Disclaimer: I don't own the Rights to anything regarding Star Trek- this is just me having fun in a really fun genre created by G. Roddenberry.
Note: This is an ALTERNATE UNIVERSE, and a FRIENDSHIP FIC, there is NO ROMANCE.
Also, there may be a shift from present to past and then back again.
"Foreign Earth language translated to Standard."
"Alien Language translated to standard."
"Voice being listened to through a communicator."
'Telepathic speech.'
Thoughts.
"Occasionally, a foreign/alien word will be in a sentence."
"Fear makes strangers of people who would be friends." ~Shirley MacLaine
True Friendship- Interlude Earth
Roughly three terran days after the disaster, Admiral Archer was trying, and failing, to keep his head from falling to the desk. The Casualty lists were pretty high, they'd lost three admirals, six ships, the Space dock (which had been manned by 500 people), and the Academy (he didn't want to think about how many cadets didn't make it out) was pretty much wrecked along with half of San Francisco. He didn't even want to think about the actual number of enlisted they'd lost, or the civilians that had gotten caught in the crossfire.
He was getting too old for this. Way too old.
The Porthos had been on its way back to Earth when the Narada had attacked, and had arrived in time to see the Enterprise follow the Romulan ship. Archer hadn't followed, focusing instead on Earth and the immediate issues of saving lives.
"'Pike's alive, but quite possibly crippled.'" Admiral Komak read, scowling at the report from the Enterprise. "'Repairs progressing, but could still use aid.' Well, don't we all!"
"Admiral Komak, calm yourself. Enterprise was able to run the ship off, and put an end to a threat to the Federation." The Andorian Ambassador Shras gave a small smile. "You should be honored to have such warriors in your ranks."
"Doesn't change the fact Kirk ordered the Enterprise to chase after a dangerous ship."
"You've read the reports, it was the logical thing to do." Ambassador Sarek stated, face blank. "Can you deny that Kirk acted in the interest of the Federation by destroying the Narada?"
"I'm more interested in what Nero said about Kirk and the Enterprise." The Trill Ambassador spoke up. "Romulans telling bedtime stories about an Earth Captain? It's a different timeline, of course, but I know I speak on the behalf of my people in saying we want to see what this Kirk is capable of."
"As are the Andorians." Ambassador Shras agreed. "And, I imagine the Vulcans are already interested." He added, with a look at Sarek. "Your son follows your footsteps as an Ambassador in the Future, you must have been proud."
"Perhaps." Sarek gave a slight nod, putting Shras slightly off balance. "However, this has little bearing on our efforts of helping Earth."
"Quite right, if we can all focus back on the issue at hand?"
"My people are helping with the counseling needed." The Betazoid Ambassador spoke, folding his hands in his lap. "There is much grief and fear, but we are able to help those who wish to move forward. There are a few handfuls of humans who reject our help."
"Vulcan has a Space station we are willing to give as a temporary. It was meant for one of our colonies, but Earth has a greater need." Sarek spoke next.
"Andorian warriors are willing to help Starfleet, we shall patrol the border of the neutral zone in absence of the usual ships." Shras added.
"And the Trill are willing to help build. Have no fear about that." The Trill Ambassador smiled cheerfully. There was more talk of rebuilding efforts, where they should start, and how long it would take for the aftershocks to fade (at the least, a year, though that was pessimistic).
All in all, it went pretty well. With one incident at the end that left them all slightly off balance.
"You're joking." Kirk looked like he had aged a decade, and there was a cut on his cheek that was healing.
"I can assure you, Captain Kirk, it is not a joke." Sarek informed him, Ambassador Shras looking amused.
"The Klingons have really offered their aide?" Kirk leaned back in his chair, looking thoughtful. "Well, I guess that makes sense."
"And how do you figure that, Kirk?" Archer studied the young man on the screen.
"The Romulan ship took out a fleet, we know that much for sure. The Klingons wouldn't take that lightly. The fact we managed to do so . . . well, they're big on honor in battle." Kirk sighed.
"You look terrible, Kirk, what happened?" Admiral Barnett asked.
"Accident in engineering, Lieutenant Scott's yelling at the man as we speak. With the exception of two very vocal civilians, that's been the only excitement we've had. Pike is still confined to Sickbay, Acting CMO McCoy is taking his duties very seriously." Kirk gave them all a wry grin. "On a separate note, most of the slightly injured are back on duty again, and the younger cadets are doing quite well, though we're pretty sure a couple of them are focusing on work to keep themselves from falling apart."
"Understood, Kirk." Barnett sighed. "We've called in the Lexington and Excaliber to help- but we might need you to divert to another space dock or base for repairs."
"All due respect, you're the closest we can get to- Vulcan does not have a Space Dock or base, and the nearest would be about three weeks away at our current speed, our sickbay isn't stocked for that amount of time." Kirk pointed out, and Barnett stopped Komak from saying anything as Kirk continued. "Alright if we drop off civilians and badly injured before we go? If I can get some people to replace crew, that would be even better- too many people want word on their families."
"We can do that, Captain, I gather some of your crew is about ready to start fighting?"
"We've got a small knot of discontent, spear-headed by a couple civilians, it's being dealt with, but I'd rather get them off ship before someone decides to shoot them out the air-lock." Kirk deadpanned, then glanced over his shoulder. "Nevermind, they've just gotten put into the brig."
"We'll leave you to it, Kirk, but be ready for a debrief when you get here, hopefully, by then we'll have something more concrete." Archer nodded.
"That, Admiral, would be wonderful. Good luck to all of you in the meantime, Ambassadors, Admirals. Kirk out." Kirk had given them all a nod before the screen cut out, but they could see his first officer approaching rapidly in the background.
Hopefully it, whatever 'it' was, would not be too serious. Now they had to figure out what to do with the Klingon's offer of aide.
On Earth, the commander in charge of Riverside shipyard had suddenly found herself trying to build and convert buildings into spare barracks. Riverside, Iowa was thankfully not anywhere near a major fault line, and thus escaped the worst of the quakes.
Of course, in Winona Kirk's opinion, 'worst' was subjective.
Before she met (and fell in love with) George Kirk, she'd been fairly rigid with her life and thought fools were the ones that claimed to be in love. George had opened her up to a world of possibilities that she had never considered, but at the same time had left her wide open for heart break when he died.
Some days, she wanted to hate him for doing that to her.
She had tried to pick up her life, had fought tooth and nail to get to a point where she could hold her baby without bursting into tears and shoving him away. Post partum depression was something she had always thought as a myth- what woman would reject their own offspring?- until she had it.
Winona had tried the best she could to move on and patch up the shards of her life and that of her children's, but . . . it wasn't enough. No matter what she did, there was some gap that had appeared in between her and her children, and she couldn't bridge it. When Jim was nine, she gave up trying. She couldn't live without them, but she couldn't live with them, either.
Frank had been a friend of hers and George for years. She loved him, but not as much as she had loved George. Frank had a few rough edges to him, but he'd been willing to do his best to make it work. He accepted it when she left for Starfleet, leaving him with two children that didn't understand why their mother couldn't stay.
Frank didn't know how to deal with children. He wasn't an emotional, touchy-feely sort of guy, and father-hood had never been something he aspired to. He'd grown up with a workaholic dad and a mom that was constantly 'out' and so he and his siblings had been left to their own devices. So he did the same with her sons. So, when Jim had started acting out for attention, Winona and Frank had simply had no idea what to do, and, par for the course, they ignored it.
Winona could still remember the brief conversation with Frank, back when Jim had totaled the old car. Neither of them were capable of dealing with Jim, so they sent him off planet to her sister, who could probably do a much better job than either of them. (Right now, she could look back and damn herself for not reading the incident report more fully- her son had waited till the last minute to get out of the car, which explained why Frank had been rather short with her after they sent Jim off- but Frank hadn't known what to do or say.)
They still hadn't heard much from Sam other than the occasional note of 'I'm fine' that he'd only recently started to send, and Winona hoped that would change soon.
Anyway, when Winona finally did come back to earth, and was assigned to be in command of the shipyards, she finally got a face-full of what she had done, not only to her sons but to Frank as well- though he had been far more understanding. She didn't know how the hell she was going to make it up to either of her children, but now that the shadow of the Narada no longer loomed in the picture of George she kept, she could start to think.
All commanders had heard about what happened, and Winona Kirk had broken down sobbing as the open wound on her heart finally started to heal.
She wasn't naïve enough to think Jim (or Sam) would ever forgive her completely, or open their arms the instant they saw her, but she knew she could finally face them without wanting to run. They'd be starting as strangers, surely, but she could accept that, and maybe they could slowly start healing their family. (In the end, she'd settle for being friendly and civil to each other.)
Uh, yeah, I didn't actually see that Klingon curveball coming . . . but it made sense.
Right now, Romulans, Klingons and the Cardassian Empire are the three major threats to the federation. The Romulans are indirectly responsible for a Klingon fleet getting destroyed, and so the Klingons, who are already at 'barely tolerating', would see this as the Romulans attacking them.
Klingons may have stressed relations with the Federation, but they're willing to deal with them, a heck of a lot more than they're willing to deal with the Cardassian Empire. I imagine Nero's attack on them might have decreased their available resources pretty significantly- a fleet of ships could be anywhere from three, seven, or into the double digits in Star Trek terms. (It's used as a pretty broad term.)
As an entire planet wasn't destroyed, the Romulans aren't going to be eager to extend an olive branch, other than maybe not taking Nero's side of the conflict. As far as they're concerned, Nero did them a favor and weakened Starfleet and the Federation.
So, until they're both back on their feet, I could see the Klingons and Starfleet working together. And as Kirk and the Enterprise were able to defeat Nero, I imagine the Klingons would be very interested in meeting them.
Winona Kirk- I wasn't going to make her into a villain, or completely psychotic, for this fic- quite simply, We can see that she did try to pick herself up and move on- she wouldn't have remarried otherwise- but the ghost of her husband and the destruction of the Kelvin was simply too much for her to completely shake. Better people have been brought down by less. (Honestly, I think half the reason she stayed in Starfleet was because she was hoping to find the ship that killed her husband and get revenge.) I wasn't going to make Frank a villain either, because I don't think he knew exactly what he was getting into completely, and so his best effort was by not doing anything because they were Winona's children and he didn't know how to step in.
Basically, Winona's actions created a family of strangers. There's going to be a couple one shots on this theme in the future, but I figured I'd put in Winona here right now. (To Anonymous Reviewer 'web', who requested it, how'd I do?)
Note on Archer: JJ Abrams said that this Archer is the same Archer from Star Trek: Enterprise. The problem most people have with this claim is it would put Archer at 155 or so.
I'd just like to point out- with all the radiation, strange foods, and other stuff, isn't it possible that Archer was exposed or ate something that expanded his lifespan somehow? Other races (Vulcans for sure) are known to have longer life-spans than humans, so why wouldn't human life-spans end up getting extended as well?
Just something for you to ponder on.
Next up: I'm sorry, it's the end of the fic- but the beginning of a new adventure, and you'll get to see what happens to some of the support characters, as well as Ideas, I've mentioned.