Chapter Three
One Year Later…
"I sooo do not want to be here right now." Mika hit her head on the metal desk. The sound echoed throughout the relatively empty hall.
"You think you have it bad now? Wait until next year. It only gets harder and harder."
The girls were sitting in their command class. In their first year, there had been at least 300 students in the room. After the first term ended, the number dropped to around 150. After the end of first year, there were only 25 students left.
"Hey," Winona sits up straight, pulling her padd out. "For the simulations we were assigned, what did you think about the second one?"
"Wait, which one?" Mika pulls her padd out as well. "The one where the Klingons were attacking the star base, or the one where we drop out of warp into an ambush?"
Winona gives Mika a sheepish look. "Well actually, I was wondering if you could help me on both. It's almost as if there are no solutions!"
"That's because there aren't any solutions." George Kirk walks into the hall, closely followed by Pike.
"That's impossible," Mika says, pulling up her simulations graphics on the padd. Walking to the front of the room, she projected it on the large demonstrations board.
"We ran through the simulations multiple times, with each and every tactical maneuver listed in the books and others as well. None of them worked." This comes from Pike. He's followed Mika up to the front of the room, along with Winona and George.
"I can understand the books; Winona and I did the same, but I believe there was an option that obviously, you must have left out."
"Look, if you don't trust what I'm saying, at least listen to George. He was with me the entire time, and most of the tactical maneuvers came from him."
Mika fixes a glare in Pike's direction, then turns to face George. "How many different tactics did you try? Were you always on the attack, or did you try defensive maneuvers? What about just serving as the distraction in an attempt for any shuttles to escape?"
"All of that and more," George says, pinching the bridge of his noise. "Every time we got close to defeating the Klingons, either they managed to take us out, or we ended up getting in their line of fire during a defense tactic."
"But I managed to find a solution…."
"Then you read the instructions wrong, Miss Dawes."
Mika turned in shock, as did her three other companions. Walking into the class room was their professor, the Lieutenant Commander Robert April. His dark hair was windswept, almost as if he had run to the class.
"Sir, I interpreted the instructions as the following: complete these simulations without the loss of any life on the side of the Federation. I managed to do that, while also destroying the entire Klingon Armada."
Lt. April stopped short. Walking up to the front of the room, he pointed to the demo board. "Is that your simulation?" Mika nods, her lips pursed, her body tense. "Well, go ahead and start it."
And she does just that. The simulation starts slowly. There's a federation vessel, name is obscure, but it appears to be a normal NCC class cruiser. While approaching a star base from which several distress signals were issued, it drops out of warp, only to be ambushed by a waiting Klingon Armada. Several shuttles began to launch into space from the star base, taking shelter and refuge behind the shields of the starship. After many minutes of back and forth firing and evasive maneuvers on the Klingon side, a breach in the shield cause by one of the exiting transport shuttles headed for the colony lets a torpedo in. There's immediate damage to the lower hull. Shield strength begins to rapidly decline. An order is issued from the Captain, Mika: any remaining survivors will be beamed directly onto the final few escape shuttles, which are to immediately depart the ship heading for cleared Federation space. A general evacuation order is issued as well. Once the escape shuttles are far enough away, the starships self destruct feature is enabled. Dilithium crystals begin to overheat, causing a meltdown in the engineering deck. The core engine begins to grow hotter, increasing in density, until finally, the ship explodes, taking out the entire Klingon Armada. This all happened within five seconds of the last shuttle entering safe space. The resulting shockwaves from the explosion rocks those closest to the site of destruction. The end of the simulation shows the death count. On the Klingon side, the entire armada was wiped out. Not a single soul remains. On the Federation side, there is but one casualty: the Captain.
The entire hall is filled with students pulling out pads and examining their own simulations. Is that possible? Can we do that? What are the statistical chances of survival? Does the Captain die every time that simulation is programmed?
At the front of the room, Lt. April looks toward Mika. "Not exactly all lives. See me after class."
Mika stopped outside the Lieutenant Commander's door. He obviously wasn't here yet, being that class had just ended. He was probably still in the room setting things up for the next day. As she sat there, a group of girls, all probably a year or two ahead of her, began walking towards the Lieutenants door. A quizzical look crossed her face. What could they want? I'm pretty sure the Commander wouldn't have asked other people to meet him at the same time…
But then she sees one of the girls pull out a small, compact mirror. A tube of lip stick is in the other, applying the material thickly. And then it dawns on her. A grim smirk crosses her face. I'm now looking at the poor Commander's fan base.
A shout of indignation from within the group reveals Winona, with George in tow. Mika scans the crowd for Pike, but he's nowhere to be seen. A small knowing look crosses Winona's face, but she says nothing as she walks up to Mika. George slowly eases his hand out of Winona's grasp, but is quick to slowly slide it around her waist as she shifts uncomfortably.
Mika stands up, dusting her hands on the uniform skirt. "I don't think I'm in trouble or anything," she offers.
Winona nods her head slightly. "Oh we know that, sweetie. He probably just wants to pick your brilliant mind for future Federation battle tactics!"
Mika smiles softly at Winona. "Yeah, that sounds right…"
The sound of squealing fan girls alerts Mika to the dark figure walking towards them. As he gets closer, Mika can see now why many girls fawn over Lt. April. Dark wavy hair that always manages to look windswept, deep chocolate eyes, and a quirked mouth that looked oh so…
"Cadet Dawes. Sorry for making you wait. Would you like to step inside?" As Mika turns around, she sees Winona give her a thumbs up. Nodding slightly, she heads into the dark room.
"Sorry about the mess." Once the lights are turned on, the room looks less scary. But it's still crowded. She delicately steps over a set of tribal masks from Africa, next to a precariously placed crystal vase from Andoria. Finally making it to the desk, she lets out low whistle.
"Impressive."
"You pick up a lot of stuff on explorer missions." He lets out a sigh now. "That's my goal, but for now, I'm stuck teaching you ruffians." A playful smirk crosses his face. Noticing she was still standing, he gestures to the chair. "Sit down, please."
The room is silent for a few minutes, as Commander April answers a message on his padd. Finally putting it aside, he glances up for a moment, before fiddling with another artifact from some other planet.
"Not to sound disrespectful sir, but may I ask as to why you wanted to see me?"
"You know," he says, paying no heed to her question, "that used to be my number one fear. Dying. It still is. I have a blood disease, you know." Mika's thoughts flash back to the nerdy boy who had informed her and Winona on the shuttle. Those were the days...
"I can't go anywhere without wearing at least three layers of clothing, for fear that too cold temperatures will give me pneumonia. Of course, when I first applied for Starfleet, their first question was, Is he going to be able to survive long enough to even learn anything? That was 10 years ago-"
"How old are you?" The questions out before Mika can even process what she just said. Mortified, her cheeks begin to heat up.
"27," he says, his eyes crinkling in a smile. "I'm probably the youngest professor here, but that's because I have to wait for my ship. Which brings us back to the topic at hand. It seemed like every day, people were just waiting for me to keel over. And then I was assigned as a midshipmen on the USS Ryken , as an intern. I can remember when the shuttle for the ship was leaving, I kept on looking out the window, expecting cheering and the rest. But everyone looked so solemn, almost as if they were at a funeral. I figured out later that they never expected me to come back. Neither did I. Not after the incident."
He stops here, picking up a small gyroscope like object, except it's made out of glass.
"Sir?' Mika asks. Spinning the gyroscope around, so it catches the light, he asks: "Tell me Cadet. What do you know about the Nebulon incident?"
Nebulon…Nebulon…Nebulon! Mika remembered going over it as a review from last year. "It was a planet wide genocide, sir. The then current government was taken over by the military rebels. People were lined up on the street and were killed, execution style. Millions dead."
"What else?" The gyroscope begins splashing different colors over the walls. Red, orange, yellow, all the colours of the rainbow.
"Well, the USS Ryken sent down the entire security team, to try and put an end to the massacre. Instead, they ended up getting captured and facing the same fate as the locals. A jamming signal had been deployed, so there was no way of beaming the prisoners up. The USS Ryken had to send members of the crew who had little or no combat experience."
"I wouldn't say 'no' experience," says April.
"You were part of the landing party?" Mika asks this with an incredulous look on her face.
"Surprising, no?"
"Yes…no…I mean, no offense, sir, but what about your condition?"
"I didn't die, if that's what you're asking."
"No, I mean-"
"Why don't I complete the story from here?" Shaking his head, he mumbles under his breath, "What are they teaching you guys these days?"
A small smile crosses Mika's face at the Lt.'s remark.
"So, to complete the story, yes, I was part of the second landing party. We had one mission, and that was to take out whatever was jamming the beaming signals. As we were on a diplomatic exploration mission, Starfleet wasn't monitoring our signals as closely. So by the time they got the message, there were no ships near enough to reach us within at least a week, traveling at back then, the fastest warp: warp 3. We were essentially stranded there, with no help. When we found out where the jamming was sourcing from, taking it out shouldn't have been a problem, but you'll soon learn that with Starfleet, the most difficult route must be taken, for everything." He says this with a wry grin on his face.
"We were almost there…everything had been going according to plan. And then, we were ambushed. More than half of the group was taken out. The remaining were injured enough to keep them from engaging in further action."
"What about you…sir?"
A dark look passes over Lt. April's face. "They were protecting me…so when the blasts hit, they took everything. I…I didn't even have a scratch on me. So after the Nebulaean rebels left us, thinking we were dead, it fell to me to somehow disable the jamming signal."
"But if the main source was destroyed, how was it possible for the jam to still continue?"
"What we thought was the source was actually an amplifier of sorts."
"A planet wide jam…" There's a look of awe on Mika's face. "So how did you…you know, survive…sir?"
"By finding the original source. By going to the planets central core system."
"Sir? Central core? I'm afraid I don't understand."
"Nebulon, cadet, at that time, was undergoing the repercussions of extreme climate change. As such, the planet had been given several support systems if in fact the natural core should fail, forcing an implosion. Now the core was kept functioning by mechanics, so to prevent an overheating malfunction, it was kept at 140*-"
"That must have been boiling! How did you-"
"Freezing, cadet. It was kept at 140 degrees below Celsius."
"But sir, shouldn't you be dead?"
At this, April stops and sits back. "You tell me, Dawes." He's contemplative for a moment. And then: "When you're dying, you don't think about yourself. You're not thinking about how much pain you're going through, but the pain of all the people you left behind. It almost makes you want to just turn back time, stop yourself from ever going anywhere near that situation again. But then you think, if I don't do this, either way, everybody will suffer. So you do it anyway."
"For the greater good…"
"Yes. I believe you're grasped this concept already cadet. Your simulations show this, and I'm willing to bet that if the same were to occur in real life, there would be no difference in your actions."
"Sir?"
"Cadet, I'm putting you on the fast track. This way, while the rest of your class is stuck with the simulations, you will be doing the real thing. You will be interning on a star ship…most preferably with my crew on the USS Centauri. What do you say?"
A shocked Mika drops the small object she was fidgeting with. The crash echoed throughout the silent room. Lt. April winced.
"Well," he says, "You can buy me a replacement for that when the USS Centauri reaches Delta Omega."
Mika stumbled out of Lt. April's office, that shocked look not quite leaving her face yet. She was so wrapped up in her thoughts, that she didn't see the foot that was placed at the perfect angle to trip her up. With an oomph and a thud, she landed on the stone path, books and padds scattering all over the ground. In reaching out for her padd, a tan leg forcefully kicked her hand away, cracking the padd's surface.
"Hi there sweetie."
As Mika looked up, she was sure she was looking at the devil.
"Close, but not quite right." A blush covered Mika's face; she hadn't known she was speaking out loud! "You see, I don't know what you're doing with Robert, but I swear, I will make your life a living hell if you-don't-stop!" She punctuated her words with a sharp jab to Mika's chest and a crush of her heel on the already cracked padd.
There goes my xenolinguistics assignment… thought Mika, a wistful look crossing her face. She sat with a half shocked-half amused look on her face, watching the retreating figure of the woman. She must have just met the leader of Lt. April's fan base. She started to collect her belongings of the ground, when the sound of footsteps drew her attention up once again. Squinting against the light of the sun, she could barely make out who it was, until he spoke.
"What did you do to make Sarah so mad?" It was Pike.
"You know her?"
"Sort of. And I know that she doesn't just blow up like that." He bent down, gathering up her small bag.
"I'll take that." Mika said, grabbing her bag. She started stuffing her stuff in, only to discover that the small hole in the seam she had forgotten to sew up completely had opened up again. Everything went tumbling to the ground. With a sigh akin to a groan, she collapsed to the ground, only to hiss out in pain. Pike's response was immediate. Dropping to her side, he grabbed her hands, delicately examining them. A series of scrapes ran all along the palm, a trail of blood leading until her wrist.
"You really must have pissed her off. Did she trip you up?" A terse nod came on Mika's part. Gingerly placing her hands on her lap, he stood up. At first, Mika thought he was just going to walk away. Instead, he again bent down, collecting all her books and remaining padds in one hand. Using the other, he pulled her up by the wrist.
"What are you doing?" she asks.
Fixing her with a look, he says, "Well I can't just leave you here now, can I?"
The trip to the Academy's med center was relatively quiet, the only sound an occasional gasp from Mika. Once in the center, a cadet rushed over to Mika's side. She looked familiar, but Mika couldn't quite place where she was from.
"Hey Chris," she said, pulling out a tricorder. "What's the story now?" She began to wave it up and down Mika's body. "Minor cuts on the palm, slightly scraped skin on the knee. Nothing a good dermal regenerator won't fix."
The nurse walked away, probably off to find the regenerator. As Mika sat on the bio bed, she began to swing her legs.
"Stop that," Pike said, slapping her knee. "You look like a little kid."
Letting out a hiss of pain, she retaliated by kicking his leg. "Invalid here! You can't go around furthering my injuries Pike."
"She's right Chris." Looking towards Mika: "Hi, I'm Jen. Jen Walsh. I don't know if you remember but we met before."
Thinking back, Mika responded: "Oh yeah…on the shuttle." Remembering that day, a snort came out of her mouth. Back then, her relationship with Pike had, at its best been the slight nod of acknowledgment. Nowadays, mostly because of the pressure from Winona and George to 'let go of their differences…etc, etc', it had evened out relatively. Which was surprising, considering the fact that in the beginning, Winona had been the more spiteful of the two girls? She was the more spiteful of the two when it came to the guys. But one night changed it all, and now, Mika was highly sure that Winona and George had done more than 'let go of their differences.'
Just then, through the clear partition next to the bio bed, she saw a familiar figure…Pulling Jen in front of her, she whispered," Who is she?"
Jen, who was quite upset with being interrupted in the middle of a procedure, straightened up, saying "Who is who? And you can't just interrupt the dermal regenerator-"
"Quick! Who is she?"
Taking a quick look around her, Jen turned back with a quizzical look on her face. "Oh you mean Sarah? She's an absolute dear!"
"That's what I told her." Pike said.
"Shush Pike. I didn't ask for your input." Pike let out a frustrated sigh.
"Sarah Woods, is one of our most qualified nurses, and she's well on her way to becoming a full-fledged doctor."
"Does your angelic Sarah Woods happen to be the leader of Lt. April's fan base?"
Jen let out a laugh, as did Pike. "Sarah's the one who wards off those crazy girls!"
"Really?" Mika questioned. "Then why did she attack me?"
"Attack you? Is that why you're here?" Taking a look at Mika's palms, an understanding look dawned on her face. "What did you do?"
"Of course I'm made out to be a bad guy. I swear I did nothing! I was just walking out of Lt. April's office, when out of nowhere Miss Perfect decides to just trip me, and on top of that she managed to destroy my padd with all my xenolinguistics homework on it! I did absolutely nothing!"
"What were you doing with Commander April anyways?" Pike asks this with a guarded look on his face.
"Well if you must know, he wanted to talk to me about my simulation, and after that, he told me that I would be interning on the USS Centauri…I did nothing, I swear!"
Jen let out a low whistle. "The USS Centauri you say? That's one of the newest of 25 flagships projected to be built from now on. They are going to represent the entire fleet…you must be pretty good!"
"Yeah, good at what." Mika looked up at Pike. She felt as if she had been slapped. Very hard. A small intake of air could be heard from Jen. Mika didn't wait around to see what she would say.
"Chris! That was uncalled for!"
"What do you mean…"
She walked away before she could get hurt any more.
Later that evening found Mika slouched on the small couch in her and Winona's shared dorm. The perks of having parents who were really supportive of Starfleet were evident in her surroundings. The room size had increased exponentially, adding a lounge area, a large kitchenette, an even bigger shower, even more closet space, and slightly bigger beds.
Mika heard Winona step into the room, but instead of the usually hello and the sound of the door hissing shut, it stayed open, with the added sound of giggling. Giggling? She peaked over the couch to see Winona leaned against the door, with George literally on top of her. After whispering into her ear, he bent down to kiss her. Winona had never let on about her relationship, and even though Mika had suspected it, it came as a surprise seeing it for the first time. She slowly lowered herself back onto the couch…her happiness for her friend almost cancelled out the negative feelings from Pike…almost.
After the door had slid shut, Winona walked into the room, took one small look at Mika, dropped everything, and sat down directly in front of her.
"What's going on?" she asked.
"Nothing…"
"Oh come on. You weren't in any of your afternoon classes, and we missed you for lunch. Something obviously happened."
"Pike happened!" Mika spat out. "He just had to ruin any good feelings I had! And that Sarah Woods girl? Apparently she wants to kill me now! The entire universe hates me, just because I'm getting to intern on the USS Centauri."
"Wait, back up…the USS Centauri? Seriously? Mika, I'm so proud!"
"Yeah, well everybody else seems to hate me for it."
A confused look flashes across Winona's face. "What do you mean?"
"Pike hates me, and I know you're going to say that it's because I'm always fighting with him, but I've tried to make things better between us."
"What did he do this time?" Winona asked with an exasperated sigh.
"Well, after Sarah tried to kill me by tripping me, he came out of nowhere, and decides to be some chivalrous knight and take me to the med center. While there, I meet Jen Walsh again, see Sarah Woods, blurt out the fact that I got the internship, and essentially, ruin any chance of some sort of truce between us."
"I still don't understand what happened."
"Well, Sarah, you know the 'Stay away from Robert or I'll kill you!' girl, who also happens to work in the med center, managed to see me come out from Commander April's office, I had been in there pretty long, so she kind of assumed…"
"No!" Winona gasped. Mika gave a sheepish nod.
"And Pike believed her?"
"Yeah…" Mika said, a hurt look crossing her face.
They sat in silence for some time, before Winona said, "Look, tomorrow George and I will be going out since it's a long weekend. Why don't you come with us? We can buy new clothes…"
Grinning in defeat, Mika nodded her head before slowly getting up and heading for her bed.
"Good, now get some sleep. We have a long day ahead of us…"
Mika was asleep before her head hit the pillow
A/N:
The first scene is sort of like the Kobayshi Maru…thinks of it as its forerunner.
The Nebulon incident is my creation, but the fact that Lieutenant Commander April had a rare blood disease is true.
The USS Centauri is going to be part of the 25 ship fleet that will eventually include the USS Enterprise. They are the flagships of the entire Federation
I often switch between Lieutenant and Commander when addressing Lieutenant Commander April. This is grounded in the fact that the same was done for Spock in previous Star Trek episodes
I sped it up by a year because I think the story would have become too slow for many people then
As many have noticed, George and Winona's relationship has magically repaired itself…there may be a one shot in the future explaining it.
I do not take any ownership of the Star Trek franchise, those chiefly in the possession of Desilu Productions, Paramount Pictures, and CBS. The sole property of mine are the O.C.'s
Please review! Thanks for reading!