#⤷ verse / kelvin | tho’ much is taken‚ much abides.

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @darehearts said, ❝ every day felt exactly the same. ❞

she knows the monotony of which he speaks, illusion though it had been. nothing had changed, one day to the next, in their their routines. nothing lacking that had been there before, no more time required to cross the vastness of space, nor scientific work delaying them in single orbit for longer.

no, their days had been no more the same than before, yet perceptions of time shifted, reality somehow less tangible, less acute. more distant. such, it seems, is the nature of grief, a scientific phenomenon to which she has no interest in delving. loss, an equalizing factor. ❛ I know. ❜ the quiet admission is more than she allows most, for all he's a stranger to her.

a stranger and not, for she'd heard enough. she doesn't think a year renders all chris had told her too much out of date.

❛ it is the one time I have regretted being so far out. ❜ keeping yorktown so far out. her choice, more than starfleet's. it rests therefore upon her shoulders.

well, one of two times, she supposes. her eyes narrow a moment as she considers the younger captain, somehow at the thick of both instances, before she lets the thought go with an almost imperceptible shake of her head. she pivots then, unwilling to linger longer on that which she has studiously avoided speaking of for a year now. ❛ have they been keeping you busy? ❜ inane small talk, and scarcely her style, yet somehow still safer ground.

[owedfavors]

his answer provokes a carefully raised eyebrow, yet she postpones a correction to his understanding of her question. she had not meant to ask if he required anything personally, but rather if anything was absent from the lab that would be needed. poor phrasing on her own part, una can acknowledge. vague, imprecise. she proves lax after carefully modulating both tone and turn of phrase for past hours.

instead, with a dry humor that this time does earn a smile, faint though it may be, she remarks, ❛ if starfleet wishes to remember that its charter establishes it as a exploratory and therefore scientific organization, then I would be horrified to stand in its way. ❜ the smile fades by the time she continues, ❛ frankly, doctor, it is no inconvenience to us. you are welcome as long as you need or wish to be here. ❜

❛ my prior question had been intended to ask if you required anything for this lab, for your work. I believe the officers using it before specialized in geology. I instructed my first officer to set it to rights for medical research, but... anything you find lacking, you may let him know. ❜ una does not believe that they had ousted geologists to make space for mccoy's work; she knows it for a fact. they had been disgruntled at best at sharing a larger laboratory space with those engaged in other projects, but... well, it was, overall, a more efficient and more logical distribution of space and resources. their bruised prides would recover.

McCoy has no problem with brusqueness; in fact he's known for it himself. Actually, it's a nice change of pace in a way. The crew of the Enterprise is family but... everyone needs a break from family from time to time. And, more than that, a break from being CMO. The simpler responsibilities here, along with people who don't really know him, is... freeing.

"It's good enough that I'm here for now. And I've got my own dimenhydrinate for the motion sickness until I get used to how this ship feels." He runs a hand along the edge of his lab table. There's something buzzier than Enterprise. He's been told before it's psychosomatic; that there's no way he can sense anything different about one ship from another, but he knows better. "Never did like space travel much, but out here's where they keep all the stuff I want to research."

He smiles a little, trying for the country doctor charm that Jim makes fun of him for. Gruff and rude most of the time, but all politeness when he's feeling shy. "I appreciate you agreeing to have me aboard."

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @darehearts said, ❝ it's not a weakness to see the good in people. it's not a flaw or a bad thing to trust. ❞

she hears the words not only in the voice of jim kirk, but as if echoed in another's. foolish, perhaps, after years, how much he still shapes her thoughts. instead of giving into that train of thought, she suppresses a snort of incredulous laughter, limiting herself to that imperious lift of a brow that invites him to reevaluate his perspective before she takes steps to set him right.

not that she waits long enough to allow him true space to do so. ❛ I am merely proposing that you rest your trust on empirical evidence that it is warranted, and not on the presumption that everyone is inherently good at heart. ❜ una has had this particular discussion enough times to have arguments aplenty within ready reach, and the ghost of a smile flickers across her lips before she continues, ❛ or would you like a litany of the times chris regretted presuming trustworthiness? because I can tell you stories. ❜ not that any of them — and some of them make for colorful stories indeed — ever made for a lesson learned.

that such stories distract from the matter at hand — their very differing perspectives on the overtures of peace and cooperation offered to the federation by the inhabitants of the planet below ( and its colonists upon planets in two adjoining solar systems ) — is something she files away as temporarily irrelevant.

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @darehearts said, ❝ there is nothing I would not do for those who are really my friends. ❞

she thinks he expects an argument, some form of criticism. there are be arguments aplenty she might have offered against his chosen course. logic and reason and, oh, that pesky little thing called regulation, to say nothing of standing orders. ❛ you do not need to defend your actions, captain. not to me. I might have recommended a little more subtlety... ❜ her tone implies a but, a hovering unspoken conclusion to her statement that falls somewhere in the realm of I do understand.

chastisement is certainly not the reason for this call. ❛ need a hand? ❜

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @darehearts / continued.

he misunderstands, not that it's a surprise. coming from any other, her remark would have been a protest, not an adamant assertion. an offer, if he would prefer, but... more. they tread in dangerous waters, but the eye starfleet keeps on her is dimmer in its intensity, her sphere of influence further from home. and, largely, they have surrendered to the inevitable. above all else, she does not hold responsibility for the flagship. ❛ it is not daunting, captain. that was a promise, not a complaint. trust me: if I take issue with a plan, you will know it. ❜ she is not one for coyly dancing about a point of contention.

the irony of his question does not pass her unnoticed, but she has long since become accustomed to keeping wry humor from crossing her features. as if in a way her very existence is not an ongoing infiltration. ❛ are you questioning my ability to do this? ❜ it would be a bold choice, considering that she had held command of a ship before he had even set foot at the academy.

[owedfavors]

her lip curls in wry amusement at the characterization of her proclivity for doing her own thing, at the way the words are a polite redacting of the less than flattering rendition starfleet has offered to her directly. if only he knew.

for that matter, una does not actually know what the kid who had all but been chris’s personal project knows.

❛ I would say I am surprised it has taken starfleet so long to send someone else out, but... ❜ so long as the yorktown operated as efficiently and as thoroughly as una had ensured it did, until a situation required the greater weight of symbolic starfleet clout, in starfleet’s eyes it would be a waste of resources. ❛ there is little enough out here that offers anything beyond scientific value. ❜

but all that might be about to change, if they prove success in establishing diplomatic relations. una might be finding herself a new uncharted corner of space with which to occupy herself and her crew. ❛ until the yitori, at any rate. did command give you a full briefing? ❜

@owedfavors: starter call

"It's good to meet you, Captain Evers," he says. He means it, too. Pike used to talk about her, from time to time, with a level of admiration he reserved for just a few people. He'd said more than once that he wanted to introduce them... Jim spent the entire flight over trying not to be bitter that it's too late for that.

"I know you usually do your own thing out here, but I hear you know more about this part of space than anybody, so. There's nobody else I'd want to work with on this mission."

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ensnchekov said, ❝ we're taking a big gamble. ❞

she pauses before the door from engineering, the ensign’s words catching up to her. a moment passes in which she considers stepping forward, letting doors open for her and pretending not to have heard. she considers it, and dismisses it. instead, she turns back. ❛ I do not gamble, ensign. when I make a decision, it is calculated, every option weighed and probabilities considered. we are not taking a big gamble. we are following the most likely course of action. ❜

gamble or not, una knows she practically splits hairs, for the likelihood of success remains slim. slim, but better than any alternative they have yet been able to derive, and time is running short.

but this was not her point. her protest against the attribution did not stem so much in personal affront as in concern for his lack of faith, for confidence she needs steady. ❛ it will work. ❜

[owedfavors]

⤷ ✧ @ensnchekov said, ❝ what if i'm wrong? ❞

una chin-riley has never been the one younger officers came to when they are uncertain. neither as first officer nor as captain as she been the patient, warm sort. she has no gift for reassurance, and even her praise is understated and rare. so while she should likely stop and afford the ensign her full attention, take the question seriously, she does not even glance in his direction.

❛ then you are wrong. ❜ he words carry no judgment, merely the blunt acknowledgment of a fact of reality. ❛ then we correct it, and we try again. ❜ otherwise, they would sit here paralyzed, doing nothing for weeks while they lingered in the realm of theory.

finally, she looks up from her own calculations. ❛ if you are concerned about the consequences of being wrong — you will not destroy the ship or harm her crew. if I believed that was a real possibility, I would not have authorized attempting this. ❜

[owedfavors]

tag drop ; verses.

⤷  verse  /  enterprise  |  to unpath’d waters‚  undream’d shores.

⤷  verse  /  section 31  |  the bright day is done‚  and we are for the dark.

⤷  verse  /  kelvin  |  tho’ much is taken‚  much abides.

⤷  verse  /  fantasy  |  for the world is broad and wide.

⤷  verse  /  undetermined.

[owedfavors]

una neither blinks at the raised voice nor acknowledges the apology, remarking instead, as if all had remained perfectly even-keeled, ❛ and with 'how good this would be for regional stability' and 'don't they deserve a chance', we have once more departed from the realm of evidence and regressed to idealism. ❜ her tone, for all her disapproval, is as void of chiding as ever; she offers merely a pointed statement of fact, not a criticism. at least, for those who can tell the difference.

❛ and significant reforms do not necessarily indicate that those reforms are in our favor. ❜ certainly, to una's relief, they have seemed to the general avantage of the local populace. to the federation, however, their effects remain unproven.

they both wish that christopher pike might be here to speak in his own defense, to tell what would no doubt prove a very different version of each story with which she might regale his protege. una had no doubt that, were he here, chris would side with kirk, even as spock's own assessment concurred with hers. captain kirk might well have that quality of his predecessor that always eluded her, baffled her despite years of serving alongside. perhaps he too could channel sheer idealism and passion into effecting impossible successes.

una never liked to gamble on anything, but certainly not the amorphous nature of a perhaps. ❛ but if you cannot walk out without giving them a straight answer, and we cannot — should not — rush into a decision, then we merely need a third alternative. ❜

the  fleeting  hope  that  brightens  Jim's  eyes  as  he  gazes  upon  the  planet  below  quickly  dissipates  at  the  mention  of  Captain  Pike.       after  all  this  time,       despite  him  rising  to  the  rank  of  admiral  before  his  untimely  passing,       that’s  the  image  of  the  man  that  lives  within  the  heart  of  Kirk                           Captain  Pike,       his  friend,       the  father  figure  he  almost  had.      

❝          i  wish  he  were  here  to  tell  them  himself.          ❞       he  murmurs,       a  sentiment  unintended  for  the  ears  of  others,       yet  it  escapes  as  a  quiet  confession.       the  captain  faces  Una  with  those  pleading  blue  eyes  that  he  knows  won’t  work  on  her.       ❝          i  understand  your  concerns.       what  you  are  saying  is  not  any  different  than  what  Spock  had  suggested.          ❞       he  concedes  with  his  sigh  revealing  the  inner  turmoil  of  reconciling  different  viewpoints.      

❝          the  facts  suggest  that  we  should  not  rush  into  a  decision.       but  the  moment  i  walk  out  without  giving  them  a  straight  answer,       they       WILL       think  we’re  playing  them.       i  just                           there       IS       evidence     !       Zentar  has  undergone  significant  political  and  social  reforms  in  the  last  two  years.       what  about  how  good  this  would  be  for  regional  stability     ?       don’t  they  deserve  a  chance     ?          ❞       it's  only  after  he  articulates  his  passionate  argument  that  Jim  becomes  aware  of  the  intensity  that  had  crept  into  his  voice.       he  pauses,       taking  a  deep  breath  to  temper  his  fervor.       ❝          i  didn’t  mean  to  shout.          ❞

[owedfavors]

una knows a thing or two about ruffling feathers, and her lips purse to mask her smile. ❛ the irony: they get you off their backs by entrusting you with a ship and a crew of hundreds and sending you out where you're on your own. ❜

her laugh is soft, and her voice drops even softer, audible only to them, when she answers, ❛ were chris here, he would tell you that I don't know how not to be busy. and that if something doesn't present itself to occupy me, I will find something. ❜ and it would be one of those apparent jokes that was all too truthful.

but having danced that close to the loss they both avoid directly addressing, she turns away from it. a circumspect acknowledgment of the sort that leads many to mischaracterize her. she continues instead at a normal volume. ❛ we were scheduled to arrive three days ago. I diverted us en route to examine some unexpected readings we picked up from an A-class star. ❜ she doesn't add that she had had no desire to wait days on earth, nor that said diversion had been technically unauthorized.

❝    𝐨𝐟 𝐜𝐨𝐮𝐫𝐬𝐞.    ❞         Jim nods politely,   wondering just how readable he is in the moment with myriad eyes brushing on their figures  &  bouncing away like active scans being deflected off a nasty magnetic field.   words are lodged in his throat,   twisted into a lump that becomes gibberish  &  favors rotting on his palate.           ❝    they have,    ❞         the captain starts.   he can only hope he doesn’t seem like an asshole for not picking at their shared wound.

❝    Starfleet is aware of my interest in the Enterprise taking on a five-year mission to explore uncharted regions of space.    ❞         now he sounds like the official transmission Starfleet has sent about it,   good god.

❝    they are more than happy to get me off their backs because i ruffled way too many feathers  ;   it was necessary.    ❞         Kirk playfully adds while glancing at Una.           ❝    you were one of the last to arrive.   have you been busy    ?    ❞

[owedfavors]

and by the time this catalyst has served to determine whether they are sincere, the federation's hands are tied by agreements binding. she understands, she does, but everything in her quails, as always it has done, at too-quick action. at a dearth of information. ❛ are you quite sure, ❜ she begins with a ghost of humor, for a moment setting aside both his question and careful response to his arguments, ❛ that coffee is the right solution? ❜ considering his recent outburst, caffeine would seem to be adding fuel to fire.

humor dissipates as quickly as it arises, question left without need for an answer. ❛ what do you believe would compel them to accept a strong federation presence? they have been resistant to our... meddling, as they perceive it, in the past. I believe it has, in fact, been one of the primary hindrances to any formalized collaboration in the past. ❜

Jim's  internal  appreciation  of  the  lady's  composed  manner  remains  unspoken,       yet  it's  an  aspect  he  is deeply  grateful for.       her  tranquil  approach  is  a  necessary  balance  to  his  more  tempestuous  nature  much  like  Spock's  role  as  his  foil.       despite  his  inherent  fire,       he  shows  a  remarkable  level  of  self-discipline  during  the  briefing  with  Una       &       listens  without  interruption.      

he  finds  that  pacing,       his  usual  method  for  calming  himself  in  these  situations,       doesn't  quite  achieve  the  desired  effect  this  time.      

taking  a  deep  breath,       he  refocuses  on  their  discussion.       ❝          do  you  have  any  idea  what  our  third  alternative  could  be       ?       because  think  about  it     :       EVEN       if  they  have  bad  intentions  for  their  former  colonies,       we  will  see  that,       with  or  without  them  joining  the  Federation.       couldn’t  this  serve  as  a  catalyst  for  us  to  figure  out  if  they’re  sincere       ?          ❞       his  inquiry  is  aimed  at  presenting  a  different  perspective,       not  to  impose  his  views  but  to  collaboratively  seek  the  most  beneficial  strategy.      

❝          i  believe  that  if  we  lay  out  proper  terms  and  get  them  to  agree  on  a       STRONG       Federation  presence  on  Zentar  as  well  as  the  rest  of  the  planets  in  their  solar  system,       we  could  potentially intervene more effectively.          ❞       Jim  turns  with  a  sigh       &       heads  towards  the  food  replicator.       ❝          i  need  more  coffee                                ❞

[owedfavors]

she wishes, often, that she might be done with it. with the twinge of guilt that every reminder of all that transpired a year ago — and all the upheaval it caused — evoked. with the conviction that she had taken the coward's way out in delaying setting course for earth, departure and arrival carefully calculated to ensure she arrived no more than an hour before the ceremony. too little time to debrief her, and too little time to consider too deeply the work that she sometimes feels she had owed him to aid in.

still, her lips curl in a wry smile as she remarks, ❛ oh, command and I are both happiest when it takes a subspace communiqué at least a week to reach me. I don't intend to overstay my welcome. ❜ a beat passes before she adds, ❛ but I couldn't not come. ❜

how many other things, una wonders, could have brought her back to earth? with a shake of her head, she dismisses the thought, and all that comes with it. ❛ have they told you what's up first for you, out there? ❜

𝐢𝐭 𝐰𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐬𝐭 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠.   𝐡𝐢𝐬 sense of duty versus his thirst for exploration was an exciting battle.   a year is too much for the captain,   but he didn’t have much room to complain,   did he    ?  for one,   he   DIED.

&  two,   there was work to be done in Starfleet,   the kind of work he’d instead not get involved with.   the politics,   the bureaucracy of it all    it’s one part of his job he favors the least,   despite how much he excels in it.   being in San Francisco reminded him of being back at the academy.   as if he never made the mistakes he made,   as if his surrogate father did not have to die.

❝    yeah,   i guess it’s a mutual thing between me and Starfleet.   they wanted to learn more about what happened on the Enterprise,   how it happened and why.   and i wanted to know the same in Section 31 so that this never happens to anyone again.   besides,   the repairs took the longest.    ❞         Jim comments,   almost afraid to bring the conversation back around to Pike.

it’s hard to tell if the pain will ever dull,   but he knows his mentor would want him to keep going.

❝    it seems living stationary is still not for me.    ❞         he adds,   finally making eye contact to offer a faint smile.          ❝    we’re going to go back out there.   how about you    ?    ❞

[owedfavors]

starfleet had found it challenging in recent years to coax her back within their reach, until at long last they had surrendered to the inevitable, left yorktown to its own devices. they sent occasional orders — places to go, research they wanted conducted, necessary personnel transfers — but they let her remain upon the fringes.

una has yet to determine what possessed starfleet to dispatch enterprise’s chief medical officer out here to the fringes of federation space. however, in the absence of clear, nefarious intent, una is happy enough to welcome him onboard, even agrees to duck out of their way to pick him up. it is likely more unconditional cooperation than she has displayed towards starfleet command since she took command, a point her first officer makes with a wry smile.

just so long as they do not think she is softening in her stance.

when he arrives, she is caught up in a prolonged subspace call with representatives from a nearby system, a particularly frustrating exchange that leaves her all too delighted to end the transmission, give her first officer a look from across her desk, and walk from her ready room without so much as a beat of hesitation. she will deal with the rest of that mess, later.

it is something she has done since her days as first officer, a routine she has insisted on continuing even now. she likes to know — needs to know — how the many pieces of ship and crew fit together. she does not consider it below her to trek down to the lab, to knock needlessly upon the frame of the door after it has slid open for her. she spares the space little more than cursory glance, registering the signs of personal touch he has already added to this space.

more than any space of hers displays, after years upon this ship.

❛ sensible, ❜ she offers alone by way of answer to his explanation, as if he needs to justify being in this space that is, for all intents and purposes, his for the duration of his stay. the faintest glimmer of a smile accompanies the word, and she adds silently to herself ‘and efficient.’ they are all of them, in one way or another, wedded to their work. ❛ is there anything that you need, doctor? ❜

una has never bothered with preamble. with the pleasantries that so often preceded human conversation. there is no I hope your trip was pleasant, no how are you settling in?, no we’re delighted to have you. her crew will make up for any apparent brusqueness on her part.

@owedfavors liked for a mccoy starter

McCoy has spent his whole Starfleet career on the Enterprise with Jim as his captain just about all of that time. Jim had said it'd be a good change of pace, and that when the Enterprise was up and running again, he's swing around to pick him up.

Good change of pace or no, it was a change, which wasn't McCoy's strong suit. Granted, it helped that he'd wanted this, volunteered for it. The Enterprise was always being pulled in different directions, and a lot of what he'd been doing for the last few years was emergency medicine. He barely had time to understand an illness before he had to try treating it along with a hundred broken bones, internal bleeding, burns, cuts, so on and so on and so on.

He needs some time to think. Some time he can spend on research so when the emergencies start again, he'll have a wider range of knowledge to pull from. That's what he's always been good at, but lately he's been feeling... intellectually stagnant. The look on Spock's face when he'd tried to explain it to him had been infuriating and he'd made some jab about McCoy's intelligence being generally questionable, but then he'd said that Starfleet would be diminished if one of their best doctors didn't take time when he needed it... McCoy never could figure that damn Vulcan out.

No Jim or Spock now. No Enterprise either. Just the different vibrations and sounds of the Yorktown that he knows will have him on edge until he gets accustomed to it--probably just in time to go back.

Regardless, he's doing his best to make his lab feel a little more like home--which it probably will be, more than the quarters he's been assigned. A framed collection of historical medical equipment, a few hardcover books, a stone figure he'd been given as a gift for saving the life of an Andorian ambassador's sick child... Sentimental, sure, but he never had been very good working without sentiment.

He's adjusting the small model of the Enterprise Jim had given him "until you get back" when his new captain shows up. He feels strangely guilty, like he's got two loyalties, even if that's not really how it works. He remembers the old Academy training and stands up straight.

"Captain Evers. I was, uh. Just setting things up." He's not entirely sure why he felt the need to explain. Maybe he's forgotten how to talk to a captain the right way.