[ST] Lt. Keeble -- 1/2
Title: Lt. Keeble: Or How I Learned to Stop Fighting and Find My Way
Artist: deliciousny
Author: castofone @ rushedwords
Rating (both art/fic): (G/PG-13)
Genre/Pairing: Winona/George
Word Count: 13,800
Link to Art: @ deliciousny.
Summary: All her life, Winona Keeble felt like she didn't belong. Where many would give up, she kept looking for some place to call home and someone to share that with. This is the long convoluted story of how Winona Keeble learned to stop fighting against the universe and find her way. Even if that way was with fellow Starfleet officer George Kirk.
Notes: Roddenberry created it, I just play in it because fair use is awesome. Part II does deal with pregnancy complications, read at your own digression.
trekreversebang!!
Winona Keeble was three years old the first and only time her mother tried to braid her hair.
She was six when she punched Victor Keller for trying to kiss her because boys had cookies.
And she was nine years old when she stopped looking up at the night sky and let her imagination run wild to paint fantastic pictures across the black.
At nine years old, she looked up and hoped that somewhere out there, beyond the atmospheric pollution, was a place for her because it certainly wasn't here. Even at such a young age, she knew the journey to find that place wouldn’t be easy, but she was going to get there someday.
###
She just didn’t expect the start of that journey to be so difficult.
It was crazy. Did her life really boil down to this? One bag of Starfleet approved belongings?
Her bedroom was still full of so many other things that helped to define who Winona Keeble was. Large, spanning paintings of stars she had only dreamed of and all sorts of knick knacks collected over her eighteen years that prompted memories, both good and bad. Each object told a story, be it the story of her people, who had traveled out into the vast and inexplicable universe in search of freedom, or her own quest to find personal freedom among them.
Her great-grandfather had sailed among the stars. He had seen some of the wonders of the universe and she only had folktales and lore to continue that history. Some part of her resented her great-grandfather because that freedom came at too heavy a price. The Sioux people had a land of their own, but in gaining that their world became so much smaller.
And Winona needed her universe to be bigger than this town, bigger than their nation, bigger than anything she knew. Proud as she was about who she was and where she came from, it could never be enough. She wanted to look up and see a sky full little pins of light, around any number of them were other people looking back in same sense of wonder. She needed that connection across a vast and inexplicable universe.
Up until this point, her life was spent trying to scratch an itch that kept moving around. Any other person would have settled for the temporary relief because that wasn’t a bad option. No one ever fully felt like they belonged when they were young, but they found their way without straying too far from home. Only that felt too much like giving up. Especially when every fiber of her being told her that she belonged out there, among the stars, not trapped down here on a dying planet.
Still, for as loud as the screaming was, it wasn’t easy to simply give into the call and go not caring what she left behind. And for as much as she had always fought with her, she needed her his approval. Impossible as it might be, she needed him to understand why staying her would kill her and not just in that dramatic way that all teenagers were intent on, but in a truly soul crushing way that she knew she wouldn’t recover from.
He had four months to at least make some progress, to find a sense of compromise he could live with. Except the tension between them was still as bad as it was when he first found out - which admittedly could have gone better, but she hadn’t anticipated the Academy sending a data packet to her parents so soon after she received her acceptance.
She had still been reeling in the joy of knowing that she getting off this rock when her father brought her crashing back down with five simple words. "Winona Lynn, what is this?" Although it really wasn’t the words as much as it was the tone. "If I have to come up there, Winona Lynn, it'll be worse." Under normal circumstances she wore that threat like a pair of well-loved jeans. There was talking back to teachers, or getting caught smoking behind the church, and then there was this - going off world to join the military.
Sure as she was even thirty seconds ago that she had made the right choice, the thought of having to explain that choice to her father terrified her. Not that James Keeble was a particularly angry man. It was quite the opposite really. He was a loving, concerned parent. He just did things his way, staying strong in their traditions that with every generation seemed to fade or shift a little bit.
Mom had always been better at finding ways to bridge the new and the old. She had been easy to get on board with her decision as long as it was what Winona had truly wanted and could think of no other way to answer her calling. And Sarah Keeble was supposed to be here for this moment, to bridge father and daughter into some sort of understanding, but Sarah was still at work.
Winona didn’t want to do this part alone, but there was no other choice. And if she could do this, then maybe she would be able to handle anything else life threw at her.
She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, pulling her ponytail a bit tighter as she made her way downs. Dad was waiting in the living room, perched in his favorite chair, but his posture was all wrong.
"Yes, daddy?"
Only this wasn’t daddy. This was Chief James Keeble ready to argue his case until he won. It was the man she saw at Council meetings, the one she was proud of and hoped that she would never have to experience that level if passion and determination aimed at her.
Still, as powerful as he was, he couldn’t take back her acceptance. In four months, Winona Keeble was going to be a Starfleet cadet.
He could, however, make getting off planet to report to the Academy more difficult than it already was going to be.
“Can you explain to me why I have a letter congratulating me on your acceptance to the Starfleet Class of ‘22?" His words were calm, almost too calm, and Winona wasn’t sure where she stood. This was a version of her father she hadn’t seen before, occupying both of his roles at the same time and it just threw off guard. And it was working. “Well?”
Winona took a deep breath in. This could go two ways. She could play it dumb, choosing cowardice as the better part of valor until mom came home or she could stand her ground. Either way the sense of steadiness she had worked hard to find in this house was crumbling. That more than any of the competing feelings in her gut told her there was really only one choice.
This place wouldn’t hold her any longer.
"I think it’s pretty standard that when a child is accepted to the Academy the parents are informed as well. I mean, it is generally considered a great achievement. That and I can’t exactly get to San Francisco on a horse or hover bike.”
Looking back at that moment and the words she used, she might have chosen differently.
“Yes, Winona, you are right there. You are a child. A child with no respect for her family,” he said. His tone was level, but ride with shame and the nuanced of guilt directed at her. “Your great-grandpa led us away from Earth. In doing so he gave us a better home, where we have made a great life for our people. This land is your birthright, Winona. You cannot abandon it to join the ranks of the oppressors."
Her jaw dropped open. At least the immediate response was just an indignant exhale. Oppressors? It gave her another second for her mind to kick in and pick up on the things he was saying without full utterances.
“I want to see the stars, dad. I need to explore life beyond what is here, to be inspired again and serving in Starfleet will allow me to do that and so much more.” She kept her voice calm, trying to prove to her father that she was an adult capable of making her own choices. Or even that this wasn’t some act of misplaced teenage rebellion. “We have ancestors who have sailed the stars, but we also have men who were celebrated war veterans. I am honoring my family, dad, just not in the way you would like me to.”
The only problem with not yelling or creating a scene was that wasn’t always heard. This time was no different.
“Your place is here.” It was so definitive. Winona worried that this was where the conversation would end and she would have to find a way to sneak off world. “You could lead our people into the next era. You could clean the skies and bring some of that awe back without abandoning your people.”
She knew it was a concession for him to talk openly of a new era for their people. It was his version of a compromise, but it wasn’t one that would work for her. Winona couldn’t imagine a happy future for herself doing that. She might have been able to find ways to not be unhappy, but that wasn’t a life she wanted or even one that she believed her father would wish upon her.
Winona shook her head. “That’s not my path. I can’t condemn our people to sitting on this rock all their lives until we finally use it all up.” It was a dying world and she was amazed at how all of the other people chose to ignore that. “I belong out there and that doesn’t mean I’m abandoning my people, or even you. I will always be Sioux, you will always be my father.” As she spoke, she crossed the room, coming along side his chair. Unmoving as he was, all she could was fall graciously to her knees, take his hand and plead. "I just choose something different. So, please let me choose it." She could have kept her pride, but that would get her nowhere.
Staring up into his blue eyes, she found herself hoping that this was still the man she had always known. That James would take her into his arms and forgive her transgressions with a love and understanding only he was capable of.
Instead the silence hung heavily between them and all she could do was wait for him to play his final card.
"I love you, Winona. And I will always love you." His words couldn’t have come soon enough, but she still held that breath tight to her chest. James tugged on her hand, silently asking her to rise and pulling her into his arms. "I will not stand in your way, but I cannot give you my blessing on this. If you leave, then you leave. This place might always be your home, but it can never be where you rest."
She hadn’t expected those words to matter as much as they did, but it was all she heard as she kept counting down the days to her departure. This room and all the things still in it would have to be left behind to make room for something new. Winona had roots here she didn’t realize until she started ripping herself from the ground. And then there was a shuttle to catch, her first real trip off planet. It was just a lot to take in all at once and she would be lying to say that she wasn’t freaking out a little right now.
Then there was a knock at her door, pulling her from her head and back into the present. “You about ready to go?” She sniffled before turning around to see her mother standing there. “After everything, it would be sort of ironic that it’s your fault you miss the shuttle.”
Of course her father wouldn’t be there. They said their goodbyes last night at dinner. Only their goodbyes looked more like a continuation of their stand off punctured by words that didn’t mean anything. They were both too stubborn and really too much alike. Winona wiped her cheek to get rid of the tears that weren’t there yet.
"Oh, honey, you're going to be fine. And dad will come around eventually." Even if Sarah didn’t want to see her baby go, she didn’t want to see her hurting either. She walked over to her daughter, wrapping her arms around Winona in a big hug. “You are following your calling. To ignore that and stay out of some false sense of obligation would be the real sin.”
And for a moment Winona let herself imagine a world where she stayed right here, safe in her mother’s arms, the stars nothing but a dream that haunted her at night. There was strength to be found here, but it was also a weakness. If she let herself keep her roots, she would miss out on so much.
Sarah stepped back, keeping hands bracketed on her daughter’s shoulders, looking her right in the eyes as if she could see all those thoughts racing through her head. “No, baby, you’re going to go, see the universe and be great in your own way.” She pressed a kiss to Winona’s forehead. “And you’ll carry with you all of the best things from here, leaving what you don’t need or want behind.” Sarah let go and reached behind her neck to undo the clasp on the chain around her neck. “You will find a new place to call home, but you will never forget where you come from.”
Winona tried to let those words overpower her father’s, to become sort of a road prayer or mantra. She repeated them in her head as Sarah clasped the necklace around Winona’s neck. Sitting perfectly was their family symbol. To outsiders it wouldn’t look like anything, but to Winona it meant everything.
She reached up and wrapped her fingers around the pendant, hoping she would be able to find her mother’s strength there when she couldn’t produce it herself.
“I love you, mom. So much.”
And Sarah smiled, lifting Winona’s chin to meet her gaze once more. “But never as much I love you. And I am so proud of you.” Both women wiped at the tears escaping, but not needing to name them because they both knew what they said. “But you really are going to miss your shuttle if you don’t get a move on.”
Just as they shared tears, they also shared an uneasy laughter trying to break the heaviness in the room. Winona nodded and picked up her bag. As she followed her mother out of the house she was sure of three things. The first was that she was loved. Second that while she might come back here, this could never be home again and it might not have ever truly been home. However, there was a home to be had, above the clouds and light years away on the promise of somewhere else.
###
The Academy wasn't home either. It wasn't meant to be. On most days it was a means to an end and on her worst it was the biggest mistake of her life.
Starfleet was full of strange traditions she didn’t quite understand and more (stupid) rules than she had the patience to deal with. And while she looked like many of the other students, she that knew she wasn’t one of them. Most of them came from major Federation worlds and even if they spoke different languages they had some of the same cultural references to pull from.
Winona Keeble had none of that.
While her world didn’t shun technology, they drew the line at the Internet and most major off world newsfeeds. They controlled the image and the ideology, not wanting outsiders to influence what remained of their culture. She had been the first person off planet for an extended period of time in recent history. It made her an outsider in a way that most people forgot and only served to alienate her more.
Many of the cadets in her year didn’t know what to make of her, her teachers were constantly surprised and bothered by her temperament, but she needed something to make sure that no one thought of her as just like everyone else. Having no real place to fit in here, came with certain restlessness. Rather than be discouraged by it, Winona used it to fuel her actions, to push her through the bad days and let her be even stronger on the better ones.
So, yes, some days applying to the Academy was the biggest mistake of her life, but every day it was the only place she could imagine being.
###
She had been here before. And she'd bet all the credits to her name that she would be here again. Her life was best summed up sitting in an uncomfortable chair on the wrong side of a big desk. If this was the sort of place one might be able to find a home in, she would have stopped looking a long time ago.
Her academic advisor, Commander Hubert Pike was just another in a long of men unimpressed by her antics, but unwilling to back down because there was that spark underneath all the grime. Of course even those men would have given up long ago, her father had and he had claim to her.
The fact that after two years, Commander Pike was still going into battle with her was the only reason why she respected him at all.
And perhaps because he reminded her of her father, who still hadn’t called or even made time to see her when she went home for a few days over winter break. Pike was hard angles and formality. While she couldn’t prove it, she was 99 percent sure that he steam pressed his uniforms by hand after they came back from laundry just so they would be perfect. He not only worked to ensure he looked the part, but he also walked it, head held high and unable to be brought down to his knees.
"Do you know what your problem is, Cadet Keeble?"
Winona looked up, raising an eyebrow at him, knowing that he knew that opening with a question was not his best first move. "I have a few of them, sir, but I'm sure you're about to tell me which one is bothering you today." She matched his tone. Her smile was calm on her face because after nineteen years in this position she knew how to navigate the boundaries of obedient, but still Winona Keeble.
"Saying 'sir' doesn't forgive your smart comment," he said coolly. It was the automatic response at this point. She heard it often, but it never stopped her from saying what she felt needed to be said. Her file was full of notes for talking out of turn. One more wasn't going to change anything. "You don't see, or possibly even care about the consequences of your actions. You bare your punishments, and are smart enough to never do enough to get you kicked out of the Academy.”
She wondered if this was about the incident regarding her Aviation final. Winona still stood by her belief that O’Malley was an ass. Just because she spoke back and didn’t always show up for class wasn’t enough reason to assume she cheated. The material was simple. That was why she passed with full marks.
Of course he thought she needed to be brought to the Honor Code Board - which really just enforced the fact he was an ass, who was insecure too. She was pretty sure she had told him that outside of his office the other day. And maybe that had been one step too far.
“However,” Hubert continued, “you won’t always be at the Academy. One day the choices you make might mean someone’s life. You can’t continue to bend the rules and then let your arrogance mar any achievement you might have otherwise enjoyed.”
Hubert stopped there, folding his hands on top of each other and letting his words sink heavily into her skin, hopefully deep enough that it would stick this time. It was a calculated move and one that made him something of a bastard. At least he was a smart bastard because it was enough to get a seed of doubt churning in her stomach. She didn’t want to lead anyone, didn’t want the weight of whether someone lived or died in her hands. There was a reason why she didn’t self-select the Command track even if she tested well for it.
"I'm not sure that I understand your point, sir."
"No, I didn't expect you would." He shook his head. "Not yet at least." Hubert tapped a few times on his screen, letting her sit in the silence of her doubt along with the whirling of his console. She was good at playing the game, but he was better.
"I have approved your request for shuttle pilot training this summer.” He slid a PADD with her orders across the table for her approval. “You will report to Lieutenant George Kirk on June 5 at 0800."
Winona looked at him and then down at the PADD, not sure what rules he was playing by right now. O’Malley had said point blank that he would never recommend her to the program, which meant she would never get in. But there it was sitting between them - exactly what she wanted.
And not at all what she expected. Where was the yelling? The ‘words’ that were to be had, to teach her a lesson? She didn’t imagine they were finally coming around to her way of thinking. So there had to be something else at work here.
“Is there a problem, cadet?”
Shaking her head, she pulled the PADD toward her to review. “No, sir, no problem.” She didn’t fully read it over, just confirmed receipt of her orders and slid it back toward him, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. "If that is all, sir, permission to shove off?"
Hubert was already engaged with a file on his screen. It looked casual, but Winona had no doubt that it too was an orchestrated moment meant to get at her in some way. Without really looking up at her, he waved her off. "You’re dismissed."
Feeling like she was blasted with a low-level phaser set to stun she exited the office. She was unbalanced again, but differently than she had been before. This imbalance wasn’t one that she controlled and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad.
And really there was only one solution to this particular problem. She had to keep moving forward.
###
Winona was a lot of different things to different people, but she was always annoying early. Reporting for the first day of pilot training was no different.
She had woken up at 0500, at least an hour before the other cadets in her flight group, to go for a three-mile run hoping to calm the anxiety and excitement over what today was. And if on the way back from her run she managed to walk by the shuttle deck during the shift change, well, that was just pure coincidence.
Or at least that was the story she was going with if she got caught. And really the first couple of days were the only time she could use that excuse. So, she had to make the most of it now before everyone on the base caught on. And really, the door wasn’t secure. That was an invitation for her to go in and take a look around.
Still dressed in her PT gear, she slipped onto the shuttle deck, immediately awed at seeing the variety of models just sitting around all pretty, waiting for someone to come and take them for a spin. At the far end of the deck was one of the newer model observation shuttles. It was supposed to be able to handle higher levels of radiation allowing them to get closer than ever before to all sorts of different stellar phenomena. It was the prize of Starfleet science division.
She couldn’t help by run her hand along the hull. This was why she was here, why she put up with everything for this beauty right under her fingertips.
"She's something isn't she?"
For as stealthy as she thought she was, it probably would have gone over a bit better if she didn’t jump when she heard the man’s voice behind her. Winona turned around to see a tall man with an easy smile, also dressed in his PT gear. Although his hair had to be cut within a millimeter of regulation and his running shoes were probably scrubbed them clean each day, he felt like a kindred spirit.
"Well, we did suffer through a semester of O'Malley for her, so she better be that and so much more."
The man laughed, walking over to the shuttle. "O'Malley's the worst, but just another one of those rights of passages. Starfleet can’t have just anyone flying shuttles.”
Starfleet might have operated in space and many officers over their careers did qualify to pilot shuttles, but it was vigorous process. There were high standards and expectations to assure that only the best were allowed in the pilot’s seat.
“Let’s just hope that this Kirk isn’t as much of an ass,” she said without giving it much thought. “But with our luck he’ll just be some old, overweight officer who is no longer cleared for deep space missions.”
Later she would totally blame the disarming laugh and the fact that no one should look that good in their PT gear for the mental slip. But right then, all she could do was watch that ease slip from him becoming replaced with something else.
“I don’t think I’ve introduced myself,” he said straightening himself out. And she knew the moment the posture was in place exactly what she had missed before. “Lieutenant Kirk. And I’m going to guess that you're Cadet Winona Keeble who certainly does live up to her reputation.”
Of the ways this could have started, she really couldn’t imagine something worse. O’Malley hated her, but that had only started half way through the term. Now, here she was starting off on a sour note.
“So, how about you impress me and get the rest of your flight group in formation on the deck in twenty minutes?"
Winona’s eyes went wide at that suggestion. It was just after 0600, she would be lucky if the rest of her quite unimpressive flight group was even awake, let alone could move fast enough to get in formation. A year ago they would have been in good form to be ready that quickly, and now they were still in summer brain mush mode.
She sure that she should have given him sort of ‘yes, sir’ and rushed off to do just that, but he wasn’t in uniform and he was being an ass. Instead she gave him a polite smile and a slightly sarcastic salute.
The flight group would be on deck in ten minutes, fully dressed or not, in the hopes that they could catch George Kirk unprepared for their early arrival.
###
After he got the better of her on the first day, Winona promised herself that it was never going to happen again. In fact she was going to even the score. And that was just a matter of timing.
Kirk was doing his rounds at the end of the day, making sure that the shuttles were appropriately powered down and the flights were properly recorded. Really, there was no way he could be expecting little Winona Keeble.
"You lied to me, sir."
Kirk whipped his head around to look at her. There was a flash on confusion on his face that he quickly worked to hide. "Excuse me, cadet?"
"You said you were a lieutenant, and unless there was a promotion Command doesn't know about, you're actually a Lieutenant Junior Grade." It was such a small slight, but she had dug through the system enough to know that George Kirk came from a long line of proud and decorated Starfleet officers. So, while it wouldn’t matter to her, that sort of correction probably mattered to George Kirk.
And boy did he stutter, losing that carefully collected composure and even forgetting his normal command over the English language. It was cute and just a little endearing as she watched Kirk realizing that he didn’t have a clue on how to control her.
Of course the answer was that she was uncontrollable, but it would be fun to watch him try.
"And you're a second class cadet who isn't going to be pilot if she doesn't fix her attitude." Were he a bird, Winona imagined he would be ruffling his feathers right now.
His words just made the smile a bit brighter on her face. "You’re forgetting the one small fact that I'm the best in the flight group. And you can't fail me just because I have you figured out, just like O’Malley couldn’t fail me because I aced his supposedly impossible test.”
Kirk bobbled again, but this time he just went back to completing his post-flight checks. At least he might be learning that the only way to deal with her was to stop engaging her.
Still, this summer was going to be fun because Kirk was an easy mark.
###
For as much as she poked at him, he pushed her back, harder and harder, demanding a sort of perfection that no one was capable of. Normal people might have crumbled or bent under it, but Winona thrived under that sort of sadistic pressure.
Kirk made her fly exercises that senior pilots ran, but couldn’t always complete. Or he would give her an overly specific flight plan that made an exercise almost impossible and she found that low probability move that would actually work. Sometimes he was impressed, most times he was mad as hell.
"What the hell was that, Cadet?"
Winona unlatched her helmet and did her best to not laugh at the anger in his voice. "That was me beating your training drill again." She looked up at the sky tracking the path of her shuttle just finishing it’s landing sequence. "Although, you might want to move, unless you want to get clipped by my shuttle."
"Your shuttle?"
And when he was mad at hell, she knew it was best to ignore him until he got to a point because most of the time he just babbled until he found what he was looking for. Besides, technically she hadn’t completed the drill because the shuttle was still finishing its landing sequence.
"You abandoned your craft mid-flight," he said following after her.
"I did." Winona was far too calm about the whole thing, but she had no reason not to. The shuttles really could land themselves if you told them what to do. She tossed him her helmet, which he caught without thinking of it and opened the pod door so he could go in double check the systems and try to figure out what she did.
He didn’t move. Kirk just stood there, looking at her. "You left your vessel.”
"And if I didn't, the mission would have failed due to either loss of payload, shuttle, or crew."
Kirk growled and stomped into the shuttle. He really didn’t take losing well, which was probably why he worked hard to be better than his peers and although still young, he was already making big headway in his career.
She bit the inside of her cheek as he growled again. That was probably him finding her autopilot algorithm, which she had appropriately named Kirk Junior. Really he should feel honored that she used his flight data and responses to create a program because wasn’t that what all men wanted - immortality?
"You're reckless," he said after a minute. “You weren’t approved for a jump and you had no way of knowing if this would work or not. Simulations are one thing, reality is something else.”
Yeah, in reality her life was on the line along with millions of Starfleet credits in equipment.
"I took a calculated risk and it worked." That was who she was, and exactly why she butted heads with so many teachers at the Academy. Winona Keeble never simply followed orders. It meant she had the potential to be great if she didn’t get in her own way too badly or get killed first.
“No, you got lucky. So lucky I’m grounding you for the next three days, but you’re not just going to sit around down here. No, you’re going to sit co-pilot and watch as the other cadets do as they’ve been instructed until you get it into your head that following orders can work.” Winona rolled her eyes. The other cadets in her flight group were boring, they only did what they were told and really had no knack for flying. “Don’t give me reason to make it a week.”
Winona swallowed really not wanting to have to suffer through a week of that - three days was more than enough.
“You are also going to clean up your autopilot algorithm, giving it a new name, before submitting it in full for me to review. Is that understood?"
Winona looked up at him. In all of the words, that last bit sounded a little like praise and she couldn’t help but smirk. "Sir?"
"You heard me, Cadet." And she did, but she didn't believe it. Her antics hardly ever earned praise, even if it was buried in the guise of more work. "Dismissed."
###
Her last two years at the Academy went a lot like the last two weeks of pilot training. She didn’t stop breaking the rules, but she stopped being so arrogant about it. To do one better, she was even willing to repeat the assignment to their specifications just to prove that she could do it that way, but it wasn’t the better way.
Slowly those things that she proved she could do better started to be reflected in the system, but as someone else’s idea. And that was fine. She didn’t need the credit. She just needed to see the progress. Although she had really hoped that when the SK Flight Protocol was installed on the new shuttles, it would keep its name, if only on the off chance she could see Kirk’s reaction.
However, George Kirk was never much more than a passing thought. Although thoughts of him did come and go with a strange frequency, but Winona had plenty of other things to worry about as she got closer and closer to graduation.
Despite everything, she graduated with honors and was one of the few in her class posted directly to a ship after graduation. Alexandria was hardly a thing of beauty. Its purpose was mostly trade and basic patrol in the nearby systems, but it was a ship and a way to get out there full time. It was a chance for her to hone her skills in astrophysics lab or muck around in stellar cartography or any other department when she could, learning everything people were willing to teach her.
One month into the mission, Winona landed her first away mission. Well, technically Ensign Poots had been assigned to pilot the shuttle, but had come down with a nasty bought of food poisoning that morning and was in no position to fly a shuttle.
The mission was a standard milk run planet side to pick up the officers who beamed down earlier along with the supplies they had picked up. She wasn’t allowed to leave the shuttle, and her main role other than flying the shuttle was to stay out of the way. What it came down to was a chance to log some flight hours.
It was standard, boring stuff, until they hit a storm in the upper atmosphere, which caused most of the away team from the planet to lose their lunch.
(So, maybe Poots would have been in good company after all.)
The situation was nothing she couldn’t handle. It was just going to be a little bumpy until they reached open space, although she was sure the ranking officer on the team would be sure to voice his thoughts on the matter.
“Ensign, who taught you how to fly this thing?”
She would recognize that voice anywhere. Lieutenant George Kirk. And he didn’t have a clue who he was scolding. Winona smiled to herself and laid in the appropriate heading before glancing over her shoulder to look right at him.
“I believe that was you, sir.”
Judging by the way he opened and closed his mouth, he had more to say but had decided not to say it just then. And that was probably for the best.
“Very well, ensign, as you were.”
Kirk moved back to his seat and said nothing for the rest of the flight. Not that it stopped her co-pilot from leaning over and not quite whispering: “Do you two know each other or something?”
Truly a better person wouldn’t have laughed at that, leaving the group of officers to wonder if she was laughing because it was true or because it was absurd.
Continue to part II
Artist: deliciousny
Author: castofone @ rushedwords
Rating (both art/fic): (G/PG-13)
Genre/Pairing: Winona/George
Word Count: 13,800
Link to Art: @ deliciousny.
Summary: All her life, Winona Keeble felt like she didn't belong. Where many would give up, she kept looking for some place to call home and someone to share that with. This is the long convoluted story of how Winona Keeble learned to stop fighting against the universe and find her way. Even if that way was with fellow Starfleet officer George Kirk.
Notes: Roddenberry created it, I just play in it because fair use is awesome. Part II does deal with pregnancy complications, read at your own digression.
trekreversebang!!
Winona Keeble was three years old the first and only time her mother tried to braid her hair.
She was six when she punched Victor Keller for trying to kiss her because boys had cookies.
And she was nine years old when she stopped looking up at the night sky and let her imagination run wild to paint fantastic pictures across the black.
At nine years old, she looked up and hoped that somewhere out there, beyond the atmospheric pollution, was a place for her because it certainly wasn't here. Even at such a young age, she knew the journey to find that place wouldn’t be easy, but she was going to get there someday.
###
She just didn’t expect the start of that journey to be so difficult.
It was crazy. Did her life really boil down to this? One bag of Starfleet approved belongings?
Her bedroom was still full of so many other things that helped to define who Winona Keeble was. Large, spanning paintings of stars she had only dreamed of and all sorts of knick knacks collected over her eighteen years that prompted memories, both good and bad. Each object told a story, be it the story of her people, who had traveled out into the vast and inexplicable universe in search of freedom, or her own quest to find personal freedom among them.
Her great-grandfather had sailed among the stars. He had seen some of the wonders of the universe and she only had folktales and lore to continue that history. Some part of her resented her great-grandfather because that freedom came at too heavy a price. The Sioux people had a land of their own, but in gaining that their world became so much smaller.
And Winona needed her universe to be bigger than this town, bigger than their nation, bigger than anything she knew. Proud as she was about who she was and where she came from, it could never be enough. She wanted to look up and see a sky full little pins of light, around any number of them were other people looking back in same sense of wonder. She needed that connection across a vast and inexplicable universe.
Up until this point, her life was spent trying to scratch an itch that kept moving around. Any other person would have settled for the temporary relief because that wasn’t a bad option. No one ever fully felt like they belonged when they were young, but they found their way without straying too far from home. Only that felt too much like giving up. Especially when every fiber of her being told her that she belonged out there, among the stars, not trapped down here on a dying planet.
Still, for as loud as the screaming was, it wasn’t easy to simply give into the call and go not caring what she left behind. And for as much as she had always fought with her, she needed her his approval. Impossible as it might be, she needed him to understand why staying her would kill her and not just in that dramatic way that all teenagers were intent on, but in a truly soul crushing way that she knew she wouldn’t recover from.
He had four months to at least make some progress, to find a sense of compromise he could live with. Except the tension between them was still as bad as it was when he first found out - which admittedly could have gone better, but she hadn’t anticipated the Academy sending a data packet to her parents so soon after she received her acceptance.
She had still been reeling in the joy of knowing that she getting off this rock when her father brought her crashing back down with five simple words. "Winona Lynn, what is this?" Although it really wasn’t the words as much as it was the tone. "If I have to come up there, Winona Lynn, it'll be worse." Under normal circumstances she wore that threat like a pair of well-loved jeans. There was talking back to teachers, or getting caught smoking behind the church, and then there was this - going off world to join the military.
Sure as she was even thirty seconds ago that she had made the right choice, the thought of having to explain that choice to her father terrified her. Not that James Keeble was a particularly angry man. It was quite the opposite really. He was a loving, concerned parent. He just did things his way, staying strong in their traditions that with every generation seemed to fade or shift a little bit.
Mom had always been better at finding ways to bridge the new and the old. She had been easy to get on board with her decision as long as it was what Winona had truly wanted and could think of no other way to answer her calling. And Sarah Keeble was supposed to be here for this moment, to bridge father and daughter into some sort of understanding, but Sarah was still at work.
Winona didn’t want to do this part alone, but there was no other choice. And if she could do this, then maybe she would be able to handle anything else life threw at her.
She breathed in through her nose and out through her mouth, pulling her ponytail a bit tighter as she made her way downs. Dad was waiting in the living room, perched in his favorite chair, but his posture was all wrong.
"Yes, daddy?"
Only this wasn’t daddy. This was Chief James Keeble ready to argue his case until he won. It was the man she saw at Council meetings, the one she was proud of and hoped that she would never have to experience that level if passion and determination aimed at her.
Still, as powerful as he was, he couldn’t take back her acceptance. In four months, Winona Keeble was going to be a Starfleet cadet.
He could, however, make getting off planet to report to the Academy more difficult than it already was going to be.
“Can you explain to me why I have a letter congratulating me on your acceptance to the Starfleet Class of ‘22?" His words were calm, almost too calm, and Winona wasn’t sure where she stood. This was a version of her father she hadn’t seen before, occupying both of his roles at the same time and it just threw off guard. And it was working. “Well?”
Winona took a deep breath in. This could go two ways. She could play it dumb, choosing cowardice as the better part of valor until mom came home or she could stand her ground. Either way the sense of steadiness she had worked hard to find in this house was crumbling. That more than any of the competing feelings in her gut told her there was really only one choice.
This place wouldn’t hold her any longer.
"I think it’s pretty standard that when a child is accepted to the Academy the parents are informed as well. I mean, it is generally considered a great achievement. That and I can’t exactly get to San Francisco on a horse or hover bike.”
Looking back at that moment and the words she used, she might have chosen differently.
“Yes, Winona, you are right there. You are a child. A child with no respect for her family,” he said. His tone was level, but ride with shame and the nuanced of guilt directed at her. “Your great-grandpa led us away from Earth. In doing so he gave us a better home, where we have made a great life for our people. This land is your birthright, Winona. You cannot abandon it to join the ranks of the oppressors."
Her jaw dropped open. At least the immediate response was just an indignant exhale. Oppressors? It gave her another second for her mind to kick in and pick up on the things he was saying without full utterances.
“I want to see the stars, dad. I need to explore life beyond what is here, to be inspired again and serving in Starfleet will allow me to do that and so much more.” She kept her voice calm, trying to prove to her father that she was an adult capable of making her own choices. Or even that this wasn’t some act of misplaced teenage rebellion. “We have ancestors who have sailed the stars, but we also have men who were celebrated war veterans. I am honoring my family, dad, just not in the way you would like me to.”
The only problem with not yelling or creating a scene was that wasn’t always heard. This time was no different.
“Your place is here.” It was so definitive. Winona worried that this was where the conversation would end and she would have to find a way to sneak off world. “You could lead our people into the next era. You could clean the skies and bring some of that awe back without abandoning your people.”
She knew it was a concession for him to talk openly of a new era for their people. It was his version of a compromise, but it wasn’t one that would work for her. Winona couldn’t imagine a happy future for herself doing that. She might have been able to find ways to not be unhappy, but that wasn’t a life she wanted or even one that she believed her father would wish upon her.
Winona shook her head. “That’s not my path. I can’t condemn our people to sitting on this rock all their lives until we finally use it all up.” It was a dying world and she was amazed at how all of the other people chose to ignore that. “I belong out there and that doesn’t mean I’m abandoning my people, or even you. I will always be Sioux, you will always be my father.” As she spoke, she crossed the room, coming along side his chair. Unmoving as he was, all she could was fall graciously to her knees, take his hand and plead. "I just choose something different. So, please let me choose it." She could have kept her pride, but that would get her nowhere.
Staring up into his blue eyes, she found herself hoping that this was still the man she had always known. That James would take her into his arms and forgive her transgressions with a love and understanding only he was capable of.
Instead the silence hung heavily between them and all she could do was wait for him to play his final card.
"I love you, Winona. And I will always love you." His words couldn’t have come soon enough, but she still held that breath tight to her chest. James tugged on her hand, silently asking her to rise and pulling her into his arms. "I will not stand in your way, but I cannot give you my blessing on this. If you leave, then you leave. This place might always be your home, but it can never be where you rest."
She hadn’t expected those words to matter as much as they did, but it was all she heard as she kept counting down the days to her departure. This room and all the things still in it would have to be left behind to make room for something new. Winona had roots here she didn’t realize until she started ripping herself from the ground. And then there was a shuttle to catch, her first real trip off planet. It was just a lot to take in all at once and she would be lying to say that she wasn’t freaking out a little right now.
Then there was a knock at her door, pulling her from her head and back into the present. “You about ready to go?” She sniffled before turning around to see her mother standing there. “After everything, it would be sort of ironic that it’s your fault you miss the shuttle.”
Of course her father wouldn’t be there. They said their goodbyes last night at dinner. Only their goodbyes looked more like a continuation of their stand off punctured by words that didn’t mean anything. They were both too stubborn and really too much alike. Winona wiped her cheek to get rid of the tears that weren’t there yet.
"Oh, honey, you're going to be fine. And dad will come around eventually." Even if Sarah didn’t want to see her baby go, she didn’t want to see her hurting either. She walked over to her daughter, wrapping her arms around Winona in a big hug. “You are following your calling. To ignore that and stay out of some false sense of obligation would be the real sin.”
And for a moment Winona let herself imagine a world where she stayed right here, safe in her mother’s arms, the stars nothing but a dream that haunted her at night. There was strength to be found here, but it was also a weakness. If she let herself keep her roots, she would miss out on so much.
Sarah stepped back, keeping hands bracketed on her daughter’s shoulders, looking her right in the eyes as if she could see all those thoughts racing through her head. “No, baby, you’re going to go, see the universe and be great in your own way.” She pressed a kiss to Winona’s forehead. “And you’ll carry with you all of the best things from here, leaving what you don’t need or want behind.” Sarah let go and reached behind her neck to undo the clasp on the chain around her neck. “You will find a new place to call home, but you will never forget where you come from.”
Winona tried to let those words overpower her father’s, to become sort of a road prayer or mantra. She repeated them in her head as Sarah clasped the necklace around Winona’s neck. Sitting perfectly was their family symbol. To outsiders it wouldn’t look like anything, but to Winona it meant everything.
She reached up and wrapped her fingers around the pendant, hoping she would be able to find her mother’s strength there when she couldn’t produce it herself.
“I love you, mom. So much.”
And Sarah smiled, lifting Winona’s chin to meet her gaze once more. “But never as much I love you. And I am so proud of you.” Both women wiped at the tears escaping, but not needing to name them because they both knew what they said. “But you really are going to miss your shuttle if you don’t get a move on.”
Just as they shared tears, they also shared an uneasy laughter trying to break the heaviness in the room. Winona nodded and picked up her bag. As she followed her mother out of the house she was sure of three things. The first was that she was loved. Second that while she might come back here, this could never be home again and it might not have ever truly been home. However, there was a home to be had, above the clouds and light years away on the promise of somewhere else.
###
The Academy wasn't home either. It wasn't meant to be. On most days it was a means to an end and on her worst it was the biggest mistake of her life.
Starfleet was full of strange traditions she didn’t quite understand and more (stupid) rules than she had the patience to deal with. And while she looked like many of the other students, she that knew she wasn’t one of them. Most of them came from major Federation worlds and even if they spoke different languages they had some of the same cultural references to pull from.
Winona Keeble had none of that.
While her world didn’t shun technology, they drew the line at the Internet and most major off world newsfeeds. They controlled the image and the ideology, not wanting outsiders to influence what remained of their culture. She had been the first person off planet for an extended period of time in recent history. It made her an outsider in a way that most people forgot and only served to alienate her more.
Many of the cadets in her year didn’t know what to make of her, her teachers were constantly surprised and bothered by her temperament, but she needed something to make sure that no one thought of her as just like everyone else. Having no real place to fit in here, came with certain restlessness. Rather than be discouraged by it, Winona used it to fuel her actions, to push her through the bad days and let her be even stronger on the better ones.
So, yes, some days applying to the Academy was the biggest mistake of her life, but every day it was the only place she could imagine being.
###
She had been here before. And she'd bet all the credits to her name that she would be here again. Her life was best summed up sitting in an uncomfortable chair on the wrong side of a big desk. If this was the sort of place one might be able to find a home in, she would have stopped looking a long time ago.
Her academic advisor, Commander Hubert Pike was just another in a long of men unimpressed by her antics, but unwilling to back down because there was that spark underneath all the grime. Of course even those men would have given up long ago, her father had and he had claim to her.
The fact that after two years, Commander Pike was still going into battle with her was the only reason why she respected him at all.
And perhaps because he reminded her of her father, who still hadn’t called or even made time to see her when she went home for a few days over winter break. Pike was hard angles and formality. While she couldn’t prove it, she was 99 percent sure that he steam pressed his uniforms by hand after they came back from laundry just so they would be perfect. He not only worked to ensure he looked the part, but he also walked it, head held high and unable to be brought down to his knees.
"Do you know what your problem is, Cadet Keeble?"
Winona looked up, raising an eyebrow at him, knowing that he knew that opening with a question was not his best first move. "I have a few of them, sir, but I'm sure you're about to tell me which one is bothering you today." She matched his tone. Her smile was calm on her face because after nineteen years in this position she knew how to navigate the boundaries of obedient, but still Winona Keeble.
"Saying 'sir' doesn't forgive your smart comment," he said coolly. It was the automatic response at this point. She heard it often, but it never stopped her from saying what she felt needed to be said. Her file was full of notes for talking out of turn. One more wasn't going to change anything. "You don't see, or possibly even care about the consequences of your actions. You bare your punishments, and are smart enough to never do enough to get you kicked out of the Academy.”
She wondered if this was about the incident regarding her Aviation final. Winona still stood by her belief that O’Malley was an ass. Just because she spoke back and didn’t always show up for class wasn’t enough reason to assume she cheated. The material was simple. That was why she passed with full marks.
Of course he thought she needed to be brought to the Honor Code Board - which really just enforced the fact he was an ass, who was insecure too. She was pretty sure she had told him that outside of his office the other day. And maybe that had been one step too far.
“However,” Hubert continued, “you won’t always be at the Academy. One day the choices you make might mean someone’s life. You can’t continue to bend the rules and then let your arrogance mar any achievement you might have otherwise enjoyed.”
Hubert stopped there, folding his hands on top of each other and letting his words sink heavily into her skin, hopefully deep enough that it would stick this time. It was a calculated move and one that made him something of a bastard. At least he was a smart bastard because it was enough to get a seed of doubt churning in her stomach. She didn’t want to lead anyone, didn’t want the weight of whether someone lived or died in her hands. There was a reason why she didn’t self-select the Command track even if she tested well for it.
"I'm not sure that I understand your point, sir."
"No, I didn't expect you would." He shook his head. "Not yet at least." Hubert tapped a few times on his screen, letting her sit in the silence of her doubt along with the whirling of his console. She was good at playing the game, but he was better.
"I have approved your request for shuttle pilot training this summer.” He slid a PADD with her orders across the table for her approval. “You will report to Lieutenant George Kirk on June 5 at 0800."
Winona looked at him and then down at the PADD, not sure what rules he was playing by right now. O’Malley had said point blank that he would never recommend her to the program, which meant she would never get in. But there it was sitting between them - exactly what she wanted.
And not at all what she expected. Where was the yelling? The ‘words’ that were to be had, to teach her a lesson? She didn’t imagine they were finally coming around to her way of thinking. So there had to be something else at work here.
“Is there a problem, cadet?”
Shaking her head, she pulled the PADD toward her to review. “No, sir, no problem.” She didn’t fully read it over, just confirmed receipt of her orders and slid it back toward him, wanting to get out of here as soon as possible. "If that is all, sir, permission to shove off?"
Hubert was already engaged with a file on his screen. It looked casual, but Winona had no doubt that it too was an orchestrated moment meant to get at her in some way. Without really looking up at her, he waved her off. "You’re dismissed."
Feeling like she was blasted with a low-level phaser set to stun she exited the office. She was unbalanced again, but differently than she had been before. This imbalance wasn’t one that she controlled and she wasn’t sure if that was a good thing or a bad.
And really there was only one solution to this particular problem. She had to keep moving forward.
###
Winona was a lot of different things to different people, but she was always annoying early. Reporting for the first day of pilot training was no different.
She had woken up at 0500, at least an hour before the other cadets in her flight group, to go for a three-mile run hoping to calm the anxiety and excitement over what today was. And if on the way back from her run she managed to walk by the shuttle deck during the shift change, well, that was just pure coincidence.
Or at least that was the story she was going with if she got caught. And really the first couple of days were the only time she could use that excuse. So, she had to make the most of it now before everyone on the base caught on. And really, the door wasn’t secure. That was an invitation for her to go in and take a look around.
Still dressed in her PT gear, she slipped onto the shuttle deck, immediately awed at seeing the variety of models just sitting around all pretty, waiting for someone to come and take them for a spin. At the far end of the deck was one of the newer model observation shuttles. It was supposed to be able to handle higher levels of radiation allowing them to get closer than ever before to all sorts of different stellar phenomena. It was the prize of Starfleet science division.
She couldn’t help by run her hand along the hull. This was why she was here, why she put up with everything for this beauty right under her fingertips.
"She's something isn't she?"
For as stealthy as she thought she was, it probably would have gone over a bit better if she didn’t jump when she heard the man’s voice behind her. Winona turned around to see a tall man with an easy smile, also dressed in his PT gear. Although his hair had to be cut within a millimeter of regulation and his running shoes were probably scrubbed them clean each day, he felt like a kindred spirit.
"Well, we did suffer through a semester of O'Malley for her, so she better be that and so much more."
The man laughed, walking over to the shuttle. "O'Malley's the worst, but just another one of those rights of passages. Starfleet can’t have just anyone flying shuttles.”
Starfleet might have operated in space and many officers over their careers did qualify to pilot shuttles, but it was vigorous process. There were high standards and expectations to assure that only the best were allowed in the pilot’s seat.
“Let’s just hope that this Kirk isn’t as much of an ass,” she said without giving it much thought. “But with our luck he’ll just be some old, overweight officer who is no longer cleared for deep space missions.”
Later she would totally blame the disarming laugh and the fact that no one should look that good in their PT gear for the mental slip. But right then, all she could do was watch that ease slip from him becoming replaced with something else.
“I don’t think I’ve introduced myself,” he said straightening himself out. And she knew the moment the posture was in place exactly what she had missed before. “Lieutenant Kirk. And I’m going to guess that you're Cadet Winona Keeble who certainly does live up to her reputation.”
Of the ways this could have started, she really couldn’t imagine something worse. O’Malley hated her, but that had only started half way through the term. Now, here she was starting off on a sour note.
“So, how about you impress me and get the rest of your flight group in formation on the deck in twenty minutes?"
Winona’s eyes went wide at that suggestion. It was just after 0600, she would be lucky if the rest of her quite unimpressive flight group was even awake, let alone could move fast enough to get in formation. A year ago they would have been in good form to be ready that quickly, and now they were still in summer brain mush mode.
She sure that she should have given him sort of ‘yes, sir’ and rushed off to do just that, but he wasn’t in uniform and he was being an ass. Instead she gave him a polite smile and a slightly sarcastic salute.
The flight group would be on deck in ten minutes, fully dressed or not, in the hopes that they could catch George Kirk unprepared for their early arrival.
###
After he got the better of her on the first day, Winona promised herself that it was never going to happen again. In fact she was going to even the score. And that was just a matter of timing.
Kirk was doing his rounds at the end of the day, making sure that the shuttles were appropriately powered down and the flights were properly recorded. Really, there was no way he could be expecting little Winona Keeble.
"You lied to me, sir."
Kirk whipped his head around to look at her. There was a flash on confusion on his face that he quickly worked to hide. "Excuse me, cadet?"
"You said you were a lieutenant, and unless there was a promotion Command doesn't know about, you're actually a Lieutenant Junior Grade." It was such a small slight, but she had dug through the system enough to know that George Kirk came from a long line of proud and decorated Starfleet officers. So, while it wouldn’t matter to her, that sort of correction probably mattered to George Kirk.
And boy did he stutter, losing that carefully collected composure and even forgetting his normal command over the English language. It was cute and just a little endearing as she watched Kirk realizing that he didn’t have a clue on how to control her.
Of course the answer was that she was uncontrollable, but it would be fun to watch him try.
"And you're a second class cadet who isn't going to be pilot if she doesn't fix her attitude." Were he a bird, Winona imagined he would be ruffling his feathers right now.
His words just made the smile a bit brighter on her face. "You’re forgetting the one small fact that I'm the best in the flight group. And you can't fail me just because I have you figured out, just like O’Malley couldn’t fail me because I aced his supposedly impossible test.”
Kirk bobbled again, but this time he just went back to completing his post-flight checks. At least he might be learning that the only way to deal with her was to stop engaging her.
Still, this summer was going to be fun because Kirk was an easy mark.
###
For as much as she poked at him, he pushed her back, harder and harder, demanding a sort of perfection that no one was capable of. Normal people might have crumbled or bent under it, but Winona thrived under that sort of sadistic pressure.
Kirk made her fly exercises that senior pilots ran, but couldn’t always complete. Or he would give her an overly specific flight plan that made an exercise almost impossible and she found that low probability move that would actually work. Sometimes he was impressed, most times he was mad as hell.
"What the hell was that, Cadet?"
Winona unlatched her helmet and did her best to not laugh at the anger in his voice. "That was me beating your training drill again." She looked up at the sky tracking the path of her shuttle just finishing it’s landing sequence. "Although, you might want to move, unless you want to get clipped by my shuttle."
"Your shuttle?"
And when he was mad at hell, she knew it was best to ignore him until he got to a point because most of the time he just babbled until he found what he was looking for. Besides, technically she hadn’t completed the drill because the shuttle was still finishing its landing sequence.
"You abandoned your craft mid-flight," he said following after her.
"I did." Winona was far too calm about the whole thing, but she had no reason not to. The shuttles really could land themselves if you told them what to do. She tossed him her helmet, which he caught without thinking of it and opened the pod door so he could go in double check the systems and try to figure out what she did.
He didn’t move. Kirk just stood there, looking at her. "You left your vessel.”
"And if I didn't, the mission would have failed due to either loss of payload, shuttle, or crew."
Kirk growled and stomped into the shuttle. He really didn’t take losing well, which was probably why he worked hard to be better than his peers and although still young, he was already making big headway in his career.
She bit the inside of her cheek as he growled again. That was probably him finding her autopilot algorithm, which she had appropriately named Kirk Junior. Really he should feel honored that she used his flight data and responses to create a program because wasn’t that what all men wanted - immortality?
"You're reckless," he said after a minute. “You weren’t approved for a jump and you had no way of knowing if this would work or not. Simulations are one thing, reality is something else.”
Yeah, in reality her life was on the line along with millions of Starfleet credits in equipment.
"I took a calculated risk and it worked." That was who she was, and exactly why she butted heads with so many teachers at the Academy. Winona Keeble never simply followed orders. It meant she had the potential to be great if she didn’t get in her own way too badly or get killed first.
“No, you got lucky. So lucky I’m grounding you for the next three days, but you’re not just going to sit around down here. No, you’re going to sit co-pilot and watch as the other cadets do as they’ve been instructed until you get it into your head that following orders can work.” Winona rolled her eyes. The other cadets in her flight group were boring, they only did what they were told and really had no knack for flying. “Don’t give me reason to make it a week.”
Winona swallowed really not wanting to have to suffer through a week of that - three days was more than enough.
“You are also going to clean up your autopilot algorithm, giving it a new name, before submitting it in full for me to review. Is that understood?"
Winona looked up at him. In all of the words, that last bit sounded a little like praise and she couldn’t help but smirk. "Sir?"
"You heard me, Cadet." And she did, but she didn't believe it. Her antics hardly ever earned praise, even if it was buried in the guise of more work. "Dismissed."
###
Her last two years at the Academy went a lot like the last two weeks of pilot training. She didn’t stop breaking the rules, but she stopped being so arrogant about it. To do one better, she was even willing to repeat the assignment to their specifications just to prove that she could do it that way, but it wasn’t the better way.
Slowly those things that she proved she could do better started to be reflected in the system, but as someone else’s idea. And that was fine. She didn’t need the credit. She just needed to see the progress. Although she had really hoped that when the SK Flight Protocol was installed on the new shuttles, it would keep its name, if only on the off chance she could see Kirk’s reaction.
However, George Kirk was never much more than a passing thought. Although thoughts of him did come and go with a strange frequency, but Winona had plenty of other things to worry about as she got closer and closer to graduation.
Despite everything, she graduated with honors and was one of the few in her class posted directly to a ship after graduation. Alexandria was hardly a thing of beauty. Its purpose was mostly trade and basic patrol in the nearby systems, but it was a ship and a way to get out there full time. It was a chance for her to hone her skills in astrophysics lab or muck around in stellar cartography or any other department when she could, learning everything people were willing to teach her.
One month into the mission, Winona landed her first away mission. Well, technically Ensign Poots had been assigned to pilot the shuttle, but had come down with a nasty bought of food poisoning that morning and was in no position to fly a shuttle.
The mission was a standard milk run planet side to pick up the officers who beamed down earlier along with the supplies they had picked up. She wasn’t allowed to leave the shuttle, and her main role other than flying the shuttle was to stay out of the way. What it came down to was a chance to log some flight hours.
It was standard, boring stuff, until they hit a storm in the upper atmosphere, which caused most of the away team from the planet to lose their lunch.
(So, maybe Poots would have been in good company after all.)
The situation was nothing she couldn’t handle. It was just going to be a little bumpy until they reached open space, although she was sure the ranking officer on the team would be sure to voice his thoughts on the matter.
“Ensign, who taught you how to fly this thing?”
She would recognize that voice anywhere. Lieutenant George Kirk. And he didn’t have a clue who he was scolding. Winona smiled to herself and laid in the appropriate heading before glancing over her shoulder to look right at him.
“I believe that was you, sir.”
Judging by the way he opened and closed his mouth, he had more to say but had decided not to say it just then. And that was probably for the best.
“Very well, ensign, as you were.”
Kirk moved back to his seat and said nothing for the rest of the flight. Not that it stopped her co-pilot from leaning over and not quite whispering: “Do you two know each other or something?”
Truly a better person wouldn’t have laughed at that, leaving the group of officers to wonder if she was laughing because it was true or because it was absurd.
Continue to part II