This chapter, we meet a crucial member of the crew! Also, we hear some words from Bones's family, Lynne Lucero and our dear Commander Charvanek.
Kid Saavik is courtesy of SpirkTrekker42.
Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to his power that is at work within us.
Darkness.
That's what surrounded Kirk when he was aware of his surroundings.
He was completely eclipsed in darkness.
He took a step forward, expecting something, anything to happen.
Nothing did.
Kirk continued to walk in the darkness, silent.
The darkness soon changed its shape into a planet.
Earth.
The darkness was changing into Earth.
But, this Earth was grey. Blank. Ghost-like.
"This planet is empty." a stoic voice said. Kirk looked around. Nobody in sight.
Kirk walked around, looking for the owner of the voice.
"There used to be people here, but they are now gone." the voice continued. They were consumed by it. It was telling them to trust it. Now, this planet is gone. Eaten away by the spirit of it, which can never be truly satisfied."
Kirk ran down an alleyway to find a Vulcan standing there, dressed in white, chiton-like robes, draped over one shoulder, tied around his waist to make a short skirt, leaving his arms, legs and half his chest bare. He was reading from a small book in his hands. His back to Kirk, unaware.
"This planet is empty, so I will keep searching." he said. His long black hair blew about him softly. "Searching for a planet with people in it, one that has not been consumed by it. Searching for the one for me, and only me." He turned a page. "The one for me, and only me is the only one to defeat it. Not only that, but the one for me and only me...also holds onto my heart." He turned around, his glowing eyes eyes glued on Kirk, his voice distorted with Spock's. "Tell me, are you the one?"
Kirk sat upright and gasped, holding his head in his hands. He looked around his room, half asleep.
As Kirk drifted off to sleep, he thought about the dream, and how much darkness had surrounded him during it. "A dream filled with the stench of darkness..." Kirk muttered, and soon, he was asleep once again. Maybe he'd call Sherman up and tell him about the whole ordeal.
The Next Day
Despite both of them still being grounded, Kirk didn't regret challenging Spock to that duel. The problem was, how should they work it out? Right now, the only option available was the training grounds, where quirky cadets learned new techniques and quirkless ones learned how to defend themselves. Kirk himself had been there many times to practice his Flashfire Fist skill set(he was unable to use the Hell Spider out of fear that it could harm other cadets). That aside, the book and the note delivered to him was still a subject of mystery; Bethany suspected that Spock might have been the one who sent them.
So he quickly wrote something back.
S,
Meet me at the training grounds at 9:00 PM.
—JTK
He then went out to Starfleet Academy's courtyard to find somebody to deliver it, when he heard somebody singing from a distance.
I've heard there was a secret chord,
That David played, and it pleased the Lord,
But you don't really care for music, do you?
It goes like this,
The fourth, the fifth,
The minor fall, the major lift,
The baffled king composing Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Your faith was strong but you needed proof,
You saw her bathing on the roof,
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you.
She tied you to a kitchen chair,
She broke your throne, she cut your hair,
And from your lips she drew the Hallelujah!
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Maybe I've been here before,
I know this room, I've walked this floor,
I used to live alone before I knew you,
I've seen your flag on the marble arch,
Love is not a victory march,
It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
There was a time you'd let me know,
What's real and going on below,
But now you never show it to me, do you?
And remember when I moved in you?
The holy dark was moving too,
And every breath we drew was Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Maybe there's a God above,
And all I ever learned from love,
Was how to shoot at someone who outdrew you.
It's not a cry you can hear at night,
It's not somebody who's seen the light,
It's a cold and its a broken Hallelujah.
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah,
Hallelujah, Hallelujah.
Kirk followed the voice, and found a young petite girl with pointed ears. She seemed to be Vulcan but Romulan features were also visible on her face, making it unable for Kirk to make out what exact species she was—although the two races did share common ancestry. "Who are you?" he softly ashed her. "My name is James Kirk."
"S'chn T'gai Saavik Lhaihtrha, daughter of Spock." the girl replied much to Kirk's surprise. The object of his desire had a daughter...omigosh, what if he was married? He didn't even want to think about it.
So he instead asked, "Aren't you a little bit too young to serve in Starfleet?"
"Today's Take Your Kid To Work Day, didn't you know?" she shot back. The girl had spunk, and Kirk liked it.
"One last question, can you go all sparky and glowy and shoot lightning from your body? Your daddy does that, y'know."
"Unfortunately, no. I cannot generate electricity like father does, nor even control the earth like Aunt Michael does. In fact, none of my parents were human so I'm afraid I do not have the necessary gene for one to manifest what your people call a quirk."
Kirk was stunned. "Whaddaya mean, you don't have quirky blood? But Spock..."
"I was adopted." the girl coolly replied. "I was a product of an attempt to re-unificate the Vulcans and Romulans, born to Merrok and T'Lora Lhaihtrha, formerly Merrok D'harvanek and S'jck T'hei T'Lora, on the year 2250. My birth parents had first met on a remote planet, and had fallen in love. However, the Star Empire disapproved of my birth father marrying a Vulcan girl, so we were all sentenced to death. My sister Valeris was 11 at that time and I was 5."
"How horrible!" Kirk gasped.
"Thankfully, some family members from both the D'harvanek and S'jck T'hei clans managed to get me and my sister to safety at my birth mother's request, and we were adopted by Commanders Spock and Burnham shortly after. My sister is now 14 and a hero-in-training, and I am 8." said Saavik, before adding "But, I do happen to have something..."
Kirk found himself floating in the air, and Saavik hadn't budged. "Whoa!" cried Kirk. "Is that...telekinesis? That's my dad's quirk! You know George Kirk, right? From what I'd heard, he had a telekinesis quirk."
"On Vulcan, telekinesis is a rare trait." Saavik explained as she put Kirk down. "It only manifests within the reldai, the planet's priestess. I've seen Lady T'Pau, the current reldai and my adoptive great-grandmother, use telekinesis to shut people up once and I wasn't even aware that I had the same abilities."
And as he kept talking to her, Kirk wondered what it would feel like if he had a daughter like Saavik. (For the record, he also learned how she was named—after Valeris, T'Lora thought she was going to have a male child this time so she picked a male Vulcan name for the unborn fetus, but when it finally matured enough to see the light of the outside world, it happened to be yet another girl. Nevertheless, the name had stuck.)
Lightyears away, on an asteroid-ship that was the last refuge of an alien race known as the Fabrini, yet another 8-year-old girl wondered what it would feel like if she had stayed with Dad anyway. Her name was Joanna McCoy, and to her, everyday was Take Your Kid To Work Day. Her mother, Natira, was the spiritual leader of an entire people and Joanna felt like too much pressure was being put on her by being her daughter, which made her a princess of some sorts. And what was worse, Natira only wished to exploit her for the healing quirk she inherited from her father; it was weak in comparison to her father's but it was more than enough to the inhabitants of Yonada. So she decided to do the unthinkable—escape from paradise. Before leaving, she cast one last look at her mother, dressed in the traditional high priestess's garb—an elaborate blue dress with separate sleeves and a gossamer veil that seemed to float all around the place. She looked so elegant, that one Leonard McCoy couldn't help but fall for her.
As Joanna boarded one of the emergency shuttles, she wondered what her father was doing now. She missed the days they all lived together on Yorktown, the McCoy family were close friends with the Sulus next door and they were almost treated like one large extended family. Leonard loved Hikaru Sulu and his husband Ben like brothers, and as a result, Joanna was also close to the Sulu twins, Demora and Nanashi. One day, Joanna had asked Hikaru how did he have the twins, and made an interesting discovery—there were several options for a same-sex couple to have children, such as adoption, surrogacy or replicators. The second option was what Hikaru and Ben chose, with Hikaru's sister Yuki volunteering.
Ah, those were the days, Joanna thought as her shuttle flew through space. She missed her father, she missed her de facto family, and most of all, she missed Nanashi. The feelings she had for him surpassed any form of friendship, to the point she began to suspect that it must be love. Sure, those days were filled with nothing but joy, until it all came to a sudden end when Dad left to enlist in Starfleet and Mom once again boarded Yonada to lead her people to the promised land, taking everything from Dad in the process—including custody of the girl.
What Joanna didn't know was that her mother indeed cared for her, she just couldn't find the time.
Suddenly, the shuttle found itself in a crossfire between a Romulan ship and a pirate ship. It lasted for about five minutes, enough to seriously damage the small spececraft. "Attention, unidentified vessel," said an imposing female voice from one side of the comms, "You have trespassed the territory of the Romulan Star Empire, prepare to suffer the consequences!"
"Aww, Livi, stop being so stuffy, will ya?" said another, this time more playful female voice from the other side of the comms, then suddenly Joanna was beamed aboard the pirate ship in a matter of seconds before the Romulan ship could destroy the shuttle.
She had her eyes closed for a minute, and then opened them again to see friendly faces. "Well, ahoy, matey!" said the leader. "Name's Lynne Lucero, and this is my ship, the Calliope. Welcome aboard!"
"Please don't hurt me, I've got nothing!" cried the girl.
"We won't." the pirate captain smiled. "We might be pirates, but we're not exactly bad people. In fact, we're doing this for a living. You see, all of us used to work aboard a Starfleet ship." She then removed her black cloak to reveal a golden shirt.
Joanna was amazed. "Then how did you end up here?"
"I was captain of the USS Cabot and these were all my crew...until the tribbles took over. The little abominations forced us to abandon ship, and we were left not knowing what to do next until we finally made up our minds and decided to become pirates. So we hijacked this ship and made it ours."
"How?" asked the girl.
Lynne smiled. "Like this." she replied, and used her quirk to create a strong gust of wind that made Joanna float. "My quirk is called Whirlwind, with it, I can manipulate the air around me. This is just a portion of what I'm truly capable of."
Suddenly, everybody heard shouting in Rihannsu from the comms. "Uh-oh," Lynne muttered, "My old foe is at it again. Looks like we gotta run!"
"If you should run, then take me to Earth." Joanna said. "Please. I wanna meet my dad."
"Alright!" said Lynne. "Where do you want me to take you?"
"Starfleet Academy." said the girl. "My dad is a cadet there." At the mention of Starfleet, Lynne swallowed thickly but after a moment, she nodded and ordered her first mate to put the ship into warp. Unbeknownst to them, the Romulans followed shortly after.
Little did they know, destiny was slowly being put into place and soon, the weirdest yet bravest crew the universe has ever seen would be formed. Just a few more members to visit and the lineup would be complete.
Yeah, I do love McCarol but Bones/Natira is seriously underrated, so in this story, Joanna is half-human, half-Fabrini.
Lynne is basically Inasa Yoarashi.
The concept of replicator babies come from When Spock Lost Kirk by DeliciousNewYork, and is a subject that I wish to further expand on.