Part 7 (2/2)
As they hurried along one line of shuttles searching for a particular craft, names rang out around Kirk and McCoy as different squad leaders bellowed names and a.s.signments.
”Blake-Newton...Burke-Starbase Three...Counter-Odyssey...Fugeman-Regula One...Gerace-Farragut...Korax-Drake...McCoy-Enterprise.”
There, that was the one they were looking for. Both men turned, heading for the thickset officer standing outside one of numerous identical shuttles. But his destination was not the same as the others', an excited Kirk knew. Not by a long warp. Around them the litany of a.s.signments continued to ring out.
”...McGrath-Potemkin...Tel'Peh-Bradbury...Davis-Kongo...”
The two cadets halted before the officer who had called McCoy's name. Behind the busy lieutenant, cadets and other personnel were filing into a waiting shuttle. Trying hard to restrain himself, Kirk confronted the officer.
”Excuse me-you didn't call my name. Kirk, Kirk, James T.” James T.”
The man looked down at the thin sheet of continuously changing electroph.o.r.etic plastic he was holding. ”That's because it's faded out. You're on academic probation, Kirk. Pending the result of your hearing, you're grounded until the council rules on your case.”
When he was nine, Kirk had missed a step, fallen into a creek, and hit his head on a protruding rock. His brother George had jumped in and pulled him out. When he came to, he had looked up and seen the terror in his brother's face. Now he understood how George felt, since that was exactly how he felt right now.
”But it's an emergency situation. A general alarm, Red Alert. Starfleet needs every available hand and tentacle!”
The disembarking officer was adamant. ”Sorry, Kirk-without authorization I can't let you on board. You know the regs. Be my neck if I let you pa.s.s.” With that he turned and walked away, studying his readout.
A dazed Kirk stumbled away from the shuttle. He wasn't on the Enterprise. Enterprise. He wasn't on He wasn't on anything. anything. He would be stuck here on Earth, in an Academy populated by undercla.s.sfolk, while every one of his friends and acquaintances soared outsystem, having been flash-promoted in the service of a still-unknown emergency. They would all return as full officers while he...while he... He would be stuck here on Earth, in an Academy populated by undercla.s.sfolk, while every one of his friends and acquaintances soared outsystem, having been flash-promoted in the service of a still-unknown emergency. They would all return as full officers while he...while he...
That same hand returned to his shoulder, comforting this time.
”Jim,” McCoy murmured encouragingly, ”they'll rule in your favor. You had 'em on the ropes. Just drawing out the deliberations the way you did when I bet everyone expected you to roll over and play dead...They've got to reinstate you, if only so you can verify the truth of your argument.” He looked behind him. Kirk was his friend, but other imperatives were calling. ”Look, Jim-I gotta go.”
Kirk didn't, couldn't, look at his friend. He barely managed to mumble, ”Yeah-yeah, go...” He forced his face into a half smile.
Torn between friend and future, McCoy pulled away and hurried off. Behind him Kirk had to lean against a nearby pillar to keep from collapsing. There was no reason why he should make the effort, he told himself. Not when everything else he had worked for, everything else he had ever wanted, was falling to pieces around him. Though surrounded by hundreds of cadets, soldiers, support personnel, and others, he was all alone.
Maybe not quite alone.
McCoy was halfway back to his a.s.signed shuttle when a thought hit him. Not as hard or incapacitatingly as the river rock that had knocked out nine-year-old Jim Kirk, but powerfully enough to make him pull up short. A couple of noncoms glanced curiously in his direction as the senior cadet single-mindedly pushed past them, but they made no move to confront him. A Red Alert situation was not the time to be a stickler for military protocol. Besides, the cadet's insignia identified him as a doctor. Doubtless he had a good reason for ignoring them.
They had no idea.
VII
Kirk spun around angrily as the hand grabbed him. Ready to hit out at anything, he was drawing back a fistful of frustration when he recognized McCoy. Shock at his situation gave way to incomprehension as he stared at his friend.
”What-Bones, what're you doing?” He nodded past the doctor. ”Your shuttle's waiting. I thought you'd be...”
McCoy was tugging at him. ”Shut up and come with me.”
Too numbed by the circ.u.mstances that had befallen him to object, Kirk allowed himself to be dragged along. He was so bewildered that he failed to notice Uhura among a group of waiting cadets as McCoy pulled him forward.
”...Jaxa-Endeavor,” an a.s.signments officer was declaiming. ”...T'nag-Antares...Uhura-Farragut...”
Farragut? she thought. She'd heard right, but that didn't make it right. Straining to see over the heads of her fellow cadets, she finally found who she was looking for and broke from the crowd. Noting the look in her eyes, more than one person hurried to get out of her way. she thought. She'd heard right, but that didn't make it right. Straining to see over the heads of her fellow cadets, she finally found who she was looking for and broke from the crowd. Noting the look in her eyes, more than one person hurried to get out of her way.
Spock was conferring with several other officers and did not notice her approach. She waited impatiently for the conference to finish. Waited, in fact, exactly one minute. No doubt the Vulcan would have appreciated the precision, but Uhura had no intention of alluding to it.
”Commander-a word? If you can spare me some time?”
Their eyes met and he favored his fellow officers with a slight nod. ”Gentlemen, if you'll excuse me for a moment.” Commander and cadet moved off to one side. Spock's stance was wholly professional.
”Yes, Lieutenant?”
Her tone was even and controlled, but there was fire in her eyes. ”Was I not one of your top students?”
”Indeed you were,” he replied without hesitation.
”Did I not receive a gold rating for xenolinguistic skills in all categories, from constructive verbalizations to click, whistle, and atmospheric manipulations of all kinds, giving the Academy first place over Kyoto and and MIT at the Oxford Linguistics Invitational?” MIT at the Oxford Linguistics Invitational?”
”An exceptional achievement, to be su-”
Heedless of his superior rank, she interrupted him without so much as a raised hand. ”And did I not, not, on on multiple multiple occasions, make it clear that my dream and the reason behind four years of hard work was to serve on the occasions, make it clear that my dream and the reason behind four years of hard work was to serve on the Enterprise Enterprise?”
”Vociferously and repeatedly, perhaps even to the point of obsession,” he admitted. ”Your ability to communicate in that regard was the equal of any of your cla.s.sroom efforts.”
Uhura took a step forward. Anyone other than Spock might have found the movement threatening. ”And yet I was a.s.signed to the ”And yet I was a.s.signed to the Farragut?” Farragut?”
Time hung suspended between them. Viewing the confrontation from afar, a neutral observer might reasonably have expected the Vulcan commander to upbraid the aggressive cadet, not only for her increasingly aggressive tone but for perceptibly intruding on a superior officer's personal s.p.a.ce. The actual consequences were rather different.
Spock looked away. It was impossible to tell if he did so to avoid the cadet's laser-like stare-or to see if anyone was watching. His voice also changed, its tenor becoming a touch less professional, a tad less...Vulcan. His reply clearly indicated concern for the agitated young woman standing before him. Concern-and possibly, just possibly, something more. One couldn't tell from the actual words he spoke, of course.
”I was simply,” he murmured low enough so that no one else could possibly overhear, ”trying to avoid the appearance of favoritism.”
She advanced another step, which put her not quite inside his uniform, but close. ”Uh-huh.” Fiery eyes dropped to the readout sheet he was holding. The gap remaining between them was barely wide enough for him to hold the thin sheet of radiant plastic without crumpling. ”A simple entry mistake by Personnel. Happens all the time. Anyone would understand. I'm on on the the Enterprise.” Enterprise.”
Their eyes held for a long moment. Without further comment he let his gaze drop to his readout. One finger moved against the touch-sensitive material.
”Yes, I believe you are.”
A thin smile crossed her face as she nodded, pivoted smartly on one heel, and stalked off to see to the transfer of her personal effects. Commander Spock watched her go, his gaze following her for longer than was necessary before returning to the essential work at hand.
It took McCoy no time at all to locate the section of hangar he sought. Deemed critical material, the sizable stock of medical gear had been curtained off from less vital supplies. With his still bemused friend in tow, the doctor waited until a worker departed pus.h.i.+ng a pallet piled high with stores. Quickly he scanned the contents of several small refrigerated satchels until he found the one he was looking for. Actually it was not the one he was looking for, but given that they had no time to work their way through the considerable stock of equipment, it would have to do. That was what a physician operating under time constraints and in an emergency situation was trained to do, he told himself as he unsealed the container and sorted through its contents.
Kirk's attention s.h.i.+fted back and forth between his friend's frenetic searching and the bustle of men and machines on the other side of the translucent s.h.i.+elding curtain. ”Bones, what are we doing here? What're you after?”
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