Chapter 7 : Anything Else?

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"Are you sure you want to embarrass yourself again?" Cass asked, a cheeky smirk on her face, especially when she heard Bones chuckle slightly. Jim frowned at her, only making her gin.

"I think you may be surprised," said Jim, winking at her. Cass rolled her eyes, unimpressed.

"It takes a lot to surprise me, farmboy," she said. Kirk frowned at his nickname. That one too had managed to stick for three years. And he still hated it.

"If you two could stop flirting for one moment," Bones said, causing Cass to glare at him.

"Do you really think my standards are that low?" Cass said, and Bones laughed once more. Kirk gave her a strange look, and Cass smirked at him, "no offence farmboy,"

They were all dressed in dark blue body suits, the standard for simulations like this, when they tried to make them forget they were cadets, to make the sim seem more real to them. It didn't, well not to Cass anyway. The blue uniforms made her itch all over, their rough material catching onto her uncertainty. She sighed in exasperation.

"Oh well, let's get this over with,"

"We're receiving a distress signal from the USS Kobayashi Maru," Uhura said, casting a smug look at Cass as she said it, "the ship has lost power and is stranded. Starfleet command has ordered us to rescue them." Uhura thought Jim was going to fail as well.

"Starfleet command has ordered us to rescue them . . . captain," Jim said, smirking as her faced them. Cass rolled her eyes dramatically, muttering something under her breath that made Uhura snigger.

"Two Klingon warbirds are entering the neutral zone and locking weapons on us," Cass informed him, arching an eyebrow as she waited for his reply.

"That's okay," he said, not seeming even vaguely worried about it. Surely not even Jim Kirk was that arrogant.

"That's okay?" Cass repeated in disbelief, turning in her seat and looking at him incredulously.

"Yeah, don't worry about it," something that sounded very much like a growl sounded from the back of Cass's throat. She was going to have to have a few words with Jim about not being such an arrogant son of a bitch. Peering through her blonde hair that refused to stay in place she glanced over her shoulder, she looked up to the observation area, where a hoard of middle-aged officers looked down at them, scrutinizing Kirk's every move. The thought of someone watching her so closely made her skin crawl. And now he was going to make himself, and tem, all look stupid because of him.

"Three more Klingon vessels decloaking and targeting out ship," she said, in a very strained voice, "I don't suppose this is a problem either,"

"They're firing captain," said another cadet, Cass keeping her eyes glued onto the shield strength, watching it teeter and drop.

"Alert medical bay to prepare to receive all crew members from the damaged ship," he said to Uhura, and Cass threw her hands in the air in exasperation. Uhura didn't look too impressed either.

"And how do you expect us to rescue them when we're surrounded by Klingons, Captain?" Uhura said maliciously, turning around and crossing her arms over her chest. Jim swung around in his captain's chair and smiled at her.

"Alert medical." Uhura huffed slightly, turning back to her consol with a scowl on her face.

"Our ship is being hit," Bones said from his position down the front of the bridge.

"Shields at 60%" Cass informed him.

"I understand," replied Jim, still sounding so calm about it. Lights flashed and beeped on Cass's consol, warnings and readings from the damage done to their ship.

"Well shouldn't we, I don't know, fire back?!" Cass snapped at him. Was he eating? Okay, he definitely wasn't taking this seriously.

"No,"

"of course not," Cass's monitor flickered, the panel's lights dying out, the pixels looking as though they had switched off. The lights flickered too, dying and leaving them with just the light from the malfunctioning consols.

All of a sudden, it was as though someone had just plugged the power cord back in. with a sound like someone powering up a warp core, the whole bridge simulation surged back to life, everything coming back online at once. Cass glanced at Bones, who gave her a confused shrug. Jim however, once again, didn't seem concerned.

"Arm photons; prepare to fire on the Klingon warbirds." He ordered. For what seemed like the tenth time in the past half an hour, the blonde girl looked at him incredulously.

"Jim, their shields are still up," she replied, not even bothering to use his temporary title.

"Are they?" Cass narrowed her eyes at him before turning to her consol again.

"No," she muttered at the confusing reading, "they're not,"

"Fire on all enemy ships," he ordered, "one photon each, lets not waste ammunition,"

"Target locked and acquired on all warbirds, sir," replied another cadet, sounding terribly happy for some reason. "Firing,"

Cass looked up at the view screen as the whoosh of firing torpedos sounded throughout the bridge, watching as the photons collided with the warbirds, turning them into an orange ball of flame and destruction.

"All warbirds destroyed, captain," Cass said, sounding rather deflated.

"Begin rescue of the stranded crew," he ordered before jumping out of his chair. "so, we've managed to eliminate all enemy ships, no one on board was injured, and the successful rescue of the Kobayashi Maru crew is underway." He looked up to the observation area, "anything else?"

Boy, he was gonna get it.


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