Entering Orbit (Kirk/Spock AOS)

Part One

"And when one of them meets with his other half, the actual half of himself...the pair are lost in an amazement of love and friendship and intimacy, and one will not be out of the other's sight..."

—The Symposium, Plato

***

The fanfare that should have surrounded the Enterprise's return to Earth was tempered by the loss of a Federation planet. Though the crew members were glad to disembark and load onto transports to the planet's surface, one look at any of the stone-faced Vulcan elders waiting among them dampened any joy they felt at returning to their home world, replaced by a sensation of selfishness and guilt, for Earth had been saved.

One by one, the transports left space dock, carrying seventy five passengers each. It took six transports in total to carry the crew back into Earth's atmosphere and into San Francisco, which lay beneath a heavy blanket of fog that rolled off of the Pacific and blocked the sun, as though the city herself mourned. Jim Kirk was grateful for that.

Spock sat next to him in the transport, hands folded formally on his lap, his dark eyes pointed forward, unblinking. To the outside observer, he looked calm, but Jim knew the turbulent emotions he concealed. Fury and loss and responsibility over his mother's death had charged into Jim when Spock's hands locked around his throat. He knew exactly what Spock felt. If it had been Bones suffering, Jim would have clasped a friendly hand on his knee and said, "It's gonna be okay." But this was not Bones, so Jim kept his hand on the armrest, and the words remained unspoken.

When the transports landed, the senior bridge crew was escorted into Starfleet headquarters for debriefing. Jim envied Bones who, despite his rank aboard the ship, wasn't required to attend (something about Medical having a separate and much shorter debriefing in the morning, which was bullshit and totally unfair) and headed back to the apartment.

Debriefing took two hours in a room without windows or coffee, and it was obvious the admiralty cut things short only out of respect for Commander Spock, who blinked every time Vulcan was mentioned. Jim knew he was flinching, recoiling from the memories that must be conjured every time an Admiral asked for clarification on a point.

"Why did you risk beaming down to Vulcan knowing its destruction was imminent? Did you beam down out of personal obligation? Why did you maroon Mr. Kirk on Delta Vega instead of sending him to the brig? Why didn't you recognize your own emotional distress?"

Spock kept cool, answered their questions completely, a throbbing vein in his temple the only sign of unease.

They were equally brutal with Jim. He tried to sit up straight the way Spock did, but found himself leaning back in his chair, head cocked to the side, tapping a foot slowly on the ground to keep his composure.

"You weren't cleared for duty aboard the Enterprise. Did you bribe Dr. McCoy to bring you on the ship? How were you able to beam onto the Enterprise when it was moving at warp speed? Why did you attempt negotiations with a hostile Romulan, risking the Enterprise and its crew to do so? Do you wish to press charges against Commander Spock for violating Security Protocol 49.09 pertaining to the treatment of prisoners? Do you wish to press charges against Commander Spock for personal assault?"

Jim balled his hand into a fist under the conference table at the last suggestion and said, "Look, Spock didn't assault anyone. Can we go?"

All Jim wanted was to hole up in his apartment and enjoy a hot shower, with real water and clean towels, but Admiral Barnett insisted he stand beside Spock and Sulu in a brief press conference. "Just give them two minutes," the admiral said, slapping him on the shoulder. "Everyone wants to see the men who saved Earth. Then you're free to go. We'll contact you with further orders."