When Pike came to, his first sight was of Doctor Haakon bending over him. When she saw his eyes flutter open, she looked at her orderlies and said, "The Commodore is all right. Check the others."
Pike sat up and painfully looked around him. The bridge was dark; only the emergency systems appeared to be operating. Every inch of him felt bruised. He said to the doctor, "I feel like I've been thrown across the entire room."
"You were," replied the doctor as she helped him to his feet.
Pike disengaged himself from her as soon as he was able. He couldn't look vulnerable in the eyes of his crew. A little shakily, but under his own power, he made his way back to the command chair and dropped himself into it. By this time, the medics had revived most of the rest of the bridge crew.
"Let's get some light in here," grumbled Pike.
Momentarily, the normal lighting came back on.
"Screen on," said Pike. "Let's see what's going on out there," although he dreaded what he would see.
The main screen came to life and showed bright stars against the velvet darkness. It was as Pike feared. The Kelvan planet was gone.
"Position report," ordered Pike.
There was a long pause from the helm.
"Mr. Churok?" asked Pike.
"I... I'm not sure sir. These readings can't be right," stuttered Churok.
"Where are we, Mr. Churok," said Pike.
"Well sir, if the astrometric sensors are still working after that beating we took, we're a little over one thousand light-years from our previous position!"
"What?"
After another, shorter pause, Churok said, "I've run a diagnostic, and our position is confirmed by the library computer. We are 1,147 light-years from where we were."
The intercom sounded. [ Engineering to bridge. ]
"Pike here."
[ Sir, I have a damage report for you. Warp and transwarp engines are down. ]
Pike scowled. He remembered his thoughts from before about the tortoise and the hare. Well, it looked like now the tables were turned. This time the Knight was dead in space, and the Kelvans were speeding away like a transwarp hare.
The senior officers were gathered in the conference room. Pike was summarizing.
"The Kelvans widened our transwarp conduit with a massive antigraviton beam and used it for themselves. At the same time, they directed some sort of attack against the Knight that, instead of destroying us thanks to Doctor Kira, merely pushed us one thousand light-years even further from Federation space. By the way, glad to see you're still alive doctor," said Pike to Kira Markos across the table.
He continued, "Many of the ship's systems are damaged, including the transwarp drive. Until we make repairs, we aren't going anywhere, while the Kelvans are using our own transwarp conduit to gain easy access to the heart of the Federation."
"We are in orbit about a Class-M planet that could possibly provide us with raw materials to make repairs. In addition, the sensors have picked up faint intermittent signs of technology, either on the surface of the planet or in orbit with us. Since the sensor images are so tenuous, we can't pinpoint a location."
"That's the situation, people. Unless we can get back in time to warn Starfleet, the Kelvans just might accomplish what they came here to do: conquer the Milky Way galaxy. We need to repair the ship, we need a way to get back to the Federation, we need a way to destroy or at least incapacitate an entire planet. We need a plan!"