Life on a constitution starship was more fun than Jim had expected. He was realistic when it came to Starfleet. He knew, from his mother's stories, that long stretches of time travelling between assignments was the least fun. Red alert, that was more her thing. It was probably going to be Jim's thing too. The apple never fell far from the tree. But, the relaxed atmosphere was nice. The lack of scurrying between decks to try and salvage their lives was nice. The time it gave Jim to get to know his fellow ship mates was nice. And the extra time spent in the gym was well worth it.

Every other day he sent a group message to Spock, Gary and his mother to keep them from turning gray. Every time he sat down at the comm unit he felt a stab of unease. It only served to remind him to be wary and for hours afterward he'd be withdrawn. If Phil noticed anything was wrong, he never said anything. Which Jim was more than grateful for.

Actually, his friendship was Phil was probably the thing which was blooming the best. For the first time, Jim was found in med bay of his own free will. They went to the gym together, took meals together and met up in the recreation lounge one a week for poker night. Mostly, Jim liked to spend the overlapping hour of Phil's shift and his break to quietly read in the corner. Phil had even set up a little replicator which Jim fiddled around with until the coffee tasted decent.

Getting rid of the lingering cardboard aftertaste was a work in progress. One he and one of the engineers, an eccentric guy by the name of Scotty, put their genius minds together to achieve. Having a friend in Engineering was great. Without Scotty, who was quickly becoming one of his favourite people on board, he would never have access to the engineering decks. They liked to spend their time tinkering, exploring and fixing the problems less experienced ensigns left behind.

Everyday Jim met someone new, one of the best joys of such a large crew. There were only seven students from the academy accepted for the Tarsus assignment and Jim couldn't have been happier. It was refreshing to talk to adults. People who didn't know, believe or care about the rumours travelling around campus. Here, he wasn't the school slut. He was an adult like any other, with a job like any other. Although, there was a little distinction because of his age. At eighteen, Jim was the youngest person on board. And sometimes he got treated like a kid or a little brother. It let him get away with more so he was pretty ambivalent about it. On one hand he wanted to be treated with respect, on the other he liked all the attention. Either way, in two days almost 300 people would be left planetside.

Tarsus was so close Jim could almost taste it. He was excited to be out and about. Sunshine was something he missed more than he'd thought possible. He was hyped about helping people set up their homes, schools, offices, hospitals, everything they needed to make their lives really thrive on their new home. And he wasn't the only one.

Although he wasn't staying, Scotty was looking forward to the three days USS Reliance was in orbit. That time would be spent unloading the supplies and beginning to set up temporary accommodation. Scotty was overseeing the building process. Governor Kodos had set aside a large unpopulated area, about ten minutes from the main settlement, for their use.

He was a strange man. It could have just been Gary and Spock's words, but Jim felt uneasy in his presence. The man's eyes watched everything and he took an interest in Jim straight away. They talked maths and electronics, physics and philosophy, ethics and biology. Kodos was a smart man but some of his views were a little radical. Jim made the mistake of mentioning a Surakian principal and Kodos changed it. He twisted the words until it no longer matched its peaceful intention. He didn't seem to understand that 'the few' were part of 'the many'.

He gave Jim the heebie jeebies.

And he wasn't the only one. Phillip tried his best to stay as far away from him as possible. It was a fairly useless effort. As the highest ranking medical officer, Phil was expected to work closely with Kodos. Apparently he was rather invested in the health of his citizens. Once they'd finished setting up, Phil and the other thirteen doctors sent by Starfleet, were escorted into the town to begin thorough medical checkups. They had to report everything back to Kodos. Every allergy, hereditary condition or disability. Anything which set them apart from the perfectly healthy population.

It was a weird request. When he told his mother, she'd agreed. It didn't exactly point to him being the threat Jim had to look out for. Perhaps he just wanted to be informed and really cared about everyone. Spock said it sounded like he was interested in eugenics. Jim couldn't disagree.

Jim found a counterpoint to Kodos' creepiness in Hoshi Sato. She was just about the coolest person on Tarsus IV. Jim spent as much time with her as he could. She was an elderly lady and loved having a 'cute young thing' around. Jim was pretty sure he was a little bit in awe of her. He liked the way she told stories of her time aboard the Enterprise. He liked the way she stroked his hair off his forehead like a loving grandmother. He loved reading to her. Real books from all over the universe. His favourite had to be the collection of Andorian fairytales. It reminded him of home, when Amanda would tuck him into bed with epic tales of Vulcan warriors and their gods. Ironically enough, it had been an Andorian who wrote the book which let outsiders in on Vulcan's violent past.

"Excuse me mister, can you help me find my mamma?" Jim looked down to see a seven year old staring back up at him. He was rather cute and just the picture of innocent trouble. The scrapes on his knees and leaves in his hair adding to the mischievous air.

"Sure kiddo." Jim held out his hand for the boy to take. "I'm Jim, what's your name?"

"Kevin! I'm Kevin. Are you in Starfleet? Do you fight space pirates? Are you staying in the big camp thataway?" Kevin chirped, pointing in roughly the right direction. He was so excited, his brown eyes practically lighting up.

"Yeah, I work for the 'fleet. I haven't fought any yet but I'm always on the lookout." Jim paused, uncertain of what to do. The only experience he'd had with kids was on Vulcan. Vulcan children were very different to Humans. They bounced less, were a lot more reserved and rarely clung to anyone they'd only just met. Once they knew you though, then you were fair game. Like kittens they'd climb into the closest lap and doze for hours. Under the right circumstances they would play. After the age of four however, they were expected to follow the principals of Surak.

"Where might your mum be, Kevin?" Jim finally settled on asking. The faster he got the kid back to his parents, the faster he was back at the 'settlement' and he could send Spock his daily message.

"My mamma's a scientist. She had to go to a meeting with the big boss man but she didn't come back out before lunch. So I went to get a bun but they were all out and when I got back there were some scary men coming out and I ran really really fast. Mum told me all about bad men and that I should run away and find someone nice to look out for me and get me back to her and daddy." Kevin finally took a moment to breathe. Jim had a bad feeling about this. A really bad feeling. If this is what Gary and Spock were warning him about then he should get the kid back to settlement. They'd decided to stay separate from the town as much as possible. Now that might just come in handy.

"You wanna see the Starfleet base up the road?" Jim asked, trying to keep his tone light. It could be nothing. It could have just been a little kids imagination running away from him a little. But, if it wasn't, he needed to keep Kevin safe.

Hand in hand, they walked up the wide dirt track. Jim made sure to keep them in the shadows at the side of the road. If anything came they could easily jump into the undergrowth and hide in the deep forest lining either side.

They came to the final bend in the road and Jim diverted them off the track. He hid Kevin three metres in, on the first branch of a large tree. The uneasy feeling of before was now full blown dread. He hadn't been able to hear any sound coming from camp. There was always noise. People talking, cooking, giving instructions, cleaning, complaining, walking about in groups.

Jim carefully threaded his way through the forest, close enough to see the road. He came to the edge of the forest and froze.