Disclaimer: I don't own Star Trek
The next few days passed easily. Carol, upon her return to their room that evening, told Jim that the rest of the command crew were aware of the prison break. Jim wasn't thrilled, but he understood that she had had to tell them something, and it wasn't exactly confidential – at least, Chris hadn't told him not to tell anyone. The Klingon news was what they really needed to keep quiet. He should probably have Carol sign the nondisclosure agreement as well, come to think of it, now that she knew.
As the days continued to fly by, Jim became more relaxed; no one was treating him differently, and the concerned looks had dropped to nearly nonexistent as they now had a reason for his out of character behavior. He was approached by each of his friends individually, asking if there was anything they could do. But when he said no, they left it alone and moved on.
Jim did have private conversations with Chekov, Kevin, and April, all of whom were horrified and angry at the idea of Kodos once more on the loose. None of them blamed Jim of course, but there were some swears directed at the prison planet guards for letting him escape, Admiral Archer for waiting so long to contact Jim, and of course, the man himself for continuing to exist and be a thorn in their sides.
Jim promised them updates as he got them, and they all agreed to move on and let the Yorktown do its job. They had their own mission, and a whole lot of unchartered space to explore. They had been drifting back towards gamma quadrant lately, to be closer to the Klingons for when they began the process of putting a new treaty to writing. A lot of the border planets had been left unexplored, wary of possible Klingon presence. While they didn't have an official mission to chart this area of space, the Admirals had suggested it as a way to keep them within communication range of the Klingons, and to allow for easier communication between the Enterprise and Earth. Official communication channels made it possible to contact ships even in the furthest reaches of space, but the further out a ship was, the longer the communication lag, and the more risk there was of something disrupting the frequency.
Of course, Jim, Spock, and Uhura were the only ones who knew why they had chosen this particular area of space to spend their time, but it was an exciting adventure for the rest of them nonetheless. Unmapped space, new planets, exactly what they had signed up for.
They had been there for approximately three months, when Jim finally felt like they had a working draft they could send to the Klingons. He had worked tirelessly with his team on the ship, as well as Ambassadors Sarek, Shras, and Maab, to put together something that hit on the most important requests from the Admirals, while also taking into consideration what the Klingons were or were not likely to agree on. It also had to please the other Federation races, which was why the three ambassadors were included. Many meetings had descended to nothing more than heated arguing where very little got done.
It was interesting for Jim to watch Spock and his father work together during these meetings. He had talked to Spock briefly to make sure there would be no issues with the two of them on the team, but hadn't been surprised when the Vulcan immediately replied negatively. Jim wasn't entirely certain, but he chose to believe his First Officer. Spock was capable of separating professional from personal, and if he had any issues, Jim knew he wouldn't let it affect what they were trying to do. There were moments: some intense staring contests and thinly veiled rebukes had been thrown across the subspace frequencies when Spock sided on the side of Starfleet rather than Vulcan, and Spock's mouth tended to twist downward slightly at times when Sarek refused to acquiesce to some of their own suggestions.
But they had persevered, and finally had something to show for it. Jim sent it to the Admirals for approval before they would approach the Klingons to begin what was likely to be a months-long debate over subspace frequencies. Because while the Federation was working on their treaty, the Klingons would be putting together their own list of requirements. They would then come together and work to combine the two in a way that would please both parties the most.
Jim was anticipating a lot of arguments in his future. He could already imagine the message he would get from Admiral Kawaoki, demanding to know why he had ignored their list of requirements. But they had put Jim in charge, which meant they had to trust him to use his own judgement at times, even if it meant leaving out some requests that would have no chance of being accepted by the Klingons.
Until they got a reply from the Admirals, they couldn't move forward, so Jim threw himself into the exploration. He had participated in several away teams, though so far all of the planets they had explored had been deserted.
The days blended together in a haze of away teams beaming down to planets, work and experiments conducted in labs on the ship, and evenings spent among friends either in the mess hall or any of the recreation rooms or observation decks. Any combination of the command crew and their closest friends were prone to gathering together to enjoy those evenings, discussing Federation news or their own successes or failures with whatever tasks they were working on at the moment.
"Have you heard about the new space station?" Uhura asked one evening, from her position lying against Spock on one small sofa in a private observation deck at the end of the hallway where Command Crew quarters were situated.
Jim, Carol, McCoy, April, Scotty, and Kevin were there as well. Chekov and Sulu had begged out, as Sulu was currently conducting some sort of experiment in the botany labs and he had cajoled Chekov into joining him for the evening. Joanna was at a sleepover so was also absent.
Jim glanced up from his PADD at the Communications officer's question, and nodded. "It's being called a technological marvel," he replied, rolling his eyes. "At least, that's what the media is saying. Not that I disagree, it's an entire city built in space. I can't wait to visit."
McCoy huffed. "Why would anyone want to live in a place like that?" he grumbled. "Nowhere to escape when it all inevitably goes wrong. If we do visit, I'm staying on the ship."
Jim grinned. "Never thought I'd hear you advocating for ship life, Bones." McCoy glared at him, Kevin snorted, Scotty chuckled, and Jim shrugged. "Whatever your personal feelings, it's a huge push forward for the Federation. It's a completely neutral location, built specifically so that no one race or planet can claim ownership."
McCoy crossed his arms and scowled. "Still," he muttered, "not worth it in my opinion."
April reached over and squeezed his hand reassuringly. "Don't worry," she promised, "I'll protect you."
Jim and Scotty both laughed, while Uhura smiled and even Spock appeared to be fighting amusement. Kevin looked like he wanted to join in, but wasn't altogether certain the doctor wouldn't find some way to murder him in his sleep, so he just bit his lip and tried to maintain a straight face. McCoy just looked irritated.
"I have been informed Starfleet has come to a decision on a name," Spock stated, believing that the doctor would not appreciate continued jokes being made at his expense. He had definitely grown into his human side over the years, and one example of that was understanding when someone wanted the subject to be changed.
Jim nodded, knowing what Spock was doing, and agreeing that the doctor looked one bad joke away from blowing up. "Yeah, they finally made the decision a couple days ago. They're decommissioning the Yorktown, and naming the new station after it."
Carol frowned in confusion. "Why are they decommissioning the Yorktown now?" she asked curiously. "They're not done with their mission yet, are they?"
Jim shook his head. "Still a couple years to go. Nothing's changing with the crew," he informed them. "They're just retiring the ship and reassigning all personnel to the new starship series. The USS Parks will be the first one to be space worthy, but they're going to be slowly moving all existing crews to the new series over the next five years or so."
Carol looked at him, excited. "This is your new design, right? The one you and the design team have been working on for over the last three years?"
Jim smiled and nodded. "Yeah. We finished the specs about eight months ago, and they've been busy building ever since. The Parks will be ready to fly in about two months. Yorktown's making its final voyage back to Earth right now."
"That's awesome, Jim," April chimed in. "You must be thrilled."
Jim settled back in his seat and threw an arm across the back of the couch. Carol, next to him, leaned into his side. "I am," he acknowledged, "I'm looking forward to having more free time, definitely."
Carol smirked slightly, expression telling everyone that she was looking forward to that as well.
McCoy rolled his eyes, looking at the two of them. He wondered how long they were going to keep their relationship status change a secret. To his knowledge, he and Pike were currently the only ones who knew, and it had been months.
Uhura was also watching the couple with a keen eye. She was so glad they had worked through whatever argument they had had a few months ago. That had been an awkward time for everyone; more so because no one had had any idea what was going on. Well, McCoy seemed to know, but he had kept his mouth shut and refused point blank to answer any of them when they had asked. It was their mess, and they had to clean it up, he would reply brusquely, usually while handling a hypo and with a definite gleam in his eye that told whoever asked that he was planning where best to stick it.
The Communications Officer's eyes narrowed as she took in the necklace that had come out from underneath Carol's shirt – a low cut v-neck with a logo from a twenty-first century TV show that Uhura remembered giving the woman on her last birthday. Carol was a closet nerd, and owned the entire series (one season, but still) of Firefly – complete with the director's commentary. She made a point of watching it at least once a year. Uhura knew that because she and Jim had both been roped into joining her more than once.
But that necklace… it was a rather interesting pendant. If Uhura wasn't mistaken…
"Carol, why are you wearing an engagement ring around your neck?"
Everyone's head snapped up at that. Carol immediately looked down and saw that the necklace was visible. She immediately stuffed it back underneath her shirt, but the damage was done. She and Jim shared a look, before the latter grimaced and shrugged.
Carol sighed and sat up. She took the necklace off and slipped the ring out of the chain, sliding it onto her finger. There really wasn't much point in hiding it. The reasons they had had all those months ago just didn't seem worth it anymore.
April shook her head. "How long?" she asked curiously.
Jim bit his lip. "A couple months?" he replied weakly.
Uhura frowned. "You've been engaged for months and you didn't tell us?" her voice squeaked at the end, showing her hurt and confusion.
Carol immediately leaned forward. "I'm sorry," she paused and glanced at Jim again. "We're sorry," she amended. "We were going to tell you all, but then Kodos escaped, and we just thought we should keep it quiet for moment. And then we just got used to no one knowing. We didn't mean to keep you all in the dark."
Jim nodded in agreement. "Really, it wasn't anything against you. We should have told you months ago, but life just got… crazy," he finished lamely.
It really shouldn't have gone on this long. First it had just been Kodos, and then things with the design team had picked up as they entered the last few months of building the new ship, and working on the Klingon treaty, and telling everyone about him and Carol had just… fallen to the side.
"While I cannot appreciate your deception, even if it was by omission, I would nevertheless like to offer my congratulations," Spock stated evenly. "Have you considered when you plan to conduct the ceremony?"
Jim shook his head. "I promised Chris I wouldn't do it without him, so it might have to wait a while," he admitted.
"So even Pike knew before us," Uhura grumbled, still looking displeased.
"To be fair, he kind of interrupted my proposal," Jim grumbled, crossing his arms. "It's not like I went out of my way to tell him."
Uhura didn't look any less upset, and Carol sighed. "I'm sorry, Nyota. But like Jim said, we don't have a timeline. We haven't even started to plan yet, and you know I'll want your help with that." Uhura still didn't look satisfied. Carol frowned slightly. "Nyota, you're like a sister to me. Please don't be angry."
Uhura crossed her arms and leveled a serious look at the woman. "I'm not angry," she finally replied. "I'm a little hurt, but I guess I can get over it. As long as I get to be a bridesmaid."
Carol nodded immediately. "Who else would I ask to be my maid of honor?" she said. Uhura looked surprised, but didn't get a chance to reply as Carol suddenly threw a guiltily look at April. "Not that I don't consider you a great friend as well," she started, but April cut her off.
"I get it," the doctor assured her.
"We haven't planned anything, but I do want you to be my bridesmaid," Carol said.
April smiled. "I'd be honored. As long as you'll be one of mine as well."
Carol beamed. "Of course!"
April then looked at Uhura. "You too?"
Uhura finally smiled. "I'd love to." She looked at Carol. "And I'd be thrilled to be your maid of honor."
"Shouldn't we have a date before we start planning these things?" McCoy asked, wondering what the hell had happened between the three women. One minute, Uhura was up in arms about being left in the dark, the next, all three of them were seconds away from crying.
April glared at him. "It hadn't even been twelve hours since you asked me when you asked Jim to be your best man. Now be quiet, the girls are talking."
McCoy rolled his eyes. "He made it a condition of giving me his approval to ask you in the first place." April's glare only intensified, and McCoy held up his hands in a gesture of surrender.
April nodded decisively and turned back to Carol. "Let's see the ring then." She, Uhura, and Carol then moved off to one side, all clustered around Carol's hand as they admired the ring.
Jim, Spock, and McCoy watched them, amused and a little confused. Finally, Jim just shook his head and stood up. "It's late and I've got an early morning call with the Admiralty tomorrow. I'll see you guys later."
McCoy, Spock, Kevin, and Scotty nodded, and began making moves to head back to their rooms themselves. Carol just waved to show she had heard, and Uhura and April ignored him completely, still admiring the ring.
Jim sighed, shook his head again, and left the OD.
XXX
A few days later, they were just about to wrap up their study of the current planet they had docked above, when Uhura picked up on a distress call from a Federation colony. Jim had her play it on the large view screen so they could all hear it.
There was a lot of static, but they could easily pick up the panic in the man's voice. "Starfleet, come in! Please, we need assistance. Federation science colony Deneva… malfunction in the labs… lost power… multiple wounded… missing… please send help…"
Jim kept his expression carefully blank as he straightened in his seat. "Sulu, Chekov, plot a course for Deneva. ETA?"
Sulu laid in the course quickly. "Nine hours, Captain."
Jim nodded curtly. "Let's get going. Spock, you have the con. I'll be in my ready room."
He levered himself out of the chair and disappeared into the small room off to one side of the Bridge. Once he was alone, he dropped into the seat behind his desk and groaned loudly into his arms.
Damn it, it had to be Deneva? The last time he had seen his brother had been through a vid screen as Sam tried to… apologize? Jim wasn't sure what that call had been about, maybe some sort of misplaced guilt over the way Jim's life had gone after he had left. He hadn't wanted to hear it, and had ended the transmission.
But that didn't mean he hadn't been keeping track of Sam all these years. He was angry, sure. Pissed might be a better word. After Sam had told him he didn't want him in his life when Jim had tracked him down on Deneva when he was a teenager, he hadn't wanted to be tied to that life anymore. But Sam was still his brother, and he still wanted to make sure he was OK. No matter how they felt about each other, Jim just couldn't completely cut himself off.
So Jim knew Sam was still on Deneva. It was probable that no one else would understand the significance of this. No one would understand what was going through his head. Very few people knew Jim even had a brother, and of those, Jon might be the only one who actually knew where he was living. As head of Fleet Operations, and since Deneva was a Federation science colony, Jon would have approved any new hires over the last few decades.
Jim ran a hand distractedly through his hair, and forced himself to push any and all negative thoughts behind a wall in his mind. He couldn't worry about Sam right now. He couldn't wonder what might happen if he suddenly found himself face to face with his brother for the first time in over a decade. He couldn't wonder about how he might not even get that chance.
Two more deep breaths, and then Jim stood back up, making his way back to the Bridge. Spock dutifully stood up, vacating the Captain's chair and heading back to his own seat at the science station.
Jim sat down. "Uhura, send a message to Command, apprise them of the situation. Let them know we're on our way, and will provide further updates as we get them." Uhura nodded, typing quickly. Jim swallowed. "Then try contacting Deneva. Send out an acknowledgement of the distress call, and try and get someone to answer. We need to know what's going on now, and how bad things are."
Uhura nodded again. "Yes, sir."
A few minutes passed in silence, and then Uhura turned around. "Messages sent, Captain. No one on Deneva is answering. I'm transmitting continually on multiple frequencies, in the hopes they manage to fix communications and respond."
Jim inclined his head. "Good. Here's hoping we can get a better picture of what we're dealing with before we arrive."
XXX
The next few hours passed in a tense concern. Engineering, Security, and Medical were all alerted to the situation, and prepared teams to beam down to assist.
Jim worked very hard to keep his own personal stake in this matter to himself, and was mostly successful. Carol knew immediately that something was wrong, but he had already decided he should probably tell her anyway – it wasn't the best idea to keep secrets from his fiancée.
A quiet conversation in private, and Carol was understandably concerned, both for the man who would one day be her brother-in-law and for the situation it was putting her fiancé in.
Uhura continued to send messages out, but it wasn't until they were only a couple hours out that they finally received a response. From the call sign, it was a personal communicator and not an official one, but contact was contact.
"This is Captain Kirk of the USS Enterprise, to whom am I speaking?" Jim asked, voice level as he stared at the screen in front of him. It was a shaky image, filled with dust and fallen debris.
The man on the screen didn't look much better than the room around him. There was a gash on his forehead, and his shirt was covered in what Jim hoped was only dirt and not blood – it was a dark shirt though, and parts of it looked suspiciously damp.
Still, he looked incredibly relieved to have actually reached someone. "Thank God," he exclaimed. "I'm Doctor Mitchell Sanchez. We're trapped in the basement, we have been for hours. Please tell me you're on your way to help?"
Jim nodded quickly. "We're about two hours out. How many are with you?"
Sanchez looked around. "There's about a dozen of us down here. I think there are some other groups in different parts of the complex, but we haven't been able to get out, and believe me, we've tried."
Jim frowned. "Can you tell us what happened?"
Sanchez grimaced. "The power grid blew. I think one of our experiments overloaded it, which wouldn't have been too bad, but it set off a chain reaction in both our research buildings. It was like a bomb going off, we were completely blindsided. And then the back-up generators started to fail. We've been sitting here in the dark for the last seven hours."
Jim bit his lip. Do any of you have engineering skills?"
Sanchez shook his head. "Most of our engineers were in the other building." He looked around at the others trapped with him. When they all shook their heads indicating their lack of skills, he grimaced and looked back at his comm. "Sorry, all of us here are scientists. I could probably change a light bulb, but not much more."
Jim sighed. "Ok then. I know this isn't easy. We'll be there soon, but let's see if we can start fixing things now. You're in the basement right? I'm assuming that's where the generator is? Or does the complex run on communal generators?"
Sanchez shook his head. "The main buildings have their own. I'm looking at it right now, but it's completely dead."
Jim frowned. "Can you point the communicator at it? Let me see what I'm working with."
Sanchez looked puzzled, but obliged. Jim studied what he could see of the machine. "Show me the fuel cell?" he asked. Sanchez flashed his face briefly, looking confused, and Jim allowed himself a small smile. "It should be off to one side, there will be a glass tube that'll show some liquid. This will tell me whether the generator has fuel to run."
Sanchez nodded, and the video panned over the machine for a moment, finally coming to rest on a large glass tube.
Jim let out a breath of air. "OK, looks like the fuel's good. So that's not an issue. Can you take the front panel off? There should be a release on either side."
Two more figures entered the screen, a Terran woman and a male Jim recognized as Andorian. They worked together for a minute to remove the panel, setting it off to one side as Sanchez moved closer to show Jim the inner workings of the machine.
Jim studied the image closely, looking for any potential issues. This would be much easier if he was there, but they were still an hour and a half away. "Looks like everything's been kept up," he muttered, frowning. "Can you pull out that filter on the right? The one with the handle." Sanchez immediately complied, and Jim's frown deepened. "Not clogged, so that's not the issue."
Sanchez let out a soft moan. "So what's wrong?" he asked, putting the filter back and trying not to sound like he was whining. This was a Starfleet Captain, Captain of the flagship no less. If circumstances were less dire, he might have felt honored that the flagship was on its way to save them.
Jim's gaze narrowed. "Do you have anything there you can use to make a charge?" he asked abruptly.
Sanchez looked around wildly. "I don't think so."
One of the other scientists shifted forward. "Mitch, there should be a first aid kit around here somewhere." She looked down at the screen. "Captain, would a defibrillator work?"
Jim immediately nodded. "Perfect."
Everyone except for Sanchez immediately jumped into action, looking for the promised device.
A few minutes later, the Andorian scientist who had helped remove the front panel let out a shout of triumph. "Got it!"
He quickly ran back to the generator, handing Sanchez the AED.
Jim grinned. "All right, Sanchez. I'm going to walk you through this. Let me know if something doesn't make sense or if you get stuck, all right?"
Sanchez nodded, and handed the communicator to the woman standing next to him. She dutifully held it up so that it showed both the generator and Sanchez.
The crew on the Bridge of the Enterprise watched in stunned awe as Jim walked the confused scientist through stripping wires, crossing paths, and connecting the AED.
Finally, Jim sat back in his seat. "That should do it. Now Sanchez, I need you to take the paddle and press the charge button. When it beeps, press it again."
Sanchez grit his teeth, praying that this would work. He had no idea what he had just done, but Captain Kirk seemed certain enough. He spared a millisecond to wonder why it was the Captain talking him through this, and why he hadn't gotten one of his engineers up to the Bridge to do so instead. But the moment passed, and he pressed the button.
It charged and beeped. And Sanchez pressed it again. There was a high pitched screech, and then the generator started rumbling.
A moment later, the lights flickered and turned on.
The scientists cheered, and Sanchez grinned. "It worked! I have no idea how, but thank you!"
Jim smiled, relieved. "A generator is like a giant magnet. Sometimes it loses its charge, but shocking it can do the same thing for a magnet that it can do for a human heart." He shook his head, amused. "I've got a background in engineering, including mechanical engineering. I spent years learning how to do this stuff."
"Macgyvering your way out of situations like this?" Sanchez shook his head. "I'm grateful for the help, however you learned it!"
Jim shrugged. "We'll be there in a little over an hour. Now that the power's on, can you get out of the basement?"
Sanchez looked over at the door along the far wall. "As long as the building's still stable and the door isn't blocked on the other side. We should be able to open the electronic lock now, at least."
Jim frowned. "Maybe you should all stay put for the time being. Wait for us to get you out. I know it's the last thing you want to do, but better safe than sorry, right?"
Sanchez didn't look happy, and the others looked similarly ready to leave, but they did at least understand why Jim thought it would be better not to.
Jim was about to speak again, when the video flickered. His brow furrowed. "Sanchez? Are you still there?"
Sanchez held the communicator up, trying to get a better signal. "Captain, I think I'm losing you. The signal's weakened. Captain?"
There was no reply. The view of the Bridge of the Enterprise flickered and then went dark.
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