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Jim vaguely remembered his mom going to San Francisco when he was very young, She and Sam had been guests for the Memorial Day service. Thinking about it it must have been the year she re-enlisted in Starfleet, Jim's 4th birthday. Now it was Jim's birthday on the 18th anniversary of the Destruction of the Kelvin. Starfleet always made a big deal of it. This year, the miracle baby of the USS Kelvin, Jim Kirk, was laying the wreath at the USS Kelvin memorial at Starfleet headquarters.
The seventeen year old Jim Kirk, had recently arrived with Christopher Pike from the Vulcan Colony on Debrenev III on the USS Yorktown, looking like a young Vulcan schoolboy including full Vulcan dress, hand woven cap and emotionless demeanor. The rumour mill at Starfleet had been circulating that the younger Kirk had a genius level IQ and had been studying with the Vulcan Academy of Sciences and had arrived home to undertake his college education at the tender age of 17. In fact, the primary objective in coming back to Earth was for Jim to learn how to be a human young adult again and lose the comfort of his emotionless Vulcan facade.
As he entered adulthood, Jim Kirk had become a hopeless suck up to win T'Keleth's approval, she was his primary healer at the Debrenev Institute. His attempts at being the perfect Vulcan son resulted in extreme amusement for the Vulcan healer and her staff. Not that his time there had started like that, oh no Jim Kirk had initially fought like a devil, kicking and screaming at the healers and butting heads with the programme of therapy, running off, playing truant. He had taken six months to settle in. Jim was still proud of his record of 115 demerits in one week. His time at the institute would leave Kirk with a lifelong love of certain Vulcan Foods, music and past times. He regularly could be found in deep Vulcan meditation and had a fantastic vocabulary of Vulcan insults and swearwords. Most of which had been previously directed at him for being a ball of complete disruptive energy at times.
The Vulcan facade for the youngest Kirk was a shocking revelation for most of the Starfleet personnel he met. Those close to Pike, knew that Jim Kirk had received extensive psychological treatment after Tarsus, but the result seemed to have completely brainwashed the teenager. Pike was one of the few Kirk let his facade down for and only in private. Jim Kirk was also a strict vegetarian and had been since he was thirteen, and all attempts on the Yorktown to reintroduce all American and other earth meat based foods, even though replicated, had been completely rejected by him.
The wreath laying had seen Kirk, for the first time acknowledge his birth father and his sacrifice. The media also got a look at the young man who symbolised hope and the future of Starfleet after those dark days of an unprovoked attack on the science vessel. Mostly through the guidance of Chris Pike, Jim had got to know his father George Kirk, as Jim's mother had never discussed George with him. At least, Sam had memories of George Kirk, all Jim had a mixture of hero worship and resentment. Chris PIke had known his birth father well enough to call him a friend and had mentored him during his first voyage as a ensign, on cadet placement.
At the ceremony Jim had been introduced to many of the great and good within Starfleet but it was one man who he wanted to know. James Tiberius Kirk met Admiral Jonathan Archer for the first time. The blond haired young man stood apart from the networking and the polite conversations in his best tunic and leggings, a black cap hiding his blond hair. Jim watched the old man. Hoshi had told amazing stories of this man and the first Starship Enterprise. That old woman had made the journeying to the stars seem like wanderlust. Jim had travelled, always alone. The crew sounded like a family. Jim had grown to admire and be attached to Chris, his father in all but name. Jim had wanted to drop the name Kirk but Christopher Pike had told Jim to honour the father he had never known nor met. It had been Jim's introduction to Starfleet politics. The name of a Starfleet hero would open doors for Jim, the elite would want to know and to mentor Jim. Pike, like Jim's father had only hard work and total commitment to pave their way. Jim had a legacy to live up to.
Jonathon Archer stretched his back and smiled as a young Vulcan approached him. It was only when the boy started talking with the distinctive tones on an American boy did Jon Archer realise this was Captain Pike's adopted son.
Jim confessed to Archer that he had known and greatly admired Archer's friend and comrade Lt. Commander Hoshi Sato. The linguist had been a part time teacher on Tarsus, a favourite of Jim's. Jim then told the detailed story of Hoshi had mentoring Jim, praising his drive and love of learning, giving him special projects to complete. The the tale grew darker and the teenager told the admiral of the horrific details of the mass murder on Tarsus IV, where the old, the infirm and the young were surplus to requirements. How Hoshi's had duped the guards, sacrificing herself. Hoshi had been instrumental in starting the game of hide and seek at the community hall which had been used to cover for the children escaping into the ventilation ducts and to freedom. Case and JT has seen Kodo's guards leave the building and then burn it to the ground with all the residents of the beta settlement still inside, none the wiser that the kids had escaped. Archer with a heavy heart had processed all that this child had suffered and that twenty children hd survived a death squad due to her. Jon had then introduced Jim Kirk to bourbon and the human idea of honouring the dead by getting drunk. Jon then told many stories of Hoshi and their time together on the Enterprise to the young Kirk boy. Jim connected to the old man.
Chris Pike had not been amused at finding his son giggling and completely wasted after drinking several glasses of good Kentucky bourbon. For Jim Kirk and Jon Archer, it was the start of a long friendship.