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“You know, I couldn’t believe it when the bartender told me who you are.” Pike said, eyes studying the young man in front of him. With tissues stuffed up his nose to stem the bleeding and the bruises slowly forming all over his face, Kirk looked like a mess. Yet, despite how ridiculous he looked, Kirk acted as though it was normal. Pike was even considering that this was a normal occurrence for the kid.
“Who am I, Captain Pike?” Jim asked, humoring the Starfleet captain. He was done having people judge him, thinking they knew him, but maybe the captain had something different.
“Your father’s son.” Pike responded calmly, eyes still scanning Jim as though he expected the man to suddenly shout “April fools!” or something. This couldn’t actually be George Kirk’s son, right?
“James Tiberius Kirk. Son of George Kirk—Starfleet’s newest hero.” The man sneered at JT, striking him across the face. “But I forgot--you prefer JT now don’t you? Threw everyone for a loop trying to find out just who this JT character was for a while, didn’t you? Well, now who’s laughing?”
“Can I get another one?” Jim asked the bartender, not caring to respond to Pike. Maybe the captain wasn’t different, Jim scoffed.
“For my dissertation, I was assigned the USS Kelvin. Something I admired about your dad, he didn’t believe in no-win scenarios.” Pike pushed, trying to get Jim’s attention.
“Sure learned his lesson.” Jim scoffed. Not only was Pike not different, he was another one of the idiots who worshiped the guy.
“Well, it depends on how you define winning. You’re here, aren’t you?”
“Thanks,” Jim said to the bartender, ignoring the captain completely. He was done with the conversation.
“You know, that instinct to leap without looking, that was his nature too, and in my opinion, it’s something Starfleet’s lost.” Pike said, trying to get Kirk to understand his point.
“Why are you talking to me, man?” Jim almost whined, not liking where the conversation was going. He was done beating around the bush. Jim didn’t care to talk to another guy who thought he was just like his dead father.
“ ‘Cause I looked up your file while you were drooling on the floor.” Pike responded.
His file sat open on the PADD-it had been hilariously easy to hack into Starfleet’s confidential files. He didn’t care if it was illegal and he didn’t care if he got caught. Sooner or later someone would look at his file and he couldn’t, wouldn’t , stand those eyes of pity, disgust and revulsion.
It barely took any effort to erase any trace of James Tiberius Kirk on that planet. His file was the last tie to anything of the worst years of his life and it was gone with a few taps on the screen.
“Your aptitude tests are off the charts, so what is it?”
“You’re a smart one aren’t you, JT ?” the man sneered his name like an insult. “Not smart enough to know when you’re beat though, huh?”
“You like being the only genius-level repeat offender in the Midwest?” Pike said scornfully.
No one would ever know how smart he was. Not after what happened. No, it was better if everyone just thought he was some dumb country halfwit.
“Maybe I love it.” Jim shot back sarcastically, a perfect impression of a stubbornly oppositional child.
“What, so your dad dies. You can settle for a less than ordinary life.”
Every kid was taught that stealing was wrong. No lying. Don’t disobey the adults. Most 13-year-olds didn’t know what it meant to shoot someone, not that toy “pew-pew, I got you!” but to grab a phaser, set it to kill, take aim and hit the other person. Back on earth, the 13-year-olds were sitting in school without a care in the world but JT? He would never have that life, that innocence.
He let the tears slide freely, staring down at the lifeless shocked eyes-his first kill. It wouldn’t be his last.
“Or do you feel like you were meant for something better? Something special?”
“You’re the most gifted boy I’ve ever met, James. I know you’ll understand, right? We have to help this colony survive. Think of all the people we could save together!” His voice was soft and slippery. Coarse hands, hands that steadily condemned thousands to die, cupped the sides of the boy’s face in a twisted sort of loving gesture.
“Enlist in Starfleet.” Pike said firmly.
“Enli—” Jim snorted at the impossibility of the statement and quipped, “You guys must be way down on your recruiting quota for the month.”
“If you’re half the man your father was, Jim, Starfleet could use you. You could be an officer in four years. You could have your own ship in eight. You understand what the Federation is, don’t you? It’s important. It’s a peacekeeping,”
The hole in the wall was dark and sound echoed easily off the sides. From the inside, JT could hear the running steps of people searching for him and his companion. In his lap laid a once adorable girl.
“It hurts, JT.” The twelve-year-old whimpered. Her tears were falling yet not a single sob was voiced. No twelve-year-old should have to hold in their tears for fear of being caught and killed, JT lamented. Not that it would make a difference for her.
“Shhhh, I know it hurts, Cara.” JT responded, softly stroking her hair with trembling hands. Cara leaned into the touch.
“Are they here yet?” she asked, hopefully, “Is Kev right? Is the ‘Fleet here to save us?”
“Not yet,” JT whispered, voice cracking as she let out another whimper of pain.
“But they’ll come right? And they’ll find the others, too?” she choked out after fighting down the urge to scream. JT just nodded, not trusting his voice to speak. “JT?” she continued after another bout of silence. “It hurts, JT.”
“I know,” JT said, stroking her hair all the more in his sorrow, “just sleep, Cara. Sleep and the pain will go away.” She did. She never woke up. He wished he could .
Starfleet arrived two days later.
“…and humanitarian armada.”
“We done?” Jim ground out, barely holding back his anger. Peacekeeping and humanitarian armada. Who was the Captain kidding?
“I’m done.” Pike replied, “Riverside Shipyard. The shuttle for new recruits leaves tomorrow 0800.” Jim’s mind was set.
Each day, JT left the cave to get food but all he seemed to do was bring back more mouths than he could feed. Their numbers fluctuated as he saved some and lost others. In total, they had numbered over 20 but by the time Starfleet came, only ten of them were left. Too many lost because of a madman and Starfleet’s incompetence. All Starfleet had ever done, and would ever do as far as JT was convinced, was come just a little bit too late and say sorry as though it made up for everything.
Pike could see that he wasn’t reaching the kid. With one last inspiration, Pike continued, “You know, your father was captain of a starship for twelve minutes. He saved eight hundred lives, including your mother’s. And yours. I dare you to do better.” With that, he left. If that couldn’t convince the kid, then maybe he was a lost cause.
As the blackness crept over his vision, he heard the guard talking to his tormentor. “Already done?”
“He won’t last much longer anyways. The brat looks like he hasn't had food in too long already. Don't waste any water or scraps on his dead ass.”
“You sure? You know he won’t like it if the kid dies.”
“It’ll be fine.” he soothed the other man, “I bet he won't even make it through the night. It’d just be a waste.”
The man looked back at him with a glare that said don’t you dare prove me wrong, filth.
JT lasted through the night. And another night just to spite the man. JT was nothing if not contrary and he would never lose a dare.
Jim just sat at the table after the captain’s confident challenge, staring at the mini salt shaker replica of a starship. He’d held a grudge against Starfleet for years—they didn’t actually think he was in the same bar as the academy students by accident, did they?—was it really possible to let it go?
---
Jim stopped just outside of the shipyard’s boundaries, staring as he leaned on his homemade bike. Cupcake, or whatever the guy’s name was, must have hit him harder than the other tough guys Jim had met for him to be seriously considering the Captain’s suggestion.
“I’m gonna join Starfleet if we get out of this.” The eleven year old said one day as he and JT sat at the entrance to their cave.
“Oh?” JT said, uninterested. It had been two months and Starfleet still hadn’t come. They had just lost another of their outcasts.
“Yeah,” he replied, not noticing JT’s disinterest. “I’m going to go travel the stars, my mo…family would have liked it.” He was one of JT’s friends from before it happened. JT had picked him up after finding him crying over his mother’s dead body.
“Hmmm,” JT replied, not really caring.
“Maybe if I can be an engineer, I’d make the engines run faster. The ships would move faster so the ‘Fleet could bring help to people quicker.” He said with a sad smile.
“Someday, Kev, maybe.” JT replied, placing his hand on the boy’s head to ruffle the hair encouragingly, finally hearing the boy.
Jim continued staring. It had been the last time he had seen any sort of real smile on the kid’s face. He’d vowed, long ago, that because Starfleet turned their back on him, he would respond in kind. Starfleet had failed him and his kids and he wouldn’t be a part of that, ever. But that was a vow made by a young boy who had his childhood ripped out from underneath him. Maybe it was time to move on. He straightened and drove into the shipyard.
---
“Cadet Kirk, you somehow managed to install and activate a subroutine to the programming code, thereby changing the conditions of the test.” The Vulcan stated.
“Your point being?” Jim responded, not really caring to interpret for the Vulcan.
“In academic vernacular, you cheated.” Admiral Barnett cut in, clearly not amused by Jim’s lack of concern. Jim paused. Cheat . It didn’t exist outside of the academic world for Starfleet officers and not something that Jim really cared about. If he was alive by cheating then so be it.
“Let me ask you something, I think we all know the answer to. The test itself is a cheat, isn’t it? You programmed it to be unwinnable.” Jim scoffed, playing it up for the crowd.
“Your argument precludes the possibility of a no-win scenario.” Spock replied.
“I don’t believe in no-win scenarios.” Jim said with a smirk, remembering Pike’s words to him three years ago in the bar.
“Then, not only did you violate the rules, you also failed to understand the principle lesson.”
“Please, enlighten me.” Jim responded scathingly.
“You, of all people should know, Cadet Kirk. A captain cannot cheat death.” A murmur ran through the room behind him at the implication.
“Never.” JT spit at the man. With a growl the man in front of him backhanded the teen.
“Don’t worry, James.” Said the man at the door. “I won’t make you do anything you don’t want to do.” A terrible smirk grew on the stout man’s face. With a nod from him, the first man proceeded to rough up the young boy. “You’ll tell me, gladly. And when you’re ready, I’ll drag you out to the courtyard where your little kids can watch you beg me to let you rat them out, just before they watch their precious JT die.”
By the end of the second day, he was almost delirious from pain, hunger and exhaustion. If Starfleet hadn’t come when they did, he knew he wouldn’t have survived another day.
Sometimes he wished they hadn’t.
“I of all people.” Jim strained out, looking down as though meeting the Vulcan’s eyes would spill every secret his mind dredged up. There was no way the Commander knew about that, yet his gut seemed to twist at the impossible thought that he did know.
“Your father, Lieutenant George Kirk, assumed command of his vessel before being killed in action, did he not?” Spock replied emotionlessly, unaware or apathetic to the cadet’s discomfort.
“I don’t think you like the fact that I beat your test.” Jim smirked, his irrational fear quelled. An odd glee overcame him and tugged at the corners of his lips.
“Furthermore, you failed to divine the purpose of the test.” Spock continued, not acknowledging the statement.
“Enlighten me, again.” Jim shot back. He was starting to actually have fun with this verbal ping pong game.
“The purpose is to experience fear. Fear in the face of certain death.” The fun ended.
“Stop, James!” the man almost pleaded, phaser pointed at the twelve-year-old. JT slowly turned around, the bag of supplies still hanging on his shoulder, his heart sinking as he saw the phaser pointed at him. It wasn’t set to stun. Yet, JT stared. Unrelenting eyes unnerved the man holding the phaser.
“You gonna kill me, Henry?” JT said, tone even and unafraid. Henry hesitated at the kid’s voice. The moment of hesitation was all JT needed to steal the phaser out of the man’s hands and shoot.
I’m sorry, Henry. JT stared down, remembering the man’s sweet girl he would always talk about back when times were simpler and ran, phaser still in hand.
“To accept that fear, and maintain control of oneself and one’s crew.”
“JT! Please! Don’t go! What if they catch you?” the boy pleaded, hand clinging to his sleeve. Behind him, the rest of the children stared at JT with big eyes. “You almost didn’t make it last time. What if you can’t escape this time? We need you!”
JT looked at his kids. Calmly, he placed a hand on the boy’s, firmly yet gently prying it off. “Ander, we need food. I can’t sit here and watch all of you get hungry, sick and die.” He said softly. “You know that we all need it. I won’t get caught. You know me. I’ll be back, I promise. You said it; I escaped-we all did. I can do it again. Plus, you should see the other guys.” He said with a wry smile, after all, no one the kids encountered lived to tell the tale.
The kids seemed to understand the young boy’s dark humor and were placated. It wouldn’t do to dwell on the fact that a few of them even giggled. Jim pushed the despair aside and flashed a smile. “We’ll see you all soon, ‘kay?”
He left with Cara out of the cave, phaser tucked in his pants. They never came back.
“This is a quality expected of every Starfleet captain.” Jim didn’t know how to respond but heaved a silent sigh of relief when he was saved the need. An aide had slipped in and passed a PADD to Admiral Barnett who took a quick glance and addressed the Academy.
“We’ve received a distress call from Vulcan. With our primary fleet engaged in the Laurentian system, I hereby order all cadets to report to Hangar One immediately. Dismissed.”
There was a loud clamor in the auditorium as the cadets and officers rose to follow orders.
“Who was that pointy-eared bastard?” Jim said with curiosity and annoyance as he felt McCoy’s hand on his shoulder.
“I don’t know,” McCoy responded with the same curiosity, “But I like him.” Jim stared as his friend walked off, with an expression that clearly conveyed his single thought—What?!
---
“This assembly calls Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Your inspirational valor and supreme dedication to your comrades is in keeping with the highest traditions of service, and to reflect utmost credit to yourself, your crew, and the Federation, it is my honor to award you with this commendation. By Starfleet Order 28455, you are hereby directed to report to Admiral Pike, USS Enterprise, for duty as his relief.” Admiral Barnett announced to the assembly.
Jim smiled as he shook the Admiral’s hand, accepted the commendation and turned towards Admiral Pike.
“I relieve you sir.” Jim said, not quite looking the man in the eye.
“I am relieved.” Pike responded with a proud smile.
“Thank you, sir.” Jim said, earnestly as he finally looked down at the Admiral.
“Congratulations, Captain.” Pike said,” Your father would be proud.” He added softly.
JT sat outside the cave, keeping watch as the kids slept quietly. Staring up at the stars, JT frowned. Where was Starfleet? Why hadn’t they come? He had tried to believe they would make it but each day, the kids grew weaker. There was only so much food that JT could steal during a famine. They had lost another kid that day—she was the fifth and youngest one, only two years old, Cara’s baby sister.
Staring angrily up at the stars, JT cursed Starfleet. They had failed his family. They had failed his kids. To JT, Starfleet was nothing more than a waste of time and a fraud. In the silence of the night, JT vowed his hatred and loathing for Starfleet-the reason why he had no father, the reason why he had no family, the reason why he and the kids still starved day after day, and the reason why there were thousands of people decaying across the planet. Starfleet was the reason why five of his kids were dead.
As Jim stared up into the crowds of people assembled just as they had during his hearing, he grinned. He’d come a long way from the bitter kid on Tarsus IV. He would never forget what had happened there and he may never heal completely but he knew that it was time to move on. In front of the entire academy, Jim vowed that as Captain, he would fight to save every last man, woman and child no matter the consequence.
The revolution is successful. But survival depends on drastic measures.
Screams split the air as children ran from the sight of soldiers, meant to protect them, shooting anyone in their path. It was chaos as parents grabbed what they could and tried to save their children, shoving them off into the woods.
Your continued existence represents a threat to the well-being of society. Your lives mean slow death to the more valued members of the colony.
Silent tears flowed as mothers watched their children fall, dead, to the ground and the phaser turned towards them. Children stood unable to comprehend why their parents fell lifeless to the floor just before they too, fell.
Therefore, I have no alternative but to sentence you to death. Your execution is so ordered,
Where there were once kids playing in the streets were their unnaturally still bodies, eyes still wide with fear. In the houses, the smell of death settled as the bodies of beloved wives, husbands, brothers and sisters were left to rot.
Signed Kodos, Governor of Tarsus IV.
James, feeling betrayal like no other as Kodos led a genocide that would carve its way into Starfleet history, sat in his home while the world descended into screams and cries for mercy.
With his arms roughly tugged behind him, JT glared with burning hatred at the man before him, skinnier but not a sickly figure like the children JT had left in the cave. Kodos looked balefully back as he ordered JT’s torture.
No. There would never be anyone else like James Tiberius Kirk, like JT , and he would make sure of it. No one else would know the pain of Tarsus IV as long as he had anything to do about it.
---
“Engineering thrusters and impulse engines at your command, sir.”
“Weapons systems and chutes on standby.”
“Dock control reports ready, Captain.”
Jim smiled as he walked onto the bridge in his golden captain’s uniform.
“Bones!” Jim smirked, patting the man on the shoulder. “Buckle up.” McCoy rolled his eyes at his friend’s jab.
The boy smiled a dazzling grin. “Hi, you’re James, right? My name’s Kevin but everyone just calls me Kev, cause there’s another Kevin who’s younger. Just over there.” He pointed to a young boy in the distance, before continuing. “Tom told me about you. He says you’re a pretty smart guy. Want to come play with us?”
“Not really.” James muttered, shuffling his feet awkwardly.
“Well come over anyways,” Kevin insisted, undeterred.
“Scotty. How’re we doing?” Jim asked through the com.
“Dilithium chambers at maximum, Captain.” Scotty replied with a smile. Seeing Keenser he shouted an annoyed “Get down!” not realizing that the entire bridge could hear him.
“Hi!” a bright voice chirped from behind. “Who’re you? I’ve never seen you here before. What’s your name? Where are you from? I’ve grown up here so I don’t really know many places. Have you seen many planets? I’m Colby! Do you like to play games? Want to be friends?” He said in rapid succession but the sincerity never wavered.
“Mister Sulu, prepare to engage thrusters.” Jim ordered.
His “cousin” peeked out from behind his mother’s legs. With a soft smile and nudge from her, he stepped forward with curious eyes. “Nice to meet you, James.” He said softly.
As Jim gave his order, the lift opened to reveal Spock with his hands held behind him, back straight.
“Permission to come aboard, Captain.”
“Permission granted.” Jim replied with a grin.
“As you have yet to select a first officer,” Spock started, walking towards the captain, “respectfully, I would like to submit my candidacy. Should you desire, I can provide character references.”
Tom stretched out his hand in welcome. “Hey, the name’s Tom. What’s yours? It’s kinda tough being the new kid here so if you have any questions or need any help, just ask.”
“It would be my honor, Commander.” Jim replied, grin growing into a smile. Turning, he noticed the looks of all the crew upon himself and Spock. “Maneuvering thrusters, Mister Sulu.” Jim said as a subtle warning and smirked as the crew all bashfully returned to their jobs.
“Thrusters on standby.” Sulu responded, not bothering to hide his smile.
“Take us out.” It was time to move on.
“Aye, aye, Captain.” Sulu responded.
---
Ensign Pavel Chekov. The prodigy of Starfleet. At 17, he became the “nawigator” of Starfleet’s flagship.
Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu. Master swordsman, at least in the eyes of his captain. Helmsman of the flagship.
Lieutenant Commander Montgomery Scott. Discoverer of the trans-warp beaming theory, at least as far as this universe would know. Chief engineer of the most beautiful of all ladies.
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura. Quick with her words and a talented tongue. Communications officer of Starfleet’s newest ship.
Lieutenant Commander Leonard McCoy. Divorced doctor. Aviaphobe. Chief Medical Officer of one of the most famous rust buckets of the galaxy.
Commander Spock. Half-Vulcan, half-human son of Vulcan’s Ambassador Serak and Amanda Grayson. Chief Science Officer and First Officer of Starfleet’s newly commissioned ship, the USS Enterprise.
Captain James Tiberius Kirk. Reckless playboy. Genius repeat offender. Cadet. Starfleet’s newest hero. Captain of Starfleet’s flagship, the Enterprise.