Another Path

by Dr Spleenmeister

Operation Bright Light

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN YOU CAN'T FIND HIM?!" Admiral Pike unclenched his fingers from their furious grip on the edge of his desk, while the poor messenger trembled, his ears ringing.

"I'm afraid we were too slow in getting the flyer into Romulan airspace, Sir. His signal went dead five clicks from the garrison at Gateway City." The junior officer looked down. "He's trapped between the two main supply routes into the city; he'll be surrounded before long."

Pike pinched the bridge of his nose. Hikaru Sulu was one of his best pilots, there was no way in Hell that he was going to let a botched search and rescue mission leave his man behind enemy lines. He waved the ensign away with one hand and sat down, steepling his fingers in front of his lips in thought.

His options were limited, but his choice was clear.

Undergrowth tickled at his ears and he tightened his grip on the weapon he held charged and ready at his side. A trickle of anxious sweat vacated his eyebrow and threatened to slide into his eye; he scowled and forced it to change course to skim down his nose instead. A quick glance to his left confirmed the presence of his lieutenant – not that he needed to check, as Pax had not let him down once in the six years that they had been working together; he was always there and he could always be trusted to get the job done.

No matter how questionable.

Pax nodded, his eyes flickering between his leader and his readouts, the lights from his trusty hand-held sensor pack glowing in the darkness and illuminating his human face. A quick gesture of his left hand indicated that the patrol they had been waiting for was about to pass by their location…

"Good morning, boys!" Jim Kirk stepped out of his hiding place and levelled his phaser rifle at the startled Romulan patrol. Their momentary surprise was all the jump Kirk needed and he gunned the 4-man squad down where they stood.

Pax wasted no time in exiting the bush where he'd been crouched and followed the signal that he'd been tracking since the team had arrived on Romulus six hours ago. It wasn't lightly that they had been sent for by Admiral Pike, their team was a closely guarded secret from most of the Starfleet military, their movements were only ever to be authorised by Starfleet Intelligence, and their current operational status was new.

"This way."

The team followed Pax, their movements quiet and their weapons drawn. Kirk had heard of the man they were charged with rescuing, Sulu was reputed to be able to fly literally anything that could leave the ground. He could be a real asset…

"There are troops everywhere, we can't walk him out, we'll have to beam him." Pax nodded to Tien, who activated the drone pod designed for close range, one-man recovery. The drone separated from their landing craft 20km away and sped to their location. Tien manipulated the remote controls of the pod, following the coordinates fed to her by Pax, and watched the tiny device blur over their heads as it zoned in on Sulu's location. Once she received the signal from the drone that it had Sulu's matter pattern safely on board, she sent it back to the ship and motioned to the team that it was safe to return.

Hikaru Sulu materialised on board the landing craft and, once he had checked that he was on board a Starfleet vessel, breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Sitting down at the conn, he activated a message that was flashing his name. Admiral Pike's face appeared on screen:

Lieutenant Sulu, if you are seeing this message you have successfully been picked up from Romulus and are to report in to Commander Kirk until your return to Earth. Kirk will debrief you and bring you up to speed; you are hereby authorised to divulge the reason for your presence on Romulus to him. You will not, however, push him for any information as to why he and his team are there. That is all for now; good luck.

The message winked out and Sulu sat back in his seat, a contemplative expression on his face.

By the time that Kirk, Pax, Tien and Bones made it back to the ship, Sulu was asleep, curled up on a passenger bench with empty ration packs and water bottles strewn about him on the floor.

Pax raised an eyebrow and set his scanner into its charger cradle, while Tien headed for her pilot's seat and got the craft off the ground.

Kirk sprawled himself happily in a chair, "Our first successful Bright Light mission, boys!" Tien grunted at him from the front of the cabin. "Sorry Tien, you can be a boy if you like?" She dipped the ship sharply to port in answer, dislodging Kirk from his perch.

Pax popped a pill into his mouth and washed it down with a mouthful of water from one of Sulu's partially emptied bottles; he basked for a moment, then opened his eyes to respond, "One success out of four… Not the most favourable of statistics."

Kirk grimaced, he hated that stat; their team was still feeling its way in this new 'rescuer' status they'd been given. Quite frankly they were much better at blowing shit up, but orders were orders. "Meh. Teething problems, Pax."

"So what happens now?" Bones was restocking his portable med-kit, he liked to be ready immediately after a crisis, so he was always prepped for the next. "Back to Earth?"

Kirk hummed an affirmative. It would be nice to go home, they'd been away for so long and he was looking forward to refitting the ship.

Tien tossed Kirk a PADD. "Incoming message from Starfleet Intelligence"

Kirk grumbled under his breath and activated the device; Pike's face appeared.

"Kirk, you have him?"

"Yes sir, the new drone relay worked a treat; he was all cosy and rescued-like when we returned."

Pike grunted in satisfaction. "Excellent. I'm diverting you to Outpost Five. I want you to pick up a member of the engineering corps, his codename is Spanner. Bring him with you when you return Lieutenant Sulu to Earth. There is also a fresh batch of Pax's… medicine... waiting there for you"

Kirk nodded and the Admiral's image vanished. Usually he would object to being treated like an interstellar taxi, but Pax was down to his last blister of pills and he needed a refill. Kirk never did understand why Pax's drug habit was endorsed by the bigwigs back home, but he didn't pry as Pax was a huge asset and he didn't want to risk having him taken off the team.

A grumble from the passenger bench drew his attention; Sulu was waking up.

Sulu sat up groggily and rubbed his eyes. Sleep was not a luxury that he had permitted during his incarceration with the Romulans, so he was exhausted, but there was too much noise and motion for him to get any shut eye now. He'd managed to snag thirty minutes though, and he'd done far more on much less. He stood up and held out his hand to Kirk, "Hikaru Sulu, Lieutenant second class and pilot of the USS Exelsior"

Tien hissed through her teeth in surprise and spun round to look at him so quickly that she momentarily lost control of the ship, causing it to dip and making everyone who was not already seated, dive for a chair. "Shit, sorry," she levelled the ship. "No wonder they were holding you prisoner."

Sulu grimaced in acknowledgement as Kirk reached over and shook him by the hand. "Welcome aboard, Mister Sulu; you must be as good as they say if they're giving you the big girl."

McCoy was baffled by the exchange, so he leaned over to Pax for clarification.

"The USS Exelsior is Starfleet's newest, most advanced starship, Doctor. If reports are to be believed then she will be capable of transwarp travel."

McCoy frowned, he didn't like the sound of this at all, "Isn't transwarp supposed to exceed warp 10?" He shuddered. "I dread to think what that would do to the DNA of those on board. And besides, I thought dilithium crystals couldn't handle the stress of anything over something like warp 9.5."

Pax nodded but before he could respond, Sulu said, "The Romulans have found a new form of dilithium, but we don't know where they're getting it from; that's why I was here in the first place, to try and trace it. We narrowed it down to an asteroid field near to starbase five," McCoy and Pax shot one another an alarmed glance that no-one else saw, "- but the field is just too enormous to scout. So I was sent here to Romulus in a small, high-powered stealth ship, to see if I could get a reading on any transwarp activity. Unfortunately we underestimated the power of their scanning systems and I was picked up, then taken prisoner." He grimaced again, "They got my ship too. That's some very new, very secret tech that's now worthless to us."

Kirk had been uncharacteristically quiet while Sulu related his tale, but now he stood up and rubbed his hands in glee, grinning from ear to ear.

"Gentlemen – and Tien – let's go on a bear hunt."