Fanfiction: Experiments
Title: Experiments
Author: runningfingers
Rating: (PG)
Characters/Pairings: Chekov/Sulu
Warning: None
Type: Oneshot
Summary: Chekov and Scotty have been working on a portable transporter remote, and while it works just fine, seventeen-year-old Chekov should not have been on the planet, not even to save the away team. Kirk discovers that it was a particular team member who inpired Chekov's action. Written for Chekov/Sulu bingo prompt trek tropes: away mission at chekov_sulu.
A/N This sort of got away from its point of Chekov/Sulu, and most of it is just discussion between Kirk and Chekov and Kirk and Bones, but I promise that it is Chekov/Sulu. This is the first fic that I'm posting to LJ and I'm kind of nervous. Thanks for reading!
When the decision was made to allow Kirk to keep the captaincy of the Enterprise the board of admirals turned their attention to his crew. Initially there were arguments from those who felt that the crew that had been on board during the Narada crisis was too young as a whole to be allowed to continue for the five year mission the Enterprise was preparing for. In truth, the board had no choice. However much some of them might have argued, the reality hanging over everyone’s heads was that they did not have the people to fully man the Enterprise if they did not use the students, and they could not admit openly to the weakness they would show by delaying the launch of the Enterprise. Thus, it was finally decided that, so long as the cadets spent the time remaining until the Enterprise was ready to leave preparing for their new posts under the guidance of more experienced officers they would be allowed to go forward as the crew of Starfleet’s flagship.
There was just one problem. The mission of exploration on which the Enterprise was to be embarking would require frequent away missions, which would put its crew in dangerous situations on a regular basis. This would not have been a concern, as all of the then-cadets on the Enterprise during Nero’s attack had shown themselves capable of performing well under stress, if it were not for one Pavel Chekov.
Chekov was a genius, no one denied that. He had saved the lives of not only Kirk, and Spock, but also of most of the Vulcan Elders. He was at the top of his class in several of the subjects most important for work aboard a starship, and had continued to perform admirably following the immediate crisis as the Enterprise headed home. In spite of that, he was seventeen, and seventeen was awfully young to be sending a boy down to planets no one had ever seen before, into possibly, and even probably dangerous circumstances.
Christopher Pike argued that in spite of his age the boy deserved to be allowed to do his job to its fullest extent, and it looked like he would win out, when all of Chekov’s accomplishments were taken into consideration. But then it was found. Section VI paragraph 16 “No human passenger on a Federation starship under the age of eighteen earth years of age shall be permitted on any planet that falls under the categories described in Section V paragraph 24.” Section V paragraph 24 then went on to describe any planet not previously explored by Starfleet officers, any planet with wildlife classified as a posing “a grave danger to personnel,” and any planet with hostile cultures. And just like that, Pavel Chekov was confined to onboard duty only. Pike tried to argue that Chekov would not be a passenger, but an officer, but Starfleet’s lawyers were brought in and the discussion was closed.
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Chekov was a determined young man, but he was also law abiding, even obedient. Which was why Kirk found himself at a loss to explain why his best navigator had behaved the way that he had. Kirk sighed as the door buzzed, and knew that even though the look of terror on Chekov’s face as he entered the conference room made him want to destroy whatever had put it there, he needed to Chekov to explain his actions.
Kirk waited for Chekov to sit down across from him. For a moment Kirk sat there looking at the youngest member of his crew who had, he thought, never looked so young as he did in this moment. “Ensign.”
Chekov jumped at the sound of Kirk’s voice, as if he had not expected Kirk to speak even though he must have known that he was here to answer questions. “Yes Captain?” Chekov’s words were understandable, but his voice wavered as he spoke. Before Kirk could even begin to ask for answers however, Chekov was speaking again. “I can explain Captain, and I know that I was wrong to do what I did, but I did not know what else there was to be done, and I should have thought more first but I did not and I know that you are probably angry and I am very very sorry sir.” By the time Chekov stopped he was panting, having forgotten to breathe in between his words. His eyes were huge as he looked at Kirk nervously, then down at his hands, which he had folded neatly in front of himself.
“Ensign,” Kirk tried to make his voice soothing, though he was not sure how well it worked. “Calm down. I’m not going to kill you, so you should try not to look at me like I’ve announced that I’m feeding you to an alien. Can you just tell me what happened? Right now all I know is that Sulu, Giotto, Riley, Darnell, and Tormolen beamed down to the surface of the planet for some routine surveying, while you were manning the transporter. Then we on the bridge received a signal that there was trouble, followed by silence, and sent someone to the transporter room. By the time they arrived you were beaming back up with Sulu, Giotto, Riley, and Tormolen. How did you get down to the surface of the planet and how did you get back up without someone else at the controls?”
Chekov nodded, then began to speak, “I was, as you said, Sir, manning the transporter. When you received the message saying that there was a problem on the ground, I waited. They then communicated with the transporter room, requesting that I beam them up. It was at that point that their signals disappeared. I believe now that the hostile aliens on the surface, who I guess you maybe don’t know about yet, but I will explain, I think that they had some sort of equipment that emitted an energy pulse which disabled the men’s communicators. Someone have to look more closely at the devices to know for certain. Their message to me, asking for beam-up was…” Chekov trailed off. “It was frantic sir, and then they were cut off. There was not yet anyone else in the transporter room, and the away team seemed to be in danger, although at the time I did not know what sort. My understanding is that as soon as they arrived on the surface they were attacked, although I was of course not on the planet per the regulation stated in Section VI Paragraph 16 of Starfleet protocol.” When Chekov cited the passage his voice took on a monotone, and Kirk knew that he must have cited it in conversation many times before.
“Of course ensign. I would expect no less. So how, pray tell, did you come to be down on the surface? Even under the circumstances you have described I do not see how you expected beaming down to them could possibly be of any use. You still have not explained how you managed to get back up.”
“The urgency of their last message seemed to indicate that they needed to beam up immediately. There was no way to do that without having their signals, and there was no way for someone else to get to the surface as quickly as I could. I knew that I would be able to beam back up.” Kirk raised his eyebrows at this assertion, and Chekov hurried to explain. “Captain, you know that I am interested in transporter theory, and in transporter improvements. I have been working for some time on a way to remotely trigger transport, using the signal from a communicator, and I have, as today shows, been successful in doing so. I predicted based on the length of time between beam down and the team’s initial message, as well as from the interval between that message and the communications going silent that I would have time to get to them and beam us back up using the signal from my communicator before their pulse could disable it. But if I had waited for another crew member to reach the room, I was not sure that the away team would be safe, or that they would still be close enough for me to reach them in time.”
“So you beamed down to the surface of the planet in spite of the fact that it falls well within the range of planets that you are not permitted to visit, in order to save the away team. Is that right?” Kirk hated himself a little bit for having to ask these questions, but it was his job, so he did it. Chekov nodded. “And am I to take from your statements regarding the communicator device which you altered that you had not, prior to today tested it?”
“No. I- Well, sort of.” Chekov looked guilty. “Commander Scott has been helping me with this project, and we have tested it within the ship, but it has not - had not been tested between the ship and the planet. I knew it would work though! All of the theories were sound.” Chekov’s expression changed to one of nervous conviction.
Kirk looked at Chekov and sighed. “Yes ensign, I understand. And I’ll be having words with Scotty too, don’t worry about that.” Kirk loved his crew, but sometimes he wished that someone had given him a little bit more warning about exactly what he was signing up for.
“No, Captain, you should not punish Commander Scott for my mistakes. He has not done anything wrong.” Chekov’s expression had calmed somewhat during their meeting, but Kirk’s comment had sent him back into an agitated state.
“Chekov, I understand your feelings, but I can’t just ignore the fact that Scotty has been breaking protocols. The captain or first officer must be informed of any transporter experiments in order to ensure the safety of the ship. I know that Scotty did not tell Spock, because Spock would have told me, and I know that Scotty didn’t tell me. As chief engineer he has a lot of authority, and honestly, I wouldn’t mind so much if it had just been his project. But Chekov, right or wrong, you are the youngest star fleet officer currently deployed, and that matters. So yes, I will be speaking to Scotty.”
Chekov looked like a kicked puppy, and Kirk found himself wishing that there was a way to make this easier. “Yes sir.”
Apparently not. “Ensign, for the time being I will be removing you from active duty. You are dismissed.” Kirk had had as much of this as he could stand for the moment, and Chekov looked relieved to be allowed to go. In fact, he was out of his seat almost as soon as Kirk finished speaking, barely pausing to throw back a “Yes Captain” as he rushed out the door. Kirk had his suspicions about where his ensign was headed.
Sure enough, half an hour later when Kirk arrived at the sickbay half an hour later to speak to McCoy about the injured after speaking to Scotty, he found Chekov sitting next to Sulu’s biobed. Chekov did not even look up from his contemplation of Sulu’s unconscious form when Kirk walked by on his way to McCoy’s office.
Sitting down across from his friend Kirk raised his eyebrows questioningly, nodding to the pair in the main sickbay. McCoy rolled his eyes. “I’m surprised it took him so long to get down here, with the way that he was acting when he finally did. He was in a right state.”
“He was the one who beamed down to the planet. I was speaking to him.” Kirk did not feel guilty. He didn’t. He had only been doing his job.
McCoy’s eyebrows jumped up, “He beamed down? I thought he wasn’t supposed to do that. Jim, I know that you don’t like the bureaucracy, but that doesn’t mean that you can ignore the things that they tell you to do. They’re trying to keep him safe. Not that this flying hunk of metal is all that safe. What were you thinking letting that kid beam down? Jim!”
“I didn’t let him.” Kirk nearly yelled before remembering where he was. It had not been a good day, and to be yelled at seemed rather unreasonable, particularly when he suspected that Spock would be doing the same thing in a few hours. “I haven’t broken that rule yet, have I? I might think that we’d be better off beaming Chekov down than plenty of officers twice his age, but I haven’t let him do anything he isn’t supposed to. He was manning the transporter room, and beamed down with an experiment that he and Scotty have apparently been working on. And of course Scott insists that they didn’t do anything wrong. ‘But Captain, we weren’t doing anything on the transporter. It works with the transporter, but it’s a separate device sir.’ Why Bones, why, can’t this ship ever be simple? Is my entire crew made up of disobedient idiots?”
“Are you done yet?” McCoy's expression was the one that he used when he wanted to communicate the fact that he thought Jim was being more of a child than Joanna, McCoy’s eight year old. Jim glared.
“You’re glad that they’re the crew you’ve got, and you wouldn’t have it any other way, so you’d best stop whining to me. I don’t care. Now, I’m sure that you’re wanting to talk to Sulu and the rest, and that’s fine. But nothing until tomorrow, you hear? They’re all asleep right now, or resting, and they’re going to stay that way at least until morning. If you tried to talk to Sulu I think Chekov’d try to kill you anyway.”
Kirk raised his eyebrows, and McCoy stood, beckoning him quietly towards the door of the office, while holding his other finger to his mouth. Kirk obeyed, rising quietly. The two men peered out the door, and Kirk saw the expression on Chekov’s face as he stared at Sulu’s unmoving form.
It was a complex range of emotions all muddled together, and Kirk thought that he saw relief, terror, and worry at least. As well as - “Love. Those two idiots might not know it yet, but I bet you that within a few weeks we’ll be hearing it. If not, then two months.”
Kirk nodded. Chekov’s actions began to make a bit more sense.