Memory

The salty spray from the sea tickling his nostrils, a young Hikaru Sulu of around eleven years of age stood at the helm of a small hovercraft, one hand resting on her controls. Full lips spread in a wide, cheerful smile, his chocolate-brown eyes roved over the glittering aquamarine water as small ripples disrupted it from his boat's thrusters. The sun's hot rays warmed the skin of his shirtless back, this mixing with the cool ocean breeze. He was slender and had good muscle tone from hours of vigorous fencing training every day, this being one of his talents.

His other talent was manning crafts such as these. His father was a fisherman, as was his grandfather, and Sulu had been taken on their sea-faring voyages early on in his life so that he too could carry on the family business. Sulu, however, had other ideas. The first time he'd gotten his hands on the controls of a hovercraft, he'd been around six or seven at the time, he'd known it was what he wanted to devote his life to.

In the free time he had, he learned everything he could about flying all sorts of crafts. He took lessons from helmsmen who were touched by how eager and willing Sulu was to learn. His father and grandfather simply believed he was doing this to become a better fisherman, completely unaware of Sulu's real dream.

He excelled considerably, surprising his tutors with his skill. It was like he'd really just been born to fly. Like the know-how to do so flowed through him just as easily as his blood did. Soon, he was flying crafts with expertise and with no help at all from anyone. He was just a natural at it.

Standing there with his slim fingers stroking the controls of the not very large boat, he'd flown ones much larger several times, Sulu's deep brown eyes shifted up to the cloudless azure sky. His heart leapt with pleasure when he saw a ship soaring across the otherwise unhindered blue. It was small at this distance but up close it had to be huge. It was a Starfleet ship. It had to be.

"Someday-" he murmured "I'll be flying that."

A strident, barking laugh exploded from behind him and he whipped around in surprise, having been unaware that he'd said it loud enough for anyone to hear. He found the crinkled old face of his grandfather, who bared his fake teeth at Sulu in a strange sort of grin "You, a Starfleet helmsman? You could never to that, or did you forget you are a fisherman Hikaru?"

Laughing to himself at how absurd a concept Sulu flying a Starfleet ship was, his grandfather turned his attention back to the fish he was gutting. As Sulu watched as his grandfather hacked at the fish's innards, he couldn't help but empathize.

A now older Sulu gave his head a small shake to push away the memory. Eyes refocusing, he took in the set of controls in front of him before looking around at the vessel they belonged to. And he smiled.

"What'cha smilin' about Sulu?" the helmsman of the Enterprise glanced up at the captain at his words.

Sulu's smile broadened ever so slightly "I'm smiling because I'm not a fisherman sir."

A few crew members gave him odd looks at his words. Kirk just raised an eyebrow, the corner of his lips quirking up in a smirk "Well Mister Not-a-fisherman, take us to Warp Three."

"Yes sir." Sulu's hands flowed over the controls with grace and precision and he grinned proudly while he proved his grandfather wrong.


Author's note: First of all, I just want to thank Shatterwing, sarajm, and Kadasa-Mori for reviewing! You guys really gave me inspiration sto keep going, I appreciate it. :]

Shatterwing: Yes, Uhura and Spock were not at all pleased with Kirk deciding to go on his little joyride. But he's got to have fun every once in a while, right?
And I thought it would be interesting if Scotty had a similar experience when he was younger and such. I actually nearly drowned once when I was younger, but I don't remember it like Scotty does. Our poor engineer. :P But I'm happy you liked it!

Anyway, I felt that poor Sulu was being rather nelgected and was in need of a focus, andthis prompt gave me the perfect chance. It mentions in the novel that Sulu was flying hovercrafts before he was in his teens and it also mentions that everyone liked him because he always had a humorous smile, like there was some inside joke he had. So I was left to wonder what that might be. So this is what I speculated. Hope you all enjoy!

Oh, and this next one has sort of boggled me, so it might be a bit longer than usual before I get it up. But not to fear, I'll come up with something! In fact, if you guys have any ideas, feel free to through them out. I have something in mind but it's a tad out there, so I'm still playing with it. Anyway, the prompt is 'Insanity'.