Two Captains

Chapter 4

"Ooh! There's a good-looking one!" Jim says, watching a woman with dark skin and straight black hair. She's wearing a modest red turtle-neck long-sleeve and a matching skirt.

"Oh my God..." I say.

She sits down at the bar next to an alien-looking man and starts ordering drinks to the bartender.

Jim overhears what she's ordering over the sound of people surrounding us and music.

He sits down next to me, between me and the alien-guy.

"That's a lotta drinks for one woman." He looks at her.

Christ, Jim...

As he flirts with her, the alien-guy looks at me and then at Jim, rolling his eyes.

"Sorry, not interested." The woman (whose name is Uhura) says flat-out to him. "Besides, I wouldn't want to upset your girlfriend over there." She gestures to me.

"Oh, no!" I say. "I'm-I'm not-"

"She's not my girlfriend." Jim says. "So..."

"This townie givin' you any trouble?" A man comes up to Uhura with a few other guys.

"It's nothing I can't handle." Uhura says.

The guy talks to Jim, and it finally comes down to "Hey farmboy, maybe you can't count. But there are four of us and one of you."

Jim...

"So we get some more guys and then it'll be an even fight." Jim says, and then pats him on the cheek. He turns around and then the guy grabs his shoulder and punches him.

They fight for at least a minute, Uhura yelling "Stop!" but not getting involved. The men seem to not hear her.

I walk forward and grab one of the men's shoulders, he takes a swing at me and I duck just in time, kneeing him in the stomach.

He crumples to the ground, and I see a man who was with the guy who was threatening Jim bashing Jim's face in.

I see Pike walk through the door and see this. He gives me a questioning look and whistles loudly, stopping the guy from punching Jim any longer and silencing the whole room.

"Outside." Pike orders. "Now."

Everybody clears out, and before the guy who was punching Jim can move, I grab his shoulder and punch him in the face.

"Move it." I say coldly, glaring up at him.

The man attempts to return the glare but fails. He moves out with his buddies.

Pike looks at Jim. "You alright, son?"

"You can whistle pretty loud, ya know that?" Jim says, still laid out on his back on the table, looking at Pike, who cocks his head to the right at him and then raises an eyebrow at me.

"You know I couldn't believe it when the bartender told me who you are." Pike says as the three of us sit at a table in the bar, the only other person there is the man in the back sweeping, cleaning up broken glass and dropped food on the floor.

"Who am I, Captain Pike?" Jim says, and takes a drink.

"Your father's son." Pike answers.

Jim looks at him for a little more than a second, turns to the man sweeping and waves his now empty glass in the air.

"Can I get another one?" He calls out, then turns back to Pike.

"For my dissertation I was assigned the USS KELVIN. Something I'm admired by your dad-he didn't believe in no-win scenarios."