"We're receiving a distress call from the USS Kobayashi Maru," Uhura swirled round in her chair as I stifled a laugh from the desk next to her at the cynical tone she had added to her voice. "The ship has lost power and is stranded. Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them."
Jim lightly smiled from the Captain's chair. "Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue them," he paused for a moment in thought as he spun round to face forwards. "Captain." After receiving a death glare from Uhura at Jim's cockiness, I turned to my station as an alarm started to buzz.
"Two Klingon vessels have entered the neutral zone and are locking weapons on us," McCoy informed Jim, pressing buttons on his desk and looking at various instruments. Jim shrugged.
"That's okay," I tried not to let my jaw drop too much, but I failed miserably as McCoy turned to Jim wide eyed and confused.
"That's okay?" He repeated Jim's statement as a question, hoping to gain some more understanding to his nonchalance.
"Yeah, don't worry about it," he replied, appearing to look completely disinterested by the whole scenario.
"Their ships are advancing," I said, scanning my screens for any information. I glanced over at Uhura who looked just as confused as I was, monitoring any communications that were coming through - or though by now she knew what to expect as Jim had made us sit this test with him too many times.
"Three more Klingon warbirds decloaking and targeting our ship." McCoy said again as Jim smiled. "I don't suppose this is a problem either?" McCoy asked sarcastically, waving his hand in the air at the window in front of us, which was now a sea of Klingon ships. Even though this wasn't real, it still had a sense of reality to it. I for one knew that if Jim acted like he was now at the helm of a ship then I would be evacuating myself off it right away.
"They're firing, Captain." A weapons officer stated from in front of Jim. Ignoring this information, Jim simply sat back in his chair.
"Alert medical bay to prepare to receive all crew members from the damaged ship." He called back to Uhura, as she swirled round in her chair once again, seeming to have lost her fake composure from earlier on.
"And how to you expect us to rescue them when we're surrounded by Klingons, Captain?" She pointed to the ships firing at us, spitting the word Captain as if it were poison in her mouth. I gnawed at the inside of my cheek, wondering how the hell Jim was going to get himself out of this. He leaned over, smiling at Uhura sweetly.
"Alert medical," he ordered again, ignoring her well thought question. I mouthed to Jim, "What?", intending to get an answer for all of these strange orders and all I got was an innocent shrug and smirk in response. I shook my head at him as I turned to my screens. Our shields were being damaged, and I knew that we didn't have long left with the type of weapons systems they were using against us. Uhura alerted medical with a few taps on her screen, tapping a bit harder than necessary.
"Our ship is being hit. Shields at sixty percent." McCoy informed Jim once again, a look of annoyance on his face. Jim pulled out an apple from his pocket.
"I understand," he replied, matter of factly. McCoy turned to him.
"Well should we, I don't know, fire back?" McCoy asked Jim, his tone rather fiery. I let out a sigh as more and more sensor alarms and warnings were popping up on my screen. Jim once again, looked unfazed by the chaos that was happening around him.
"No," he replied before taking a loud bite from his apple. I suddenly found myself wanting to rip the piece of fruit out of his hand and throw it at his head. I did not get up at seven in the morning to fail this test. Again. Under Jim Kirk's command.
"Of course not," McCoy muttered under his breath, looking just as frustrated as I was. Suddenly, all of our systems flickered, and seemed to power down, the droning noise of power rushing out of the simulator. I looked at Uhura's station, where she sat dumbfounded and looking at mine. Jim, meanwhile, continued to munch on his apple whilst the bridge crew tried to figure out what the problem seemed to be. This had never happened in a Kobayashi Maru test before, surely?
After a few seconds of confusion, the power flickered back on, and Jim seemed to switch back on too. Apple in hand, he commanded us. "Arm photons. Prepare to fire on the Klingon warbirds." Everyone looked pleased to finally be given an order that wasn't to simply "not worry about it,".
"Jim, their shields are still up," McCoy exclaimed, his hand raised in what was either frustration or to remind Jim just how many ships stood against ours.
"Are they?" Jim asked, seemingly surprised as he took another loud bite from the piece of fruit. McCoy, and everyone else on the bridge seemed to check their readings, and to our amazement, their shields were in fact down.
"No, they're not," McCoy confirmed, a hint of astonishment in his gruff voice as his eyes darted around his readings.
Jim took a deep breath before declaring us to fire on all enemy ships, his mouth half full of apple. "One photon each should do. Let's not waste ammunition," he added on to his weapons officer.
"Target locked and acquired on all warbirds. Firing," the officer replied, tapping buttons as he readied our weapons. All of the crew looked up to the window in front of us, watching as all of the ships were destroyed, the Kobayashi Maru flying in no particular direction behind the chaos. Simulated booms and explosions filled the bridge as Jim mimicked shooting a gun at one warbird as it was blown to pieces.
"So childish," I muttered, turning away from the fight and back to my station. "All ships destroyed, Captain." I called out into the bridge.
"Begin rescue of the stranded crew," Jim ordered, rising from his chair without missing a beat. "So!" He began. "We've managed to eliminate all enemy ships," Uhura shook her head and let out a laugh in disbelief. "No one on board was injured," Jim patted a shocked McCoy on the back as he walked around the bridge. "And the successful rescue of the Kobayashi Maru crew is underway." He took another bite of his apple as he shot a wink to me, then looked up to the observation platform that was set up a few feet above the bridge.
"Well that was... fun." Uhura whispered to me.
"I don't know how he did that. Something like that has never happened in a test before. He's up to something," I muttered in response, folding my arms over my chest as I glanced over at Jim, who was in deep conversation with McCoy, who was probably asking Jim what had just happened.
"And I trust that you're going to find out what that something is?" Uhura winked at me. As much as she disliked Jim sometimes, she loved the gossip he provided us with. I let out a light laugh.
"Why, of course," I rose from my seat and approached Jim who was still chatting to McCoy. "So, Captain, what Tactical Training class did you learn that technique from?" I asked as I folded my arms and raised an eyebrow. McCoy had a hint of an amused smile on his face.
"Oh, Alex," he beamed, throwing an arm over my shoulder. "You're always the first to compliment me on my outstanding ability to captain a starship," he patted my head with his other hand, ruffling my brown hair out of its neat braid. I pushed him off me, smoothing out my hair frantically as I scowled playfully at him. McCoy laughed as he stood from his station, muttering a 'see you later' to Jim and I as he exited the simulator, like all the other cadets.
"But if I had to tell you, I'll just say I might have called in a favour," he mumbled, tapping his nose, signifying for me to keep my mouth shut. "Now I don't know about you, but I'm starving," he made his way over to the exit, waiting for me to catch up. "Let's discuss this over brunch."
"You slept with Gaila to get her to hack the test?!" I whisper-shouted at Jim. We were currently sat in the Academy's canteen, that was virtually empty bar from a few tables a distance away from us. Most of the cadets had headed off to their morning classes.
"Well no, but... yes. I can see why it sounds like I did," Jim replied before taking a bite out of his sandwich. I scoffed. Does this man ever stop eating?
"Sounds like? You did Jim, and that's really mean. I think she actually likes you," I pleaded for Gaila's case, although from past experience, I knew that my reasoning wouldn't change Jim's mind about her, or any other girl for that matter. I shook my head as I took a sip of orange juice. Uhura and I's roommate hadn't stopped gushing about Jim since he took her on a date a few weeks back, and we had our suspicions that they were sleeping together when she would ask us every morning what our entire movements of the day would be - class, time, place and who we would be with. Yesterday Uhura told me that she had caught Jim in his underwear hiding underneath Gaila's bed.
"She said she loved me," Jim sighed. "I can't help that women fall in love with me at the drop of a hat... Well maybe I'm just really good in bed." He thought aloud. I made a fake throwing up noise and he laughed.
"You're disgusting," I spat at him playfully. "One day, you're going to meet your match. And it's going to be biblical." I smiled defiantly. Jim let out a scoff.
"You're just mad because you haven't seen how biblical I am in bed." With that retort he sat back in his seat, raising his cup of coffee to his lips and taking a sip. My mouth dropped open a little, and I hated that I could feel a blush rising from the back of my neck onto my face. Knowing that he would notice this, I frantically racked my brain for a reply.
"Oh, shut up. I might be biblical and you'll never find out." I bit my lip. In my head that sounded much less challenging and much more domineering. Jim raised an eyebrow.
"Never?" He asked, a flirty twinkle in his eye.
"Never." I repeated, keeping my cool as I raised my eyebrow, challenging him to take this any further.
"Well, we'll see about that," he half-heartedly challenged as he looked down at his communicator for the time. "Well I've gotta go to class. Few of us are going to the bar later to celebrate my success," he raised from his seat and smiled down at me. "Will I see you there? I'll get you a drink for being the best science officer on the bridge today."
I rolled my eyes. "You know I'm the best. And yeah, I'll be there." I stood up also, smiling at him. There was a second's silence, and he suddenly pulled me into a quick hug.
"See you later, Alex," he squeezed, and he was gone just as quick as the hug was over. I let out a breath I didn't realise I was holding as I watched Jim exit the canteen. My heart felt heavy and fluttery, and it dawned on me. Did I now have a crush on Jim Kirk?