The instant that they all arrived on the bridge, Sulu surrendered the captain's chair and returned to his post at the helm. The acting science officer moved to make way for Spock's return. Kez stood back a little and remained beside Uhura.
Chekov began his brief as soon as Kirk was settled in the chair, "The enemy ship is losing power, Keptin, and it's shields are down!"
Every eye turned on Kirk. He realised suddenly that they no longer hoped for him to render decisions – they expected it.
Kez couldn't work out whether he would give the order to just fire at the Romulan ship or whether he would choose a different approach.
"Hail them," Kirk finally said after what seemed like forever.
It took longer than usual for contact to be established., and when the screen finally produced a picture, it was not the best. Static occasionally distorted the image and it shifted and doubled unpredictably. Nero's face was identifiable though and the destruction caused to the ship's interior was noticeable.
"This is Captain James. T. Kirk of the U.S.S Enterprise. Your ship is compromised. You are sacrificing power fighting a losing battle against a growing gravitational anomaly. The closer to it you fall, the more inexorable its pull becomes and the less the likelihood that you or any of your crew will survive. In the absence of full warp power, there is no possible way you can attempt to escape by utilizing the anomaly in an attempt to time shift – you have no manoeuvrability. None of you are going to survive without assistance – which I am willing to give."
Everyone looked at each other and somewhere deep inside herself, Kez was proud of Kirk trying to do the admirable thing. However she was unsure whether it was the best move, Despite her drive for a merciful approach in all situations, part of her wanted to see the Romulan crew sucked through the black hole and ripped to shreds.
Only Spock dare voice his disagreement to the Captain's address.
"Captain – what are you doing?" He approached Kirk and said lowly to him.
"We show them compassion. It might be the only way to secure a permanent peace with Romulus. It's logic, Spock. I thought you would like that."
Spock shook his head, "No. Not really."
It didn't matter much anyway. Nero got closer to the screen, staring coldly at the human and Vulcan who had singlehandedly thwarted his plans, "I would rather suffer the death of Romulus a thousand times than accept assistance from you!" He snarled, much to everyone's delight.
Kirk shrugged. It was all he needed. When the history of this encounter was written, no one would be able to say that he had not acted with consideration and forbearance. He was actually relieved.
"As you wish." Kirk nodded and the communication ended.
"Bridge to engineering! Scotty get us out of here." Kirk said, sitting back in his chair, watching the slow destruction of the Romulan ship. Parts of its exterior peeled loose and flew back into the restless pull of the anomaly. Ever so slowly yet somehow with brutal speed and precision, the Romulan ship was being crushed down into its subatomic components and it was taking all its crew with it.
"Aye, Captain!" Scotty's voice came from a communicator and a slight shudder rippled through the Enterprise as all power from weapons and shields was redirected to the engines.
On screen and behind them, the last vestiges of the warship Narada collapsed inwards and upon itself as it passed the gravitational point of no return and vanished into the mini black hole.
Full power was directed to ram the Enterprise into warp but nothing happened. The ship's position relative to the black hole did not change. It did not fall inward, suffering the same fate of the Narada, but neither did it pull away. The fabric of the ship was slowly threatening to succumb to the enormous gravitational pull that was clawing at it, and Kez could feel the ship's engines straining against it.
"Why aren't we at warp?" Kirk asked, leaning forwards to address Sulu.
"We are!" Sulu reported as he struggled over the helm.
"We're going to be sucked in." Uhura sounded defeated as she looked at Kez.
Kez was thinking, her mind reeling over a solution. They just needed a push . . .
"Captain! We're caught on the edge of the gravitational pull! It's got us. I'm giving her all she's got." Scotty sounded like he was running around, desperately trying to find a solution.
They needed something powerful . . . something to give them a push . . .
Then an idea struck Kez.
She made her way over to the communication device Kirk was using to communicate with Scotty. Kirk saw her coming and didn't question her when she made a motion for him to listen to what she had to say.
"Scotty? If you ejected the core, the wave from its detonation could be enough to push us clear of the gravitation pull, could it not?"
Scotty paused on the end of the line before saying, "Aye, that could work."
"Do it!" Kirk ordered, "We're dead anyway, what harm can it do?"
Scotty played with the controls and watched as the entire central engine compartment shook once, violently, as the warp core was expelled from the stern of the ship.
Ejected at speed, the activated core sped backwards. On detonation, it released all of the energy contained within it in a single titanic explosion. Light too bright to look at directly illuminated the whole corner of space and flared outwards. The was only silence.
The shock wave enveloped the ship, giving it the boost it needed to break free. It shook violently and the sound of the remaining power straining to carry the ship the rest of the way was very noticeable.
And the crew of the bridge, despite being battered and beaten and shook about, breathed a collective sigh of relief.