Aftermath
by Starsinger
Archer and Barnett discuss what just happened.
Archer and Barnett sat at a nearby café, quietly sipping their coffee. Calls were still coming in about the attacks, but they had were getting fewer and fewer. Some were demanding to know how Starfleet had found out about this. They were just told intelligence, trouble was, Section 31 could only wish they could do this. Archer wasn't letting them have Kirk.
"You finally witnessed the 'Lightning storm in space' moment?" Barnett finally spoke. He was frankly envious, this happened so rarely that you had to be there to understand it, or not understand it. Spock and Pike had witnessed both previous occasions, and Spock couldn't even begin to explain it. McCoy tried, he said Kirk's brain worked so fast that even he couldn't keep up.
"It was like he picked up one end of a thread and started gathering up all the loose ends that no one else could see. I've 'ever seen anything like it."
"You know Section 31 is going to do all they can to recruit him. Making him a Fleet Captain is making him an even bigger target."
"I know, Mary made that decision. I don't blame her, he needs the authority that rank will give him, he doesn't want the power. I wish I had a thousand more like him."
"You heard he turned down the Admiralty too, huh?" Barnett asked. "Wise move. He's talking to and Ethics class tomorrow. No, not about Tarsus IV, about Khan. Why he felt he should have been given a trial. He still does think that, even after dying because of the bastard. When I think that Marcus was so willing to throw him and his crew away just for the sake of his ego…" Barnett set the coffee cup down before he crushed it. "How many lives would we have lost today if Jim had stayed dead?"
Archer thought, "Thousands, Richard, thousands."