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It was nearly a year to the day since Kirk had received his orders to report to Earth for a review when Pike received a nearly identical order. But it was a very different Enterprise than the one that had left Earth a year ago.
McCoy continued to do his job efficiently and keep his nurses appeased, but as he had said he would, he had abandoned all of his research projects. He was essentially a hermit, working, eating and sleeping all within the confines of Sickbay, never even going outside of its doors unless directly ordered to. As for Kirk, Pike had continued using him as a yeoman and Kirk had reverted to his Academy habits of sleeping with any willing female - and there were plenty of willing females.
The state of the rest of the ship wasn't any better. The morale of the ship as a whole had plummeted. The mortality rate still wasn't as bad as that on other ships, but it was heading that way. There had been no deaths on missions, but three times as many crewmen had died in the past year than had died during the entire two years of Kirk's 'reckless' command.
But the most devastating thing was the drop in profits. The Enterprise was still nowhere near the bottom in earnings, but the plummet from the top position since Pike reclaimed the Captain's chair was glaring.
Pike could hear the laughter of the other Admirals in his head. Damn him, Kirk had been right. By fixating on the plans Nero had ruined, he had tossed away the opportunities that had opened in their place. Now it looked as if his initial assignment to the Enterprise had been an error and he wasn't sure how he was going to get past this on his record.
It was at this juncture in his thoughts that Kirk came onto the Bridge with another PADD needing his approval. Instead of taking it, Pike waved it away as he stood.
"Kirk, my ready room now. Mister Spock, you have the conn."
Once the door shut behind them, Pike turned toward Kirk with a glare.
"You knew this was going to happen, didn't you?"
Kirk didn't have to ask what 'this' was. He'd seen the order before Pike had. A shrug as he moved toward one of the seats was all Kirk answered with until he sat down.
"Did I know? Nope. Did I suspect? Yes."
"How?"
"Give me a break, old man. How long were you in the command chair of this ship on that first mission? A day? I held the chair for over two years. You weren't taking back your crew - you shanghaied my crew. They got to know me and what to expect from me. You? You haven't given them much to go on and what they've been able to see for themselves hasn't been good."
"Feeling smug?"
Laughing, Kirk shook his head.
"About what? Those Admirals still hate me and now that you've shown a weakness, they'll take us both down. Whether you acknowledge it or not, I didn't fight you because it wasn't in my best interest for you to fail."
Narrowing his eyes, Pike studied Kirk as if seeing him for the first time.
"You've continued to play the long-range game, Even when I stopped."
"I did tell you that I'd listened to you better then you listened to yourself. I figured that, given time, you'd break out of mourning and start seeing past the end of your nose again. So? Are you ready to get your mind back in the game, old man?"
Snorting, Pike finally sat as well.
"A bit late for that, James. I'll be lucky if the other Admirals don't try to blame all this on aftereffects from that damn slug and try to force me into early retirement for medical reasons. Leonard would probably pay to be able to sign those forms for a shot at getting rid of me."
"Who told me once that if Bones wanted somebody dead, they'd be dead and the body probably missing to boot? You've got him somewhere he doesn't want to be, but you didn't back him so far into a corner that he's had to lash out. Yet. I wouldn't push that any further though personally."
Kirk planted his elbows on the table, interlaced his fingers and brought his chin to rest on top of them while thinking quietly for a couple of moments.
"What we have to do is damage control. Minimize the hit you take for this past year until another opening comes up. Only this time, you need to have contingency plans in place and be ready to go with whatever opening presents itself."
Starting to become more intrigued than annoyed, Pike mirrored Kirk's pose as he looked across into those dangerously blue eyes.
"What sort of an opening do you think will come up, James?"
"Oh puh-leese. We're being called in early. That means at least one of the other Admirals has something planned. If the day has come that one of those bastards can think out a plan in a year that you can't figure a way to turn to your advantage off the cuff, maybe retirement wouldn't be such a bad idea."
A faint smile formed on Kirk's face as Pike bristled at that statement and looked more like himself than he had for three years.
"We also need to find someone other than Bones for you to fixate on. I personally would suggest Lieutenant Edward Leslie. Good man - not too old, not too young."
That broke past the bristling and Pike actually chuckled.
"You have apparently been putting far too much thought into this, James. Leslie, huh?"
"I'll send him to you later. So, any plan for when we arrive back at Earth tomorrow?"
"No, James. No plans beyond getting the lay of the land and then we'll go from there. Right now, I'm going to take some time to relax and get my head back into the game."
Activating the intercom on the Ready Room table, Pike spoke firmly.
"Pike to Bridge."
"Spock here, Admiral."
"Mister Spock, you have the conn for the remainder of the shift. If needed, I will be in my quarters. Mister Kirk has been assigned to duties elsewhere for the remainder of the shift as well."
There was a significant pause on the intercom and Kirk snickered quietly. He knew exactly what sort of 'duties' Spock was going to assume he'd been assigned to.
"Acknowledged, Admiral."
"Pike out."
Leaning back again, Pike gave the still snickering Kirk a look that was half-exasperated and half-proud.
"Regarding that assignment? Go to Sickbay. See what you can salvage after a year. You and Leonard both deserved better from me than what you've gotten."
The cold came back to Kirk's eyes.
"Yes, we did. If anything like it starts to happen again? Every man for himself, old man. Bones genuinely respected Puri or it would have already gone down that path."
Knowing that was a promise and not a threat, Pike nodded as he rose.
"You cut me more slack for circumstances than I would have for anyone else under similar conditions. Fair enough. And James? Send Leslie on your way to Sickbay."
The smirk came back at that last request.
"Aye, sir."
Stepping back into Sickbay after avoiding it and its master for a year felt a little odd, but the immediate reaction from the nurses was amusing enough to distract him from that sensation. Out of all of them, only Chapel approached him, her expression impassive as she studied him before finally speaking.
"About damn time. He's in his office."
With her words, the other nurses disbursed back to their duties and Kirk reminded himself once again to keep a close eye on the blonde head nurse. She was a different level of scary.
When the doors of the office closed behind him, Kirk found the area was completely dark, but he didn't need to see to recognize the source of the disgruntled voice.
"Dammit, Chris. Didn't I say I wanted to be left alone for a few hours?"
"Is that really what you want, Bones?"
The room went silent enough that the underlying thrum of the Enterprise could be heard.
"Jim?"
"Yeah. Took longer than I'd hoped, but Pike's come back to his senses."
A tired sigh emerged from the room.
"That's a relief. Computer - li-"
"No, Bones. Leave them off. I wonder if Gaila is off duty?"
A giggle that was most definitely the wrong pitch to be McCoy came from the same direction as his voice had.
"Why yes, Jim. As a matter of fact, I am. Chris called me in to perform an emergency grump-ectomy. Care to assist in the procedure?"
Chuckling, Kirk carefully made his way across the room.
"Best damn offer I've had in a year."
As the Enterprise approached dock the next day, both Pike and Kirk were in far better moods than they had been for quite some time and the rest of the Bridge crew responded to and fed off that dynamic. The mood was broken by Uhura.
"Admiral Pike. We are receiving an emergency alert from Starfleet Headquarters. There has been a bombing at the Kelvin Memorial Archives with significant loss of life."
Kirk was the only person on the Bridge that showed a sign of relief at that and Pike knew why. One thing on Kirk's civilian records was a threat to blow up that particular memorial.
"Sir, the Admiralty is calling a emergency session at Starfleet Headquarters for all Admirals and Fleet Captains along with their First Officers."
"Right. Mister Spock and Mister Kirk, with me. Mister Sulu, you have the conn."
As the three beamed down to Headquarters, Kirk remained unnaturally quiet. He knew he was only present here because of the way the orders were worded, but his guts were screaming at him that something was very, very wrong.
Admiral Alexander Marcus took control of the meeting.
"As most of you are aware, there was an explosion today at the Kelvin Memorial Archive which took the lives of forty-two of our people including a young officer named Thomas Harewood. Apparently Harewood had an attack of remorse because he sent this message to me immediately prior to the explosion. 'Admiral - I have carried a device into the archives on the orders of a man named John Harrison. Please understand that I had no choice.' By the time I had finished reading his message, the explosion had already occurred."
The doors opened suddenly and a yeoman hurried in to Admiral Marcus, speaking quietly to him. The Admiral stood up, frowning.
"I've been informed there is some new intelligence on this Harrison fellow. Stay here and I'll return shortly with the information."
The others were talking among themselves, but Kirk was watching Marcus. The smile that formed on the Admiral's face just before he left the room put an icy rock in Kirk's stomach and he immediately turned to Pike, getting his attention by using his first name.
"Chris, did Admiral Marcus call this meeting?"
Spock started to reprimand Kirk, but Pike held up a hand to stop him.
"Yes, he did. What is it, James?"
"I think that Admiral Marcus is the one with the plan."
The words had no more than left Kirk's mouth when one of the other Admirals shouted. All heads turned to see a one-man craft hovering outside of the window as it opened fire.
Already on alert, Kirk launched himself bodily at Pike, taking down both the Admiral and the Vulcan beside him. Something inside the room exploded then, making it difficult to see as Kirk stayed low, drawing his phaser as he made his way out of the room. By now, he didn't have to bother with the door. He exited through one of the missing sections of wall as he tried to find a way to fire on the one-man vehicle. The one glance he managed to get at it confirmed that the one piloting it was same man that that Admiral Marcus had identified on their screens as being Harrison.
The firing continued into the meeting room as Kirk searched the corridor he found himself in for ideas. An old-style fire hose reel was there in case of emergency that knocked out the automated systems and Kirk latched onto it in a desperation move. Unreeling the hose, Kirk quickly attached his laser rifle to it and went to one of the many smashed windows. Gauging his throw, he sent the rifle and hose out of the window, where they were sucked into one of the engines on the craft. Kirk then had to drop to the floor as the craft's jerking motions yanked the fire reel from the wall. As the craft began to fail, Kirk had a smile on his face until he saw Harrison teleporting from the pilot's seat. He spent the next few minutes cursing.
Back at the meeting room, everyone continued to stay down until the noise of incoming fire was replaced by the sound of a crashing aircraft. As the other members of the gathering began staggered away from the destruction, Spock picked himself up, looked around and saw Admiral Pike, bloody and still. Moving over closer, he noted the Admiral was still breathing, albeit with some apparent difficulty.
Hesitating, Spock looked around again. No-one was paying attention to him or to the injured Admiral. It was an opportunity that would not be likely to come again.
Decision made, Spock carefully settled himself in the rubble beside Pike and extended his hand toward Pike's forehead. A noise behind him made Spock glance over his shoulder, then he felt a hand wrap around his wrist. Turning back around, he found his wrist being clenched tightly in the fist of a glaring Pike.
"Try that again, you Vulcan son of a bitch, and I'll have both of your hands removed at the wrist."
It was that scene that Kirk walked in on and he spared a glare of his own for Spock before speaking to Pike.
"Are you stable enough for teleport?"
Pike gave a brief glance around the room. A full third or more of the other officers who had been in the room were dead.
"Get me the hell out of here, James."
"Kirk to Enterprise. Transporter Room."
"Scott here."
"Three to beam up, Scotty - and give McCoy a heads up to head there immediately with a trauma crew."
"Aye, sir."
As the three of them solidified back aboard the ship, McCoy and Chapel were coming through the door. The speed of their appearance made Kirk wonder if McCoy had experienced the same gut feelings about this as he had. Kirk also saw the questioning look in McCoy's eyes as Spock lifted Pike onto the gurney.
Taking hold of McCoy's shoulder, Kirk quietly said only two words.
"Your best."
McCoy gave a short nod of acknowledgement and then he and Chapel were gone. Spock continued to stand quietly for a minute, then gave Kirk a cool look.
"You will remain at Sickbay and relay hourly reports to the Bridge on Admiral Pike's condition. I am going to the Bridge to assume command during his recovery period."
Neither Kirk nor Scott said a word until the Vulcan had left and the doors reclosed behind him. Then Scott gave a shudder.
"The glaciers on Delta Vega were warmer than that one. Will we be having to put up with him in command?"
Kirk put a hand on Scott's shoulder.
"Not for long. I'll be back in the command chair before you know it. Get our girl ready for the road. We've got a pair of traitors to catch."