Hello friends! I have crawled from my pit of shame to return to this story. It has been almost six years since the last update of this story. A lot has happened since then, I've finished my bachelor's and master's, and have started working full-time. Visiting my family and being alone at home with no internet got me sorting through the files on my computer and I came across WUtB again. I have no excuses. I do want to do something about finishing this story. I don't really know where it will go, and how closely it will follow the feeling of the first few chapters, but I will try putting up decent length chapters with less-than-six-year gaps. There's a promise I think I can keep.

Thank you everyone who reviewed and asked for an update. You really helped in getting me to come back to this.

~Aiji

The first thing that Nyota Uhura did upon seeing James Kirk smiling at her door was try to close it again. He seemed to be expecting it, having wedged a foot in the gap, and she narrowed her eyes at him dangerously. The tried and tested scare tactic did not, unfortunately, work. She narrowed them further. "What do you want?"

"A word," he replied, and Uhura paused, opening the door wider by a fraction. "About Gaila. And Undesirable Boyfriend Number Two."

Her eyes widened- Finally, Jim thought, that look was intimidating as hell- and, after glancing around the corridor to make sure no one was watching, grabbed him by the front of his shirt and yanked him inside.

"Explain." She leaned her back against the door and crossed her arms, eyes boring into his. Jim fought the urge to examine more closely the room into which he had, through various means, tried to gain entry to for the last two-something years, as well as the very shapely figure now standing stiffly blocking the entrance, radiating impatience. A year ago he'd have jumped at the chance to be in Uhura's room. If anyone told him he'd be inside with a strong sense of dread, he'd have laughed at them and told them to check his credentials. With a wink.

Which made broaching the topic that much harder.

"You know of Gaila's recent… new relationship?" he began. Uhura threw him a look.

"I'm her roommate. Of course I know."

Jim nodded. He paused, wondering how to phrase his next sentiment. He decided to get straight to the point. "Want to help me put a stop to it?"

Uhura couldn't be thrilled that Gaila had fallen head over heels with the second most notorious ladies' man in the Academy. He hoped the fact that it was Gaila involved would let her overlook the fact that it was him, of all people, that wanted them to break up.

Wait.

"I'm not going to cooperate with you just so you can get back with her," she all but snarled. "If that's what you want, you can get out." She turned the knob, but Jim pressing one hand against the door to keep it shut and raising one in what he hoped was a placating gesture. He lowered his hands and took two steps back. There was murder in Uhura's eyes.

"That's not what I meant. Listen to what I have to say. Please. If you still want me to get out of your hair after that, I will."

They tried to stare each other down. Then Uhura relented, reluctantly, and gestured at the chair. "Sit." Jim did so. Then she leaned forward, cocking her head to the side, giving him a bullshit-me-and-you're-dead look. "Explain."

Jim did. He left out some details, but took care to explain that yes, he did see Gaila as a friend, and he knew what he could expect from Gary by virtue of past experience- Uhura's mouth was thin and pursed at this point- and so wouldn't it be in everyone's general good interest (except for Gary's) for them to cooperate?

When he finished, Uhura didn't say anything. From where he was sitting, Jim could just make out a small frown line on her forehead, and she wasn't looking directly at him anymore. Instead, her eyes were fixed on a point somewhere beside his elbow, but he had a feeling her mind was somewhere else entirely. Finally, her eyes flicked up again and she broke the silence.

"I don't trust you," she said. "If you think just because you come here and say all those things, I'll forget who and what you are, you are sorely mistaken." Jim's heart sank and he opened his mouth, but she waved him off and bit her lip. "But I know some things about this Gary Mitchell, and I'd be lying if I said that I was happy with what's happening, so—oh, wipe that look off your face. I still don't trust you."

Jim fought to lower the grin that had appeared out of nowhere, and was moderately successful. "Excellent. I can live with that. Now here's what I was thinking…"

Gary Mitchell was annoyed. He hadn't managed to get his reading done, all because of James Kirk, and the library encounter still lingered foul in his mind. Professor Johns had been clearly delighted to be able to give him a talking to, something he must have been saving up since Gary had tried to chat up his young wife, damn the man. And Gaila was in class, so the possibility of a romp in the hay to make him feel better wasn't forthcoming.

He tossed his PADD onto a table in the library, ignoring the harsh sound it made as it landed on its smooth surface. Its screen held his make-up assignment from the class, due in the evening, and he currently held nothing but distaste towards the piece of technology. The looks of consternation he received from the other patrons were promptly ignored as well as he sauntered between the shelves, trying to put off doing the extra assignment for just a little while.

He meandered through the aisles. Nothing in the neatly labelled titles really caught his eye, and he was resigning himself to starting on the assignment when something gave him pause. He did an about-turn and peered at the shelf he had just passed.

A stack of 'Piloting Beyond the Andromeda: 4th edition' copies were lined up neatly on the shelf. Which was fine in itself, except Gary was standing in the Xenobotany section.

He regarded them with distaste. It seemed everything was going out of its way to annoy him, whether through hypocrisy, jealousy or incompetence. His luck really wasn't holding out recently. He pulled one of the copies out, glared at the shelf once more, and returned to his table. He was just pulling out his chair when a flash of red caused him to turn his head, and promptly get up to take the chair on the opposite end of the table instead.

Cadet Uhura was bending over one of the computer units. Gary had just enough time to notice a frown of concentration on her face before he took his preferred seat, which gave him an unrivalled view of the back of her summer uniform. Damn, she had long legs.

He turned back to his PADD, and slotted in the disc. The light tapping of fingers on a keyboard and the splash of red in his peripheral vision drew his eyes upwards again. Not that he really minded, of course.

There was a barely audible boop and Cadet Uhura huffed in frustration. She started typing again, but the tone sounded again. She gave up after three more attempts, closed the screen, and stepped out towards the librarian's desk.

"Spot of trouble with the interface?" Gary said as she passed him. He heard her steps halt behind him, and he turned to look at her with small smile, hooking his elbow around the back of his chair and leaning back in what he hoped was a nonchalant manner.

"Not something you can help me with, Mitchell." The frustration was not quite absent from her tone, but he was flattered that she knew his name nonetheless.

"Don't underestimate the Mitchell. What appears to be the problem? I wouldn't trust the Librarian to help you; he shelved Piloting in with alien plants." He swaggered up to her, eyeing the PADD she was holding close. She regarded him thoughtfully, then swept her hair from her shoulder and angled the PADD so that he could see the screen.

"The interface won't recognise the symbols of the Amtar dialect I'm meant to be doing a report on. The 'text not recognized' error just pops up." She cocked her head to the side and raised her eyebrows. "Still think you can help me? I'm prepared to take my chances with the Librarian."

Gary Mitchell couldn't be bothered with Xenolinguistics. He was content warp engine design and navigation, and let someone else handle alien languages. A linguistics officer with Uhura's looks and figure would be an added bonus, of course. He smiled to himself. The problem with the computer he knew how to solve.

"Let the Librarian do whatever it is that he does," he said dismissively. "And I do believe I can help you." He stepped purposefully back towards the computer she had been struggling with, waiting for her to follow. After a pause, she did, though her eyebrows were still raised. He tapped some keys, then asked her to type in the text she needed. The error message came up still.

"I told you."

"Patience. Let me work my magic." He called up the settings and toggled them. He pressed some keys again, copied in Uhura's text, and clicked. A list of references appeared on the screen. "Voila!" He leaned back and flashed her a charming smile. She was looking at the screen with mild surprise, clearly not believing he had really succeeded.

"Impressive."

"Of course. Not unlike you. That dialect must be new, when the computer's text recognition hadn't been synced with the main database yet."

She shrugged the compliment off. "I choose challenging topics to write reports on. And it is not the dialect that is new, it has existed for hundreds of years by our reckoning. It branched out from Amtar Standard and has been developing since, which is why I believe its classification is due for an update. I'm hoping to write a paper on it, perhaps get it classified as a branch language."

"Really? That's pretty interesting. What makes a branch language, then?"

Honestly, Gary didn't care at all. Making girls witter on about something they loved while pretending to look interested was a tried-and-tested method of getting in their good books, and he still couldn't quite believe he had been granted such a shining opportunity of chatting up the beautiful but notoriously stand-offish Xenolinguistics Cadet. Maybe it was his ego talking, but she didn't even seem to mind.

Nyota Uhura, of course, never wittered. She explained pertinent points regarding the nature and classification of languages and dropped some trivia, but she knew it was all lost on Gary Mitchell. At any other time, she'd toss in some ridiculous detail just to check if the man who was flirting with her was paying attention. Now was not such a time.

"I have some material from my lecturer, it argued the dialect case, so it is a little dated. I don't know the details from the top of my head and I didn't bring it with me, though."

Gary's mind, which had been tuning out the linguistics talk and veering inappropriately towards the collar of Uhura's tunic, snapped to attention.

"That's a shame. I'd very much like to read it." he smiled. She looked up at him, and he mentally crossed his fingers. He could see the scales tipping in his favour.

"Well," Uhura said slowly and ran a hand down her arm. "I suppose I could go and get it."

"I will save you the trip back." Gary replied smoothly. He was rewarded with a small smile. "Let me just-" and he turned to grab his PADD from the table.

He didn't know that at Uhura's surreptitious signal Jim, who had been waiting just out of sight by the Library doors, slipped out and took the shortest route to the lecture halls. He was barely listening when she continued on the topic of linguistics during the leisurely walk down to the dormitory blocks. This was mostly because in the pretence of not knowing where her room was, he could hang back somewhat and admire the sway of her hips. They were reaching their destination when Uhura made an offhand, playful remark about tongues and Gary figured, well, they were quite close to the rooms anyway.

When he pushed her against the wall of the corridor, however, he didn't quite get the response he was expecting. She pushed him right back, frowning, and quickly stepped away. "What are you doing?"

"Appreciating the beauty you bring into the world." he replied easily, and stepped towards her again. The expression on her face was rather killing the mood, unfortunately.

"Don't give me that. You're in love with Gaila, aren't you?"

He hissed through his teeth. Why did she have to bring the Orion up? "I am not in love with her, she's not important right now. Don't talk about her. She's not here, while you-" He gave Uhura the once-over. "-you very much are. And you are so much more beautiful."

The compliment didn't seem to work. "What are you saying? You mean you're just with her to- to what?"

He rolled his eyes. This was not how it was supposed to go, the mood was going, real fast. Honestly, was this day going to find any fresh new unpleasant ways to torment him? "Don't play innocent. Gaila's hot, a man has needs, and-"

He never got to finish the sentence, because there was a muted sob from behind him. Uhura's eyes flicked to look past him, but before he could turn around and look for himself, her knee was coming up like the harbinger of doom. His vision went white and he doubled over in agony as she ran past him. Through the curtain of pain he could just make out sobs and a blurry green shape being embraced by Uhura. A green someone.

This fact and its implications registered slowly but surely. He cursed and forced himself upright to meet the wet eyes of Gaila, who was flanked by Uhura. Her flinty gaze could have chipped rock.

"This ends here, Mitchell." Uhura said levelly. "You've caused enough hurt."

Gary made a noise of disbelief and winced. "That's a laugh, that is." His expression hardened. "You have no right to say that. Not after you seduced me. Gaila and I love each other. Don't we, Gaila?"

His question was met with silence. Gaila was biting her lip, tears still leaking down her cheeks. Her fingers, Gary noticed, were interlaced with Uhura's. She swallowed hard and held Gary's gaze. "I'm breaking up with you," she finally whispered.

He laughed. "What? You can't possibly believe that all that was- that I did all that willingly? She seduced me, forced herself on me, I had no control over it! I love you, don't you remember? Gaila!"

"Don't talk about her that way. I'm not blind. I'm breaking up with you." she repeated, a little louder.

Gary stared at her, laugh dying in his throat. Then he grimaced and took a threatening step forward.

A hand landed on his shoulder. "Hey there, Gary. Is there a problem?"

He whirled around and came face to face with Jim, who had a bitten apple and PADD balanced in one hand, and a mild expression on his face.

Gary stared at Jim's easy smile. Then he looked back at Gaila and Uhura. Then back at Jim.

"No," he said tightly. "Why should there be?" He tossed his shoulder and Jim withdrew his hand. He glared at Gaila. "And just to be clear, I broke up with you." He stalked down the corridor and out of sight.

The trio stared after him. Uhura released a breath, and squeezed Gaila's trembling hand reassuringly. "Come on. I'll explain everything."

They talked over mugs of hot chocolate that Jim fetched from the cafeteria. Gaila began sniffling again, and Jim took Uhura's meaningful look as his cue to leave. He gave Gaila a brief hug and a quick pat on the back, and shut the door behind him. The murmur of Uhura's voice faded behind him.

He wondered if it had been the best way. Gaila was crying and heartbroken, and there was the possibility that Gary would work out there were a few too many coincidences leading up to the meeting in the corridor. But it was the plan he and Uhura had agreed on. To say she was happy with it would be a lie. They had sifted through so many ideas, trying to find a way that would not end with Gaila in tears. It had been nearly impossible. They had debated (Argued, more like, Jim thought wanly) over many things, but had agreed on one thing; persuasion would work on neither, because Gary was a bastard and Gaila was in love.

So a practical way, tricky as it may be, was the most reliable alternative. Uhura, as repulsed as she was with the idea of flirting with Gary, had played her part to perfection, and Jim had had just enough time to catch Gaila coming out of her class and pull her to the dorm block. He had asked her to be quiet, and then rushed down an adjoining corridor so that he would be able to come up to Gary from a different direction. The apple was a play at nonchalance he did not feel, and he hoped it was enough to make Gary think he was on his way from the cafeteria.

That was another thing he and Uhura had agreed on. It was better if Gary didn't know he had been set up. Gaila, on the other hand, would know the entire truth. He hoped she was going to be alright. The whole affair had left a sour taste in his mouth.

After returning his empty mug at the cafeteria, Jim went back to the Library. He glanced at the desk: the Vulcan Librarian wasn't behind it. There were rather a lot of people- the engineering lecture was over, and there was a quiet sort of busyness all around. Jim didn't much fancy the idea of the Librarian knowing he had intentionally messed up a bit of the Library's perfect order, so he entered the maze of shelves and made a beeline for the Xenobotany section. Now that Undesirable Boyfriend Number Two was neutralised, it was time to clean up his act.

There were several medical and science students among the Xenobotany shelves. Jim passed them all, looking for one particular shelf. It had had something about plant chemoreceptors. C, c, c…

He turned into an aisle and came face to face with the Librarian holding an armful of Piloting discs- the Piloting discs. The eyebrow was up.

"Oh. Mr Spock." Jim cast about for something to say. "We really need to stop meeting like this. Let me help you with that."

"That is unnecessary," the Librarian replied, but allowed Jim to take half the discs from him. "Am I to assume that you are aware of the correct location of these titles?"

Jim scoffed. "I take Piloting, of course I know where- oh."

"Quite."

"I was going to put them back, alright? See? This is me. Putting them back." He walked jauntily to the correct aisle and slotted them in place with a flourish.

"I see."

"There. So now it's all good."

"I request that you do not make a habit of deliberately misplacing the Library's resources."

Jim couldn't help but snort at the Vulcan's sombre tone. "Oh, no worries. Believe me, I'm hoping it was a one-time, too."

"Am I to assume that the altercation involving Cadet Mitchell has been satisfactorily resolved?"

Jim looked up sharply, then sighed and waved his hand dismissively. "I'm not even going to ask how you know about that." He paused. "Alright, no, I will. How do you know about that? You shouldn't know about that."

"I have no interest in the social lives of cadets. However, when such relationships encroach upon my ability to do my job, some intervention is necessitated." At this, Jim shifted uneasily. Then he straightened and squared his shoulders, meeting the Librarian's eyes.

"Your ability is just fine. And you can't do anything to me, I didn't break any rules or hurt anybody."

"Indeed you didn't. At ease, Cadet, you are not facing disciplinary action."

Jim exhaled. "Yes, well, good. I really hardly did anything, you know."

"Some would say your defensiveness casts doubt on the validity of that statement."

Jim opened his mouth to disagree, then closed it again and frowned. "You've got me in a corner, Mr Spock. That's hardly fair play."

"Perhaps you should ruminate as to how you found yourself in this… corner, as you call it. Though our location clearly indicates you are in a rather open area, if one excepts the library aisles." The Librarian inclined his head towards the nearest one.

"I didn't mean a literal corner." Jim groaned. Vulcans were infamously literal. "I meant a symbolic corner. You're not giving me an out. Whatever I say implicates me as defensive, which means that I-"

He stopped. The Librarian's manner had not changed, at least not in any way that he could point to, but there seemed to be an extra layer to the expressionlessness of his brown eyes. He couldn't explain it, but it gave rise to a thought, a suspicion. He narrowed his eyes at the Librarian.

"Are you making fun of me?" he asked. "You are, aren't you. You are watching me try to explain myself when you know exactly what I meant."

"To assume is to open oneself up to great risk of error."

"That's not a no."

"An astute observation."

They sized each other up. A group of students made as if to enter the aisle they were standing in, but decided to go around instead. This registered as faintly strange to Jim, but he was too busy trying not to blink to give it much thought.

"How is your study of the extra curricular material progressing, Cadet?" the Librarian asked.

Jim blinked in surprise (Damn!) at the question. He had been so distracted by Gaila and Gary that he had neglected it somewhat, which twisted into a knot of guilt in his stomach. It's not like he had nothing to do, the professors kept them busy with reports and compulsory readings. But the list of extra material seemed in essence different. Maybe because it wasn't really tied to the curriculum. Which technically meant Jim was wasting time in terms of what he actually should be doing.

It didn't really matter though. Jim was gunning for top of his class in tactical analysis and survival strategies. It wasn't like he needed to spend every waking hour on what was in the syllabus. The extra stuff was interesting, and that was reason enough.

Thoughts of the extra readings very quickly led him to the last encounter he had with the Librarian, and the business with the medicine and Kobayashi Maru. He felt a prickling heat rising up his chest and neck and turned around quickly, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's… fine. I mean, I haven't really been keeping the rhythm the past few days. In terms of reading. Um." He willed the flush of embarrassment down. The image of the Kobayashi Maru simulation screens flashed before his eyes. Something inside him settled. "Actually, I have rather a lot of reading to be doing at the moment."

He turned around just in time to see the Librarian's eyebrow go up. "Indeed." It seemed more a question than anything.

"I'm going to do the Kobayashi Maru again. And I'm going to beat it." He knew the flush wasn't quite gone from his face, but the certainty that had settled around his shoulders like a cape gave him confidence. "Watch me, Mister Spock. I'm going to beat that simulation. And you'll be eating your words."

The Librarian's eyebrow lowered and he straightened his already-straight posture, clasping his hands behind his back. "It is not possible to eat something that is an element of speech lacking a physical form-"

"-and any nutritional value at all, yeah-"

"-Illogical reasoning aside, all evidence suggests a second attempt is futile."

"You've made your opinion very clear on the matter, Mister Spock. But I'm going to do it. Now, if you'll excuse me, I have some reading to do."

"There's nothing. There's absolutely nothing."

McCoy eyed the stack of discs next to Jim's PADD. "I really don't know why you're still wasting your time with this."

"Don't you start. I need you as my pillar of support at this trying time."

"Stop being so melodramatic, nobody's dying."

"I might be. Inside. Slowly."

"Well, hurry it up then. I've better things to do than wait for you to display symptoms."

Jim detached himself from the wall of the library cell he had been slumped against. "I've gone through everything. Historical files, opinion pieces, cadet reports of the simulation in the academy database… Well, some of those. There's too many. But there's nothing. It's airtight."

McCoy sat opposite him and pushed some of Jim's things aside to make space. He slotted a disc into his PADD and pulled up a medical file to work on. He started reading, carefully avoiding Jim's pointed gaze.

Jim didn't last. "Bones."

"Mmm."

"I can't find anything."

"I don't know what you expect me to say. I hope you don't want a patient listening ear. I'm a doctor, not a therapist."

"Bones, I'm out of ideas. And I've signed up for a simulation slot tomorrow."

"That sounds suspiciously like whining."

"It's not."

"Just go for the damn simulation, Jim. Then maybe we can all have peace from your not-whining."

Jim grit his teeth in frustration. The simulation had been a failure, again. The professors running the simulation had showed no surprise at seeing him there, though of course they would have seen his name on the roster, and he hadn't exactly been quiet about his intentions of beating the Kobayashi Maru. But facing the screen again, seeing the dilemma and the choices… Even with all the information he had gathered regarding the outcomes of the various choices, none of it made a difference. He had still failed the simulation. He knew the outcome of every choice at every point of the simulation, and it all led to a no-win scenario.

Unacceptable.

How could it be that nobody had found a way through the simulation? It was hardly new. The case it was modelled on certainly wasn't. There was always something that could be used to turn a bad situation around, wasn't that what he had always told himself when faced with a challenge? Wasn't it all about finding that critical point in a simulation, that bit of wriggle space inside the programming? Wasn't that the point?

The professors hadn't even asked him to write a report. He had half been expecting it, since it was pretty standard for simulations. Though going back for seconds was not standard for the Kobayashi Maru. He didn't know what he would write about, anyway. He would have to really rein in his frustrations, but didn't know if he could do it without giving the professors something to laugh over in the staff room over coffee. Behold, the stubborn Kirk still wrestling with the Kobayashi Maru. Look at how he attempts to veil his anger with convoluted terms and too-short sentences.

He sighed and rubbed his temples. He should be paying attention. The lecture was important. It was about first contact diplomacy. The exams were notoriously difficult.

There was something he had missed. There had to be. Something he hadn't thought of. That not one of the Cadets that had gone through the simulation had thought of. If it was there, it had to be incredibly tiny. The thought of finding it pulled at Jim. He had daydreamed about finding the chink in the system so often. The thought of proving to the Librarian that it could be done was a not-insignificant bonus. After all, the Vulcan had been so convinced that it couldn't be done.

He tapped his lip thoughtfully with his stylus, eyes following the professor.

"-great import of non-interference and observation-"

He tuned out again.

Something didn't seem quite right. Everything really did suggest that the simulation couldn't be beat. But then what would be the point? That couldn't be right.

"All evidence suggests a second attempt is futile."

No kidding. Hours sunk into researching the simulation had given him nothing to work with at all.

He set his stylus down, very deliberately.

What if there wasn't a way to beat the simulation?

It was a scandalous thought. A problem without a solution. But simulations were designed, coded, programmed. Every little thing placed with a purpose and accounted for. Hundreds of Cadets had gone through the Kobayashi Maru, and none had succeeded. That was suspicious by virtue of chance alone. Jim knew he was smart, but the academy was full of smart people. If nobody had found anything, and Jim couldn't find anything, was there really anything to find?

He would have to look at the coding of the simulation to be sure. He still didn't want to believe that the academy would pull such a dirty trick, but it wasn't impossible. They'd done ridiculous things with lesson plans before.

"Mr Kirk, do you have a question?"

"Sir?" He was pulled out of his thoughts to find that the professor was staring at him impatiently and the inhabitants of the lecture hall seemed focused directly on him.

"You appear a little lost. Do feel free to interrupt me and ask a question if you are not following my explanations. As I was saying, the non-interference clauses-" He launched back into his explanation, drowning out a few scattered giggles around the hall. Jim flushed a little and tried to look busy with his stylus.

He had to look at the code. He had to be sure.