Divergence
Planet-side: Earth, San Francisco, Starfleet Academy, year 2246
The lighting down here was at fifty percent to mimic night as there were no windows. This all added to the atmosphere of the holding cells being deep underground, utilitarian and slightly creepy. Jim Kirk pressed himself flat against the wall and peered around the corner before jerking back. There were three guards posted in front of McCoy's cell. Pike tossed him a phaser. Jim almost dropped it in surprise when he caught it; it was almost twice the weight of what he was used to! Admiring the older design, he gave a huff of amusement.
"God, I forgot how heavy these things were."
Pike gave him a withering look and switched his phaser to stun. Jim took another look around the corner. All of the officers had their phaser guns holstered except for one guy, but they were all alert and ready.
"Why does he get all the extra security?" Jim frowned as he pulled back to his previous stance against the wall. "He's a doctor. The only thing he's dangerous with is a hypo-spray."
Pike cocked an eyebrow, "He's also got a temper and knocked out two of his interrogators."
He stared at the older man for a beat, trying to figure out if the man was being serious. Pike's expression didn't change. Okay, that did sound like Bones' reaction to stress – he supposed it was a good thing for those two interrogators that it had only be Bones' fist and not a hypo-spray; Bones could do a lot worse with a hypo-spray. Jim looked down at the phaser, marveling at it even as he checked it over again to make sure it was on stun.
"What's our plan?"
"My plan is for you stay here while I go and talk to them."
Just then, someone came around the far corner, startling them. Panicked, Jim hid the phaser between the wall and his body and pulled at his cadet uniform with the other hand, and drew a temporary blank as to what to do with his hands or how to convince her that he had a legitimate reason to be here. Pike adopted an intimidating pose with his arms folded. He raised eyebrows to draw Jim's attention and mouthed for just to 'play along.'
"Cadet, if I find you drunk in public again, there will be consequences."
Jim almost started laughing. He'd heard that before – in almost exactly the same tone.
"Yes sir," He mumbled, ducking his head in shame and looking to the wall so as to avoid his face being seen.
The security officer walked by them with a quick nod and smile for Pike, only sparing Jim a glance of passing interest. The commander returned her greeting, putting on a good pretense of distraction.
"Is she gone yet?" Jim asked under his breath, still not daring to raise his head.
Pike raised a hand for him to stay quiet.
"You're on community service duty, 0700 every Saturday till further notice."
The woman rounded the next corner and disappeared into the turbolift there.
"All clear. Let's do this."
Before Jim could ask again what the plan was, Pike tore off the cover for the lock mechanism of a nearby office and slipped inside, coming out moments later bearing two PADDs, older than the current standard Academy issue ones Jim was used to.
"What are you doing?"
The commander didn't answer as he deftly pried the back panel of one of the PADDs open and pulled out a wire in a move that was too suspiciously well-practice for Jim to keep quiet about. Since this wasn't the time or place to interrogate the man about his unexpected delinquency skills, the younger man just let his eyebrows do the talking.
"Watch and learn."
Planet-side: Earth, San Francisco, Starfleet Academy, year 2246
"Can I help you sir?"
"I'm here to see the prisoner."
Opening his eyes at the familiar sound of Admiral Pike's voice, Doctor Leonard McCoy sat up and felt a nervous gurgle tumble through his stomach. Oh great, just what he needed – another creepy link to a future they were probably stampeding into amoeba with the way Jim was shooting off delusions of grandeur. "Saved the Federation" my ass! Jim had got the shit kicked out of him by a Romulan while that pointy-eared bastard stole the darn black-hole-creating ship and blew up the drill!
"Sir, I'm under strict orders by Admiral Johnson that no one is allowed to see him."
There was a sigh, followed by a slightly exasperated "Lieutenant… see what I'm holding here?"
What was he holding? The doctor tensed in anticipation, focusing all his attention on the conversation through the door.
"You're holding a PADD, sir." The guard sounded uncertain now.
"Hmm," Pike made a gravelly hum of speculation, dry enough to wipe one's hands on – it was nice to see that he knew how to put junior officers in their place even fourteen years ago. "And I guess it didn't occur to you that orders releasing the prisoner into my custody could be on this PADD?'
There was a short silence. McCoy stood up and walked over to face the doors, steeling himself for meeting the admiral – sorry, commander – with the same exasperated silence he'd been using to put off all the others that had tried to get him to spill. Honestly, he didn't know how many more damned hours of interrogation he could put up with. He was already dangerously veering towards several Temporal Prime Directive violations that were starting to look very attractive and he really didn't need any more incentive!
The doctor peered through the thin slits that allowed him to talk to the guards. Which, good God, was incredibly primitive - in the case of a real medical emergency, the guards wouldn't even know someone was dying in here choking on their own idiotic tongue! McCoy promised to himself that he'd have to see something done about this when they got back, if they got back, to their own Starfleet but soon got distracted by the sight of Pike hold out one of the PADDs he was carrying. The security officers looked at one another, expressions shifting as they considered their options.
Finally one of the guards took the device and touched the button to activate the screen. Arcs of electricity erupted from the PADD; the security officer twitched and then shook violently in a seizure before collapsing in a heap.
The second security officer jerked back from touching the second PADD, "What the-"
There was the sound of a phaser discharging and she froze with a gasp before tumbling to the floor, stunned. There was the shout from the third officer who stood for a moment too shocked by the sight of an attack on his colleagues by people purporting to be Starfleet, before he came to his sense and tried to escape by running the other way. Raising his phaser, Pike shot him in the back without blinking an eyelash.
The doctor's eyes widened; what in blazes was happening!
With a few beeps, the electronic lock turned with a harsh grind and his door poppped.
Leonard McCoy barely had time to gape before being immediately assaulted with a bear hug.
"Bones? Bones! How ya been!"
McCoy rolled his eyes, but patted the younger man on the back, "Should've guessed it was you! Couldn't you have done this the quiet way?"
"Ah, actually this was his idea," Jim beamed like a seven year-old on Christmas morning, jerking a thumb at Commander Pike. The man didn't spare them a glance, single-mindedly stripping phasers and communicators from the unconscious officers.
McCoy gaped, starting to understand why Jim Kirk had a few bolts loose if this was his shining example of a Starfleet mentor. The doctor glared at them, because they were obviously out of their God-given minds. Pike cocked an indifferent eyebrow in response to his accusing look and grabbed the body of the nearest security personnel under the arms, maneuvering the unconscious woman into the holding cell.
"You boys mind doing some work before we start the congratulations." Pike grunted as he half-pulled half-rolled the stunned body up onto one of the cots.
Suddenly, it occurred to McCoy that three people had just been electrocuted and stunned on his behalf and he hadn't even thought about their well-being. All Jim's bad influence, no doubt – so much for his medical degree. He wondered darkly if the excessive amount of time he was spending with Jim and his ilk was doing something to his brain. He'd signed up to Starfleet expecting to spend his days in the steady calm of Sickbay but now, it seemed half his waking hours were being spent locked up by angry natives, grumbling till Spock nervepinched some poor sod or Jim seduced or slugged the key out of someone.
"Gimme a look at her!" He snapped and checked the unconscious woman over, gentling prying open her eyelids to check her pupil response. The stun seemed to have been on a low enough setting that he wouldn't have to worry about her. Satisfied that she'd be right as rain after she slept it off, he turned to the man who'd been electrocuted – hmm, pupil responses were fine… "God knows what you did to the poor boy when you gave him that booby-trapped PADD –"
"Relax, Doctor, all I did was-"
"All you did was electrocute him! Do you know what that could do to the cardiac system if a high enough voltage was applied?" Heart rate was a little fast but still within parameters… hmm, nothing blocking his airways… "Where do you get off on-?"
"Okay, enough, Bones, enough!' Jim bit out, slinging the remaining man's arm over his neck, "We need to go so if you want to be a doctor, make it fast – Commander, a hand please?"
"Wait a damned minute here," McCoy spluttered, "Why are we running at all! The auto-beam is in like three hours – we'll be able to get outta here while sitting pretty, so what's with the space cowboy act?"
"Because they'll realize we have a ship in orbit," Jim puffed as he and the commander maneuvered the man into the room, "Do you want them to get their hands on Romulan cloaking technology they shouldn't have? And what's to say the cells aren't shielded?"
"Cloaking technology?" Pike froze in alarm, "Isn't that unstable? Only Klingon are crazy enough–"
Abruptly the sound of klaxons screamed through the compound, making everyone jump and derailing the commander from a very uncomfortable line of questioning. McCoy grimace but wasn't surprised. Jim looked up and around like he didn't know what was going down, an expression of "oh shit" coming over his face. The doctor sighed in long suffering. This stuff always happened. Jim swore under his breath and quickly dragged the remaining officer's unconscious body into a corner with Commander Pike's help.
I swear, Jim, you are the human incarnate of Murphy's Law…
There was cascading rumble from further down the corridor and around the corner, and McCoy frowned, trying to place the sound. Pike shot them both a grim look, having identified the approaching noise.
"Security teams," He explained, "It's standard procedure to sweep the area."
"Oh well crap!" Jim said unhelpfully. Without a word of warning, the younger man seized him by the arm and shoved him towards the cell cot.
"Get under the bed, Bones!"
"What?"
"Good idea," Pike smiled tightly, "I'll head them off."
With a nod, Jim dropped down on his knees and quickly started burrowing and twisting his way into the narrow area under the holding cell cot. Realizing what the kid was attempting to do, McCoy quickly followed, lying flat on his stomach and wriggling himself into place with a mix of movements from his elbows and knees. He felt like a catfish doing the dog paddle and probably looked a right idiot, but needs must. It was a tight fit; he could hardly lift his head off the floor more than two inches, and the whole place smelt like his great-grandmother's mothball closet. Somewhere out of his line of sight, Pike called for Medical on the wall-mounted comm. system.
"Can you see?" Jim whispered.
Not well; he could see Pike's leg but that was about it.
"Shut up!" He hissed back and then held his breath as a suspicious tickle went up his nostrils. The security team must have seen Pike because someone was running over, boots clacking on the hard floors. Besides him, Jim tensed.
"Sir!" A new pair of legs came into view, dressed in the standard grey Academy service uniform and a pair of regulation boots for a size eight in women's.
"He's gone already, Lieutenant."
"Sir, are they okay?" The woman sounded alarmed; she must have seen the bodies.
"I've called Medical. Focus on the search for the escaped detainees, Lieutenant, I want a sweep of all hallways, especially three and seven. Exits are there, make sure you cover them."
"Aye-aye sir!"
The boots disappeared down the corner followed by a flurry of shouted instructions for people to pan out and secure exits along corridors 3A and 7E. The commotion died down a minute later. Pike's feet turned in their direction.
"All clear."
Struggling out from under the cot, Leonard McCoy took in a deep blessed breath of clean air and promptly sneezed. Jim straggled out behind him, his purloined cadet uniform looking a little rough for wear with dark stains down his back and along his calves.
The doctor wriggled his nose in disgust, "The heart of the Federation Council and we still can't remember to clean under the bed – this could be a major health hazard you know."
"Your complaint is noted," Pike spared him a bemused glance away from the PADD he was studying.
What now, he thought – the hallways were packed with security officers after their heads and Pike had just ordered them to go ahead and protect the exits! Suddenly he noticed Jim in the corner, stripping off one of the uniforms.
"What in blazes are you doing Jim?'
Jim grinned and managed to pull the jacket off the unconscious man, "Getting you something else to wear – what? Don't give me that; we can't exactly keep a low profile with you walking around in civvies."
McCoy made a disgusted face. He knew exactly the hundred and one germs he could come into contact with just from wearing someone else's clothes, but – the doctor looked heavenwards as he resolved himself to suffer this indignity – he supposed he'll just hypo-spray himself with a cocktail of preventative antibiotics when they got back to the ship. He took the offered jacket, and started to strip off his own clothes.
"The things I do for you, Jim."
Planet-side: Earth, San Francisco, Starfleet Academy, year 2246
Jim Kirk, sometimes Starfleet captain and current time-traveler, kept his head down and followed Commander Pike who was striding quickly and confidentially ahead, giving off the impression that he had somewhere to be right this moment so no one better stop him. They were out of the holding cell blocks and had just passed some gyms which appeared to be for hand-to-hand combat training. He'd taken his combat course with the rest of the Command track in the gym closer to their block so this was all new territory.
"How much longer till the automatic beam-out kicks in?"
He glanced at his chronometer. It was still stuck on 1409 hours – he winced – which meant that it was broken again and he'll need to get a new one off Requisitions. Spock was already practically snarling with every uniform he managed to mangle, he could just imagine the expression on the Vulcan's face when he put in yet another request. "Bones, what's the time?"
"Another three hours or so…"
"Not terrible, not great, but sounds feasible..." Pike muttered to himself and tapped a few more commands into the PADD he'd continued carrying all this time. "So all I have to do is keep you boys off the grid for just over three hours."
Jim craned his neck and peered over the man's shoulder – and saw a bunch of street guides, mass transit timetables and network maps; it looked like they were going on an excursion. In the background, the sound of the red alert klaxon from the holding cell area continued to cry shrilly, echoing against the dark polymer flooring. The security team would pan out as soon as they finished securing that area and this was the next place they'd look. Damn.
"Yeah, should be enough."
Jim tensed as a cadet walked by them with an armload of PADDs. Thankfully she gave them a cursory glance of interest but otherwise took no notice of them. He shared a pleased look with McCoy - because see, playing dress-ups did have its benefits - but the man only rolled his eyes in exasperation. One of the turbolifts opened ahead of them, and a team of engineers streamed out, all talking loudly in their confusion. Jim kept his head down and murmured a sorry when he bumped shoulders with a few of them. The yellow alert had extended to this part of the Academy by now, the lights flashing on the walls and arching over the polished floors.
Pike acknowledged the attention given to him as a senior officer with a small nod, "Intruder alert, cadets. It's standard procedure so rendezvous with your squad leaders."
There was a chorus of "aye-aye sirs" and the team of engineers dispersed, jogging down the corridor, each to their own destination.
As soon as they were out of earshot, Jim turned to the commander, "What are we going to do now? Wander around the Academy till we get beamed? We're going to get seen or caught sooner rather than later."
Sure it hadn't happened so far, but Starfleet Security was no joking matter. The only reason they were doing so well was because between Pike and himself, they probably knew the system inside out, and were anticipating every step.
"I know," Pike grumbled under his breath, nodding at another passing Academy staff member who was heading towards the holding cells and trailed by several ensigns all bearing phasers. "We should get off campus as soon as possible. Security is tightening."
"Radius spread from a zero point; the exit points closest will be locked down first, and so on in a domino effect," He murmured sotto voce, recalling the standard Intruder Alert Protocol from somewhere in his memories. He'd never had much use for that piece of information except as an answer on a test back in First Year. Most intrusions upon the Academy were usually nipped pretty quickly before they even got into the solar system never mind the actual Academy grounds.
"Exactly," Pike said quietly, "So I recommend we run – we're ahead already so we'll catch up with the security lockdown at the next exit. Let's go."
In stationary position behind Charis: USS Enterprise, year 2246
Nyota Uhura raised her hands in the air, "Whoa, whoa, Chekov! Slow down!"
Almost jumping out of his skin and right-eyed, the Russian navigator gave her a short breathless laugh and ran a hand through his curls, "Oh, right, oh, I'm sorry…"
She studied his flushed appearance in concern, "Are you okay, Chekov? Look, let's try this again slowly, okay? From the beginning."
Taking a deep measure breath, Pavel Chekov started from the beginning. "Mister Scott and I have been thinking of ways to find the Romulan vessel…"
Uhura gestured for him to keep going.
"Now, the Romulans spent twenty-five years, looking for an electric storm in space or any subspace anomalies which might be a temporal disturbance, as well as all subspace transmissions within specific bandwidths!"
"Okay…" She paused, confused, "So what does this mean?"
Chekov beamed and raised both his fists like he was going to start doing fist pumps in his happiness, "We can mimic the subspace frequencies of the Vulcan Science Academy in the twenty-fourth century!"
Uhura felt something in her mind click, "Subspace frequencies? Specific to that period?"
"Exactly!" The young man nodded so hard it look like his head might be nodded off, "Only a Vulcan vessel of the twenty-fourth century would use these specific subspace frequencies as they are not part of the pre-programmed range for Starfleet nor any Vulcan vessels in the twenty-third century –"
"So if we were to send out coded messages in those bandwidths," Uhura met Chekov's eyes, catching on to what the navigator was attempting to say, "They're going to think we're from that time – from the future!"
"Yes! Yes, yes! And," Chekov held up a finger, a proud grin stretching across his lips, "While we cannot duplicate the effects of the temporal distortion, we can create subspace oscillations!"
Lieutenant Nyota Uhura frowned, and held her hands up again to stop the speech that Chekov was about to launch into, "Okay. Stop there. What does that even mean?" She narrowed her eyes, attempting to find a frame of reference within her education in subspace communications, "Subspace oscillation? I mean, that's just natural subspace interference isn't it?"
The navigator was practically vibrating in his excitement now but managed to control himself from lapsing into Russian, "You know how to filter it out and distinguish between naturally occurring subspace phenomenon and artificial subspace signals, da?"
"Yes I know how, Chekov, but…" She frowned, her mind still drawing a blank, "How does this help?"
"According to our information, in ze twenty-four century, subspace oscillations are picked up by sensors as part of standard astrometric telemetry." Chekov explained, thrusting the PADD in front of her face. Uhura took it and wiped the finger smears off the screen, her eye curiously raking over the contents. Unfortunately, it was all engineering terms and mathematics, which she found illegible except for the odd Gaelic word – Scotty's handiwork no doubt. "Zey cause minor gravimetric vibrations and are considered as side effects of disruptions in subspace."
"So you mean, they'll … notice it?" She asked tentatively, trying to grasp what Chekov was sharing.
"Aye! It's a space anomaly!" Chekov threw his hand up and almost knocked a passing crewman in the head with the mug. Uhura refrained from rolling her eyes when the young man didn't even noticed. She discretely gestured an apology on his behalf at the bewildered midshipman.
"An anomaly…" She repeated, starting to smile, "Okay, so they'll come after it."
"Exactly!"
Nyota Uhura cocked her head to the side, a thought suddenly occurring to her – namely, her Vulcan crewmember: "Why are you telling me this and not the Commander?"
Chekov gave her a small embarrassed smile, "Mister Scott was hoping you could help us with the subspace oscillation, to make it as authentic as possible. We also need messages in Vulcan for transmissions."
She grinned and handed the PADD back, "Let's get started."
Planet-side: Earth, San Francisco, Starfleet Academy, year 2246
Doctor Leonard McCoy ducked behind a tree and felt a hot sizzle slice along the tip of his right ear. They'd successfully evaded the security lockdown protocols after running for what seemed like a mile, and then just as they were out in the open air, walking towards freedom, someone just happened to catch sight of them and raised the alarm.
Damn Jim and his Murphy's Law curse!
McCoy peered out from behind the tree, trying to catch sight of where Jim or Commander Pike had gone but all he got for his trouble was another attempt to stun him. He quickly went down into a crouch before attempting to take another look, keeping his eyes peeled for that annoying ensign who kept trying to pop him a good one – oh, just she wait when he got his hands on a phaser!
More Security teams were arriving by the minute, but fortunately for him, they were required to cross the open green lawns of the Academy grounds where there was little to no cover. Even with his lack of tactical knowledge, it was blatantly obvious that he had an advantage over any Security team that would try and approach. Too bad that he didn't have a phaser, the doctor mused.
McCoy looked around aimlessly. The darkness and the pockets of lit up areas didn't make it easy to find Jim or the commander. Suddenly, his eyes caught movement to his right. It was Jim, waving his hand like a maniac while hiding behind a park bench and trading phaser fire with their pursuers like they were in a good old-fashioned western shoot-out. The idiot! He waved tentatively back and flinched when a phaser fired from behind him, neatly stunning a Security officer who had been about to sneak up on him from the left. He spun around.
Winona Kirk put down her phaser.
"You should be more careful, Doctor."
"Tell that to him!" He scowled, gesturing wildly at where Jim was taking cover before realizing who had just saved him from a phaser stun and turning back to do a double-take.
"Here," the commodore darted forwards to collect the dropped phaser and threw it to him.
McCoy caught it on reflex, completely flabbergasted by her sudden appearance. The phaser fitted about as good as gorilla gloves – oh what he'd give for a nice laser scalpel instead.
"Ah… thanks." I think, he silently added, giving the woman who gave birth to the likes of Jim Kirk a long disbelieving stare.
Suddenly his attention was drawn to a flash in the dark to his wider peripheral left. Raising the phaser, McCoy spun and fired without thinking. There was a grunt of surprise in the darkness before a female officer tumbled onto the green grass, her phaser falling slack from her fingers.
"You're a good shot, for a medical doctor."
McCoy ignored the compliment. The smell of blaster discharge filled the air like burning ion, making the pit of his stomach turn and he really didn't care for making conversation even if he felt a bit rude.
"Winona! What the hell are you doing?" Pike yelled from the next tree over, his back pressed hard against the trunk as the security detail responded with a series of retaliating blasts.
The older woman grinned, mirroring the commander's pose by hiding against the nearest tree. "What's wrong, Chris? Not happy to see me? Don't worry Commander, I'm just passing through."
Leonard McCoy rolled his eyes at the hint of teasing in the woman's voice. She was Jim's mom alright – to be flirting or whatever it was she thought she was doing while people were shooting at them was just ridiculous, more so because she was a commodore for Pete's sake!
"Why aren't they trying to kill us?" McCoy snarled, trying to bring their attention back to the business at hand. He quickly fired off a few wild shots to get himself some breathing room. He didn't understand why the Security personnel were firing stun-setting only. They could have vaporized the trees he was using for cover but instead they were shooting at him with what were essentially blanks. Between the three of them, they could pick off any approaching back up for now, but he wasn't sure how much longer they could keep it up. The phaser grew hot as he fired again and again.
Commander Pike dived as a blast got too close, hitting the ground with a pained grunt.
"Chris!" Winona Kirk yelled, letting loose a barrage of shots that prevented the man from becoming the immediate target of seven trigger-happy cadets.
McCoy dragged Pike up and behind the tree just as several blasts snicked the grass where he had been. Breathing a little heavier than earlier, Pike hoisted his phaser and glanced quickly around the tree trunk at their targets.
"This is all DTI approved, Doctor," The older man fired a shot before ducking back behind cover, "I'm under orders to get you out of here and they're under orders to pursue, capture only."
McCoy grabbed the commander by the arm, his mind racing, "Wait, are you saying this is a set up? Are you saying Starfleet actually wants us to escape?"
He looked to the commodore, who was looking at them intensely, obviously eavesdropping, "And what about her, huh?"
Before Commander Pike had a chance to explain, the sound of law enforcement sirens filled the air at an almost deafening decibel. Leonard McCoy grimaced and covered his ears in pain. His head snapped upwards to look for the source. Flood lights scorched his face through the branches. Beside him, Pike swore in Klingon.
"So did the DTI invite them to this party too?" He yelled over the clicking sirens.
The older man shot him a dark look, hand clamped over one ear.
'CITIZEN. PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND PREPARE TO BE ARRESTED.'
The electronic voice resonated across the green lawn, hard and metallic. McCoy grimaced; he could barely see with the glare in his eyes but there appeared to be five – no, six – auto-police units hovering approximately ten meters above them, their engines humming in low-pitched harmony. Mindless God-forsaken drones, he thought angrily. McCoy had always thought the government was moronic for introducing robotic units to do primary police work.
And now I have proof… beautiful, I'll cite a complaint as soon as I get the hell out of here...
Pike grabbed him by the shoulder and pried his hand away from his ear, "When I give you the order to run, run – get Jim and -!"
There was a bright streak of phaser fire from beside him and suddenly, one of the floodlights blinked out. The damaged police unit swerved wildly and knocked into two of the others. Alarmed screams filled the air as the unit veered closely to the ground, sending several Starfleet officers diving face down onto the grass to avoid it. There was another burst of phaser fire, followed by the sound of a small explosion. The damaged unit began to spin erratically, its propulsion systems grinding like metal.
"Watch out people!" Winona Kirk yelled over the field, leaving the cover of the tree line and waving her hands for attention, "Get out of the way!"
McCoy ran for cover and cursed under his breath at the sight of a young ensign looking around lost and confused – the idiot was standing straight in the path of the damaged auto-police unit!
"Get down kid!" He shouted and tackled the boy to the grass, rolling them out of danger.
Overhead there was the horrid crunch of a midair collision, shouting, several people screaming and the harsh fizzle of more phaser fire. He felt the grass tremble as the police unit crashed to the ground some twenty meters away and self-destructed in a barrage of sparks, smoke and flames. His blood thudded like war drums in his ears and he felt vaguely sick – definitely a doctor, not a cowboy…I am too old to deal with this crap...
McCoy pulled away and looked down at the young man he'd just knocked down.
"You saved my life," The ensign said in a shaky voice eyes wide in shock.
'CITIZEN. PUT DOWN YOUR WEAPONS AND PREPARE TO BE ARRESTED.'
Before he even had time to ask if the young man was okay, someone dragged him up by the back of his jacket. It was Jim, who was panting heavily, and firing non-stop at the flood lights, knocking them out with surprising accuracy. Pike skidded to a stop besides them, his phaser blaring brightly with each shot he fired.
"Come on!" Jim yelled, "Dammit Bones, get moving!"
There was pandemonium as they ran with Academy security and cadets who'd been caught in the cross fire. The distinct hum of the police auto-units streaked by his head, way too close for comfort. Suddenly Jim stopped running and pointed his phaser up into the night sky, firing at a police auto-unit that was preparing to come about. The unit sharply veered to the left and quickly gained altitude to avoid the blasts. Next to him, the commander's phaser fire joined Jim's. There was a wobble in the unit's tail lights before suddenly it exploded, engulfed in a large fireball that flared hotly across his face and made the air tremble. The wreckage dropped like a deadweight sending Starfleet officers and cadets scrambling for cover.
"You're good at this."
McCoy glanced at Jim, who shrugged and met Pike's disbelief with chagrin, "Would you believe that I used to get hunted by these things every other week when I was a kid?"
"Why am I not surprised?' McCoy quipped testily, before looking around him and realizing that someone was missing; Winona Kirk, the woman who'd given life to the bane of his existence, was nowhere to be seen.
Grinning and at ease, Jim missed his troubled expression. Clapping him on the shoulder firmly with both hands, the younger man spun him around towards the main gates of the Academy grounds some four hundred meters away. "Focus, Bones, we're escaping remember?"
Leonard McCoy resisted the urge to punch his young captain in the face for grinning when they'd spent the last twenty minutes dodging phaser fire, and turned stiffly to face the more mature member of their little escape plot, "Commander, have you seen the commodore?"
Jim blinked in confusion, "The commodore…?"
McCoy sighed. It was just typical that the kid had been so busy with his little shoot-out he wouldn't have noticed his mother gate-crashing their party. The doctor opened his mouth to explain what happened when a hovercar roared towards them across the green. It arrived before they'd even have time to run and descended smoothly in a tail-spin turn till it was alongside. For a moment, Jim tensed, grabbing hard onto his arm with the intention of pulling him into a run, but then they all got a good look.
Commodore Winona Kirk nodded her head to the back seat, "Get in. Who knows how to bypass hovercar security?"
A stunned look still on his face, Jim raised his hand in a jerky move. McCoy had a feeling that it was reflex doing the work and that the younger man's brain was probably still dealing with the fact that his mom was here in a hovercar, an accessory to breaking the two of them out of Starfleet detention.
She nodded to a fleet of hovercars nearby in the parking area, all on standby and unguarded in the confusion going on. "Get another car, we need to lose them and then regroup – Sector 25, in front of the Betazed Art Gallery. Know where that is?"
Jim nodded curtly, still wide-eyed.
"Good. Let's go."
A slow grin stretched across Jim's face, and McCoy exhaled noisily when the younger man turned to him with a smirk as if to say – see Bones, my mom is just awesome! His mom was a Starfleet commodore who knew how to bypass hovercar security features - a "carjacker" to use the crude term - and there was something seriously twisted with the kid that he was happy about it. The younger man took off at a hard sprint, jumped into a Starfleet hovercar and disappeared from view, no doubt bypassing the security features. The engine gave a low hum as it switched on. Jim waved at them.
"Is he really a Starfleet captain?" Pike asked under his breath.
"I wonder that every damn day," Leonard McCoy admitted grudgingly as they climbed into the flitter, staring hard at the woman who gave birth to Jim Kirk, "Are you sure she's really a commodore?"
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