A/N: This is the first chapter of an action arc; if I go astray during these (or you spot any errors, or the like) please let me know.

In the second scene, Jim has two 'comms': One is the holoscreen on his desk that can support multiple channels, and the other's the handheld flip-phone that he carts around on his belt or in his pocket and can only support one channel. His 'personal comm' is a reference to the flip kind, as the holoscreen comm is actually a part of the ship.

.bdobd.

Nowmi's main competitor was a man named Kin, who come on air at the same time that she did, but on a different channel. Kin covered mostly Tellar and Terra news, while Nowmi did Paris and, now, Starfleet. Nowmi'd been doing exceptionally well since her time on the Enterprise, even after her assistant had been the one to get that whole Commander-Spock-and-Lieutenant-Uhura-at-a-bar thing.

So Kin was understandably ecstatic when he was the one who got the call that the Cardassian woman Commander Spock had walked across the base had just defected to the Federation.

Nowmi was understandably furious.

.bdobd.

And Jim was understandably confused. He'd been going over notes for his trial, not been watching the news.

The Cardassian government was too shocked to be understandably anything. Their representative had apparently been ordered to comm Jim with explicit orders not to say anything until further instruction.

This meant that a frowning Cardassian who looked extremely pissed but wouldn't tell Jim what the hell was now glaring at him from the holoscreen on the desk. Jim argued ineffectually with the obstinate alien before giving up and tuning in to Nowmi's show on a separate channel.

She had a 'breaking news' banner up. "– has just defected to the Federation," Nowmi spluttered. "The woman's name is Tyr Dejan – sorry if I just butchered the pronunciation – and she's apparently just filed the paperwork necessary to defect from the Cardassian Empire to the Federation! That's all we have for right now; we don't know if Captain Kirk or Commander Spock convinced her to do this, or if this was a totally spontaneous action. We're calling around right now –,"

Jim threw a slightly panicked look over to his personal comm, but relaxed when he remembered that he'd shut it off hours ago. T'Panya and that new Tellaritian guy were probably trying Spock. Spock was meditating across the hall, though, and he always turned off his appliances when he did that. The poor people were probably really frustrated. Even though they were still on the ship – guests had to wait until after prisoner transfers to disembark in case anything went wrong, and Tyr Dejan's papers still hadn't been fully cleared – they knew better than to interrupt either of them when Jim's trial was just the next morning.

"– but we're not getting any response," Nowmi continued from her recording spot in the rec room. "We'll update you as we get more news. We're – We're going to commercial? Okay, we're gonna be back in a sec. This is Zarabeth Nowmi for IPFPNN: Everything you need to know."

Fuck. They were taking that break to collect as much as they could from everyone they knew. Best not to turn his comm on. Jim swiveled back to the pissed Cardassian representative. "I swear I had no idea. I haven't talked to her all day."

The Cardassian's jaw worked, but he didn't say anything. Jim sighed. The representative wouldn't speak until the committee of elders had decided what to say, and, being a committee, nothing would be decided for at least another ten minutes of rousing debate.

"I didn't say anything about defecting," Kirk stated loudly. There was sure to be a microphone somewhere on the representative's end, connecting him to the committee. "It was her idea. You saw the clip of Spock walking her to the dock: he didn't try to persuade her to defect. He just mentioned that it was possible."

Kirk'd thought that a strange move on Spock's part, walking Tyr Dejan to the dock. It implied that she needed protection, for one thing. And it put Jim squarely on her side of whatever argument the Admirals wanted to throw at him. Spock would be able to be in the court room, but he couldn't say a thing unless he was called to testify.

The Cardassian didn't look impressed. He cocked his head suddenly: the elders must've agreed to something. "If our citizen is not returned," the representative said slowly, "then we shall have battle."

Jim blinked at him. "No you won't. You're still recovering from the Klingon thing, if it's even really over, and our ships are way stronger than yours. And you know all of that."

The representative waited slightly impatiently for the elders to speak again. "… We would be victorious."

"But you wouldn't be," Jim insisted, honestly confused by the empty threats.

"… Anything is possible."

"But not much is probable!" Jim thought for a moment. "And she's our citizen now."

He signed off before the elders could retort. He wasn't much worried about a Cardassian war; there simply weren't the resources for it on the Cardassian side. There would be some hard feelings, though, which could lead to some skirmishes with shuttles. Jim put a message through to Nimeav and the Vulcan Colony to watch out for Cardassian cruisers, then went to go interrogate Spock on what exactly he'd told Tyr Dejan.

Spock was sitting peacefully on his new meditation mat. His old one was now officially Jim's: Spock accused him of making it smell 'entirely of human male', to which Jim had winked and leered gratuitously.

Spock had kicked him out of the room with obviously affectionate exasperation. Jim'd wandered across the hall to make notes for the trial, and now, coming full circle, was back to bother Spock.

The Vulcan looked up as Jim entered the room, blinking groggily. Spock usually needed two or three minutes to totally come out of his trances. "I'll wait," Jim said, pulling out 'his' mat and sitting in front of Spock.

He came out of his daze more quickly than usual. "… You are in need of assistance?" Spock stated quietly, snuffing his candles slowly.

"Sort of." Jim watched Spock's hands for a pleasant moment. "A representative for the Cardassian committee of elders just called. They're annoyed that Tyr Dejan defected, but they don't know what to do about it, so they made some empty threats and then hung up."

Spock carefully crossed his wrists in his lap. "Tyr Dejan defected to the Federation, I presume."

"Yep," Jim nodded. "Just a little while ago. The Cardassian guy called, and I turned on Nowmi and got a snippet of her covering it. 'Parently no one knows why she did it." He let the unasked question sit between them placidly.

"I do not possess any information that I believe is salient to the matter. The recording of our conversation in the dock is of public record, and I know that you watched it. Your Cardassian is of the same proficiency as mine, at least."

"So, nothing before the tapes that would've had any effect on her decision?"

"I do not know of her thought processes," Spock said with a slight shrug. "I reassured her that we would be able to converse out of the ship, in Cardassian. I took off her handcuffs. I said that the doctor's concerns over the public's reaction to her presence were most likely aggravated by his agitated mental state since hearing of your trial."

"That's it? Are you sure?"

"That is all." Spock looked totally confident of his answer. Jim relaxed slowly; he wouldn't lie about something like this.

"That's good," he sighed. "I was worried that… Shit, I don't even know." Jim put his head in his hands. "That you'd worked her over, or something? But you wouldn't do that. I'm sorry." He started to stand.

Spock put a hand on his shoulder. "You are distressed. This is reasonable."

Jim snorted and sat back down. "'S not exactly logical."

"It is understandable. You are not to be blamed for this."

Jim groaned and slumped into Spock's shoulder. The hybrid was about a foot away from him, so it was a bit awkward, but it worked. Spock started to rub his back slowly. "I wish you were there," Jim murmured.

"As I do. It is illogical for the Commodore to have only called upon you to testify, as I was involved in the grand majority of the decisions you made that irritated the Admiralty."

Jim laughed weakly. "When you say it like that, it sounds like you're my minion or something. Partners in crime and all that."

"Are we not?"

Jim thought over the past few weeks, and their current position. "Well," he muttered, "if you need to put it that way…"

"I do."

Jim felt himself grin. "You sound like me and Nowmi, a bit. I ever tell you about that conversation?"

"I obtained the most basic information regarding it, yes. It is rather unfortunate that she is still aboard."

"You don't have to tell me."

"I meant," Spock sounded bemused, "that it would be useful for her to be able to report on the details of Tyr Dejan. If she was off-ship, that is almost certainly what she would be doing."

"… You know," Jim smiled, "you're just given me a fantastic idea…"

.bdobd.

"Oh, we're free!" Zarabeth enthused, stretching her arms and beaming at the blue sky above her. She took a deep breath and then regretted it: the dock smelled awful.

Stevens saw her change colors and laughed softly. Zarabeth hit him on the arm and pretended to storm off. Stevens just snorted and followed her, his cameras clanging happily beside him.

Admiral Pike met them in the dock, like Captain Kirk had promised he would. Admiral Pike did not look happy with the arrangement. "Hello, Ms. Nowmi," he smiled through bared teeth.

Zarabeth beamed and threw her arms around him, determined to make him as uncomfortable as possible. Captain Kirk had hinted that Admiral Pike was his 'pair' in the Admiralty, which meant that Admiral Pike hadn't put up any fuss when his favored captain had been put up for trial.

"Shall we?" She bubbled gaily. Admiral Pike's lips whitened and he glumly led them to a grubby conference room off of the hall.

"What do you want to know?" He sat heavily in his chair, like the very act of meeting with them was immensely draining. Stevens switched on his camera.

"Why did the Cardassian captain Tyr Dejan defect to the Federation?"

Admiral Pike glared wanly at her. "Not waiting on pleasantries, are we." Zarabeth raised her eyebrows expectantly. Her experience with Captain Kirk, and his reaction to her admittedly self-centered introduction, had led her to pre-tape all of her intros before interviews. Everything went much faster that way. "Ji– Captain Kirk didn't convince her to do anything, neither did Commander Spock. She did it because of their example."

That sounded like PR bull. "And what convinced you of that, sir?"

"We asked her," he said flatly, "and she said that the Captain and the Commander were 'just that awesome'. Apparently she'd learned the phrase from one Ms. Zarabeth Nowmi."

Zarabeth pretended that her face wasn't on fire. "… That's… pretty solid evidence."

"We think so." Admiral Pike's disgust and irritation was tangible and off-putting. Captain Kirk'd probably talked to him right after she'd got on the ship, when he still hated her. They were at least allies, now.

"…"

"Is there anything else, Ms. Nowmi?"

"No, that's just about it, Admiral Pike." Zarabeth smiled gamely. "Thank you for cooperating with us sir, it made this a lot easier."

"No problem." The admiral was clearly relieved. "Have a good day, Ms. Nowmi. Your passes out of the base are at the front desk in hall 7."

Admiral Pike stood and bowed, and Nowmi figured it'd be best to copy him. So she did, and he left, and then she and Stevens went off to coo over the amazing footage they'd just taped.

.bdobd.

The Cardassian Empire called in the middle of the show to say that if Zarabeth didn't stop talking immediately, she'd be killed. Zarabeth kept on going, finished the show, and called Captain Kirk, who welcomed her back onto the ship for her own safety.

Because of this, the trial had to be postponed until the next day. That way the Admiralty could focus entirely on the Cardassian Crisis (a term already coined by the reporters) instead of interrogating an innocent captain about harmless dealings.

(In her opinion.)

.bdobd.

Ms. Nowmi's and Mr. Stevens' return to the Enterprise was unexpected, but they were easily accommodated. Jim had settled them and had taken the news of the postponement well.

"Nothing I can do about it," he had said with a shrug. "Working myself up won't do anything to help."

Spock had fully agreed, and they had spent the night playing dominoes in rec room 5. Jim had fallen asleep in a stack of synthetic ivory four hours into the second game, where in which Spock had moved him to the nearest couch and let him sleep for eight and a half hours.

Jim staggered blearily onto the nearly vacant bridge at 1043 hours the next morning. "You let me sleep!" he accused mightily.

"Yes," Spock agreed. He did not turn from his console, which was displaying the latest information regarding the 'Cardassian Crisis'. "I did indeed."

"Thank you."

"You are of course welcome."

Jim shuffled nearer, his footsteps echoing oddly in the large room. It was empty but for the two of them. "What'cha doing?" he drawled sleepily, planting his chin painfully in Spock's shoulder.

"Reading the AP news feeds regarding the Cardassian reaction to Ms. Nowmi's coverage of the defection of Tyr Dejan."

He could feel Jim blinking against his earlobe. "… God, you make it sound so dull."

"I apologize."

Jim snorted and nuzzled into Spock's neck. "Funny."

Spock felt his eyebrow rise. "To whom are you referencing?"

"You. Don't play dumb, you're not good at it."

Spock did not know whether he had just been complemented or insulted. He decided to ignore the order.

"So what do the illustrious reporters down at the AP have to say about our friend Nowmi?"

"She is either brave or stupid or some combination of the two, depending on the reporter."

"Sounds about right."

"Your position cannot be comfortable."

"I'm not moving."

"Your chin is digging quite deeply into my shoulder."

"Suck it up."

"… That did not make any sense."

"You know what I mean."

"… I assure you, I am quite genuinely confused."

"Bah." Jim removed his head from Spock's shoulder with a condescending huff that would have been insulting if Jim had actually meant it. "Wimp."

"I possess evidence to the contrary."

"Oh, you know you love me."

"… Is that not a given?"

Jim squeezed him around the waist. "I like you too. Now! What're the Cardassians up to?"

Spock ignored the warm flush that was climbing steadily from his lower torso up to his ears. He felt Jim beam as the green blood settled determinedly on his cheekbones. "… They are not at all pleased," he responded finally. "They continue to threaten Ms. Nowmi. It would seem wise to keep her aboard the ship, as a precaution against actions taken by any operatives on the base."

"… That sounds a bit paranoid. Secret Cardassian agents?"

"Our luck?"

"… Okay, you've got me there," Jim admitted with a nod. His head tapped Spock's torso and Jim let it lie there heavily. The attempt to prevent Jim from leaning on him appeared futile. "We'll keep her here."

"There is one issue."

He could feel Jim roll his eyes, though such a thought was admittedly rather illogical. "Of course there is. Lay it on me."

"We will have to stay aboard the ship with them. Civilians are not allowed to be alone on a starship."

"But the trial's today!"

"Exactly."

Jim groaned and ground his head into Spock's rib cage. "Fuuuuck. Damnit, that shit's contempt of court! The Admiralty'll be pissed!"

"… I do not believe they will be pleased with us even if we enter the court room this very second," Spock pointed out, "for we are already over two hours late."

"We are?" Jim blinked.

"It is 1047 hours, Jim," Spock noted gently. "The trial was at 0830 hours."

"Oh."

Spock pulled the visibly stunned human closer to him. "… That's not good."

"It is not the most preferable state of affairs, no."

"… Well," Jim said with finality, "it's not like they can really hurt us. What're they gonna do, sic Fleet security on us?"

.bdobd.

That was exactly what Barnett was going to do. Jim couldn't believe it. "Wait," he waved his hands to get the furious commodore to shut up, "one more time: you're doing what?"

"Get over here," Barnett growled, "or I'm making you get over here. I'll carry you into this trial by myself if I have to!"

"Sir, can't we just –?"

"NO. I'm sick and tired of your bullshit, Kirk; you've embarrassed me for the last goddamned time! No more! You get here NOW!"

Thank god he'd made Spock leave the room. Jim tried again to reason with the man. "Sir, that doesn't make a lot of sense –,"

Barnett cut the connection.

Spock poked his head through the rec room door. "The channel was just terminated from the Commodore's end."

Jim turned wanly to Spock. "He's sending in Fleet security."

Spock blinked sharply and stepped entirely into the room. "Are you certain? I do not believe that is legal."

"I don't think so either; dock security's supposed to have superiority. But he's gone totally crazy; this guy really hates me."

Spock walked closer and peered intently at the comm screen. Jim tugged at him until the Vulcan's hip was close enough for him to lean on. "… I do not understand."

"He's embarrassed," Jim muttered into Spock's pants.

"I understand that aspect of it," Spock clarified, "but not the actions he is taking. How is raiding the Enterprise going to aid him in his quest?"

"He's embarrassed, I already told you. He's not thinking straight."

"Clearly." Jim snorted happily. "How does he expect to enter the base? As Admiral R'Vish has seniority over Security issues, she is in charge of most of the docks. He will have to request permission to enter the dock from her."

"And she loves me."

"… I would not go that far, but that is the general gist of my argument." Jim grinned again. "I cannot envision any scenario in which Admiral R'Vish would agree to admit Starfleet security onto one of her bases to undertake such a mission."

Jim sighed heavily. "I can't either."

"… Are you going to –?"

"I'm not moving my head."

"… It is a rather compromising position."

"I am an entire four inches away from the zipper. You're just sensitive."

Spock looked down at him. "You are an exceedingly strange creature."

"I know," Jim beamed. "Dominoes to pass the time?"

.bdobd.

The comm screen on the rec room table crackled about an hour later. Jim leaned forward and began fiddling with the frequency moderators. He put R'Vish on. "We were just talking about you!"

R'Vish, who was clearly in the midst of a panicked frenzy, paused awkwardly. "… Are you – You're not playing – Are you playing dominoes in the middle of a crisis?"

Spock leapt in to save the day. "Admiral R'Vish, have you been contacted by Commodore –?"

"Yeah, and I refused," she interrupted. "What's your guys' plan?"

"Plan? What plan?" Jim asked sarcastically.

R'Vish's eyes widened and the spots on her forehead darkened with anger. "You ignored a subpoena without a plan?"

"It was Spock's idea!" Jim argued. Spock rapped him sharply upside the head, and Jim scowled at him. "Anyway, it's not like they can really –,"

"Fuck, Kirk, what if they just ignore me? I am over here; I can't do much for you!"

"What do you mean, 'over here'? Aren't you with Barnett?"

"No! He got me arrested for mutiny!"

"What?" Jim and Spock asked in unison.

"I'm calling you on one of the political prisoner comms; I've been locked up for at least twenty minutes now. Pike apparently left the Academy – he's been teaching a few Command Course classes there – to come and get me, but he went into the Admiralty and never came out. What are you going to do?"

Kirk was reminded of those first few moments after he'd taken the captaincy from Spock during the Narada incident. His answer then was the same now. "Find Pike. Where'd you say he was?"

"Admiralty HQ. I tried his public number–,"

"I've got his private."

"Should I contact any Academy teachers?" Spock asked. "I taught the majority of them."

R'Vish smiled with obvious relief. "You taught everyone Spock. Yes, comm them too. Maybe they know something."

"Right, I've gotta sign you off; I'm not sure that this line can support more than one channel," Kirk ordered, with all the strength of affirmative action behind him. R'Vish nodded and cut the connection without complaint.

Jim started to fight with Pike's comm connection as Spock left the room to go talk to his teaching buddies. Between the two of them, something would happen.

.bdobd.

Jim had not been able to contact Admiral Pike through any means.

Spock was much more successful. He had managed to hold a conference call with the majority of the faculty of the Academy, who, at the news of Admiral Pike's disappearance and Admiral R'Vish's imprisonment, had grown visibly distressed. Their collective opinion of Captain Kirk's impending trial had already been colored against the commodore by Nowmi's reporting; Spock knew that they would do everything in their power to save the Admiralty from, in their view, the Commodore himself.

When Spock had informed Kirk of this, the human was generally relieved, but was disturbed by Spock's observations of the faculty's behavior.

"I'm worried about what they'll tell the cadets, honestly," Jim murmured. They were standing on the bridge, the mainscreen muted but set to IPFPNN's channel. "They're really supportive of us, and really politically active. I don't want any riots. I don't think the Federation can take it right now."

Spock was surprised. "That is a much more conservative view than I expected you to hold." Jim looked up from his shoes; clearly he had not respected such a response. "I had anticipated that you would support a protest."

The blonde leaned back on his heels. "I would, a year ago, I think," he mused. "But now I'm not so sure. I just can't see that sort of thing working."

Spock caught a flash of news coverage from the corner of his eye. He turned to stare at the screen with growing shock. "… I believe that we will soon witness a practical demonstration."

"Wha –? Oh, no," Jim moaned. There was a crowd of uniforms gathering outside of the Admiralty's headquarters. "They're not going to – Oh, fuck they are, no, no no no no –,"

"What are you concerned with?" Spock asked worriedly. All he could extrapolate was that the cadets were gathered in front of the Admiralty, led most probably by the faculty of the Academy.

"They're going to storm it," Jim moaned. "They're gonna drag Barnett out by force."

"How did you come to that conclusion?" Spock asked, totally befuddled.

Jim pointed to the doors of the headquarters, which were nearly obscured by a sea of red-suited cadets. "They've already started. Can you see, the top of the door?"

Spock stiffened. They tops of the doors were closed, but there was clearly an entry point available. The cadets must have broken the bottom halves of the doors off somehow. "Those were reinforced with steel."

"There are explosives in the Tactical Practices area," Jim said palely.

"They would have required a – oh. I understand."

The Tactical Practices Area, or TPA, was kept locked at all times because it housed a number of high-powered explosives, the likes of which could do things like destroy reinforced doors. The TPA was only accessible by the head of the Tactical department, who had the only key to the room. Clearly, the head of Tactical was in full agreement with the cadets, and had for some reason let them use explosives.

"… Should we perhaps turn on the sound?" Spock ventured. Jim looked sick; most of the blood had drained from his face.

"Probably," he rasped.

"… You seem to be taking this very poorly. I do not see what the issue is," Spock admitted. "At worst, the cadets involved will be punished and the commodore will be reinstated as head of the Admiralty. Nothing would drastically change."

"We had a trial today, and now there's a mob outside the Admiralty that's armed with explosives that wants the commodore!" Jim sounded slightly hysterical. "Barnett's gonna think that we asked them to do this and he's going to bring us up on treason!"

"… That would be an issue, yes," Spock agreed.

Jim stared at him with wide, horrified eyes. "An issue?" he squeaked. "Afucking issue? A catastrophe! We'll never fly again!"

"Surely, people have a right to change their government."

"This is not a country! This is the military! Soldiers have no rights!"

"… It appears," Spock said slowly, "that such may be changing in the immediate future."

Jim whimpered. A group was leading Commodore Barnett out of the Admiralty. Spock went to turn on audio.

Immediately, a wave of sound swept over the bridge. Spock winced and turned the volume down, which only partially solved the problem. The majority of the cadets were talking and chattering and moving incessantly, so that there was a huge amount of white noise that almost overwhelmed any directives.

There was one voice that managed to break through. The commodore was not being touched in any way, but he was kept controlled by a variety of 'guards' that surrounded him almost entirely. Spock got the impression that if it were not for the fact that a person standing directly in front of the commodore would be forced to walk backwards, the battalion would have totally encircled the man.

One of the guards called for relative order. Some of the talking died down, but there was now shifting as the impatient cadets worked to gain view of the person actually speaking.

The guard was an Ocampan woman with a strong, forceful voice. "We have found the commodore," she stated loudly and redundantly. "We have not found Admiral Pike or Admiral R'Vish's prison. We need help."

The cadets groaned collectively at this, as though the movement had somehow just been kicked in the stomach. "We need help," the woman repeated. Spock found himself thinking that she would make a great captain one day. "We need help from Captain Kirk and Commander Spock, who did not start this movement. They know what happened better than we do. We ask them now: help us reach our goals, and we shall assist you in any way we can."

Kirk's lips had thinned dramatically. The cadets were all nodding and crooning with agreement at the Ocampan's words. Spock turned to him questioningly.

"What do you think I should do?" Kirk asked.

"I believe this issue is one for the captain to resolve," Spock stated firmly, "and I will obey any orders you give at this time. I would remind you though, that if you wish to direct this in any way, now would be the time to do so. If you do not respond now, they will be offended and not listen to you again."

Kirk nodded tightly. He stared pensively at the comm connection that blinked placidly on his chair, nodded again, and opened a channel to the head of the IPFPNN's field reporters – whose coverage they were currently watching. The captain would be able to talk to the mob through them.