The thing about Jim Kirk is, he's fucking crazy. It's a proven, established fact. And it's mostly okay, because half the time the only thing between the crew of the Enterprise and a very painful death is the captain's insanity, and that sounds bad, but it isn't. And thank god they have Admiral Pike, because most people don't get that if Jim Kirk was sane? They'd all be dead about a hundred times over. Pike is like the mitigating influence between them, the highest concentration of brilliant lunatics in the universe, and the rest of—well, everyone else.
Which is great, because they get to go on being crazy (and geniuses, because the two are about as far from mutually exclusive as it's possible to get when it comes to them), and the rest of the universe gets to go on having Jim Kirk as a golden boy and not knowing anything.
But the other thing, which is really actually hilarious, is that everyone thinks Spock is a mitigating influence.
They see Sulu, who volunteered for a high-risk mission with training in fencing, who is so damned intense when he's flying that it's scary. Really. He's made an ensign cry. More than once.
And they see Chekov, who everyone's terrified of. And it's not because the kid's scary; that's a joke. He's pretty much a human teddy bear, really. But the fact that he's seventeen and in charge of things? That's fucking terrifying.
And there's Bones, who's actually a brilliant doctor, but people seem to forget that when he's screaming at them and jabbing needles in their necks.
There's Uhura, who you do not want to piss off. Because she is a very, very scary woman.
And they see Scotty. Well, they don't actually see Scotty. He's probably tucked happily in the bowels of the Enterprise, making some semi-illegal modifications. But anyway, the point is, there's Scotty.
And then, there's Kirk and Spock.
Kirk, being the illogical, daring, crazy captain who's allowed to be all that because for some reason it works. The man's existence seems to be in violation of several laws of physics.
Which leaves Spock to be the logical, objective scientist. The one who keeps them all from chaos.
Jim knows it's all bullshit. Everyone else probably does too, but they don't think about it, in all likelihood. But Jim knows.
They think Spock can keep Jim in line, keep him strictly to regs, stop him from really going crazy. And Spock might actually be able to do that, if he ever really tried. But Spock understands Jim. Much too well. Which translates into… most of the crazy shit they get into.
And it would almost have been better if they'd just continued to hate each other. On their own, each one is scary, sure, but not nearly as scary as when they're together. The day they become friends, the admiralty starts to realize—too late, but Pike already knew that—that they made a huge mistake. Because the day they become friends, they realize that they don't actually need anyone else.
And now? Now it's even worse. Pike doesn't know the specifics of Vulcan bonding, but holy Christ. Whoever decided that was a good idea was… Well, it was Jim and Spock, so. That explains everything right there.
It's one of those times when Pike wants to comm. Spock just to scream, "What the hell? You were never this fucking insane when you were my science officer."
And maybe he was. But that's not the point. The point is that Spock's supposed to be the logical one, the one who thinks things through. That's why Jim's allowed to be… well, Jim. Because supposedly Spock's there to keep him from taking any more steps off the deep end than he already has.
But Pike isn't being completely fair, he knows. He wouldn't have had any idea Spock was crazy if he'd never gone and pulled a George Kirk.
See, Pike knows Winona's lost it. Before George, before Starfleet… And maybe there's something that most people have that Winona was just born without. Maybe it's genetic.
And then there's George.
George, who had ten seconds to make a decision and laid in a collision course in three. Three seconds. Pike wrote his dissertation on those three seconds. Because those extra seven seconds are the dead weight Pike's hoping he can convince Command they need to lose. And he's hoping Jim will help him do that.
But he's not so sure he can when he finds out that Spock pulled a George Kirk. And this is before they were friends, before they were… whatever. Spock trusted him enough to do that.
It's more than a little fucked up.
Starfleet needs to lose those seven seconds. Pike's sure of that. It's going to make them better at what they do.
He just doesn't know if he's willing to send thousands of George Kirks into the black.
