Hey anyone who is still reading this. Sorry for the delay in posting this next chapter but here in England we actually had hot weather this weekend which is rare so spent the weekend out enjoying it with the family.
So we're up to F, I mulled over what I wanted to do with this one. Had a great suggestion to try and I do like to try to use what people ask to see, but also had an idea myself so I hope this is ok.
F is for Frank
Kirk enjoyed not having any major missions to go on, sometimes it was nice to just return to Earth and get involved in life at Starfleet HQ. He was assisting in training the 3rd year cadets in space flight manoeuvres, a course he always excelled at when he was a cadet.
The cadets in this course were learning to pilot vessels larger than a shuttle in dangerous manoeuvres, on this occasion they were using a small passenger transport shuttle, it was still a fairly short distance vessel but big enough to carry dozens of passengers. Being larger its ability to execute tight routines was limited and it was important that the cadets learnt how to do this safely.
Kirk was on the final day of training. He had 4 Cadets in his group. Cadet Hiles was the squadron leader, she was a petite brunette human but had the attitude of a woman who knew what she wanted and she was a strong leader. The rest of the squadron obviously looked up to her. Then there was Cadet Storock, a Vulcan. What can you say about a Vulcan, he was a stickler for the rules but was incredibly smart; Cadet Keynes a human male. Tall, stocky and perhaps a bit too cocky (truth be told he reminded Kirk of himself back in the day) and finally Cadet Triss a human female. She always appeared to be slightly terrified whenever Kirk spoke to her, he didn't understand why, she was more than confident in what she was doing and would pass his class with out any issues.
Kirk had instructed Hiles to bring the shuttle in to dock at Mars Oribiter, being a larger vessel it required more precision to get it safely to the docking port as you had to rely more on the sensor readings than the much better line of sight you can get in a smaller shuttle.
As they finished their approach an alarm went off on the console, "Sir, we have a panel opened in the back" Keynes informed Kirk. Kirk approached the console and checked the reading, it did indeed show that somewhere a panel had come open in the passenger quarters. Not wanting to delay their docking over something so minor Kirk instructed the cadets to continue with their docking whilst he went back to check the panel. Most likely someone had accidentally hit the controls to release it, easily done on these old vessels every control was so damn touchy.
"30 seconds to docking, all officers to their posts" Hiles announced, her voice confident in the instructions "clearance received from Mars Orbiter, final approach"
Kirk confident that his squadron had it under control ducked out the door and headed back into passenger quarters, there was indeed an engineering access panel that had popped open. Kirk reached down and shut it firmly to ensure that it was unlikely to open again, and before he had the chance to straighten up he was bought to attention by alarms blaring and screams erupting from the cockpit.
Turning on his heel he raced back to the doors, he could see smoke and feel heat. Running headlong into the glass doors he was horrified when they didn't open. Peering into the cockpit he could see it on fire, all his cadets were in there. Grabbing his comm of his belt he tried to reach Mars orbiter control but it was dead. Suddenly a figure banged against the doors, it was Triss, she was panicked and hammering on the doors. Behind her was just a wall of flame, Kirk couldn't even see the other cadets
"TRISS" Kirk yelled hammering on the glass, but it was specially designed to keep the compartments separate. All Kirk could do was watch as Triss slid down the glass, still trying to weakly hammer her way through. Kirk himself knew there was nothing he could do. He could feel the heat from the inferno but couldn't do anything to help the kids trapped inside. He watched as Triss finally stopped moving and fire engulfed her small frame.
"No" Kirk cried, "No. Mars control where the hell are you !?" He cursed, starting to cough at the small amount of smoke making its way through the seals of the cockpit. These old shuttles were not as up to spec as the more modern ones.
"Guess you couldn't do better than George huh Jim" The voice came from behind Kirk and he froze. He would know that voice anywhere but it can't be. Turning quickly expecting to find it all a figment of his imagination Kirk came face to face with the man from his nightmares
"FRANK, what the hell. How are you here, what the fuck" Kirk felt himself rooted to the spot, he felt the shuttle shake under him and the sounds of the arms crews trying to break open the airlock.
"Captain of a starship and yet you couldn't save 4 young kids from burning to death. Guess you're not the hero the federation news service make you out to be" That smirk he gave Kirk transported him back to his childhood, when that smirk would usually be followed by a punch to the head, or a kick to the stomach.
His voice barely above a whisper "What did you do?" Kirk asked, but Frank just laughed and as his form shimmered with a transporter beam Kirk just heard "Proving everyone wrong" before he was gone.
The sounds of fire extinguishers snapped Kirk back to reality and he could do nothing but watch the rescue teams put out the fire and force open the cockpit doors releasing Kirk.
"Sir, what happened" one of them asked Kirk but he couldn't respond. His heart was racing, he could feel the blood rushing in his ears as he looked at what remained of the squadron. His head was throbbing and his stomach was twisting into knots. He staggered out of the airlock, gasping for air and all he could think was "Frank". Beads of sweat poured down his forehead as he lurched towards the waiting medical staff but he only managed a few steps before his legs gave out on him and blackness filled his vision.
Kirk hit the deck, the only survivor of a shuttle accident that would go down in history.
.&.
Kirk was vaguely aware of voices, he tried to hear what they were saying. His brain was trying to bring him into conciousness but in the back of his mind the words "Frank is back" reverberated around his brain. No, he couldn't believe it. He decided he would rather stay in the blessed blackness than deal with the accusations his brain was making and slowly everything went quite again and the words stopped.
.&.
McCoy had been on duty at the Starfleet HQ infirmary when he had received the call from his counterpart on the Mars Orbiter station. His legs couldn't carry him fast enough to as he raced to the shuttle pad to be delivered to the station and to his friends side. lol he knew was that there had been a fire on board the shuttle Jim had been teaching in and that there had been deaths. He knew Jim wasn't dead but had no further update on his condition. Frustrated at the time it took for the shuttle to break earth orbit and finally reach Mars McCoy could barely contain his emotions. Nothing ever was easy was it, there was always something and if it wasn't always that damned corn fed kid that somehow always managed to find himself in the middle of it.
As the shuttle docked the airlock door had barely rolled back before McCoy was through the gap and racing towards the infirmary. Skidding to a halt as he raced through the infirmary entrance it didn't take his brain long to process the scene in front of him.
4 body bags laid on bio beds to the left of the entrance, they were being prepared for transport back to Earth where a full autopsy could be performed. In front of McCoy on the far wall was a bio bed with the body of his friend lying still on. Striding across the infirmary floor McCoy was stopped from reaching his friend by the duty doctor.
"Doctor McCoy I presume" she said, reaching out her hand to shake McCoys, "I'm Doctor Leah"
McCoy just stood there, dumbfounded for a moment, it hardly seemed like the time for pleasantries all he wanted was to be by Jim's side but the blond haired Doctor in front of him had positioned herself to make it obvious that she wanted to speak to McCoy first.
"Err, sorry, yes Doctor. How is Jim, I mean Captain Kirk?"
"He's ok, he went into shock and his blood pressure plummeted. He's still unconscious although has shown episodes of him possibly coming round but hasn't been lucid yet. " McCoy just nodded, shock could be very serious and given the sight of the 4 body bags it didn't take someone with Jim's genius levels to work out that Jim must have been the only survivor of a tragedy and the brain was great at trying to protect itself from too much emotional trauma.
"Understood Doctor." McCoy made to walk towards his friend when the doctor placed her hand on his chest "Kirk is your friend, I understand that; but I want to make sure you understand that here he is my patient. " McCoy thought that his could have sounded rude but Doctor Leah said it with a smile, she obviously understood the struggle that McCoy would be going through and in her place he would be doing the same. So he nodded his understanding to her and walked towards his friend.
Jim was pale and clammy, he had some soot marks around his nostrils where he had breathed in some toxic smoke. However his vitals were good, blood pressure could be a bit higher and his pulse rate a bit slower but overall his friend was blessedly stable.
McCoy rested his hand on Jim arms and bent towards his head "Jim, Jim can you hear me. It's Bones"
Kirks head began to slowly move from side to side, his eyes were flickering around under his eye lids "come on kid, wake up already. " McCoy implored of his friend. Jim's eyes shot open and he flung himself up to sitting position his eyes were full of panic and darting around the room, as Kirk made to throw himself off the bed McCoy grasped his arms "Woah Jim, woah, take it easy"
"Frank, where is he? I saw him" Jim still struggled under McCoys grasp. "Bones he's here, he did it"
"Jim stop, lay back. you're not making any sense." McCoy pushed with all the strength his taller frame could muster and pushed Jim back down into a lying position. But still Kirk fought against him, McCoy hadn't seen such panic in his eyes in a long time and Jim didn't panic easily.
Jim reached up and grabbed the front of McCoys tunic pulling him down towards him "Frank, I saw him...in the shuttle...he did it...the fire...I need to find him"
McCoy tried to prise Jim's hands open to release him from his grip "Frank your step father? Jim he's in prison. Jim let go will you!" Suddenly the grip was released and McCoy was surprised to see Jim start sobbing, the bio monitor above his head began to sound its alarm as his heart rate increased.
"He killed them, I couldn't do anything. I tried Bones, oh god I tried but the doors I couldn't get through the doors. It was hot and she was crying, screaming at me to help and I couldn't do anything. Bones, I've got to get out of here..." And Jim reverted back to trying to get up and off the bed.
McCoy replaced his hands on Jim's shoulders just as the Doctor Leah came into view besides him. "Sorry McCoy but his vitals are spiking, I need to sedate him. " McCoy knew his friend hated being sedated, and not just because he hated hyposprays but because he hated being at the mercy of someone else and not being able to do anything. But McCoy also knew that it was necessary in this instance and nodded his approval.
Doctor Leah loaded her hypo and leant down to speak to Kirk, "Captain, you need to relax. I'm going to give you something to help you sleep." Before she could press the hypo to Kirks neck he yelled and bucked like a wild animal, sending the doctor flying he threw himself off the bed and raced for the doors
"JIM, NO!" McCoy yelled as he raced after him. Grabbing Jim from behind and wrapping his arms by his side in a bear hug McCoy marvelled at how strong his friend was. The screams coming from him shook McCoy to the very core, his friend was seriously traumatised and despite all that McCoy had seen him go through he had never seen Jim react like this. "Jim you need to stop, please, I'm trying to help you" McCoy pleaded as Jim bucked against the arms restraining him.
Doctor Leah' arm reached around McCoy and pressed the hypo into Jim's neck and McCoy felt his friend try to jolt away from the hiss that followed. Slowly the fight left his body and as he began to go limp in McCoys arms McCoy slipped an arm under Jim's knees and carried him back to the bio bed. Laying his friends prone form down McCoy had to fight the bile that was rising in his throat. Jim had kept saying Frank was back, McCoy only knew one Frank and knew that the man with that name certainly had the ability to affect Kirk the way he had. McCoy took out his communicator and sent a message to the one person besides himself that he knew Jim trusted with his life.
.&.
Right, Frank is back duh duh duhhhhhhhhhhhhh. What does he have in store for our favourite Captain? Will Kirk be able to pull himself together enough to deal with him?
Ive got to get to bed (it's 11pm here) so I will attempt to finish this story tomorrow. As I said before I am really happy to take requests, suggestions, reviews etc. Please be kind though hahaha
