2262
Captain James Kirk lounged in his chair on the Enterprise's bridge, munching on an apple. "ETA to spacedock, Lieutenant Sulu?" he asked.
"Two hours, Sir."
Kirk sighed. "Can't come fast enough."
"Someone waiting for you in San Francisco, Sir?" his communications officer asked. Uhura's tone and expression were supposed to be innocent, but her eyes were wicked.
"Lieutenant," Kirk began, "I'd ask if you had work you were supposed to be doing instead of mocking a superior officer, but I know damn well that you don't. Cruising into dock is the most painfully boring and eternally long part of every mission."
She grinned. "You could catch up on your mission reports, Sir."
He snorted. "Yeah, sure."
"I would point out that an uneventful trip should be preferable to the alternative," Spock spoke up from his seat at the science station.
"Depends on exactly how bad that alternative is," Kirk replied. "I wouldn't mind a tiny bit of action to break up the trip."
"Bite your tongue, Sir," Chekov told him. "I, for one, would like to arrive on time."
Spock looked down as a message appeared on his computer terminal: DO YOU HAVE PLANS FOR YOUR LEAVE? It had been sent from the communications station, and Uhura offered him a small smile when he looked over at her.
I DO, he sent back. ARE YOU GOING TO VISIT YOUR PARENTS?
FOR PART OF THE TIME. A FRIEND FROM THE ACADEMY INVITED ME TO JOIN HER ON MARS FOR A FEW DAYS.
HAVE A PLEASURABLE TIME. Their eyes met once more, and Nyota offered another small grin before returning her attention to the meager amounts of work that required completion by the time they arrived on Earth.
Four years earlier, when Spock had decided to join the Enterprise's crew after all, he and Nyota had some interesting… discussions. (Anyone who'd had quarters adjacent to hers had called them 'arguments,' but Spock refused to use the term. Vulcans do not argue.) They could have resumed their relationship, since they were once again assigned to the same location, but there was nothing to stop them from ending up in the exact same place at some point in the future. And they both knew it. It had been a difficult, though mutual decision that it would be better to remain friends than nothing at all.
Spock turned back to his own console hoping that Kirk's wish would go unfulfilled. He had somewhere to be once they arrived.
Friendly banter between the bridge officers helped the time move a little more quickly, but the euphoria in the room was almost palpable when Sulu declared that they were hard docked and cleared to board the station.
"Have you got that shuttle schedule ready?" Kirk asked his communications officer as he rose from his chair. Getting 800-hundred-odd people off of the ship and down to the surface was no small task. Everyone had been assigned a departure time, and it would take a couple hours before they were all offloaded by shuttle.
Uhura nodded. "The spacedock just approved it. The first ships leave in 30 minutes."
"I expect that our names will be on the roster for the first trip down?" Kirk asked with a supposedly-innocent grin.
She handed him a PADD to verify. "Rank hath its privileges."
The grin on Kirk's face reminded her of a small child on Christmas morning. "Excellent! Unless any of you are also planning on spending your leave on the Hawaiian Islands, I will see you all in three weeks. Dismissed."
"You know, you never did tell me what your plans were for your leave," Nyota commented to Spock as they rode the turbolift to the shuttlebay.
"I will be traveling to the Colony, but I am currently headed for the Academy," he replied.
She smiled. "Tell Saavik that I said hello."
Captain's log, Stardate 2262.33. The Starship Odyssey is on a training mission to Gamma Hydra, Section Fourteen, coordinates 22.87.4. Approaching the Neutral Zone; all systems are normal and functioning.
Sitting in the command chair of her simulated starship, Saavik carefully watched her crew of Academy instructors and senior cadets. The exact details of the exercise she was enduring were kept a closely guarded secret by the instructors, but every cadet knew it would be a mental challenge that surpassed even the psych test on the entrance exam.
"Leaving section fourteen for section fifteen," her helmsman informed her.
Saavik had participated in several training simulations over the past four years, and had recently completed a three-week assignment on the Academy's training ship. The command chair wasn't her usual seat on a bridge (she was specializing in navigation), but she didn't dislike it. Whatever the instructors decided to throw at her, she was confident that she could deal with it.
"Captain, I'm receiving something on the distress channel," her communications officer suddenly spoke up.
And the test begins… "On speakers."
A distorted, static-filled message began to play for all to hear. "…imperative! This is the Kobayashi Maru, nineteen periods…out of Altair Six. We have struck…gravitic mine…lost all power…hull penetrated and…many casualties."
"This is the Starship Odyssey," the comm. officer replied into his headset. "Your message is breaking up. Can you give your exact coordinates? Repeat, this is the Starship Odyssey – "
"Odyssey, our position is Gamma Hydra, Section Ten. Life support systems failing…" the Kobayashi Maru's captain continued, "Can you assist us, Odyssey? Can you assist?"
Saavik was pretty sure she understood the test. The Kobayashi Maru was in the Neutral Zone, and crossing its border would be an act of war. But she considered the risk to be low; there were no other ships in the area and the crippled ship's crew faced certain death if she didn't intervene. "Plot an intercept course," she ordered her helmsman.
"Should I remind you that if a starship enters the Zone – "
She cut him off. "No."
He nodded. "Estimating two minutes to intercept…Now entering the Neutral Zone."
The viewscreen displayed the stricken vessel as they approached. "Stand by transporter room," Saavik ordered after toggling the communications system. "Be ready to beam the survivors aboard."
"Captain, I've lost their signal!" her comm. officer told her, sounding somewhat bewildered.
"Alert!" the computer called. "Sensors indicate seven Romulan Birds of Prey, bearing three-one-six, mark four. Closing fast."
"Battle stations!" Saavik ordered. "Activate shields!" Alarms began to play and the lights dimmed. "Inform the Romulans that we are on a rescue mission – "
"They're jamming all frequencies, Captain," her comm. officer interrupted.
"Birds of Prey on attack course and closing," the computer warned them.
The Kobayashi Maru waited for her, just out of reach. If they dropped shields, if they stayed around long enough to do any good, they'd only be rescuing the survivors from one ship to condemn them to death on another. There were no good options.
The viewscreen changed to show the Birds of Prey that were coming toward them. Saavik wasn't sure why, but something about those simulated ships shook her to the core. Run! a little voice inside of her screamed. Don't let them catch you! Run!
"Captain? What should we do?" her helmsman asked. "Captain?"
"Reverse course," Saavik replied. "Get us out of here."
"Yes, Captain."
"Alert!" the computer spoke up. "Romulan torpedoes activated. Alert!"
"Evasive action!" she ordered, but it wouldn't be enough. The ship was hit hard, sending everyone flying. "Engineering, damage report!" she requested as she pulled herself back to her feet.
"Main energizer hit!"
"Engage auxiliary power. Prepare to return fire." If they could get one good shot, maybe they could have just enough time to escape… But then they took another hit, a big one. Panels all over the bridge exploded and alarms began to wail even louder than they already had been.
"Shields collapsing!" the cadet at tactical reported.
"Fire all phasers!" Saavik told her, but the Orion girl shook her head.
"There is no power to the weapons."
They took a third hit and more of the bridge crew fell. This time most of them did not get up. "We're dead in space, Captain," her chief engineer told her via the intercom.
That was it, then. "Activate escape pods. Send out the Log Buoy." Saavik toggled the communications system. "All hands abandon ship. Repeat: all hands abandon ship."
The lighting level suddenly returned to normal, the alarms gone. Environmental systems began to clear the smoke that had been introduced to the simulator, and her 'dead' crewmen began to get up from their places on the floor. The side wall of the bridge opened, and Saavik tried to pull herself together as the lead observer entered the room.
"Very shortly, you and your crew would be prisoners of the Romulan Star Empire," Admiral Pike told her. Saavik raised her chin and did her best to not let him know how much that notion terrified her.
"All trainees to the briefing room," he ordered when she didn't respond. The other cadets filed out through the door that would lead to the turbolift on a real vessel. As the other instructors left through the main door, he noticed that Saavik was staying behind. "Something to say, Cadet?"
Saavik forced her voice not to shake. "Permission to speak candidly, Sir?"
This ought to be interesting. "Granted," he replied with a nod.
"The scenario was highly effective, but I question its realism."
Pike frowned slightly. "You think it's an effective simulation AND you think it's unrealistic?"
"Yes, Sir…In your experience, how often has an enemy fleet of seven ships been used against a single Starfleet vessel?"
"Cadet, are you implying that the training simulation is unfair?"
She considered the question a moment before nodding. "Yes, I do not believe this was a fair test of my command abilities."
"And why not?"
"Because there was no way to win."
There it was. Pike couldn't help but smile inwardly at her utterance of the phrase that thousands of cadets had used before her. "Do you truly believe that no one who worked on the simulation and no one who has taken it before has ever noticed that the odds couldn't be beaten?"
Saavik froze, and her cheeks took a slightly green tint as she blushed. "No, Admiral. I admit that I had not considered that possibility."
"You were given a no-win situation – something any commander may have to face at any time. Out there, Cadet – " he pointed to the viewscreen, which had been reset and now once again showed an image of serene empty space, "It's not about the grade you get at the end of the day. You could know every answer to every question and still fail. How we deal with death is at least as important as how we deal with life, wouldn't you say?"
She wondered for a moment if by 'deal with' he really meant 'avoid.' In her opinion, humans seemed overly preoccupied with death, especially with the idea of forestalling it. However, she knew better than to voice those thoughts. "Y-yes, Sir," was all she told the Admiral.
He nodded. "Carry on, Cadet." She turned and headed for the briefing room.
From the observation room, a pair of eyes watched her go. Spock sighed to himself as he sat back in his chair, thinking about what he'd witnessed. To throw such a scenario at Saavik had possibly been a larger test than its programmers had intended, but in the real galaxy, one could not customize their battles to suit their strengths and avoid their demons. He had certainly seen others do far worse at the Kobayashi Maru test during his years as its programmer.
Pike offered him a small smile as he re-entered the room. "She keeps the entire faculty on their toes," he told Spock of Saavik. "I don't think we've had such a curious, quick learner since…well, perhaps since you, Commander."
He nodded slightly. "I expected nothing less of her."
TBC...
A/N: the Kobyashi Maru test was modified from ST2
