Seasons Come, Seasons Go (pt 2) by PaBurke + art
Seasons Past
By PaBurke
Summary: Life is hard. Jim knew that the Kent farm had been beside the Kirk land for generations, but he hadn't considered all of the consequences to that.
Cross: Justice League Universe and Star Trek: Reboot
Words Count: 1,000
Jim was an hour early to his office aboard the Enterprise, but still Spock was waiting for him, looking more like a statue than an impatient second-in-command. Jim wondered how long he had been waiting and why. Then he smiled at Spock, because Vulcans never seemed to know what to do with a true smile. "Mr. Spock, what brings you to my door so early?"
"I wish to discuss the crew manifest."
Jim nodded absently, entered his office, made a beeline for the replicator and poured himself some coffee. "Would you like some tea?"
"No."
Someday, Jim would get his first officer to say 'yes.' It would happen before the end of this first voyage together. They would become friends. He craved the friendship that the elder Spock had declared so willingly. "So what is the problem with my crew? They are some of the best Starfleet has to offer." Granted the pickings were slim with all that had died around the planet Vulcan.
"Why did you pick Mr. Kent as the chief hydroponics officer?"
Jim hadn't expected Spock, or anyone else to find Mr. Kent through all the normal-seeming red tape and regulations he and Admiral Pike had wrapped around the appointment, but his first officer had found it and found it quickly. "He can do the job." Was this why the other Kirk and Spock had been such good friends? Because Spock could catch Kirk as he was playing a fast one? Because Spock could keep up with his whirlwind antics?
"Is this a version of nepotism?"
Jim laughed outright. "Mr. Kent and I share absolutely no blood relations."
"Both your father and your grandfather put in requests for the Kent of their generation to join them aboard their ships. They failed. Your family property is parallel to the Kent property. Are they not close friends of your clan?"
Jim tried not to show his shock, but he was sure the Vulcan had caught it. "No, that is not the reason I asked Mr. Kent to join us."
Spock eyed him. "When I attempted to investigate further, Admiral Pike personally contacted me and ordered me to 'drop it'." The way Spock drily quoted the slang made Jim smile and relax.
"Please, drop it for now. My reasons are my own, if at any point they become relevant to the circumstances, you'll be the first person I inform. Now…" Jim flipped through the PADDs on his desk, "What do we have to accomplish before the crew actually arrives?"
It took hours of work to get Spock to concentrate on other things and then he sent the Vulcan on errands. As soon as Jim was free enough, he visited hydroponics without anyone knowing.
Mr. Kent was there, gently tending the plants. He looked up and smiled when Jim entered the area. Jim keyed in his code to deactivate the security measures and to lock the door. Now no one would be able to listen in and Spock would only get more curious.
"What's wrong, Captain?" Mr. Kent asked.
"My father asked you to join him on the Kelvin?"
Kent blinked and nodded slowly. "As chief hydroponics officer. I thought you knew that."
Jim knew that inviting someone indestructible onto the spaceship was a brilliant and logical idea, but somehow it blindsided him that his own family had thought of it first. "Why weren't you there?"
Why weren't you there so that my father could live? Why weren't you the one who stayed behind to let the others escape? Why?
"Did you give him the same crap you gave me? About it being the time for a new set of heroes?"
"Yes."
"Did he not talk you around or did Starfleet…"
"A combination," Kent cut him off. "Jim," the farmer had been careful to call him by his rank since signing on. "That is the past. We can't change it. I wasn't ready to leave the farm." And heroes often die. How many times had Mr. Kent told him that?
"Did you say yes to me as a type of…" Jim didn't know the word he wanted.
"Penitence?" Kent filled in. "Perhaps. But I prefer to believe that it was time for me to leave. The Federation, Starfleet and specifically the Enterprise are being sent to investigate places, places that I have happy memories."
Jim blinked. This was the second time today that someone had stunned him speechless. Bones would never believe it possible. "I want a detailed report of what's ahead of us."
"Isn't that cheating?" Kent looked at him sideways. "That's right, you do cheat."
Kent didn't mean the words as an accusation and Jim refused to consider them as an insult. "I'll expect the report on my desk by the end of the week," Jim said loftily.
Kent was smiling as he said, "Aye Captain, but it won't be complete. We weren't out here to explore and my memory is a little rusty."
"A report, Mr. Kent," Jim told him and he keyed the door to open. "And a new one every time you remember additional information."
"Aye, Captain."
Jim walked away. He knew that he had followed in his father's and grandfather's footsteps over to the Kent farm. He had used their same path, following a child's map hidden in the nursery of the Kirk homestead. He had deliberately followed in his father's footsteps to become a captain of at Starfleet ship. Both times, he knew and had made conscious a choice to do what his family before him had done.
By inviting Kent onto the Enterprise, he had not known that he was walking on the family pathway again.
The new knowledge stirred up many emotions and while Jim would have to struggle through them, he knew that he was pleased.
Again, he had succeeded where others had failed.
And he might have just cheated again. He would be able to keep ahead of Spock during the voyage; that would drive his first officer batty.
*
