"What did you do to my... sorry, your chief engineer?" Jim asked warily over vid-comm. Phil still had her in the hospital, but she looked a lot better. With any luck, she'll get to sleep in their bed tomorrow.

"I didn't do anything, I just reminded him of our orders," Chris said. "And not just him. Half the senior staff won't talk to me and the other half is arguing with me. Am I missing something or has everyone on this ship lost their minds?"

Other then 'yes, sir', 'no, sir' and 'aye, sir', Sulu and Chekov haven't said a word to him since they ship left spacedock. Uhura's dialog is more extensive, but only because of her duties. Lieutenant Masters, Scott's right-hand woman in engineering, has sent him report after report to complain about how the torpedoes were interfering with systems or taking up space they didn't have. McCoy just complained in general. And Spock was being particularly passive aggressive.

"'Lost their minds' as in they're not doing their jobs and being insubordinate or they're just not being nice to you?" she asked.

"I don't need them to be nice to me, Jim. I need them to do their jobs," he told her.

"So, why won't you let them? Bones and Spock, aside from their normal duties, have the daunting task of making sure my head's not up my ass. Which, sometimes, means arguing with me, now you. Scotty, whether he knows it or not, is the ship's moral compass. If he thinks something is wrong, it's wrong. Full stop," she said knowingly.

"He told you what's going on?"

"Only that you tried to force him to take on a payload of experimental weapons that he can't scan so he and Keenser resigned in protest."

"Special torpedoes from Section Thirty-One."

"Since when do we have access to something like that?"

"Since Marcus gave them to me."

"Admiral Marcus had super-secret Section Thirty-One ordnance just laying around and you don't find that odd? I'm high as a kite right now and I think it's odd. I mean, yesterday, this was about a rogue Starfleet officer blowing up an archive. Now, it's about firing super torpedoes at the Klingons. You're smarter than me, babe, you know something's up."

"I'm more experienced then you, not smarter. And I have my orders, Jim," he said. Even as the words came out of his mouth, it felt hollow. Following orders and doing the right thing used to be synonymous, he wasn't sure when that changed.

"Not everything is about orders. We wouldn't even be having this conversation if that was the case. If it was about orders, it would be simple and you would just go do what you're told and not think twice about it." She looked at him for a moment. "But it's not simple, is it?"

"There are eleven hundred people on this ship."

"One thousand, one hundred and fourteen, actually," Jim corrected.

"If I follow my orders, I turn these kids into murderers and possibly start a war. If I don't follow my orders… who knows what will happen. We could try to catch Harrison or ask the Klingons to give us Harrison. But either way, the brass won't like it," Chris said with a sigh.

For the last year, his job at HQ was to oversee the operations of a dozen ships and, unless it was important, he didn't have to make these decisions. Before that, he'd been at the academy for almost five years. Chris knew what he wanted to do and he knew what he should do, but that wasn't necessarily the same as what he was ordered to do. If this is what Jim felt like all the time, it's a miracle that she hadn't gone off the rails yet.

"Welcome to my world of constantly trying to figure out just where the line is and if I should cross it," she said. "You know, this is the issue I've been having with the Admiralty since I showed up, right?"

"I know. I'm just not sure what I should do here, which is uncommon for me. Used to be that orders and the right thing were one in the same."

"Hate to break it to you but that's not how Starfleet works anymore." He could tell from the look on her face how resigned she was to that fact. "What's left of the Admiralty is more concerned with appearances then substance. What happened after Nibiru is a perfect example. You want my two credits?"

"Please."

"It doesn't matter what your orders are. You know that firing those torpedoes, special or not, will undoubtedly start a war with the Klingons. You also know that Marcus can't just decide to kill someone. Harrison has the same right to a trial as we do. It's not a question of following your orders, it's just a question of figuring out what you're actually going to do."

"What would you do?" Chris asked, genuinely curious.

"Doesn't matter. I'm not worthy enough for the chair anymore, remember?" Jim said with a yawn.

"That's enough, you two," Phil said from somewhere off screen before popping up over Jim's shoulder. "She needs to rest."

"He's almost as bad as Bones," she grumbled under her breath.

"Preaching to the choir, sweetheart." Chris and Phil have been friends for almost eighteen years, he was well aware how much of a tyrant the good doctor could be.

"Watch it," Phil told them.

"I better go before he hypos me again," Jim said.

"We all know how much you hate that." Chris smiled.

"It's the worst," she said with a chuckle. "You know that whatever you decide, I got your back. If you wanna take the Enterprise and turn pirate, I'm totally down for that too. Just, you know, swing by and pick us up."

Chris laughed. "What am I gonna do with you, Miss Kirk?"

"Oh, I have quite a few ideas, if you're interested, Christopher," Jim said, a smirk on her face.

"I do not need to hear any of this," Phil said with a groan.

"He's adorable." She chuckled.

Chris nodded. "That he is. Get some rest, sweetheart. I love you."

"I love you more," Jim said.

"Not possible," he told her.

"Anything's possible where I'm concerned. I thought you knew that."


You would think he just grew another head with the way they were all looking at him. Considering everything that's happened in the last few days, he really couldn't blame them for being surprised or even a bit pissed off.

"So, let me see if I got this," McCoy said. "You wanna go against orders after the riot act you gave Jim."

"It's not about what I want. It's about what we need to do. And Jim is behind me, whatever I decide," Chris said.

"Of course, she is. Nothing's gonna happen to you, Admiral," the doctor grumbled. "You are like Teflon and she's the one who ends up with all the damn dings." McCoy was seething, and rightfully so. If Jim were here, she'd get into a lot of trouble for doing what Chris was about to do.

"I would be happy to lead the landing party," Spock volunteered.

"You would be happy?" McCoy asked.

"It's a turn of phrase and you know it," Uhura said before Spock could reply. "The area is uninhabited; however, my knowledge of Klingon language and culture would make me a logical addition to the team, just in case."

"Okay," Chris said. "Any recommendations on who else I should send down there?" He could probably pick anyone but, thanks to Jim, he knew that there were certain people who worked together too well to break them up.

"You need Jim's team," McCoy said begrudgingly. "Cupcake... sorry, Hendorff and Edwards. Since Jim's not here, Sulu."

"Alright," Chris said. "We're forty minutes out. Spock and Uhura, notify the others and have them change into civilian attire. Last thing we need is to show up on Qo'noS in uniform. That trade ship from the incident on Phaedus is still in the shuttle bay, correct?"

"We didn't have a chance to off-load it when we got to Earth," Masters said.

Chris nodded. "I assume that Sulu can fly it."

"Sulu can fly anything," McCoy said.

"Good to know," Chris said. "Doc, I need you to stand by. Everyone else, you're dismissed." He watched as the Enterprise's senior officers quickly made their way out of the conference room before looking at the man on his left. "Let's have it."

"Pardon?"

"You're so close to insubordination that if I were anyone else, you'd already be on report. You're pissed off, I get it. Trust me when I tell you that you are not the only one."

"Trust you? Like Jim trusted you?" McCoy asked. "They've had us jumping through hoops all year. Commissioners and ambassadors and commodores literally breathing down Jim's neck. Impossible assignments that they only gave us to trip us up. And now, she gets stripped of a stripe and you get her ship."

"I didn't know until after the fact."

"That doesn't make it better. She still got demoted and…"

"And the only reason she didn't get kicked out is because of me."

Chris had to call in every favor the Admiralty has ever owed him so that the brass wouldn't take her commission. Then, he had to beg Marcus not to bump her down to lieutenant.

"There is nobody, and I do mean nobody, who wants her back in that chair more than I do." Chris took a breath. "All the years I spent building this ship, trying to make it perfect. I didn't realize until now that I built it for her. The only reason I agreed to take command of the Enterprise is so they didn't give it to anyone else."

"So, you're just keeping her seat warm?" McCoy asked, skeptically.

"Until I can figure out how to get her back in it," Chris said. "We're on the same side, Leonard."

"You'll excuse me if I reserve judgement on that one," Jim's best friend said.

"Fair enough. Just put a lid on the insubordination. I don't have a problem with you arguing with me but be respectful about it."

"Understood, sir."