Star Trek: From Ashes and Darkness

Chapter 10: Launch into Space

It was a strange feeling, really, Asha thought as she went plummeting out into space. A mix of feeling airborne and oddly buoyant with the lack of real gravity, but also like a deadweight as the orbit created by the two spaceships made her shoot out into space while the energy propellers on her suit flew her towards the Vengeance.

It felt like it should be dramatic, with the loud whoosh of wind rushing against her, but it was silent as a grave as she travelled like a projectile through the vacuum of space, between the debris and towards her target.

"Captain, there is debris directly ahead." Spock called sharply, and Jim noted: "Copy that."

He swerved to dodge the large piece of broken spaceship – or rather, piece of Enterprise after Marcus's attack damaged their ship – while Khan and Asha flew onwards, following the path their tracker indicated.

It was almost like one of those car racing games, where you followed the curved paths and the track lines that the screen provided – except, the consequences for mistakes were slightly more dire.

"Whoa, Jim." Bones called sharply at that moment. "You're way off course."

"I know, I know, I can see that." Jim answered a tad testily.

"Miss Sanders," Spock called, "there is debris directly ahead of you."

"Copy that." Asha answered as she swerved, avoiding the debris before correcting her path instantly as she followed Khan. "And call me Asha – Miss Sanders is too long."

"Duly noted." Spock said a little dryly, while Sulu called: "Use the display compass, Captain. You must correct precisely 37.243 degrees."

"Got it, I'm working my way back." Jim answered as he used his compass and tracker lines to correct his direction. "Scotty, you're gonna to be ready with that door, right?"

There was no answer, and Jim repeated urgently: "Mr. Scott, where are you?"

"Captain, he can't seem to hear you." Uhura informed him. "I'm working on getting his signal back. Standby."

"Damn it." Jim suddenly cursed, and Spock asked immediately: "Captain, what is it?"

"My helmet was hit." Jim responded, and Asha frowned worriedly. "Uhura, tell me you have Mr. Scott back."

"Not yet, I'm still working on a signal." She replied. "His communicator is working, I don't know why he isn't responding."

"Khan, Asha," Spock interjected warningly, "use evasive action there is debris directly ahead."

"We see it." Khan confirmed, as he flew left while she flew right, both narrowly avoiding the collision.

"Asha, you're also going too far out now." Bones warned, and she sighed: "Thank you, Captain Obvious."

"Asha." Khan warned sharply, and she narrowed her eyes.

"All right, fine, I'll be serio-" She broke off as she swerved sharply, narrowly missing a piece of debris that had come flying at her face.

Unfortunately, in doing so, she was hit in the knee, the impact sending her sharply to the side.

"Asha, look out." Spock called sharply in warning as her path took her right into another piece of debris, but she wouldn't be able to dodge the impact in time.

"Asha!" Khan called sharply, as he swiftly changed direction while streamlining himself even more to gain more speed, shooting like a bullet towards her.

Asha braced herself just as Khan came flying in, catching her and turning them right before they hit the debris.

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