Disclaimer: If I had money, I would own Star Trek. Likewise if I had money, there would be some kind of point in suing me for using Star Trek without ownership. Except that if I had money that was worth suing over, I would own Star Trek, and there would be nothing to sue about. But at present I don't have money or Star Trek, so there's still no point in suing.
And we're closing in on the end, folks. A few more chapters to go. Repent now, or forever hold your peace. Yeah. Don't ask me to quote things, I took the SAT II's this morning. On to the chapter.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
Mr. Scott puttered through his engine room, checking that everything was settled for the quiet of the night shift. He knew his staff was privately amused by their chief engineer's habit of putting his ship to sleep every night, but he didn't mind.
He checked a set of read-outs to make sure everything was as it should be. He flipped a few switches on a board and dimmed a bank of lights. Then he rounded the corner of a counter and nearly fell over Jim Kirk.
Kirk looked up from his position sitting on the floor in the corner of the counter and the wall. "Hello."
Scott took a breath to regain some kind of control over his nerves. "If ye don't mind me asking, what the devil are ye doin' hidin' in me engine room?"
Kirk shrugged. "I don't know. But don't throw me out, okay? Not today."
Something in his tone made Scott look at him thoughtfully. "What do ye want here, Mr. Kirk?"
"I want…I want you to explain it to me," Kirk said slowly.
Scott frowned. "Explain what?"
"Spock's mad at me for stunning him, he'd never admit it but he is, and Bones just says he's a doctor and won't talk, and the Sharks don't know anything, they just keep thinking about the money, so you're the only one I can ask," Kirk said on one breath of air. He met Scott's gaze, and asked. "Why didn't I sell the Enterprise?"
Scott's face cleared as understanding dawned. "Oh. That. That's not so hard to explain."
Kirk blinked. "That's not so hard? I'm going crazy over here and that's not so hard?"
Scott shrugged. "It's not," he said, and sat down next to Kirk.
Kirk had come looking for answers, but he was rather taken aback by this casual opinion of the question. "Well I'm glad someone understands all this," he said, faintly incredulous.
Scott glanced at him. "Don't you understand it? You're the one who did it."
Kirk looked at his hands where they rested against his knees. "Sure, I did it. And I know it was right. And I know I'd do it again. But I know that the same way I know I want to travel the stars. That doesn't mean I know why."
"That's alright. I know why." Scott smiled, a remarkably inclusive smile. "My lass charmed ye."
"You mean…the Enterprise?"
"'course, the Enterprise. She's special, this one. A beautiful lady. Not everyone can feel it. But if you can…an' if she responds…ah, now this is a ship that'll come through for ye every time," Scott said fondly.
"Didn't help Lowell," Kirk observed.
"Lowell doesn't feel it," Scott said sharply. "An' he never gives 'er a chance to prove it. But I know a little about her earlier missions, under Pike and April. They felt it. And she came through for them."
Kirk nodded, thoughtful. "I remember some of those stories…"
Scott nodded firmly. "They're good stories. Because she's a good ship. People say that ships don't feel, that they don't have souls. I don't believe it."
Kirk smiled. "I think I know what you mean."
Kirk and Scott left Engineering around midnight, just as Gamma Shift took over from Beta Shift. For an hour after that all was quiet save for the usual low hum of the business of the night shift. But, if one had been in the right corridor on the right deck around one a.m., one would have heard noise.
"Spock! Spock, wake up!" McCoy hammered on the door to Spock's quarters. "Spo—"
He broke off as the doors slid open to reveal Spock on the opposite side. Though the Vulcan had almost certainly been awoken out of a sound sleep, he didn't have a single hair out of place. He was wearing a black robe, but somehow made it appear just as neat and formal as his customary science blues and blacks.
Spock looked at McCoy with faint irritation. "Doctor, it is 1:07 in the morning. I am not interested in your rants."
"I'm not ranting about anything, Spock, I'm solving the problems of the universe!" McCoy brushed past Spock and claimed the nearest seat with the air of one who wouldn't be leaving for some while. He took the opportunity to glance around a little—he'd never been in Spock's quarters before. They looked about as he would have expected. They were painfully neat. Except for the stack of PADDs and the funny looking harp, you'd never know a soul lived there.
Spock stared at him for a moment, then took exactly one step away from the door to allow it to slide shut behind him. He crossed his arms over his chest and regarded McCoy. "What do you want, Doctor?"
"April, twenty-two forty-five," McCoy said triumphantly.
"One of Kirk's codes."
"Exactly!"
"Do you have any purpose in bringing this up at 1:08 in the morning?"
McCoy rolled his eyes. "Of course I have a purpose! Do you think I really want to be out of my bed right now?"
"I have no idea what you want. I only have the fact of your arriving at my door at—"
"Robert April," McCoy interrupted. "It's been bugging me all day, and I just remembered. Robert April took command of the Enterprise in 2245."
"So he did," Spock murmured thoughtfully. "There could very possibly be a connection."
McCoy's eyebrows shot up. "Possibly be a connection?" he said indignantly. "That's the whole thing, the complete deal, all wrapped up on a silver tray."
Spock's eyebrow rose. "A silver—"
McCoy brushed that aside. "Forget it. The point is, that's the key to the whole business. Robert April, 2245. The source of Ji—Kirk's code."
"While it is a definite possibility we cannot claim it as a certainty. We do not know that Mr. Kirk is aware of Robert April, nor, if he is, do we know why he would use him as a code."
McCoy shifted, suddenly uncomfortable. "He knows about him. He, well…anyway, he knows about him. And he probably would use him for a code."
Spock looked at him sharply. "And how do you know this?"
"He told me," McCoy snapped, defiance masking the odd feeling of a trust betrayed. "Robert April was his hero when he was a teenager."
"In that case," Spock said, "we may have something."
"Something? It's the key to everything, including that rotten pattern you keep going on about." Smugness was taking the place of discomfort. For the moment at least. "It's the answer to everything, and I figured it out. Before you did!"
"I fail to see the relevance of that fact," Spock said blandly.
"No, you don't, you're not stealing my thunder by pretending it doesn't matter. I solved your pattern, and you can't deny it."
"For a brief moment," Spock said mildly, "while you were discussing Robert April, I thought you were going to make sense and provide useful information. Clearly I was mistaken."
McCoy was affronted. "You want useful? I'll give you useful. The pattern. A person, and their year of historical significance."
"That is a rather broad pattern."
"Fine. I'll narrow it for you. Remember Erickson, one-thousand…something?"
"Erickson1002," Spock said smoothly.
"Right, that one. April got me thinking about explorers, and I remembered something. Leif Erickson was a Viking explorer, and while it's been a long time since my last history class I think the Vikings were somewhere around the 1000s." McCoy gave Spock a triumphant look. "His codes are explorers' names. Specific enough for you?"
Spock considered. "Very possible. A starship captain, and a Viking explorer. Both explorers, of a sort. However, we cannot be fully certain until we—"
"It explains Lewis too," McCoy interrupted, remembering out loud. "There's been lots of Lewises, I bet, but there was an explorer one too. Lewis and Clark expedition, somewhere around the 1800s, I think."
"Also supporting the theory. However, we cannot be fully certain until we examine the other codes, and determine some rationale for Kirk's use of this potential pattern."
"I am certain. Because I know why he would use explorers' names," McCoy said quietly.
Spock looked at him, eyebrow raised. "Perhaps you would like to enlighten me."
"He'd use explorers because…" McCoy sighed, and went on, fighting down any and all thoughts of trusts and betrayals. "Because he wanted to be a starship captain."
"He told you this also?"
McCoy scowled, at himself or at Spock it was hard to say. "Yes."
"Interesting."
"Interesting? It's practically the key to the man's soul, and all you say is interesting?"
"Doctor, you are being unnecessarily emotional once again. I hardly think a biographical fact could be considered the key to anyone's soul, particularly a fact which could be easily deduced with the knowledge of his past attendance of Starfleet Academy and his natural leadership abilities."
McCoy glared at him. "Oh what do you know about it?"
"I know that it has allowed us to establish a pattern." Spock rose, went to his desktop computer monitor and began tapping keys.
McCoy stood up but stayed in the vicinity of his chair. Curiosity got the better of any intention of maintaining a stony silence, and he set aside, for the moment, his irritation "What are you doing?"
"Moving to the next step in determining Mr. Kirk's codes, using a narrowed search in the computer's library database. I have been hesitant to use the computer for a wider search as it could easily be noticed by Kirk or, perhaps more likely, the pirate Reeves. However, with a narrowed search focused on human explorers and their relevant year, routed through the backup databanks of the computer, possibility of detection is greatly reduced.
"So, what, you're going to hunt up a list of explorers and years?" McCoy was doubtful. "There's got to be hundreds."
"Likely thousands. However, once I have a base of data to work from, I can enable a second program to determine which, if any, of the proposed phrases have been used as codes in the last week. It will not tell me what they have been used for, but it will give us a list of codes to work with."
McCoy stared at him. "You can do that? Why didn't you do that a week ago?"
Spock looked up from his screen, continuing to tap commands as he spoke. "Because I had no base of information. A name and a four-digit number is insufficient as the volume of data is far too large, somewhere in the approximate vicinity of 8,999,000,000,000 possibilities. A search with such a base would require 18.314 days and 2.4% of the Enterprise's memory—"
"All right, fine, I've got it," McCoy interrupted. "You don't have to quote a million figures at me."
"To quote a million figures," Spock said mildly, "would take approximately—"
McCoy held up his hands in a halting gesture. "Stop. No more. Just do your little typing thing."
Spock stood up from his desk. "I have already completed my 'little typing thing,' as you put it. As the commands for the program have been inputted, the computer will proceed through its task. It will take several hours for results, as I have sent it through several backup programs rather than the primary memory, for security reasons. Within 6.72 hours, I believe we will have a very clear picture of Mr. Kirk's codes."
"And then we retake the ship and put Ji—Kirk in the brig?"
"Yes."
"Okay," McCoy said quietly.
Spock looked at him shrewdly. "We have no choice, Doctor. Though Mr. Kirk did not sell the ship to the Romulans, and that concern in general no longer seems urgent, we still have no choice. As Starfleet officers, we must regain control of our ship. Our duty is very clear on that point."
"I know," McCoy said. "I know."
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Just in general: I'm getting a sense that the Romulans left too easily. The reason for which is just what Kirk said: the Romulan Commander really doesn't want to fight. That's something that's in the episode too—this is a guy bound by duty but clearly tired of war. However, it probably would be better if I put some kind of fight in there. I'm not going to change it now, but I'm seeing a revision on the horizon after I finish the whole thing, so I'll take that into account then. Thanks for constructive criticism (and I mean that with no sarcasm at all)!
Alania: I loved the wine, scene, if you couldn't guess that, lol. And seatbelts on the Enterprise—a truly brilliant idea.
Crazy Elleth: That is a very random quote. Also very proud. But random.
Unrealistic: I wouldn't say that Kirk got away from the pirates. I mean, yeah, he walked away, but they aren't exactly happy with him right now…
PearlGirl: Your band played Pirate music?! Too cool! I love the soundtrack… One question about your review: what do you mean by "curtling?" I have a funny feeling that's a mistyping, but I can't figure out what word you did mean…I'm confuzzed.
Samantha: [grins] I did hope you'd enjoy the Romulan Commander! If you brought that line up a couple times, it probably never would have occurred to me to have that particular Romulan Commander be Kirk's contact. So thanks! Am I really getting across that range of emotions? Awesome. And nail biting? Now you're just trying to swell my non-existent ego…
Emp: Oh, they're mad alright. And yeah, he's Kirk. But they're mad anyway.
Mzsnaz: Yep, the pirates will be hard to placate. And as to what Kirk will do…next chapter!
More soon!