To The Journey

Disclaimer: If you recognize it, it's not mine. This is an AU story.

Chapter Seven: Reunited

"Spock here." The aged Vulcan took a good look at the woman on the viewscreen. "Well, Commander. What can I do for you?"

"Are you busy for the next few days?"

"Not especially. Is my presence required?"

"Not required, per se, but it would be appreciated on Earth in - hang on - computer, at present course and speed, how long to Earth?"

"Three days, fifteen hours, twenty-eight minutes, and forty-seven seconds."

"A little more than three days."

"For what purpose?"

"I'm afraid I can't tell you that over subspace. But you'll understand as soon as you meet us."

His eyebrow raised. "And if I do not?"

"Then you'll understand soon enough anyway. But that's beside the point, because if I know you, and I do, you will be coming."

"I will." It came out halfway between a question and a statement.

"Vulcans have been called many things. Unpredictable isn't one of them."

"I suppose it is not. Very well, I will see you in three days. Spock out."

Tasha turned from the logo of the United Federation of Planets to grin at the man who sat just out of the screen's view. He grinned back. "Typical Spock. But he'll be there. Listen, I think I'm healed enough not to need a constant nurse. Why don't you take a break? I hate to be a burden."

"You're not. I have no problem spending time with a friend."

"Thank you. Now get out of here."

"You trying to get rid of me?" she teased.

"Maybe." He grinned, waving her out the door. "Go on. Just because I'm stuck in this little room doesn't mean you have to be."

Tasha and Picard had decided that, for Kirk's safety, his reappearance needed to be kept secret until they made it to Earth, which entailed beaming him directly into a guest suite and then keeping out anyone who wasn't already aware of his reappearance. They had no way of knowing who or what might still be out there, and after the Enterprise had been destroyed with no warning, they were eager to err on the side of caution. On the other hand, that didn't mean they couldn't round up every surviving member of Kirk's old senior staff to be there in person the second they let the cat out of the bag. Geordi had made the call to Captain Scott, and Data had called the aged Doctor (who still remembered him), and had managed to convey the message amid a barrage of chastisement for losing the Enterprise. Data, still unfamiliar with emotions, had confided to Tasha that he had been uncertain whether to laugh or cry, and believed there might be a flaw in the chip. She had assured him otherwise. Picard and Will had handled the rest of the calls through more official channels.

Speaking of Data, Tasha stepped into the dining hall to find Data with about thirty sample-sized portions of food in front of him. She stepped up behind him. "Enjoying yourself?"

He turned to her with his newly-found smile, the one that never failed to melt her heart. "Since I can now form preferences, I thought I would try a little of everything to determine what I like."

She laughed. "A fair plan."

"However, I suddenly find food less appealing. There are other experiences I desire more."

"In that case," she said with a knowing smile, "what are we waiting for?"

xxxxxxxxx

"Forgive me for saying so, but you don't look well. Should I call a doctor?"

"No, I'm fine," Jim insisted.

"What's wrong?"

"Well, Jean-Luc told me I needed to catch up on the last eighty years of history. I agreed. So I started reading up." At this point, words seemed to fail him, and he shoved the PADD he was holding into her hands. It only took her a second to determine the cause of his loss of color and trembling hands.

"Eleven thousand people," he whispered.

"I know."

"You were there?"

"Not at the battle itself. Our ship had been damaged trying to stop the Borg - trying being the operative word," she added with a grimace. "The fleet assembled to stop them, but even forty ships were no match for a Borg cube which had assimilated knowledge of every existing Starfleet weapon. The battle was over in minutes."

"How did you stop them?"

"We were able to, ah, re-abduct a Starfleet officer they had abducted and assimilated. From there, we used his interfaces with the collective to program a malfunction. The ship self-destructed. But the trouble they gave us is hardly over."

"Have they attacked again?"

"Thank God, no. But the attack left us short almost ten thousand officers and thirty-nine ships. We still haven't built back up to where we were. It's just not possible. Starfleet's working on getting the numbers up by increasing Academy seats and bringing in more non-commissioned officers, but we can't replace experience. A lot of the officers lost had years or decades of service under their belts. We've got a lot of promising newcomers, but they're still newcomers. There's no way to compensate for that."

A small smile came back to Jim's face. "You think Starfleet could use an experienced Captain who might happen to be a few decades behind the times?"

She smiled too. "Without a doubt - Captain. Why do I get the feeling you've been waiting to ask that?"

His smile became a full-blown grin. "Retirement never did entirely agree with me. Look, I know I won't get the Enterprise in any incarnation. If they do build a new one, Jean-Luc will be the one who gets it. I told him in as many words that he shouldn't let himself be taken off the bridge of that ship. But I wouldn't mind standing on the bridge of a ship again."

"And I doubt Starfleet would mind having you there."

"You know, I'd need a good first officer. I highly doubt Spock will want to go back to the bridge of a ship. I don't suppose you know anyone -"

"I know what you're trying to ask, but my answer is no. My place is on the Enterprise, with Captain Picard."

"I thought you might say that." He couldn't hide his disappointment.

"Look, it's probably going to take them awhile to build a new Enterprise. Until there's a place for me on a ship called Enterprise, I'd be honored to serve under you. But with the understanding that once that ship and that place does exist, that's where I'll be. In the meantime, it'll give you time to find someone else."

"If that's the best I can get, I'll take it. And welcome aboard. In advance."

"Thank you, Captain."

xxxxxxxxx

"...reporting live from Starfleet Headquarters. Reporters and Starfleet officials alike have been told to expect a surprise, but what that surprise is remains a mystery."The camera panned over to a small assembled group. "And here we have what would appear to be a reunion of the core crew that served under the late Captain Kirk aboard the original Enterprise."

"You look quite well for the late Captain Kirk," Tasha commented to the man watching over her shoulder. He grinned appreciatively.

A familiar figure stepped out into the room. "And here we have Captain Picard, of the latest ship named Enterprise, which as most of the Federation knows by now was destroyed last week. Captain, can you provide any further insight into this mystery?"

"I can do better than that." He tapped his combadge. "Mr. La Forge, is everything ready?"

"Stand by." Tasha's combadge crackled. "La Forge to Yar. Are we good to go?"

She glanced over at Kirk, who nodded. The two of them stood, and she took his arm. "Ready and waiting, Geordi."

"We're set, Captain." Geordi's voice came through Picard's combadge on the news program."All we need is your word."

"Make it so."

The guest quarters on the Farragut faded away and were replaced with the crowd they had been watching on the net only moments before. As soon as the beam released them, Tasha pushed her friend forward and took a step back. The result was that by the time anyone realized what they were seeing, Jim Kirk was front and center. The idle chatter of the onlookers ceased as abruptly as if someone had thrown a switch. Even the reporter was silent.

Kirk himself was the first to speak. "Well, it looks like I missed the beginning of this party." He cast a fond smile on his former crewmates, who were, with the exception of Spock, staring open-mouthed, before turning to the reporter. "Then again, I suppose that's what this lovely lady meant when she referred to me as 'the late Captain Kirk.'"

That broke the tension. Everyone started talking at once, firing off questions. The reporter had composed herself enough to make a statement to the camera, but Tasha couldn't hear a word she said. She saw security scrambling to keep the onlookers from rushing the legendary Captain. Then Kirk ran over to a particular guard who was attempting to hold back his friends. What he said was inaudible even from her distance, but the content was clear as the guard stepped out of the way and let the group of five through.

Predictably enough, it was McCoy who reached Kirk first, and the two shared a long, tearful embrace. Scotty was next, and their reunion was just as emotional. Jim - because it was clear to Tasha that in this moment he wasn't The Captain, he was just Jim - hugged Sulu and his communications officer, Uhura before turning to Spock, who had been hanging back.

The Vulcan raised his hand in a traditional salute, and Kirk hesitated only a fraction of a second before he hugged his former first officer too. Spock apparently wasn't entirely surprised, as he slowly lifted his arms to hug the human back. Jim was crying openly now, and Tasha could see Spock's lips moving. The media cameras were swarming as close as they could, trying to get a close-up of the Vulcan behaving in such an un-Vulcan way, but Tasha knew they didn't care. They were more than friends, they were brothers, brothers greeting each other after an unbearably long separation. And that, she knew, was all that mattered to them in this moment.

xxxxxxxxx

Tasha groaned when her door chime rang. She glanced over at the man seated across from her. "Who do you think they're looking for this time?"

Somehow - she suspected Will Riker - word had gotten out that Tasha was responsible for saving the life of Captain Kirk. As a result, the apartment she was sharing with Data while they waited for Starfleet to figure out what they were going to do with the Enterprise officers had been mobbed with reporters. Data and Geordi had suddenly had something they had to go do for a few days, so the apartment was empty except for Tasha, the occasional guest, and the reporters.

"I don't know," Jim answered back, "but once they realize we're both here, it won't matter who they were originally looking for."

The door chimed again, and Tasha nearly threw up her hands. "Yes, fine, come in!"

But it wasn't a reporter team that stepped through the door. It was a single Vulcan, dark-skinned, in a yellow operations uniform with an ensign's pips. "I am sorry. Is this an inconvenient time?"

"No, no, come in. I'm sorry, I thought you were a reporter." She stood and pulled the younger girl into a tight hug.

But Asil abruptly pulled back from Tasha's embrace, looking over her shoulder. "Ah - sir. I did not see you there."

"That's quite all right." He smiled at her, then turned to Tasha. "Aren't you going to introduce us?"

"Oh, right. Well, I don't suppose you need any introduction." She smiled back at him, then turned to Asil, who was just barely keeping her Vulcan composure in the face of seeing a Starfleet legend and recent subject of headline news sitting in her friend's living room. "This is my sister, Asil."

Asil opened her mouth as though to explain why a human was referring to her, a Vulcan, as a sister, but Jim waved that off. "So - Ensign?" He glanced at her rank pips. "What ship?"

"None. I am currently serving as part of Starfleet Engineering Corps."

Jim tried and failed to conceal his surprise, and Tasha's own eyes went wide. "You didn't tell me that!"

"I informed you I had been posted to a planetside assignment."

"There's a difference between 'a planetside assignment' and Engineering Corps!"

"Engineering Corps is -"

"A planetside assignment, right. But anyone can get a planetside assignment. Not just anyone can get a posting to Engineering Corps right out of the Academy!"

"Right out of -" Jim looked even more like he'd been hit over the head with a heavy object. "You must be good."

"Perhaps."

"Ensign - Asil, is it? No one gets into Engineering Corps straight out of the Academy."

"That is obviously not true, or I would not have."

Jim grinned at Tasha over Asil's head. "All right, then. How many of your coworkers were in your Academy class?"

"None."

"And how many of them started as soon as they were out of the Academy?"

"None that I am aware of."

"My point. Practically no one else ever has, in my time or as far as I know yours. To be an exception to that unwritten rule definitely says something about your abilities."

Asil nodded, accepting the truth of his statement.

"Is that the time?" he asked suddenly. "I'd better go, I'm going to be late for, uh..."

"Something," Tasha finished, laughing. "I'll see you soon. Oh, and Jim?"

"Yeah?"

"Next time, come up with something to be late for before you open your mouth."

He laughed too as he made his not-so-subtle exit. The moment he was gone, Asil turned to Tasha.

"What was Captain Kirk doing in your apartment?"

"Long story."

"I have time."

Tasha explained, in brief, how she'd rescued the legendary Captain and subsequently befriended him. She skimmed over the details - Asil still didn't know about the details of Turkana or about Eva at all, and she certainly had no reason to know about Kirk's past, and despite the fact that her "baby" sister was almost twenty-two years old, Tasha still felt the instinct to protect her from knowing the scope of the horrors that were out there, from knowing how much pain one person could inflict on another. To her relief, Asil accepted the brevity.

"And why did he attempt to excuse himself so suddenly with what was clearly a false reason?"

"I'm sure he realized that we haven't spoken in awhile. I'm sure you saw the video images of his reunion with Ambassador Spock. He understands that you and I have the same connection that the two of them do, and that we need to be alone for awhile."

Asil nodded, accepting the explanation.

Tasha quickly became serious. "Are you okay?"

"I am well. Why do you ask in that manner?"

"Oh, come on. I haven't even had a chance to talk to you since Voyager disappeared. This must be hard for you."

"I - miss him," she admitted.

"I know you do. You two were especially close."

Vulcans did not become affronted, but this one looked that way. "Are you suggesting my father engaged in favoritism?"

"No, of course not. But admit it. You shared something with our father that your brothers didn't. You may look like a copy of your mother-" and she did, she always had - "but your personality is much closer to his. You always were the child most like him."

She nodded again. "Did he know?"

"Did he know what?"

"That you thought of him as your father. I know I was unaware."

"No," she admitted. "Not in as many words, anyway. He knew that I thought he and the rest of you were as close to a family as anyone I had, he knew I looked up to him, but I don't think I ever actually told him that I saw him as a father. It just always seemed so unnecessary to put it into words. Now I wish I had."

"Perhaps it was unnecessary. Perhaps he knew without needing to be told."

"I hope he did. But what about you? I have my friends on the Enterprise to help me, but you told me you're not really close to anyone on your - assignment." She was still somewhere between amused and annoyed about not being told exactly what her sister had been doing. "Are you in contact with the rest of your family, at least?"

"Not so much," she admitted. "There were - difficulties, between my mother and myself."

"Tell me."

"I do not think -"

"Tell me."

"It began when we returned to Vulcan after the battle at Wolf 359. You are aware that some Vulcans are prejudiced against humans?"

Tasha nodded. "Go on."

"Well, I heard my mother discussing Earth and humans with others of her acquaintance, and what those acquaintances were saying was not complimentary. Anyway, it struck me that my mother was not countering their remarks, and so I inserted myself into the conversation and did so in her place."

"And she didn't like that."

"She asked me to remove myself from the conversation, and once we were alone she lectured me on respect. I told her she needed to respect the people she'd lived and worked with on Earth. We argued back and forth for several minutes. She told me I was behaving too much like a human. I told her that I did not see that as a problem. I said I thought Vulcans could learn something from humans if we were not so convinced that they could teach us nothing. She told me that I needed to keep such illogical ideas to myself because we would be remaining on Vulcan. I asked about Father, and she said he would be remaining on Earth. I told her I wanted to remain with him and to join Starfleet. She told me I should wait until I had a firmer grasp of what it means to be Vulcan, something she believed I had never learned because I was only two years old when we moved to Earth. I told her I would not. She said - perhaps I should not discuss this part."

"No, go on. I consider myself warned."

"She said that it had been a mistake for Father to bring a human into a home in which a young child was being raised, and that had she known I would be so 'corrupted' she never would have allowed him to do so. I told her that without you, I could have died when those men took that park hostage. She said," and here Asil began an imitation to rival Data, "'I do not dispute her heroism or doubt her character, but to expose a young Vulcan to the whims of human emotion is to invite conflict with our own customs.'" Tasha might have smiled at the perfect mimicry had the topic not been so serious. "I told her that I would not listen to such disrespect of my friend. Then I said I was leaving as soon as there was an open place on a shuttle for earth. It took three more days, and I didn't speak a word to her the entire time, and the only things she said to me were trying to talk me out of my decision. If she had just admitted that she might have been at least partially at fault, I might have been willing to have that conversation, but she did not. I left without speaking to her, and we have not spoken since."

"Maybe you should try to change that. I mean, who do you have if not her?"

"I have you."

"True. But one person isn't enough for anyone."

"I fail to see why not."

"Because that one person can't always be around or available. Think about it. The more people you have to rely on, the greater probability that one of them will be there when you need them. You know how much I care about you, but I can't always be around. You need to find other people, Asil. And you need to start with your mother."

"Not 'our' mother?" she asked in a way that most people would have taken as a straight question, but that Tasha knew her well enough to know was just a little cheeky.

"I'd have called her my mother if she hadn't made it so clear that she regrets having me around."

"I'm sorry, I was not thinking -"

"It's okay. Forget it. Just - think about what I've said, okay?"

"I will."

Sorry this took so long. My only defense is that I really didn't realize how long it had been. That and my life has been hectic to no end.

Asil will be a recurring, but not terribly regular, character in case anyone was wondering. I'm working on ways to make her more prominent, but that may fade away once Tasha's off Earth, since I've established that Asil's on Earth for the foreseeable future.

Please review. Reviews make my day. No, really.