Star Trek Big Bang: Mutiny (Epilogue)
Title: Mutiny
Author: exastriscientia
Fan Mixer: To be added
Series: TOS/AOS
Characters: Joanna McCoy, James T. Kirk, Leonard McCoy, Spock Prime, a few scattered OCs
Rating: PG (for violence and some not so nice language)
Word Count: 35k
Warnings: Spoilers for AOS and some of the TOS movies.
Link to Trailer: To be added.
Summary: Joanna McCoy has been accused of destroying the USS Brittain along with most of its crew. There's just one problem, she's not sure she didn't do it. Memories a fog due to what she's pretty sure is Romulan brain-altering technology, she struggles to piece together the events of a Romulan infested planet before a verdict is reached. Meanwhile she is at odds with her father as Jim attempts to reconcile the estranged pair. A tale filled with conspiracy, action, and deceit, this reads like an episode of Star Trek.
Previous Parts: One- Two- Three- Four- Five- Six- Seven- Eight- Epilogue
“As much as I want to believe you, Jo, I just can’t find a damn thing.” They were determined to fix her memories. It seemed like every time she had figured something out, some event had come along and distracted her from it. Her father had started out with simple tricorder scans, which read that she was a human female in her twenties in excellent condition, albeit a little malnourished. It listed a few broken bones from childhood, noted some pock marks on her chest from a rare outburst of chicken pox that had been contained to the state of Georgia. Being on the other end of a tricorder never failed to be strange to Joanna. The device was designed to provide the bare bones information, and it was obviously incredibly useful. But to see ones whole being displayed in a six by six centimeter screen was, ironically, a little too clinical. “It doesn’t seem possible that the Romulans could have the kind of brain-altering technology you’re suggesting.”
From there, they had chosen progressively more complex machines, which mapped every cell in Joanna’s head, every chemical reaction in her brain. The work had proved to calm both of them, the steam from their last fight having worn off with Joanna’s sudden disappearance and second arrest along the Neutral border. The work also proved to keep them as far from the subject as possible. Joanna didn’t suppose she cared whether this was damaging or not.
“Admiral Spock made a good point,” she sighed as she recalibrated the machine for the--how many times had it been it now? “Every time my emotions are heightened, I seem to forget more. The effects of the ...” Joanna paused. ‘Brainwashing’ just didn’t seem to be the appropriate term. Something about it irked her. The simplest answer could have simply been that things like this just didn’t happen, and certainly not to her. “... experiment could rely on heightened emotion. Adrenaline, oxytocin, epinephrine, any of them, any combination of them, could be the trigger.”
Joanna was content with this answer. She was sick and tired of the whole thing and she had a jury verdict to face early the next morning. Whether they had been willing to let her off with an easier sentence before, Joanna was sure her little jaunt to the Romulan side of space had assured only the harshest of sentences available. The information she had managed to bring back would certainly reduce her sentence, but Joanna doubted she had much of a future left on Earth after Auckland. Her father, on the other hand, frowned at her complacency.
“The effects of this could never subside, Jo.” He tapped insistently at the screen, repeating the chemical and blood input of her brain they had recorded moments earlier. “You could continue to forget until you don’t remember anything about this at all. You could continue to forget your own life.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Joanna felt the sides of her lips tugging up. “Fresh start on my brain. I could become a florist.”
“Joanna McCoy, this is not funny.” His tone raised and his back straightened, ready for anything she could throw his way. They were blessedly interrupted, however, by the doorbell to his lab. Tone still raised, he hollered, “Come in.”
In stepped Jim Kirk, ready for another round with her father, no doubt. The pair would always bicker, and over time she realized no matter what hurtful concoction they could hurl at one another, they’d always limp back for more. Jim didn’t look bashful, angry, or even hurt. Instead, he was grinning like a hyena.
“Did you just discover an Orion convention or something?” Leonard’s tone deflated and he plopped his instruments down on the med table without ceremony.
“Oh, ew.” Joanna squeezed her eyes shut. “Quick, make me feel some extreme emotion so I can forget that image.”
“Joanna.” Leonard’s tone was warning. “Anyway, what did you want, Jim? We’re busy.”
“I wanted to show you the best holovid ever made. Oscar worthy, really.” Jim then went about inserting an isolinear chip, which had been haphazardly shoved into his pants pocket, into the vidscreen.
“Like I said. Busy.”
Jim made no reply and instead hit a few buttons. It took Joanna a moment to realize what she was viewing. The screen offered an aerial view of an engine room. Specifically, the engine room of the Brittain. “Called in a favor.” The room was empty, quiet. Then a flash of phaser fire across the screen. Sonek raced in, followed closely by Joanna. There was no sound, but she could see herself shouting something to someone off-screen. “Had the captain of the New Farragut sweep the site once more, just in case.” Captain Chabon and XO Mateo entered the screen next, arms extended, phaser fire relentless. “Managed to find the black box from the Brittain.” The fire hit Joanna’s leg and she watched herself go down hard, palms striking the floor. Sonek shouted something next which looked suspiciously like the word “abort” as he swept her up around the torso and made towards the opposite door. “Well, parts of it, anyway. Scotty, genius that he is, hooked it up and scrounged some of the information.” Joanna didn’t realize how close to the screen she’d gotten until Leonard pulled her back a little and she crumpled back in to his arms, eyes still intent on the action. Chabon and Mateo both changed their phaser settings and placed them on either side of the warp core. Ten seconds until detonation. Then Chabon set off the alarm signaling a ship wide evacuation, and the pair ran for it. Joanna stared in horror, counting under her breath until blue light engulfed the screen. “I’ll have your acquittal by morning. As soon as it’s a decent hour to call the judge.”
Joanna thought that her first reaction ought to have been relief, shock, anger, anything. Instead, she found herself confused. Until now she hadn’t realized just how committed she was to this, how much she had let herself believe that she could have done something so awful. And now, just in the nick of time, just the right information had been presented to save her. Right after she had submitted important information to the Federation.
“Doesn’t this seem awfully...convenient?” The sentence garnered her some rather strange looks from her companions.
“Convenient? Jo, this is incredible!” Jim gesticulated wildly, strutting about the room. She knew this action; it meant ‘mission accomplished.’
Realizing he was clutching his twenty-four year old daughter like a toddler, Leonard released Joanna and went to fiddle with his equipment. Joanna watched the pair of them quietly, the admiral ejecting the isolinear chip and tucking it back into his pocket, the doctor pressing buttons at random and trying not to look her in the eye.
“The second I come back with important information damning to the Romulans, someone just happens to find the black box? It means the admiralty will, for the most part, lay off the case. What if someone wants the heat off this case?” For a second time, Joanna received that look from Jim and Leonard. “Ok, fine. This is really great.”
“I did have a question, actually.” Jim finally sat down, though his fingers continued to toy with the hem of his jacket. Always moving, always thinking. “That whole...operation. It seemed rather smoothly done. Admiral Komack also hinted to me...” Instead of finishing, he allowed Joanna to take a deep breath.
“I guess since it’s after the fact, I can tell you.” Joanna watched both of their faces. With no expression but intent, their eyes never left her face. “Admiral Komack came while you were out,” she gestured to Leonard with a nod of the head. “He told me that they had detected a cloaked Bird of Prey attempting to enter Federation defense space. He offered me a choice. Either get aboard that ship and prove what I had told him about the Romulan spies--Sorry, Uncle Jim, I figured I didn’t have much else to lose--or pass it up and let Starfleet pursue the vessel. I had a feeling that they would be coming to...secure the information I had found. Whether or not I can properly remember it. My intention had been to convince them not to eliminate me, but to let me join their noble cause. I knew that with time, I would be able to find solid evidence.”
“That kind of work can take years, Jo,” Jim offered quietly, the movement of his fingers having ceased minutes before. Instead he had taken to sitting cross-legged on the med table, leaning on one knee with his elbow. It caused his uniform to ride up awkwardly around the wrists.
“I know, but so will--would--prison. This was more productive, anyway.” Her offer of a reassuring smile clearly had no effect, and so she continued, “Long story short, I managed to get aboard the ship and obtain the information early on. But they caught me. I was pretty sure they were going to just execute me. But then Sonek--”
“The damn spy who tried to walk you into a trap?”
“Yes, that’s the one. He released us, Davis and I, and sent us away.”
“That’s it?” Jim blinked. “I thought it would be more complicated.”
“That’s it,” Joanna confirmed, looking over to see Leonard still trying to process it. She thought she heard him mutter something along the lines of “damn fool dangerous mission,” but ignored it. Before her father had a chance to even think of how to reply, Joanna turned to face him. “I have a question for you, Daddy.” The term of endearment felt large and awkward on her tongue, sounded a little choked. It caught his attention, though, and they met eyes. “Through this whole trial, you’ve been nothing but difficult. Why?”
Joanna knew that if she didn’t put it so bluntly, he’d never answer, but would instead sidestep around the issue behind a mask of irritation. Leonard took his time in forming his reply. Anyone who didn’t know him might have felt uncomfortable, but the silence was welcome and meant he was waiting for the right moment and the right answer. A sign of respect.
“Jo, babygirl.” Starting with more endearments, softening the blow. He glanced with trepidation at Jim. This was something Jim didn’t know. Whenever it was something they both knew, they’d sit her down like father and father, elbows perched awkwardly on their knees, hands awkwardly clasped. Jim craned his neck. “To be completely honest,” he met her eyes firmly, “Starfleet, for you, wouldn’t have been--hasn’t been--my first choice.”
Jim sat up with a start, legs swinging over the side of the med table, hands griping the edge. “What?”
“And I guess,” his emphasis on the last word quelled Jim’s reaction--for now, “that this whole situation sort of solidified that for me.”
“Solidified what, exactly?” Joanna did her darnedest to keep from anger, wanting to give him a fair chance to at least dig his hole a little further before she bit back.
“Look, Jo, I joined up to run away. It’s as simple as that. To run away from your mom, the divorce, what I did to my father.” He hung his head, the last point, with good reason, always the most difficult for him to discuss. “It was for cowardice, and a damn dangerous way to run from something, if you ask me. I just didn’t want you making the same mistakes as me.”
“Is that why you think I joined? Is that why you think Uncle Jim did? Scotty...Spock?” This point had clearly not occurred to Leonard and before he had time to process that, Joanna continued. “Everyone has their different reasons for enlisting. You never asked mine.”
“I always just assumed.” Leonard looked to the admiral, “It’s Jim. You’ve always admired him, you’ve said so yourself.”
Joanna laughed and Jim cracked a smile. “I enlisted because of you, Daddy.” The word came more easily now. “Growing up, I never blamed you for not being there to hug me or take me to the park. It was when you didn’t call that I got angry. My favorite days were the ones when you called me to tell me about your adventures! I loved hearing about your new medical discoveries or the species you encountered. I always thought how brave you were. You’re smart and determined and talented. I’ve always wanted to be just like you. Not Jim. No offense, Jim.”
“None taken.” Jim grinned unabashedly, leaning back against the med table to watch the pair.
“And now?” Leonard scrubbed his face slowly with his hands, exhibiting all the signs of feeling foolish and certainly shy at her unabridged soul-baring. “That you know I’m a coward.”
“Just like you.” Joanna crossed the room and wrapped her arms around her father’s large shoulders, leaning her forehead on the crown of his head and giving a big squeeze. “Promise.” They sat that way for a moment, enjoying the feeling of reconciliation before Joanna pulled back and patted her father’s shoulder. “Now, enough of this. I’m a free woman. I want some fresh air. And I need to tell T'Pel and Sirok the news.”
“You want some company?” Leonard looked up, blinking more rapidly than usual and squeezing his eyes a little.
Smiling knowingly, Joanna shook her head. “No, I think I’d like to be alone. Anyway, I think you two have some things to discuss.” The admiral and the doctor turned to one another and offered equally perplexed shrugs. “You’ll figure it out.” Joanna then kissed her father on the forehead, crossed the room and offered the same to Jim, who took the gesture sheepishly, ducking his head for her to reach. And then, for the first time in months, Joanna McCoy stepped out the door, unattended and unafraid.
Previous Part
Author: exastriscientia
Fan Mixer: To be added
Series: TOS/AOS
Characters: Joanna McCoy, James T. Kirk, Leonard McCoy, Spock Prime, a few scattered OCs
Rating: PG (for violence and some not so nice language)
Word Count: 35k
Warnings: Spoilers for AOS and some of the TOS movies.
Link to Trailer: To be added.
Summary: Joanna McCoy has been accused of destroying the USS Brittain along with most of its crew. There's just one problem, she's not sure she didn't do it. Memories a fog due to what she's pretty sure is Romulan brain-altering technology, she struggles to piece together the events of a Romulan infested planet before a verdict is reached. Meanwhile she is at odds with her father as Jim attempts to reconcile the estranged pair. A tale filled with conspiracy, action, and deceit, this reads like an episode of Star Trek.
Previous Parts: One- Two- Three- Four- Five- Six- Seven- Eight- Epilogue
“As much as I want to believe you, Jo, I just can’t find a damn thing.” They were determined to fix her memories. It seemed like every time she had figured something out, some event had come along and distracted her from it. Her father had started out with simple tricorder scans, which read that she was a human female in her twenties in excellent condition, albeit a little malnourished. It listed a few broken bones from childhood, noted some pock marks on her chest from a rare outburst of chicken pox that had been contained to the state of Georgia. Being on the other end of a tricorder never failed to be strange to Joanna. The device was designed to provide the bare bones information, and it was obviously incredibly useful. But to see ones whole being displayed in a six by six centimeter screen was, ironically, a little too clinical. “It doesn’t seem possible that the Romulans could have the kind of brain-altering technology you’re suggesting.”
From there, they had chosen progressively more complex machines, which mapped every cell in Joanna’s head, every chemical reaction in her brain. The work had proved to calm both of them, the steam from their last fight having worn off with Joanna’s sudden disappearance and second arrest along the Neutral border. The work also proved to keep them as far from the subject as possible. Joanna didn’t suppose she cared whether this was damaging or not.
“Admiral Spock made a good point,” she sighed as she recalibrated the machine for the--how many times had it been it now? “Every time my emotions are heightened, I seem to forget more. The effects of the ...” Joanna paused. ‘Brainwashing’ just didn’t seem to be the appropriate term. Something about it irked her. The simplest answer could have simply been that things like this just didn’t happen, and certainly not to her. “... experiment could rely on heightened emotion. Adrenaline, oxytocin, epinephrine, any of them, any combination of them, could be the trigger.”
Joanna was content with this answer. She was sick and tired of the whole thing and she had a jury verdict to face early the next morning. Whether they had been willing to let her off with an easier sentence before, Joanna was sure her little jaunt to the Romulan side of space had assured only the harshest of sentences available. The information she had managed to bring back would certainly reduce her sentence, but Joanna doubted she had much of a future left on Earth after Auckland. Her father, on the other hand, frowned at her complacency.
“The effects of this could never subside, Jo.” He tapped insistently at the screen, repeating the chemical and blood input of her brain they had recorded moments earlier. “You could continue to forget until you don’t remember anything about this at all. You could continue to forget your own life.”
“Wouldn’t that be nice?” Joanna felt the sides of her lips tugging up. “Fresh start on my brain. I could become a florist.”
“Joanna McCoy, this is not funny.” His tone raised and his back straightened, ready for anything she could throw his way. They were blessedly interrupted, however, by the doorbell to his lab. Tone still raised, he hollered, “Come in.”
In stepped Jim Kirk, ready for another round with her father, no doubt. The pair would always bicker, and over time she realized no matter what hurtful concoction they could hurl at one another, they’d always limp back for more. Jim didn’t look bashful, angry, or even hurt. Instead, he was grinning like a hyena.
“Did you just discover an Orion convention or something?” Leonard’s tone deflated and he plopped his instruments down on the med table without ceremony.
“Oh, ew.” Joanna squeezed her eyes shut. “Quick, make me feel some extreme emotion so I can forget that image.”
“Joanna.” Leonard’s tone was warning. “Anyway, what did you want, Jim? We’re busy.”
“I wanted to show you the best holovid ever made. Oscar worthy, really.” Jim then went about inserting an isolinear chip, which had been haphazardly shoved into his pants pocket, into the vidscreen.
“Like I said. Busy.”
Jim made no reply and instead hit a few buttons. It took Joanna a moment to realize what she was viewing. The screen offered an aerial view of an engine room. Specifically, the engine room of the Brittain. “Called in a favor.” The room was empty, quiet. Then a flash of phaser fire across the screen. Sonek raced in, followed closely by Joanna. There was no sound, but she could see herself shouting something to someone off-screen. “Had the captain of the New Farragut sweep the site once more, just in case.” Captain Chabon and XO Mateo entered the screen next, arms extended, phaser fire relentless. “Managed to find the black box from the Brittain.” The fire hit Joanna’s leg and she watched herself go down hard, palms striking the floor. Sonek shouted something next which looked suspiciously like the word “abort” as he swept her up around the torso and made towards the opposite door. “Well, parts of it, anyway. Scotty, genius that he is, hooked it up and scrounged some of the information.” Joanna didn’t realize how close to the screen she’d gotten until Leonard pulled her back a little and she crumpled back in to his arms, eyes still intent on the action. Chabon and Mateo both changed their phaser settings and placed them on either side of the warp core. Ten seconds until detonation. Then Chabon set off the alarm signaling a ship wide evacuation, and the pair ran for it. Joanna stared in horror, counting under her breath until blue light engulfed the screen. “I’ll have your acquittal by morning. As soon as it’s a decent hour to call the judge.”
Joanna thought that her first reaction ought to have been relief, shock, anger, anything. Instead, she found herself confused. Until now she hadn’t realized just how committed she was to this, how much she had let herself believe that she could have done something so awful. And now, just in the nick of time, just the right information had been presented to save her. Right after she had submitted important information to the Federation.
“Doesn’t this seem awfully...convenient?” The sentence garnered her some rather strange looks from her companions.
“Convenient? Jo, this is incredible!” Jim gesticulated wildly, strutting about the room. She knew this action; it meant ‘mission accomplished.’
Realizing he was clutching his twenty-four year old daughter like a toddler, Leonard released Joanna and went to fiddle with his equipment. Joanna watched the pair of them quietly, the admiral ejecting the isolinear chip and tucking it back into his pocket, the doctor pressing buttons at random and trying not to look her in the eye.
“The second I come back with important information damning to the Romulans, someone just happens to find the black box? It means the admiralty will, for the most part, lay off the case. What if someone wants the heat off this case?” For a second time, Joanna received that look from Jim and Leonard. “Ok, fine. This is really great.”
“I did have a question, actually.” Jim finally sat down, though his fingers continued to toy with the hem of his jacket. Always moving, always thinking. “That whole...operation. It seemed rather smoothly done. Admiral Komack also hinted to me...” Instead of finishing, he allowed Joanna to take a deep breath.
“I guess since it’s after the fact, I can tell you.” Joanna watched both of their faces. With no expression but intent, their eyes never left her face. “Admiral Komack came while you were out,” she gestured to Leonard with a nod of the head. “He told me that they had detected a cloaked Bird of Prey attempting to enter Federation defense space. He offered me a choice. Either get aboard that ship and prove what I had told him about the Romulan spies--Sorry, Uncle Jim, I figured I didn’t have much else to lose--or pass it up and let Starfleet pursue the vessel. I had a feeling that they would be coming to...secure the information I had found. Whether or not I can properly remember it. My intention had been to convince them not to eliminate me, but to let me join their noble cause. I knew that with time, I would be able to find solid evidence.”
“That kind of work can take years, Jo,” Jim offered quietly, the movement of his fingers having ceased minutes before. Instead he had taken to sitting cross-legged on the med table, leaning on one knee with his elbow. It caused his uniform to ride up awkwardly around the wrists.
“I know, but so will--would--prison. This was more productive, anyway.” Her offer of a reassuring smile clearly had no effect, and so she continued, “Long story short, I managed to get aboard the ship and obtain the information early on. But they caught me. I was pretty sure they were going to just execute me. But then Sonek--”
“The damn spy who tried to walk you into a trap?”
“Yes, that’s the one. He released us, Davis and I, and sent us away.”
“That’s it?” Jim blinked. “I thought it would be more complicated.”
“That’s it,” Joanna confirmed, looking over to see Leonard still trying to process it. She thought she heard him mutter something along the lines of “damn fool dangerous mission,” but ignored it. Before her father had a chance to even think of how to reply, Joanna turned to face him. “I have a question for you, Daddy.” The term of endearment felt large and awkward on her tongue, sounded a little choked. It caught his attention, though, and they met eyes. “Through this whole trial, you’ve been nothing but difficult. Why?”
Joanna knew that if she didn’t put it so bluntly, he’d never answer, but would instead sidestep around the issue behind a mask of irritation. Leonard took his time in forming his reply. Anyone who didn’t know him might have felt uncomfortable, but the silence was welcome and meant he was waiting for the right moment and the right answer. A sign of respect.
“Jo, babygirl.” Starting with more endearments, softening the blow. He glanced with trepidation at Jim. This was something Jim didn’t know. Whenever it was something they both knew, they’d sit her down like father and father, elbows perched awkwardly on their knees, hands awkwardly clasped. Jim craned his neck. “To be completely honest,” he met her eyes firmly, “Starfleet, for you, wouldn’t have been--hasn’t been--my first choice.”
Jim sat up with a start, legs swinging over the side of the med table, hands griping the edge. “What?”
“And I guess,” his emphasis on the last word quelled Jim’s reaction--for now, “that this whole situation sort of solidified that for me.”
“Solidified what, exactly?” Joanna did her darnedest to keep from anger, wanting to give him a fair chance to at least dig his hole a little further before she bit back.
“Look, Jo, I joined up to run away. It’s as simple as that. To run away from your mom, the divorce, what I did to my father.” He hung his head, the last point, with good reason, always the most difficult for him to discuss. “It was for cowardice, and a damn dangerous way to run from something, if you ask me. I just didn’t want you making the same mistakes as me.”
“Is that why you think I joined? Is that why you think Uncle Jim did? Scotty...Spock?” This point had clearly not occurred to Leonard and before he had time to process that, Joanna continued. “Everyone has their different reasons for enlisting. You never asked mine.”
“I always just assumed.” Leonard looked to the admiral, “It’s Jim. You’ve always admired him, you’ve said so yourself.”
Joanna laughed and Jim cracked a smile. “I enlisted because of you, Daddy.” The word came more easily now. “Growing up, I never blamed you for not being there to hug me or take me to the park. It was when you didn’t call that I got angry. My favorite days were the ones when you called me to tell me about your adventures! I loved hearing about your new medical discoveries or the species you encountered. I always thought how brave you were. You’re smart and determined and talented. I’ve always wanted to be just like you. Not Jim. No offense, Jim.”
“None taken.” Jim grinned unabashedly, leaning back against the med table to watch the pair.
“And now?” Leonard scrubbed his face slowly with his hands, exhibiting all the signs of feeling foolish and certainly shy at her unabridged soul-baring. “That you know I’m a coward.”
“Just like you.” Joanna crossed the room and wrapped her arms around her father’s large shoulders, leaning her forehead on the crown of his head and giving a big squeeze. “Promise.” They sat that way for a moment, enjoying the feeling of reconciliation before Joanna pulled back and patted her father’s shoulder. “Now, enough of this. I’m a free woman. I want some fresh air. And I need to tell T'Pel and Sirok the news.”
“You want some company?” Leonard looked up, blinking more rapidly than usual and squeezing his eyes a little.
Smiling knowingly, Joanna shook her head. “No, I think I’d like to be alone. Anyway, I think you two have some things to discuss.” The admiral and the doctor turned to one another and offered equally perplexed shrugs. “You’ll figure it out.” Joanna then kissed her father on the forehead, crossed the room and offered the same to Jim, who took the gesture sheepishly, ducking his head for her to reach. And then, for the first time in months, Joanna McCoy stepped out the door, unattended and unafraid.
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