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kowaiyoukaiTitle: We Reach Our Apogee Slowly (Part 6a)
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
kowaiyoukai
Rating: R
Pairing: eventual like whoa Kirk/Spock (STFU), Spock/Uhura (blame JJ, not me)
Warning(s): Angst, meta, language, attempts at witty banter, overly-important tone, intentionally confusing parts, potentially OOC everybody
Spoilers: Star Trek XI (2009) (a.k.a. Star Trek XI, Star Trek 2009, Star Trek Reboot, New Trek, and can we please just pick one name for this fandom people?!)
Word Count: 10,029/19,547 (for this part - so far)
Disclaimer: Star Trek belongs to Gene Roddenberry, mostly, but also a lot of other people/groups like Paramount, J.J. Abrams, and the various writers/directors. I'm not one of those people, sadly, because if I was I'd be filthy rich.
Beta Acknowledgment: None! I know there are errors, so please let me know if you see any! Thanks!
Summary: Jim quickly realized he was going to have to break the rules if he wanted to survive on the Enterprise.
A/N: Late b/c of ridiculous length. There's a link to the second part of this chapter at the bottom of the post, and the third part of this chapter will be up when it's done. This should be enough to last you guys through then, Y/Y? :P
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Othersides 1
Jim had been born to make decisions. He thought everything through quickly, almost instantly, and knew what action he'd take right then. There was no hesitation, no constantly wondering about other possibilities or what would have happened if he'd have gotten someplace earlier or studied more or never met someone. Sure, he had his moments of contemplation just like everyone else did, but he knew there was a time for action and a time for gloating about the right choices or regretting the wrong ones. Starship Captains, he'd quickly learned, spent a small amount of their time acting and the rest of it re-tracing their steps, wondering how they could have improved everyone's performance or the mission in general.
This didn't come naturally to Jim. He had to force himself to consider alternate possibilities. When crew members said they'd made an error, Jim felt more comfortable simply allowing them to correct their own mistakes and move on. But as Captain, he knew he needed to do more than that. He was expected to lecture them, maybe make some disapproving faces and sounds, and probably do something like stop the conversation before he was done and say I think you know what you've done before sweeping off to pretend to be busy doing something else. That sounded about right.
No matter how hard he tried, the best he could muster up was a pat on the back and a firm but friendly I get people make mistakes, so fix it and don't worry too much. Certainly, he wouldn't accept people telling him what to do, at least not without them knowing what they were talking about or having good reason for speaking up. Or unless it was Spock—he could say whatever he damn well wanted to, and Jim thought everyone knew it. Still, Jim thought giving orders and being in command was one thing. Taking action, making instant decisions, that was fine with him. He preferred it. When he had to go through everything later and talk to people about their performances and wonder what went wrong, that was what he hated.
He assumed most Captains were better at this part of the job than he was. Jim figured he'd never be able to gather together enough disrespect for one of his crew members to say You fucked up on this job and now we're screwed. He knew everyone did their best all the time. Besides, the crew was mostly new. That included Jim himself—he'd never even been stationed on a starship before the Enterprise. Making decisions came naturally, and he loved being a Captain, but he felt as though some of the crew had simply not been ready to be assigned to a starship. Of course, with the severe lack of officers and starships Starfleet currently had, he couldn't complain.
Nor did he want to. These were almost all of the cadets who'd been assigned to the Enterprise as their first mission when Nero attacked. He trusted them now because they'd all already proven themselves then. They had the knowledge they needed, they were masters in their fields, but the actual experience of being on a starship was as new to them as it was to Jim. Sure, they knew the information, but translating that to their jobs was a new trial some of them hadn't encountered before. For all his crew's genius and eagerness to succeed, they just didn't have the field experience they needed. Given time and a few missions, that would be fixed. For now there were plenty of crew members who simply stayed at their posts doing the work they'd always done, not realizing one error in their input could affect the entire outcome of a mission. If a reading was wrong, if something wasn't calculated correctly, if someone forgot to bring the right tools, or if fate or luck or chance or what-have-you decided to step in and shit on the whole thing—how could anyone expect Jim to place the blame on a crew member? He couldn't and wouldn't do that. He was the Captain. If someone made a mistake on his watch, it was his mistake.
Jim, it seemed, was making a whole lot of mistakes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Mapping out new quadrants of space was, by far, the absolute most boring useless waste of time Jim had ever found himself ordered to do. He got that it was important. He just didn't see why he had to do it. There should be specific ships assigned to these tasks—specific Non-Enterprise ships whose sole purpose was making new maps of the galaxy. That way, Jim and his crew could be focused on important, exciting things like discovering new planets and stopping wars and delivering rations to starving colonists, that sort of thing.
They were on their third day of mapping out this unnamed section of space. Jim had nicknamed it Psi Alpha Iota Nu in a moment of clever passive aggressiveness. Somehow he doubted the name would stick, although he thought it had a certain ring to it. Acronymically speaking.
"Captain, I'm receiving a message from Starfleet." Jim had never been so happy to hear Uhura's voice in his entire life. "We have new orders, sir."
"Let me hear it," Jim said, motioning to the speaker on the arm of his chair. So multi-purpose, his chair. Such complexity hidden within such a simple design.
"Captain Kirk, do you copy?" The voice from the speaker was mixed with some static, but Jim recognized it straight away regardless.
"Kirk here," Jim said, grinning. "I haven't heard from you in a few weeks, Pike."
"You do know you're not the only Captain under my jurisdiction, right?" Admiral Pike replied. Pike was the type of man who would say the exact same thing when he was angry as when he was fooling around, so it was always a bit of a guessing game talking to him without seeing his face. He sounded happy, though, so Jim took it as the well-meaning jibe it was probably intended to be.
"I thought you'd have enough to do with just me to clean up after," Jim said. He motioned to Spock to start the next round of charting for their maps. Screwing up now meant they'd have to re-do the entire last five hours worth of work. That obviously wouldn't be happening if Jim had any say in the matter.
"That's what I told the board, but you know how those damn Admirals are," Pike said, sighing. "They won't listen to a word from us peons."
"You know, I happen to know a marvelous Admiral who is quite possibly, in addition to being superior in every way as a commanding officer, also the finest man I have ever known," Jim said, overloading each word with sincerity and charm.
"I don't know what you're sucking up for. You already know you're getting a good performance review." Pike laughed, and Jim could picture him sitting behind a ton of paperwork, shaking his head at the speaker on his desk.
"It never hurts to suck up," Jim said. He looked meaningfully around the bridge, catching the eye of each of his staff. "Sucking up always ends well. Remember that."
"Are you terrorizing your crew?" Pike asked.
"No, I leave that to my First Officer," Jim answered, grinning again. "He's got them working better and faster than I ever could."
Spock raised an eyebrow and Jim raised one shoulder in a half-shrug. It was true. The crew was literally terrified that Spock would catch them not working. Spock might not have noticed because, well, he was always around himself. But Jim had walked down the corridors with and without Spock, and there was definitely a distinct difference between how much people stopped to talk or joke around when it was just Jim versus how much everyone concentrated on working when Spock was there. It was good for the crew to be frightened of one of them, and Jim figured Spock was the better choice for that particular job. It kept the crew on their toes. And it was really, really funny. One time Jim had seen Spock berate an officer who had been slacking off, and it was pretty awesome. There had been a lot of disapproving eyebrow movements.
"Good to know you're already shirking your duties," Pike said. "So how are the star maps coming along?"
"They have become so dear to me that I now consider them to be a fundamental part of my daily life," Jim said. "I'm not sure I could part with them."
"Prepare to be broken-hearted," Pike said. "You've got a new mission."
"The pain," Jim said. "It overtakes me. Please God, tell me it's not more star charts."
"It's more star charts," Pike said. "Except they're in the form of experimental medical supplies."
Jim paused. He glanced over and saw Spock's attention had been captured by that, as well. "That sounds both interesting and potentially dangerous."
"Astute as usual," Pike replied. "An unknown disease has completely wiped out the Lambda Three colony. A few of the colonists trying to escape the disease went to the next colony over, Lambda Four. The disease has just started appearing there. All space traffic in the area has been stopped, but we can't run the risk of letting this disease spread any further."
Jim bit his lower lip. "What kind of precautions do we have?"
"Standard-issue anti-radiation suits should be fine," Pike answered. "But you'll be the first people going in, so we don't have anything to go on."
"Where are we picking the supplies up from?" Jim drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair, already calculating just how long it would take to reach Lambda Four.
"A supply ship is on route to Lambda Beta Nine now," Pike said. "The supplies will be there in twenty hours."
"All right," Jim said. "Send the details to me and I'll look them over. We should be there in the next two solar days."
"Good luck," Pike said. "Try not to miss the star charts too much."
"Yeah, well, we weren't meant to be cartographers anyway," Jim replied. "Kirk out."
Jim gestured to Spock, waving a hand towards the lift. "Chekov, set a course for Lambda Beta Nine. Sulu, once the course is set, take us there, warp 1. In the meantime, everybody should be finishing this last star chart unless you want to have to re-do the last fifty-nine. Uhura, you have the conn."
"Yes, sir," Sulu and Uhura said. Sulu immediately went back to plotting the current star chart while Uhura stored the mission in the correct folders.
"Aye, sir," Chekov said. He brought up a series of maps and started looking them over.
"Files received from Admiral Pike," Uhura said. "Should I send them to your quarters?"
"Yeah, thanks," Jim said. He followed Spock into the lift and waited until the doors closed before looking at his First Officer. "Is this going to suck?"
"Define ‘suck'," Spock said, eyebrow raising slightly.
"Don't pull that shit," Jim said. "You know what I mean. Is this going to get some of our people killed?"
"I have not yet seen the specifics of the mission so I cannot make a completely accurate statement at this time," Spock replied.
"So guess," Jim said.
"I estimate that the likelihood of one of the crew who beams down to the planet to distribute the supplies contracting the disease is about twenty-three point seven two eight," Spock stated, calmly. "That is, of course, taking into account both the nature of the disease as I gathered from Admiral Pike's vague description and the presence of fully functional standard-issue anti-radiation suits on each team member."
Jim opened his mouth to say something, but he ended up just staring at Spock with his mouth half-open for a few seconds. "You know," he ended up saying, conversationally, "your guesses are other people's hours of work solving mathematical equations."
"I see," Spock said. Jim had already learned that Spock said that when he didn't know what else to say. In fact, Jim half-thought that Spock also said ‘I see' when he didn't understand what was going on. But of course Spock would never admit that. Jim just really liked to think it.
The lift stopped and they walked quickly to Jim's quarters, during which time Jim once again noticed just how much everyone concentrated on working when Spock was present. It was kind of amazing to think that Spock had that effect on the crew. He was like Jim's bodyguard or something—looking menacing and scaring people into doing what they were supposed to be doing. Although, Jim thought Spock looked pretty damn… uh, friendly.
When they went into Jim's room, his first thought was that he and Spock were alone in the same room with a bed. That was such a ridiculous thought to be having given the situation that Jim knew something had to be done. He had to stop fantasizing so much. If he just—okay, no, it had to be something that was possible for him to do. He would think of something. It had never been this way with anyone before, even when Jim had been really into somebody. He was usually able to concentrate when important events were taking place, regardless of the proximity of that person. Yet here he was, noticing Spock waiting by his desk which was almost right next to his bed, when what he should be noticing were the files Spock had already pulled up onto his computer screen.
Jim sat down at his desk without wasting any more time. He knew he wasn't that into Spock because Spock was a guy, and the more times Jim reminded himself that he didn't do guys the less convincing he sounded even though it was true. Still. He didn't do guys. He would sort this out before it got any worse. There was a reason. There was a heterosexual reason. And Jim was going to find it.
"Let's see what this is about," Jim said, mostly to himself. He began reading the report, accidentally skipping a few lines when Spock walked around the desk to stand behind his shoulder and read from there. He went back, making sure he focused on what it was saying, and after ten minutes Jim leaned back in his chair and looked at Spock, who was already watching him with a blank expression.
"We need to call a meeting," Jim said, heavily.
"I'll arrange it immediately." Spock turned and left Jim's quarters without a second thought, leaving Jim wondering if Spock had even noticed his nervous behavior at all. There was no time to angst about it. He had a meeting to get to.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It was easy enough to organize an impromptu meeting, especially when the bridge crew who had overheard the exchange were eager to know exactly what was happening. In two minutes, Spock had informed McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty that their presence was needed in Meeting Room 1. Communicators made all conversation efficient. It would have taken Spock close to ten minutes to go to the bridge, sick bay, and the engine room. As it was, in ten minutes everyone was assembled and sitting around the table, waiting for Jim to start.
Jim had a tendency to overdramatize everything he could. It had annoyed Spock, at first, because of course who wanted to witness preposterous emotional displays fourteen point three eight times a day? Over time, though, Spock had grown accustomed to Jim's mannerisms. He had to admit they were similar to Earth's dandelions—unwanted but eventually resigned to and even admired. This situation, though, was dramatic enough without the added flair. Jim seemed to realize this because Spock noticed he was more subdued than usual. Although, for Jim, ‘more subdued than usual' was still fairly exuberant.
Jim nodded at Spock, which was their unspoken signal to let the other person take charge. Spock was mildly surprised, but then he realized Jim wouldn't want to repeat the information they'd read. He would only want to discuss their strategy.
"We have been assigned a mission to the Lambda Four colony," Spock started. "A disease of unknown origin is spreading through the colonists there. The disease came from the Lambda Three colony, on which no survivors remain. Our mission is to pick up experimental medical supplies of various natures to deliver to Lambda Four and distribute them among the colonists. The team selected for this mission will go in wearing standard-issue anti-radiation suits to protect against infection, however due to almost no information on this disease we cannot be sure the team members will not become infected." Spock paused, letting that bit sink in. He wanted them all to know what the risks were. He was sure Jim agreed. "We will be taking a minimum team to the colony, for safety reasons. We believe the colonists might have infected their food and drinking water, so we will be bringing our own supplies."
"Lambda Four is basically a desert," Jim said once Spock had finished. "And the team that goes down there won't be allowed to beam back up until we're sure they're not sick. Otherwise they could contaminate the whole ship with this thing."
"An unidentified awful space disease," McCoy said, groaning. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Because you knew it all along?" Jim guessed.
"Exactly. So who's going?" McCoy asked. "Besides me, I mean."
Jim half-smiled at McCoy. Spock had seen them exchange this look several times. The meaning of the look was unclear to him, as was the reason behind why it was created and exchanged without other signals to go along with it. This was an interesting aspect of Jim and McCoy's friendship that Spock found he couldn't entirely relate to. He wondered if it was a human thing or if it was simply something they shared. He'd like to ask Jim, but it seemed like it would be an invasion of something that Spock had no right barging into. He had a feeling that friendships between humans were much more complex than he had originally believed.
"Unfortunately, there's one other person who has to go," Jim said. Spock looked at Uhura at the same time Jim did, and her face tightened, lips thinning out and jaw clenched. "The colonists don't speak English, and apparently there's something in the air that makes all electronics work like crap, sketchy at best." Spock saw Uhura nod once, shortly, obviously already understanding the need for her presence. "So we can't count on our translators to work."
"It's fine. I'll go," Uhura said. "Does anyone know what they speak?"
"No, we figured we'd leave it for you as a surprise," Jim said in a much kinder tone than he usually used.
"Oh good," Uhura replied. "I love surprises."
"Wait," McCoy said. "If electrical equipment malfunctions, how am I supposed to create the cure down there? I need machines to get the results, Jim. Otherwise it's all guesswork. I may as well stay here."
"You'll have to do your best," Jim replied. "I know it sounds shitty, but that's what we've got right now."
McCoy groaned, but Spock interrupted what would most likely be a complaint and said, "I may be able to make an emitter that would clear the air of the chemicals harmful to electronics in a small radius around it." Everyone looked at Spock, and he felt as though he had said something profound instead of the simple solution he knew it was.
"Well. That would be awesome," Jim said. "So maybe work on that."
"Yes, sir," Spock said, as if he hadn't just said he would.
"So that would clear up one problem. And because we don't want to risk people stupidly, only one other person will be going until we figure out the cure," Jim said.
"That will be me," Spock and Jim both said at the exact same time. Spock looked at Jim, surprised, but Jim was shaking his head at him.
"I'm the Captain," Jim said. "I'm going."
"That is precisely the reason why you should not be a member of this team," Spock said. "Your position is difficult to replace."
"So is yours," Jim said, waving a hand at Spock.
"You are a valuable asset to Starfleet—"
"So are you!"
"If you are infected it would be difficult for you to be treated quickly—"
"Yeah, again, same to you."
"Okay, that's great," McCoy said. "Let's hear from some other people now."
Spock realized he'd been involved in a disagreement which should have been private. No one liked to see their Captain and First Officer arguing. McCoy didn't look bothered, but then again he had known Jim for long enough that Spock assumed he had seen Jim argue with people many times before. Scotty and Sulu seemed mildly perturbed but not incredibly so. Chekov looked incredibly agitated, glancing quickly between Jim and Spock himself several times, before finally giving Spock a sympathetic look. Chekov often seemed on the verge of a mental collapse. It was quite troubling. Uhura was sitting there quietly, waiting for the meeting to continue.
"I don't really see what good I can do you," Scotty stated. "If you need something fixed, sure, but otherwise…" He shrugged. "It might be better for me to stay on the ship and keep it running. And, by the way, not get infected by a killer disease. Just saying."
"I'd go if I thought you needed me," Sulu said. "But I don't have any experience in medicine or linguistics."
"Neither do I," Chekov said. "I could help giving out the medication, though. You're going to need help with that, right? There's too many people in a colony for a team of three!"
"We will be handing out medicine once we have arrived at a cure for the disease," Spock said. "In the meantime, it is better for everyone involved if only essential team members are beamed down to the colony."
"All right, so for now it will be McCoy, Uhura, and me," Jim said. "Once we figure out a cure, we'll get other people down to help out."
"Captain, I must insist that you allow me to lead this team," Spock stated. He had no idea why Jim was being so stubborn about this.
"No, Spock," Jim said, forcefully. "And that's an order."
Spock hesitated, unsure how to continue from there. It was next to impossible to get around a direct order. He knew there had to be a way. Jim might listen to reason, if he could speak with him alone for long enough to convince him to stay on board the Enterprise while Spock led the team. He'd have to try it.
"Oh, and one more thing," Jim said. "Because of the electrical equipments malfunctions, the Federation hasn't had any contact with these colonists since they got to this planet fifty years ago. They've been sending food, supplies, that sort of thing, but otherwise there's been no reports about these people. So we don't really know what we're going into."
"But that doesn't make any sense," Chekov said. "Shouldn't the Federation keep tabs on all their colonies?"
"There's too many colonies to keep track of them all," Sulu said, calmly. "The Federation helps each one start out, hangs around for a year or two to make sure they're doing well, and then leaves them to it." Sulu spread his hands outward, palms up. "These people are from all different planets and backgrounds, after all. They're gathering together to start a new life. Having a starship babysitting them the entire time isn't going to help anyone."
"That is true," Spock agreed. "There are not enough starships in the Federation to ensure one for each colony. Considering that each colony is given ways of communicating with Starfleet should the need arise, it is only logical for the starships to continue on to their next mission."
"Yeah, can you see us hovering over a colony for ten years?" Scotty asked, shuddering. "I think I'd go crazy."
"All right," Jim stated, clapping his hands together once, loudly. "Is there anything else?" He waited a beat, and everyone was silent. "Then I think that brings this meeting to a close. Gather all the materials you'll need—food, water, clothes, McCoy, you'll need your medical shit, Uhura, whatever it is you've got, bring it along. We'll be at Lambda Beta Nine in thirty-eight hours, and Lambda Four in another three. That's it."
As everyone else but Jim was leaving, Uhura walked over to Spock and lightly touched his arm. "Hey, don't worry," she said. "We'll be fine."
After a second of confusion, Spock realized he had not actually been concerned for Uhura's safety at all. His mind had been entirely on Jim, which not only made no sense but was also incredibly insulting to both McCoy and Uhura. Guilt swept over him. He really was not good at forming friendships and romantic relationships. It would be a better idea for him to avoid the entire process at all times.
"You should begin preparations," Spock said. "I must speak with the Captain before he leaves." Jim showed no sign of leaving. He was sitting in the chair at the head of the table, leaning backwards on it with his hands crossed behind his head, obviously watching Spock and Uhura.
Uhura glanced over at Jim, then back at Spock. "All right," she said. "Then I'll see you later." She walked out of the room, looking over her shoulder at Spock right before the door closed. Spock would have to fix things with her later. Right now, he had a Captain to persuade.
"You are being stubborn, short-sighted, and irrational," Spock said.
Jim got up out of his chair and walked towards Spock, hopping up onto the table when they were directly next to each other. Spock would never understand the human need for physical closeness during a conversation. It was perfectly acceptable to speak to another person without moving few feet closer, especially when said people were in an otherwise empty room.
"Look, I'm not letting you do this," Jim replied. "You can call me as many names as you'd like to." He paused. "It's actually kind of funny."
"There is a significantly higher risk on this mission than on our usual missions," Spock continued.
"Oh, and it wasn't dangerous beaming into Nero's ship?" Jim asked. He shook his head. "You know this is nothing compared to that."
"True," Spock agreed. "But the fact that a previous mission was more dangerous than the current one does not negate the threat of the current one. It only adds to the problem of you putting yourself in danger more than is acceptable."
Jim grinned. "You're worried about me."
Spock hesitated. "Worry is a human emotion. As such, I am not worried. I am merely expressing my opinion that your participation in this mission would be an unnecessary risk."
"So you're expressing an opinion that's worry for me, then," Jim replied. He tilted his head to the side, just a bit, studying Spock carefully. "I thought you were trying to be more emotional?"
"There is a difference between accepting your emotions and expressing them," Spock stated.
"All right, all right," Jim said. "No need to get all unemotional at me." He sighed and leaned back on the table, spreading his hands out behind him to hold him up. "But you do understand why you're not going, right?"
"I understand and appreciate your concern," Spock said. "However, my duties as First Officer require me—"
"—to take the exact same chances I take as Captain," Jim said, interrupting him. "I get it. But there's two reasons why it would be better for me to do this than for you to do it."
"I cannot imagine what those reasons would be," Spock replied. Jim was going to try and wriggle out of this somehow. He wasn't going to let it happen. He was going to have Jim stay on the ship while he went on the mission no matter what Jim had to say about it.
"Well, you don't have to imagine ‘cause I'm telling you, so it all works out. The first is that none of the colonists are Vulcan." Jim nodded to himself as if his comment made sense. Spock supposed, in Jim's version of the world, it probably had.
"The colonists' race has no bearing on our mission," Spock stated. "That is not a logical reason for you to endanger yourself."
"Let me finish, geez. Because," Jim intoned, as if speaking to a small child. "Bones has to go since he's the doctor. Uhura has to go so we can talk to them. So Bones is already going to have to make two versions of the cure—one for the colonists and one for humans."
"You believe asking Doctor McCoy to edit his antidote so that it is suitable for my consumption would be too difficult a task for him?" Spock asked, knowing questioning McCoy's ability would grate on Jim's nerves.
"Hey, I didn't say that." Jim rolled his eyes. "But you already know that and you're just trying to tick me off. And it's not going to work because I have a point here. So what I'm saying is that we're only getting a limited amount of the medical supplies. Whatever they drop off at Lambda Beta Nine is what we're getting, it's not like more's going to magically appear if we need it. Bones is going to waste some of it on tests and making a whole lot of bad cures before he finds the right one. Well, not waste, but still."
"You are right," Spock said. Jim looked at him, surprised, but Spock knew a good logical argument when he heard one. "Having Doctor McCoy make another antidote for myself would be a waste of our limited resources."
"Ah, you see?" Jim said.
"However we do not know how any of the crew will react to this disease," Spock pointed out. "Humans might be affected differently than the colonists are. Vulcans might not be affected at all. We cannot be sure until we beam down and discover what occurs."
"You're right," Jim said. "But if we assume that we'll all be fine and then we're not…"
"It would be illogical," Spock finished.
"Exactly," Jim replied. "And since, like I said before, Bones and Uhura have to go, it makes sense for me to go out of the two of us since I'm fully human."
"It is true," Spock agreed. "You are a complete human while I am only one-half." Spock had tried to keep his tone without inflection, but obviously it hadn't worked because Jim was frowning at him.
Jim pushed himself into an upright sitting position on the desk and held onto the edge of the table with both hands. "Come on, you know I didn't mean it like that," he said, quietly. "I think you're awesome how you are. I don't want you to think that I… or, I guess, I mean that anyone thinks badly of you because of who you are. Don't think that."
How little Jim understood about the parts of the world he wasn't aware of. Spock hadn't expected him to know what it was like for him, both currently on the Enterprise and in his past on Vulcan, but he also hadn't expected Jim to state his ignorance in such a manner. Yet Spock had no wish to bring up this topic. It also was completely not the point of the conversation, and he would not be deterred.
"I will concede your first reason," Spock said, blandly. "What is your second reason?"
Jim pursed his lips for a moment before shrugging. "Okay, fine. Have it your way. The second reason is also that you're half-Vulcan, but this time it's…" Jim trailed off, obviously hesitant to continue.
Spock nodded in understanding. "Of course I agree that there has been enough loss of Vulcan life. Yet that does not mean I am willing to abandon my duties when they become dangerous."
"And I'm not asking you to," Jim replied, quickly. "I just want you to stay on board because it's better that way. For everyone. You'll be able to monitor us from up here, and Bones won't have to worry about making a third cure specifically for you. I mean, that makes sense to you, right?"
"Yes," Spock answered. That was entirely the problem. He couldn't find a way around Jim's arguments because, in truth, it would be a waste of time and supplies for McCoy to make another version of the cure, if that was what was necessary. Jim had thought this through, which Spock belatedly realized he should have expected. For all of Jim's antics and joking around, he had earned his right to be a Captain. The promotion had not been an act of gratitude from Starfleet for defeating Nero. That would have been both illogical and detrimental to everyone involved. Even now that almost an entire graduating class had been annihilated and they were short-staffed in every quadrant, Starfleet still only gave people positions that they deserved. Jim had the capacity to be Captain in every way, and Spock was learning that underestimating him was a mistake too many people made. Spock would not be one of them.
"So then you're staying," Jim said, half-confident and half-questioning.
"I will stay on board the Enterprise for this mission," Spock replied.
"I knew you'd see it my way," Jim stated, smiling. He hopped off the desk and slapped Spock on the shoulder, letting his hand rest there. "Thanks. And don't you have some toy to build for Bones?"
Spock nodded. "I will begin working on the emitter immediately."
"Sounds good," Jim said. His hand slipped a few inches down Spock's arm and then dropped away. "I'm off to be Captainy. I'm sure there's someone I can fire if I look hard enough." Jim grinned cheekily at him and walked out of the room, leaving Spock standing there, wondering how Jim had won an argument against him. Using logic.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once the medical supplies were on board, Jim had McCoy look them over. There were only three hours until they would be on Lambda Four, but that didn't mean they should rush through the preparations. If McCoy didn't get a chance to look through everything before they beamed to the colony, then he might not know what else to bring with him to make the correct cure. Jim wasn't entirely sure how these things worked, but he knew McCoy would appreciate some extra time with the medicine before he was experimenting with it.
Right before Jim had left McCoy to his work, McCoy had made a comment that had unsettled Jim. He had implied that the supplies Starfleet had sent really were experimental in the truest sense of the word—that they might not even work for what they were supposed to be used for. Which meant that their effects were still not entirely certain. Which meant that mixing them together could cause a lot of problems. McCoy had assured Jim he would do the best he could and bring everything he needed with them, but Jim already had a bad feeling about the entire mission. Sure, attempting to find a cure to an unknown disease that had killed an entire colony was exciting and important, but not knowing how the disease was spread or how fast it worked was really bothering him. He hoped the anti-radiation suits would work. He had a sinking feeling they wouldn't because he knew things usually went badly when you went into a situation blind. But orders were orders, and anyway he couldn't in good conscience leave a whole colony of people in danger because he was concerned for the safety of his crew.
Besides, he had won. He was going to beam down while Spock stayed safely up here. He was glad he'd thought the argument through before the meeting because if he'd been on the spot he might have said the real reason he didn't want Spock to go. Somehow, Jim didn't think Spock would've appreciated being told "You can't go because then I couldn't watch you bend over your work station all the time." Not that that was the actual reason, but it was close enough and it was probably what would have come out of his mouth in the middle of an argument. Jim was just lucky like that. He might have also mentioned that he'd like to get Spock naked in his bed in a very heterosexual way. Even worse, he might have started going on about how he actually cared what Spock thought about everything, even little things like how his breakfast was or if the font on the reports should be changed, and that he loved spending time with Spock and joking around with him and that he was disappointed when Spock wasn't around and frustrated when he saw Spock and Uhura together and… Yeah. It was definitely better he'd thought out a decent logical reason beforehand.
Jim was in the transporter room now, preparing to beam down with McCoy and Uhura. The three of them were wearing anti-radiation suits, which were these monstrous white outfits that looked like the misshapen offspring of a jumpsuit, marshmallow, and electrical outlet. They came equipped with oxygen tanks and helmets that completely covered their heads, which none of them were currently wearing in order to conserve their oxygen supply. Scotty was waiting to beam them down when asked to. Spock was also there, explaining how the emitter worked to McCoy. Jim understood the concept fairly quickly because, really, what Spock was saying in his long-winded way was that you pressed a button and it got stuff around the machine to work. Except Spock, being Spock, needed to explain it down to the most intricate detail in order to feel comfortable handing it over to them.
"Thanks," Jim finally said, interrupting Spock when he had started in on what a bad idea it would be to throw the small machine against a wall for the third time. "I think we got it."
"Just hand it over," McCoy said, sighing. "I promise I won't let Jim near it." Jim rolled his eyes but let McCoy have his little jibe.
Spock gave the emitter to McCoy, lips thinned out and an eyebrow raised and his chin jutting forward a bit. Jim loved it when Spock looked all pouty and put-out like that. It was cute.
"Remember it will only work in a ten foot radius," Spock said. "Also, the power supply takes a lot of energy. When you are not using it, turn the emitter off. Otherwise, the power will drain out and there will be no way to replace it."
McCoy nodded. "Got it. For the tenth time." He looked at Jim. "Are we leaving or am I going to have to listen to Spock some more?"
Jim grinned. "I like listening to Spock. It makes me feel smarter."
"Listening to a five-year-old throwing a temper tantrum would make you feel smarter," Uhura replied, shaking her head.
"Fine, okay, let's all just insult the Captain. It's not like he has control over our jobs or anything," Jim said. "You guys have everything you need? We can't come back up until we've got the cure, you know that. Bring it now if you're going to need it."
Jim double-checked his own supplies while McCoy and Uhura looked through their own bags. He had only packed what he absolutely needed—the medical supplies that wouldn't fit in McCoy's bags, some clothes and an assortment of hygienic stuff (toothbrush, soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc—all of which, including the clothes, he would not be able to use if they discovered the disease was airborne since he wouldn't be able to take off the anti-radiation suit), a few blankets and a pillow. They were planning on staying in whatever accommodations they could find on the colony. An empty house would be best, but they'd take anything.
"Everyone good?" Jim asked once he'd finished checking his bag and was satisfied that he'd brought everything he needed to. He had a phaser and communicator on him, as was standard procedure for all missions. He'd brought an extra communicator along, just in case the atmospheric problems messed with the first one. Not that the second one would last much longer, but at least he might have a chance with it.
"I've been ready," McCoy said, hefting his bag and dumping it onto the platform.
"I've got everything," Uhura said. She also put her bag on the platform, on the circle next to where she'd be standing.
"All right," Jim said. He turned to Spock, gesturing to the corridor. "Make sure to beam those crates of medicine down after us, but only when I give the order. Otherwise we'll have to lug them around until we find someplace to set up."
"I understand," Spock replied. He paused, and Jim realized he was trying to figure out how to phrase something. "Remember to make contact when you reach the surface and once every twelve hours continuously after that."
Jim felt his smile turn softer, and he quickly turned so that only Spock could see it. No sense letting everyone know he was an idiot. "I won't forget. Don't worry."
He wanted to say something else that sounded better. Something that would really make Spock more comfortable with the idea of staying on the ship while the rest of them went into blatant danger. But then Uhura came up behind Jim, stepping around him to stand next to Spock. She put her hand on his arm and Spock tore his eyes away from Jim to look at her. Jim didn't want to see this, didn't want to hear whatever she was going to say, so he turned around and went to the beaming platform, grabbing his bag as he passed it.
"I'll miss you," Uhura said, quietly. But not quietly enough that everyone else in the room couldn't hear her. "I'll be back soon."
"Do not put yourself in unnecessarily dangerous situations," Spock said.
"I won't," Uhura replied.
There were a few moments of silence and Jim was so glad he was looking the other way he almost cried with relief. McCoy gave him a funny look, half-curious and half-suspicious, but Jim ignored him. McCoy could be as suspicious as he wanted to be. Jim still didn't want to see how Uhura was saying good-bye to Spock, and he definitely didn't want to see Spock's reaction to it. Uhura joined them on the platform and they all attached their helmets, fastening them securely.
Jim looked at Scotty, nodding. "Beam us down, Scotty."
In seconds they were on the surface of the planet, standing on sand and staring out at nothing all around them. The desert spread in every direction as far as he could see. Not that he could see far because it was very close to being pitch black. Moonlight allowed him to see a few feet in every direction, but that was about it. He had been hoping for some clue to where the colony was. It looked like they'd have to figure it out the hard way.
"Uhura," Jim said. His voice came out muffled and mechanical-sounding through the voice processor. Jim hated these suits, but if they saved them from contracting the fatal disease, he wouldn't complain. Much.
"Sir?" she asked, looking at him as McCoy continued to survey the area.
"Let's get some readings. There's got to be some way to tell which way we should go," Jim said. He gestured to the tricorder slung around her neck. "Anything is better than us guessing."
"All right, but I'll need the emitter for it to work." Uhura reached out towards McCoy, who handed over the emitter without complaint. "Before I turn it on, is there anything specific you want me to look for?"
"I'd suggest water," McCoy said. "Especially on a desert planet, anywhere there's water there should be signs of people. We could probably look for food sources, too, or living organisms, if the water's no good."
"Sounds good," Jim said. "And all we need is to run into one person or a sign or something to give us directions."
Uhura turned the emitter and tricorder on at the same time, flicking both switches in sync. She started fiddling with the dials, no doubt gathering data that they'd need. Jim was content to let her work. He stood closer to her and opened his communicator.
"Enterprise, Kirk here," Jim said.
"This is Spock."
Jim smiled. Which was stupid because they were stuck in the middle of a desert and he'd only just seen Spock less than three minutes ago, anyway. "Hey. We're safe. We're on the surface, there's desert every which way. And it's the middle of the night. Uhura's getting some readings and then we're going to try to find the colony."
"The atmosphere is preventing us from getting entirely accurate readings," Spock said. "We will track your communicators to monitor your location."
"Sounds good," Jim said. "I'll contact you again when we've found something."
"Make sure you check in every twelve hours, regardless of your situation," Spock said.
Jim's smile widened. "I already said I would, you know. You don't have to nag." There was dead silence over the radio, and Jim just knew both of Spock's eyebrows were near his hairline. "Kirk out."
Uhura was still getting her readings, so Jim looked at McCoy in hopes of a decent conversation. McCoy was already blatantly staring at him. Jim briefly went over the conversation with Spock, but he hadn't said anything damning at all, he hadn't even hinted. So there really was no reason for McCoy to have that look on his face.
"What?" Jim asked, eyebrows furrowed. "You got a complaint already? We only just got here, you know."
"No complaints," McCoy said, shrugging. "Just thinking you look ridiculous in that suit."
Jim shook his head. "Were you undressing me with your eyes again? I told you not while we're on duty."
"This might be hard for you to believe, but not everyone wants to have sex with you," McCoy stated, blandly.
"Amen," Uhura fervently agreed.
"That's impossible for me to believe," Jim replied. "Because it's just not true. Are you done with the readings yet?"
"Almost," Uhura said. "Be patient."
Jim took a few steps forward, just for something to do. He didn't mind waiting, but he didn't like the idea of waiting in such an open area. They didn't really know anything about this planet. There could be other creatures living here besides the colonists. And Jim had a very vivid memory of being attacked by a giant monster on a mostly empty ice planet.
"All right," Uhura said, turning off the emitter and the tricorder. "There are two bodies of water in the area. The larger one is that way," she said, pointing into the distance behind McCoy, "and it's both large enough to support life and most likely not dry up anytime soon. The other's that way," she jerked a thumb over her own shoulder this time, "and is about half the size but would still be able to support life for an estimated two hundred and fifty to two hundred and sixty years."
"So the colonists could have chosen either one," Jim stated. "Both would have been good options in this shitty weather."
"Or they could have split up, deciding to try each location and see which was better," McCoy said. "They would have known fairly quickly if one water source had some problem, like a contamination or if a dangerous species was already using it."
"Yeah, maybe," Jim said. "What were the other readings?"
"There were life forms by both water sources, but there was no indication about what they were," Uhura said. "They could be the colonists. I can't say for sure."
"Okay," Jim said. "We can't stand around here all day. How far in each direction are we talking?"
"Five miles behind me, and six and a half miles behind McCoy," Uhura replied.
"Okay, that's not so bad," Jim said. "It could be a lot worse. We'll go to McCoy's water source first, since it's bigger and can support more people. Even if the colonists aren't there, they probably checked it out and maybe they left something behind. Who knows? It's worth a look either way."
Jim started walking in the direction Uhura had indicated. She and McCoy followed a few feet behind him. It was a pain in the ass walking in the obnoxious suits. He felt like he was trudging through mud all the time—dragging his feet up and forward when the suit wanted to keep them bogged down. It took three times as long as it should have for them to see the lake shimmering in the distance. In fact, it had been light for at least two hours before they could see the group of fifty or so small tents pitched close together about half-way around the lake.
"Ha," Jim said, relieved because if he'd been wrong they'd have had to walk eleven and a half miles in the other direction, and McCoy and Uhura might have mutinied. "That's got to be the colony."
"I think I see people," Uhura said.
"Well, let's get there already," McCoy stated. "My legs are going to fall off."
They had only walked another few minutes when Jim saw a group of people running towards them. They were wearing simple, lightweight clothes that covered only what was necessary—the most obvious choice in a temperature such as this one. What worried Jim was that, even though they looked very similar to humans, they had bluish-green skin and were holding what looked like a long stick with daggers sticking out of it every few inches.
"Bones, Uhura," Jim said. "Do you recognize them?"
"Um, their skin tone makes me think somewhere around Orion, but obviously they're different," she replied.
"Their weapons are primitive," McCoy answered. "They probably don't have the same understanding of technology that we do."
"So, what, we look like huge marshmallow monsters to them?" Jim asked.
"Probably," McCoy said.
"You'd think they'd know we're from the Federation," Uhura said. "They're the colonists, aren't they?"
"Yeah, I think so," Jim said. "But we don't look like the other Federation members they've met right now."
"And they're suffering from an unknown disease," McCoy added. "They might just be scared."
The colonists were close enough now that Jim could see they looked panicked. He gestured to Uhura and said, "Start talking."
Uhura began speaking in a few different languages, which all sounded like gibberish to him. When the colonists were only ten feet away, they stopped suddenly, coming to a halt so quickly Jim thought they must have had some of the fastest reflexes in the galaxy. One of the colonists pointed the odd weapon straight at them, speaking gibberish so quickly even Uhura seemed taken aback.
"Surprise," Jim said. "Remember, I said it would be a surprise, and it is." She shot him an unamused look before putting her hands up in the universal gesture for peace and walking in front of Jim.
She began speaking again, but this time recognition flared in the eyes of the man pointing the weapon at them. He slowly lowered his weapon, listening to her as she spoke. When she was silent, the man spoke to her, and within minutes they were engaged in a serious conversation that Jim had no hope of following. He was deeply, intensely glad he had brought Uhura on this mission. Otherwise, the colonists might have just attacked them without hesitation. Even if he had relied on a translating machine and used the emitter to get it work, he wouldn't have had the skill Uhura had at dealing with people of different cultures. It was something most xenolinguists had to be good at due to the wide range of people they encountered. Jim had never been more grateful for a xenolinguist in his life.
"Okay," Uhura said, turning to them. "We've got some problems."
"Well, that's less than awesome," Jim said. "But go anyway."
"We're under arrest," Uhura said.
"What?" Jim asked.
"Why? What did we do?" McCoy said, frowning.
"Apparently the colonists are concerned we're here to make the disease even worse," Uhura said. "Since the last newcomers brought the disease, they think we're bringing even more death to them."
"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me," Jim said, throwing his hands up in the air. The colonists all took a step forward, pointing their weapons at him. Jim lowered his hands slowly. "Would you tell them we're here to save them, not kill them?"
"I did, Captain," Uhura said, lips thinning. "But he says they can't take that chance. He's going to take us to a tent where we'll be held until we either produce the cure or the disease gets worse, in which case he says they'll know we caused the progression."
"That's ridiculous!" McCoy shouted. "Any idiot knows that diseases get worse over time without treatment."
"I don't know what to tell you," Uhura said. "I tried reasoning with him, but he won't budge. He says he should have killed us on sight, but we're being allowed to live because we might give them a cure."
Jim looked the colonists over, carefully. They were obviously not listening to reason. Spock would have cried. Jim smiled and shook his head. "Then let's agree for now."
"What?" McCoy asked, looking at him with wide eyes.
"Well, we need a place to stay and work on the cure, right?" Jim shrugged. "Let's take the tent they give us and just deal with it. When we get the cure, everything will sort itself out."
"Jim, I don't know how long the cure is going to take," McCoy said. "It could be a few hours. It could be weeks."
"We can't go back to the Enterprise until you've got it," Jim said. "You know that. So let's do things their way for now. Besides, they don't know that our electronics work. We've got phasers, if we need them." Jim looked at Uhura. "Tell them we'll agree, but that McCoy needs access to the infected people in order to produce a cure. And that we expect to be treated well."
Uhura spoke some more gibberish to the man, who gestured vehemently and sounded a bit upset. After a few minutes of conversation, Uhura frowned and said, "Captain, they want us to take off our suits."
"What?!" Jim and McCoy shouted.
"He says we could be hiding weapons in them," Uhura said, irritated. "And I already assured him we weren't and that they were for our protection so we would not contract the disease."
"What'd he say?" Jim asked.
"He said if we were finding a cure for the disease it didn't matter if we got it too," Uhura answered. "Captain, from what little conversation I've had with him, I don't think we're going to be able to wriggle out of this."
"What should we do, Jim?" McCoy asked, quietly. "We can't stun everybody."
There was no real choice. They couldn't go back up to the Enterprise because the disease may have already contaminated them. Jim wouldn't risk the lives of his crew like that. So they were stuck down here, and if they didn't agree to the colonists demands, what then? The colonists wouldn't allow them into their colony, most likely. Would they be able to survive in the desert with only what they'd brought with them for food and water, and absolutely no cover from the heat?
"Uhura, ask what they'll do if we refuse," Jim said.
A brief dialogue exchange later, Uhura said, "He said if we don't take off the suits we won't be allowed into the colony. We'll have to go back the way we came, and if we try to get to the colony, they'll take action against us."
"I don't know what that means but I don't like it," McCoy said. "Why are we helping these people again?"
Jim elbowed McCoy. "Don't you have some kind of doctor's code or something?"
"Yeah, I do. And it doesn't include the people I'm helping killing me," McCoy replied.
"Tell him we agree," Jim said. Uhura and McCoy both looked at him, surprised. "We need to be by the colonists to develop the cure. We can't survive in the desert by ourselves and we can't beam home. So we agree."
They both looked distinctly unhappy but Uhura spoke to the man quickly. He made a sweeping motion. She said, "He wants us to take them off now, before we get any closer to the colony."
Jim reached to his helmet and undid the fastenings, immediately taking it off and putting it in the sand next to him. Then he started undoing the other straps and zippers and weird magnetic edge-things on the suit. Once the thing was off him, he let it fall to the ground. It was expensive, but replaceable, and there was nothing inside of it anyway. Jim looked over to see McCoy and Uhura both almost finished getting out of their own suits. When they were all done, the colonists went to the suits and investigated them. After a few minutes, they said something to the man Uhura had been speaking to.
"What's his name?" Jim asked, nodding at the man who seemed like some kind of leader.
"Kopel," Uhura said. "But I don't think he likes people calling him by it." Jim nodded absently. Kopel exchanged some more words with his men, then he said something to Uhura. She turned to Jim. "He says he knows we must have weapons on us. He wants us to turn them over before we're allowed into the colony. We'll be allowed to keep our other electrical equipment since they think we can't use it anyway. I didn't inform him otherwise."
"Good call," Jim said.
"I really don't like these assholes," McCoy said, fuming.
Jim didn't even hesitate. He reached for his communicator and held it out towards Kopel. "Give them your communicators."
Uhura and McCoy looked blankly at Jim, then at each other, before taking out their communicators and holding them at arm's length for the colonists to take. The men grabbed the communicators and held them carefully, showing them to Kopel. Then Kopel turned around and walked towards the colony, shouting something over his shoulder.
"He wants us to follow him," Uhura said.
"Even I got that," Jim said. They all started walking behind the colonists, who were occasionally looking to check on their progress. It was faster going now that they weren't wearing the awful suits, but the colonists still made incredible time and were stopping at random intervals to allow them to catch up.
"What are we going to do about the suits and communicators?" McCoy asked. "We can't just let them take them."
"It's fine," Jim said. "We'll get them back."
"We're supposed to contact Spock in about four hours," Uhura said. "How are we going to do that now?"
"I said it's fine," Jim snapped, glaring at her.
Uhura's eyes widened and she clenched her teeth together. "I'm sorry, sir."
Jim exhaled and shook his head. "No, sorry, I shouldn't have said it that way. Let's just focus on finding the cure. Spock will know something's wrong when he doesn't hear from us. I trust him. He'll do the right thing."
"I hope you're right," McCoy said. "Because you do know we're probably infected now and we've got no way of letting anyone know where we are?"
"They're tracking the communicators," Jim said. "They'll have a good guess."
"Let's hope a good guess is enough," McCoy said.
"It will be," Jim said. "I know it."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Part 6b
Feedback is love. <3
Author:
kowaiyoukaiRating: R
Pairing: eventual like whoa Kirk/Spock (STFU), Spock/Uhura (blame JJ, not me)
Warning(s): Angst, meta, language, attempts at witty banter, overly-important tone, intentionally confusing parts, potentially OOC everybody
Spoilers: Star Trek XI (2009) (a.k.a. Star Trek XI, Star Trek 2009, Star Trek Reboot, New Trek, and can we please just pick one name for this fandom people?!)
Word Count: 10,029/19,547 (for this part - so far)
Disclaimer: Star Trek belongs to Gene Roddenberry, mostly, but also a lot of other people/groups like Paramount, J.J. Abrams, and the various writers/directors. I'm not one of those people, sadly, because if I was I'd be filthy rich.
Beta Acknowledgment: None! I know there are errors, so please let me know if you see any! Thanks!
Summary: Jim quickly realized he was going to have to break the rules if he wanted to survive on the Enterprise.
A/N: Late b/c of ridiculous length. There's a link to the second part of this chapter at the bottom of the post, and the third part of this chapter will be up when it's done. This should be enough to last you guys through then, Y/Y? :P
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Othersides 1
Jim had been born to make decisions. He thought everything through quickly, almost instantly, and knew what action he'd take right then. There was no hesitation, no constantly wondering about other possibilities or what would have happened if he'd have gotten someplace earlier or studied more or never met someone. Sure, he had his moments of contemplation just like everyone else did, but he knew there was a time for action and a time for gloating about the right choices or regretting the wrong ones. Starship Captains, he'd quickly learned, spent a small amount of their time acting and the rest of it re-tracing their steps, wondering how they could have improved everyone's performance or the mission in general.
This didn't come naturally to Jim. He had to force himself to consider alternate possibilities. When crew members said they'd made an error, Jim felt more comfortable simply allowing them to correct their own mistakes and move on. But as Captain, he knew he needed to do more than that. He was expected to lecture them, maybe make some disapproving faces and sounds, and probably do something like stop the conversation before he was done and say I think you know what you've done before sweeping off to pretend to be busy doing something else. That sounded about right.
No matter how hard he tried, the best he could muster up was a pat on the back and a firm but friendly I get people make mistakes, so fix it and don't worry too much. Certainly, he wouldn't accept people telling him what to do, at least not without them knowing what they were talking about or having good reason for speaking up. Or unless it was Spock—he could say whatever he damn well wanted to, and Jim thought everyone knew it. Still, Jim thought giving orders and being in command was one thing. Taking action, making instant decisions, that was fine with him. He preferred it. When he had to go through everything later and talk to people about their performances and wonder what went wrong, that was what he hated.
He assumed most Captains were better at this part of the job than he was. Jim figured he'd never be able to gather together enough disrespect for one of his crew members to say You fucked up on this job and now we're screwed. He knew everyone did their best all the time. Besides, the crew was mostly new. That included Jim himself—he'd never even been stationed on a starship before the Enterprise. Making decisions came naturally, and he loved being a Captain, but he felt as though some of the crew had simply not been ready to be assigned to a starship. Of course, with the severe lack of officers and starships Starfleet currently had, he couldn't complain.
Nor did he want to. These were almost all of the cadets who'd been assigned to the Enterprise as their first mission when Nero attacked. He trusted them now because they'd all already proven themselves then. They had the knowledge they needed, they were masters in their fields, but the actual experience of being on a starship was as new to them as it was to Jim. Sure, they knew the information, but translating that to their jobs was a new trial some of them hadn't encountered before. For all his crew's genius and eagerness to succeed, they just didn't have the field experience they needed. Given time and a few missions, that would be fixed. For now there were plenty of crew members who simply stayed at their posts doing the work they'd always done, not realizing one error in their input could affect the entire outcome of a mission. If a reading was wrong, if something wasn't calculated correctly, if someone forgot to bring the right tools, or if fate or luck or chance or what-have-you decided to step in and shit on the whole thing—how could anyone expect Jim to place the blame on a crew member? He couldn't and wouldn't do that. He was the Captain. If someone made a mistake on his watch, it was his mistake.
Jim, it seemed, was making a whole lot of mistakes.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Mapping out new quadrants of space was, by far, the absolute most boring useless waste of time Jim had ever found himself ordered to do. He got that it was important. He just didn't see why he had to do it. There should be specific ships assigned to these tasks—specific Non-Enterprise ships whose sole purpose was making new maps of the galaxy. That way, Jim and his crew could be focused on important, exciting things like discovering new planets and stopping wars and delivering rations to starving colonists, that sort of thing.
They were on their third day of mapping out this unnamed section of space. Jim had nicknamed it Psi Alpha Iota Nu in a moment of clever passive aggressiveness. Somehow he doubted the name would stick, although he thought it had a certain ring to it. Acronymically speaking.
"Captain, I'm receiving a message from Starfleet." Jim had never been so happy to hear Uhura's voice in his entire life. "We have new orders, sir."
"Let me hear it," Jim said, motioning to the speaker on the arm of his chair. So multi-purpose, his chair. Such complexity hidden within such a simple design.
"Captain Kirk, do you copy?" The voice from the speaker was mixed with some static, but Jim recognized it straight away regardless.
"Kirk here," Jim said, grinning. "I haven't heard from you in a few weeks, Pike."
"You do know you're not the only Captain under my jurisdiction, right?" Admiral Pike replied. Pike was the type of man who would say the exact same thing when he was angry as when he was fooling around, so it was always a bit of a guessing game talking to him without seeing his face. He sounded happy, though, so Jim took it as the well-meaning jibe it was probably intended to be.
"I thought you'd have enough to do with just me to clean up after," Jim said. He motioned to Spock to start the next round of charting for their maps. Screwing up now meant they'd have to re-do the entire last five hours worth of work. That obviously wouldn't be happening if Jim had any say in the matter.
"That's what I told the board, but you know how those damn Admirals are," Pike said, sighing. "They won't listen to a word from us peons."
"You know, I happen to know a marvelous Admiral who is quite possibly, in addition to being superior in every way as a commanding officer, also the finest man I have ever known," Jim said, overloading each word with sincerity and charm.
"I don't know what you're sucking up for. You already know you're getting a good performance review." Pike laughed, and Jim could picture him sitting behind a ton of paperwork, shaking his head at the speaker on his desk.
"It never hurts to suck up," Jim said. He looked meaningfully around the bridge, catching the eye of each of his staff. "Sucking up always ends well. Remember that."
"Are you terrorizing your crew?" Pike asked.
"No, I leave that to my First Officer," Jim answered, grinning again. "He's got them working better and faster than I ever could."
Spock raised an eyebrow and Jim raised one shoulder in a half-shrug. It was true. The crew was literally terrified that Spock would catch them not working. Spock might not have noticed because, well, he was always around himself. But Jim had walked down the corridors with and without Spock, and there was definitely a distinct difference between how much people stopped to talk or joke around when it was just Jim versus how much everyone concentrated on working when Spock was there. It was good for the crew to be frightened of one of them, and Jim figured Spock was the better choice for that particular job. It kept the crew on their toes. And it was really, really funny. One time Jim had seen Spock berate an officer who had been slacking off, and it was pretty awesome. There had been a lot of disapproving eyebrow movements.
"Good to know you're already shirking your duties," Pike said. "So how are the star maps coming along?"
"They have become so dear to me that I now consider them to be a fundamental part of my daily life," Jim said. "I'm not sure I could part with them."
"Prepare to be broken-hearted," Pike said. "You've got a new mission."
"The pain," Jim said. "It overtakes me. Please God, tell me it's not more star charts."
"It's more star charts," Pike said. "Except they're in the form of experimental medical supplies."
Jim paused. He glanced over and saw Spock's attention had been captured by that, as well. "That sounds both interesting and potentially dangerous."
"Astute as usual," Pike replied. "An unknown disease has completely wiped out the Lambda Three colony. A few of the colonists trying to escape the disease went to the next colony over, Lambda Four. The disease has just started appearing there. All space traffic in the area has been stopped, but we can't run the risk of letting this disease spread any further."
Jim bit his lower lip. "What kind of precautions do we have?"
"Standard-issue anti-radiation suits should be fine," Pike answered. "But you'll be the first people going in, so we don't have anything to go on."
"Where are we picking the supplies up from?" Jim drummed his fingers on the arm of the chair, already calculating just how long it would take to reach Lambda Four.
"A supply ship is on route to Lambda Beta Nine now," Pike said. "The supplies will be there in twenty hours."
"All right," Jim said. "Send the details to me and I'll look them over. We should be there in the next two solar days."
"Good luck," Pike said. "Try not to miss the star charts too much."
"Yeah, well, we weren't meant to be cartographers anyway," Jim replied. "Kirk out."
Jim gestured to Spock, waving a hand towards the lift. "Chekov, set a course for Lambda Beta Nine. Sulu, once the course is set, take us there, warp 1. In the meantime, everybody should be finishing this last star chart unless you want to have to re-do the last fifty-nine. Uhura, you have the conn."
"Yes, sir," Sulu and Uhura said. Sulu immediately went back to plotting the current star chart while Uhura stored the mission in the correct folders.
"Aye, sir," Chekov said. He brought up a series of maps and started looking them over.
"Files received from Admiral Pike," Uhura said. "Should I send them to your quarters?"
"Yeah, thanks," Jim said. He followed Spock into the lift and waited until the doors closed before looking at his First Officer. "Is this going to suck?"
"Define ‘suck'," Spock said, eyebrow raising slightly.
"Don't pull that shit," Jim said. "You know what I mean. Is this going to get some of our people killed?"
"I have not yet seen the specifics of the mission so I cannot make a completely accurate statement at this time," Spock replied.
"So guess," Jim said.
"I estimate that the likelihood of one of the crew who beams down to the planet to distribute the supplies contracting the disease is about twenty-three point seven two eight," Spock stated, calmly. "That is, of course, taking into account both the nature of the disease as I gathered from Admiral Pike's vague description and the presence of fully functional standard-issue anti-radiation suits on each team member."
Jim opened his mouth to say something, but he ended up just staring at Spock with his mouth half-open for a few seconds. "You know," he ended up saying, conversationally, "your guesses are other people's hours of work solving mathematical equations."
"I see," Spock said. Jim had already learned that Spock said that when he didn't know what else to say. In fact, Jim half-thought that Spock also said ‘I see' when he didn't understand what was going on. But of course Spock would never admit that. Jim just really liked to think it.
The lift stopped and they walked quickly to Jim's quarters, during which time Jim once again noticed just how much everyone concentrated on working when Spock was present. It was kind of amazing to think that Spock had that effect on the crew. He was like Jim's bodyguard or something—looking menacing and scaring people into doing what they were supposed to be doing. Although, Jim thought Spock looked pretty damn… uh, friendly.
When they went into Jim's room, his first thought was that he and Spock were alone in the same room with a bed. That was such a ridiculous thought to be having given the situation that Jim knew something had to be done. He had to stop fantasizing so much. If he just—okay, no, it had to be something that was possible for him to do. He would think of something. It had never been this way with anyone before, even when Jim had been really into somebody. He was usually able to concentrate when important events were taking place, regardless of the proximity of that person. Yet here he was, noticing Spock waiting by his desk which was almost right next to his bed, when what he should be noticing were the files Spock had already pulled up onto his computer screen.
Jim sat down at his desk without wasting any more time. He knew he wasn't that into Spock because Spock was a guy, and the more times Jim reminded himself that he didn't do guys the less convincing he sounded even though it was true. Still. He didn't do guys. He would sort this out before it got any worse. There was a reason. There was a heterosexual reason. And Jim was going to find it.
"Let's see what this is about," Jim said, mostly to himself. He began reading the report, accidentally skipping a few lines when Spock walked around the desk to stand behind his shoulder and read from there. He went back, making sure he focused on what it was saying, and after ten minutes Jim leaned back in his chair and looked at Spock, who was already watching him with a blank expression.
"We need to call a meeting," Jim said, heavily.
"I'll arrange it immediately." Spock turned and left Jim's quarters without a second thought, leaving Jim wondering if Spock had even noticed his nervous behavior at all. There was no time to angst about it. He had a meeting to get to.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
It was easy enough to organize an impromptu meeting, especially when the bridge crew who had overheard the exchange were eager to know exactly what was happening. In two minutes, Spock had informed McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, Chekov, and Scotty that their presence was needed in Meeting Room 1. Communicators made all conversation efficient. It would have taken Spock close to ten minutes to go to the bridge, sick bay, and the engine room. As it was, in ten minutes everyone was assembled and sitting around the table, waiting for Jim to start.
Jim had a tendency to overdramatize everything he could. It had annoyed Spock, at first, because of course who wanted to witness preposterous emotional displays fourteen point three eight times a day? Over time, though, Spock had grown accustomed to Jim's mannerisms. He had to admit they were similar to Earth's dandelions—unwanted but eventually resigned to and even admired. This situation, though, was dramatic enough without the added flair. Jim seemed to realize this because Spock noticed he was more subdued than usual. Although, for Jim, ‘more subdued than usual' was still fairly exuberant.
Jim nodded at Spock, which was their unspoken signal to let the other person take charge. Spock was mildly surprised, but then he realized Jim wouldn't want to repeat the information they'd read. He would only want to discuss their strategy.
"We have been assigned a mission to the Lambda Four colony," Spock started. "A disease of unknown origin is spreading through the colonists there. The disease came from the Lambda Three colony, on which no survivors remain. Our mission is to pick up experimental medical supplies of various natures to deliver to Lambda Four and distribute them among the colonists. The team selected for this mission will go in wearing standard-issue anti-radiation suits to protect against infection, however due to almost no information on this disease we cannot be sure the team members will not become infected." Spock paused, letting that bit sink in. He wanted them all to know what the risks were. He was sure Jim agreed. "We will be taking a minimum team to the colony, for safety reasons. We believe the colonists might have infected their food and drinking water, so we will be bringing our own supplies."
"Lambda Four is basically a desert," Jim said once Spock had finished. "And the team that goes down there won't be allowed to beam back up until we're sure they're not sick. Otherwise they could contaminate the whole ship with this thing."
"An unidentified awful space disease," McCoy said, groaning. "Why am I not surprised?"
"Because you knew it all along?" Jim guessed.
"Exactly. So who's going?" McCoy asked. "Besides me, I mean."
Jim half-smiled at McCoy. Spock had seen them exchange this look several times. The meaning of the look was unclear to him, as was the reason behind why it was created and exchanged without other signals to go along with it. This was an interesting aspect of Jim and McCoy's friendship that Spock found he couldn't entirely relate to. He wondered if it was a human thing or if it was simply something they shared. He'd like to ask Jim, but it seemed like it would be an invasion of something that Spock had no right barging into. He had a feeling that friendships between humans were much more complex than he had originally believed.
"Unfortunately, there's one other person who has to go," Jim said. Spock looked at Uhura at the same time Jim did, and her face tightened, lips thinning out and jaw clenched. "The colonists don't speak English, and apparently there's something in the air that makes all electronics work like crap, sketchy at best." Spock saw Uhura nod once, shortly, obviously already understanding the need for her presence. "So we can't count on our translators to work."
"It's fine. I'll go," Uhura said. "Does anyone know what they speak?"
"No, we figured we'd leave it for you as a surprise," Jim said in a much kinder tone than he usually used.
"Oh good," Uhura replied. "I love surprises."
"Wait," McCoy said. "If electrical equipment malfunctions, how am I supposed to create the cure down there? I need machines to get the results, Jim. Otherwise it's all guesswork. I may as well stay here."
"You'll have to do your best," Jim replied. "I know it sounds shitty, but that's what we've got right now."
McCoy groaned, but Spock interrupted what would most likely be a complaint and said, "I may be able to make an emitter that would clear the air of the chemicals harmful to electronics in a small radius around it." Everyone looked at Spock, and he felt as though he had said something profound instead of the simple solution he knew it was.
"Well. That would be awesome," Jim said. "So maybe work on that."
"Yes, sir," Spock said, as if he hadn't just said he would.
"So that would clear up one problem. And because we don't want to risk people stupidly, only one other person will be going until we figure out the cure," Jim said.
"That will be me," Spock and Jim both said at the exact same time. Spock looked at Jim, surprised, but Jim was shaking his head at him.
"I'm the Captain," Jim said. "I'm going."
"That is precisely the reason why you should not be a member of this team," Spock said. "Your position is difficult to replace."
"So is yours," Jim said, waving a hand at Spock.
"You are a valuable asset to Starfleet—"
"So are you!"
"If you are infected it would be difficult for you to be treated quickly—"
"Yeah, again, same to you."
"Okay, that's great," McCoy said. "Let's hear from some other people now."
Spock realized he'd been involved in a disagreement which should have been private. No one liked to see their Captain and First Officer arguing. McCoy didn't look bothered, but then again he had known Jim for long enough that Spock assumed he had seen Jim argue with people many times before. Scotty and Sulu seemed mildly perturbed but not incredibly so. Chekov looked incredibly agitated, glancing quickly between Jim and Spock himself several times, before finally giving Spock a sympathetic look. Chekov often seemed on the verge of a mental collapse. It was quite troubling. Uhura was sitting there quietly, waiting for the meeting to continue.
"I don't really see what good I can do you," Scotty stated. "If you need something fixed, sure, but otherwise…" He shrugged. "It might be better for me to stay on the ship and keep it running. And, by the way, not get infected by a killer disease. Just saying."
"I'd go if I thought you needed me," Sulu said. "But I don't have any experience in medicine or linguistics."
"Neither do I," Chekov said. "I could help giving out the medication, though. You're going to need help with that, right? There's too many people in a colony for a team of three!"
"We will be handing out medicine once we have arrived at a cure for the disease," Spock said. "In the meantime, it is better for everyone involved if only essential team members are beamed down to the colony."
"All right, so for now it will be McCoy, Uhura, and me," Jim said. "Once we figure out a cure, we'll get other people down to help out."
"Captain, I must insist that you allow me to lead this team," Spock stated. He had no idea why Jim was being so stubborn about this.
"No, Spock," Jim said, forcefully. "And that's an order."
Spock hesitated, unsure how to continue from there. It was next to impossible to get around a direct order. He knew there had to be a way. Jim might listen to reason, if he could speak with him alone for long enough to convince him to stay on board the Enterprise while Spock led the team. He'd have to try it.
"Oh, and one more thing," Jim said. "Because of the electrical equipments malfunctions, the Federation hasn't had any contact with these colonists since they got to this planet fifty years ago. They've been sending food, supplies, that sort of thing, but otherwise there's been no reports about these people. So we don't really know what we're going into."
"But that doesn't make any sense," Chekov said. "Shouldn't the Federation keep tabs on all their colonies?"
"There's too many colonies to keep track of them all," Sulu said, calmly. "The Federation helps each one start out, hangs around for a year or two to make sure they're doing well, and then leaves them to it." Sulu spread his hands outward, palms up. "These people are from all different planets and backgrounds, after all. They're gathering together to start a new life. Having a starship babysitting them the entire time isn't going to help anyone."
"That is true," Spock agreed. "There are not enough starships in the Federation to ensure one for each colony. Considering that each colony is given ways of communicating with Starfleet should the need arise, it is only logical for the starships to continue on to their next mission."
"Yeah, can you see us hovering over a colony for ten years?" Scotty asked, shuddering. "I think I'd go crazy."
"All right," Jim stated, clapping his hands together once, loudly. "Is there anything else?" He waited a beat, and everyone was silent. "Then I think that brings this meeting to a close. Gather all the materials you'll need—food, water, clothes, McCoy, you'll need your medical shit, Uhura, whatever it is you've got, bring it along. We'll be at Lambda Beta Nine in thirty-eight hours, and Lambda Four in another three. That's it."
As everyone else but Jim was leaving, Uhura walked over to Spock and lightly touched his arm. "Hey, don't worry," she said. "We'll be fine."
After a second of confusion, Spock realized he had not actually been concerned for Uhura's safety at all. His mind had been entirely on Jim, which not only made no sense but was also incredibly insulting to both McCoy and Uhura. Guilt swept over him. He really was not good at forming friendships and romantic relationships. It would be a better idea for him to avoid the entire process at all times.
"You should begin preparations," Spock said. "I must speak with the Captain before he leaves." Jim showed no sign of leaving. He was sitting in the chair at the head of the table, leaning backwards on it with his hands crossed behind his head, obviously watching Spock and Uhura.
Uhura glanced over at Jim, then back at Spock. "All right," she said. "Then I'll see you later." She walked out of the room, looking over her shoulder at Spock right before the door closed. Spock would have to fix things with her later. Right now, he had a Captain to persuade.
"You are being stubborn, short-sighted, and irrational," Spock said.
Jim got up out of his chair and walked towards Spock, hopping up onto the table when they were directly next to each other. Spock would never understand the human need for physical closeness during a conversation. It was perfectly acceptable to speak to another person without moving few feet closer, especially when said people were in an otherwise empty room.
"Look, I'm not letting you do this," Jim replied. "You can call me as many names as you'd like to." He paused. "It's actually kind of funny."
"There is a significantly higher risk on this mission than on our usual missions," Spock continued.
"Oh, and it wasn't dangerous beaming into Nero's ship?" Jim asked. He shook his head. "You know this is nothing compared to that."
"True," Spock agreed. "But the fact that a previous mission was more dangerous than the current one does not negate the threat of the current one. It only adds to the problem of you putting yourself in danger more than is acceptable."
Jim grinned. "You're worried about me."
Spock hesitated. "Worry is a human emotion. As such, I am not worried. I am merely expressing my opinion that your participation in this mission would be an unnecessary risk."
"So you're expressing an opinion that's worry for me, then," Jim replied. He tilted his head to the side, just a bit, studying Spock carefully. "I thought you were trying to be more emotional?"
"There is a difference between accepting your emotions and expressing them," Spock stated.
"All right, all right," Jim said. "No need to get all unemotional at me." He sighed and leaned back on the table, spreading his hands out behind him to hold him up. "But you do understand why you're not going, right?"
"I understand and appreciate your concern," Spock said. "However, my duties as First Officer require me—"
"—to take the exact same chances I take as Captain," Jim said, interrupting him. "I get it. But there's two reasons why it would be better for me to do this than for you to do it."
"I cannot imagine what those reasons would be," Spock replied. Jim was going to try and wriggle out of this somehow. He wasn't going to let it happen. He was going to have Jim stay on the ship while he went on the mission no matter what Jim had to say about it.
"Well, you don't have to imagine ‘cause I'm telling you, so it all works out. The first is that none of the colonists are Vulcan." Jim nodded to himself as if his comment made sense. Spock supposed, in Jim's version of the world, it probably had.
"The colonists' race has no bearing on our mission," Spock stated. "That is not a logical reason for you to endanger yourself."
"Let me finish, geez. Because," Jim intoned, as if speaking to a small child. "Bones has to go since he's the doctor. Uhura has to go so we can talk to them. So Bones is already going to have to make two versions of the cure—one for the colonists and one for humans."
"You believe asking Doctor McCoy to edit his antidote so that it is suitable for my consumption would be too difficult a task for him?" Spock asked, knowing questioning McCoy's ability would grate on Jim's nerves.
"Hey, I didn't say that." Jim rolled his eyes. "But you already know that and you're just trying to tick me off. And it's not going to work because I have a point here. So what I'm saying is that we're only getting a limited amount of the medical supplies. Whatever they drop off at Lambda Beta Nine is what we're getting, it's not like more's going to magically appear if we need it. Bones is going to waste some of it on tests and making a whole lot of bad cures before he finds the right one. Well, not waste, but still."
"You are right," Spock said. Jim looked at him, surprised, but Spock knew a good logical argument when he heard one. "Having Doctor McCoy make another antidote for myself would be a waste of our limited resources."
"Ah, you see?" Jim said.
"However we do not know how any of the crew will react to this disease," Spock pointed out. "Humans might be affected differently than the colonists are. Vulcans might not be affected at all. We cannot be sure until we beam down and discover what occurs."
"You're right," Jim said. "But if we assume that we'll all be fine and then we're not…"
"It would be illogical," Spock finished.
"Exactly," Jim replied. "And since, like I said before, Bones and Uhura have to go, it makes sense for me to go out of the two of us since I'm fully human."
"It is true," Spock agreed. "You are a complete human while I am only one-half." Spock had tried to keep his tone without inflection, but obviously it hadn't worked because Jim was frowning at him.
Jim pushed himself into an upright sitting position on the desk and held onto the edge of the table with both hands. "Come on, you know I didn't mean it like that," he said, quietly. "I think you're awesome how you are. I don't want you to think that I… or, I guess, I mean that anyone thinks badly of you because of who you are. Don't think that."
How little Jim understood about the parts of the world he wasn't aware of. Spock hadn't expected him to know what it was like for him, both currently on the Enterprise and in his past on Vulcan, but he also hadn't expected Jim to state his ignorance in such a manner. Yet Spock had no wish to bring up this topic. It also was completely not the point of the conversation, and he would not be deterred.
"I will concede your first reason," Spock said, blandly. "What is your second reason?"
Jim pursed his lips for a moment before shrugging. "Okay, fine. Have it your way. The second reason is also that you're half-Vulcan, but this time it's…" Jim trailed off, obviously hesitant to continue.
Spock nodded in understanding. "Of course I agree that there has been enough loss of Vulcan life. Yet that does not mean I am willing to abandon my duties when they become dangerous."
"And I'm not asking you to," Jim replied, quickly. "I just want you to stay on board because it's better that way. For everyone. You'll be able to monitor us from up here, and Bones won't have to worry about making a third cure specifically for you. I mean, that makes sense to you, right?"
"Yes," Spock answered. That was entirely the problem. He couldn't find a way around Jim's arguments because, in truth, it would be a waste of time and supplies for McCoy to make another version of the cure, if that was what was necessary. Jim had thought this through, which Spock belatedly realized he should have expected. For all of Jim's antics and joking around, he had earned his right to be a Captain. The promotion had not been an act of gratitude from Starfleet for defeating Nero. That would have been both illogical and detrimental to everyone involved. Even now that almost an entire graduating class had been annihilated and they were short-staffed in every quadrant, Starfleet still only gave people positions that they deserved. Jim had the capacity to be Captain in every way, and Spock was learning that underestimating him was a mistake too many people made. Spock would not be one of them.
"So then you're staying," Jim said, half-confident and half-questioning.
"I will stay on board the Enterprise for this mission," Spock replied.
"I knew you'd see it my way," Jim stated, smiling. He hopped off the desk and slapped Spock on the shoulder, letting his hand rest there. "Thanks. And don't you have some toy to build for Bones?"
Spock nodded. "I will begin working on the emitter immediately."
"Sounds good," Jim said. His hand slipped a few inches down Spock's arm and then dropped away. "I'm off to be Captainy. I'm sure there's someone I can fire if I look hard enough." Jim grinned cheekily at him and walked out of the room, leaving Spock standing there, wondering how Jim had won an argument against him. Using logic.
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Once the medical supplies were on board, Jim had McCoy look them over. There were only three hours until they would be on Lambda Four, but that didn't mean they should rush through the preparations. If McCoy didn't get a chance to look through everything before they beamed to the colony, then he might not know what else to bring with him to make the correct cure. Jim wasn't entirely sure how these things worked, but he knew McCoy would appreciate some extra time with the medicine before he was experimenting with it.
Right before Jim had left McCoy to his work, McCoy had made a comment that had unsettled Jim. He had implied that the supplies Starfleet had sent really were experimental in the truest sense of the word—that they might not even work for what they were supposed to be used for. Which meant that their effects were still not entirely certain. Which meant that mixing them together could cause a lot of problems. McCoy had assured Jim he would do the best he could and bring everything he needed with them, but Jim already had a bad feeling about the entire mission. Sure, attempting to find a cure to an unknown disease that had killed an entire colony was exciting and important, but not knowing how the disease was spread or how fast it worked was really bothering him. He hoped the anti-radiation suits would work. He had a sinking feeling they wouldn't because he knew things usually went badly when you went into a situation blind. But orders were orders, and anyway he couldn't in good conscience leave a whole colony of people in danger because he was concerned for the safety of his crew.
Besides, he had won. He was going to beam down while Spock stayed safely up here. He was glad he'd thought the argument through before the meeting because if he'd been on the spot he might have said the real reason he didn't want Spock to go. Somehow, Jim didn't think Spock would've appreciated being told "You can't go because then I couldn't watch you bend over your work station all the time." Not that that was the actual reason, but it was close enough and it was probably what would have come out of his mouth in the middle of an argument. Jim was just lucky like that. He might have also mentioned that he'd like to get Spock naked in his bed in a very heterosexual way. Even worse, he might have started going on about how he actually cared what Spock thought about everything, even little things like how his breakfast was or if the font on the reports should be changed, and that he loved spending time with Spock and joking around with him and that he was disappointed when Spock wasn't around and frustrated when he saw Spock and Uhura together and… Yeah. It was definitely better he'd thought out a decent logical reason beforehand.
Jim was in the transporter room now, preparing to beam down with McCoy and Uhura. The three of them were wearing anti-radiation suits, which were these monstrous white outfits that looked like the misshapen offspring of a jumpsuit, marshmallow, and electrical outlet. They came equipped with oxygen tanks and helmets that completely covered their heads, which none of them were currently wearing in order to conserve their oxygen supply. Scotty was waiting to beam them down when asked to. Spock was also there, explaining how the emitter worked to McCoy. Jim understood the concept fairly quickly because, really, what Spock was saying in his long-winded way was that you pressed a button and it got stuff around the machine to work. Except Spock, being Spock, needed to explain it down to the most intricate detail in order to feel comfortable handing it over to them.
"Thanks," Jim finally said, interrupting Spock when he had started in on what a bad idea it would be to throw the small machine against a wall for the third time. "I think we got it."
"Just hand it over," McCoy said, sighing. "I promise I won't let Jim near it." Jim rolled his eyes but let McCoy have his little jibe.
Spock gave the emitter to McCoy, lips thinned out and an eyebrow raised and his chin jutting forward a bit. Jim loved it when Spock looked all pouty and put-out like that. It was cute.
"Remember it will only work in a ten foot radius," Spock said. "Also, the power supply takes a lot of energy. When you are not using it, turn the emitter off. Otherwise, the power will drain out and there will be no way to replace it."
McCoy nodded. "Got it. For the tenth time." He looked at Jim. "Are we leaving or am I going to have to listen to Spock some more?"
Jim grinned. "I like listening to Spock. It makes me feel smarter."
"Listening to a five-year-old throwing a temper tantrum would make you feel smarter," Uhura replied, shaking her head.
"Fine, okay, let's all just insult the Captain. It's not like he has control over our jobs or anything," Jim said. "You guys have everything you need? We can't come back up until we've got the cure, you know that. Bring it now if you're going to need it."
Jim double-checked his own supplies while McCoy and Uhura looked through their own bags. He had only packed what he absolutely needed—the medical supplies that wouldn't fit in McCoy's bags, some clothes and an assortment of hygienic stuff (toothbrush, soap, shampoo, deodorant, etc—all of which, including the clothes, he would not be able to use if they discovered the disease was airborne since he wouldn't be able to take off the anti-radiation suit), a few blankets and a pillow. They were planning on staying in whatever accommodations they could find on the colony. An empty house would be best, but they'd take anything.
"Everyone good?" Jim asked once he'd finished checking his bag and was satisfied that he'd brought everything he needed to. He had a phaser and communicator on him, as was standard procedure for all missions. He'd brought an extra communicator along, just in case the atmospheric problems messed with the first one. Not that the second one would last much longer, but at least he might have a chance with it.
"I've been ready," McCoy said, hefting his bag and dumping it onto the platform.
"I've got everything," Uhura said. She also put her bag on the platform, on the circle next to where she'd be standing.
"All right," Jim said. He turned to Spock, gesturing to the corridor. "Make sure to beam those crates of medicine down after us, but only when I give the order. Otherwise we'll have to lug them around until we find someplace to set up."
"I understand," Spock replied. He paused, and Jim realized he was trying to figure out how to phrase something. "Remember to make contact when you reach the surface and once every twelve hours continuously after that."
Jim felt his smile turn softer, and he quickly turned so that only Spock could see it. No sense letting everyone know he was an idiot. "I won't forget. Don't worry."
He wanted to say something else that sounded better. Something that would really make Spock more comfortable with the idea of staying on the ship while the rest of them went into blatant danger. But then Uhura came up behind Jim, stepping around him to stand next to Spock. She put her hand on his arm and Spock tore his eyes away from Jim to look at her. Jim didn't want to see this, didn't want to hear whatever she was going to say, so he turned around and went to the beaming platform, grabbing his bag as he passed it.
"I'll miss you," Uhura said, quietly. But not quietly enough that everyone else in the room couldn't hear her. "I'll be back soon."
"Do not put yourself in unnecessarily dangerous situations," Spock said.
"I won't," Uhura replied.
There were a few moments of silence and Jim was so glad he was looking the other way he almost cried with relief. McCoy gave him a funny look, half-curious and half-suspicious, but Jim ignored him. McCoy could be as suspicious as he wanted to be. Jim still didn't want to see how Uhura was saying good-bye to Spock, and he definitely didn't want to see Spock's reaction to it. Uhura joined them on the platform and they all attached their helmets, fastening them securely.
Jim looked at Scotty, nodding. "Beam us down, Scotty."
In seconds they were on the surface of the planet, standing on sand and staring out at nothing all around them. The desert spread in every direction as far as he could see. Not that he could see far because it was very close to being pitch black. Moonlight allowed him to see a few feet in every direction, but that was about it. He had been hoping for some clue to where the colony was. It looked like they'd have to figure it out the hard way.
"Uhura," Jim said. His voice came out muffled and mechanical-sounding through the voice processor. Jim hated these suits, but if they saved them from contracting the fatal disease, he wouldn't complain. Much.
"Sir?" she asked, looking at him as McCoy continued to survey the area.
"Let's get some readings. There's got to be some way to tell which way we should go," Jim said. He gestured to the tricorder slung around her neck. "Anything is better than us guessing."
"All right, but I'll need the emitter for it to work." Uhura reached out towards McCoy, who handed over the emitter without complaint. "Before I turn it on, is there anything specific you want me to look for?"
"I'd suggest water," McCoy said. "Especially on a desert planet, anywhere there's water there should be signs of people. We could probably look for food sources, too, or living organisms, if the water's no good."
"Sounds good," Jim said. "And all we need is to run into one person or a sign or something to give us directions."
Uhura turned the emitter and tricorder on at the same time, flicking both switches in sync. She started fiddling with the dials, no doubt gathering data that they'd need. Jim was content to let her work. He stood closer to her and opened his communicator.
"Enterprise, Kirk here," Jim said.
"This is Spock."
Jim smiled. Which was stupid because they were stuck in the middle of a desert and he'd only just seen Spock less than three minutes ago, anyway. "Hey. We're safe. We're on the surface, there's desert every which way. And it's the middle of the night. Uhura's getting some readings and then we're going to try to find the colony."
"The atmosphere is preventing us from getting entirely accurate readings," Spock said. "We will track your communicators to monitor your location."
"Sounds good," Jim said. "I'll contact you again when we've found something."
"Make sure you check in every twelve hours, regardless of your situation," Spock said.
Jim's smile widened. "I already said I would, you know. You don't have to nag." There was dead silence over the radio, and Jim just knew both of Spock's eyebrows were near his hairline. "Kirk out."
Uhura was still getting her readings, so Jim looked at McCoy in hopes of a decent conversation. McCoy was already blatantly staring at him. Jim briefly went over the conversation with Spock, but he hadn't said anything damning at all, he hadn't even hinted. So there really was no reason for McCoy to have that look on his face.
"What?" Jim asked, eyebrows furrowed. "You got a complaint already? We only just got here, you know."
"No complaints," McCoy said, shrugging. "Just thinking you look ridiculous in that suit."
Jim shook his head. "Were you undressing me with your eyes again? I told you not while we're on duty."
"This might be hard for you to believe, but not everyone wants to have sex with you," McCoy stated, blandly.
"Amen," Uhura fervently agreed.
"That's impossible for me to believe," Jim replied. "Because it's just not true. Are you done with the readings yet?"
"Almost," Uhura said. "Be patient."
Jim took a few steps forward, just for something to do. He didn't mind waiting, but he didn't like the idea of waiting in such an open area. They didn't really know anything about this planet. There could be other creatures living here besides the colonists. And Jim had a very vivid memory of being attacked by a giant monster on a mostly empty ice planet.
"All right," Uhura said, turning off the emitter and the tricorder. "There are two bodies of water in the area. The larger one is that way," she said, pointing into the distance behind McCoy, "and it's both large enough to support life and most likely not dry up anytime soon. The other's that way," she jerked a thumb over her own shoulder this time, "and is about half the size but would still be able to support life for an estimated two hundred and fifty to two hundred and sixty years."
"So the colonists could have chosen either one," Jim stated. "Both would have been good options in this shitty weather."
"Or they could have split up, deciding to try each location and see which was better," McCoy said. "They would have known fairly quickly if one water source had some problem, like a contamination or if a dangerous species was already using it."
"Yeah, maybe," Jim said. "What were the other readings?"
"There were life forms by both water sources, but there was no indication about what they were," Uhura said. "They could be the colonists. I can't say for sure."
"Okay," Jim said. "We can't stand around here all day. How far in each direction are we talking?"
"Five miles behind me, and six and a half miles behind McCoy," Uhura replied.
"Okay, that's not so bad," Jim said. "It could be a lot worse. We'll go to McCoy's water source first, since it's bigger and can support more people. Even if the colonists aren't there, they probably checked it out and maybe they left something behind. Who knows? It's worth a look either way."
Jim started walking in the direction Uhura had indicated. She and McCoy followed a few feet behind him. It was a pain in the ass walking in the obnoxious suits. He felt like he was trudging through mud all the time—dragging his feet up and forward when the suit wanted to keep them bogged down. It took three times as long as it should have for them to see the lake shimmering in the distance. In fact, it had been light for at least two hours before they could see the group of fifty or so small tents pitched close together about half-way around the lake.
"Ha," Jim said, relieved because if he'd been wrong they'd have had to walk eleven and a half miles in the other direction, and McCoy and Uhura might have mutinied. "That's got to be the colony."
"I think I see people," Uhura said.
"Well, let's get there already," McCoy stated. "My legs are going to fall off."
They had only walked another few minutes when Jim saw a group of people running towards them. They were wearing simple, lightweight clothes that covered only what was necessary—the most obvious choice in a temperature such as this one. What worried Jim was that, even though they looked very similar to humans, they had bluish-green skin and were holding what looked like a long stick with daggers sticking out of it every few inches.
"Bones, Uhura," Jim said. "Do you recognize them?"
"Um, their skin tone makes me think somewhere around Orion, but obviously they're different," she replied.
"Their weapons are primitive," McCoy answered. "They probably don't have the same understanding of technology that we do."
"So, what, we look like huge marshmallow monsters to them?" Jim asked.
"Probably," McCoy said.
"You'd think they'd know we're from the Federation," Uhura said. "They're the colonists, aren't they?"
"Yeah, I think so," Jim said. "But we don't look like the other Federation members they've met right now."
"And they're suffering from an unknown disease," McCoy added. "They might just be scared."
The colonists were close enough now that Jim could see they looked panicked. He gestured to Uhura and said, "Start talking."
Uhura began speaking in a few different languages, which all sounded like gibberish to him. When the colonists were only ten feet away, they stopped suddenly, coming to a halt so quickly Jim thought they must have had some of the fastest reflexes in the galaxy. One of the colonists pointed the odd weapon straight at them, speaking gibberish so quickly even Uhura seemed taken aback.
"Surprise," Jim said. "Remember, I said it would be a surprise, and it is." She shot him an unamused look before putting her hands up in the universal gesture for peace and walking in front of Jim.
She began speaking again, but this time recognition flared in the eyes of the man pointing the weapon at them. He slowly lowered his weapon, listening to her as she spoke. When she was silent, the man spoke to her, and within minutes they were engaged in a serious conversation that Jim had no hope of following. He was deeply, intensely glad he had brought Uhura on this mission. Otherwise, the colonists might have just attacked them without hesitation. Even if he had relied on a translating machine and used the emitter to get it work, he wouldn't have had the skill Uhura had at dealing with people of different cultures. It was something most xenolinguists had to be good at due to the wide range of people they encountered. Jim had never been more grateful for a xenolinguist in his life.
"Okay," Uhura said, turning to them. "We've got some problems."
"Well, that's less than awesome," Jim said. "But go anyway."
"We're under arrest," Uhura said.
"What?" Jim asked.
"Why? What did we do?" McCoy said, frowning.
"Apparently the colonists are concerned we're here to make the disease even worse," Uhura said. "Since the last newcomers brought the disease, they think we're bringing even more death to them."
"Oh, you've got to be fucking kidding me," Jim said, throwing his hands up in the air. The colonists all took a step forward, pointing their weapons at him. Jim lowered his hands slowly. "Would you tell them we're here to save them, not kill them?"
"I did, Captain," Uhura said, lips thinning. "But he says they can't take that chance. He's going to take us to a tent where we'll be held until we either produce the cure or the disease gets worse, in which case he says they'll know we caused the progression."
"That's ridiculous!" McCoy shouted. "Any idiot knows that diseases get worse over time without treatment."
"I don't know what to tell you," Uhura said. "I tried reasoning with him, but he won't budge. He says he should have killed us on sight, but we're being allowed to live because we might give them a cure."
Jim looked the colonists over, carefully. They were obviously not listening to reason. Spock would have cried. Jim smiled and shook his head. "Then let's agree for now."
"What?" McCoy asked, looking at him with wide eyes.
"Well, we need a place to stay and work on the cure, right?" Jim shrugged. "Let's take the tent they give us and just deal with it. When we get the cure, everything will sort itself out."
"Jim, I don't know how long the cure is going to take," McCoy said. "It could be a few hours. It could be weeks."
"We can't go back to the Enterprise until you've got it," Jim said. "You know that. So let's do things their way for now. Besides, they don't know that our electronics work. We've got phasers, if we need them." Jim looked at Uhura. "Tell them we'll agree, but that McCoy needs access to the infected people in order to produce a cure. And that we expect to be treated well."
Uhura spoke some more gibberish to the man, who gestured vehemently and sounded a bit upset. After a few minutes of conversation, Uhura frowned and said, "Captain, they want us to take off our suits."
"What?!" Jim and McCoy shouted.
"He says we could be hiding weapons in them," Uhura said, irritated. "And I already assured him we weren't and that they were for our protection so we would not contract the disease."
"What'd he say?" Jim asked.
"He said if we were finding a cure for the disease it didn't matter if we got it too," Uhura answered. "Captain, from what little conversation I've had with him, I don't think we're going to be able to wriggle out of this."
"What should we do, Jim?" McCoy asked, quietly. "We can't stun everybody."
There was no real choice. They couldn't go back up to the Enterprise because the disease may have already contaminated them. Jim wouldn't risk the lives of his crew like that. So they were stuck down here, and if they didn't agree to the colonists demands, what then? The colonists wouldn't allow them into their colony, most likely. Would they be able to survive in the desert with only what they'd brought with them for food and water, and absolutely no cover from the heat?
"Uhura, ask what they'll do if we refuse," Jim said.
A brief dialogue exchange later, Uhura said, "He said if we don't take off the suits we won't be allowed into the colony. We'll have to go back the way we came, and if we try to get to the colony, they'll take action against us."
"I don't know what that means but I don't like it," McCoy said. "Why are we helping these people again?"
Jim elbowed McCoy. "Don't you have some kind of doctor's code or something?"
"Yeah, I do. And it doesn't include the people I'm helping killing me," McCoy replied.
"Tell him we agree," Jim said. Uhura and McCoy both looked at him, surprised. "We need to be by the colonists to develop the cure. We can't survive in the desert by ourselves and we can't beam home. So we agree."
They both looked distinctly unhappy but Uhura spoke to the man quickly. He made a sweeping motion. She said, "He wants us to take them off now, before we get any closer to the colony."
Jim reached to his helmet and undid the fastenings, immediately taking it off and putting it in the sand next to him. Then he started undoing the other straps and zippers and weird magnetic edge-things on the suit. Once the thing was off him, he let it fall to the ground. It was expensive, but replaceable, and there was nothing inside of it anyway. Jim looked over to see McCoy and Uhura both almost finished getting out of their own suits. When they were all done, the colonists went to the suits and investigated them. After a few minutes, they said something to the man Uhura had been speaking to.
"What's his name?" Jim asked, nodding at the man who seemed like some kind of leader.
"Kopel," Uhura said. "But I don't think he likes people calling him by it." Jim nodded absently. Kopel exchanged some more words with his men, then he said something to Uhura. She turned to Jim. "He says he knows we must have weapons on us. He wants us to turn them over before we're allowed into the colony. We'll be allowed to keep our other electrical equipment since they think we can't use it anyway. I didn't inform him otherwise."
"Good call," Jim said.
"I really don't like these assholes," McCoy said, fuming.
Jim didn't even hesitate. He reached for his communicator and held it out towards Kopel. "Give them your communicators."
Uhura and McCoy looked blankly at Jim, then at each other, before taking out their communicators and holding them at arm's length for the colonists to take. The men grabbed the communicators and held them carefully, showing them to Kopel. Then Kopel turned around and walked towards the colony, shouting something over his shoulder.
"He wants us to follow him," Uhura said.
"Even I got that," Jim said. They all started walking behind the colonists, who were occasionally looking to check on their progress. It was faster going now that they weren't wearing the awful suits, but the colonists still made incredible time and were stopping at random intervals to allow them to catch up.
"What are we going to do about the suits and communicators?" McCoy asked. "We can't just let them take them."
"It's fine," Jim said. "We'll get them back."
"We're supposed to contact Spock in about four hours," Uhura said. "How are we going to do that now?"
"I said it's fine," Jim snapped, glaring at her.
Uhura's eyes widened and she clenched her teeth together. "I'm sorry, sir."
Jim exhaled and shook his head. "No, sorry, I shouldn't have said it that way. Let's just focus on finding the cure. Spock will know something's wrong when he doesn't hear from us. I trust him. He'll do the right thing."
"I hope you're right," McCoy said. "Because you do know we're probably infected now and we've got no way of letting anyone know where we are?"
"They're tracking the communicators," Jim said. "They'll have a good guess."
"Let's hope a good guess is enough," McCoy said.
"It will be," Jim said. "I know it."
~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~
Part 6b
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Date: 2009-07-20 12:30 am (UTC)obsessedinterested in readinga lotsome Dean/Castiel and neglected all my other fandoms. Now I'm catching up with myself...Excellent start to the chapter. I seem to remember this plot, or something like it in the Original Series, yes? Though I think Spock went along for that one; it's a long time since I've watched it.
Anyway, it's one of those tense situations where they can't really do anything about it. You'd think the colonists would have let Bones keep his suit if nothing else- there's no hope if the doctor succumbs before he's found a cure! I guess they aren't thinking straight, though, in their fear.
Nice idea of Jim's to hand over the communicators instead of the phasers. Of course, I know he's got a spare, but even so.
Lots of great banter, particularly the Kirk/Bones moments. Bones is almost onto Jim, almost catching up with Chekov. Jim himself is catching up with Chekov, too *g*. Spock's still in the dark, however.
Great Spock/Kirk scenes with the arguing, worrying, name-calling and Jim beating Spock at the logic game.
Laura.
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Date: 2009-07-21 12:06 am (UTC)You know, I'm sure I'm accidentally repeating some plots in TOS, so you're probably right. I'm only half-way through season 2 and already I'm forgetting what I've seen. *headdesk*
The stupid colonists just cause all sorts of problems for everyone. But what can you do? That's how plot happens. XD
... OMG I FORGOT JIM HAD A SPARE COMMUNICATOR. UMM... I don't think it matters at this point, though. LOL EPIC FAIL SELF WTF. *headdesk*
Spock is so in the dark, he's practically blind. Oh, Jim and Bines. Their banter keeps me happy. Also, Jim and Spock's banter keeps me happy, actually. XP