Of Cars And Cliffs

Disclaimer ~ I do not own Star Trek

*The one where the crew learns Jim was always a reckless idiot*

Jim was feeling a serious sense of impending doom mixed with deja vu as the wind whipped through his hair at high speeds. Ironically, the impending doom came more from what his crew would think of his little stunt than the hostiles trying to kill him. The stunt was actually what was giving him deja vu. All he needed was Sabotage by Beastie Boys to be playing and he'd really be reliving his childhood.

Well...with a few key differences. Instead of an antique car, he was in a half destroyed shuttle craft. Instead of being on Earth he was on a planet called Cragun. And instead of a cop chasing him it was several hostile natives. Oh, and he had a passenger in the form of Sulu beside him instead of being alone.

"Sulu! I'm about to do something crazy! When I tell you to jump, jump out of the shuttle!" Jim shouted to be heard over the phaser blasts and wind. Sulu gave him an odd look but nodded nonetheless. His eyes widened as Jim made a sharp left turn...straight towards the edge of the cliff. Jim couldn't help but let out a whoop of excitement as he pushed the shuttle to go faster and faster. The more distance between them and the hostiles, the better his plan would work.

Jim waited, mentally calculating the distance until they would need to jump. Then "NOW!" he shouted to Sulu. Both men wasted no time in diving out the sides of the shuttle and hitting the ground hard. They both slid from their momentum but neither followed the shuttle over the edge. Jim didn't waste any time in scrambling to his feet and dragging Sulu behind a nearby rock formation. He could tell the navigator was still stunned from the jump. Sulu opened his mouth to say something but Jim covered it with a hand, making the universal Shh symbol with the other.

The Cragun hostiles had arrived. They exited their own shuttles and were peering over the edge of the cliff. Jim didn't dare breath as they muttered amongst themselves and only released it once they had returned to their shuttles and were far away from him. Once the Craguns were out of sight he released Sulu and let out a huge sigh of relief.

"I can not believe that actually worked!" Sulu exclaimed. Jim looked at him, feeling the same glee and utter relief at having managed to escape. "How did you know that would work?"

"I'd done it before. Sorta," Jim said with a shrug. Before Sulu could respond (likely to demand a better explanation) they found themselves being beamed aboard the Enterprise. Jim barely had time to blink before a tricorder was being shoved in his face.

"I'm fine Bones. Minor scrapes from the jump," Jim said pushing the tricorder away and beginning the walk to the bridge.

"Jump! What jump? This was supposed to be an easy mission Jim!" Bones griped, following Jim and muttering complaints the whole way. At least he had started waving the tricorder over Sulu instead of Jim. Same results. Just minor scrapes and a couple bruises.

"It was awesome!" Sulu declared once they had reached the bridge. "The captain had us jump out of the shuttle just before it went over a cliff. Made the natives think we had went over with it! It was genius," Sulu praised.

"Was not. It only worked because there were rocks nearby. Last time I did that maneuver it was in a desert and I got caught by the cop," Jim waved off the praise. He grabbed a padd from Spock and sat in his chair to begin filing his report.

"Keptin? Vhat do you mean by last time?" Chekov asked curiously. Jim sighed, knowing that his little slip would make all of them curious. And yep. The whole command crew, plus Scotty and Bones, were looking at him expectantly.

"You guys really want to hear the story that bad? It's not even a good one," Jim said. As one, the entire crew nodded. Jim knew he couldn't get out of story time when even Spock was curious.

"When I was about thirteen, my stepfather Frank was planning to sell my dad's antique car. I was already angry because Sam had left earlier that day. So when Frank said that I decided to do something about it. Naturally he called the cops on me but I didn't really care. Not like they could do anything to a minor. Drove the car off a cliff and jumped out last second. Almost went over because I didn't account for the momentum but I didn't. Frank threw a hissy fit and the car is still at the bottom of the ravine," Jim shrugged.

"That sounds epic," Sulu whispered to Chekov happily. And based on the way Bones was now glaring at the pilot, their CMO disagreed with that statement. Jim snorted lightly. Sulu was more of an adrenaline junky than Jim was. That was saying something, as Jim had his moments. Most of said moments centered around bad luck and doing the crazy stuff in order to live but occasionally Jim did seek out the crazy adrenaline pumping thrills intentionally. As in, when not on a mission so he didn't have to stress.

Jim had a feeling (one of resigned acceptance) that by this time tomorrow, the story of how he drove a car off a cliff when he was a teen would be spread to the whole crew. He honestly didn't understand it. That was honestly tame compared to some of the stuff he's pulled before.

I actually wanted to work on a different idea but since this chapter was half finished I needed to complete it first. You guys might get lucky, depending on how long I can stay focused, and get two chapters today. I'm not sure how long it'll take to write the idea I actually wanted to work on when clicking on this doc.

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