"Captain, a word?" Pavel asked her.
"Spock, take the con," she said and walked into the conference room with her favorite navigator.
"First, I'm sorry about Admiral Pike. I know that he meant a lot to you," he said. Pavel and Bones probably knew more about her relationship with Pike than anyone else on the ship did. Being her friends in the academy, they saw a closeness that others have only heard about. They even laughed with her over the rumors that she and Pike were more than friends.
"Closest thing I ever had to a father," Jim muttered.
"I know," Pavel said. "That's why I have to say this next. What the hell are you doing?"
"Excuse me, Ensign?"
"No. You have never pulled rank in all the time I've known you, do not start now. You have always valued the advice of your senior staff, always. Don't toss us aside on some quest for vengeance."
"We have our orders."
"Since when do you follow orders? This is wrong, Jim. You know it, we all know it. If Mister Spock, Mister Scott and Doctor McCoy all agree that something's a bad idea, then it's a really bad idea."
"You done?"
"I'm done," he sighed, a dejected look on his face.
"Good. We're going to capture him," she said, referring to the maniac who killed Pike. "Our orders are to kill but I'm not a murderer. We'll capture him. With Scotty off the ship, for the moment, I need you to run engineering."
"This means that I will have to wear a red shirt," Pavel sighed and gave her a cute little pout.
"I know but I don't trust anyone else to do it."
"Well, when you put it that way."