I don't own Star Trek.

Enjoy.


If you do this, you'll never sit in the Captain's Chair again.

As he stood between Scotty and Sulu, who were both manning the helm and navigational console, unable to take his eyes off of the viewer, Kirk tried desperately hard to stop himself fidgeting nervously. This was no ordinary mission. They hadn't been allowed to go anywhere near the Genesis Planet due to the massive controversy caused by its premature and unplanned detonation, courtesy of Khan's rampage through the Alpha Quadrant after being stranded on Ceti Alpha V for years. Everyone on the ship was currently on the bridge and they'd all risked their Starfleet careers and none of them had the slightest idea of knowing what was going to occur when they finally had to answer for their crimes.

All to retrieve Spock's body so his soul would be passed on…

Like Morrow, Kirk had never truly understood Vulcan mysticism despite encountering more than enough instances of it over the years. Neither did any of his crew, but due to their loyalty to Spock, they felt they had to obey the wishes of Sarek to head back to Genesis and to pick it up and return it to Vulcan they had considered the risk to be worth it.

He had been feeling…. Bad about how they had just sent Spock's body to the surface of the newborn planet, and he had wanted to make up for it. That was why he had tried to beg for the Enterprise to go back to Genesis and study the newborn solar system. Kirk had known about the Genesis Project for some time; it was one of those classified projects that everyone wanted to keep under wraps for security reasons, but when he had learnt what Carol was doing, he'd been amazed.

Kirk had hoped they could have studied the newborn planet, but apparently, another ship and crew had been given the assignment, so it was just taken out of his hands.

The Grissom under the command of Captain Esteban was already there. Kirk only knew the captain in passing. He was a stickler for the rules, but while he was competent in some areas, he was a well-thought veteran who some considered cautious to the point of being afraid of going out on a limb. That was normal; every captain in the fleet had their own quirks and views, and while Kirk himself had sometimes bent the rules he had never done it like this before now.

In any case, they had to admit something odd had been going on with Dr McCoy recently. Kirk had known his friend for a long time; while he had always been irascible at times, Kirk had never seen his old friend acting as odd like that. Never. McCoy would never have broken into somebody's cabin and speak like him. It would be an insult to their memory for them to do that. Kirk licked his lips as they passed the massive mushroom shape of Spacedock. They had managed to get out of the dock complex contained within the enormous space station but it had been close since Scotty had needed time to transmit the override codes to the main doors to let them out.

"Excelsior closing to within 4,000 metres, sir," Chekov's urgent voice made Kirk turn. The Russian officer was currently seated at Uhura's station and he looked worried and concerned.

Kirk turned back to Scotty who was still inputting commands into his console. "Scotty, we'll need everything you have," he said; Excelsior was one of the latest Federation starships; she was more advanced than Enterprise and others of the Constitution-class with her new engines, and as part of the long list of tasks given to the skeleton crew, Scotty had been given the asteroid's share. Not only had he been given the daunting task of automating the Enterprise so she could be operated by a crew of five instead of four hundred like she'd been designed for and get the ship ready for space again, and to override the space dock doors, but he had been tasked with finding a way of stopping Excelsior chasing them.

Kirk hated having to pile everything onto Scotty's shoulders, but he'd had no choice.

"Aye, sir, warp drive standing by," Scotty replied, sounding calm and controlled but everyone on the bridge knew Scotty well enough to know the engineer sounded mildly smug over what he had just done.

"Sir, we're getting a transmission from the Excelsior," Chekov called.

Kirk knew what the message would say, but if it would give them time to give the Excelsior crew a surprise before they could get within range for them to activate their tractor beams… "Put it through," he ordered.

"Kirk," Kirk had to stop the groan that threatened to rise up within him when he heard the pompous voice of Lawrence Styles; why, of all the captains in Starfleet to get command of the Excelsior, did it have to be him? Excelsior could have gone to somebody who was much, much better. "If you do this, you'll never sit in the Captain's chair again."

Kirk, who'd silently slid into the captain's chair by that point. He knew Starfleet would be extremely generous to forgive what they had just done; not only had they violated Starfleet security by stealing the Enterprise and overridden the space doors to the station, they had assaulted and threatened Starfleet personnel, to say nothing of disobeying orders. And he knew Styles was trying to stop them making it worse for themselves; he had never particularly liked the man and considered him an idiot, but he had to admire his tactic. But if they honestly thought this would work when they had come this far…

"Warp speed," he ordered, wondering if this was indeed going to be the last time he would ever command a starship again; the thought was depressing, especially since he would never make a difference again. Ever since he had been promoted to admiral during that mess of a coup a few years ago, Kirk had been bored out of his mind, so when V'ger had appeared he had jumped at the chance of regaining command of the Enterprise. Now it looked like it was gone for good.

As the Enterprise jumped into warp, Kirk went tense in his chair; while he knew Scotty would have done his job, what if the Excelsior crew had detected the problem as soon as they'd cleared the dock? No, if that had happened then Styles would have boasted about it, calling him and his crew as well as the Enterprise second rate…

"Admiral, Excelsior is sending out an emergency transmission. They claim their engines have stalled," Chekov reported excitedly while Sulu initiated another warp jump to get them clear from spacedock.

Kirk chuckled and he stood up, placing his hand on Scotty's shoulder. "Scotty, as good as your word."

"Aye, sir, the more they overthink the plumbing, the easier it is to stop up the drain," Scotty said smugly while Kirk shared an amused look with Sulu.

"Here, Doctor, souvenirs from one surgeon to another," Scotty said to McCoy, who'd walked over to stand by the console while the chief engineer passed over a small collection of small components, "I took them out of her main transwarp computer drive."

McCoy sent Kirk a sour look. "Nice of you to tell me in advance," he commented sarcastically.

"That's what you get for missing staff meetings, doctor," Kirk retorted sarcastically. "Gentlemen, your work today has been outstanding. I intend to recommend you all for promotion, in whatever fleet we end up serving," he added ruefully, briefly wondering what Starfleet would have in mind for them when they got back before he pushed it aside, knowing they all felt the same way. "Best speed to Genesis."

As Sulu increased the warp field's power, Kirk knew even if Starfleet kicked him out, he would welcome it since he would be helping his old friend…