The Stars Above Us

Chapter 18

"Are you okay?" Bones asked. "And don't you dare lie to me. The news feeds are saying the Republic was almost destroyed. There's a gash on your head, you're in the medbay and you just winced."

"How do you know where I am?" Jim asked. Bones gave her a look. "Fine. I'm hurt but I'm not dead. Consider me one of the lucky ones." Not much point in lying to Bones, he'll just have Pippa look up her medical records. "We were attacked by six pirate ships from Epsilon Canaris three a few hours ago."

"And you're just now getting checked out by medical?" he asked. "Of all the crazy…"

"It's not like I was just hanging out, Bonesy. Half of the Alpha shift bridge crew is either hurt or dead. I was manning the weapons station and apparently I'm the acting XO, I couldn't just get up and leave no matter how much pain I was in. Besides, I saved the ship. Bannock is putting me up for the Decoration of Valor." She winced when she got to the last part because a nurse poking at her swollen knee hurt like a b***h.

"What does the doctor say?" her boyfriend asked.

"He said that my anterior cruciate ligament is torn from when one of the ships rammed us."

"You're gonna be down for a while. Torn ACL takes months to fix."

"I know, he told me that too. The grafting is easy and doesn't take long, they'll do it back on Earth. The rehab, however, means I'm on limited duty. Physical therapy for four months and then a reevaluation," she sighed.

"Good news is that you're seventeen, so you'll probably heal up a little faster than someone older than you," he pointed out.

"Oh, joy. Hopping around on crutches for the next month and PT for months after that is what I've always wanted to do," Jim said sarcastically. "I really like the idea of proving to a medical board that I'm not a broken toy when I try to go back on regular duty."

Bones smiled, "There is an upside to this, Jim."

"Which is?" she asked.

"Limited duty means your orders will change. Since you're already teaching at the Academy, they'll just make it your primary duty. It also means that you'll probably have to do your therapy here," he chuckled. "Where I am."

Jim smiled, "So, there is a silver lining."

"You don't have to carry me," Jim mumbled.

"You're half asleep," Bones chuckled.

"Good meds," she whispered against his neck.

The surgery to repair her ACL only took forty-five minutes, the wonderful Doctor Boyce offered to tell her the specifics but Jim trusted her dad's long-time friend enough that she didn't need to hear it. The young officer was sedated, Pippa did the repair, put Jim in a brace and let her regain consciousness for a few hours before discharging her. Jim was not happy about being on crutches but Pippa told her not to put weight on her leg. Pippa also prescribed her pain and sleep medication.

"Can you just relax? I gotcha, darlin'," he sighed.

"Fine," Jim sighed. She wanted to argue with him but she was too tired. "One of these days, I'm gonna take care of you."

"What are you talking about? You always take care of me."

"What are you doing here, kiddo?" her dad asked when he walked into his office, she was sitting on his couch with her eyes closed.

"Resting my eyes. Your yeoman said you were in a meeting," she mumbled. Jim knew she was gonna have to get up soon but she didn't want to. She was only teaching one class and taking one class but walking around on crutches was a lot more tiresome than it looked. Of all the stuff they've managed to heal, why an ACL injury still took so long to bounce back from was beyond her.

"You let officers sleep in here?" a voice Jim didn't recognize asked. She opened her eyes and found a tall man with reddish blonde hair and light green eyes looking at her. 'Oh my God,' she thought to herself. 'There's no way.'

"Just her," the captain said. "Doctor Larry Marvick, my daughter, Lieutenant Jim Kirk." She made a move to get up but her dad stopped her. "Don't even think about it, kiddo. Rest." When Marvick looked at him, her dad pointed at the brace on her leg. "She tore her ACL on a mission."

"I… You're… Uh… I can't… You're Larry Marvick. The Larry Marvick. The warp nine engine you designed for the USS Constitution is a work of art. It's nothing short of impressive," Jim finally managed to say. This man was an engineering God. And he's here, in her dad's office. Marvick was currently assigned to design the ships for the new constitution fleet. She'd give just about anything to be a fly on the wall in the one of those meetings.

"You're a fan?" Marvick asked.

"A huge fan. I got my master's in agro engineering but I spent a good bit of time working on the Republic's weapons and propulsion systems," she said. "I think I've read all of the technical publications that you're even mentioned in."

"It's good to see those things don't go to waste. Why don't you stop by ASDB when you get a chance? I'll give you the short tour and you can take a look at the phaser system we're working on for the next ship in the line. I think Enterprise is the name they're going with," the designer of some of the best ships in the fleet told her.

"ASDB… I wouldn't want to take up your time or get in anybody's way. I'm not that good," Jim muttered. The Advanced Starship Design Bureau was the part of Starfleet that designed starships and conducts research, design reviews and systems simulations.

"She's being modest," her dad said. "Jim's been helping with the Republic's repairs as much as she can from here."

"That sounds like most of the people over at ASDB," Marvick told her. "Really, you should stop by. As a matter of fact, I'm delivering plans to the captain, here. Take a look, I'd love to see what you can come up with." Marvick handed her a PADD before he looked at her dad. "I'll see you next week."

"You got it," her dad said before Marvick left the room.

"Oh my God, Larry Marvick touched my hand," Jim said. "You're so obvious."

"What are you talking about?" he asked innocently.

"You mean to tell me that Doctor Lawrence Marvick hand delivers plans to the prospective captain of each ship he's building. Colt told you I was here, she always does. You asked Marvick to say hi to me. Tell me I'm wrong."

"I may have mentioned that you were a fan, I didn't ask him to come up here, though. He was a meeting downstairs," her dad said. "That said, you're in a rut, kiddo. I know that you're putting a positive spin on it for everyone but… I know what it's like to be frustrated with your own body. You can fool most people but me, Hoss, Pippa, Lenny, we know better."

"I feel helpless, I don't like it," she sighed.

"I know. But you're not helpless. Leaning on me, Leonard or anyone else, doesn't mean you're helpless. It's means you're smart enough to know that you can't do it all on your own."

"You really didn't ask Marvick to talk to me?"

He chuckled, "No, I didn't. I wish I had thought of it though."

Jim giggled, "That tickles."

"Sorry, darlin'," Bones smiled. He was taking an advanced anatomy class. Jim volunteered to let him draw on her so he could see where the Vulcan bones and organs were.

"Don't be, this is fun," she chuckled.

"Me drawing on you is fun?"

"You've spent the better part of the last two hours with your hands on my body and you're gonna help me wash this off when you're done… so, yea, this is fun."

He laughed, "I didn't even think about it that way."

"You're preoccupied," she said, running her hands through his thick hair.

"So are you," Bones kissed the inside of her wrist. "You're gonna get better."

"I hope so. Be a shame to spend the rest of my career on desk duty."

"Never gonna happen," he smiled. "Only person I know that's more stubborn than me is you. This is all temporary, darlin'."

"Can you stop being optimistic? It's seriously starting to creep me out," she chuckled.

"That's difficult to do when my very hot girlfriend is helping me study in her underwear," he pointed out. "At this moment, I could probably take on the world." Bones kissed her collarbone.

"Can you wait for me to heal up, first?" she asked. "We'll take on the world together."

"Deal."

"Well?" Bones asked when Jim walked out of the small conference room that the Medical Board uses. She looked down at her boots and he sighed. "They want to reevaluate?"

"Nope." She smiled, "Restored to full duty."

"Told you, darlin'!" he said as he pulled her into a big hug. "Lieutenant Kirk is back in business. Wait until you tell your dad. You're gonna outrank him before you know it."

"I'd argue with you but I'm pretty sure he's grooming me for Admiral," Jim chuckled. "I uh… I also got my new orders."

"Where you going and when do you leave?"

"USS Farragut. I get to finish out the semester before I transfer. Besides, they just got back from a tour so I'm not goin' anywhere for a little while, I hope," she said. It was actually a relief. Even though she was back on full duty, she missed a lot of workouts and Pippa made her pinky promise not to overdo it. She had a lot of work to do to get her physicality back to where it was.

"You're relieved," he smiled, his arms still around her.

"Of course I am, I've been waiting to get back on full duty since they put me on limited duty. Oh, and I finally get to take my third crack at the Kobayashi Maru. It was only on hold because of all this," Jim said. The brass told her point blank that there was no reason to let her retake the most poignant test at the Command College if she couldn't walk. She'd have to switch to a planet side job if she didn't heal.

"You still want me to be there?" he asked.

"Why wouldn't I? I'm better when you're around."

"Spock?" Jim was surprised when she spotted the Vulcan Ambassador's son, in a cadet uniform, walking through the quad.

"Lieutenant Kirk."

"Please, it's just Jim and you know it. I thought you were going to the Vulcan Science Academy, what are you doing here?" she asked.

"I decided to join Starfleet, Jim," the tall Vulcan told her.

"I can see that. I bet your dad didn't like it one bit," Jim said.

"He did not."

There was something more to all this, Jim was sure, but she wasn't gonna press him. When she met Spock, he was intrigued by the fact that she and David Rabin didn't seem to care about his mixed heritage like most of his Vulcan classmates did. She could tell that he didn't have many friends and she sought to change that as much as she could. They messaged each other a few times a year since they met but the last time they talked, he was about to see the admissions board for the Science Academy. She'd bet just about anything that someone disrespected his Humanity.

"Are you okay?" she asked.

"It is nothing that I cannot handle," he said.

"If you need someone to talk to, I'm around… for now, at least," Jim said.

"That is unnecessary."

"And yet, the offer stands," she said. Thinking about it, she smiled. "Hey, if you got some time, I'm taking the Kobayashi Maru next week. You can come man a station in the simulator."

Spock assessed her for a minute, "You are asking if I wish to join you?"

"Yea. Command cadets and officers can't work the simulation unless they've taken it already. I could just go with the random crew I'm assigned but I'd rather have some people I know I can work with. What do you say?" She entertained the idea of Mitchell and Yudrin helping out but they weren't allowed since they were both due to take it within the next year. Her granddad and Bones were gonna be there through.

"It would be agreeable to join you."

"You like him," Bones whispered against her ear as the simulation was being prepped, his eyes on Spock.

"We're on the road to being friends," she shrugged.

"No. You like him, like him," he chuckled.

Jim looked at her boyfriend, "Seriously, Bones?"

"I get it. He's tall, handsome, brilliant…"

"Like someone else I know," she said.

"Point is, you like him. I should probably be jealous but there's not much point," Bones smiled.

"There's really not. I can admit that I might like him a little but I'm in love with you."

"Which is exactly why I'm not worried," he said with a wink.

"What are you lovebirds talking about?" Gramps asked.

"Nothin' much, chief," Jim said. "Is that as weird to you as it is to me?"

"That I'm outranked by my eighteen year old granddaughter?" he asked. Jim and Bones nodded. "Very weird. It was bad enough when it was just Chris."

"I try not to see him when we're in uniform if I can help it. I slipped the other day and called him dad in front of some of his officers," she chuckled.

"It takes practice… ma'am," Gramps said. "I think they're ready."

Jim looked over as the officer in charge of the test, Commander Yin, nodded and let them into the mock-USS Potemkin Bridge. She assigned Bones to the tactical station, Gramps to helm and Spock to communications. The other stations were filled by cadets, Jim didn't really get their information, it wasn't important at this point.

"You ready?" Bones asked as she sat in the command chair.

"Third time's a charm," she smiled before looking around the bridge then up at the control room. "We're ready to begin."

For the first few minutes of the simulation, they were conducting a simple patrol. Then the message came in. Spock turned in his seat, "Captain, we are receiving a distress signal from the SS Kobayashi Maru. The ship has lost power and is stranded. Starfleet Command has ordered us to rescue the crew."

"Thank you, Mister Spock. Chief, ETA?" she asked.

"Three minutes, Captain," her granddad said as he flew them to the other ship.

"Two Klingon vessels have entered the neutral zone and are locking weapons on us," Bones told her just as they got to the Kobayashi Maru.

"Hail the lead ship," she ordered Spock. Bones and her granddad glanced back at her but neither said anything.

"This is Kozor of the IKS Kh'yem, identify yourself," the simulated Klingon growled.

"This Captain Jim Kirk of the USS Potemkin. You've violated the treaty between our governments. Stand down," Jim said.

"You are in no position to make demands, Human," he said.

"Then it seems we're at an impasse," she said.

"Not from where I'm sitting, Captain Kirk. Leave or we will destroy you," Kozar told her.

"No," Jim said. "I challenge you to a ritual duel to the death on the planetoid off my port and your starboard bow. My only stipulation is that all hostilities must be halted for the duration of the fight. Do you accept my challenge?"

Everyone who ever took the test studied ways to work the system or to fight the other ships but Jim had two tries to realize that the trick might actually be their simulated enemies. Not the ships, but the Klingons in them. While she was healing her knee, she studied Klingon culture and battle tactics. If the simulation was based on a real Klingon, there was a good chance that he'd take the challenge since he'd lose honor amongst his people if he didn't.

The Klingon looked at her for a long moment. "I accept," he told her before the screen went black.

"Jim, what are you doing?" Bones asked.

"She is creating a distraction," Spock said.

"Exactly. While I'm down there with him, beam the Kobayashi Maru's crew over and warp to the nearest starbase," she told them.

"What about you, Captain?" Gramps asked.

"Don't worry about me. You guys just get that crew to safety. Lieutenant McCoy, you have the con," Jim ordered.

"End Simulation," the computer said.

'Damn,' she thought, she was on a roll. Jim looked up at the control room, "Did I just fail again?"

"No, Lieutenant," Commander Yin sighed over the intercom. "I'm pretty sure that... you just passed."

"I still don't get how you did it," Bones said.

Her dad chuckled, "Everyone reads the parameters wrong. I did. You're supposed to save the Kobayashi Maru's crew and your ship. No one said you had to come out alive."

"I pulled a George Kirk. In sacrificing myself as a distraction, I allowed for the rescue and escape to take place before the Klingons would notice. Now, in real life, I'd either be dead like my father or a prisoner but both crews would be safe," Jim said. "It's the win in a no-win scenario."

Bones smiled, "We all know how you feel about no-win scenarios."