#this is a small buffer before the next chapter drops and also a teaser

[lbhslefttiddie]

What are you doing, prancing about with your hair all dishevelled? It's improper. Come, sit; Shizun will fix it for you.

[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.