My Darling

The Death of Pike

"Kirk to Shuttle One! Locals are out of the kill zone! You are clear, repeat! Spock, get in there, neutralize the volcano, and let's get out of here!" Captian Kirk said.

Charlotte Spinster chewed her fingernails nervously aboard the Enterprise. It wasn't really her captian she was worried about, but her mentor, Bones. He was training her to be a doctor on the Enterprise. He had followed Kirk into this mess in case he got injured. They were trying to save a primitive species that would die if a huge volcano erupted. That was Sulu, Uhura, and Spock's job.

Charlotte waited for another agonizing two minutes or so until her mentor appeared on the bridge. She grinned and ran up to him. His hair was soaked along with Kirk's, but that was only natural since they were hiding on the bottom of the ship.

"Captian on ze bridge!" Chekov, her best friend, said.

"Lieutenant, do we have an open channel to Mr. Spock?" Kirk asked.

"The heat's frying his comms, but we still have contact." Urhura said.

"Bones, sir, are you all right?" Charlotte asked. "Do you need anything?"

"I'm just fine, Charlie." Bones said. Charlotte glared. That was her nickname, but she preferred her whole name.

"It's Charlotte." She said.

Kirk hit a button on the panel to call Spock. "Spock?"

"I have activated the device, Captian." Spock said. "When it is complete, the reaction shall render the volcano inert."

"That's gonna render him inert." Charlotte said.

"Do we have transporters?" Kirk asked.

"Negative, sir." Sulu said.

"Not with zese magnetic fields!" Chekov said.

"I need to beam Spock on the ship. Give me one way to do it!" Kirk commanded.

"Maybe if we had a direct line of sight, if we got closer-" Chekov started.

"Hold on wee man, you're talking about an active volcano!" Scotty, who had just gotten spooked by a large fish passing the enterprise, said. He turned to Kirk. "Sir, if that thing erupts, I cannea guarentee that we can withstand the heat."

"I don't know that we can maintain that kind of altitudes." Sulu said.

"Sir, are you hurt?" Charlotte asked, looking her captian over.

"We can worry about me later, Charlie, it's Spock who I'm worried about right now." Kirk said, pulling away from her.

"Why do I even bother?" Charlotte muttered.

"Our shuttle was concealed by the ash cloud, but the Enterprise is too large." Spock said. "If utilized in a rescue effort, it would be revealed to the indigenous species."

"Spock, nobody knows the rules better than you, but there has got to be an exception." Kirk said firmly.

"None. Such action violates the Prime Directive." Spock said.

"Shut up, Spock, we're trying to save you, darn it!" Bones said.

"Doctor, the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Spock said.

"SPOCK, WE'RE TALKING ABOUT YOUR LIFE!" Kirk shouted.

"The rules cannot be broken-" Spock's line went dead. Uhura covered her mouth. Charlotte went over to her. She had remembered that she and Spock were together.

"Spock!" Kirk shouted. He turned to Urhura. "Try to get him back online." Uhura nodded and went over to some computers.

"Ninety seconds to detonations." Chekov said.