Final Frontier

Chapter Eight

With Scotty's expertise and Jayla's apparent affinity for technology, in just a few hours they'd managed to get most of the essential systems up and running. With Scotty's input they'd managed to find a more efficient way to restart and charge the power cells, more systems flickered to life with each new power cell that powered up. Scotty was still dubious about the odds of getting her to fly again but they were at least able to now use the scanners and sensors, which had been their immediate concern. They left Chekov on the bridge working on the coordinates he and Jim had traced, hopeful that the rest of the crew could be located. They all clung to the fact that the intruders had been taking the crew as Sulu had suggested, it meant there was a good chance that anyone who escaped the ship was still alive now. There was no guarantee they would remain as such with each passing minute that it took to find them.

Jayla led the way through the ship acquainting Jim with the Franklin as he explained what had happened with the mystery woman Lex had seen briefly on the bridge before they punched out.

"So not quite the damsel in distress we believed her to be then?" Lex enquired quietly, thinking of all the good lives lost aboard the Enterprise just because they tried to help her.

"Not in distress no" Jim responded calmly, though his tightly clenched jaw giving away his anger "She won't be a problem any longer though"

Lex allowed herself a small smile "Tends to happen when you drop a star ship on someone"

Jim glanced back at her as he entered the mess hall returning her smile, though neither found any joy in her death, no matter what her actions had been "Quite"

Lex noted as she followed the group into the room that the screens dotted around the room which had been dark yesterday were now alight with information. Approaching a flickering display Jim tapped at the controls randomly, a video of the former crew bursting into life in front of him, attracting everyone's attention except Jayla who appeared uninterested.

"No clue what happened to the crew huh?" Jim muttered to no one in particular, his eyes glued to the grainy screen.

"Och no sir, they'd be dead a hundred years by now" Scotty responded.

Lex frowned at his words only now realising that they'd seen no remains of any kind around the ship, while their bodies would have long since decayed the skeletons would have remained to some degree or another. It was possible that Jayla had removed the bodies when she took up residence, but she'd given no indication of such, more likely that the crew had abandoned the ship while still alive and had died elsewhere on the planet. There was a high probability they had become victims of the same group that had brought down the Enterprise.

Jayla looked at back at the Captain at Scotty's words an expression on her face that Lex couldn't place but otherwise she remained silent.

"Is that a..." Jim blurted out suddenly his attention diverted to a hunk of metal in the corner of the room "That's a PX70" he announced to the room at large.

Stepping closer as Jim began to chuckle, Lex realised the object she'd mistaken for a pile of scrap metal was in fact an antique motorbike. Shaking her head with a sigh, she wondered who on earth would feel the need to bring a motorbike on a star ship.

Jim was enthralled "Wow my dad used to have one as a kid" an exasperated sound escaped her as Lex realised, she had her answer.

Scotty drew Jim's attention back to the group by clearing his throat "Sir um..."

Standing Jim turned back to the engineer focused once more "So you're telling me this thing has been here the whole time and no one's ever noticed it"

Scotty and Jayla exchanged knowing looks, without a word leading them all from the mess hall back into the corridor. Lex trotted after them intrigued about this herself, following Jayla though the twisting corridors and up a ladder into the open air.