Battle of Earth

AT: "ar"

Battle of Earth
Date:	2258.42
Location:	Earth, Saturn, Sector 001
Result:	Federation victory; Narada destroyed
Belligerents
United Federation of Planets
Renegade Romulans
Notable commanders
James T. Kirk Spock
Nero†
Strength
USS Enterprise, Jellyfish
Narada, Briefly Jellyfish
Casualties and losses
Minor damage to the Enterprise Jellyfish destroyed Minimal geophysical damage to Earth
Narada, and all hands Jellyfish "confiscated" by Spock

For the battle between Starfleet and the Borg in 2373, please see Battle of Sector 001.

In the alternate reality, the Battle of Earth was a conflict fought on stardate 2258.42 between the Romulan starship Narada and the USS Enterprise of the United Federation of Planets.

Prelude

Following the destruction of Vulcan, the Narada plotted a course for Earth. The Narada's captain, Nero, tortured Captain Christopher Pike, who was captive on board the Romulan mining vessel, using a Centaurian slug to coerce Pike to reveal the security codes to Earth's planetary defense system. He revealed his intention to Pike to destroy the homeworlds of the Federation one at a time.

Spock, who was now in command of the USS Enterprise, planned to fall back with the primary fleet in the Laurentian system. However, his first officer, James T. Kirk, felt that they needed to find a way to engage the Narada immediately and rescue the captured Pike. After a brief brawl, Spock ordered Kirk marooned on Delta Vega, an ice-bound Class M planet in the Vulcan system with a Federation outpost. It was there that Kirk met a much older Spock, from the future, who explained to him what was really going on. Realizing that the timeline had changed because of his and Narada's presence, and knowing that his younger self would never make the decisions needed to save Earth and the Federation, Spock decided to help Kirk get command of the Enterprise.

Kirk and this Spock made their way to Delta Vega's Federation outpost, whose only occupants were Montgomery Scott and Keenser. Scott had been stationed on Delta Vega six months previous after a transporter experiment went awry and resulted in the loss of Admiral Archer's prized pet beagle. He was trying to prove a theorem in transwarp beaming. Spock took the opportunity to give Scott the completed calculations for transwarp beaming: the only thing Scott had forgotten was to take into account that space itself was moving.

Spock planned to beam Kirk and Scott aboard the Enterprise while he and Keenser stayed behind on Delta Vega. He told Kirk that he could wrest command from Spock through Starfleet Regulation 619, which dictates that a commanding officer must relinquish their command if the mission at hand leaves them "emotionally compromised".

Kirk and Scott were successfully beamed into Engineering on board the Enterprise, but Scott ended up beamed into a holding tank in the ship's water treatment system. Soon after Scott was freed from his predicament, he and Kirk were captured and brought to the Bridge. There, Kirk challenged how calm Spock was after the destruction and the death of his mother, Amanda Grayson, provoking Spock to attack him. Kirk found himself being strangled against the helm console before Spock was stopped on command from his father, Sarek, who was on the bridge at that time. Realizing what he had done, Spock relinquished command under Regulation 619, and left the Bridge. Kirk then took command, and began working on finding a way to overpower the Narada with the crew.

The navigator of the Enterprise, Pavel Chekov, came up with an idea. He calculated that the Narada would pass by Saturn on its way to Earth. He reasoned that if they warped into Saturn's system and remained behind Titan, they could use magnetic interference from Saturn's rings to remain undetected. Assuming it hadn't already fired its drilling beam, they could use Scott's transwarp beaming calculations to beam someone on board the Narada. At this time, Spock, after a talk with Sarek about the loss of his mother, returned to the Bridge and confirmed Chekov's calculations. Spock volunteered to beam aboard the Narada; since Romulans and Vulcans share similar cultural traits, it would be easier for him to figure out where the Narada's black hole device was. Kirk decided to go with him, ignoring Starfleet regulations about commanding officers beaming into dangerous situations.

The battle

By the time Enterprise has arrived, the Narada was already at Earth. It was lowering its drilling beam over San Francisco, home of Starfleet Command. The Enterprise emerged from warp in Titan's upper atmosphere, and helmsman Hikaru Sulu used impulse engines and thrusters to lift out of Titan's atmosphere and enter orbit.

Scott tried to beam Kirk and Spock into the Narada's cargo bay, but ended up beaming them into another part of the ship that was heavily trafficked by its crew. This resulted in an intense phaser firefight. Kirk and Spock eventually reached a defensible position, avoiding their disruptor fire and killing most of the Romulans in the vicinity. One was left alive, stunned by Kirk's phaser. Kirk covered Spock while the latter used a mind meld on the stunned Romulan. He succeeded in determining the location of the "black hole device" and Capt. Pike.

Shortly after Kirk and Spock were beamed aboard, the Narada fired its drilling beam, cutting it off from the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock were on their own.

The "black hole device" turned out to be a ship, the Jellyfish. When Kirk and Spock boarded the ship, it immediately recognized Spock as its owner, and gave its registry date as 2387. It was here that Spock realized what was going on. When Kirk asked Spock if he could pilot the ship, Spock reasoned that he probably already had.

The Enterprise fires on the Narada

While Spock took off in the Jellyfish, using its weapons to blast its way out of the Narada, Kirk found his way to the ship's bridge. He grappled briefly with Nero until Spock used the Jellyfish's weapons to shoot down the Narada's drilling platform, ending its drilling on Earth well before it could reach the planet's core. The platform fell harmlessly into San Francisco Bay, barely missing the Golden Gate Bridge. Nero left in a rage to go after the Jellyfish, leaving his first officer, Ayel, to deal with Kirk. While Ayel was able to overpower Kirk with relative ease, this made him overconfident, and he failed to realize that Kirk had stolen his disruptor until the Human, offered last words, let him know it just before shooting and killing him. Kirk then located and freed Capt. Pike, who was left injured as a result of his earlier torture - during this time two Romulan guards had entered the chamber and discovered what was going on, but upon seeing them Pike grabbed Kirk's sidearm and shot both intruders before his savior even knew of their presence.

The Jellyfish was able to warp away before a volley of torpedoes from the Narada could hit it. The Narada pursued the Jellyfish to a remote part of the Sol system. Spock laid in a collision course with Narada, which would ignite its remaining stockpile of red matter. Nero attempted to shoot the Jellyfish down with every remaining missile he had. At that point, the USS Enterprise appeared out of warp right behind the Jellyfish and destroyed all of the missiles aimed at it. The Enterprise was able to beam Spock, Kirk and Pike on-board before the Jellyfish collided with the Narada, igniting the red matter on board the Jellyfish and creating a black hole in the Narada.

Kirk offered assistance to the Narada, but Nero defiantly refused. The Enterprise turned its weapons on the Narada, breaking the ship up and hastening its consumption by the black hole. Once the Narada was completely destroyed, however, the Enterprise found itself trapped in the black hole's gravity well, unable to move away even at maximum warp. Scott ejected several of the ship's warp core segments and detonated them near the black hole, helping push the Enterprise to safety.

Aftermath

On Earth, Spock finally met the Spock from the future. Spock was considering resigning his commission to assist with the rebuilding of Vulcan civilization, but his original-universe counterpart insisted that Spock "do what feels right" and remain in Starfleet. This Spock had already found a suitable planet where the survivors of planet Vulcan's destruction could begin the work of rebuilding their race.

Following the incident, Christopher Pike required the use of a wheelchair as a result of his ordeal on the Narada. In light of his role during the battle, Pike was promoted to the rank of Admiral.

For his heroism and quick thinking, James T. Kirk was promoted directly to Captain, and was assigned permanently to command the USS Enterprise in relief of Admiral Pike. A previous inquiry at Starfleet Academy concerning Kirk's actions in his third taking of the Kobayashi Maru test was dismissed. Kirk chose many of the cadets who were assigned to the Enterprise during the Narada crisis as his senior officers, including helmsman Hikaru Sulu, navigation officer Pavel Chekov, communications officer Nyota Uhura, chief medical officer Dr. Leonard McCoy, and chief engineer Montgomery Scott (who also brought Keenser along as part of his engineering staff). He would also choose Spock as his first officer when the latter offered his candidacy for the position. (Star Trek)