Disclaimer: I do not own Star Trek. I do not claim to! I only own my OC Farrah! :)
Thanks to all who reviewed! Glad you liked the little flashback/memory I added. And Jim doesn't know Farrah is Pikes daughter... So I guess he is in for a shocker. I think I explain a bit as to why he, and some people don't know her true last name in this chapter. I will most certainly touch more on it though.
The next morning after the test, Farrah was on her way to the library when a voice came over the intercom.
"All fourth year students please make your way to the assembly hall."
She sighed wondering what this could be about, and turned around to go back the way she came.
As she neared the doors to the assembly hall she heard her name being called. "Farrah!"
She turned around seeing her best friend Nyota Uhura coming up behind her. "Hey!" She greeted as they fell in step with each other.
"Any idea why they called us here?" Farrah asked Nyota, for more reasons than one.
She knew all about Nyota and the Vulcan Spock's relationship, they had their troubles, what with Spock being a half human-half Vulcan, he had to hide his emotions and had trouble expressing them. Something Nyota had trouble dealing with, as she was fully human and expressed hers without holding back.
She had told Spock she loved him and he hadn't said anything back to her, she had run to Farrah in tears and told her all about there secret relationship, seeking comfort and advice. Farrah was pretty shocked to say the least. She had never met the Vulcan commander, seeing him only in passing. But from that he always seemed so, Vulcany... Emotionless to everything around him, using logic only to get through life.
She hadn't even known he was half human until Nyota told her. She was so angry at him for hurting her friend she said she was going to go try the new techniques she had learned in her combat class that day on him. That was when Nyota had reminded her that he would probably use the Vulcan nerve-pinch on her, not so subtly letting her know she would be pummeled, and possibly expelled.
He was one of the academy's most distinguished graduates and even though she knew Admiral Marcus, and who her father being who he was, she couldn't be sure that was enough to save her from being kicked out.
"Nope, I didn't see him last night, or this morning," Nyota answered her question guessing where her thoughts had gone.
"I wonder what it could be," Farrah mused to herself, though she had a pretty good idea.
The test yesterday that Jim had passed by some miracle didn't seem like a miracle at all. She had called him out on her idea that he cheated, and he didn't deny it. If she could figure it out, then most likely the instructors could as well.
They walked inside the lower part of the assembly hall with their fellow fourth year cadets, all of them noticing the fifteen chairs filled by the Academy board in their grey uniforms patiently waiting for everyone to take their seats and be quiet.
Once everyone had settled down, Admiral Richard Barnett leaned forewords slightly towards his microphone, "This session has been called to resolve a troubling matter. James T. Kirk, step forward," He announced to the room as everyone turned to look at Jim whose face held some surprise at being called up as he sat beside Bones.
"Cadet Kirk, evidence has been submitted to this council," The Admiral continued as Jim looked at Bones before standing up and making his face down to the podium set up, "Suggesting that you have violated the ethical code of conduct pursuant to Regulation 1,7. 4,3 of the Starfleet code. Is there anything you care to say before we begin, sir?"
Jim looked away from the Admiral and to the gathered students all watching him like a hawks, all quite so they wouldn't miss anything. He took a deep breath before answering, "Yes, I believe I have the right to face my accuser directly,"
The Admiral nodded looking up in the stands, Jim following his gaze to find out who the accuser was. "Step forward, please," The admiral called up to thestands and a man in grey stood up from his aisle seat, before making his way down to the other podium.
The first thing that Jim Kirk noticed about him was his ears, that were pointed at the tips, a sign he was not human, most likely Vulcan, the straight cut hair confirming his suspicions, "This is Commander Spock. He is one of our most distinguished graduates," Barnett introduced him.
"He's programmed the Kobayashi Maru exam for the last four years," The admiral continued as Jim eyes his accuser, knowing he would have trouble winning this argument if he was against a Vulcan.
"Commander?" Admiral nodded to Spock signaling him to begin.
"Cadet Kirk, you somehow managed to install and activate a subroutine in the programming code, thereby changing the conditions of the test," Spock spoke to the room explaining exactly what Jim had done.
"Your point being?" Jim questioned him.
"In academic vernacular, you cheated," Barnett elaborated for him and the room that suddenly erupted in to low whispers, not low enough though, as Jim could hear them loud and clear.
"Let me ask you something I think we all know the answer to," Jim started up, although he knew he would have trouble winning this argument, it didn't mean he wouldn't try. Doing the impossible and making it possible was what Jim did best after all.
"The test itself is a cheat, isn't it?" He questioned the Vulcan, "I mean you programmed it to be un-winnable,"
"Your argument precludes the possibility of a no-win scenario," Spock calmly replied his hands behind his back as the hall went silent again.
"I don't believe in no-win scenarios," Jim told him and the rest of the people listening in.
"Then not only did you violate the rules, you also failed to understand the principle lesson," Spock told him pausing at the end to see if possibly James T. Kirk would understand what that lesson was.
"Please, enlighten me," Apparently not.
"You of all people should know, Cadet Kirk, a captain cannot cheat death," Spock said turning his head to look at him as Kirk leaned on his podium but shifted in his direction.
More whispers filled the room and some people even oohed, Farrah Pike could only gawk at Spock, the man she knew her best friend loved deeply. She could see what Spock was aiming towards, and having lost her mother, could sympathize with Jim's pain of losing his father. She knew she would not appreciate what Spock was about to do anymore than Kirk would.
Jim looked at the cadets in the stands from the corner of his eye before his throat started to feel closed up with the emotion he felt from his father's death. He looked away from everyone around the room to stare at the podium, something he did when trying to shield himself from the hurt he felt.
Although he had never met his father, only having his uncle Frank, who used to verbally and physically abuse him when his mother went off planet as an example, he loved his father and saw the honor in his sacrifice. The sacrifice that saved himself and his mother from certain death, but he often wondered what his life would have been like had his father survived.
"I of all people?" He questioned Spock only a second later.
"Your father, Lieutenant George Kirk assumed command of his vessel before being killed in action, did he not?" Spock elaborated on what he was getting at, though Kirk already knew where he had been going.
"I don't think you like the fact that I beat your test," Jim replied trying to get a rise out of the Vulcan.
"Furthermore, you have failed to divine the purpose of the test," Spock continued unfazed by Kirk's attempt to get a rise of emotion from him.
"Enlighten me again," Jim replied.
"The purpose is to experience fear," Spock told him calmly, "Fear in the face of certain death. To accept that fear, and maintain control of oneself and one's crew. This is a quality expected in every Starfleet captain," Spock explained to him as Jim looked away and down at the podium once again.
Before he could reply however, the doors to the hall slid open and a commander walked up to Admiral Barnett muttering, "Excuse me, sir," and handing him a data pad.
Barnett nodded and took the data pad from his hands scanning through the information quickly before addressing the room, "We've received a distress call from Vulcan," He announced making Spock whip his head around from James Kirk and back to the Admiral.
"With our primary fleet engaged in the Laurentian system, I hereby order all cadets to report to Hanger One immediately. Dismissed," He instructed and immediately all the cadets in the room stood up at the last word walking orderly out of the hall.
Leonard McCoy walked up behind Jim as he watched the Vulcan leave, turning to Bones in question, "Who was that pointy-eared bastard?"
"I don't know, but I like him," Bones replied with a pointed look in Kirks direction, of course he would Jim thought as he looked at his friend in disbelief before following him to Hanger One.
"Fugeman, Regula One! Gerace, U.S.S Farragut! McCoy, U.S.S Enterprise! McGrath, U.S.S Wolcott! Rader, U.S.S Hood. Welcome to Starfleet, and Godspeed," A male commander listed off the assembled cadets in front of him who walked off to their assigned ships, all but two of them.
"He didn't call my name," Jim said to McCoy before quickly walking after the Commander while calling out, "Commander? Sir, you didn't call my name. Kirk, James T," He said to him as he walked up to a control panel.
"Kirk, you're on academic suspension. That means you're grounded until the Academy Board rules," The Commander replied before he walked off.
"Jim, the Board will rule in your favor," Leonard said to his friend before looking away thinking about what he'd said, "Most likely," He added.
Leonard sighed before turning to his friend with an apologetic look, "Look Jim, I gotta go," He told him.
Jim nodded and turned around with a small smile holding out his hand for his friend, "Yeah. Yeah, you go. Be safe," He told him.
Leonard nodded shaking his hand before they let go and he turned around to head to the Enterprise, he had to keep walking, just keep walking, don't look back he told himself but the next thing he knew his feet were stopping and he turned around, "Damn it," He mumbled to himself.
He looked behind him seeing Jim standing there with his back turned to him looking lost, why couldn't he be emotionless and think logically like that green-blooded hob-goblin he wondered to himself as he stalked back to Jim, cursing his body for making him look back and seeing his friend all pathetic looking, in turn causing him to do something he was very much not supposed to do.
"Come with me," Leonard said to Jim grabbing his arm and pulling him away from his pathetic standing around.
Farrah Pike stood in a clump of nine other cadets, well Lieutenants now as they had technically graduated, two of them being her roommates and most of them ones she had come to know in her time at the academy.
"All right, listen up! I'm gonna read this list one time, and one time only!" The Commander assigning them to there ships called out.
The names sort of blurred together, she was only listening for the ones her friends would be assigned to so started listening even more when she came to her friend's name, "Bryton, U.S.S. Newton! Uhura, U.S.S. Farragut! Pike, U.S.S Enterprise! Petrovosky, U.S.S Antares! Go to your stations and good luck," She told them before walking away.
Gaila who stood in front of Farrah and Nyota smiling widely at her assignment, only receiving a dour expression from Nyota and an apprehensive one from Farrah.
Nyota stalked off, scanning the crowds looking for a certain Vulcan.
"Commander, a word?" Nyota asked Spock funding him at a control panel.
"Yes, Lieutenant?" He replied calmly without looking at her.
"Was I not one of your top students?" Nyota asked him.
"Indeed you were," Spock agreed with her words, as they were true.
"And did I not on multiple occasions demonstrate an exceptional aural sensitivity and, I quote," Nyota argued back following him as he walked away from the control panel, "an unparalleled ability to identify sink anomalies," in sunspace transmissions tests?"
"Consistently, yes," Spock replied turning around to face her.
"And while you were well aware that of own qualified desires to serve on the U.S.S Enterprise," She said to him saying the ships name with barely concealed longing, "I'm assigned to the Farragut?" she questioned saying the name with disdain.
"It was an attempt to avoid the appearance of favoritism," Spock replied looking around them, but seeing no one was paying attention to them.
"No. I'm assigned to the Enterprise," Nyota told him with conviction.
Spock looked at her a moment before looking down at his data pad and punching in some buttons changing her assignment quickly before looking up at her, "Yes, I believe you are," Spock agreed.
"Thank you," Nyota replied pleased with her changed assignment before Spock walked off.
Farrah walked through the mess of shuttles until she came to the one heading for the Enterprise, she took a deep breath, knowing this was it. She had been on the Earth Space dock only once before in her life when she was thirteen, her dad offering her and Magnolia a tour of it.
Then she had been a teen, amazed that she was in space and mystified by the stars. Now she would be going on a Starfleet ship, and away from earth. Not as a civilian passenger but as a Lieutenant and a Tactical Officer at that.
It was frightening to think about, Vulcan wasn't asking them to come to their planet for a visit, no they had called for help sending them a distress signal. She had no idea what awaited her or any of the other cadets, Lieutenants now she corrected still getting used to the idea.
Possibly they could just be having a natural disaster and needed help in the evacuation, or the tactical part of her mind whispered, they could be being attacked by someone and needed help in defending themselves.
It was also exciting, she would be traveling to another planet. It was amazing to think she, Farrah Jade Pike was about to be in space, traveling at warp speed and possibly putting her skills to use.
But was it her skills that had caused her to be assigned to the Enterprise, as the chief Tactical Officer no less, her skills being needed and well warranted. Or was it because her father was the ship's Captain? She often used her mothers maiden name rather than her fathers, people treated her different hen they found out her last name. She wasn't interested in people being nice to her and being her friend because of her name, or others looking at her in disdain, believing she had no right to be in Starfleet, only because she was a Pike. And so whenever possible she wouldn't use it, her instructors had called her Pike in the first year until she asked them to call her by Noël.
It took quite a lot of convincing, but they eventually relented. Still she could not change her name, she was proud to be a Pike. And was still technically Lieutenant Pike, as her birth certificate had it as her last name. It would also be silly to change it, Farrah tried not to run from her problems, but hide from them instead. Which was almost the very same thing.
She would never really know the answer to it, Pikes were born for the stars, so maybe it was her destiny to be in Starfleet, or maybe it was sheer luck. She would show all those who doubted her, herself included that she wasn't there because of her last name, she was there because she was needed. She was Farrah Pike, and she would prove herself to them. With that last thought she stepped up to the shuttle getting scanned by the commander before walking inside getting a window seat and buckling herself in, awaiting the other Lieutenants to board the shuttle before they would finally take off.
Wasn't really feeling this chapter... It was more of a filler I suppose.. I promise tomorrows will be better. I just didn't have a lot of time to write this one, but wanted to get it up because all of you have been so amazing! So I am trying my hardest to have a new chapter up everyday!
Wasn't much, Jim/Farrah in this chapter either.. I think they are still working things out for themselves and I don't want to just rush into the romance right away. (But it will be there eventually!) Next chapter should have some Jim/Farrah scenes! (I hope/think)
Also.. How do you guys like Farrah's character? I tried to make her likable and realistic. Anything you do or don't like about her?