smartass_captain | Entries tagged with the nexus

Of the four hundred and thirty-six souls that left Yorktown on board the Enterprise, only a little over two hundred are still alive. Jim read the mission logs from where he was sitting in Yorktown's General hospital having just finished his evals like every member of his crew had to do in the wake of the attempted assault on the base. The guilt that normally gouges and sticks to Jim's insides is still there, but it is not as loud as it usually is.

He will have to write letters of course. Letters to the families of the deceased that explain their loved ones reason for never returning home. The structure of it already coming to mind while he sits and reads over the preliminary reports from Bones, Spock, Scotty, Sulu, and Uhura. Chekov's Jim knows already as he was with Jim throughout most of the events. And while this prospect saddens him he also feels a sense of pride rippling underneath his skin when he spies any of his people in the halls of this place.

Alive.

How close did they all come to destruction? Not only them, but Yorktown as well? Jim knows the answer better than anyone. It is not nothing that he and what remains of his crew have accomplished here today. The captain does not think those who were lost would want any of them to forget that. They are heroes every one of them. Especially those who did not make it back.

Still, Jim's relieved at Bones inviting him out for a drink. He's heard by now that Ambassador Spock has been listed as deceased, has turned down the promotion for Vice Admiral here in Yorktown. It seems amusing now that he'd been considering the posting at all. For the first time in months Jim dons a set of jeans, a simple teeshirt, and a leather jacket. All new, obviously, since his own possessions were destroyed with the Enterprise.

"They're going to be giving us the new ship in development. Scotty's trying to talk them into naming it the Enterprise-A. Make it feel more like home." It's a tired smile, but a genuine one. Jim chuckles at the way Bones recoils at the word 'home'. He's not fooling anyone.

"You're telling me you didn't even try to get our time shortened out there?" Bones grouses and grumps and Jim's smile widens. It lights up his tired face.

"Reduced? Bones, we know our way through the nebula now. Think of what we'll be able to find out there!"

"I hate this and I hate you."

"It's going to be so much fun." A beat and Jim realizes they're close to the fleet warehouse where he knows the new ship is under construction. He knows there's no bars down this way. "Where are we going anyway? I thought you said we were going out for a couple of drinks."

"Well..." Jim turns because the guilt in Leonard's voice is palpable. "I know you said not to mention it to anyone, but..."

""Happy Birthday Captain!!"" A chorus of greetings roots Jim to the spot and he finds himself struggling as he stares at the sea of faces. What day is...oh. Oh. Jim swallows, but the tremors don't start. Not when he looks out and sees the faces of his crew--his family--smiling back at him. As grateful that he's alive and here as he is of them. It's a strange feeling. No one mentions Remembrance day, no one asks him anything. They raise their drinks and offer him one. This must be how it feels to be valued. When he looks back at Loeonard, it's not with hatred. it's with shocked gratitude for something he hadn't even known he needed.

His eyes wet when he raises his glass. No matter what the occasion he still feels it necessary to toast to those who aren't with them. To honor their friends no longer here. Out across the room is a large window showing off the construction of Starfleet's newest ship.

Jim's ship, soon.

His mind drifts as he watches the construction to his friends across the dimensional gate in the Nexus. He's missed Christmas and New Years by now. Knowing the date, his counterpart is sure to be hiding away somewhere safe and alone. Felix will probably still be at the Imperial Capital sleeping off the days of revelry and drinking the New Year brings.

"Neither one of you had your PINpoints on you when the ship was attacked, did you." He knows the answer before he asks but Jim breaks his gaze out the window to look at either side of him to Bones and Spock anyway.

"We did not, Captain. Though it would have likely helped if we'd had access to it." Spock sets his glass down on one of the nearby tables in case Jim needs support.

"No, Jim. I'm sorry." Bones drops his own gaze to his glass. Jim won't be able to go back, now. The decision on whether or not to leave the Nexus for good seems to have been made for all of them but it'll hit Jim the hardest. Every trinket Felix had given him, every scrap of paper for that foolhardy plan to smuggle Felix into their world and bring him on board for good....all of that is gone now.

The rest of the crew gathers around and Jim says nothing more about the Nexus. He congratulates Jaylah on her acceptance into Starfleet Academy, an easy favor to call in considering everything that's transpired here. Besides, her technical acumen despite no formal education is impressive. He has no doubt she'll make a fine engineer in a few years. He accepts a hug from Demora Sulu when she and her father come to join Hikaru at the celebration. She's getting so big now.

When they leave, Jim stops to set down a full glass of champagne next to a holographic display of a planned memorial to the Enterprise crew who gave their lives in the line of duty protecting Yorktown. His smile slips off his face as the door to his temporary quarters slips shut, eyes sharp as he strides directly over to the communications terminal.

It's a long shot but Jim's not about to give up on the Nexus yet. He punches in his clearance to get an outside channel and sends a brief message to his farmhouse back on Earth in Iowa. There's no details given, only Jim's contact frequency while he's stationed in Yorktown. A secure line at that. If anyone can find that, they'll call him. And if they don't know what it is, he's certain the other Jim Kirk will.

All he can do now is wait.

Current Mood: determined

Before his name was Krall, it was Captain Balthazar Edison.

Captain of the USS Franklin and one of the most decorated original servicemen in the history of the Federation. A special forces soldier right up until Earth's military was disbanded and reformed by the Federation into Starfleet. They gave him a ship, sent him off into space. The sort of figure every school child learns about during primary school and all throughout their education. Especially if they continue on into Starfleet.

The Franklin went missing over a century ago, marooned on Altamid and cut off from the fleet by the dense clouds of the nebula. Uhura and Bones confirmed that Edison was using some kind of ancient technology in order to drain the life force out of his captives (which unfortunately meant his crew) to preserve his own life. Kalara was working for Edison, he used his knowledge of Starfleet's technology to spy on Yorktown and the ships that sent their logs to the base.

Including the Enterprise. That was how he knew the artifact was with Kirk and his crew. Kalara had been the bait and Starfleet had taken it hook, line, and sinker.

Jim had tried to keep the artifact safe. Hidden it away with one of his ensigns whose unique alien anatomy made concealing the device relatively simple. She's dead now. Because of him. Krall has his biological weapon and from everything Uhura has said it will devastate anything it comes into contact with. Rescuing his crew had been no simple task.

It would have been impossible without the help of a survivor of another of Krall's prisons, a young alien named Jaylah. She managed to escape the subterranean prisons and has been living in Edison's forgotten ship ever since. The Franklin is remarkably intact for its age, and Scotty's genius managed to get the ship's transporter back on line. With a bit of a risky infiltration and a large distraction by way of Captain Kirk utilizing Jaylah's holographic beacons and a very loud antique motorbike they'd been able to rescue what was left of the Enterprise's crew.

Jim's loathe to admit it but Krall's ultimate goal being the destruction of Yorktown and eventually the entire Federation also played a huge part in being able to rescue his crew. He's gone now with his swarm of mining drones. All Jim has to chase after him with is a century and a half old barely functional ship that's filled to capacity with more people than it was made to hold even for short trips. They have no proper weapons on the Franklin. If Edison is able to break into Yorktown and unleash his weapon, millions of souls will die.

It will be just the beginning.

They can't even warn Yorktown until they've broken free of the nebula. Too late, always a step too late. Jim's fingers curl underneath the handrests of his chair as he watches the displays flash by. This isn't some nightmare and Jim Kirk is not helpless. There must be something they can do. No time to second guess and wonder what if. There is only time to do.

Spock's calling out the algorithms the swarm drones are operating on to keep their impossibly tight formations. He and Bones infiltrated one of the swarm ships. Jim's stomach is in knots at the thought of the both of them in danger but he has to admit it is no less risk than he and the rest of his crew are in trudging along in their giant slow moving artifact of a ship toward the base. Low frequency audio disruptions could scramble and overpower the swarm and stop the assault on Yorktown. Without any conventional weapons it's the only thing they can try.

Luckily, Jaylah is quite the classical music connoisseur. Her collection of centuries old music can be broadcast from the ship while they do a drive by of the swarm. Yorktown can amplify the signal by broadcasting it themselves. Waves of drone ships slam into each other in an explosion of steel and fuel. Those same signals that allowed them to act as a school of fish in water are their undoing. Yorktown will not be brought down by missile fire or drones on this day, but during the chaos Krall managed to break into the base with his bio weapon.

Too late. Again they're too late.

No matter how many times they stop or slow Krall's advance he always manages to slip away. Jim's bolting through the base, weaving through civilians hurrying for shelters. He's going to disperse the weapon in the air recyclers. What does it matter that he's saved what's left of his crew if everyone in Yorktown is killed from this weapon?

No.

Not again.

Not this time.

Krall is nearly twice Jim's size and every blow leaves him reeling, stuck in the recycling station like they are. The weapon is armed. There's no time. There's no time. Scotty's voice is ringing out through the terminal. If they don't eject the weapon through the maintenance hatch and into space, everyone will die. If Jim's still in there when they do it? Well, he's going to have a quick trip and a very brief look at Yorktown before all the liquids in his body boil and evaporate in the vacuum of space. If Krall's weapon doesn't kill him first.

The same sense of loss and frustration Jim had expressed for months in his captain's logs stares back at him now in the words Krall screams at him. How Starfleet abandoned him and those like him in favor of breaking bread with the enemies of the Federation he fought and men died for to protect. Humanity is weaker now because of the Federation. They are diplomats when they could be rulers. If there was a metallic echo in Krall's voice, Jim knows he'd be hearing Felix's own tormented ambitions cried out instead in that moment. The desire to protect warped and sharpened into the drive to kill anyone and anything that would stand in the way.

Captain James T Kirk has never been more sure of himself than when he answers Krall's declarations.

"Better to die saving lives, than to live with taking them."

He has died for his crew before. He will die for the Federation and what it stands for. Willingly if it will save lives with no regrets. Those weeks and months he's spent agonizing over what his purpose is in Starfleet and in life are clear to him now. The Nightmare may have sullied the path and made Jim lose his way, but he's found it again as his elbow snaps back and knocks Krall--Edison--into the weapon before ejecting it out and away from the air systems of Yorktown. He is a captain in Starfleet on the command track. His purpose is to protect not only the lives of his crew but the values and lives of all Federation peoples across the galaxy. To spread the notion of peace over strife. To make known that which was shrouded in mystery.

Jim Kirk was born to be in Starfleet, and he will gladly die to protect it.

It is fortunate indeed then, that he has crew equally as dedicated in their own purposes and who are as determined to protect Jim just as he would them. Spock's grabbing Jim as he falls, pulling him to safety while Bones cheers from their drone ship. They are all of them beaten and bloody.

But they are alive.

Yorktown is alive.

Current Mood: relieved

Everything is gone.

Jim's pulled on his gloves and all weather survival suit that was stored within his Kelvin pod (and gods do not think about that now Jim there's no time--) before kicking the door open and touching foot down on Altamid. No sentient life on the surface but extensive activity below ground, the scanners said. The distress call came from a lone survivor on a science vessel doing work within a particularly dense nebula beyond Yorktown's space. Part of the base's purpose has been sending out Magellan probes to try and map out and penetrate this very entity.

Make known the unknown.

Kalara's ship was stranded. She needed help. Jim had been right in the middle of his meeting with the senior admiralty stationed at Yorktown when she arrived on site. Starfleet crafted a high stakes rescue mission. The nebula was far too dense for contact with Starfleet to be maintained. Any ship that went in there to perform a rescue operation would be completely alone. Obviously, there was only one choice on which ship to send. The Enterprise is the most advanced ship of her class and stationed at Yorktown. More than the ship's capability her crew contain some of the best officers in the fleet. Men, women, and others-survivors of both the Narada assault and the terrorist attack on Starfleet by one John Harrison. They were called back from shore leave and sent out to carry out the rescue operation. A call each of them swiftly replied to.

Half an hour ago there were four hundred and thirty six souls alive and well on the Enterprise. At least third of them are dead now, either sucked into space or killed outright by the assault on the ship and the boarding party. Jim's boots crunch on the dead plant matter underfoot and for all he knows he may be the only surviving member of his ship in this moment. Jim's still not sure what that swarm even was. They were ships of some kind, numerous enough to sacrifice dozens by hurtling them through the Enterprise's main engine, the nacelles, the ship itself.

The precious few minutes the attack lasted feel like an eternity. Jim can remember Spock's comm going dark, needing to separate the disc from what was left of the bulk of the ship. Buy enough time for the crew to use their escape pods. His body aches from the fight he got into with their attacker's leader. With every step Jim replays those moments in his head. What did a swarm of creatures from a supposedly uninhabited planet want with an artifact that for all intents and purposes was nothing more than a marker of his failure at negotiating a peace treaty between the Teenaxi Delegtion and the Fibonian Repubic? It was part of a weapon, Jim remembers. But only part. It was of no use alone.

If whoever initiated this attack was willing to destroy a Federation ship and her crew, potentially start a war with the entire Federation to get the artifact, Jim's willing to bet they already have the other part of the weapon. How they knew his ship was carrying it, the captain doesn't know. Doesn't care.

They took his crew. Whether they're alive yet or not, Jim doesn't know. But he has to find them. Has to find the ensign he hid the artifact with before the ship was abandoned completely. The Enterprise is destroyed but maybe he can save what's left of his crew. Movement catches Jim's eye. Kalara. She's survived too. Felix would have suspected her sooner, Jim's sure. The captain pulls his phaser out of its holster and hurries through the underbrush. He needs to find out what part she plays in this.

He needs a plan.

Current Mood: pissed off

This is Captain James T. Kirk. We have docked at Starfleet Outpost Yorktown. Once all mission logs, current shifts, and assignments have been completed you are permitted off ship and off duty on leave until we receive our next assignment. Please keep your personal devices with you at all times in case of an emergency. Enjoy your break, everyone.

You've earned it. Kirk out.

With the alpha crew busy getting everything squared away on the bridge before they head out into the base proper, Jim sits down at his desk in his quarters and looks over his most recent log. He can hear the sleep deprivation in his voice. The strained veneer of calmness that stretches over his barely held together psyche.

It's New Years Day in the Nexus. Jim's been off the map there for two months now. The messages to his PINpoint have all been answered dutifully, though they're becoming less and less frequent. With the peace talks falling through spelling a failure in his last month's worth of work Jim almost feels like his absence from the Nexus is pointless. An excuse.

Why would he go back if he knows he's going to leave? Starfleet forwarded him their recommendation for promotion again just before Bones caught him drinking on his own. This time, instead of ignoring it, he signed his name on the application and sent it back to the fleet. There's no place for him in the Nexus just like there's no place for him on the ship. His entire career in Starfleet has been one chasing the shadow of George Kirk and now that he's emerged from that shadow a year older than his father ever got to see what does he have to show for it?

A career built on a dare? There's no longer any steps for Jim to follow in. There's no longer a place for him in his father's old position. He may as well accept the promotion and move on just like he always has. Jim submits his captain's log and gets up from his desk for what will be the last time. He leaves his PINpoint in the drawer and heads back to the bridge to head down to the base with the rest of his alpha crew.

---- Twelve Hours Later ----

To anyone attempting to leave a message with Jim on his PINpoint, they will only receive an error message in reply.

Unable to connect to specified frequency. PINpoint coordinates do not exist. Retry to send your message?

((Please feel free to try and send Jim messages anyway and reach out to each other if you'd like in the comments here. This is an open post, however Jim will not be able to reply so you will be interacting with each other.))

Current Mood: exhausted

No matter how weird or strained things are between them, no matter how busy or stressed or exhausted Jim's been he'd made sure to send something for Felix's birthday. It's small this year, nothing more than a note and a bottle of the mage's favorite brandy from Jim's world. He left it at the guard station for Felix and went right back to work.

Jim hasn't gotten any messages since.

They haven't been seeing much of each other since the Nightmare unraveled, partially because Jim's been avoiding everyone like the plague. Even his counterpart has been brushed aside now as sleep deprivation and Remembrance Day grow ever closer. A year older. A year older than George Kirk ever got to be. And for what? What has he done to be worthy of that when his father sacrificed so much to give him this life? Jim should be dead. He doesn't deserve this.

He doesn't deserve Felix.

Not when he can't even decide who he is and what he wants. His PINpoint sits unused and ignored in his deskside drawer. The ornate dragon statuette moved to a shelf over by the replicator and out of Jim's line of sight from his desk. If he accepts this promotion in Yorktown, he'll be leaving his crew behind. How could he keep going to the Nexus if he's turning his back on his family on the Enterprise? Jim knows the answer. He can't.

If he takes this promotion, he's going to be leaving the Nexus for good.

The captain buries his hands in his hair and leans over his desk. Jim doesn't know what to do. Doesn't know what he should do. What he wants to do. What the right answer is. It's all a mess and nothing is right. He's so tired.

He just wants the world to make sense again.

Getting a bit of fresh air is good for JIm anyway, and he looks a little less miserable as they stroll toward a busier part of the Nexus. The commercial district is a mecca of all types of wares and services, shops upon shops lining the street and every kind of food you can imagine (plus ten kinds you couldn't until just now) sold in little corner cafes and diners.

Sure there's a scrap shop selling auto parts Furiosa will recognize, but there's also stores like the one they pass where a tiny man seems to be intent on building and selling as many ludicrous inventions as possible--including a nuclear powered toaster. Jim takes this in stride, stopping to chuckle at something every so often while they go.

Eventually Jim will lead Furiosa into a room so white she'd think she wa dead. The Print Station from an office supply store is only happy enough to accept the data off of Jim's PADD (and somehow convert the data into something they recognize, Jim doesn't think too hard about that) and cheerfully tell him he'll have his manuscript ready in an hour or so.

"Welp. Looks like we've got about an hour to kill. Let's see if we can find some gardening supplies. And possibly a solar powered moisture farm starter kit. Since Furiosa's world is quite lacking in water.