dmiral James Kirk sat in his pristine office overlooking San Francisco Bay. He shifted in the chair again and eyed the hypo spray in the drawer of his desk. It was the third chair he'd had in three months and he still couldn't seem to get comfortable. His back was killing him.
He pushed the drawer closed, refusing to give in to the discomfort. For the moment. It would only be a matter of time. He would use the prescription here or at home. It had become an unwelcome part of his routine.
Enterprise had reported in that morning. An Orion syndicate trade center had been destroyed. 216 prisoners now crowded their shuttle bay. They were requesting a weeklong delay to remand the prisoners to Starfleet custody.
Jim shook his head at the request, shifting his weight forward to relieve the tension in his lower back.
Captain Edwards did a fine job. She was efficient and for the most part carried out her orders without complaint, but of late she seemed to have lost focus on the mission.
Starfleet's vision to finally rid the galaxy of the Orion syndicate and all of its cells.
Her report was short, even terse. After only three months she was already asking for R&R.
Jim sighed in frustrated disbelief. In his day he would take Enterprise out for 6 months or more without leave time.
Of course it would be hard to win Starfleet over to his side this time. He'd already kept Enterprise out there with over 150 prisoners on board for two weeks. The Federation council was in hot debates over the rights of the scum that had been taken into custody.
The Vulcans and Deltans had struck a rare alliance in the pursuit of Orion civil rights and they were hammering him daily to bring in Enterprise.
He gritted his teeth again and rubbed his neck to ease the tension.
It wasn't that he didn't think Enterprise should come in, or even that he thought Edwards was incompetent. It was simply that Starfleet had given him one ship to use, Enterprise. And he had hundreds of tips pouring in.
Intelligence classified, validated and prioritized every one. But none got the final go ahead without his approval.
Today's batch included a tip on a slave run only a few parsecs from Enterprise's location.
They knew. He was convinced of it. They knew that Enterprise was fully loaded and they were planning on making it a big transaction. Something to last for a while.
If only he could convince the Federation council that it was the right thing to do. But Sarek had them all talking about peace and justice.
He punched his fist in his hand trying to think of a way to bend the council to do what was right. What he needed was another ship or two. But that argument had been lost before it was begun. The legendary Enterprise and her stellar record were a hard sell when you were asking for help.
Of course if he were on the Enterprise they would have handled it just fine. He could 'lose' the comm systems, as he had so many time before and just charge in and stop the bastards.
He glared accusingly at Capt. Edward's image on his view screen leaning so casually over the arm of his chair - the captain's chair. He hastily corrected himself.
With a heavy sigh, he hit the comm key and began speaking. "Admiral Kirk to Capt. Edwards USS Enterprise. Captain, I have received your request to return to Federation territory. Your request is approved. You have 7 days to rendezvous with the Farragut, transfer your cargo and get a little shuteye. We'll need to get you back in action in a week. Admiral Kirk out."