Chapter Text
The USS Magnificent was scheduled for shore leave in little less than a day. They had a run of no real activity, which was fine by the senior officers after the last diplomatic assignment had gone horribly wrong. Boredom, however, was beginning to set in, and the captain knew he had to get his men somewhere soon or havoc would find his ship from the inside, and not from the crew but said officers. They needed to unwind.
Captain Chris Larabee was a hard edged, unforgiving man. His crew knew the lines to tread, and the ones to never cross. He wasn’t the strictest man in the universe, and he allowed plenty of leeway with ‘nonsense’ regulations. The crew knew where they stood, and how dangerous it would be to step out of line.
The senior officers… they were another matter, especially his bridge crew. They knew the same things the crew did, the just chose not to care half the time.
Chris had known his helmsman since before the Academy. The Lieutenant Commander was many things, and Chris was glad to call him friend, always had been. Though, the man could be trouble, especially if there were pretty ladies around. He knew Buck would have his back, even while driving him crazy.
Beside the helmsman sat their navigator. Lieutenant Tanner was someone that Chris had felt a connection to the moment they’d met. He knew what the younger man was thinking without words, just like Vin always seemed to know what he was thinking. It made things easy on away missions, even if it seemed to drive the rest of their friends crazy.
If you combined the navigator with his Chief Engineer, things could get really unpredictable. JD Dunne was the youngest officer on the ship, and the youngest officer in the fleet to serve as head of a department. The boy, as Chris saw him, was barely halfway through his twenties, but he was damn good at his job, even seemed to have a sixth sense about computers and technology that marveled many. He’d been apprehensive about having such a young officer on his ship, especially assigned to head up engineering, but JD had proved himself.
Buck had taken the boy under wing, was teaching him all about being an officer, to which Chris had also been worried until he saw the boy was bright enough to tell what he needed to retain from the mustached man, and what he didn’t.
If you combined Buck with Vin and JD, and with boredom… Chris almost told Buck to engage another warp drive, get them to their destination just that little bit sooner, but he refrained. As much as he knew the crew and most of his officers were looking forward to the shore leave, he had a feeling that his first officer was not.
Turning his chair, Chris looked over at the science station where Ezra sat bent over some work he’d been seeing to. Just what it was, Chris wasn’t sure. He knew that the science officer would alert him in a report in due time, and he’d skim over it before signing off on it and still not know half of what it said. Ezra was closed off from them, not too surprising given his father was Vulcan, but he wasn’t the only hybrid on the crew. Buck’s mother had been half Orion, and he knew that was partly why Buck had such a way with the ladies. Vin was a quarter Vulcan himself, though he didn’t know much about Vulcan beyond what most humans knew. He’d been raised on Earth and had no real sense of the Vulcan blood inside of him.
No, Chris was fairly certain Ezra was closed off because it was who he was, not because of what he was. He’d seen the file on the man’s past, knew it had been rough. No doubt he’d had it rougher, perhaps, than most Vulcan-human half-breeds.
As for their stop for shore leave, Chris knew that the other man was aware the Enterprise was also taking its shore leave at the same time. Ezra had a funny way of trying to avoid Spock like the plague. The captain wasn’t sure if the two first mates had ever met or not, but it seemed Ezra was intent on it staying that way, if they hadn’t. Any missives between ships were so concise and to the point that it made both his and Jim’s heads hurt. It was just Spock’s way of communicating with anyone, and Ezra was extra verbose and cryptic when he had to deal with the other science officer. Chris just wanted to tell them to pull them out and measure them, but Jim had seemed to think that wasn’t the best idea.
He had full intentions to get together with the other captain and lock their first mates in a room, a monitored room, just to see what in the hell was really going on.
The only two members of his senior staff that he didn’t need to worry about were his Chief of Security, Josiah Sanchez, and his CMO, Nathan Jackson. They pretty well kept their noses clean, though Josiah had a penchant to be a mean drunk on occasion and a bit long winded in general. Nathan was a mother hen, and always on them about any number of medical this and medical that, to the point that Ezra had nerve pinched him three times before he’d had to issue an order to the Commander to never do so again, barring some unforeseen event that would actually require it. To say that Nathan and Ezra didn’t get along well… It was becoming a running joke that doctors and Vulcans were made to argue. He knew that if McCoy and Nathan got going…
His thoughts were interrupted by a beep on the arm of his chair, he looked down at it, only then realizing that Ezra had stopped working and was staring at him. No doubt the younger man was curious about his attention, but he also knew that the Vulcan wouldn’t say anything. Again his chair beeped. “You have an incoming transmission from the Enterprise, Captain. Is it your desire to keep the good captain waiting?” Ezra intoned.
“I’ll take it in my Ready Room.” He turned his chair and stood. “You have the con, Commander.”
Ezra stood and walked over to the seat, sitting and turning his attention to the PADD in his hand, which he’d carried from his station.
Heading into his Ready Room, Chris sat and hit the view screen on his desk. Jim Kirk’s face appeared before him, grinning at him. “Hey, Jim,” he greeted.
“Chris! Just the man I wanted to talk to.” He continued to grin, as if he knew some big secret and was just busting to spill. It made Chris nervous.
“You did call me.” Chris rolled his eyes and looked at the other man.
“So I did.” He chuckled. “We’re already at space dock. Just thought I’d give you a heads up that Spock seems to think I’m up to something and Bones is intent on having some one on one time with Jackson.”
Chris groaned. He really didn’t need that. “Are you up to something?” He lifted a brow and stared at the other man.
“There’s a possibility. Spock made a comment the other day about Commander Standish, about his behavior being illogical. So, I thought maybe we should just shove them in a room someplace and sell popcorn.”
“Popcorn…” He shook his head. Only Jim would think of something like that. “I had considered the rest, myself, but do you think it’s really a good idea. I know they’re supposed to hide their emotions and be all about logic, but Ezra has a temper sometimes. I’d rather not have to explain why we need to clean up that much green blood, or listen to McCoy and Jackson when they go on about us letting them beat the shit out of each other.”
Jim chuckled. “Actually, it was partly Bones’ idea. Spock’s been talking about Standish to him, too. I don’t know what about, but Bones thinks they need to get their pissing match over with.”
Chris barked out a laugh. “I thought you told me it wasn’t a good idea.”
“Yeah, well, Bones can be more convincing…” He shrugged a little.
“You mean you’re scared of the hypos he waves in your general direction.” He chuckled.
“That, too. He doesn’t need to hit so hard with them.”
“Yeah. At least he doesn’t give out real sutures if he thinks you’ve been an idiot. Last time Vin pulled a prank, Jackson stitched him up with a needle and thread. “
“Isn’t there a reg against that?” Jim seemed a little shocked.
“We had a reasonable explanation, courtesy of Commander Standish.” He smirked. “Vin was good for a whole month, after that.”
Jim laughed. “I hope he doesn’t go giving Bones any ideas. Of course, I’m sure Spock wouldn’t care about the primitive sutures, just to irritate Bones. I’ve seen Scotty do worse to seal cuts. Drives Bones mad.”
“I bet it does. We’ll rendezvous with the Enterprise in less than twenty four hours.” He checked another screen. “Nineteen point two, it looks like.”
“We’ll be here, warming everything up for you.” He smirked. “Clear sailing, Chris. Kirk out.” The face on the screen disappeared and Chris shook his head. It was going to be an interesting shore leave.