Unfinished Business
Chapter 53 : Losing Crew
July 2278
The Enterprise was restocked, a number of repairs had been made, and Jim Kirk now held the papers in his hands that told him which crewmembers he was losing, and who would replace them. He was sitting at his desk, shaking his head, when Spock walked in. Spock sat down in the chair on the other side of the desk, and Kirk passed over the papers. He waited while Spock read through them. When Spock raised his head and look across the desk at him, he sighed. "I can't say that I wasn't expecting Sulu and Chekov to be on that list, but it's going to be very hard not to have them around anymore."
"I do agree. Both are excellent officers, with fine skill sets. And the replacements are nowhere near as skilled or experienced. Thankfully, we have good officers left on beta shift who can be moved to alpha shift. We shall have considerable work to do, however, to adjust all the necessary schedules in the remaining time."
Kirk could only nod at him. Twenty of his top, seasoned officers had been transferred off, given promotions that he could not have offered them here. And in return, he had received twenty people just promoted to lieutenant. At least, they were not green ensigns. He sighed. They did indeed have their work cut out for them.
Spock looked at him. "And how did you persuade the admiralty to let you remain in this position? I did hear rumors that you were being reassigned to Headquarters."
"They tried. I pointed out that taking away most of my top tier of officers and then turning the ship over to a new captain would be a big mistake. It took a lot of persuading, but I finally got my point across. But I don't think they're going to take that much longer. If I get another year or two out here in space, I'm going to be lucky."
Spock nodded, his mouth pursed in a tight line. That was his opinion as well. Their long years of working together were numbered.
/
The next day, the twenty officers who had been transferred off were on board, packing and moving out to their new assignments. They got a chance to have one last meal with them in the mess hall before the anti-grav trollies started moving their crates down the corridors to the transporter bay. And the next day the crew started reporting in. They had to welcome the twenty new crewmembers, who of course did not come in all at once. Between running back and forth to the transporter bay, and working on the new shift assignments, they were kept busy, right up until everyone was on board, and it was time to post all the assignments and open their orders for the new mission.
The first senior staff meeting without all the familiar faces was a hard one. Kirk hated changes like this. He knew it was necessary, but still, it was just plain difficult. But everyone was working hard at settling in and taking on their new responsibilities. And Spock was there, by his side, just as he had always been. They made a good team, balancing each other out. When he was finally forced back dirtside, he knew that Spock would not be there. Spock was not a desk jockey, not a politician. It would be lonely without him and Bones to sit and talk with. He was not looking forward to it at all.