Chapter Text
Six Month Mission Launches with Two Cadets on Board: Captain George Kirk’s Youngest Goes to Space
By Elax Djennix
June 15, 2259, 8:03 AM [3 min read]
June 15, 2259 –A six month exploratory mission just left spacedock with two Starfleet students, Cadets Montgomery Scott and James Tiberius Kirk. This is a high honor, as these placements were only offered to top-performing command-track students, and will provide excellent hands-on experience prior to highly sought-after placement on the Annual Memorial Starship, affectionately called the ‘rookie ship’ by Starfleet cadets and (some) personnel. Cadet Kirk, in particular, seems to continue to follow in his father’s footsteps, but could not be reached for comment at this time. [Continue reading here…]
---
It was the second day of the mission when Jim got a vid-call from McCoy.
Jim almost didn’t answer. Almost.
“Hey, Bones!”
“Don’t you –you secretive little –you told me you were only going back to Seattle and now I have to hear from the damn news that you’re in space?!”
“Don’t be like that, Bones –”
“Like what?” McCoy yelled. “You think I’m being unreasonable?! I am madder than a wet hen –have you ever seen a wet hen, Jim?!”
“No, I don’t think I –”
“Well, you ain’t seen nothing yet!” McCoy shouted, which did not actually answer his question. “What the hell are you thinking –you can’t just jump off planet because –because some Vulcan jilted you! And to go into space, Jim, with all your damn allergies and health concerns. I could just shake you ‘til you get some sense rattling back in your thick skull.”
“I didn’t do this because of what happened with Spock,” Jim said, just like he had rehearsed. “It’s a great opportunity that Pike came to me about, and I said yes. I’ll even get class credit while I’m out here, so I’ll still graduate with you.”
“Jim,” McCoy ground out. “You can tell yourself whatever the hell you want about your reasons for evacuating the damn planet, but I need you to know I don’t fucking buy it. Six weeks ago you high tailed it outta San Francisco like a bat outta hell, and now you’re on a ship, and you didn’t tell me.”
Jim winced, “I’m sorry, Bones. It was all really last minute. I’ll be back in December, and I’ll be on campus in the spring before we graduate.”
“That’s not the point, Jim!”
Jim and McCoy both sighed. McCoy ran a tired hand down his face.
“Do they even have an up-to-date list of your allergies? Who’s the CMO?”
“Dr. Two Rivers. He’s a lieutenant. My health record was entered into the ship’s database, just like everyone else’s.”
McCoy raised an eyebrow, “Your full and complete record?”
“I mean,” Jim stumbled. “Nothing from, like, before Starfleet, except vaccinations and my transition.”
“Then it means about as much as a hill of beans.”
“Bones,” Jim groaned.
“Who knows what kind of crap you’ll encounter out there, Jim! All you need is one whiff of some alien substance your body interprets as strawberries, or god forbid peanuts, and it’s anaphylactic shock for you! Do your team members even know to carry around an EpiPen? Space is already dangerous enough, but with your shitty immune system, it’s a giant death trap! You should’ve never gone into space without me there to make sure your idiotic self doesn’t die.”
“Bones, it’s gonna be fine. You’re worrying for nothing. I really didn’t think you’d care so much.”
There was a moment of silence, as both Jim and McCoy processed what had just been said.
McCoy was stunned. “You didn’t think… I…”
“Bones, I didn’t mean –it came out wrong–”
McCoy closed his eyes and took in one long, slow breath. “I swear, Jim, I understand you have abandonment issues –for legitimate reasons, I get it –but from now on you have to tell me about these major life events. I’m your friend, and you’re not losing me. I’m not going anywhere you aren’t also going. You’re stuck with me.”
Jim sucked in a breath, and then deflated.
“Alright, Bones. I won’t do it again.”
“You’re damn right you won’t, because you’re gonna call me every other day to update me, and we’re gonna have weekly calls with Gaila too, and you’re putting me as your emergency contact for Medical, because god knows no one else knows your whole damn finicky system like I do.”
“You’re already my emergency contact, Bones.”
“Well, good,” McCoy said forcefully, still a little too angry. “Good,” he repeated, softer. He sighed, heavily. “Do you have time to talk, kid? Tell me about space.”
Jim smiled, “It’s big.”
He laughed as McCoy glared at him, and then started talking.
---
Spock sat down at his desk as he answered the holographic call.
“Hello, Nyota,” he said, allowing the corners of his mouth to turn up.
She smiled brightly, “Hello, Spock. How are you?”
“I am performing adequately. How has your time been on Luna?”
Her excitement seemed to flow through her body in a way that Spock could only associate with humans, “It’s so interesting, Spock. So they gave us a few days to settle in and provided us a mentor of a staff person who’s been working here to kind of show us around. Tomorrow, I’ll start my training and shadowing for three weeks before an assessment. If I pass the assessment, I’ll be able to do work on my own with some amount of supervision, but it’ll let me be a little more independent. I’m so excited.”
Spock could tell.
“It must be gratifying to be surrounded by others who share your interests and challenge your intellect.”
“I know it’s only been a few days, but it’s been so great. Everyone is really supportive and curious -I’ve already had conversations in four different languages!” she gushed happily. “What about you, Spock? Have you been keeping busy with your extra coursework over the summer?”
Spock nodded, “I have. Additionally, I was able to conclude my most recent experiment and begin a follow-up, which I am monitoring closely. I am also conducting a metadata analysis on publications focused on theoretical physics, specifically on what is colloquially known as time travel.”
Uhura’s eyebrows rose, “Time travel? You’re doing research on time travel?”
“Not precisely,” Spock corrected gently. “It is simply an analysis of previously published articles on the theory and mathematics of it. Ultimately, I may write an article for publication myself, but it would be on the metadata analysis, any particularly noticeable errors in theory or maths, and potential suggestions for optimization.”
“I didn’t realize you were interested in time travel, Spock.”
“The theory of it is intriguing, even if the possibility of it happening in reality is near zero percent,” –unless they had a Vulcan on board to account for all those factors –“Regardless, it will keep me occupied until the semester begins.”
Uhura smiled, “What prompted this new analysis of yours? It’s pretty different than what you’ve researched in the past.”
She was correct. Most of his published work fell into the categories of atomic and molecular physics, nonmetallic materials and chemistry, and general space sciences.
And yet.
“A friend,” he offered in response, “and a conversation about the theoretical application of time travel concepts. Additionally, I was looking for other projects to engage with to fill my schedule and provide a challenge to me.”
“So, you’re bored.”
Spock paused. “That may be accurate,” he conceded. With Uhura on Luna and no one else to occupy his time, he was finding he had quite a bit of it.
He didn’t enjoy it.
Uhura laughed slightly, and Spock pulled his mind back to the conversation at hand. “Well,” she began, “I have an idea that might help you not be so bored. We’re gonna have some extra days off next month, and it lines up with just before your classes will start. I was thinking of coming back for a visit, and maybe we could spend some time together in person?”
Spock allowed the corners of his mouth to curl upwards slightly. “Yes, I believe that would be satisfactory.”
“Good,” Uhura smiled warmly. “I’m glad to hear it. I’ll have to spend time with Gaila, my roommate, too, but it will be good to see you. I’ll send you the details when they’re all figured out.”
Spock nodded. “I look forward to it.”
---
Jim was waist-deep in physical and visual system checks -something that had become his responsibility more often than not while he was on shift in Engineering -when Scotty found him.
“Jim, you up there?”
Jim, who was halfway crammed into a just-barely-big-enough space to check the conduits and paneling, grunted. “Gimma a sec, Scotty.”
Scotty waited until Jim shimmied out of his crawl-space and back into the proper access tube. He climbed down and dropped in front of Scotty.
Jim checked off three items on his padd, glancing over the rest of it while saying, “What’s up, Scotty?"
“You have off the next two days, right?”
Jim looked up, “Yeah, why?”
“And you don’t have any plans?”
“I was just gonna tinker around with a replicator and shadow in other departments. What’s going on?”
“Well, I may have access to a bit of home brew that is freshly finished and needs a taste or two.”
Jim grinned and Scotty grinned back, “What time are you thinking?”
“Start of Delta?”
“I’ll be there.”
And an hour into Delta shift found Jim sitting on the floor of Scotty’s room, pretty fucking tipsy.
“Goddamn, Scotty,” Jim said, staring at the drink in his hand. “Goddamn.”
“Yeah, that’s alright,” Scotty said, taking another drink happily.
“You made this?”
“Well,” Scotty started, shrugging, “legally, I cannot confirm or deny how I came to be in possession of this here alcoholic beverage.”
Jim laughed, “I guess we’ll just have to blame it on some unknowable space phenomenon.”
“Oh, yeah, there’s loads of those out here,” Scotty said, not sarcastically. “Just the other day, I swear my cabin was hit with gravitational waves -got bigger and smaller and bigger again in the blink of an eye.”
“That’s probably what dropped this off, then,” Jim suggested with a nod towards his glass.
“Definitely,” Scotty agreed, leaning forward to cheers with Jim’s drink. They each took another swig, and Jim sighed heavily as he felt it settle in his stomach.
“So, how’s your first -what, five? -five weeks aboard the ship been, Scotty? Wanting to go back to campus yet?”
“Not a chance,” Scotty laughed. “If I never had to go back, it’d be a dream. I’ve learned more in five weeks up here than five semesters down there, but no one wants to hear that.”
“It really is more immersive learning, instead of memorization or theory based,” Jim agreed.
“We’re actually running a starship -we’re literally keeping it from exploding like, every day,” Scotty exclaimed. “Classes on the ground can only prepare you so much for something like that.”
“You mean you didn’t take the ‘How to Keep Your Starship from Exploding 101’ course they offered last spring?” Jim laughed. “I thought that was a prerequisite for being up here at all.”
“I must’ve tested out of it,” Scotty commented before looking sideways at Jim. “Though, I have been wondering something, about being up here and all. When I was offered this internship, they said there was only room for one cadet. But now you’re here. Not that I’m saying you don’t deserve it, but how is that?”
Jim took a long drink and sighed, “Yeah, I was wondering if that was gonna come up. Long story short, Pike was able to pull some strings to get me on board.”
“And long story long?”
“Pike offered me the internship and I originally said no. I didn’t think it would work for my schedule. Later on, I realized that I was an idiot, and asked him if he could make room for me on the ship, and he made it happen.” Jim took another drink.
Scotty nodded, “Well I’m glad he made it happen, else it would’ve been stupidly boring up here without you for company. Though, I don’t think I would’ve had the guts to ask for that myself. How long have you known Admiral Pike?”
Jim whistled as he thought, “Well… I guess he’s been around for most of my life, kinda in and out as the Fleet would allow. He’s kinda… ugh, this is fucking weird, but he’s kinda the closest thing to a dad that I actually have in real life? Don’t tell him I said that. He’d probably get all sentimental about it or some shit. He’s the only reason I joined Starfleet in the first place, so I think he might feel like he has an obligation for my professional outcomes or whatever.”
“He’s the reason you joined Starfleet?”
“Yeah, but not like, because I was looking up to his example or whatever. Nothing that poetic. He cleaned me up off the floor after a bar fight and dared me to do better than my dead hero of a father. So I took him up on it and hopped on a shuttle the next day. Tested out of everything I could and signed up for advanced classes to try to fast-track everything. Media’s been having a field day with it all.”
Scotty huffed a laugh, “Yeah, I knew we were friends for a reason. We’re gonna be fucking brilliant on the rookie ship.”
Jim turned to look at Scotty with a wide grin, “You think we’ll get it?”
“They’d be crazy not to,” Scotty scoffed. “I mean, look at us -the Kirk prodigy and Admiral Pike’s hand-picked successor, next to the best damn engineer in the known universe –” Jim barked a laugh at this –“we’ll be unstoppable together on any ship, and the rookie ship would only set us up for even greater success.”
“Have you heard what ship it’ll be this year?”
“Not definitely,” Scotty took a drink, “but I have a guess. I think it’ll be the Enterprise.”
Jim felt his heart leap. “How do you know?”
“It’s just a guess, but she’s been getting fixed up and refurbished since this past January. I’ve actually been able to do some work on her myself, for extra credit in my classes. In the spring, she’ll be moved to the docks outside of campus for the last touches and obvious reporting opportunities. It’ll be perfect timing for a fall launch, after graduation. It is possible that it could be a different ship -I know that there are at least three others being worked on, but I don’t think the timing is right for them. I just have a gut feeling about it -I think it’s the Enterprise.”
Jim smiled wide, “She’s been sitting at the Iowa spacedocks for years -I’ve watched them build and rebuild that ship from its base.”
“Well, then, I hope it’s meant to be,” Scotty said happily. “I also think this crew is just a test drive for it, which means that Pike would be the Senior Captain.” He nudged Jim gently with an elbow, “That sets you up pretty well to be the Junior Captain, eh? But if it doesn’t work out like that, then don’t blame me for getting your hopes up.”
“Yeah, alright, Scotty, I won’t,” they clinked their drinks together. “I won’t.”