Author's Note:
Hello everyone and here is a chapter about a challenge that Jim has set for himself. It is based on something mentioned in Chapter 14 and it was due to a suggestion by an anonymous reviewer (at least I think so). Thank you for your continued support and suggestions and I hope you enjoy this chapter.
I own nothing.
Bridge Challenge
It had never occurred to him before, in fact it had never occurred to anyone and Jim had discovered a new challenge for himself.
It had begun when he'd come onto the bridge to the familiar announcement of 'Keptain on ze bridge' from Pavel. This in itself was not unusual and was the same as every other day but this time Jim noticed that the teen hadn't even looked up to check that it was Jim entering the bridge. At first he wondered how the kid managed to do that when he wasn't even talking and giving Pavel a voice to identify. Then he realised that he entered through that door at that time most days and so he thought he could surprise the boy by coming in at a different time from the opposite door the next day. When the next day came however the same thing happened, he came in and Pavel announced his arrival without even checking it was him again. Slightly surprised at this he decided to try and enter the bridge unnoticed the next day as well and opted for a different tactic. This time he entered with a throng of people and hid in their midst but once again he was thwarted when the familiar announcement came, "Keptain on ze bridge."
Once again Pavel had done it without even looking and Jim decided there and then he was going to get on the bridge without him noticing at least once. He waited a few days before trying again and he managed to rig one of the doors so that it would open silently. He arrived earlier than he usually did and tried not to make a noise as he came through the silent door. He thought he'd managed it when Pavel spoke without turning round, "Keptain on ze bridge."
Jim hid his annoyance well but he was now more determined than ever to beat his self-given challenge. His next attempt involved donning a disguise and he nicked one of Bones' blue shirts to do it, he also created a very realistic fake beard and changed his hair colour. He even went as far as to change his posture and gait to try and fool the teen but he was once again beaten as Pavel announced his presence as always, he then had to put up with a lot of ribbing from Scotty and had to hide for awhile when McCoy found out about his stolen shirt. By now the rest of the crew had realised his goal and were looking forward to his next attempt knowing that their Captain would not give up until he'd succeeded.
His attempts continued and ranged from the simple to the absolutely insane. He tried disguises, sneakiness and even once used a prototype single person cloaking device Spock was working on. He also attempted entering through the ceiling, walls, floor and beaming himself directly into his chair, he even tried using a fake red alert and had to suffer Spock's lecture afterwards. He also teamed up with Scotty and they tried using a robotic replica of Jim to distract the teen. Unfortunately all of these were unsuccessful and in the case of the robot Pavel actually ignored the robot and only announced Jim, what was really frustrating was that the teen managed to announce him each time without even looking and no-one had any idea how he did it. Pavel himself wasn't saying and was enjoying Jim's frustration and the rest of the crew were having a good laugh at the Captain's attempts and there was now a betting pool going on what Jim would try next though no-one predicted his next idea.
Jim was certain he'd get Pavel this time as this latest idea was a stroke of absolute genius. He'd once again enlisted Scotty to aid him and they'd actually created a small passage that was just big enough for one man. It came up inside the bridge via a hidden hatch that had been built into the Command Chair. It was brand new and as such wasn't on the ship's plans so only him and the Scotsman knew about it and, with Scotty under the threat of no whiskey for a month if he told anyone about it, Jim knew that its existence would remain secret.
He'd come up with a reason to be in his ready room, which held the other end of the passage, and entered leaving a reasonable amount of time before entering the passage. He and Scotty had chosen the ready room because it only had the entrance onto the bridge so if he didn't come out that way everyone would assume that he was still in there. He crawled through the narrow space with an amazing amount of silence and was soon under the Command Chair exit. Checking an installed monitor that was linked into the bridge security feed he confirmed that everyone was absorbed in their work before gently opening the hatch. His silent climb onto the bridge went apparently unnoticed by the rest of the crew and he was certain he'd done it. He was just about to quietly close the hatch when someone spoke.
"Keptain on ze bridge."
PS-I hope you all liked that and let me know what you guys want to see next.