Two Captains

Chapter 5

The shipyard is incredibly busy, cadets loading into the shuttle, and workers making sure everything's working alright. Pike stares off into the distance, standing by the shuttle.

"Uhura!" I say, walking up to her just as she approaches the shuttle. She stops.

"Hi." I say. "I'm not sure you remember me from last night-"

"Oh, Jim Kirk's friend right?" She says. "I'm sorry I didn't get your name."

"It's Natasha." I say. "Natasha Adams."

"Nyota Uhura." She smiles, offering a hand. I shake it.

"Look, I'm sorry about Jim last night, he's not always like that, but he was close to drunk-"

"It's okay." She laughs. "He's got a bit of an ego doesn't he?"

I laugh. "A bit."

"Is he coming?" She asks, looking out into the distance for a second, then back at me.

"I don't know, all I know is that he's going to have a really bad hangover."

She laughs again. "Are you coming?"

"Yep."

"I'll see you later then." She smiles and starts walking onto the shuttle. "Oh and don't tell Kirk my name yet, I'll make him guess."

I smile back. "I won't."

She walks inside and I look over at Pike, still staring off into the distance. I walk over to him.

"Earth to Pike, we're taking off soon..." I say, standing next to him.

"Is he coming?" Pike asks, looking at me.

"I don't know. You know Jim-22 years old, charming, witty, dangerous, rebellious. You've known that since I was nine when I met him."

"I only met him once back then, and again last night." Pike says. "I barely know him."

"You looked up his file."

"That doesn't tell everything about someone you know." He pauses. "So you're really going for four years?"

I laugh. "I'll do it in three."

We look ahead of us right when Jim pulls up on a motorcycle and tosses his keys to a worker saying "It's all yours." He looks over at Pike and I and walks over to us.

"Four years? I'm gonna do it in three." Jim says to Pike, then looks at me. "Come on 'Tasha." He walks up to the shuttle. I glance at Pike and follow Jim up into the shuttle.

We step inside, the shuttle nearly packed with cadets in red uniforms, Jim and I stand out like a sore thumb in our everyday clothing. Jim grins at me and starts walking forward.

"Wait Jim-" I'm just about to stop him but he bangs his head on a low-hanging metal beam which reads LOW CLEARANCE in large letters.

"Nice." Some people say to him, laughing.

"Woke you up from your hangover, didn't it?" I ask Jim, ducking down beneath the bar.

"What hangover?" Jim says, looking back at me and smirking, then he looks back forward. "At ease gentlemen." He says to the men who were in the bar fight with him last night.

"Hey," The man who Jim called "Cupcake" grabs my arm and stops me. "You his friend?"

"Um..."

"Tell him to watch his back."

I slam my fist into his chest. "And I'll tell you that if you come after him or send someone to come after him, I will know, and I will find you and kick your ass." I say slowly and somewhat dangerously. Obviously this message coming from me takes Cupcake aback and he stares at me, wide-eyed like a deer in the headlights.

I take my hand away and go over to a seat next to Jim, conveniently we're sitting across from Uhura.

"You need a doctor." We hear a woman say at the opening to the shuttle where Jim had banged his head.

"I told you, I don't need a doctor, damn it I am a doctor!" A man protests. 

"You need to get back to your seat." A woman with dark hair in a tight bun leads a man with short dark hair in front of us by his wrist.

"I had one in the bathroom with no windows!" He says.

"You need to get back to your seat now!"

"I suffer from aviaphobia, it means 'fear of dying in something that flies'."

"Sir for your own safety sit down or else I'll make you sit down." They look each other in the eye for a few seconds and then the man nods.

"Fine." He takes a seat next to Jim and I.

"Thank you." She says, and walks away.

"This is Captain Pike, we're clear for take-off." Pike says in the speakers.

"I may throw up on you." The man says to Jim, then turns to me. "Sorry if I throw up on you too."

"I think these things are pretty safe." Jim answers.

"Don't pander to me kid, one tiny crack in the hull and our blood boils in 13 seconds. Solar flare might crop up, cook us in our seats. And wait'll you're sitting pretty with a case of Andorian shingles, see if you're still so relaxed when your eyeballs are bleeding." He pauses. "Space is disease and danger wrapped in darkness and silence."

"Well I hate to break it to you, but Starfleet operates in space." I answer him.

"Yeah, well, got nowhere else to go, my ex-wife took the whole damn planet in the divorce. All I got left is my bones." He takes a sip out of a canteen and then offers it to Jim, who takes it.

"Jim Kirk." He says before taking a sip.

"McCoy." The man says. "Leonard McCoy." He says as the shuttle ascends. He turns to me. "And you are?"

"Natasha Adams." I answer.

"Oh," McCoy lowers his voice. "You Captain Pike's God-daughter?"

"Don't tell anyone." I whisper back. "Don't think anyone else knows."

"They don't."He smirks. "And it's not a problem to not tell anyone. Where you from? You sound British."

"I am British. British and American. Moved here when I was nine."

"You his friend?" He asks, gesturing to Jim.

"Met him when I moved here. Yes, he's my friend."

This guy's a bit random.

"So you hate space?" I ask him.

"With a passion." He answers as the shuttle moves forward.

I laugh. "Well you'll just hate working on a ship in Starfleet."

"It won't be as bad if you're around." He smirks, making it completely obvious that he's flirting with me.

"Nice try." I say. "But I'm into somebody else."

"Damn." He says. "Who?"

"No one." I quickly glance at Jim. "No one that you would know." I lie.

"I don't think anybody's ever rejected me that quickly." He says.

"Well how about you just focus on not throwing up on us for now." I suggest. "And maybe you'll be seeing more of Jim and I."

"Then I won't throw up."

"I'd appreciate that."