AN: This Part is chapters four, five, and six edited and re-posted. :D
Jamie strolled down to sickbay after breakfast, admiring the beauty that was the Enterprise. Jamie was falling head over heels for the ship fast and hard. And so if she wandered a bit and took the long way to sickbay, well she had nothing better planned for that day anyways.
When she finally arrived in sickbay Bones wasn't anywhere in sight, and that was the reason she had come down here in the first place, wasn't it? So where could he be hiding? Jamie scanned the room, her eyes stopping on a blonde whose back was turned to her. Jamie observed the long legs and gorgeous ass of the woman before whistling low. The woman turned; scowling at Jamie. Jamie smiled and held her hands up in a gesture of 'don't shoot'.
The nurse's glare darkened as she recognized the woman who had whistled at her. Doctor McCoy had warned her that another Kirk was aboard the ship and not to underestimate her.
"I think someone just whistled at you. He might have run off that way," Jamie pointed, "should I chase after him and defend your honor?"
"I know who you are. Leonard warned me about you," the nurse said haughtily.
Jamie just smiled sheepishly, "That doesn't seem very fair. You know who I am and I haven't a clue who you are. Leonard hasn't once mentioned you."
The nurse looked offended. Jamie felt a bit bad about saying that last part…maybe she should be nicer to the woman. Jamie tried searching her memory banks for thename of the woman, maybe she could take it back if she could just remember her name…Jim's thoughts must have shared the information with her at some point.
Unfortunately, Jamie forgot most of the things that Jim shared with her, and she knew he forgot what she shared with him. Something like the name of a nurse seemed too inconsequential for Jamie to store in her long term memory, hell she didn't even bother memorizing the names of all of Jim's flings, and she knew for a fact he didn't either.
So while Jamie kept struggling to remember what the nurse's name was the nurse decided to just go ahead and introduce herself. Jamie's chance for redemption in the eyes of this hot blonde was blown in that moment. She'd have to think of another way to win her over and make amends.
"I'm Christine Chapel," the nurse said.
"You have a beautiful name Christine, I'm Jamie Kirk," Jamie proffered her hand as an act of surrender.
Christine eyed it for a moment, as if it would bite her, before taking the hand in a warm handshake.
"See, that wasn't too bad," Jamie said, reassuring herself as much as she was trying to reassure Christine.
"Stop terrorizing my head nurse," Bones said gruffly, walking into the sickbay.
"How dare you try and warn about things that probably aren't even true!" Jamie immediately rounded on the doctor.
"So it's not true that you flirt with every attractive woman you meet?"
"Are you saying that you think your head nurse is attractive?" Jamie said, turning things on Bones.
"Dammit that's not what I meant!"
"So you don't think that she's attractive?" Jamie was having fun with him now.
"You two do know that I'm still right here," Christine said rolling her eyes. She then strode out of the room.
"Look what you did now kid," Bones said watching her leave.
"Sorry Bones. I still love you?" Jamie made her pouty face at Leonard.
"Sure kid. So what exactly are you doing in my sickbay? Do I need to hypo you?" Bones walked over to a shelf and grabbed his scanner, returning to Jamie and checking her with it.
"Stop waving your magic doctor stick at me! I came down here to see you, or is that not a good enough reason for me to willingly come into a sickbay?"
"You have a slight fever," Bones muttered, pulling out a hypo and stabbing it suddenly into Jamie's neck.
"Ouch! Fuck you Bones, I'm fine!" Jamie rubbed at her neck.
"And it looks like you've been gaining weight too. I wish Jim would gain a few pounds; I could play on his ribs like a xylophone. I'm going to start you on a diet while you're on the ship," Bones continued.
"Fuck you Bones, I can tell when I'm not wanted. Stick me with your hypo of evil and then call me fat," Jamie harrumphed and stalked out of sickbay, leaving a chuckling Bones walking towards his office. He was serious about the diet thing, and he would make sure that all the replicators on the ship would only give Jamie foods that were on his list. It wasn't that she was fat either; hell she had a glorious body. But he wanted to keep her fit and healthy, she was his baby girl after all; well after Jo that is.
Jamie stalked down the halls muttering about Bones and his evil ways. How he could be the best doctor in the damn fleet and yet have the absolute worst bedside manner would be a constant aggravation to Jamie. He could at least try not to stab the whole damn hypo completely through her neck every time she needed a vaccination right? It was true that Jim had it worse though, half of the time he was hypoed he ended up having an allergic reaction and was then hypoed into oblivion by Bones when he tried to figure out how to stabilize Jim's system. Hell, it was like there was a tattoo on Jim's neck that read: Insert hypo here. Bones was made of evil.
The beauty of the stars flying past was interesting for all of about ten minutes. And then Jim became antsy. He fidgeted, looking around at the bridge crew quietly going about their duties. So boring! Jim glanced at Chekov, wondering what the kid was working on. The Russian Whiz Kid had to be working on something interesting right? He looked so focused, typing in numbers on his padd, solving equations. Jim didn't have the heart to interrupt the kid to ask what he was doing. Jim assumed it was important and moved on, glancing at Sulu next. Sulu didn't look quite as involved in his work as Chekov did. In fact, Sulu seemed more intently focused on Chekov himself. Yes, Sulu was working, but every minute or so Sulu would glance over at Chekov, stare for a moment, and then go back to his work. This was an interesting development. Sulu and Chekov huh? Jim probably should have seen it coming. Chekov did kind of hero-worship, and after the stunt Sulu pulled during the Narada incident where Sulu did some badass piloting and showed off his skills Chekov would probably hero-worship Sulu. The kid hero-worshiped Jim but more in a way like a kid who looks up to his totally badass older brother. And who wouldn't find Chekov absolutely adorable? Everyone obviously wanted to adopt the kid. He was just that cute.
Jim chuckled and his gaze moved to Uhura. Oh the beautiful and extremely scary Uhura. She was doing something to the wiring of her comm station to improve performance and make those tricky frequencies come in more clearly. She was such a talented communications officer, and a hot one at that. In fact, now that Jim thought about it, his entire bridge crew was pretty badass and extremely good looking. Huh.
Speaking of good looking and talented officers Jim's gaze finally moved to Spock. Spock was bent over his scanner, taking readings of god knows what, and Jim wasn't about to interrupt him to ask either. Spock's incredibly tight and sexy ass was directly in Jim's line of sight and Jim was not about to stop staring to ask what exactly had his Officer bent over so seductively in the first place. God, Jim could just imagine his first officer bent over exactly like that on the desk in his quarters, face flushed green while Jim fucked and holy shit what was Jim even thinking right now? Did he seriously just think about Spock in a sexual way? Fuck he was losing his mind.
"CAPTAIN!" Jim was startled out of his thoughts by his yeoman holding a padd in front of his face and yelling for his attention. Shit he was still staring at Spock, who had now turned to see what the commotion was all about. Jim blushed furiously as his eyes met Spock's and then he spun in his chair quickly to face the yeoman.
"Yeoman Rand, what can I do for you," Jim said, plastering on his fake grin and acting as if nothing was wrong.
"I've been trying to get your attention for the past minute captain," she accused, "there are some forms you need to sign off on."
Jim noticed the stack of padds held in her arms. He sighed as she handed him the top one and a stylus. The next fifteen minutes was spent with him scanning over the documents and then quickly signing off on them. By the end of it, his name was looking like a bunch of squiggles; hell he wouldn't really even be able to recognize the jumbled mess as his name. Jim sighed over-dramatically as he finished with the last padd, signing his squiggles and rubbing his hand roughly to try and get it to stop cramping.
"It's stopped breathing; I'll have to perform CPR stat!" Jim feigned performing CPR on his hand and then looked up at the Yeoman with an expression of shock and sadness on his face, "We've lost it. Note the time and the date in your medical logs, we'll also have to notify the family."
The yeoman rolled her eyes and started to walk away, looking highly annoyed by her captain's childish antics.
"No wait! We have a pulse! It's alive!" Jim raised his hand high triumphantly and before he could continue with his childish act Uhura had to ruin the fun.
"Captain, would you cease your childish actions, I think you're scaring Chekov."
Jim looked over at the Russian Whiz Kid, who was staring at Jim with a mixed expression of amusement and one of: oh shit our captain has gone over the deep end.
Jim just smiled sheepishly and shrugged in Uhura's direction. He heard her huff a quick sigh before she got back to work, the rest of the crew following her lead. Jim hadn't realized that they'd all been staring at their captain with much the same expressions as Chekov had had. Well damn, maybe he should behave more seriously in front of his crew? Earn their respect and whatnot?
He decided he'd be serious when the time called for it but when the bridge was as boring as it was now he just wouldn't give a flying fuck. But he pulled out his padd and started writing up a report for Starfleet that needed to be done.
Eventually Jamie wound up in engineering.
She meandered around the equipment, admiring the Enterprise's "undercarriage" so to say. That is until Scotty found her anyway.
"What're ye doing in engineering lassie?" The Scotsman inquired, wiping his hands on a grease rag.
"I was just admiring how beautiful this ship is when I wound up here," Jamie answered honestly, still taking in the view that the room provided. To some it probably looked like a mess of machinery but to Jamie it was absolutely beautiful.
"Well now," Scotty spluttered, flattered from the compliment that Jamie had just given the Enterprise.
"Oh but you're busy, I'm sorry for bothering you," Jamie said, just now noticing how dirty the Chief Engineer was.
"I'm jus fine tuning 'er and adding some of my own improvements to make 'er run a wee bit smoother is all," Scotty said, clearly not bothered by the interruption. That is, he only looked slightly anxious to get back to his engines.
"Can I lend a hand?" Jamie asked.
"I have the perfect job for ya," Scotty said, leading Jamie to where he was working. "Can I trust you with my nuts?"
Jamie laughed as he dropped six nuts into her hand, careful not to lose them because even though Scotty had some more the right size for the machine they would be working on, (she needed to reattach a charging device to a compartment on a cooling mechanism and it needed some weird sized nuts), he liked to always be in supply of extra so she had best take care not to lose these. She shimmied into a tight spot where Scotty wouldn't be able to fit without dismantling a larger part of the entire system which would require hours of extra labor and quickly went to work, Scotty passing her tools as she needed them, the nuts held securely in her pocket.
"Captain, I suggest you take this time to consume an evening meal, I do not believe you have eaten since last evening."
Jim startled out of his day dreaming and looked up at Spock. He then checked the time quickly on his padd. Alpha shift had been over for close to twenty minutes now. Well shit, it was so boring that he zoned out and had sat there an extra twenty minutes.
"That sounds like an excellent idea Mr. Spock," Jim said, realizing that he had been sitting there like a moron for about a minute while all of that had sunk in.
"Are you feeling well captain?" Spock raised an eyebrow at Jim.
Jim stood and they both walked to the turbo lift.
"I'm fine," Jim said, as they both stepped inside.
The doors slid shut to, "Fine has variable definitions; fine is not acceptable."
As Jim's brain exploded from the eyebrow of sexy that Spock was directing at him in such a small enclosed space, where it would be all too easy to shove him against the wall and assault his mouth and do all sorts of delightful things to his first officer, Spock waited for a reply. Receiving none, his eyebrow shot impossibly higher. Jim gaped back at Spock, swayed ever so slightly, and then fainted like a maiden wearing a corset in the hot summer sun.
Spock was only startled for half of a second, (and he would deny being startled with his usual response of "Vulcans don't become startled" to whoever accused him of being such), before he caught his Captain and hoisted him in his arms, bridal style.
So Spock didn't worry as he didn't rush to sickbay and his voice was not in the least bit shaky when he called for McCoy, who led him to a bio bed that he set Jim on, (and if Spock was being overly gentle it was only because Vulcans were three times stronger than humans and he simply did not wish to accidentally harm his Captain further. And if Spock's touch lingered as he set Jim down, well he was only making sure that Jim would not fall off the bio bed of course).
"What happened?" McCoy asked, not wasting any time.
"Jim and I were headed to the mess hall when he collapsed in the turbo lift," Spock explained.
"He has merely fainted," the doctor said, finished running his medical scanners over Jim. "Has he eaten recently?"
"As far as I am aware the last meal that Jim consumed was dinner last night with you and Jamie," Spock answered.
"Dammit kid." Bones muttered to Jim. "Nurse Chapel, bring me something for this kid to throw up in," Bones ordered his Nurse who appeared behind him before going off to complete her task.
"He seems to be regaining consciousness doctor," Spock noticed.
"No shit Sherlock," Bones took the bucket that Nurse Chapel had come back with and put it next to Jim.
Jim blinked his eyes, looking around dazedly before turning on his side and puking into the bucket that Bones held there for him.
Spock helped by holding Jim's shoulders and head up so that he wouldn't puke all over himself.
When Jim had finished, Leonard gave the bucket back to Nurse Chapel, who took it without a word.
"Shit Bones, what happened?" Jim slurred.
"You are a fucking moron, that's what happened," Bones began his tirade.
Jim lay on the bio bed as Bones ranted on and on about eating right and not skipping meals and Jim being a dumbass in general. Jim didn't try to escape during the rant even once, too embarrassed from fainting in front of Spock, who then had to "carry his dumb ass all the way down to sickbay, which probably wasn't too difficult since he's too light from not eating", (according to Bones), and then throwing up all over the place, (even though what little Jim still had left in him made it into the bucket).
"I'm really sorry Bones, I forgot to eat. Spock and I were on our way to get dinner, I wasn't trying to skip out on meals," Jim pleaded, using his best pout.
"Fine. But you will eat here tonight and I will watch you put every forkful into your mouth and you will swallow every bite, is that understood?" Bones threatened.
"Yes sir!" Jim gave a mock salute.
"Now that the Captain seems to be feeling better I will take my leave," Spock announced.
"Alright; I'll just see you later or whatever," Jim muttered as Spock exited the sickbay, leaving him to a cranky doctor.
Jamie was walking back to her and Jim's quarters to take a quick sonic when she ran into Spock right in front of Jim's quarters. Literally.
Jamie sat on the floor stunned while Spock quickly disentangled their bodies and stood.
"I am so sorry Spock. I wasn't really paying much attention to where I was walking."
"Apologies are illogical. However, I will advise you to be more aware of your surroundings," Spock said, taking in the dirty woman sitting on the floor. She was covered in grease. It was on her clothes, on her skin, on her face, and even in her hair. "May I inquire as to why you appear to be covered in grease?"
Jamie stood, white teeth flashing in a smile as she said, "I was in engineering with Scotty."
"Indeed?" Spock raised an eyebrow at her statement.
"Indeed," Jamie's smile widened. Spock started past her, on his way to his own quarters. "Oh, and just so you know: that eyebrow raise that you do is damn sexy. Be careful, a girl like me is liable to swoon at such a sight," Jamie laughed as she teased the Vulcan, disappearing into Jim's quarters before Spock could even respond properly.
Said Vulcan walked into his quarters, blushing slightly at the teasing words. His thoughts went directly to earlier in a certain turbo lift.
"Jim, Jim, Jim," Jamie said as she strode into sickbay. "What are the odds of me finding you here?"
"I'm sure the green blooded hobgoblin could give you an exact number," McCoy grumped as he watched Jim eating his supper.
"You're having supper without me? I'm wounded," Jamie clutched at her heart dramatically.
"Does this look enjoyable to you?" Jim gestured at himself. He was sitting, propped up in a bio bed with a plate of food on his lap. Bones was sitting next to him with an assortment of hypos in preparation should Jim decide not to eat every last bite on his plate or to try and escape the sickbay.
"You know how much of a masochist I am. I would get off on this kind of thing," Jamie winked, teasing Bones now.
"That can be arranged," an evil glint appeared in McCoy's eyes at the thought.
And that is how Jamie ended up in a bio bed next to Jim, eating a healthy salad and drinking a tall glass of water. And no matter how many times Jamie protested with, "I am not a rabbit!" Bones would not let her leave until she finished it all.
Bones could just be evil like that.
James Tiberius Kirk walked onto the bridge of the Enterprise, pausing before sitting in the Captain's chair; glancing at the skilled officers doing their jobs. He grinned in a cocky sort of way before he sat in the large chair, crossing his legs and picking up the coffee cup that a Yeoman had recently set down for him. He would not be able to function properly without his coffee in the morning. The day promised to be uneventful; the Enterprise was stuck doing milk runs until who knew when. Of course, Jamie had mentioned a new mission assignment but she said that the Admiralty would have contacted them yesterday… Jim was not looking forward to another boring day on the bridge.
Meanwhile, Jamie had found the Enterprise's fitness and training room. It was a surprisingly spacious room, larger than any of the rec rooms, and it offered an assortment of training equipment and sparring weapons. Jamie walked directly over to the treadmills, choosing one and stepping on it. She put down the padd she had brought with her, plugging in her earphones and turning on some music before she set the treadmill to an easy starting pace. As she lost herself to the feel of the burn of her muscles, and the squeezing of her lungs, and the music pulsing in her ears, she continued to increase the pace as much as possible. She loved exercise. Jim did too.
An hour later Jamie stepped off the treadmill; her blonde hair damp with sweat. She was definitely going to take a sonic right away. That is, until she spotted Gary Mitchell working out in a corner of the training room.
"Hey Gare-bear what's up?" Jamie asked, walking over to the man.
"Well if it isn't little Jamie Kirk. What are you doing here? I thought you were still finishing up at the Academy?" Gary smiled when he saw his old friend.
"Just visiting. And yes, I'm still 'finishing up at the Academy'. Big deal. I didn't know you were assigned to the Enterprise, I thought they offered you a better spot on the new Farragut?"
"They did, but I couldn't turn down the Enterprise. Especially if it meant serving under Jim," Gary winked.
"I see. Hey, we'll have to get dinner or something together; catch up and stuff. I can't stick around right now, there's a sonic with my name on it," Jamie said.
"Sound's great. I'll see you later then!" As Gary went back to his work-out, Jamie walked out of the training room. She walked all the way back to her and Jim's quarters to take a sonic, she hadn't brought clean clothes to wear after showering in the locker rooms off the training room and she didn't want to put on her sweaty black shorts and red tank top again after getting cleaned up.
Jamie stripped in the shared bathroom between Jim and Spock's quarters, leaving her dirty clothes lying haphazardly on the tiled floor.
"Captain, incoming message from Starfleet," Uhura announced, swiveling in her chair to face Jim.
"I'll take it in my ready room Lieutenant, thank you," Kirk said, rising from his chair. "Spock, you're with me. Sulu, you have the conn."
Spock rose from his station and he and Sulu both acknowledged Kirk's orders with a crisp "aye sir".
Once Kirk had sat in front of the monitor and Spock was standing behind him in a formation of solidarity and support, Kirk opened the comm link to see Admiral Barnett himself on the screen.
"Captain Kirk, Commander Spock," The admiral acknowledged the officers with a formal, yet impatient air.
"Admiral Barnett," Kirk responded.
"Starfleet has orders for its flagship. You are to rendezvous with an ambassador here on earth, and he will accompany you and the Vulcan High Council along with twenty other members of the Vulcan race to the planet that is the prospective New Vulcan to determine if it is an acceptable planet on which to establish the remaining Vulcan population. You will remain there for approximately two months, assisting in any way that you can. That will include taking and recording data about the planet, which you will be sending back to Starfleet in detailed weekly reports, carting supplies on your journey to the planet, assisting with establishing temporary living and working facilities, and mainly showing Starfleet's support to the Vulcan race in the aftermath of the Nero incident. Any questions?"
"Several," Kirk began, somewhat surprising Barnett who had not expected to receive questions, even though he did ask if Kirk had any. Kirk continued to surprise him, as he surely did everyone. "One: Who is this ambassador that we are meeting and why is he in charge. Two: I kind of thought that New Vulcan had been approved as the new home planet of the Vulcan race, hence renaming it "New Vulcan". Three: Why is Jamie Kirk on this ship? She said she was here to assist with the mission in some way. Four: I was under the impression we would be receiving this mission yesterday. And finally, why is the Federation's newest and finest Flagship taking on a mission that is, in all honesty, better left to cargo ships and transport vessels?"
Barnett flared at the last question. "First of all Captain Kirk, you would do well to remember that it is your job to receive orders and carry them out, not defy your superiors by questioning the orders in such a way. To answer your questions, the ambassador is Ambassador Selek, and he is the one who suggested that the Vulcans consider the planet you are going to as their new home world. He will no doubt be a great asset to this mission. And New Vulcan is the best available option for a Vulcan home world; however, a few loose ends have to be tied up before it becomes official. And since you were not supposed to have even known that you would be receiving this mission until you received it I'm going to ignore the fact that you are questioning the Admiralty on the timing of the delivery of this mission. As for Jamie, she will be graduating from the Academy at the end of this mission and the Admiralty has decided to use this mission as a test for her to determine if she should be promoted directly to the rank of Captain as soon as she graduates. She will be acting captain on your vessel until the mission is complete; you shall provide assistance only when absolutely necessary. I am requesting that during this time, Commander Spock observe her and send a detailed report by the end of the mission regarding her skill or lack thereof that will allow us to determine her ability to Captain a ship such as the Enterprise. That is all." Barnett cut the transmission without further ado, leaving a gaping Kirk staring at the blank screen.
"Well fuck me," Kirk muttered. Spock raised an eyebrow at his Captain, having heard the comment, but he decided it would be better not to reply to it.
"Well I need to go and get my padd; I left it in my quarters. I have reports to finish before this new mission starts. And I suppose I should have Sulu lay in a course for Earth and have Chekov make an announcement to the crew about the upcoming mission."
"Captain, allow me to retrieve your padd. I would like to take the opportunity to send a message to my father to confirm something as well," Spock requested.
"Sure, go ahead," Kirk said. "I'll just go and brief the bridge crew then." And with that, he left.
Spock headed to his quarters to confirm a suspicion he had.
Jamie had always preferred showers to sonics, but showers were a waste of water and so she had to do without. Jamie was about to step out of the sonic when she heard a noise. She briefly thought about how she had forgotten to lock the doors to the bathroom before stepping into the sonic. She shook her head; Jim and Spock were both on Alpha shift right now and McCoy was on duty in sickbay. No one else could even get into Jim or Spock's quarters, (except maybe Scotty but he was definitely down in engineering), so her worries that someone might walk into the bathroom were baseless. She felt secure in her reasoning and stepped out of the sonic, naked as the day she was born. Just at that moment Spock walked through the door.
You've got to be fucking kidding me. Jamie thought, scrambling for a towel to cover herself with. It was already too late however. The damage had been done. Spock had seen her in all her naked glory.
"How many times are you going to catch me at awkward moments?" Jamie asked in complete exasperation.
"Do you require someone to show you how to lock the bathroom door," Spock asked, ignoring her earlier comment.
Damn, he looks pissed off. "I know how to lock the damn door, you are supposed to be on Alpha shift," Jamie accused.
"I came to retrieve Jim's padd. Since I first had to handle some matters in my own quarters, it seemed logical to use the bathroom in order to enter Jim's quarters," Spock retorted.
Jamie's cheeks flushed. "Okay, I'll be sure to lock the door from now on, are you happy?"
"I cannot be happy for Vulcans do not feel happiness and I am a Vulcan," Spock said in his monotone voice.
"Yeah yeah, I know. The whole: I'm a Vulcan so I don't have a heart. Maybe the wonderful Wizard of Oz can give you one. You'll have to go to the Emerald City to see him though," Jamie trailed off, daydreaming about Spock skipping down a yellow brick road with Dorothy, the Scarecrow, and the Cowardly Lion.
"Of course Vulcan's have hearts, it is located," Spock began.
"I didn't mean it literally," Jamie interjected. "Let me just go get the stupid padd," she muttered, entering Jim's quarters and coming out again moments later with a padd in her hand, her other hand still gripped the towel wrapped around her body.
Spock dipped his head in acknowledgement and left with the padd, choosing not to remark on Jamie's comment on padds being stupid. Illogical.
"Thank you Spock," Jim said, taking his padd from Spock when he returned to the bridge. Jim noticed that Spock looked kind of pissed off, in a Vulcan way of course. Jim was getting better at reading Spock's emotions, (which Spock would never admit to having).
"Is something wrong?" Jim asked, concerned.
"Nothing Captain."
"Does it have to do with the message that you sent to your father?" Jim persisted.
Spock looked even angrier at being asked that question in front of the crew, even though it looked as if none of them had been listening, (you never knew though, the people onboard the Enterprise could be a gossipy bunch).
Spock's look told Jim that it did have to do with the correspondence between Spock and his father, and Jim knew better than to question it further while on duty.
Jim turned to the view screen to watch the stars fly past, giving Spock the silent order that he was to return to his station.
In only eighteen hours they would be docking at Earth.
Jim grinned at the thought; it was better than doing milk runs after all.
The crew performed the necessary flight checks and docking routines as the Enterprise gracefully docked at a space port orbiting Earth. Jim grinned back at Jamie who was standing behind the Captain's chair on the bridge, a nervous bundle of energy. Soon she will be sitting in that very chair.
Jim hits a button on the arm of the chair that allows him to speak with Scotty in engineering. "Scotty here Captain," the Scotsman acknowledges the comm.
"Kirk here. Prepare the transporter room for the passengers to beam up. I'm on my way down; Kirk out." Kirk stands. "Spock, Uhura, you're with me. Jamie, you have the conn." The bridge crew are not surprised that Jamie is being given, (for the moment temporary), control of the bridge. They have been briefed on the essentials of what this mission will entail and they took the news with far better grace then Jim had. Jamie wouldn't be promoted to acting Captain until they left dock however.
Spock and Uhura rose and followed Jim into the turbo lift as Jamie took her place in the Captain's chair. This I could get used to. Jamie thought, crossing her legs and attentively supervising all of the duties of the bridge crew.
The Vulcans beamed up in groups of four, and Jim assigned various ensigns to show them to their quarters. All of the stuffy Vulcan civility was getting to Jim, who was a better soldier than a diplomat. But, he managed. He gave up on performing the Ta'al however; his hand just couldn't do that! So far the Ambassador and Spock's father, (who was also an Ambassador as Jim learned), had yet to beam up. Finally, the last group was ready to beam up. Surely Spock's father would be among this group, he was a member of the Vulcan High Council after all, Jim thought. Of course, he had seen Sarek when he was aboard the Enterprise after the destruction of Vulcan, (Jim fought down the urge to touch his throat at the memory of "the bridge incident"), but he was anxious to actually meet him.
Four figures appeared on the transporter pad as their molecules rearranged. Jim recognized Spock's father, standing beside him was a beautiful young Vulcan woman, a Vulcan man, and the familiar wrinkled face of Spock prime. Jim smiled warmly at the older man; it was an unexpected treat to have the warm and kind man aboard his ship, a ship that he probably knew all too well Jim mused.
"Ambassador Sarek," Jim acknowledged politely. He turned to the young man next, "and you must be the Ambassador that Starfleet appointed to assist in leading this mission."
To his surprise, Spock prime spoke. "Captain, I believe you are mistaken. I am the Ambassador that Starfleet has informed you of."
Oh. Well. Jim blushed in embarrassment. "I apologize," the Captain recovered.
"This is Stonn, a distinguished member of the Vulcan community," Spock prime continued, introducing the other members of the beam-up party. "And T'Pring," he gestured to the woman who looked like Vulcan royalty.
Jim inclined his head politely.
As Jim continued with the niceties of formal conversation Uhura noticed the way that Spock was standing, rigid and tense. His jaw was clenched slightly and his posture was so strict that he could have passed as a statue. And she also noticed that it had something to do with the party that had beamed aboard.
Did it have something to do with his father? Jim had mentioned something about Spock being upset with news that Spock had received from his father when they were on the bridge. Uhura couldn't miss what Jim had said. Her sensitive ears had definitely heard that little tidbit of info, not that she would say anything about it to anyone else of course.
Or perhaps it had something to do with the other members of the final beam-up party. Uhura moved her gaze to each one, trying to search for something that would tell her why Spock was so bothered. She looked at the older man, who looked remarkably like Spock. A relative perhaps? Her gaze moved to the young man. His posture was stiff, his face a mask of stoicism, all in all a perfect model of a Vulcan. And then there was the young woman. She was breathtaking, her dark hair piled high on her head, her eyebrows slanted into perfect lines on her flawless face.
What if this woman had something to do with it? What if Spock had had feelings for her? Jealousy flashed hot and sharp through Uhura. As quickly as she had had that thought she dismissed it. Spock had told her that she was the first girlfriend he had ever had. Uhura smiled at the thought.
"Spock, why don't you show your father to his room?" Jim's voice interrupted Uhura's thoughts.
Spock tensed further. "Yes Captain." He indicated for Sarek to follow him, stiffly leading the way out of the transporter room. Kirk motioned for an ensign to guide the man and the woman to their quarters as well, and then Kirk turned at last to Spock prime, grinning like a buffoon. "Ambassador…"
"Selek," Spock prime informed Kirk.
"Ambassador Selek. This is the Enterprise's communication's officer, Lieutenant Uhura."
"It is a pleasure to meet you," Selek said. His lips quirked upward in a smile, as if he was laughing at his own joke.
"The pleasure is mine Ambassador," Uhura said politely, hiding her surprise that a Vulcan would smile so…openly.
"Shall I give you a tour of the Enterprise Ambassador?" Jim asked.
"It would be an honor. I am most interested in your ship Jim."
Uhura's mouth dropped open. This Ambassador was on a first-name basis with the Captain? Didn't they just meet?
"Let's start with the bridge, shall we?" Jim said, leading the way. Selek walked with Jim down the corridors, his stride perfectly matching Jim's. Uhura followed behind, confused by all the odd behaviors she had witnessed today.