Destined | Christopher Pike

Chapter Five

Emma could feel a headache forming as she typed hastily along the control board. Something. They needed something to go off of so they could rescue the crew. At first, she thought she was imagining the waves from a signal. It wasn't coming from the landing party, but the actual comet itself.

"Captain Pike?" Emma called out.

"You find something?" Christopher asked. He had one hand wrapped on the back of her chair and was slightly leaned over to look at her controls.

"Maybe...it's from the comet, I think, but I can isolate what the signal is saying." Emma explained as she turned up the volume. It almost sounded like music. She watched as Captain Pike listened intently until his face changed as if he recognized the music.

"Computer, identify this song." Christopher said.

" 'Vamuvamba,' a traditional song from Earth, originating in Kenya." The computer spoke.

"This can't be a coincidence." Pike muttered to himself.

Emma looked at him confused. "Am I...missing something?"

"Last night, when I had my dinner party-" he stopped himself. He realized he had intentionally not invited Emma to avoid growing a personal relationship with her. That plan backfired on him when he ran into her in the dining hall. He just hoped she wouldn't pick up on the fact that she hadn't been invited. "Cadet Uhura was there and she was humming that song. I don't know what it means, but it means something. Good work isolating that signal, Cadet."

Emma tried to hide her disappointment about the dinner party with a fake smile. "Thank you, sir." She turned back to her computer while Pike took his seat again. However, as soon as she adverted her attention back to it she noticed the force field had come down. "Captain, the comet dropped the force field."

"Bridge to Transporter Room, energize." Pike said.

"We got them!" Kyle called out from the transporter room.

Emma relaxed slightly. They had their crew back.

"Shields up. Red alert." Pike called out.

Just as he did, her com started beeping to indicate that someone was trying to make contact. "Captain, the Shepherds are hailing us."

"Open a channel. On screen." Christopher said and walked back towards the front of the ship.

"You continue to interfere!" The shepherd yelled. "You were warned."

"Look, let's just talk about this. Find some common ground." The transmission cut out.

Suddenly, the whole ship started to rumble causing everything to jolt.

"They're launching torpedos, Captain. I'm reading three inbound." Una said.

Emma saw the red flares from torpedos and reached out to brace herself against the control board just as Spock arrived back in the bridge. He took his seat next to her and she was silently thankful he was there. Doing a job meant for two people was not the easiest thing in the world especially when you were at risk of being attacked.

"Shields at 50%!" La'an called out.

"Ortegas, evasive maneuvers." Pike told her.

"They're pursing." Una told him as they dodged their blaster fire.

"Return fire?" La'an asked.

"Negative. Escape pattern April-Omega 3." Pike said.

La'an turned around in her seat with a panicked look on her face. "Captain, recommend we withdrawal."