fic: adventure may hurt you, but monotony will kill you (Star Trek reboot)
Title: Adventure may hurt you, but monotony will kill you
Rating: PG
Wordcount 2,437
Summary: Aisha Darwin has perfectly steady assignments on perfectly steady ships. And she is just fine with this. Really.
Note: Written for the where_no_woman Darwin fic fest. Prompt is from igrockspock and was Adventure may hurt you but monotony will kill you. (Bonus points for Sulu friendship fic). Beta by the ever lovely loneraven!
They told you that Starfleet was the best of the best, and Aisha Darwin believed that. She knew that if you looked at the skills and abilities inherent in the myriad peoples of Federation, those who passed through Starfleet academy were the best in their fields. That was one thing that the recruiting literature had right.
One thing that she'd worked out years ago, though, was that there were layers and prejudices in that system. Assignments on certain ships were better than others; command was better than security; navigation was the easy choice over flight. When she got on the command track, she was overjoyed, and sent communications to her family full of pride and happiness. After this, it would be assignments on the lead flagships and working up to helmsman before being promoted to her own ship. She was ready for this. Darwin prided herself on being rational and sensible, but secretly she felt like a benevolent universe was granted her all she had dreamt of.
Then it all went wrong.
She was sick during final assessments, and despite the best attempts of medical she blamed this for being put on a quiet, out of the way tour on her first outing as an ensign. A thoroughly comfortabe with the status quo crew were unable - or unwilling - to let Darwin show off her prowess at flying shuttles, and the best she was able to do was navigation during the nightshift. She fumed, very quietly, as her career stalled, and she made inching progress throughout the ranks.
Slowly, though, with the help of her new crewmates, she began to realise some basic truths about Starfleet. That there would always be outstanding individuals they would promote in the recruiting offices, but the basic truth of any organisation was the need for a mass of highly competent people willing and able to stay slightly more in the background. Giving orders at the highest level was important, but making sure they actually happened was better. The aims and ideals of Starfleet - and Darwin definitely believed in that, if increasingly less in the power of a benevolent universe - needed people who could map a route, follow orders, gently nudge commanders towards sensible decisions, and keep an eye on the edges of things. This wasn't a bad career path at all. If anything, it was more noble, as a career path.
She didn't communicate most of this to her family, had decided she wasn't going to think about it when they stopped asked about promotions. Instead, she quietly qualified for bridge status in her own right, and was reassigned for another quiet tour around mostly friendly planets.
And that was fine. Really. She definitely didn't work out her tension in the gym, or occasionally stare at the shuttle bay in outright longing. Not at all. Wishing didn't help anything, and the universe totally didn't give a fuck. Her latest assignment, the Newcastle, was a perfectly decent vessel and did some very important work shuttling between the larger colonies.
Which was fine. It was also why Aisha Darwin was in the Laurentian system with the majority of the fleet when the Narada returned and blew everything to hell.
-
“This is the biggest crew redeployment in Starfleet's history, Mr Darwin.”
“Sir.”
She was tired enough that 'sir' was about as much as she could contribute to this conversation. Commander Spock, she knew, had been on the Enterprise, the only ship to survive. She also knew he'd just lost his homeworld. She had no idea what he wanted with her. Like the rest of the survivng fleet, Darwin had been on round-the-clock shifts around the safe area of what used to be Vulcan, helping with the clean up of the destroyed ships. They hadn't found much that was worthwhile, but this was the graveyard of the most advanced ships in the fleet and here was no way they were leaving this for the scavengers. Navigation and pilot crews had been flat out, and Darwin might have enjoyed it if she hadn't been trawling through the graves of countless Starfleet crew, most on their first assignment.
The crew of the Newcastle had gone back to Earth to try and rest and recuperate a little. Darwin had wanted to go to her father's apartment in San Francisco and sleep for a month, but instead a comms had gone through instructing her to head straight to HQ and meet with a Commander Spock. She was just grateful the Vulcan didn't seem to be in the habit of mincing his words, and she was always quietly pleased when any senior officer called her by what was, technically, her official military title.
“The Enterprise has a young crew Mr Darwin. Captain Kirk is adamant we are not to change the senior staff, but we simply don't have enough to make a full complement for each shift change.”
“Sir.”
Spock looked up from the desk at Darwin, who was trying very hard not to sway gently with exhaustion. “Mr Darwin. Would you like to take a seat?”
Darwin contemplated falling into the inviting seat in front of his desk. Then she thought about showing weakness in front of a man who had just lost everything. “No...” She remembered herself. “Sir.”
“Very well. Mr Darwin, Captain Kirk has placed me in charge of finding a full crew complement and I feel you would fit in well. I'd like you to take the post of second Navigation Officer on the bridge.”
It took a moment for the information to filter through. “Me, sir?”
“I do not see anyone else in this meeting.”
“I've never served on the front line before, sir.” Darwin wasn't sure why she was trying to talk herself out of this, and apparently Spock wasn't either.
“Neither have most of our crew before these events. They are talented, but they need someone steady to teach them the reality of most missions.”
“The boredom, sir?” The words slipped out before she could stop them, and she cursed the universe for making the most important conversation of her career happen at the time she was most vulnerable.
“Exactly, Mr Darwin. Captain Lawrence has spoken eloquently of your ability to 'get the job done'.” The Vulcan steepled his fingers. “Let me be frank. Some officers do not want to serve on the Enterprise. They resent the younger crew working as the senior staff and prefer their current postings. Captain Lawrence has assured me you will continue to have a place in his crew if you prefer.”
Darwin thought about it. “Permission to be included as shuttle pilot for away missions?”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “That does not match with your service record.”
“I thought this posting was to help people learn, sir?”
If Darwin didn't know better, she would have thought that the Vulcan looked pleased. “Precisely, Mr Darwin. Very well. Report to the Enterprise at 08.00 hours.”
It was the first happy communication she had made to her family about her career for longer than she cared to remember, even as her father fretted she looked tired.
-
When Commander Spock had told her that there was a younger crew about the Enterprise, Darwin thought, they should have told her than Pavel Chekov was 12 years old.
She was being unfair, she knew. The Russian was brilliant at his role, and more than willing to learn from the older crewmember, significantly more than some the cadets she had mentored on her last posting. The rest of the crew spoke in hushed tones about his abilities with the transporter, and he had an uncanny knack for working out long-range routes based on a passing glance at the star charts. He was happy to listen to her, though, on how to deal with the tiny adjustments needed for a long-range mission, how to learn how your fellow pilot flew in order to give the most timely support, and how best to stretch out after a full shift at the comm. It wasn't that she didn't like him, she could admit to herself at the end of her mentoring shifts, it was more... a wasted opportunity. Not his, but in him she saw some of the disappointment she'd become used to. She found herself wondering if this was the universe's idea of a joke.
She liked Sulu more, even if she rarely had a chance to work with him, spending most of her time on the opposing shifts. Occasionally they found themselves scheduled on the same shifts to test out the new shuttles, and it was then that Darwin found out Sulu, like her, was from San Francisco. They would compare notes on the best Denobulan restaurants in the city, and childhoods in the shadow of Starfleet.
“To be honest,” said Sulu one day, as they were heading hastily to the shuttle bay for somelast minute tests, “I would have thought that simple shuttle tests would be a bit below an ace navigator like yourself.” He didn't sound like he was entirely joking. Darwin shrugged.
“Flying was my first love, but not everyone gets to pilot the flagship straight out of the gate. I sort of fell into navigating.”
“Oh.” Sulu looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Well, you seem okay with it now. You've been navigating for how long?”
“Long enough,” she said with a sigh. “Kept getting recommended as 'steady'. Not all of us get plum assignments straight out of the Academy, unlike a lot of your class.”
“There are only 3 pilots left from my class, and T'Pel has left Starfleet to build New Vulcan,” said Sulu baldly. “Nero took the rest.”
“Oh,” said Darwin, horrified. She stopped dead in the corridor. “Sulu, I'm so-”
“No, don't worry about it,” he said, shrugging. “It's what it is, and you're not the first one to think like that. You're better with Pavel than someother officers of your generation, anyway.”
Darwin noted the 'generation' comment but kept it to herself. They started towards the shuttle bay again. “Boy's a genius, and a sweet one at that. Who could dislike him?”
“Ugh, you should have seen this Andorian we had beforehand, you could see he was unhappy by the antennae...”
They fell back into easy banter as they walked into the shuttle bay. In the future, Darwin made sure to mention Nero's survival rate to any older officers who thought she might be a sympathetic ear to their complaints about the staffing complement.
-
The refit took longer than Darwin had ever imaged, but eventually politics forced them back into space. Vulcan was - had been - one of the major power centres of the galaxy before humanity had even looked at the stars, and the Klingons and Romulans knew perfectly well what a heavy loss it represented. They also seemed to have a growing idea of just how much firepower Starfleet had lost in battles with the Narada. Some outer colonies were reporting increasingly intimidating behaviour, and the feeling was that if Starfleet didn't put up a show of normality, things would escalate quicker than anyone was ready for.
“So in conclusion,” said Captain Kirk over the intercom, “it's time to explore new worlds and new civilisations. We'll just be doing it in easy scanning distance of some of the border colonies. We're a new crew, but I think we'll do just fine. Try not to break anything, she's new. Over and out.”
Darwin wasn't used to such brutal honesty from a captain at the start of the mission,but perhaps it only felt strange because she wasn't due on deck for another nine hours and was actually getting prepared to sleep. She finished changing and went to bed, trying to ignore the feelings of anticipation about this mission. From her experience, it would just be another long, slow cruise in space.
-
Two weeks later, Darwin was called to the bridge at short notice. Scotty had requested Chekov's calculation skills in order to evacuate an entire colony, mining equipment and all, from right under the noses of the Klingons who were posturing and claiming trade violations. As Darwin carefully picked out the best - and quickest - route from the colony, red alert signs flashing around her, she took a quick moment to lean over to Sulu.
“Is it always like this?”
Sulu glanced over and grinned. “For Kirk, this is a quiet day. Now let's hope we don't have to go through that asteroid field we saw on sensors a week ago...”
Naturally, they had to go through the asteroid field. It took Darwin and Chekov working feverishly together with Sulu's speedy reaction times to find a route before the Klingons even knew they were gone. She didn't regret the day. She told herself she didn't regret the celebratory drinks, either, although she quietly swore never to drink with a Russian again. And to wear better mascara next time - the smear down one cheek had been undignified at best.
-
She still didn't get to pilot as much as she had hoped, although she thought she noticed Commander Spcok requesting her slightly more than protocol demanded. Despite this, she found herself enjoying the night shifts, slipping easily into the body of the crew. Captain Lawrence had been right - she was good at this. However, hurried calls from Lieutenant Uhura during the day shift weren't exactly uncommon either, depending on what the latest crisis was. She found herself smiling more, sleeping less, and regretting even less.
So when Uhura called her to the bridge after an uncertain few days on Earth, she was prepared. Not prepared in the way she had been on the Newcastle, prepared for boredom and disappointment. Instead, she felt prepared for whatever the universe was willing to throw at her this time, and to fight back. She hadn't quite been expecting to face a miracle into the atmosphere of the Earth, but that was another thing entirely.
Rating: PG
Wordcount 2,437
Summary: Aisha Darwin has perfectly steady assignments on perfectly steady ships. And she is just fine with this. Really.
Note: Written for the where_no_woman Darwin fic fest. Prompt is from igrockspock and was Adventure may hurt you but monotony will kill you. (Bonus points for Sulu friendship fic). Beta by the ever lovely loneraven!
They told you that Starfleet was the best of the best, and Aisha Darwin believed that. She knew that if you looked at the skills and abilities inherent in the myriad peoples of Federation, those who passed through Starfleet academy were the best in their fields. That was one thing that the recruiting literature had right.
One thing that she'd worked out years ago, though, was that there were layers and prejudices in that system. Assignments on certain ships were better than others; command was better than security; navigation was the easy choice over flight. When she got on the command track, she was overjoyed, and sent communications to her family full of pride and happiness. After this, it would be assignments on the lead flagships and working up to helmsman before being promoted to her own ship. She was ready for this. Darwin prided herself on being rational and sensible, but secretly she felt like a benevolent universe was granted her all she had dreamt of.
Then it all went wrong.
She was sick during final assessments, and despite the best attempts of medical she blamed this for being put on a quiet, out of the way tour on her first outing as an ensign. A thoroughly comfortabe with the status quo crew were unable - or unwilling - to let Darwin show off her prowess at flying shuttles, and the best she was able to do was navigation during the nightshift. She fumed, very quietly, as her career stalled, and she made inching progress throughout the ranks.
Slowly, though, with the help of her new crewmates, she began to realise some basic truths about Starfleet. That there would always be outstanding individuals they would promote in the recruiting offices, but the basic truth of any organisation was the need for a mass of highly competent people willing and able to stay slightly more in the background. Giving orders at the highest level was important, but making sure they actually happened was better. The aims and ideals of Starfleet - and Darwin definitely believed in that, if increasingly less in the power of a benevolent universe - needed people who could map a route, follow orders, gently nudge commanders towards sensible decisions, and keep an eye on the edges of things. This wasn't a bad career path at all. If anything, it was more noble, as a career path.
She didn't communicate most of this to her family, had decided she wasn't going to think about it when they stopped asked about promotions. Instead, she quietly qualified for bridge status in her own right, and was reassigned for another quiet tour around mostly friendly planets.
And that was fine. Really. She definitely didn't work out her tension in the gym, or occasionally stare at the shuttle bay in outright longing. Not at all. Wishing didn't help anything, and the universe totally didn't give a fuck. Her latest assignment, the Newcastle, was a perfectly decent vessel and did some very important work shuttling between the larger colonies.
Which was fine. It was also why Aisha Darwin was in the Laurentian system with the majority of the fleet when the Narada returned and blew everything to hell.
-
“This is the biggest crew redeployment in Starfleet's history, Mr Darwin.”
“Sir.”
She was tired enough that 'sir' was about as much as she could contribute to this conversation. Commander Spock, she knew, had been on the Enterprise, the only ship to survive. She also knew he'd just lost his homeworld. She had no idea what he wanted with her. Like the rest of the survivng fleet, Darwin had been on round-the-clock shifts around the safe area of what used to be Vulcan, helping with the clean up of the destroyed ships. They hadn't found much that was worthwhile, but this was the graveyard of the most advanced ships in the fleet and here was no way they were leaving this for the scavengers. Navigation and pilot crews had been flat out, and Darwin might have enjoyed it if she hadn't been trawling through the graves of countless Starfleet crew, most on their first assignment.
The crew of the Newcastle had gone back to Earth to try and rest and recuperate a little. Darwin had wanted to go to her father's apartment in San Francisco and sleep for a month, but instead a comms had gone through instructing her to head straight to HQ and meet with a Commander Spock. She was just grateful the Vulcan didn't seem to be in the habit of mincing his words, and she was always quietly pleased when any senior officer called her by what was, technically, her official military title.
“The Enterprise has a young crew Mr Darwin. Captain Kirk is adamant we are not to change the senior staff, but we simply don't have enough to make a full complement for each shift change.”
“Sir.”
Spock looked up from the desk at Darwin, who was trying very hard not to sway gently with exhaustion. “Mr Darwin. Would you like to take a seat?”
Darwin contemplated falling into the inviting seat in front of his desk. Then she thought about showing weakness in front of a man who had just lost everything. “No...” She remembered herself. “Sir.”
“Very well. Mr Darwin, Captain Kirk has placed me in charge of finding a full crew complement and I feel you would fit in well. I'd like you to take the post of second Navigation Officer on the bridge.”
It took a moment for the information to filter through. “Me, sir?”
“I do not see anyone else in this meeting.”
“I've never served on the front line before, sir.” Darwin wasn't sure why she was trying to talk herself out of this, and apparently Spock wasn't either.
“Neither have most of our crew before these events. They are talented, but they need someone steady to teach them the reality of most missions.”
“The boredom, sir?” The words slipped out before she could stop them, and she cursed the universe for making the most important conversation of her career happen at the time she was most vulnerable.
“Exactly, Mr Darwin. Captain Lawrence has spoken eloquently of your ability to 'get the job done'.” The Vulcan steepled his fingers. “Let me be frank. Some officers do not want to serve on the Enterprise. They resent the younger crew working as the senior staff and prefer their current postings. Captain Lawrence has assured me you will continue to have a place in his crew if you prefer.”
Darwin thought about it. “Permission to be included as shuttle pilot for away missions?”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “That does not match with your service record.”
“I thought this posting was to help people learn, sir?”
If Darwin didn't know better, she would have thought that the Vulcan looked pleased. “Precisely, Mr Darwin. Very well. Report to the Enterprise at 08.00 hours.”
It was the first happy communication she had made to her family about her career for longer than she cared to remember, even as her father fretted she looked tired.
-
When Commander Spock had told her that there was a younger crew about the Enterprise, Darwin thought, they should have told her than Pavel Chekov was 12 years old.
She was being unfair, she knew. The Russian was brilliant at his role, and more than willing to learn from the older crewmember, significantly more than some the cadets she had mentored on her last posting. The rest of the crew spoke in hushed tones about his abilities with the transporter, and he had an uncanny knack for working out long-range routes based on a passing glance at the star charts. He was happy to listen to her, though, on how to deal with the tiny adjustments needed for a long-range mission, how to learn how your fellow pilot flew in order to give the most timely support, and how best to stretch out after a full shift at the comm. It wasn't that she didn't like him, she could admit to herself at the end of her mentoring shifts, it was more... a wasted opportunity. Not his, but in him she saw some of the disappointment she'd become used to. She found herself wondering if this was the universe's idea of a joke.
She liked Sulu more, even if she rarely had a chance to work with him, spending most of her time on the opposing shifts. Occasionally they found themselves scheduled on the same shifts to test out the new shuttles, and it was then that Darwin found out Sulu, like her, was from San Francisco. They would compare notes on the best Denobulan restaurants in the city, and childhoods in the shadow of Starfleet.
“To be honest,” said Sulu one day, as they were heading hastily to the shuttle bay for somelast minute tests, “I would have thought that simple shuttle tests would be a bit below an ace navigator like yourself.” He didn't sound like he was entirely joking. Darwin shrugged.
“Flying was my first love, but not everyone gets to pilot the flagship straight out of the gate. I sort of fell into navigating.”
“Oh.” Sulu looked uncomfortable for a moment. “Well, you seem okay with it now. You've been navigating for how long?”
“Long enough,” she said with a sigh. “Kept getting recommended as 'steady'. Not all of us get plum assignments straight out of the Academy, unlike a lot of your class.”
“There are only 3 pilots left from my class, and T'Pel has left Starfleet to build New Vulcan,” said Sulu baldly. “Nero took the rest.”
“Oh,” said Darwin, horrified. She stopped dead in the corridor. “Sulu, I'm so-”
“No, don't worry about it,” he said, shrugging. “It's what it is, and you're not the first one to think like that. You're better with Pavel than someother officers of your generation, anyway.”
Darwin noted the 'generation' comment but kept it to herself. They started towards the shuttle bay again. “Boy's a genius, and a sweet one at that. Who could dislike him?”
“Ugh, you should have seen this Andorian we had beforehand, you could see he was unhappy by the antennae...”
They fell back into easy banter as they walked into the shuttle bay. In the future, Darwin made sure to mention Nero's survival rate to any older officers who thought she might be a sympathetic ear to their complaints about the staffing complement.
-
The refit took longer than Darwin had ever imaged, but eventually politics forced them back into space. Vulcan was - had been - one of the major power centres of the galaxy before humanity had even looked at the stars, and the Klingons and Romulans knew perfectly well what a heavy loss it represented. They also seemed to have a growing idea of just how much firepower Starfleet had lost in battles with the Narada. Some outer colonies were reporting increasingly intimidating behaviour, and the feeling was that if Starfleet didn't put up a show of normality, things would escalate quicker than anyone was ready for.
“So in conclusion,” said Captain Kirk over the intercom, “it's time to explore new worlds and new civilisations. We'll just be doing it in easy scanning distance of some of the border colonies. We're a new crew, but I think we'll do just fine. Try not to break anything, she's new. Over and out.”
Darwin wasn't used to such brutal honesty from a captain at the start of the mission,but perhaps it only felt strange because she wasn't due on deck for another nine hours and was actually getting prepared to sleep. She finished changing and went to bed, trying to ignore the feelings of anticipation about this mission. From her experience, it would just be another long, slow cruise in space.
-
Two weeks later, Darwin was called to the bridge at short notice. Scotty had requested Chekov's calculation skills in order to evacuate an entire colony, mining equipment and all, from right under the noses of the Klingons who were posturing and claiming trade violations. As Darwin carefully picked out the best - and quickest - route from the colony, red alert signs flashing around her, she took a quick moment to lean over to Sulu.
“Is it always like this?”
Sulu glanced over and grinned. “For Kirk, this is a quiet day. Now let's hope we don't have to go through that asteroid field we saw on sensors a week ago...”
Naturally, they had to go through the asteroid field. It took Darwin and Chekov working feverishly together with Sulu's speedy reaction times to find a route before the Klingons even knew they were gone. She didn't regret the day. She told herself she didn't regret the celebratory drinks, either, although she quietly swore never to drink with a Russian again. And to wear better mascara next time - the smear down one cheek had been undignified at best.
-
She still didn't get to pilot as much as she had hoped, although she thought she noticed Commander Spcok requesting her slightly more than protocol demanded. Despite this, she found herself enjoying the night shifts, slipping easily into the body of the crew. Captain Lawrence had been right - she was good at this. However, hurried calls from Lieutenant Uhura during the day shift weren't exactly uncommon either, depending on what the latest crisis was. She found herself smiling more, sleeping less, and regretting even less.
So when Uhura called her to the bridge after an uncertain few days on Earth, she was prepared. Not prepared in the way she had been on the Newcastle, prepared for boredom and disappointment. Instead, she felt prepared for whatever the universe was willing to throw at her this time, and to fight back. She hadn't quite been expecting to face a miracle into the atmosphere of the Earth, but that was another thing entirely.