucky." Rogers continued. "Alpha Centauri is flaring up at the moment, supplying us with maximum illumination, enough to spot this."
Jim frowned at the image.
It was where they were heading, an area between Sol and Alpha Centauri, full of planetary debris, mainly asteroids and comets, the Voyager prob was caught in its gravitational pull and where the prob went, the Enterprise followed.
"Is this a live feed, Isaac?" Jim asked.
"Yes, sir." Rogers answered.
"What are the chances we are looking at an artifact?"
"The AI is still analyzing this, but they're low." The officer replied.
Jim breathed out and tried to come to terms with what was presented to him, an Asteroid, lit up from a low angle, with a distinct silhouette of an unidentified object displayed on its surface, highly likely, of an alien ship.
So much for safe travels, Jim thought, fighting a wave of cold shivers, running down his spine.
"Uhura, display this image on all screens." Jim commanded and opened a channel to Engineering. "Kirk to Scott."
"Here, Captain." Answered the Chief Engineer, his usual cheerfulness was absent from his voice.
"See that, Mont?"
"Aye, Captain."
"What do you make of this image?"
"Bad news, sir."
Jim could not help a thin smile, and then shook his head. "I need you on the bridge as my XO, Scotty."
"On my way."
A few moments passed by in stillness, until the turb-lift spewed out both Commander Scott and Lt. Marcus.
The Lt turned to her science station, and Scotty found his natural place standing next to the captain's chair.
"Live feed?" Scotty asked and Jim nodded, then Scotty narrowed his gaze and glanced at the display for a short while. "Impressive navigating skills." He concluded. "Holding such precise position, in relation to an asteroid moving at such high velocity, along a chaotic orbit." The Chief Engineer commented.
"Can it be done?" Kirk asked, finally taking his gaze from the screen to glance at his first officer.
"Not by any human vessel I know, Jim."
Jim suspected as such. So, this was an alien race, probably with superior and unknown capabilities. This was ranging very near to worst case scenario.
"Captain, do we stay the course?" Stiles asked politely but with notable urge.
"Lt Marcus." Jim turned to view his science officer. "I need a display of our position, the Voyager's position and our trajectory towards it, add it all to the position of the UFO."
"On it." Carol answered.
A moment later, the screen displayed the requested data and their situation seemed to get even worse.
There was the Voyager prob, cutting through the debris in an arced line, leaning towards the center of mess, there was the Enterprise, closing in on it, and in between, intersecting it with perfect precision, there was the UFO.
"Center on the UFO and our trajectory, magnify image as much as possible, what’s our margin?" Kirk asked.
"A moment, the AI's calculating, sir." Carol answered while working her console. "There, while maintaining this speed, we have a 12,000 Km's width of margin and 6.7 hr until possible intersection."
"Lt. Uhura, what is the current lag in communication between us and HQ?"
"8 hours, sir, between sending our first message and receiving their first response." Nyota answered.
Jim struggled to maintain his straight up position on the chair, as bad news piled upon bad news, but everyone was looking at him, so he could not afford a display of weakness.
"Miss Uhura, please send an image of the UFO to HQ alongside a short summery of events, ask them to maintain radio silence until further notice."
"Understood." she nodded and went to work.
Jim suppressed a sigh and opened the comm again. "Bones, get up here, meet me at the debriefing room."
"Very well, see you in five." The doctor answered.
"Scott, Marcus, Rogers, please join me. Sulu, you have the Conn."
Jim was more than happy to get up, and used the opportunity to sneak up a stretch. Sulu took to the chair without a word and the other officers went into the debriefing room.
"Captain!" Stiles stopped him at the door.
"Maintain course until further notice." Jim answered before disappearing inside.
*********
They waited twelve minutes for McCoy to join them. Jim needed him in the room, although a doctor, Leonard McCoy had a significant military background, and possessed a brilliant mind. Jim would never let his wisdom go to waste, nor his experience, his value as Jim's best friend was also beyond measure.
While waiting, he studied the now familiar shadow cast by the UFO on the rocky surface of the asteroid.
He could not help but admire its elegant shape and majestic form. It had an elongated body, smooth, without sharp angels, seemed like it was built with an entirely different approach to space travel.
Jim could not help but wonder about the creatures who build that object. How old were they? What were they like? What did they know about the universe? Did they see it as a dark forest as well?
"Sorry for being late." Bones mumbled, entering the room.
"You're always late." Scotty smiled at the doctor "You'll be late to your own funeral."
"Ain't no funeral if they cannot find the body." Bones retorted while finding his seat. "Which will be the outcome of this mission, if you don’t mind me saying."
"Always the pessimist." Scotty smiled, shaking his head.
"Thank you for joining us, Bones." Jim took back the lead of the conversation. "We are now operating under a yellow alert and this is the situation at hand."
He started, waving at the image of the UFO's shadow displayed on the screen and then continued.
"Here we are, chasing down the Voyager probe, hours away from finishing this seek and destroy mission, but there they are, those aliens, in their advanced ship of unknown abilities, standing in our way."
"Nicely put." Scott huffed.
"We have about 6.5 hours to figure a way out of this mess." Jim finished with a grim smile.
"Is this a Xindi ship?" asked McCoy.
"Highly unlikely." Rogers answered " We already ran it through the database. This silhouette doesn't match any known Xindi Vessel recorded."
"Great, a new enemy just popped out of nowhere, less than a light year away from Earth." Bones frowned.
"That is correct." Jim agreed. "We must handle this very carefully, or we'd put home at a great risk."
"How big is this thing?" McCoy continued, nearly growling at the image of the UFO.
"We're working on it." Lt. Marcus answered. "We still don't have a scale to measure this object against."
"The Asteroid it's tailing?" Jim suggested.
"That's the problem, sir." Miss Marcus explains softly. "This entire area is uncharted; no object here has ever been measured."
"But we need to know." Bones insisted "Are we facing a monster of a warship or a small scouting shuttle, there's a world of difference."
"Agreed." Scotty answered "But understand, Len, we cannot go about mapping this sector now, not without drawing unwanted attention."
"So, we're going in blind?" Bones looked at Kirk. "Do you find this acceptable?"
"I will not authorize any use of active sensors at the moment." The Chief Engineer insisted "It's too risky and there's no guaranty we'd get any useful information out of it. Captain's gonna back me up on this. Won’t you, Jim?"
With all eyes on him, Jim breathed in and ran his fingers through his blonde hair.
"Alpha Centauri is a known, measured object." Kirk eyed his science officer. "We also know our approximated distance to it. We can wait until the asteroid passes before the star, then calculate its size according to the amount of light it blocks. Then we use this information to extrapolate the ship's size according to the shadow it casts on that rock. Am I correct?"
Carol listened to him while running calculations on the touch pad in front of her, and she nodded throughout his speech.
"This method uses only passive sensors." She answered after a few moments. "The Asteroid will pass between us and the star within 50 minutes. We'll need to slightly maneuver the Enterprise to get the optimum angle…" She said while running more calculations. "It would be a rough estimate, but it could be done." She concluded, lifting her gaze from her pad, offering a cautious smile.
Jim turned to his XO. "Mr. Scott?"
The man crossed his arms on his chest "If it's a short, gentle maneuver then I guess I'll authorize it. The signature of the impulse drive is similar to that of a flaring star, it could easily be masked by the background noise."
"It's a small maneuver." The CSO assured them.
"You have a go, Marcus." Jim concluded.
"Feeding the data to navigation and helm." Carol answered while taping on her pad.
Jim shook his head slowly, waiting for Carol to finish updating the helm. Time was ticking, and it only took them twenty minutes to figure out how to clear out one minute problem off the gigantic mess they were in.
He needed to tackle the big issues first, he reminded himself, clenching his jaw, it was up to him to cut to the chase.
"Well, regardless of the ship's size, we must assume worst case scenario." Jim said, making sure to gain back everyone's attention. "The Aliens are here to collect the Voyager probe, same as us."
"What makes you so sure?" Bones asked.
"Basic logic." Jim grimaced. "We've been hunting the prob for almost three years now, and even though we knew how to search for it, knew in what frequency it transmitted, it still gave us hell and disappeared on more than one occasion."
"Indeed." Miss Marcus agreed. "The prob lost its navigation abilities centuries ago, and it's flight towards Alpha Centauri is chaotic. Its transmission capacity is also diminishing, so the signal can easily disappear into the background noise. We lost it eight times, sir, sometimes for weeks."
"It's a needle in a haystack situation." Jim continued "So if we are here, and they are here, the only probable explanation is that they've been tracking it too and are ready to intercept. They are 4 hours in the lead, and we should do something about it."
"I'm sorry, but that's not the worst-case scenario." McCoy almost growled, and he turned to look at Rogers. "We noticed the UFO on your shift, right, Isaac?"
"Correct." The dark-skinned officer nodded.
"How much time had passed between locating the object and moving into to yellow alert?" The doctor asked.
"A moment, please." Isaac asked, finding the shift's log on his touch-pad. "It took us two hours and fifteen minutes to verify the situation and sound the alarm."
"Thank you." Bones smiled and turned to Marcus. "In that period of two hours and fifteen minutes, did the asteroid the UFO is riding moved towards the probe?"
"Checking." Carol mumbled; eyes glued to her screen. "Negative, Len, the Asteroid and the probe are keeping a fixed distance between them."
Now Bones eyed Jim with a smug on his face.
"Damn." The captain almost hissed. "They are lurking."
"My scenario is worst, I win." Bones concluded.
"Hang on, gotta go fetch your prize" Scotty sighed.
"We need to review our options." Kirk reminded them.
"This is classic case of fight or flight." McCoy answered withing seconds. "I vote for flight."
"Flight is no option." Scotty disagreed. "If we back down now, it would take Earth about a month to launch a new mission, and then at least a year and a half until they get back here."
"It took us almost three." Jim commented, slightly surprised.
"Yeah, but next gen is a bit faster." Scotty explained "And have a better sensor array. Our lady is getting old, Jim."
"Still the prettiest." Kirk smiled at him.
"The Voyager will stop transmitting in six more months." Carol noted. "No matter when they get here, they will have no way of locating the probe."
"There we go, problem solved." Bones chuckled. "Let's give it an order to stop transmitting now, and if we can't find it, and we know it best, no one will ever find it. It will fall into the heart of Alpha Centauri three light years from now. Those damn Aliens can lurk here as much as they want, no one's going to fall into their trap. Flight, I say."
"The Voyagers is operating on 1970th technology." Scott reminded the doctor. "We're the closeted humans to it, but even if we send it an order at this moment, it would take weeks before it picks up on it and shut down… if it's even possible at this point."
"Years ago, they tried to shut it down from Erath and failed." Jim added. "We assume the probe's mainframe has been damage, weathered by space travel. Its ability to accept signals was probably demolished, and only its ability to transmit remained."
"Just like my ex-wife." Bones muttered under his breath.
Lt Marcus frowned at McCoy's remark. "Even if we somehow make it stop transmitting, there's a chance an alien race would pick it up before it falls into the star, we cannot take that risk. We need to get it into our torpedo's range and destroy it, it's the only way to go." Marcus finished.
Scotty nodded in agreement, but said nothing.
"Maybe the Probe is only worthwhile to those hobgoblins if there's a ship attached to it." McCoy insisted. "Maybe they are waiting to see if this is just space junk, maybe, just by attempting to destroy it, we expose its valuable."
Jim moved on his seat with unease, the good doctor had a point but nonetheless…
"I give them more credit than that, Bones." Kirk answered "They did not show up here for space junk, they will see the probe as valuable no matter what. If their ambush fails, their next move would be capturing the prob for analysis. We all know what that means."
"Yeah, we know!" Scotty answered with open frustration. "Would someone please explain to me why our daft ancestors thought it was pure dead brilliant to carve a map to our home system on a golden record, and send it on its merry way into hostile space!"
"It was before the Xindi dropped out of nowhere, trying to annihilate us." Isaac mused.
"A time long ago, of childlike naivety." Marcus agreed.
"Pure stupidity, I'd say." Bones snored.
"Our ancestors were optimistic, not naïve." Jim disagreed, blue eyes shining. "They hoped to find friends in outer space, they reached out their hand in peace, I think it was an admirable thing to do."
"Peace, Captain? Please." McCoy chuckled. "A century after launching the Voyagers we were up to neck in World War three."
"Well…" Jim's smile tuned melancholic. "We are diverting from subject."
"So, flight is not an option." Scotty concluded. "If we retreat now, those aliens will learn the way to Earth."
"It cannot be allowed." Jim nodded.
"Fine, fight it is." Bones through his hands up in the air. "I knew this was going to be a suicide mission, luckily, no one on Earth is going to miss me."
"You cannot say that." Marcus reached out to pat McCoy on his shoulder. "Your kid…"
"Already hates me for abandoning her, better this way."
"My girlfriend broke up with me just before liftoff." Isaac shared.
"Ouch." Scotty sympathized. "So cruel."
"Better than going through a divorce." Bones tried to comfort as well.
"Attention, please." Jim knocked gently on the table. "Please." He said again as the room returned to stillness. "Fight is just as bad an option as flight." He argued.
"Sir?" Marcus asked, confused as the rest.
Jim breathed out before attempting to explain.
"If we fight and lose, fight and get captured, fight and lose our ability to destroy the prob, it would be just as bad as retreating. Only fighting, destroying the alien vessel alongside the probe would do. What are the odds for that?"
Everyone glared at Kirk for a while without saying a word.
"You mean we're dead, Jim? Either way?" Bones was the first to recover. "If that's so, let's get the hell out of here and go home. I'd rather die on my pile of dirt than in this flying tin can."
Jim smiled but did not answer, he was lost in though.
"Protocol dictates…" Scott intervened gently. "At the risk of capture, we must activate our self-destruct mechanism."
"Six hours minus four minutes until intersection." Marcus stated, after peaking at her screen.
"No worries, I can get the self-destruction mechanism operational under 60 minutes." The Chief Engineer assured her. It earned him a snore from Bones.
"No worries…" McCoy repeated after Scott. "Funny."
"Preparing the self-destruct option is top priority, isn't it, Captain?" Scotty asked.
“Hmmm…”
"Jim?" Marcus tried as well, but Kirk was still lost in thought.
"I wonder what HQ will make of this situation." Isaac whispered.
"We'll never know." Marcus answered "Nyota said it's a twelve hours lag, sorry, eight hours, just the same."
"At least we narrowed their chance of a sneak attack." Scotty tried cheering them up "We gave Earth a fighting chance, that counts for something, right? Jim?"
"We're not done yet." Jim woke up from his pondering and looked slightly annoyed. "There might be a third strategy we can apply." He concluded
"Not flight nor fight?" Bones arched his brow. "What else could be done?"
"Stealth." Kirk answered. "If we're clever enough."
"And lucky." Leonard added.
"If we're clever enough and lucky…" Jim took the correction. "We could avoid the ambush, destroy the probe in a way that does not look suspicious and go into warp before the Alien craft notice us."
"Voyager gets obliterated and we get to go back home?" Scotty cheered. "I'm voting for that."
"Count me in." Bones nodded.
"It's bold and risky." Isaac commented. "But I trust your judgment, Captain."
"Not so fast, gentlemen." Carol interrupted "How do you suggest we do it, Sir? There's a 12,000 Km worth of margin to navigate in. If we get to close to the Asteroid, we'd be discovered by the UFO, if we stray too far, we'd lose our trajectory and would need warp to course correct."
"We only have enough fuel for one warp ignition. " Scotty reminded Jim. "And sure, I would like to use it to get back home."
"I know, Scotty." Jim smiled at him.
"And we need a backup plan to destroy the probe, in the likely case our stealth attempt fails."
"I know, Scotty."
"Self-destruct mechanism should be up and running regardless of anything, we cannot allow ourselves to get comprehended."
"I know Scotty."
"So?"
"I'm on it." Jim assured his XO, and looked at each officer in the room. "I am all in on it." He repeated his promise.
"You have a plan to tackle each and every option?" Len asked.
"Not yet." Jim admitted "But I have ideas.".
Scotty and McCoy eyes each other and both shrugged at the same time.
Jim was already itching to get off the chair, he moved with unease. "Alright, summing this up…" He took in a deep breath, his eyes falling first on his XO.
"Mr. Scott, get the self-destruction mechanism online then report back to me."
"Aye, Captain."
"Lt. Marcus, learn how large that UFO is and use your team to squeeze out every piece of information possible about it, using our passive sensors only."
"Yes, Sir."
"Rogers, get the crew debriefed in small enough groups, not to interrupt their function."
"Yes, Captain."
"What about me, Jim?" Bones asked.
"Return to med-bay and stand by, Doctor, I hope you won’t get too busy."
"You and me both, kid."
"Thank you for your time." Jim finished, practically shooting out of his seat and off the debriefing room with few swift steps.
"Captain on the bridge!" announced Stiles.
"Captain's not staying." Jim informed the navigator. "I'm on my way to Docking bay, Sulu, keep the conn."
"Yes, sir." Sulu answered.
"My comm is open, keep me informed."
"Yes, sir." Sulu answered again.
"Red alert." Jim commanded then turned to the turbo lift.
"Red alert." Sulu repeated, and the yellow lights turned red.