September 2253

Chris

This was going to be interesting. The Yorktown was a training ship and, just like last year the best of the academy's graduating class was coming aboard to do learn their jobs as part of an active crew. It wasn't the first time for most of them and it won't be the last. As they get closer to graduation, there will be more time spent on different ships.

Jamie, Gary, Lee and Spock were all a part of the group that just beamed aboard the ship. It didn't surprise him. Spock held the number one spot in their class with Jamie a quarter of a point behind him at number two. Mitchell and Kelso were five and six; they got beat by a medical cadet and an engineer who were three and four. The eighteen upperclassmen were all standing at attention when Chris and One entered the room. The instructor that was sent with them, a Lieutenant Commander, went to attention as well.

"Sir, Ma'am."

"Stand at ease Commander. Ladies, gentleman and those of a gender I can't readily identify, welcome to the USS Yorktown. I am Captain Christopher Pike, this is my First Officer, Commander Jennifer One. For the next six weeks, you will be training with us in preparation for joining the fleet. You won't learn everything you need to know here, I'm still learning and I'm the CO, but you will gain real experience in your focuses. By the end of this tour, we will see what you're made of. You are the best of the academy, so I'm expecting good things." Chris nodded towards One who stepped forward to read off where each of the eighteen cadets is assigned.

He didn't listen to where they were all going but he did know where Jamie and her friends were assigned. Gary was going to be at the Helm during Gamma Shift, Spock was assigned to the lab during Gamma, Lee and Jamie were assigned to navigation and tactical stations, respectively, during Beta shift. One gave them their room assignments and looked to her captain.

"That is all we have for you. I just want to say welcome again, you are dismissed," he told the cadets.

Chris was torn when he got the list of students coming aboard. On the one hand, he was happy that Jamie was assigned the Yorktown. On the other hand, he knew that they weren't going to spend much time together. They didn't want the appearance of impropriety. The handful of people who knew they were married agreed to keep it under wraps.

Jamie

The way crew quarters were set up, they were two to a room and two rooms shared a common area in the middle. Jamie was sure she had One to thank for putting her little group in the same space. She and Spock shared one room, Gary and Lee shared the other. When they weren't working, they all found things to occupy their time. Today, Jamie decided to head back down to engineering to see Scotty, Lee went with her.

"Don't just stand there, lass. Hand me that." Scotty pointed to a tool on the deck, she grabbed it and tossed it to him. "Who's the laddie?" Jamie introduced Kelso to Lieutenant Commander Scott, the assistant chief engineer. Jamie was excited when he'd told her about his promotion, she could see him running his own engineering department one day, "and you'll be the captain, lass."

Jamie looked at Scotty, "Anything around here for me to do?"

"Aye, lass," he chuckled. "I'm working on a few things for that new ship. You and the lad are more than welcome to have a look. Saves me from sending it to you later." Scotty handed her a PADD and got back to work. Lee looked over her shoulder as they sat near Scotty's workspace, close enough to help but far enough not to get hurt.

"Are you guys really building the flagship?" Lee asked.

"Yea, Lee, we are," she said.

Jennifer

When Jennifer was right about something, boy was she ever. She usually had the con during Beta shift, which meant she had the chance to watch Jamie and her friend Lee work. They did an impressive job operating their stations. They also worked well together, quietly tossing tactical analysis and headings back and forth. If she didn't know that they were cadets, she would have thought they had both been officers for years. As it stood they were both graduating as full lieutenants anyway thanks to Advanced Tactical ratings and their class rankings. According to the Gamma duty officer, their friends Spock and Mitchell were just as impressive.

"Commander, there's a communication coming from HQ," her thoughts were cut short by the communications officer.

"I'll take it in the captain's ready room. Randolph take the con," she ordered as she walked out of the room.

Talking to the brass didn't really bother her, she relayed everything that was going on and received the ship's orders, when she was nearing the end of the conversation, things got interesting. Two days ago while the ship was at Starbase Ten, they received a message from HQ that Chief Charles Pike was ill, the captain and Kirk had taken Icarus, one of the shuttles, and headed back to earth, the Yorktown was only a day and a half behind them. According to Admiral Barnett, there was nothing wrong with Charlie; the message was not from him.

"If you didn't send that message, sir, who did? And where are Pike and Kirk?"

Chris

"What the… ?" Chris opened his eyes; he was still in the Icarus. He did a quick assessment of himself before looking to the blonde in the co-pilot's seat. "J. Jamie, wake up." Chris unstrapped himself from the seat and moved closer to his wife, "J."

"Not so loud, Chris." She had a gash on her head and blood trickling down her face. From what he could tell the laceration wasn't deep. "Where are we?" He glanced at the console; they had crashed on an unnamed M-class planet.

"On a planet without a name, wanna give it one?" he asked.

She chuckled, "Name it 'Pike' or something. I'm going to run a diagnostic, see how bad it is." Jamie hit the appropriate codes into the console and unstrapped herself. She slowly stood up and made her way to the rear of the shuttle to get a damage assessment. Chris opened the hatch and stepped outside, the air was a little thinner than earth's but that seemed to be the worst of it.

"Well, I have good news and bad news," she said as she stepped out of the shuttle behind him, wiping the blood from her head with a cloth. "The good news is that I can fix this, the bad news is that it'll take me a few days. I doubt whoever just brought us down is going to wait that long, we have a few hours, a day tops."

Chris nodded, "Do what you can. Comms?"

"Nothing. The emergency beacon is operational but with hostiles…" She didn't need to finish her statement, if they turned it on, anyone in the area would know where they were, not just Starfleet. "Could be worse. Least we're together." Chris couldn't help but smile at that.

"Nobody I'd rather be stranded with, sweetheart."

Phil

"Aye, laddie. You might be onta somethin'," Scott said.

Phil was listening as the engineer, Kelso, Spock, Shran, communications officer Nana, and One were trying to figure out where their captain and his wife ended up. When she found out that the message was fake, One pulled him and Shran into the captain's ready room and relayed all the information she had. Shran recommended that they bring Scott in and Scott suggested that Jamie's friends would be helpful as well. Spock was working with Nana to figure out where the subspace communication came from, Kelso was working with Scott and Shran to figure out where they ended up. Their other friend, Mitchell, was at the helm.

"Nana, what I'm about to tell you doesn't leave the room..." One started but the younger woman held up her hand.

"Ma'am, if you're about to tell me that they're married, most of the crew already knows. We just don't say anything. She served on this ship as a civilian and on the Lovell. Kirk saved a lot of lives, she's a hero. The captain just wants people to treat her as fairly as possible. Which isn't easy to begin with because of her dad. We get it, we have too much respect for her to discount who she is because she's the CO's wife. She earned her stripes, that's all that matters to us." One nodded. She should have realized that even though they didn't tell a lot of people, the observant members of the crew would have figured it out. Phil remembered one of his cadet's asking about it, he said that he didn't know and even if he did, he couldn't say.

"We have located the signal," Spock spoke from his seat across from Phil. "The communication to the ship originated from the IKS Varchas." One, Boyce, Nana, Scott and Shran all looked at each other. Shran was not happy.

"Kaaj!" the Andorian growled.

Kelso looked confused, "What's a Kaaj."

"He's a Klingon that we stopped from starting a war in the Marrat Nebula, he hates Starfleet and in particular, Pike. Swore a blood debt against him," the doctor told the young man. "Now that we know who, we need to figure out where before he kills Pike and Kirk."

Jamie

"J, we have incoming," Chris called. She looked up from where she was working to find a team of Klingons headed their way. They couldn't beam them up –remember to thank Scotty for that short-range transporter disruptor he had been tinkering with- so they had to come looking for them on foot. "

Friends of yours, sweetheart?"

Chris chuckled, "Long story. Think we can take 'em?" She did a quick assessment; there were six armed Klingons closing fast. Realistically, they could do it if they moved fast enough. Chris handed her a phase rifle, "Stay in here and wait until they're closer. Their CO isn't here which means they won't kill me... I hope. You'll know when to strike. I love you," he gave her a kiss.

"I love you too. Let's do this."

Chris stepped outside as the Klingons got closer while Jamie held her position right inside the hatch. She could hear some of what they were saying and because she spoke Klingon, she understood the stuff that Chris didn't. When the guy in charge gave the order to kill Chris and destroy the shuttle, she pounced. She moved from cover and shot three of the Klingons before they realized what was going on. Chris hit the two closest to him while she dropped the last one. All of a sudden, a blast hit the shuttle, Jamie was thanking her lucky stars that she wasn't in it but that also meant that they could be beamed up. Another blast hit the rock formation to her right, she looked at Chris but before either of them could say anything, they were being beamed out.

"Scotty, I could kiss you!" she told the engineer as she and Chris materialized in transporter room one on the Yorktown.

"Don't think he'd like that, lass. I'll settle for a sandwich from that place you love in Iowa," her Scottish friend told her.

"Deal," she said as she and Chris ran past him, Boyce trailing behind the couple. The doctor was trying to check them both over.

"Not now, Phil!" they said in unison. They went right to the bridge.

"Captain on the bridge," Gary called from the helm.

"It is good to you, sir, lieutenant," One said to them as she got out of the command chair. Chris nodded and instructed the officer at tactical to let Jamie take over the station, kid hopped up like his ass was on fire.

"Alright, Kaaj. Let's see what you're made of," Chris said with a growl.

Chris

Chris was exhausted when he walked into his quarters after a trip to medical. Boyce had pulled him off the duty roster until they got back to earth in a few days, Jamie too. He was shocked that Kaaj retreated, the Yorktown dealt out a lot of damage to his ship but he figured they would fight to the death, this was something Chris never saw coming. He ordered Jamie to head to sickbay after the bridge settled down, while he talked to HQ. Barnett was relieved to see that they were okay and told him that Charlie was fine aside from worrying about his kids.

Chris stopped short when he walked into the bedroom; Jamie was asleep in his bed. He wasn't surprised when One told him that most of the crew knew who she was to him, what did surprise him was the respect they showed her as an officer. He'd seen situations where officers were only respected -or disrespected- because their spouse/family member was a high ranking officer. His crew held respect for her that had nothing to do with him. It made him proud, both as her husband and as their captain.

Chris took a quick shower and slid into bed with his wife. She turned to face him, kissed his neck, mumbled, 'I love you," and went back to sleep. He held her to his chest, "Love you more."

May 2254

Jamie

Three years. Three years of classes, close calls, experiments, hard work, jealous classmates and idiot instructors all comes to an end today.

"Jamie!" She turned and saw Gary standing with his parents; she moved to join them. "Mom, dad, this is my friend Jamie. Excuse me, Lieutenant. Doctor Jamison Kirk. Jamie, my parents, Dana and Tom Mitchell." Jamie offered her hand when Misses Mitchell pulled her into a hug.

"We've heard a lot about you, nice to finally meet you." She looked to Gary for help but he just shrugged.

"Mom's a hugger, should've seen her with Lee," he chuckled.

"Where is Kelso?" He nodded behind her.

"Over there introducing his mom to Spock and Lady Amanda. Hey mom, dad want to meet another friend before we have to head in?"

This place was full but Jamie spotted her family right away. Chris and Charlie were standing with other fleet personnel, she saw Scott, Shran, Boyce and One were there too. Hobelia, Cody and Zane were sitting with the civilians. Kelso's mother, Lynn, Lady Amanda, Sybok(?) and the Mitchell's were seated in front of them.

There were too many students to name them all but those who graduated with honors were singled out, lowest honors to highest. The Commandant of Cadets read the list of cum laude, magna cum laude and summa cum laude graduates; that's where Lee and Gary ranked.

"Lieutenant Lee Kelso, Navigation, USS Yorktown." He was sixth overall.

"Lieutenant Gary Mitchell, Helm, USS Farragut." Came in at fifth overall.

Finally, the four students who made egregia cum laude, otherwise known as outstanding honors, were announced.

"Lieutenant Doctor Jamison Kirk, Tactical and Engineering, USS Farragut." Second overall with a twelfth of a point difference, she tried to catch him, but his brain moved faster than hers.

"Lieutenant Spock, Computer Programming, Xenolinguistics and Astrophysics, USS Yorktown." Top of the class and first overall.

Take that! 'Guess it pays to be the outcasts and their friends,' Jamie thought to herself. The shock on some of the instructors' faces told her that they were not expecting her to make it, let alone be second in the class behind a Vulcan. Idiots. The smiles on Archer and Barnett's faces were blinding, the pair was sitting on the stage, the older admiral locked eyes with her and mouthed "Good job, kid." She smiled at him as the Class of 2254 was dismissed.

As soon as everyone managed to make their way out of the auditorium, Jamie found herself pulled into a bone crushing hug.

"Kick ass, Jimmy. They'd all be proud." She didn't have to ask who Cody meant. Before she could get free of her cousin, Zane hugged them both. With a kiss to each of her cheeks, they let her go. She ended up being hugged by everyone she knew; Sybok was even decent. He gave her a hug and congratulated her without being overly flirtatious, might have been the glares the guys sent his way.

Jamie and Spock shocked the hell out of everyone, especially Spock's family, when they hugged each other. Amanda had tears in her eyes when she thanked Jamie, Gary, and Lee for being friends with her son. It almost made Jamie cry. That was when Phlox found them and gave Jamie a hug, "I know Captain Garrovick. He's a good officer, you'll do well serving with him. Outstanding CO."

That was the only downside to all this, they were being split up. She and Gary were going to the Farragut, where they did their last training tour. Spock and Lee were heading to the Yorktown. Even Finney was leaving the academy, he was going back to the fleet but she didn't know where. Eventually, they had to go their separate ways. They agreed to meet up before they left. The Farragut was due to leave in a few weeks, the Yorktown was leaving a few weeks after that. Until then, she and Scotty had work to do -and some sandwiches to eat- in Iowa.