The damp morning air seemed to cling to every surface that was exposed to Iowa's relentless elements. It caused Riverside shipyard to glisten with wet dew as the sunlight filtered through the holes in the starship currently under construction giving the whole yard ethereal atmosphere. The behemoth towering above the yard only adding to the otherworldly feeling. A mountain of industry and technology, the starship remained motionless in silent grace. An edifice to the unknown, the final frontier. A promise of secrets to discover, adventure to be had, and a future full of wonder.

Yet as Alice walked inside its immense shadow, she felt nothing but cold dread with no hope or sun to warm her. She craned her neck to take in the starship that towered above her, shuffling the bag she carried on her shoulder. As she dropped her gaze, Alice could see off in the distance a stream of red-clad cadets entering the last shuttle for Starfleet Academy.

It was her last chance to turn around and leave. It might cause a lot of problems and make all the hard work she had put in for the past few years worthless, but she wouldn't have to get on the shuttle and fly to San Francisco. Alice began to tap her fingers together—thumb to index, middle, ring, pinky, and then back again—as she weighed her options. She was so caught up in her indecisiveness that she almost didn't hear the vehicle approaching from behind her. The sound of the engine caught her attention just in time for her to quickly jump to the side of the maintenance road, dropping her bag to her side as she lined herself along the fence.

"Sorry!" came the faint call as some blonde in a leather jacket sped past her on his bike.

Idiot, Alice thought as she watched him speed towards the shuttle. She slung her bag over her shoulder once more and continued on, hanging closer to the side of the road just in case anyone else was as late to arrive as she was.

"For a moment there I thought I was going to have leave for the Academy without you."

Alice let out a sigh in frustration before throwing her bag violently into the cargo compartment, her eyes locked on the entrance of the shuttle. "And would that have been the end of the world, Captain Pike?"

"It would have been the end of all your hard work," Pike answered, sounding exactly like the condescending, gentlemanly asshole who refused to give up on her she remembered him to be. It took all her will not to give him the satisfaction of a response verbally or physically with the smile that was tugging at the corner of her lips. God, I missed him, she thought beside herself.

"How was Vulcan?" he asked, the gentle gravel of his voice from age and experience pressing her lightly.

Alice finally looked at him.

Her eyes always took Christopher Pike by surprise. The cold glacier blue intense and fierce, able to freeze the unprepared to the spot; the green warm and friendly, though nearly washed out by the blue; and flecks of gold that clung around the edges of her pupil, filling her gaze with glimmering mystery.

"It was warm," she said coldly.

"Is that all?" Pike asked, his voice informing her that he didn't appreciate her monosyllabic answer.

"Yes, Captain," Alice said, her eyes flicker towards the shuttle door. "That is all." She then held out her hand, insisting that he take the lead inside. Christopher Pike hesitated a moment. He wanted nothing more than to press Alice further, but ended up relenting, making his way to the cockpit, already thinking of a way to bring it up later.

Alice wavered a moment. Crossing the shuttle's threshold felt as damning as a life sentence. But this was what she had been working towards. This was what she wanted, right?

"I don't need a doctor, dammit. I am a doctor!"

"You need to take a seat!"

"I had one!" a man's voice argued. "In the bathroom with no windows!"

Father said there's always one on every shuttle… a smile began to tug at the corners of her lips as an amused hum rocked her while Alice stood just inside the door. With constructed patience, she leaned slightly on the edge of the doorway, her head resting lightly against the cool metal.

"You need to get back to your seat now," the flight officer, a short and shrewd woman, growled.

Just do it… Alice willed him, though she was secretly enjoying this morning's entertainment. She leaned forward just a little bit, trying to get a better view of what was going on.

The man who was adamantly refusing to sit down was a bit older than most cadets. He was scruffy and ill-kept and looked as if he had spent his night in the bottom of a bottle. His jaw was strong and his hazel eyes were intelligent, though, if not also a bit panicked.

"I suffer from aviophobia! That means fear of dying in something that flies!" He gestured to the shuttle that he was now encased in to make his point in case the flight officer incapable of understanding.

But the flight officer was having none of it. "Sir, for your own safety, sit down or else I'll make you sit down!" Her voice carried an edge that made it evident she would make good on her threat if she had to.

The man, who towered over her by a good foot or so, hesitated for a moment; and from where she was leaning in the doorway, Alice was able to see that he was contemplating making a break for it. But the commander's glare was forceful, and he finally took a seat, landing in one of two that remained available.

"Thank you," the flight officer said before storming off to take her own seat, nearly bowling over Alice. "Oh!" the woman said with a start. "You're lucky. We were just about to take off without you."

"Lucky?" A raised eyebrow and a hint of sarcasm accompanying the question as Alice made her way to the last seat. "I was trying to miss this shuttle."

With her choice of none, the only seat remaining was the one that put her next to the man who looked as if he was about to be lead to a firing squad. Of course, the cadet sitting next to him didn't look much better. Though, calling him a cadet was a stretch seeing as he looked more like the aftermath of being used as a human battering ram. It was only as she drew closer that she recognized him to be the idiot that nearly ran her down.

A snort came from one of the cadets on her left. "Yeah, right," came a friendly voice. "I don't think you've been late or missed anything in your life." Uhura's signature eye roll punctuated her statement.

Alice smirked softly, briefly, "I did once, but it turned out to be a false alarm."

As she passed, she nudged her friend's foot playfully before taking her seat, sitting in such a way that made her take up as little room as possible, avoiding the edges of her seat and the people just beyond. Picking at her harness carefully, Alice clicked it together before settling in for the long haul. The man with aviophobia next to her, however, was still struggling to figure out the harness.

"Here," Alice said calmly, reaching out towards his hands. Her soft fingers brushed against his own, attempting to quiet the shaky and jarring movements of his nervousness, before taking the belt and buckle from him, snapping it together with the relative ease it should have been. "You good?" she asked her quiet voice laced with concern as she removed her hands, massaging them fiercely as if they were sore.

Aviophobia's eyes flickered momentarily to Alice's hands, finding the behavior strange before they met her own. "Anything but, sweetheart." He groaned, nodding his thanks even though his words and behavior suggested he felt the complete opposite.

"This is Captain Pike; we're cleared for takeoff."

Aviophobia turned ghostly pale. "I may throw up on ya'." He offered, the southern lilt turning even that repulsive comment into a slightly charming warning. "Christ…" he hissed when the shuttle jolted upwards, harnesses and metal rattling as it did so.

Battering ram leaned forward slightly. "I think these things are pretty safe," he said warily.

Aviophobia snorted loudly, turning to face him. "Don't pander to me, kid. One tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in thirteen seconds, or a solar flare might crop up and cook us in our seats. And wait 'til you're sittin' pretty with a case'a Andorian Shingles. See if you're so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding." The more he went on, the more panic stricken he became as he listed off every worst case—most likely to never happen—scenario. "Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence!"

"I hate to break this to you, but Starfleet operates in space," battering ram offered.

Aviophobia huffed, pulling out a flask from his jacket. "Yeah, well, I've got nowhere else to go," his hands were trembling slightly as he unscrewed the top. "The ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I've go left are my bones." He swallowed quickly, fidgeting as the shuttle finally began to even out in its flight before he finally offered it to the battering ram beside him.

"Jim Kirk," the younger cadet introduced himself with a salute from the flask before taking a sip.

"McCoy. Leonard McCoy." He went to put the flask back in his jacket when he remembered the woman next to him that had been kind enough to help strap him into his harness, strapping him into his doomed fate. McCoy went to nudge her with his elbow, but she shifted just as he did so, moving enough to cause him to miss. Alice gave him her attention none the less, though, her chaotically intense eyes locking onto his own.

The intensity of her gaze caused him to trip up in what he was going to ask her. "Uh, what about you, Ms. Unlucky-to-have-made-the-Shuttle?" he managed, offering her the flask

She accepted the flask with a ghost of a smile, "Do you want a name or an explanation?" she asked playfully, though quiet and sincere, taking a cautious sniff just above the neck of the flask. Whiskey. Nice. She took a sip. Oh. Very nice.

"I need the distraction, so both," McCoy answered, his voice slightly strained.

"Well, I'm Alice," she offered, her voice gentle and understanding as she returned the flask to the doctor. "And as for the explanation…" Alice trailed off, looking for a suitable misdirect. "I'm just naturally indecisive about life-changing decisions."

"She means that her father's been trying to convince her to join Starfleet for years," Uhura piped up, "and she only just finally caved into him."

Alice glared teasingly at Uhura, "Didn't know I had a human biography following me around."

"Just wanted to spare them from whatever lie you were going to tell next."

"That's so sweet of you," Kirk said playfully. Uhura merely rolled her eyes at him.

Chuckling softly, "I don't lie, I simply omit," she countered.

"Sweetheart, where I come from that's one and the same," McCoy chimed in, his accent dripping heavily into his words. That southern charm.

"And that would be Georgia, right?" Kirk said. He had this goofy smile, which was only made goofier by the black and blue bruises that covered his face, "Your accent is marvelous."

"Yeah, and so is your face," McCoy growled, leaning forward so that he could get a better look. "Did you throw yourself against a wall repeatedly?

Kirk's smile remained as he sheepishly glanced over at the other cadets who looked like they had been on the wrong side of a fist. "Yeah, you could say that." He shoved McCoy flat against his seat, though, so he could look at Alice. "Enough about me, though. What's her name?" His crystalline blue eyes sparkled with enthusiasm as he jerked his thumb towards her friend.

"Uhura," Alice replied.

"No, her first name."

"You're new to Starfleet, so I'll let you in on how things work," Alice teased. "Any female cadet with an ounce of self-respect doesn't give out her name to any guy with pretty eyes and a decent smile."

"You think I have pretty eyes?" His smile grew, and Alice instantly regretted saying anything.

The shuttle suddenly jerked, throwing the cadets inside against their harnesses. "Christ," McCoy hissed. He had been content to let the kid and Alice continue with their childish banter with him stuck in the middle, letting it be a well-needed distraction. Now he sat stiffly in his seat, eyes forced close in white-knuckled fear.

Both Alice and Kirk immediately stopped with their conversation and looked at him, concern etched in their features. Clearly, the conversation hadn't been enough. Alice's eyes quickly scanned around the shuttle.

"Jesus Christ," Alice exclaimed loud enough to draw McCoy's attention. Before Kirk had a chance to react, she was grabbing his right wrist, pulling it in front of McCoy. "What did you do to your hand?"

Kirk ripped his arm out of her grasp. "Nothing," he grumbled, his smile disappearing and a look of betrayal ghosting his features. "I'll live."

But it was enough for McCoy to open his eyes, and glance over at Kirk. He was just in time to catch a glimpse of the bloody mess that was Kirk's hand. He automatically reached out to assess the damage. Once a doctor, always a doctor, Alice thought, pleased with herself. But Kirk pulled back defensively.

"I'm a doctor," McCoy grumbled but didn't apologize for the intrusion.

"I heard," Kirk said, his smirk returning as he tried to cover up his flinch. His eyes caught Alice's a flicker of understanding lighting in them before he finally offered up his hand to McCoy.

"What were you fighting? The brick walls you were throwing yourself against?" he asked.

"One of 'em felt like it," Kirk said, smiling wryly. His eyes looked up from what McCoy was doing and at Alice, catching her eyes as she mouthed thank you.

"I heard there was a barroom brawl last night," McCoy continued, gently running his fingers over Kirk's swollen mess of a hand. "Had to patch up four morons built like brick shithouses." He looked up only momentarily at him before continuing. "Did you have anything to do with that?"

"It was just a small misunderstanding." He gave McCoy an obnoxious grin, and it was no wonder why four people wanted to punch him in the face last night.

"Misunderstanding, my ass," McCoy sneered. "You're lucky you didn't break anything." He released Kirk's hand. "You need to report to medical as soon as we land."

"Sure thing, doc," Kirk said easily, though it was clear by the tone in his voice that he had no intention of doing so. He looked around McCoy at Alice. "So I was thinking—"

"Did it physically hurt you to do so?" Alice teased.

But Kirk ignored the comment with soft laughter. "You gave me your first name…"

"I gave Doctor Leonard McCoy my name," she corrected him.

McCoy straightened up, looking slightly offended. "You don't think I have 'pretty eyes and a decent smile,' sweetheart?"

Alice gave him a small, shy smile, "That's not what I meant to imply… but I wouldn't know about the smile."

McCoy huffed softly beside her, something that if anyone else had done would actually sound like a faint chuckle, but his nervousness and grumpy manner made it sound malcontented. He looked at the woman, Alice, beside him one last time before resting his head against the back of his seat, closing his eyes and clenching his fists in fear while he waited for the shuttle ride to be over.

"So, Alice, how do you two know each other?" McCoy heard the kid next to him continue to pester her.

Alice pitched forward to look at him. "You're still going on about that?"

"Call me curious."

"Really? I was going to go with stubborn, single-minded, and pig-headed," Uhura commented, her voice equally sarcastic and annoyed.

"That's not nice," Kirk whimpered playfully.

Alice sighed, realizing he wasn't going to stop anytime soon. "We were both studying at the Vulcan Academy together, happy?"

There was a soft thump as the shuttle landed, and Alice was quickly undoing her harness before any of the other cadets had even thought about getting out of their seats. McCoy's eyes snapped open and he began to scan the interior, a look of confusion on his face as if he couldn't believe they had actually landed and that he was still alive.

Alice turned her attention to McCoy as she stood up, flashing him the first honest smile he had seen from her. "It was nice meeting you, Dr. McCoy."

"Oh and Kirk," Alice said before she exited the shuttle. "It's Khan to you."

"What the hell kind of name is that?" Kirk exclaimed.

"It's my last name, genius."

~~.O.~~

Hooray! First chapter of my first attempt at a Star Trek story is done.

Please feel free to tell me what you think. I love reading any and all reviews.

Thank you for reading!