Chapter 4: Welcome to the Rebellion
Endar Spire, Forward Observation Deck
Enroute to the Hoth system
"Oh this is much better. An endless, infinite expanse of mind numbing blue." McCoy complained to himself as he stared outside the observation window. It was the first time he had gotten out of the infirmary that day, and with nowhere else to go, he had made the mistake of finding a quiet place to read over the latest series of anatomical papers that Liara had downloaded to his datapad. A bottle of booze, recently liberated from the Elysian Spirit, the ship's charming little cantina, was in his other hand, as was an empty shot glass. The barkeep didn't say a word when McCoy had taken both items with a muttered, "Put it on my tab." The man behind the bar had probably seen his share of closet drunks, and McCoy knew he fit the shining example of that particular subspecies.
"Damn it Jim, why'd you have go poof in the middle of a damn hospital? And why the Hell did I agree to come after you?" McCoy grumbled to himself as he sat down at an empty table. He casually dropped his datapad onto the table next to his bottle and glass before he poured himself a drink. It would be the first of many if he had his way.
His regretful solitude was broken about five shots later as the last person he wanted to see right now slowly ambled over to his table and sat down. "Dude. You realize that stuff is green right? That shit could be engine cleaner for all you know."
"Whatever gets ya drunk. Since I don't particular care if it's it a solvent or fine whiskey, I'd say it's doin' a damn good job." McCoy grumbled as he glared at the cocky pilot that had sat down without an invitation.
"Yeah, right." With a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders, Jeff snatched McCoy's empty shot glass and poured himself a drink. He waved his arm in front of Leonard's frowning face before throwing back the greenish liquid. "At least you aren't blind. Yet, anyway. Huh, not bad. Almost makes me think of this asari wine I had a few months ago. If you mixed it with some rotgut and ryncol, set the top on fire, and blew it out, it actually leached away the radiation in the ryncol and made one hell of a gut buster."
"Good God man!" Shaking his head McCoy decided to skip the medical lecture which he knew Jeff wasn't going listen to anyway. "Give me a good ol boilermaker any day kid. I ain't picky."
"Huh. Figured you were the mint julep type." Jeff grimaced as he downed another shot and shoved the glass towards McCoy. "So, what's fueling this nice little pity party for one you got going on Doc?"
"Whatever the hell this stuff is." Leonard gestured to the bottle, and then pointed a finger at Joker. "And none of your goddamn business, that's what Flyboy." McCoy grumbled as he shot back another glass before pushing the empty glass towards Jeff, a bit too forcibly.
"So, women troubles, got it. That I can relate to." Joker retorted, ignoring the scathing glare McCoy shot at him, casually watching as the physician poured him another drink. "So, who broke your heart Bones?"
"Christ Moreau, didn't you hear a word I said? It's none of your goddamn business." McCoy drunkenly peered side to side at the man's ears. "Maybe I should check your damn hearing." Leonard growled between his teeth as he caught the shot glass when the pilot pushed it back. Jeff raised an eyebrow and waited the man out. After a few moments of silence McCoy sighed and waited until Jeff poured him another shot before tossing it back. "Ex wife, took everything in the divorce, including my daughter. All I had left was my damn bones by the time she was done. Ya happy Jester?"
A rare somber expression graced Jeff's usually sarcastic face. "Damn, gotta say, I was hoping for more drunken threesome, and less depressing sob story, to go with your nickname. Shepard's joke over the comms makes a lot more sense now."
"Yeah well, how in the hell did a smarmy bastard like you get a name like Joker?" McCoy rolled his eyes and gave the pilot a cockeyed grin as he shoved a full shot glass back towards a scowling Jeff. "Oh right, you're a sarcastic little prick. Can't believe it took me this long to figure that one out."
Jeff drank his shot stoically, and began a variation of a conversation he must had had a dozen times by now. McCoy had a feeling he had opened up a can of tribbles. "Actually, one of my instructors back at the academy thought I was too serious. All I wanted, all I could think about, was seeing the looks on everyone's face when they realized they got their asses handed to them by the crippled kid. Calling me Joker was his way of taking me down a few pegs. When I graduated at the top of my class, turns out I was the only one smiling. All of the commendations, all the awards on my record, I earned those. Guess I earned the name too." Another shot was sloshed in front of Leonard.
"Not bad, but I win. My shitty story is worse. What's that smartass phrase of yours again? Right, go pout." Leonard grumbled in return.
Joker's grin widened exponentially. He always loved a good challenge. "Oh that was just the introduction old man. You can't jump into the middle of my life and expect to understand me."
"Then enlighten me." Leonard challenged as he pushed the glass back towards the cocky pilot.
"Only if you do the same Leo." Joker shot back as he returned the favor.
"Fine. Where the hell do you want me to start kid?" McCoy had a feeling he knew what the bastard was going to ask first.
"Oh! I know, tell me how you met your bitch of an ex-wife." Joker asked, clear excitement in his voice and his gaze as he shoved the recently emptied glass back at the cantankerous doctor.
"Christ, I need a double first." Leonard shotgunned two drinks back to back before he poured another libation for the pilot. "Alright smartass, you really want to open this bag of rabid tribbles?"
Joker immediately nodded his head rapidly in response. "Since, you put it that way, yes, definitely yes. Also, what the hell is a tribble?"
Leonard shuddered at the very memory of the furry little beings. "Believe me kid, you don't want to know. Little bastards breed worse than horny jackrabbits on fertility drugs."
"Oookay." Joker said as he tried to imagine what McCoy had described, but he couldn't quite do it. He gave it up after a few seconds and instead turned the conversation back to what he wanted to know. "Quit stalling, so where'd you meet the evil-she-bitch-of-doom?"
McCoy sighed and started talking before he could think better of it. "An ice cream social, okay?"
"A demonic ice cream social? Your galaxy is more screwed up than I thought." Jeff commented dryly.
"Shut up and listen jackass. Although you aren't far off the mark kid, shoulda ran when her friends started snickering when I walked up, 'bout a decade younger and dumber." McCoy sighed before he tossed back his glass and shoved it back at the pilot. "Twenty four years old, I had no clue what I was gettin' into when I ran into that she-devil, but she was pretty, smart, and she actually took an interest in a guy like me. Shoulda known then it wouldn't last. Here's to Jocelyn. At least she gave me Joanna, gotta give the woman credit for the only damn bit of true happiness in my life."
"Love makes ya do stupid things. Still, least you got something out of it besides heartache Bones." Joker muttered as he tossed back the glass, feeling a little tipsy at last. When he attempted to pour another drink for McCoy, he missed a little and wound up decorating the table with greenish whiskey which found its way to the floor. "Gonna need a new bottle at this rate."
"Don't tell me you're gettin' all mushy on me already Joker. And stop wasting ma booze ya clumsy bastard. With ma luck, this stuff's probably worth a small fortune." Leonard muttered, pining for his lost booze.
Joker looked at McCoy as if he had grown a second head. "On this ship? Have you bothered to look around? These guys don't exactly have the best, well, anything."
"Actually Jeff, these 'Rebels' as they call themselves, are better off than you give them credit for." Liara stated as she joined their table, a new bottle of vibrantly colored whiskey tucked under her arm while she perused her omni-tool's data archives. She sat down without looking away from whatever had her attention, and put the bottle between the two men before she finally looked up. "You're welcome by the way. As for the tab you left at the bar Doctor, it's already been taken care of."
"Really? Well, I can't say I'm surprised these guys find you attractive, but still...only one bottle Liara?" Jeff's cocky defenses couldn't withstand the magnitude of the asari's glare for long. Few people could, so he didn't feel any shame in looking away from those cold blue eyes.
"You're about as spooky as the pointy eared hobgoblin on the Enterprise I had the delight of serving with." McCoy grumbled, but flashed the asari a quick look of gratitude as she poured him and Jeff a glass full of the whiskey, having brought a second shot glass for the pair. "Why don't you join us, seein' as you already invited yourself."
"Thank you for the generous offer Doctor, but I only came here to make sure you didn't pass out in your own vomit on the floor. Either of you." Liara made it a point to glare at them both in equal measure before her visage softened somewhat. "Just try not to get too inebriated, we should be arriving at our destination within the next four hours."
"Don't worry your pretty little blue head darlin'. I have a hypo for just about everything, including instant sobriety in a pinch." McCoy's beaming grin faltered. "Only downside is that it's…not pretty."
"I imagine it wouldn't be." Liara replied dryly, her imagination supplying all too many images of projectile vomiting and heavy sweating.
"Yeah, sounds fun, but I think I'll skip your miracle hangover cure Leo." Joker said with a nervous chuckle.
"Suit yourself Jeffery, just don't come cryin' to me later when the sound of a mouse fart gives ya a nasty migraine."
Even a partially sloshed McCoy saw the anger appear in Jeff's gaze as the pilot jerked his head up and away from the glass in front of him. "Won't happen. I don't cry. Ever."
"Yes Joker, not even when you found Miranda and Jack together in the bathroom at Alex's party and cried tears of joy. For over five minutes if I remember correctly." Jeff sputtered into his glass at the reminder, while McCoy's cheeks turned a deeper shade of red at the image Liara had painted for them. She had shown him the group photo taken on Alex's couch, with each of the crewmates names superimposed above their heads. How that raven haired beauty had fallen for an unique person, and Leonard was putting that mildly, like Jack was beyond him.
"Okay I'll give ya that one." Joker said after he had regained some measure of his composure, an all too familiar twinkle having returned to his olive eyes. "That reminds me, what ever happened to you and Javik?"
Laira groaned and reconsidered pouring herself a glass as her blue cheeks darkened this time. "Goddess, don't bring that up again Joker. I'd rather not remember."
"What, you two didn't get all primitive in Shepard's guest room?" Jeff managed to do a fair impression of Liara's voice as he went all doey eyed. "Oh Javik, please keep on telling me what a bunch of imperialistic assholes the protheans really were! Don't stop!"
Liara's response was to bury her head on her hands and slump onto the tabletop. Her cheeks had turned nearly indigo by the time Joker had finished speaking. "No, we didn't, because James and Ashley were already there. Thankfully. Otherwise I might have woken up beside Javik that morning. He might be the last surviving prothean, but he is not someone I'd ever want to meld with, drunk or not."
Jeff scrunched up his face into an annoyed frown and proceeded to do his best impersonation of the opinionated prothean next. "In my cycle, everyone was required to talk with this stupid accent and have a giant rusty metal spike firmly inserted into their rectum."
"Sounds a bit like our pointy eared first officer back home. Only worse."
"Dr. Spock, correct?" Liara asked as she sat up, hands clasped in front of her and regarded McCoy with intense interest. To say she was grateful for the change of topic would have been an understatement.
McCoy was quick to correct her. "Mister Spock. Got a lotta mileage outta that one. As logical as that vulcan bastard is, man wouldn't know a decent joke if it bit him in the ass."
"Huh, kinda reminds me of EDI, took her forever to-" Jeff's face clouded with a mixture of emotions for a the briefest of moments before he frowned down at the table. "Forget it."
Liara only nodded her head as she finally broke the silence and poured herself a glass, after producing the simple, unadorned object from a pocket in her skin tight suit. She waited until her two companions also had fresh drinks before raising her glass. "To old friends found anew, and to a friend we will never forget."
McCoy looked as if he had stumbled into a nest of tiberian bats. He didn't say a word, simply raised his glass without comment, and downed his shot with the others.
"Why so quiet all of a sudden Doc? Worst thing you have to worry about is your little girl back home. I'm sure she'll miss you something fierce, but at least she's safe and sound. Not everybody gets to be that lucky." Without a further comment, Joker stood to his feet and hobbled away, leaving the asari and the doctor to their own devices.
It was only after Jeff had sullenly retreated from the observation deck that McCoy looked to Liara. She sighed and shook her head sadly before answering the doctor's unspoken question. "The war with the Reapers….was crueler to some than others. His home colony was completely destroyed. His family, a sister, a brother, and his father didn't make it."
McCoy gave a defeated sigh as he sat back in his chair. "Christ almighty. And the mother?"
Liara's confident, ruthless veneer slipped for a moment, a hint of nervousness in her voice. "A shuttle accident several years earlier. I don't feel comfortable saying more."
"It's alright Liara. You probably told me too damn much already, kid's had it hard. No wonder he puts up those sarcastic shields all the time." Leonard went to pour himself yet another drink, but set down the bottle and stared at Liara for a moment as if debating whether or not to ask her something. "This 'EDI' he mentioned a few times, lost her too didn't he?"
Liara found herself only able to repeat an answer she had given once already. "As I said, the war was crueler to Jeff than most. From a certain point of view…."
McCoy knew from the look on Liara's face told him his next question had an answer he probably didn't want to hear, but the alcohol in his system made him stupidly brave. "Who did you lose Liara?"
McCoy was honestly surprised with the asari woman answered without hesitation. "My mother….although it'd be more appropriate to say she was killed by Shepard….and myself." Liara had to look away as memories of her last confrontation with Matriarch Benezia flashed behind her eyes. Even now, after everything they had done since, she still couldn't dwell on that moment without feeling just as divided about it then as she did now. At least she died still loving me as I once remembered her. Free from Saren, free from the Reapers. The rationalization still rang hollow in her mind, even after all these years. It still hurt, and McCoy's reaction was all too understandable.
Leonard seemed unable to speak for a few moments as his hazel eyes unexpectedly darkened with rage. "Good God woman! You killed your own mother?!"
Liara had to take a steadying breath as she tried to explain just what had happened on Noveria so long ago. "What I killed, what Shepard helped me put to rest, was no longer my mother. Another saw to that when he twisted her thoughts, and subverted her will to serve his masters. She tried to kill me, her own daughter, tried to slaughter the friends that had saved my life before we finally tracked her down. If there had been another choice….goddess I wish she had given us another choice, but there wasn't." The asari finished barely above a whisper, but her words lost none of their substantial weight.
Seeing the torment in her blue eyes, Leonard grasped her hand from across the table without even thinking. "Sounds to me like you did what you had to. You released your mother from that Hell she was stuck in."
Memories long buried under a haze of self loathing, along with enough bourbon to stock the ship's cantina, flooded, unwelcome and unwanted, into McCoy's thoughts. Memories he had never dared to share with his own mother, let alone Jim. Leonard could still remember the sound of the life support system, the dim lighting, the antiseptic smell in the air. A father pleading with his son to release him from illness and horrible pain. An illness, for which a cure had been discovered not long after Leonard gave into his father's desperate plea. If only I had waited a few more months, I could have saved him. I could have goddamn saved him! But I was weak minded fool.
"It might have been what I had to do, but she was still my mother." Liara didn't pull away from the doctor's hand, and instead tightened her grip on the southern man's fingers as tears started to pool in her eyes. "That is what made the Reapers such a dangerous enemy. They had the power to control anyone they come into contact with, to twist them into monstrous parodies of themselves, both mentally and physically if they were allowed time to alter their slaves."
McCoy found himself gently tightening his grip on Liara's hands. "I'm so sorry Liara. That was a damn fool thing I said before, I didn't mean it."
Liara pulled away from his grasp, and held up her other hand as she shook her head. "Thank you for your understanding Leonard, but you most certainly did. I can't blame you for your understandable shock and revulsion." If not for the tears already in her eyes, a rapid flash of McCoy easing his father's suffering would have no doubt insured the streams running down her cheeks as she slowly let his hand go. "Our circumstances might have been different, but we're more alike than I would have at first believed." The contact with McCoy's hand had ensured she saw the intense memory that her admission had brought to the surface.
His eyes widening in shock, Leonard's brow knit with anger, any compassion he had shown to Liara instantly crushed by the bitter and jaded man he presented to the world at large. "The Hell you say. You don't know anything about me lady."
"I know enough." Liara replied simply as she stood to her feet and left the observation lounge. She stopped at the open door however, and looked over her shoulder to regard the doctor. "My intention was not to anger you Leonard, just as your intent was not to upset me. It seems we're both….not well equipped to deal with our own demons."
"I'm just fine with mine right where they are." McCoy poured himself a shot before casting a deadly glare in Liara direction. "If you so much as-"
Liara's face hardened, her voice taking on an icy edge. It was one she used far too often when she was in what Shepard called 'Broker mode'. It was very effective in getting her point across though, and she wanted him to understand as much even through his drunken haze. "Rest assured, I will not tell anyone. Especially your friends. I'm not heartless Doctor, only practical." With that, she left the lounge without another word, leaving Leonard to stew in his own pain.
"Way to go Horatio." McCoy growled as he slammed his head onto the table, shaking the three empty glasses and the two nearly just as empty bottles of whiskey. A slight vibration in the deck plates brought him out of his misery a short time later as he looked up to see a small, motley collection of ships dwarfed by a desolated looking world covered in ice. "Great. This just keeps getting better and better." The last thing Leonard heard was the sound of his head thunking against the table as he drifted off to a troubled sleep.
A short while later...
"What are ye waitin' for Leonard! Ah don't know if ye've looked out the bloody window, but Ah think it's safe to say we've arrived." Leonard woke to see Scotty scowling down at his all too familiar drunken state. "Might want to sober up a wee bit there, heard Jim's ship is dockin' with the Spire before we beam down. I mean shuttle down. Forgot this beauty doesn't have transporters."
McCoy didn't bother looking at the cheery man as he let his head hit the table again. "That's a great idea Scotty, show off the transporter to a bunch of freedom fighters." McCoy gave a drunken shrug as he tried to prop his chin up with one hand. "Not like they are going to tear the ship apart the first chance they get or anything."
Scotty leaned down and picked up the medical kit that always seemed to be attached to McCoy by the hip. "Mind if Ah borrow this Leonard?"
"Knock yourself out. Gonna hand that over too huh?" Leonard yelped in pain as Scotty jammed a very familiar looking hypo into the doctor's neck. "Gah! SONOFABITCH! Unless you got a damn medical degree in the last few hours that I don't know about, never do that again!"
"Sorry Bones, but I needed ya sober. Thanks Scotty." An all too familiar smug smirk swam into McCoy's clearing vision as Scotty stepped aside. The doctor had to rub his eyes just to be sure he wasn't hallucinating, and when the image before him only became clearer, Leonard scowled darkly as Jim Kirk's smirk widened at his disbelief. "Hey there buddy. Long time no see."
"Jim. You reckless son of a bitch. What'd you go and do this time? No wait, let me guess, some hot alien temptress popped up by your hospital bed and whisked you away to this crazy goddamn place." McCoy waved to the room around them as he tried to work the kink out of his sore neck.
"Well, to be fair, you're half right, but the hot alien didn't pop up until well after I got adjusted in this place. And before you ask, orange, she's a lovely shade of orange. Trust me Bones, hat was a new one on me too. As to how I got here, I still haven't got a damn clue."
Leonard glared at the younger man before cupping his aching head in his hands. "Oh don't give me that load of bull. Probably just too damn embarrassed to tell me what really happened."
"He's telling you the truth Doctor McCoy. A lovely shade huh? Rather like that shade of green ya have going around your gills there Leonard." Leonard stopped and stared at said orange alien temptress, who had joined Jim's side, her arms crossed and her hip cocked to the side. "You were right, he looks ready to have a heart attack. I told you this wasn't a good idea."
"You and her? What in God's name is going on here?! Are you telling me you managed to snag the most irresponsible, infantile, reckless bastard I've ever met?!" Leonard shouted as he pointed his finger at the pair, disbelief all too clear on his face.
"Don't act so surprised Bonehead." The orange skinned woman said with a roll of her big blue eyes as she pushed his hand away. "And yes I'm well aware of his past 'exploits'." She even had the audacity to make air quotes. "But since I can choke him to death with my mind, I'm not too worried." It was a half hearted bluff, but Jim didn't need to know that.
Jim's grin only widened as he leered at her. "God I love it when you talk dirty. But let's save that for later tonight, alright?"
"Christ you look like a love struck puppy in heat. It's official, I've seen everything." McCoy gestured at the barren wasteland of a planet and its rag tag fleet out the window. "Absolutely everything."
"Nope, you haven't even scratched the surface buddy." McCoy wasn't sure what scared him more, Jim's words, or the way the captain's leering smirk disappeared like a solar flash. "This place is….everything the Federation could have ever wanted, and everything we ever feared. All rolled up into one chaotic mess, let's just say that."
"You better start talking sense Jim, starting with her. Looks like orange is your new flavor of the month." McCoy grumbled as he pointed his finger at her again.
"Her has a name old man. It's Ahsoka Tano, Master Jedi...sort of. And it's a little more than that Bonehead." McCoy's already stunned mind went into overdrive when he saw the matching rings on their fingers.
"You're shitin' me." Was all a shocked Leonard could choke out. "I don't care how long it's been since I've seen your grinning ass, I ain't fallin' for another one of your elaborate little pranks Jim."
"No joke Bones, it's the real deal. I even have the vids if you want proof." Jim proceeded to activate the same wrist mounted device he had seen Shepard's friends using since Scotty had beamed them over to the Mudd Slinger. He queued up a video file that showed the last thing Leonard ever expected to see. Jim, in some kind of fancy suit and dress pants, and the same orange skinned woman that was standing in front of him now, decked out in what he could only assume was this reality's idea of a wedding gown, more like a wedding robe. They were surrounded by cheering people, obviously friends they had made or fought beside, and one raven haired woman in particular made Leonard smile as she took the ever overconfident Jim by surprise by dropping a bucket of ice water over his head. A laughing Ahsoka backed away a few steps as Jim started to playfully fling melting ice at her.
"Well, I like the woman who gave you the impromptu cold shower, that's for sure. Wait a minute...I know her." Leonard's hazel eyes narrowed as he jerked Kirk's arm closer to his face. It was the same woman he and the rest of the Slinger's crew had seen on the jungle planet on Luke's arm mounted device. "Shepard right?"
"The vid doesn't quite catch his girlish yelp of surprise." The gleam in Ahsoka's huge blue eyes only seemed to brighten as Jim rolled his own and muttered something that sounded vaguely like 'thanks for the support'. It was far too much for McCoy as he finally gave into his shock and keeled over on the spot. If not for Jim and Ahsoka's combined, near superhuman reflexes, he would have hit his head on the table on his way down.
"I guess Lekota won the bet. She and some of the others were making a pool, to see if the news would send your friend here into a catatonic state." Ahsoka said as she and Jim gently lowered the doctor to the floor between them.
"Um, well, bein' completely honest now, Ah may have made a wee mistake when Ah went diggin' through the Doctor's hypos." Scotty picked up another similarly marked hypo to the first one he had used. "Oh dear."
"Scotty, give me that thing!" Kirk yelled as he lunged for the other hypo. "Moderate tranquilizer. Warning: will cause severe drowsiness, do not operate heavy mach- awesome job Scotty, at least his eye balls aren't bleeding."
"Awe, you were really worried about him. He's almost like a big brother to you, isn't he? Don't bother lying, you know I can tell." Ahsoka said with a grin.
"Yep, but that's one of the many, many things I love about ya 'Soka. That, and the thing you do with your-" Ahsoka chose that moment to slam her elbow into Jim's stomach. It wasn't enough to wind him, but the action still shut him up all the same. "-keen mind, always making me see things differently and what not. Also the lekku thing, that one blew my mind. Believe me, that's really saying something."
"Do Ah wanna know what he's talkin' about lass?" Scotty asked, although he had a pretty good idea he didn't just from the glare the togruta woman sent him. "Shuttin' my haggis hole ma'am!'
"You!" Jim flinched as a certain communications officer stomped up to him and jabbed her finger in his chest. "I risk my life-" Scotty coughed gesturing to himself and a semiconscious McCoy. "-our lives, and I have to search half this ship to track you down?!"
"Thank ye kindly lass, I'm sure Leonard does as well, despite bein' a tad unconscious at the moment." Scotty cheerfully replied, as he was all but pushed aside when Uhura grabbed Jim by the front of his uniform and pulled him down so they were eye to eye.
"Uhura, listen, I'm really, really sorry okay? Just let me explain-"
"You planned on getting wasted with Leonard." Uhura told him matter-of-factly.
"Well, yeah." Kirk muttered, a giant gleaming smile instantly forming. "I didn't want to spoil your surprise is all."
Ahsoka huffed and turned to the communications specialist. "There is no surprise, he's stalling for time to think of someway to actually make this up to you." Uhura gave the grinning woman next to her a nod before turning her hull searing glare back to the man she had piloted a ship into another dimension to find and rescue.
"Um...I think I should go...I've got captian stuff-"
"Not so fast Jim." Uhura growled as she put a hand on the man's shoulder. "I haven't even gotten started with you."
"Maybe we should go lass…." Scotty said as tried to lead the togruta out of the lounge, but she merely planted her feet and waved her hand, sending the engineer and a still unconscious Bones gently sliding out into the hall.
Slumped against a wall, Leonard groggily looked at his new surroundings. "What the...how in the hell? Musta had more than I thought." Staring at the two dumbfounded men, Uhura was equally stunned by the casual display of the sort of a Master Jedi's abilities.
Ahsoka merely shrugged at a bemused Uhura and waved her hand, causing everyone, including Jim, to wince, but there was no display of power behind it this time. "There's a lot you might want to listen to before jumping to any conclusions. But for now, would you please get the Doctor to a bed before he passes out in the middle of the corridor? It'd might for an interesting story, but it's one I think he'd rather avoid."
"We're not done." Uhura growled, jabbing her finger in Kirk's face before turning to help Scotty with their inebriated friend.
It was only after she and Scotty left that Kirk turned to Ashoka. "I so owe you big time."
"Yeah you do Jimbo." She replied with badly hidden glee. "I like your friends. Especially the feisty one."
"Can't imagine why." Kirk muttered dryly as he slowly followed alongside Ahsoka, both carefully watching as Scotty and Uhura hoisted their drunken, mumbling, cursing cargo between them.
Endnotes: Archer83: Sorry for the wait updating this folks, Vergil talked me into another Star Trek related story lol. If you like this one, be sure to check out my other new ST: TNG / Mass Effect fic Lost Souls!
Vergil1989: Hey, you didn't have to agree to write it you know! Jerk, try and blame me for that lol. In all seriousness, Lost Souls was a lot of fun, but this will always be one of my first loves.
Archer83: And the even better news is that we have enough written for another chapter or two of this story, we just need time polish it a bit before I can post it.
Vergil1989: If I wasn't feeling like crap I'd help edit it right now. Still, anticipation will make our eventual success all the sweeter lol. Take care folks, stay well, and good luck to you all. See ya! And, as always, keep sending in those awesome reviews!