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Citizens of the Terran Empire believed that trusting someone was a weakness. The characteristic valued above all others was self-preservation, but ambition, ruthless, and strength were all lauded as perfection.
What the fools didn’t realize was that you could trust people, but you simply had to trust the right people if you wanted to stay alive. The perfect example of this belief was sleeping next to Reaper on the dorm bed they shared. Jim never slept with any of the conquests he’d fucked around with before Reaper, but he always slept soundly next to him, draped over his lover and mentor. The knife under Jim’s pillow was used for play and the well-stocked arsenal under the bed was security in case anyone else dared to invade their territory.
Reaper always had a soft spot and respect for survivors. Those who were broken and fought to stay alive appreciated each breath. When given another chance at life, they were also exceptionally loyal once you gained their trust. When he was kid, he had rescued a beaten and starved junkyard dog. With patience and table scraps, that dog grew devoted and dangerous to anyone but Reaper and his twin sister. He remembered the dog with fond memories and still liked animals better than most people. Someday, he planned to get a dog for Jim.
Jim was also the perfect human example of this conviction. Reaper traced a fingertip along Jim’s cheekbone and smiled when, even in his sleep, Jim recognized his touch and nuzzled his hand. He was going to give his golden boy everything, and more than anything, Jim wanted family. Jim would deny it to his very core, but Jim wanted it, so Reaper would give it to him. Since he rescued a youthful Jim, Reaper had started to put his long term strategies into play and began by searching for individuals worthy to serve with his boy.
The first recruit was Nyota Uhura, whom he literally stumbled on whilst on a business trip in Africa. She was one of many daughters of a defeated warlord. Raised in a life of privilege, she found herself handed over to a unit of international mercenaries to be their plaything. All of her sisters had died, some at the hand of the mercenaries, but three had fallen to Nyota as she put them out of their misery. He found her dangling naked from a tree, her tongue cut out and skin cut deep from whip lashes. Somehow she still found the strength to spit in his face when she thought he was one of her captors. Reaper had cut her down and as she was collapsed on the ground, he offered her his coat. What he soon discovered was that Uhura’s dignity was still intact despite the abuse, but her lust for revenge was deeper. Instead of taking the coat, she pointed at Reaper’s phaser with a shaking hand and stumbled to her feet when he gave it to her. A naked and beautiful Amazon was born that day as she killed each of the men in the unit. Reaper especially admired that she shot them in the gut, so they would bleed out slowly and die in agony. As she glared at him warily, he threw his coat to her and told her she had no worries because she wasn’t his type.
The money Reaper invested to pay to restore her clever tongue was well spent when he learned she had a talent for languages. During her years with the mercenaries, she had picked up over a dozen human dialects. He arranged for her to stay with a private tutor to make sure she would be ready to enter the Academy with Jim. She would be a fitting sister and communications officer, deadly and loyal to both of them. Pretty, feisty, and intelligent she would hold Jim’s respect, but it would never cross over into anything sexual. Nyota would never be able to trust a man like that again. That was good, because it would be a pity to slaughter her for trying to tempt Jim.
Pavel Chekov was raised in a brutal corporate run orphanage and managed to stay alive. He came to Reaper’s attention when the kid racked up a juvenile record for extortion, hacking, and cutting the nose and ears off a bully by the tender age of fourteen. He would be the perfect little brother for Jim and Reaper had a fondness for blondes. Reaper had made sure it was Jim who rescued the kid. It established a bond that would ensure Chekov’s undying loyalty and it had worked beautifully because Chekov hero-worshiped Jim. Having a genius pet Russian with a fetish for knives and explosive devices watching Jim’s back was another level of security Reaper preferred having in place. Besides, Chekov was a damn cute psychopath.
Hikaru Sulu had been a surprise, but Reaper had learned long ago to take advantage of luck when presented an opportunity. Sulu was the kind of man who under normal circumstances would try to assassinate Jim without a second thought to advance through the ranks. Reaper was a romantic at heart and when Chekov became obsessed with the weapons expert, Reaper decided to test him to see if he was worthy of the kid. Sulu walked away from the encounter with an ugly scar and deference for the man he knew as Leonard McCoy.
Sulu had proven he was equally obsessed and possessive of Chekov. Chekov was the lynchpin to keeping Sulu under their control. Jim would let him keep Chekov and that kept him loyal. Jim also enjoyed spending time sparing and baiting Sulu, who gave as good as he got. Sulu kept Jim sharp, but Jim was better and Sulu was clever enough to remember that. Looking ahead to future, Reaper knew Sulu would keep Jim’s crew in line and had a flare for creative torture without overly damaging the goods unless needed.
Montgomery Scott was a complete lunatic, but a talented and useful lunatic. Reaper learned about his little stunt that landed the experienced engineer on an ice planet outpost. When a Klingon-Cardassian raiding party came to the base and captured him, Scott managed to explode a K't'inga-class Bird of Prey and get away on an escape pod. It was Reaper who tracked down the escape pod after Archer gave the order to leave Scott to die in space.
The engineer loved starships in unhealthy ways, but when he found out Jim had secured the Enterprise, it was lust at first sight with the grand lady. A steady supply of quality scotch didn’t hurt in keeping Scott manageable either. Reaper knew he had chosen well when he made Jim laugh. That day Montgomery Scott came away with the nickname Scotty, and Jim had enlisted comic relief that could reconfigure an ion canon in his sleep. Neither of them asked what Scotty did with Keenser, the diminutive creature that shadowed him and growled at anyone who came too close to Scotty.
An appropriate second-in-command proved to be more elusive. Spock had not figured into Reaper’s plans at all. Spock had managed to program the Kobayashi Maru test that temporarily eluded Jim. Reaper fully expected him to die at the hands of Jim, but instead the young man had become fascinated with him.
As the first failed simulation ended, Jim had cocked his head to the side and simply stated, “I want him.”
There was no denying the spark between the two and for that reason Reaper decided the instructor had to die. Spock was keenly intelligent, dangerous, and a survivor in an Empire which loathed the mixing of species. Everything feral inside Reaper roared with possessive rage and he fucked Jim brutally on the floor of the simulator after his boy confessed he wanted Spock.
In the aftermath, Jim laughed and licked their mixed blood from Reaper’s lips.
“Only you,” he promised in a hissed whisper. “I can tame him. He can be useful, but there will only ever be you. If he dares to touch me as you do, I’ll cut off each finger then gut him myself.”
Reaper held Jim closer, loathe to give him up to the universe or Spock. “I don’t trust him.”
“Do you trust me?”
That had been the only thing that secured Spock’s life for the time being. Reaper trusted Jim’s judgement, even if he didn’t trust Spock just yet.
As the years at the Academy played out, the pieces of Reaper’s masterpiece were slowly being drawn together. Reaper was reminded that Jim was an equal and shared his vision. If Jim’s instincts told him to recruit Spock, then so be it.
He was reassured and delighted to learn part of Jim’s plans for Spock. Reaper almost felt sorry for Spock when he witness Jim direct Uhura’s attention to the half-Vulcan, telling her that Spock had called her an untalented female with the pathetic linguistic ability of a lead tongued Klingon.
END.