A/N: This chapter is for Emma, who is completely wonderful. It's also for Nina, who DREW ME FANART, which can be found at my Livejournal. (GIRL ILY)
x
Enterprise High
being a high school AU of ST: XI
with many hijinks
and much angst
x
Chapter Thirty-Eight: Operation: Annihilate!
x
The air was cold, dry, and still. It was early February, a dark Thursday morning. Bones bundled into a thick windbreaker and tiptoed across the Enterprise High parking lot. It had rained the night before, and he wouldn't put it past the concrete to harbor patches of ice.
He unlocked the door to the garage and opened it, a long rectangle of light appearing at his feet from the streetlamps outside. The Enterprise was hidden beneath its dustsheet. The shop was nearly clean; they had spent most of the week organizing. After the last race, the hoverclub hadn't had much to do on the hover, so they had attacked their garage in preparation for building their new craft.
Bones tugged the sheet off of the corner of the Enterprise. He wasn't particularly sentimental about vehicles, but he'd worked long and hard on this one. He couldn't tell you how the damn thing worked—well, he probably could, but that was by accident—but he loved it, and he'd loved being a part of its creation.
A single circular light reflected off of its silver hull. Bones stared at the light until the image was blue-white in his eyes, then tossed the sheet back down and muttered, "Fuck sentiment."
He went over and placed the last piece of the puzzle down on the worktable. A little washer that fixed the body of the magnet in place had been lost in the midst of the last race, and during their final check of the Enterprise the day before, they had discovered it was missing. It probably wouldn't have done a thing if they hadn't caught it, but it was good they did—just in case. Bones had volunteered to purchase a replacement.
The washer would be installed later. Bones took one last look at the Enterprise and turned off the light. He walked through the maze of hallway until he reached the school's secondary corridors, then paced down three of them to a staircase. Taking the stairs two at a time, he strode to Mr. Maru's room, footsteps echoing.
Outside the classroom, he sat down, pulled out his PADD, and started to read.
x
First period
"Now, if you would turn to page 23… Would anybody like to tell me about the complexity of Mamet's argument, especially in the context of the relationship between men and women?"
Mr. Maru glared around the room. There was a total lack of visible response. No hands went up. Spock, sighing inaudibly, didn't get the social complexities in the play and was generally irritated by it. The rest of the class simply didn't feel like answering.
Mr. Maru kept glaring, then picked a victim. "Mr. Sulu?"
Sulu sat up quickly in his chair and erased the dinosaurs he'd been doodling on his PADD. "Um," he said. "Er. I don't know much about relationships between men and women, Mr. Maru."
The class giggled. Mr. Maru glared around at them.
"Very mature. Would anybody of the generally heterosexual inclination like to explain?"
"Hey," said Gaila sharply, "you don't have to be heterosexual to understand male/female relationships. I think Mamet is trying to say…"
She made about a billion good points, and the half-hearted explanations that had been forming in other people's minds died quickly. Gaila, an undeniable expert on sex and sexuality, was blowing everyone out of the water. (So to speak.)
Spock commented in his notes, I do not understand Terran literature. Why humans are compelled to describe their relationships and actions in terms of "metaphors" and "similes" instead of within a decent psychology or even sociology textbook is beyond me. Relationships are not that complex. (Even as he wrote it, Spock knew he was wrong; he simply felt anti-analytical that day.) Like people, they can be managed.
"Oh come on. You know that's bull," said a voice from behind him.
Spock jumped and whipped around, his PADD clattering on his desk. (Mr. Maru glared some more.) "James!" he whisper-hissed at Kirk, who was leaning right over his shoulder and gazing at him artlessly. "Kindly do not intrude into my personal files! And I may express my own opinions about human nature, I will thank you to know."
"But if they're wrong opinions," Kirk hazarded. Chekov was making a long-winded, heavily accented point about the play, so Mr. Maru was preoccupied. Kirk spoke in a near-to-normal voice.
Spock recited from memory: "The Oxford Standard Dictionary entry states that an opinion is 'a judgment formed or a conclusion reached, or a view held about a particular issue.' At no point in Standard does the word 'opinion' imply a right-or-wrong dichotomy."
"Bad news," said Kirk unsympathetically, "now it does. Why would you even say that about relationships?"
"You are so irritating," Spock growled. Mr. Maru had finally extracted a conclusion from Chekov and turned on Spock.
"Mr. Spock," he snapped. "If you have something to say, please share it with the class. If you and Mr. Kirk are merely flirting, please take it outside."
There was a pregnant pause while everybody waited for Spock to react. Kirk twitched some and considered blushing, then went with staring at the ceiling. Spock, after staring at Mr. Maru blankly for a while, eventually just looked back down at his PADD, his ears completely green.
T'Pring was sitting in the back. She wasn't human, but if she were, she would have grinned. Spock's kha'vhek vok'a were spiking madly, and had been for quite a while.
x
Second period
"I, personally, am very unhappy that Maru was implying that only heterosexuals know about male/female relationships," Gaila pouted as she walked in to physics. "I mean, male/female relationships? Haven't people been debating this for, like, five thousand years? And how long have people been talking about same-sex relationships for? Like—five hundred years, and most of that in whispers!"
"Gaila, you're generally heterosexual," said Sulu, who was right behind her.
Gaila leveled her finger at him. "Did you really just say that? I will hurt you."
"What? It's a fact!"
"You guys are not interested in sexual theory at all, are you?" grumbled Gaila, flopping into her seat.
Kirk would have been interested in that debate, which continued, if Spock hadn't've sat down next to him wearing a blank look that had clearly been carefully sculpted.
"Hey?" said Kirk.
"Mh," said Spock, not even looking at Kirk and getting supplies out of his bag.
"You okay?"
"Yes, James," Spock snapped. "I am perfectly normal, thank you very much."
Kirk snorted. "Excuse me, Dursley."
"I do not enjoy being made fun of." Spock leaned straight over his desk, working intently at his PADD. Kirk stared along the line of his ears, waxy and verdant.
"Maru wasn't making fun of you," Kirk said. "He was just being a dick, which—you know the guy, right? When isn't he being a dick?"
"He has not been a dick to me," Spock muttered. One half of Kirk wanted to shriek that Spock had just said "dick." The other half won out.
"You haven't been treated badly very often, have you?" said Kirk.
Spock looked up, at this. "Excuse me?"
Kirk felt uncomfortable, like he had uncovered a grave inadvertently. "Never mind," he said, scooping earth back over the casket.
Spock opened his mouth, but Pike whirled in, shedding wires and wide-eyed appeal. "I have the experiment set up," he said, motioning at the door. "Come on, it'll take all class! Lab E! Move!"
Physics trooped down to lab E. Pike had set up an experiment in which the students were calculating the charge to mass ratio of the electron. Seven cathode ray tubes were humming on various tables. The students broke up into groups of two and three and started centering and leveling the solenoid with the help of a laser.
Gaila was still talking about heteronormativity. "It's basically a way to exert power over deviants," she said darkly, hiking the solenoid up a few millimeters.
"Quit preachin' to the choir," said Bones, winking over at Kirk, who had holed up with Spock at a back table. Kirk grinned, pleased that it wasn't weird to joke with Bones about that anymore.
"Kirk! Do you think heterosexual sex is one way that men maintain power over women?" Gaila yelled across the lab. Pike accidentally broke his chalk.
"No!" Kirk called back. "I think sex is awesome, but if the person I'm having sex with doesn't think it's awesome, then it's not! But then, that's just me, so maybe for some men?"
"Children," said Pike patiently. "Let's keep on track, shall we?"
"Physics is totally related to sex," said Gaila, sticking out her bottom lip.
"We'll debate that later," said Pike, tapping Gaila's lab. "Concentrate, Gaila."
"I am concentrating!" Gaila protested, flipping the solenoid without even looking. "I can do this experiment in my sleep, Mr. Pike! If the accelerating potential is 8 V, and the distance between the screen and the anode is 3.44 L, the current is 889 i, the dimensions are 4 by 3.33 by 4.12 L', and we turn the solenoid 17 times, then the e/m, if you take e/m = V/B(2)L(2), where B = iL'L(4), is 78.33536." Gaila paused. "No, 78.33537. Dangit, hand me a calculator."
Bones passed one over. Gaila tapped at it rapidly. She wasn't as good with calculations as Kirk or Spock, but she could work the formulas better than either of them.
"Yeah, okay, it's 78.33537. I'm bad at decimals." She beamed up at Pike. "Can I turn in my lab now and talk about sex?"
"I love her," Kirk sighed while Pike spluttered. "Spock, write that equation down."
"I already have," said Spock, his voice slightly biting. "I had formulated the equation before Gaila."
"Yeah, right," said Kirk, totally skeptical. "Anyway, I hadn't, I was distracted by—" He realized that his mouth was on autopilot and that he was about to say "you," and nearly bit his tongue off closing his mouth.
"By the experiment?" said Spock derisively. "It is much too simple. You are losing your touch, James."
Pike eventually shook his head in some despair and coerced Gaila into repairing a cathode ray tube somebody had broken, which was beyond most teenagers, but certainly not her.
"Kirk," said Gaila, lugging her CRT over to Kirk and Spock's station. "If a guy is having sex with a guy, is the first guy straight?"
"Um," said Kirk, trying to figure out the accelerating potential of his CRT, which was tough, because he always got distracted when sex came up. "He's whatever he thinks he is."
Gaila made a sweeping gesture. "There!"
Sulu, a few desks away, did not look like he could deal with this. "But he is having sex with a man."
"So?" said Kirk. "He can be whatever he wants to be. Wait, why does this even matter?" He glared at Gaila. "Are you pushing people's buttons again? Quit that."
"I just wanted to make them think," said Gaila innocently.
Spock, who was at the end of the table messing with the power source, made the mistake of coming back. "Think about what, Gaila?" he asked.
Sulu sighed.
"Do you think that sex is good or bad?" Gaila said.
"What?" Spock was alarmed. "Excuse me?"
"You can ignore her," said Kirk, glaring at Gaila. "She likes to be confrontational."
"I think that sexual activity does not—" Spock paused to eye Kirk. "Like opinions, I believe that sexual activity cannot be called 'good' or 'bad'."
"Do you like sex?" Gaila pressed.
Spock tried not to blush, but it was difficult because of Kirk's proximity. "Gaila, my opinion on sexual activity is not necessary to—to whatever argument it is that you are trying to make."
"Okay, do you think people should have sex?"
Spock was confused. "Sexual activity is necessary to reproduction."
"Untrue. God! How can you even say that? Have you heard of science? Also, what about non-heterosexual sex?"
"Gaila, stop," said Kirk pleadingly. "We are not as good at physics as you are and we need to concentrate." Spock looked like he wanted to protest, but Kirk kicked his shin. "Also, people can have their own opinions, alright? This is something you agree with?"
"If their opinions are wrong—" Gaila sighed. "I'm sorry. Close-mindedness just frustrates me."
"I am not—" Spock tried, but Kirk kicked him again. "James! Stop that!"
"Ignore him, he's just crazy," Kirk assured Gaila. He tugged Spock over to the supply room, out of hearing, and sight, of everyone else.
"OW," hissed Spock, holding his ankle delicately and balancing against a shelf of hydrochloric acid, which struck Kirk as less than safe, but he wasn't about to point this out, having put Spock in the position in the first place, and oh, that was a provocative thought. Huh. Anyway.
"I'm sorry," said Kirk, "it's just—even if you agree with Gaila, once she gets on her sex boat, she doesn't stop floating until she sinks it herself." Weird phrasing, but he didn't think Spock would notice.
Spock was clearly in a very bad mood. "Is this going to be another boarding bridge metaphor?"
"You are such a bitch sometimes. I am just saying, if you want to get this lab done, we have to concentrate."
"Gaila finished the lab in five minutes," said Spock. "She is not better than we are at physics!"
"We just aren't concentrating! And yes, actually, she is better than us at physics, she has a higher grade in physics than we do, don't you ever check the grades?"
Spock hadn't checked the grades in a few weeks because he had accidentally gotten a 98 on a quiz in English, and didn't feel like torturing himself by looking at it. "No, not recently," he glared. "Since when is Gaila—"
"This is kind of what she was talking about," said Kirk, rather quietly. "Now stop being sexist and come help me figure out the goddamn accelerating potential."
x
Third period
Spock decided to have a small mental crisis during history as they were supposed to be discussing the political ramifications of the First Contact. Everybody was gossiping in stead of discussing, of course.
"I am not sexist," he said hopefully to Uhura, who was watching a documentary about Solkar and Cochrane on her PADD.
"Yeah," said Uhura unconvincingly, pausing the vid. "Of course."
"In what ways do you perceive that I am sexist?"
"You always tried to buy my dinner."
"That is merely polite behavior—"
"No, it's assuming that I'm not a self-sufficient woman capable of providing for myself."
"You live with your parents."
"One, so do you, two, not the point," said Uhura. "Actually, you're really not bad, Spock. Compared to some people." She glared at Kirk, who was eyeing Helen Noel as she chewed on her stylus. "It's hard for guys not to be sexist. It's built in by society, even now. Which is depressing." She rested her chin on her palm, sighing. "Anyway, don't worry about it. Just be aware of it. Men get better as they mature."
Spock wanted to protest this, maybe—okay, he wasn't sure—and he was just trying to get a handle on his feelings when Gaila sat down right in front of him and leveled her stylus at his nose.
"I bet," said Gaila, speaking loudly, "that Kirk can't keep it in his pants for a month, and Spock won't go on a date with anybody who asks him out today."
"What?" said Kirk blankly, turning around in his seat.
"Seriously. This is a real bet," said Gaila, who did not look as if she were kidding. "Do you want to take it?"
"Gaila," said Spock. "Please."
"I am trying to make the point," said Gaila, "that you two are more boring than you should be."
Kirk bristled. "I'm boring? What is that supposed to mean?"
"That you're boring, dumbass," laughed Gaila. "Leo, am I right?"
Bones was talking to Chapel. He paused to reply. "I heard somethin' about dumbasses and Jim," he said. "Whatever it is, I agree."
"I hate you," Kirk pointed out.
"No, about how boring Jim and Spock are," said Gaila, flipping her hair. "Spock's a Vulcan, right? That's pretty cool. But he's not using his Vulcan wiles to get chicks, which, what is up with that? I would totally use my Vulcan wiles to get chicks. And Jim… man, you were interesting for a while, but now you're not even trying. You just sleep with people randomly—I haven't been sensing a pattern lately… It's like you're losing enthusiasm for sex!" She waggled her finger at them. "I am so sad."
"Woman has a point," said Bones, having deposited his backpack at his desk and come back over. "I'd be amused to watch Jim not sleep with things. He'd turn blue in seconds."
"I am not that easy," Kirk protested.
Even Spock looked disbelieving.
"As if," said Sulu, from all the way across the room.
"Hey!"
Spock finally got a chance to speak. "Vulcans do not have wiles."
"Everybody has wiles," said Gaila wisely.
Spock changed the subject (slightly). "Why do you want to make this bet, Gaila?"
"More importantly, what's your counter offer?" Kirk cut in.
Gaila shrugged. "I don't know. I'll… I'll jump off the roof of the school during prom."
There was a bit of a silence.
"You will what?" said Chekov.
"I mean, withbungee cords," said Gaila, rolling her eyes.
"Oh," said everybody.
"Sound good?"
"Wearing a dress," said Kirk, sitting back up again and looking dire. "A really billowy dress. And…"
"Sparklers," Uhura put in. "Green and red, I'm thinking."
Gaila nodded seriously. "Doable."
"Also heels," said Kirk.
"You pick 'em."
"Sweet. And if we don't come through?"
Gaila stroked her chin. "I know. If you lose the bet—same thing."
Kirk threw back his head and laughed. "It's on." He spit in his palm and shook with Gaila. Spock looked absolutely horrified.
"First: safety. Neither of you can possibly image that bungee jumping off of a building is in any way a wise plan. Second: James, really? With the saliva? Third: Again, Vulcans do not have wiles. Fourth: I am not accepting this bet."
"Dude, I already accepted it," said Kirk. "Nothing you can do."
"There most certainly is!"
"Come on," said Kirk. "It's not a big deal. Think of it as an opportunity to see who wants to date you. We'll spread the word, and you can go out with some people, and see who's your type, and, you know, so on."
Spock hesitated.
"Unless you think nobody wants to date you," said Kirk, an idea dawning. "Which is just stupid, because you're a total catch. Here, I'll start it off—want to get dinner with me sometime?"
It wasn't until Spock said "yes" very quietly that Kirk realized how fast his heart was beating.
x
Fourth period
Gaila had superpowers. By lunch, everybody knew, and it was awful.
Kirk had expected to win the bet easily. After all, Spock was the person he was interested in. Gaila was right: Kirk had really just been sleeping around because it was instinctual (which said more about him than he wanted to know). But it turned that Kirk had a sex drive. (Who knew?)
"Okay, some of us are in a relationship here," said Sulu, leaning across the lunch table after the latest parade of scantily-clad boys and girls had gone by. "Can't you eat elsewhere? I'm getting seriously distracted."
"I tried the library, but they kicked me out," said Kirk, ashen-faced. "Evidently everybody was talking too much. Oh, God, this is horrible."
Spock, who was furiously scribbling down the name of yet another date, glared at Gaila, who was chewing her sandwich cheerily. "How did you do this?"
"What? Oh, tell everybody? I just used Kirk's network loophole and sent notifications to everybody's PADDs. Looks like they all want to see the two of you in dresses."
Lenore from their English class pranced up, her collared shirt unbuttoned nearly to her navel, and sat right down in Kirk's lap.
"I'm not even going to be subtle—as you can tell," she purred, flipping her blonde hair out of Kirk's face so that she could better shove her breasts into it. "My car, five minutes. You're going to need to wear the heels, though."
Kirk stared at Lenore's chest for long moments, then turned to Gaila. "One month? Are you sure?"
Gaila grinned toothily. "Oh, I'm sure."
Lenore made room for Mallory, a junior, who had unbuttoned his shirt as well. They both asked Spock out. By the time they got off of Kirk's lap, his legs had fallen asleep and his erection was gigantic.
"I am beginning to feel ill," said Spock loudly.
"Nope," said Gaila, waving her finger. "No going home early. That's cheating."
"Yours isn't as bad," said Kirk grumpily, crossing his legs. "They're not sexually assaulting you."
"Yes, but you do not have to interact with them at a later date," said Spock. He held up his list. "Sixty, James. Sixty people."
"Jesus."
"Indeed."
Gaila laughed.
x
Fifth period
Kirk's military history class was stacked with the types of people that didn't go on dates very often. Most of them were attractive, but they weren't interested in pursuing relationships.
Except, today, with Kirk's penis. Once, when the teacher left the class, half of them took off their shirts.
"This is awesome," he said to Brent, who was asexual. "And by awesome I mean the worst."
"I really do not feel bad for you," said Brent. "You didn't have to accept the bet."
"Everyone keeps telling me that! Of course I had to. My honor was at stake." Brent made a noise that sounded quite a lot like a laugh. "Hey!"
"Oh, come on. Because you care about your honor."
"Not that honor. But I'm not a coward."
"You're like James Bond, though. Sex is part of your thing. This has got to be crippling you."
Kirk thought that it would be worse if he didn't have a crush on Spock, but didn't say so. "Yes. It is. I can't even walk."
"That has to do with your gigantic boner, though, right?"
Kirk jumped and hurriedly covered his lap. "Can you see it?"
Brent laughed. "Through the desk? I was merely assuming. I seem to have assumed correctly."
Spock, meanwhile, had been asked on a date by everyone in his programming class. Everyone. Except for the teacher. But, everyone.
He sent an email to Kirk.
Dear James,
Eighty-two.
Spock
He had to delete "P.S.: I loathe you" from the end of it, but mainly because he had accidentally typed "love" instead of "loathe."
x
Sixth period
The situation was growing desperate.
"Perhaps I could hold a mass date," said Spock hopefully, running his finger over his bottom lip. Kirk couldn't look away. "I could contact all of those who have propositioned me and set the event up at a large café, perhaps."
"Gaila probably wouldn't go for that," said Kirk. Spock's fingers paused at the corner of his mouth, then slid down his chin to curl into a slight fist that he propped his head on. His pointer finger twitched a little.
"True." Spock glanced around. "The rush has calmed."
Spock drew out the word calmed, his mouth oh-ing for a long moment, his tongue flicking out to tap his top teeth at the end of the l, his lips parting again after the final d.
"You don't do that very often," Kirk said automatically.
"Excuse me?"
Spock's eyes were piercing. Kirk thought they looked—different.
"You don't—take a long time to say words."
"Calm is a long word to say," said Spock, wrapping his mouth around the syllable.
"It is," murmured Kirk, his hands clenching under the desk.
"It comes from an ancient Greek word," Spock continued. "It means 'to burn,' 'to be on fire.' Laying in the sun, one would seem to burn; sunny days where not much moved were calm. Calm applied primarily to the weather, once. Now it describes a tranquil emotional state." He smiled very slightly; a simple upturn at the corner of his mouth. "I would describe myself as a calm person. I believe the entirety of the description implied to be accurate."
Kirk stared at Spock. "I don't know what to say to that."
Spock shrugged. "If you do not know what to say, do not say anything at all."
They were both silent for the rest of that period.
x
It was a weird moment, to say the least. Spock went to the bathroom between sixth and seventh period and leaned his head against the partition of his stall. It was quiet. The pattern of the tiles was easily discernible, and the antiseptic smell was heaven to his nose. He shook his head, trying to clear it.
Kirk made him say things, sometimes.
He tugged at his ears and cleaned his glasses on his shirt, wishing that he had remembered to put his cleaning cloth back in his satchel. He ran his hands over the little tortoiseshell buttons on his shirt. They glowed at an angle in the light. His mind flashed to kissing Kirk, to running his lips over his lips, to falling so apart that there were no more names or pronouns needed.
A quick exhalation. Spock emerged, straightening his clothing busily. He held his hands in the sonic cleanser for exactly ten seconds and left the room at a march.
He was calm.
x
Seventh period
Scotty leaned over to Bones. "Did you remember t' get th' washer, Leo?"
"Yep," said Bones. "Put it on the table."
"Ah cannae believe th' last race is tomorrow," Scotty confided in him. "Th' last race with this hover, ah mean."
"I know, it's strange," Bones agreed. "I'll miss her. And I don't look forward to buildin' the new one."
"Well, I don't know about that," Scotty said. Bones grinned.
"Why'm I not surprised? You've got the blueprints and everythin' for it, haven't you?"
"Of course ah do. Want t' see 'em?"
"Maybe later," Bones laughed. "I gotta turn in this assignment."
Later, when almost everyone was done with their work, Kirk asked Bones the same question, and they got to talking about the bet after a while.
"How's that goin' for ya?" said Bones. "You seemed not too hard up when we were datin'. I mean, excludin' how it ended."
"Yeah, definitely excluding that," said Kirk. "No, see, it wasn't bad then because me and you were making out, like, constantly. And then there were the blow jobs, after a while. Those were good."
"Those were good."
They reflected silently for a moment.
"Anyway, no, I was fine," said Kirk. "Because I was in a relationship. But now. This is different. This is awful because I can't do anything. I am pretty sure that Gaila defines sex as really intense eye contact, so I can't even do any heavy petting. And okay, it's only been a few hours, but this is going to go on for four weeks."
"How is she gonna know?"
"Hey," said Kirk. "I don't cheat."
Bones raised his eyebrow.
"I mean—I don't—listen, this is…"
"There's no way you can get out of this."
"Quit making fun of me."
"I couldn't possibly. It's my favorite pastime. I know what you mean, Jim. Don't worry. You'll be fine. Just start concentratin' on Spock. You've been just flirtin' with him so much lately. You should go for it."
"What? No."
"Oh. I see. You're scared."
"James Tiberius Kirk is scared of nothing."
"Yeah, yeah. You're scared of that Vulcan, though." Bones glared at Spock. "As well you should be. That pointy-eared bastard."
"I'm not scared of Spock."
"You are, though. You're afraid he'll reject you when you ask him out."
"Nope. I already asked him out."
Bones rolled his eyes. "You know that doesn't count."
The bell rang. Kirk stood up hastily. "I'll see you tomorrow, Bones."
"Later, Jim," Bones sighed.
x
LBSU's motto was Vox veritas vita: Voice, truth, life. The next day was a slightly overcast Friday. As the hoverclub unloaded the Enterprise onto the LBSU track, Kirk thought that the motto was pretty perfect. Life was extra-shiny today. They had chattered on the transport ride, and Kirk felt virtuous, like he was finally doing things right. The sun sparkled occasionally through the clouds. It did so at exactly the right time; when the wind picked up and things seemed about to turn chilly, the cover would shift, and sunlight would stream down on their bare arms. As soon as beads of sweat started to form, woosh—the clouds were back, just like things were planned.
This was the smoothest start yet. Kirk couldn't believe he was in the Enterprise, piloting, but he was; the announcer had just called start and he was weaving between vehicles, a big, stupid grin on his face and his jacket buttoned tight. It seemed like a few moments ago he'd bounced out of bed. Funny how time worked. Then a hover called the Abdiel whipped in front of him and he swerved, adrenaline stabbing through his arms. Okay. Never mind. This was real.
The Narada loomed. Kirk wasn't worried. The Narada always loomed. As usual, he wished he could see inside it. Instead it just looked like a vehicle for tentacle rape. Unpleasant. It was a few places behind him. There were only fifteen hovers left, so a few places meant a lot. Kirk was currently in fifth, and six hovers would advance. Kirk hoped desperately that the Narada would not be continuing to the final stage.
For the first time, Kirk didn't do anything risky. He sat still, hands hard on the controls, watching the Narada, keeping solidly in fifth place.
Spock, back at observation, eyed the screen.
"I am going to meet James at the finish," he said after a while. "I am slightly concerned about his mental state."
"Why? Because he's not trying to destroy everything?" said Bones. "Alright, that's valid. Need any company?"
"Should you wish to come…" said Spock unhappily. Bones grinned.
"Do it yourself. We'll be out when he finishes. I'm sure something'll happen at the end. Always does."
"Precisely the reason I would prefer to watch the finish from the actual sidelines," said Spock.
Kirk had to fend off a few comers and was in fourth near the end of the race. He watched the Narada creep up to fifth, then seem to strike. It cut off two hovers, nearly causing a crash, and claimed third place, just in front of the Enterprise. Kirk backed off quickly, happy to allow the Narada one higher place rather than antagonize it. Although if their hovers were equipped with photon torpedoes he would have been just as happy to blow the shit out of it instead.
The Narada stayed there, in third. Kirk watched, Kirk waited, but the black ship made no move.
They crossed the finish, the Narada in third and the Enterprise in fourth.
Kirk placed his thumb gently on the brake as he flew across the line, and the Enterprise exploded.
x
Spock watched, Spock waited. Spock's communicator trilled.
"Hello?" he said. The Enterprise crossed the finish line in fourth, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
"This is for you," said a husky, familiar voice, and the line went dead. Spock was paralyzed by confusion for a second, at least until the Enterprise burst into flames.
x
Fire.
Kirk hated fire. And all of a sudden, it was his whole world. The Enterprise's coolant system tried to put out the flames, but they were too copious. Fueled by the now-raging hydrogen, the inferno spread across the entire hover from its spark at the base of the magnet. The hover burned.
It was almost impossible to activate the emergency flame retardant, but he managed it. His gloves were smoldering bits as he fumbled, screaming, for the right switch. The coolant system collapsed in upon itself. The Enterprise came to a fiery halt far into the finish area, but the flame retardant activated, and Kirk felt a long moment of coolness as the colorless spray soaked his clothes, putting out most of the fires that were on him.
Kirk didn't know how he did it. He couldn't touch anything. The heat was so intense he didn't even feel pain, just a sense of darkness around the edges of his mind. It was suffocating him, the heat and the chemical fumes. The metal of the Enterprise's cockpit was red-hot, but he had to get out. He couldn't wait for it to collapse; the fire would grow. He couldn't breathe. He couldn't do anything.
For a moment, he glanced sideways, into that darkness at the edge of his vision. He'd seen it before. He knew it well. He'd tried to reach it once, and he stared into it all the time. But he'd been doing less and less of that recently. The darkness gaped, but he looked away, into the heart of the flame.
He gathered everything he had and leapt, and tumbled out into the cool air through a curtain of flame, landing on his hands and knees.
Distantly, he heard sirens. His ears were still filled with the roaring of the flames, but now they were off to his right side, not all around him. He ached everywhere. His hands were so full of rawness that he couldn't lean on them. He collapsed onto his chest, rolling to his side to stare at the burning Enterprise. The blackness was coming back, but it was a different kind of blackness—the gentler version that brought sleep and healing. Kirk shoved it away as best he could and tried to sit up. Strong arms helped him.
Spock's eyes were whiter than Kirk had ever seen them. His chest heaved. He reached around Kirk, touching all of Kirk's burned body with his hot skin, and even his Vulcan flesh made the burns feel cool. Kirk coughed once, twice, his body twisting.
"I thought you were dead," Spock gasped. "I thought—" He made a noise and buried his face in Kirk's hair. "Jim—"
"I'm fine, I'm—I'm not dead, Spock, I'm not dead, I'm okay—"
Looming over Kirk, painted against the sky, Spock was wild. He moved forwards and took Kirk's unburned face in his hands, his pupils blown, hair leaping in great tufts. Kirk thought Spock was going to kiss him. Instead, Spock pressed his lips hard against Kirk's forehead, then tugged Kirk to him, hugging him tightly, as if Kirk were life itself.
"Jim," Spock said into Kirk's ear. "Oh. Jim."
Jim gulped down any number of feelings and pains and fears, and clutched Spock back.