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Admiral Pike inhaled deeply, held his breath, and then released it. “It’s just an inspection,” he whispered to himself, gripping his cane tightly. “You’re okay.”
Since his promotion, Pike had learned a lot about the duties of an admiral. Mostly that they tended to occur at a desk, while staring at a computer. One of the more interesting assignments an admiral could receive was doing an inspection tour of an active ship. That was what Pike was steeling himself for. Inspecting the Enterprise, which had just come back for its first visit to Earth since being sent out about six months ago.
This wasn’t supposed to be a punishment. Most captains-turned-admirals actually looked forward to visiting their old ships. Then again, most captains had commanded their ships for more than ten minutes and hadn’t been coerced off by a psychopath, interrogated until they’d given up Earth’s defense codes, and then beamed back to spend the remainder of their captaincy in Sickbay under heavy sedation.
The admiralty was aware of his unusual situation, of course. Pike had been approached by no fewer than three other admirals who’d all offered to take the assignment off his hands. But he’d refused each one, insisting that he could handle it and that he was looking forward to seeing Enterprise’s crew again. And that had been true at the time. He’d missed Spock and even Jim, and he wanted to see with his own eyes that they were safe.
But now, standing in the turbolift, Pike’s chest felt like it was in a vise. Any second now, the doors would open onto the bridge. Pike was going to stand in front of the viewscreen where he’d first laid eyes on Nero. He’d put his hands on the chair that he had sat in when Kirk had begged him not to board the Romulan’s vessel. He’d hear the bosun’s whistle that had signaled his presence the first and only time he’d commanded the ship.
The air was getting thinner. The walls were closing in, threatening to crush him. Pike reached out blindly, searching for the turbolift controls. He needed to go back to the docking port. In the docking port, he’d be safe.
But it was too late. The door opened, and Pike stood frozen in the turbolift as a dozen pairs of eyes all turned to look at him at once.
“Admiral on the bridge!”