#but his line reminded me of the vone

[pioneergirlsie]

Jack in Mary Poppins Returns: “Nice accent. Where ya from?”

Me: “I am Liberian.”

My little brother in a terrible cockney accent: “Oh my bad. I like your accent. Where ya from?”

[harcourtholmesii]

An Officer’s Loyalty (Part 2)

Pairing: Medic X Reader

Words: 2184

Warnings:

-          Heavily Referenced and Implied Abuse

-          Violence and Blood

-          Death and Murder

-          Swearing

-          Intimidation and Threats

Enjoy!

Surely this was a dream; nothing like this would have ever happened in real life, and goodness knows this was the most surreal experience in your line of work.

The little steel, foldable chair you were sat upon was in the middle of a very near empty room, save for the haphazardly crafted poker table in front of you. You could see the scratchiness of chipped paint and chalk lines that marked the players’ cards and chips. It was rustic, crude and above all; cheap. Mann Co had at least given BLU the tall, cement building with wide windows and high-tech security. In this place, it seemed the security was reduced to the Engineer’s own sentries with a desert painted curtain ‘disguising’ the base’s entrance.

Before you stood four of what should have been your enemies. Being this close was disconcerting, and you felt a little betrayed when you had been told it would just be Medic and Engineer. True, they were there, but so were RED Spy and Heavy.

Heavy sat on a chair similar to yours, weight resting against the wall, grey eyes watching you closely. Much more specifically, his grey eyes observed every twitch of your fingers, every shift of your foot and every motion of your eyes to your empty handgun. Whether he was aware it lacked ammunition, you didn’t know, but your concern was how he sat just beside the entrance, his ‘Sasha’ resting just beside his right boot.

Spy was leaning against the opposing wall, him and Heavy guarding your only escape route. He had a cigarette between his lips; wisps of grey smoke rising into the air. There was the bitterness of the nicotine, but the faintest sweet scent of strawberries. He glared at you from where he stood, his left hand busy whipping about his butterfly knife in a deft display of skill. No doubt he was trying to intimidate you.

It irked you to no end that it was working.

Engineer sat on the crude gaming table, hands in his lap and offering a kind of tense smile. He had removed his helmet, revealing his naked scalp, but unlike Heavy and Spy he had no weapons on hand. At least, none that you could see. For all you knew, he could have a hidden sentry in the room, just awaiting his command. You had taken to wearing Medic’s coat since you first passed by the outside curtain, all sentries training on you for that brief moment your uniform was exposed.

Speaking of the German, he stood just a ways behind Engineer, offering Heavy a few, muted signals. You curled inwards, unintentionally pulling Medic’s coat tighter around your form. The heat was unwelcome and the metallic smell of blood and gunpowder reminded you of your place. However, seeing the man in a much less ‘professional’ light, dressed in a sweater vest despite the weather, was a strange form of comfort.

‘Want a drink, Officer?’ Engineer finally spoke, reaching to a small crate on the table, revealing a plastic bottle of cool water. You felt your tongue, fat and dry from the day’s work, swiping at the inside of your mouth. You swallowed around it, trying not to seem as desperate as you were for water.

‘Please.’ A bottle was tossed, and you caught it in one hand. You uncapped it and as you brought it to your lips, your eyes turned to Spy. You lowered the bottle, sniffing the air above the cap ever so slightly. ‘What’s in it?’

There was a scoff from the Frenchman, the man smirking in a way that was just designed to piss you off.

‘Nozhing. If we wanted to torture, we wouldn’t go zhrough zhe trouble of wasting a good sedative.’ Your eyes turned to the others, and Medic gave an encouraging nod. You sipped it.

The cool liquid was heavenly. The first, delicate sip wasn’t enough to sate your thirst, and as soon as you had lowered the bottle, you had risen it to your lips again, taking long gulps of water. It probably wasn’t a good idea, but Spy did have a point, much as you loathed admitting it.

‘So, I guess now’s the best time to talk about… What we brought you ‘ere for.’ You whipped your eyes to Engineer, who tossed you a second bottle. This, you just rested in your lap. You waited for him to continue, but now that you were finally getting down to business, you could feel the stress rising. You could feel your hands tensing around the bottle, the plastic crackling in your hands.

‘I ain’t gonna sugar-coat anythin’, Officer. I’m just gonna tell you straight: we want you on the team.’

There was silence.

And then you started snickering. Which soon turned to chuckling and then an all-out burst of laughter. You nearly doubled over in your seat, clutching the bottle tight to you like it was your lifeline. Last thing you needed to explain to BLU was that you ended up in respawn by dying of laughter.

‘You can’t be serious?’

‘Dreadfully so, I’m afraid.’ The Spy spoke up, and your laughter died down. The smile was still on your lips, and even now, you could feel the laughter bubbling in your chest.

‘You’ve noticed, haven’t you?’ The Texan questioned, and you tilted your head in curiosity. Noticed what? ‘We don’ gotta Officer on our team. Surely you’ve seen that.’ You felt a little bit put out to be talked down to. How could you not notice?

The first thing you were told when you became a member of BLU was the opposing team would have someone in your position. They might share your face, or be a completely different person. And yet, every time you had entered into battle, you counted the mercenaries that fired upon you and your allies. You counted nine most times. Sometimes there were seven or eight mercenaries, perhaps taking a sick day or performing some confidential task for their employers. But your count never exceeded nine.

‘Yes. I’ve noticed.’

‘So, we want you to join us.’

‘Well, pardon me and my suspicions, but why not ask your employers for an extra member? Why try and coerce me to join you?’ The Medic stepped up, passing Engineer and placing himself between you and the others. Admittedly, you felt a little better with him between you all. At least part of that was because of the potential for an escape. If you needed to go, perhaps you could manage a hostage situation.

Granted, from where you sat, and without his coat, you could see the Medic’s body thick with some muscle. Lugging around the hunk of metal and glass tubes that was the medigun left quite an impression on the man’s physique. It was just as likely that should you hold a knife to his throat, he could break your arm himself.

So much for that plan.

‘Vell, our employer is a very busy fraulein, and she cannot answer to every request ve make. No matter how important.’ Honestly, based on his words, you wondered if they had their very own version of Miss Pauling; one that rocked up on her scooter with a shotgun in hand and a pencil knit skirt. ‘Ve vanted to ask you, as ve took notice of jour…’

A silence descended upon the room. It seemed awkward how they were trying to dance around your situation. Even Heavy looked down, almost bashful.

‘Ve noticed you vere… Vell…’

‘What you have seen is nothing. I can handle it.’ There was another scoff from the RED Spy as he flicked his cigarette butt into a nearby ashtray. He turned to Medic with an almost condescending look upon his face and a righteous smirk.

‘I told you. We don’t need someone who can’t even tell zhat zhey are being abused and-’

‘Shut up.’ You stated it firmly, in such a tone that caught his notice. ‘I am not in denial. I know what is happening to me. I don’t need you, any of you, to tell me what I already know.’ You hissed. You were seething. How dare this fucker talk about you like that. He was in no position to speak about you and your dickhead teammates. You had stood up in your anger, felt the bottle of water crunch in your fingers and the ache of the bruises in your skin. It just made you angrier.

‘I’m fine.’

‘Nein.’ You hadn’t noticed how Medic had stepped closer, now within arm’s reach. He reached out to you and you shirked his hand off your arm. ‘Jou’re not fine. Any-vone smart vould notice how jou keep your distance, even from your own team. Entschuldigung, but I can see zhe scarring on jour hands also.’ You pulled them back, hiding them in the folds of the coat.

‘Those aren’t from the team.’

‘Even if zhey aren’t, a gud Medic vould be able to relieve jou of zhem. Und vhy hasn’t jours?’

You lowered your gaze, stepping back and past the chair. You could feel your legs shaking down to your boots. You didn’t like how everyone stared. The last thing you needed was judgement from the REDs of all people. You didn’t care about them and certainly didn’t need their consideration.

‘Haff jou even been given jour heart surgery?’

Your look of confusion was answer enough. You didn’t understand. What the fuck was he even referring to?

‘Jou do know zhat vhenever a Medic uses zhe ubercharge zhat it requires a heart transplant in zhe patient? Ozhervise, zhe heart explodes from zhe voltage.’

What?

You had seen how the Heavy, Soldier and Demo had been lit up a bright sheen of blue that acted like a second skin to them and the Medic. Sure, you had felt the beam of the medigun on you before, but never had you turned such a colour. And yet you had seen the RED team, in much the same fashion, receive an ubercharge across all manner of classes. You could recall a knife fight between yourself and the RED Sniper; your team had been slaughtering the REDs and the Sniper was only just managing to fend off your big players. You had gone in, but had been surprised to see the red armour coating that covered his body from head to toe. Your own head had been quickly removed from your shoulders in that instance.

‘What we’re trying to say, is that we want to give you a chance to work for us. We wanted to ask you because, well, if anyone could benefit, we thought perhaps you might. Kill two birds with one stone, if you will.’ Medic’s face morphed into a brief look of offense.

‘Ve don’t vant to kill jou. Ve vant jou on our team. Ve zhink jou vould be most… wertvoll? Vhat is vord-?’

‘Valuable, docteur.’

‘Right. Right… Valuable, Offizier. Vhat do jou zhink?’

You thought about. Genuinely, your mind was in a race, each pro and con coming to your brain in an instant. A new team, and a new start… It could be good, even exciting. You rolled your shoulder, thinking how your own teammates would react. They’d be angry… Beyond angry. It kind of scared you that you liked the idea of their outrage at your betrayal.

‘I don’t know… Do the rest of your team even know about this? Wouldn’t they just as likely kill me, anyway?’

‘Heavy not kill you if you not kill team.’ Well, that was… something, you supposed.

‘Soldier and Scout are the only ones to really worry about, and we’ll talk with ‘em about it.’ Engineer offered.

‘Can I think on it?’ You asked. You took notice how a look was shared between the REDs, until Spy spoke up at last.

‘You can. Feel free to think on it all you want, but…’ He stepped forward and away from his position at the back of the room. ‘… We can’t allow you to leave until you make your decision.’ He stalked closer.

‘Vas?’

‘What?’

‘Chto?’

‘If we let you go, you could still discuss wizh your team looking into our secrets and our security. Zhe last zhing we need is a double agent.’ There was a flick of the knife in his gloved hand, and the blade edge rested just below your chin. ‘You will stay here until a decision is made. And we have all weekend for you to zhink on it.’

‘Spion!’ The German barked at him, and the Frenchman offered him merely an annoyed look in return. Medic’s hand pushed the knife away, putting some distance between yourself and the dangerous man. You felt a great swell of relief in your chest, and unintentionally took to stepping back and further behind Medic.

‘Jou are not helping by making zhreats. It is not necessary.’

‘It isn’t necessary.’ You said, peering around Medic’s form. All eyes were on you, including Medic’s. ‘I’m in.’ The doctor smiled and you felt a warmth in your chest.

Spy smirked, and you felt a chill up your spine.

[bookwormscififan]

Ink - Marvin Appreciation Week

I said I was gonna write a fic for Marvin.

Based off the bongo cat Marvin ask I got yesterday(?).

Word count: 1694 words

Chase had called and scheduled an appointment for Marvin to get a tattoo. Sean had left the name of his tattoo parlour out so Chase was able to use that.

He went with Marvin to get the tattoo, asking him numerous questions about what type, where and why he wanted one. Marvin never answered the queries.

“Chase, everything will be answered when the tattoo is on my skin. I promise. Did you bring money?” Chase nodded, digging his hands deeper into his pockets. They never usually went out in public, but Marvin had made this sound like an emergency.

“Sorry, sir, but we only allow one per room for the appointment.” Chase nodded and reluctantly sat down outside. Marvin followed the artist into the room, rolling his sleeves up as he went.

Sitting outside the room, Chase flicked through his phone to pass the time. Having not actually been through the sensations of getting a tattoo, he was apprehensive as to how it would feel. When Sean got the second tattoo, it just appeared on the egos’ skin.

He looked up as the door opened. Marvin walked out, smiling and thanking the artist. Chase couldn’t see where he had gotten a tattoo, but Marvin had rolled his sleeves back down.

“Chase will pay, won’t you, buddy?” Chase nodded, shaking himself out of the side tracking his mind had taken.

They walked back home together, and Chase couldn’t stifle his curiosity any longer.

“Marvin, where did you get the tattoo?” Marvin smirked, scratching an itch under his mask.

“I’ll let you know when everything works out.”

The two returned home, and Marvin immediately climbed the stairs to his room. Chase watched him go, then walked to the kitchen to chat with JJ.

“Are you making pies?” He watched as JJ mixed ingredients in a bowl, shirt already covered in flour.

This is the second batch. First one is in the oven. Plum pie. Robbie is outside, I do not know exactly where. I sent him out so he would not take any pie filling. Chase smirked, then looked around.

“Jackie?” Went on patrol. Schneep is in his room. Chase nodded, heading for the staircase.

“Hey, Schneep. You doing alright?” Schneep looked up from a seemingly tense game of Operation, and sighed.

“Ve are doing well. I vas hoping to try and make zis game work properly. But I do not think I am cut out for zis.” He looked at the game with dejection, a face full of defeat.

“Maybe not. Let me help.”

Marvin sat in his room perusing all his books to find the perfect spells and potions. Feeling an itch on his upper arm, he rolled his sleeve up to inspect the new tattoo. Multiple lines curled and curved around the surface, and a small cat’s face could be seen within the twining blue lines on his arm.

After mixing the potion, he gently traced the lines of the tattoo with it, feeling the potion sink into each stripe of ink. When he got to the cat face, he only traced the outline of the head and the eyes. Wincing as the mixture sank fully into his flesh, he exhaled slowly as the potion made its way through his bloodstream, feeling it lace and twist itself into the already existent magic and body chemistry. Opening his eyes, a momentary flash showed in them, making him look almost cat-like behind his mask.

“Hey, guys! I have something awesome to show you!” Marvin called as he raced down the stairs. He had changed into a new blue shirt and rolled his sleeve up so that the tattoo could be seen.

The egos followed his voice down the stairs, then all gathered in the living room to look at him expectantly. He took a deep breath as he showed them the tattoo.

“I realised that accidentally making myself a cat was becoming less of an accident, and more of a desire to make myself a cat. I did some research, and I found that I could enchant a tattoo to change my form. Watch.”

He began to recite the spell in his head, letting out a small hiss as fire began to burn inside him. The other egos huddled closer together as the tattoo began to glow. Slowly each line grew bright, and new lines began to trace their own paths down Marvin’s arm.

He opened his eyes. When did I close them? The egos gasped at the cat eyes Marvin now had, the pupils beginning to glow, brighter and with more intensity each second. Within a minute, the egos were all coated in a bright light, and each covered their eyes.

When they opened them, there was a cat in the area that Marvin once stood. The coat was pure white, bright blue eyes looking at them and a faint green tinge to his inner ears. Chase stood first, kneeling before the cat and gently looking at the collar around his neck.

Swirling patterns and blue lines swept across the collar, all intertwining in the middle to join a charm. The charm was almost a duplicate of Marvin’s tattoo, each detail so intricate that the small cat face was even there.

“…Marvin?” The cat rested his paw on Chase’s knee, looking up at him with joyful eyes. Chase gently picked the cat up, bringing him over to the others, who were sitting in stunned silence.

“Guys, it’s just Marvin.” Slowly, the other egos began to move, reaching out to see the collar.          

Choruses of ‘Marvin’ began to sound in the room, and the cat jumped from person to person, rubbing against some and purring in others’ arms. When he got to JJ, he sat comfortably in the mute’s arms, purring with closed eyes.

Chase watched as JJ sat down again and began to stroke Marvin’s fur. He looked up at Chase and smiled, joy clear on his face. Within minutes, Marvin had fallen asleep in JJ’s lap. Chase grinned.

“Guess you’re sleeping here tonight. I’ll get you a blanket.” JJ nodded, staring down at Marvin with kindness.

The following morning, JJ woke to a heavy feeling on his lap. He felt with his hand and opened his eyes when he felt human hair under his hand.

Marvin had returned to human form in his sleep, forgetting he was sleeping on JJ’s lap. The mute smiled, then gently shook Marvin to rouse him.

“Mmh…” The magician stretched, mask askew as he looked up at JJ.

“Morning, Jamie.” JJ smiled, waving before signalling he needed to get up.

“Oh! Sorry, buddy. Here, I’ll move for you.” He sat up, watching as JJ stood up and stretched.

“How did you like my trick? Pretty good, huh?” JJ nodded.

It was very nice. I have not seen a magician change his form before. Marvin grinned, then stood up and headed for the stairs.

“I’m going to go change. I’ll be back for breakfast.” JJ nodded, heading for the kitchen to make pancakes. Marvin ascended the stairs, running a hand through his hair and collecting it all at the nape of his neck.

“Morning, James.” JJ turned and smiled as Chase stood watching him from the doorway, hair a mess.

“Got any coffee?” JJ pointed to the kettle, a mug sitting in front of it with steaming liquid inside.

“Thanks. Is Marvin still a cat?” The mute shook his head. He turned back overnight. He went to get changed. Chase nodded, taking a sip from the mug before spluttering.

“Too hot. Marvin did a great job with the magic stuff. Really impressed me. I didn’t know he could do something like that.” JJ nodded, putting two pancakes on a plate and handing it to Chase. I really liked it. Reminded me of the old ‘tricks-of-the-eye’ magic they had in my time.

“Must have been a great thing to remember. I think Marv was really proud he made you happy.” He stopped and looked at the door. Robbie stood there, peering cautiously around.

“Problem, Robbie?” The zombie nodded, making a dart for JJ’s side.

“Cat…?” Chase shook his head, chuckling slightly.

“Nope. Marvin turned back into the human last night. No more cats. Until he decides to pull that trick again.” Robbie nodded, taking a pancake from the plate that JJ offered him.

“Morning, can’t stay, there’s a big problem downtown.” Jackie raced past, taking a pancake and waving to everyone before disappearing. The egos looked after him, confusion on their faces.

“Anti…” The others turned to Robbie as the half-eaten pancake in his hand glitched away.

“Anti! If you wanted a pancake, you could have come down to eat it!” Chase yelled up the stairs, jumping slightly as Schneep descended them.

“Morning, Chase. Vhere is my coffee? Jameson, my friend, have you made enough pancakes?” JJ nodded, handing him a plate of four pancakes. Robbie took one from the top hesitantly before looking at Schneep.

“Do not vorry, Robbie. You can take vone of mine.” Schneep smiled at the zombie, then headed to his office, coffee in one hand and pancakes in the other. Chase opened his mouth to see if he needed help opening the door, but Schneep had already managed it without him.

“Morning, everyone! I hope you enjoyed the trick. I made sure to put all the shapeshifting spells in a separate corner of my room so no more accidents will happen.” Marvin walked down the stairs, devoid of a mask, and smiling from ear to ear. He took the plate that JJ offered, then sat on the other side of the counter to eat them.

“I also ordered a new mask to suit the tattoo.” He smiled as the egos began to ask him questions about the new mask, but refused to answer any of them. As he ate his breakfast, he let his mind wander.

The magic of the shapeshifter tattoo flowed through his bloodstream, merging with every fibre of his biological makeup. The tattoo itself burned with a need to be used. Marvin sat feeling all this and thought about his new mask. Wouldn’t the audience get a shock to see me now?

[robinsgirlwonder]

Star Trek: Age of Wonder by RobinsGirlWonder

A Romulan warbird scrapples with the Enterprise during a routine survey of a mysteriously untraceable planet. When the captain leads an away team to the surface and is shot down, he finds himself face to face with no less than an angel. An angel who knows his face, but not his name.

Read the Teaser to Episode One: The Champion of Themyscira

On AO3 HERE (will eventually go to M)

On FF.net HERE (T rated chapters only) 

Please reblog! 

Cover art by @wife-shaped-husband​

And also included in the CUT BELOW

The Champion of Themyscira: Teaser

 Captain’s Log: Stardate 2264.16

Here we are again. Back in the saddle, as the old cowboys would say. Much to my chief medical officer’s chagrin, we have resumed our five-year mission of exploration. The Enterprise-A might be a spiritual successor to the original, but in every way, she gleams and thrives in this new space as much as we have.

The crew is in good spirits, eager to find new planets to explore beyond the nebula. I had to turn down three separate xenobiology and archeology positions on our day before leaving spacedock, simply because we’re already stocked as full as we can be. And, I have to admit, I’ve never been much for digging up dusty old bones. But, maybe it’s been the time stuck station-side that reminded me why I’m out here. Why I fly. I’m as excited as the young crewmen are. Everyone has been at their peak performance.

Which is why we’ve reached our newest destination ahead of schedule. We’ve come upon a system in a unique part of the star’s life cycle. It’s been in the process of transitioning from a yellow star like our sun to a red star. Spock actually seems… almost excited… at the opportunity to survey the system and more importantly, the star’s progress. Seeing his Vulcan equivalent of eagerness might make the trip completely worth it. Me? I’m hoping we might find something of interest on the class M planet in the 4-planet system...

“Captain, we’re coming up on the Eos system now.” Sulu’s voice cut through the hustle and bustle of the bridge like a knife. 

“Onscreen, Mister Sulu.” Captain James T. Kirk sat up in his chair as his helmsman brought the full array of the Enterprise’s sensors onto the star Eos. The orb swam with plasma in varying shades of orange and red, occasionally arcing out towards the open space around it, as if a bird kicking its way out of its egg. Kirk found his mind drifting back to his Greek mythology. Eos… the goddess of the dawn. What a red dawn that would be on the planets in orbit... 

“Oh, she is somesing else, isn’t she, Ceyptin?” Chekov’s awe was present in everything from his revered voice to the way his hands were reaching for the screen. He still had his stylus between his fingers. “A yellow star in ze midst of transition to a red star! No vone in all of Starfleet has seen zis!”

Jim chuckled, unable to hide his amusement as his young ensign’s giddy scientific curiosity. “Easy, Mister Chekov. You might shake right out of that seat at this rate.” His fingers moved across the console on his armrest, bringing up the various sensor readings. “Anything else of interest in the system, or are we just gonna stargaze all week?” 

It was Spock who grabbed Jim’s attention next from his console. “There are 4 planets in this system, one of which is class-M. Sensors are unable to penetrate interference from the atmosphere at this distance.” 

Jim turned to face him. “So we can go closer.”

“I recommend that we wait to do so after our initial survey of the star. Otherwise, the new sensor array may not collect the full breadth of data available.” The minor annoyance in his voice - at least Jim perceived it that way - made the captain grin.

“You don’t want me to steal power from your shiny new toys, Spock, you could just say so.” The eyebrow arched in response to Jim’s needling, and thus the mission had truly started in earnest. “It’s fine. We’ll check it out after we complete the survey.”

“I’m not sure we want to wait that long, Captain.” When Uhura piped up, a hand still deftly on her earpiece, Jim stood and made his way over to her. “I’m picking up… something from the surface.”

Jim rested a hand on the bulkhead above her console, watching her work. “Can you enhance the signal? Get us a bit more than a ‘something?’”

His communications officer knew what she was doing, and she was clearly in the middle of doing just that when she flipped one last switch and stilled. “I think I’m hearing…. Subspace communications from the surface.”

“Subspace?” His expression shifted to thoughtful, a bit confused. “What, like warp technology?”

“You need to have a moderate understanding of warp theory to implement subspace communications, so it would be logical that the civilization could potentially be warp-capable.” Spock had a point. There could be someone on that planet.

“How come we didn’t detect any lifesigns? We’re not that far out.”

“The planet’s atmosphere is deflecting our sensor readings.” Spock bent over to review his findings before turning back to Jim. “From this range, there is no definitive way to study the planet’s atmosphere and determine the cause.”

No sooner than the words had left the Vulcan’s mouth, Jim’s expression was proof that he should have thought better of it. “Then I guess we’ll have to take a closer look.” He smiled, tapping the bulkhead a bit before pushing off and making his way towards the turbolift. “Mister Sulu, I need a pilot. Chekov, you wanna check out the planet? I promise you can come back and trade notes with Mister Spock when we get back.”

“Yes, sir!” Chekov scrambled to grab his padd and stylus as Sulu handed the conn off to an ensign in waiting.

“Captain, I would be remiss if I did not remind you that while Starfleet regulations do not explicitly forbid a captain from going on the away mission - “

Jim had already swept into the turbolift. “Oh, stop worrying, Spock. Let me have this one. You get your science, I want to seek out new life and new civilizations today. You have the bridge.” The turbolift doors whooshed shut as Sulu and Chekov stepped inside.  “What could possibly go wrong?”

 As it turned out an hour later… a lot. A lot could go wrong.

“Shields down to 15 percent and dropping! Ceptyin, ve cannot sustain zis kind of damage for much longer!” Jim knew Chekov was just doing his job, but he really hated no-win scenarios. This was starting to feel a lot like one.

“Get us out of here, Sulu!” Jim shouted as they banked hard. The shuttle barrel-rolled out of the way of an ion blast, only for another arc of lightning to strike the port nacelle.

“I’m trying, but the atmosphere flooded the nacelles. I can’t even get power to the thrusters.” Sulu’s hands shook on the controls. The Galileo didn’t want to pull up.

They hadn’t seen exactly what had strafed across their bow, but the phaser blast had knocked out propulsion and caught them in the atmosphere of the planet. Jim had barely given the order to start scanning before they were now in the middle of it. Every red alert klaxon blared and the ship groaned as it barely held together.

The navigation console erupted in sparks and Sulu went tumbling out of his seat. On his feet in an instant, Jim rolled his helmsman over to find his face and shoulder covered in burns. Frantically, he felt for a pulse. One small blessing - Sulu was alive, but might not be if they couldn’t land this bucket.

“Shields are down!” Chekov cried, hands frantically working to reroute power. “Ve are losing life support, communications, and ze engines are off-line! I cannot get us thrusters! Ve must abandon ze shuttle!”

Jim swallowed, thinking quick. “Can you get power to the transporters?” He grabbed Sulu and tugged him over towards the new, one-person transporter pad.

“Yes, Ceptyin! I can reroute ze power - “

“Good! Can we beam Sulu back to the Enterprise? Are their shields up?”

Chekov was shaking his head feverishly, trying to make sense of the readings in front of him. “I don’t sink so, but I can’t be sure.”

“If the transport fails, how many patterns can this thing store in its buffer?” Kirk finished propping the prone Sulu fully onto the pad, then started to punch in the coordinates for the Enterprise’s sickbay.

“Definitely one! Two, at most!”

Well… that settled that. Jim’s expression steeled, and he quickly engaged the transporter. Sulu dematerialized, but that was no guarantee he’d reached the Enterprise. “Mister Chekov, get on the transporter pad. When you get back to the Enterprise, give them all the sensor data you collected since we started scanning, and you find a way to get through that atmospheric barrier!”

“But, vat about you?” Chekov asked as he struggled to stay upright in the pitching shuttle. He gripped the bulkhead until he was white-knuckled, but he genuinely seemed more worried for Jim than himself.

“That’s why you need to get through the barrier. I’m gonna land this thing, and I’ll need a pick up.”

“But, I can help - “ Chekov never got to finish the statement before Jim grabbed his arm and pulled him onto the transporter pad. He repeated the sequence to beam the stunned ensign off the shuttle.

Jim turned and made his way back to the front of the shuttle.

He wasn’t a huge fan of gods or higher powers. But, he’d never wished he’d had a guardian angel more than right now.

The shuttle careened downward, punching through the atmosphere towards a sea so vibrantly blue, he thought for a moment, Look at that. You found paradise, Jim.

The shuttle Galileo plunged into the sea.