Into Place
Oct. 5th, 2025 11:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerMain Points:
Star Trek (the 2009!movie verse) Cambion AU (New Genesis)
Summary: Kirk and McCoy both have bad news that helps paint the bigger picture.
Word Count: 1213
Rating: Teen
“It could be wrong. We are cut off, and we certainly don’t have access to some of the databases out there,” Amanda agrees mildly, a tone that he immediately recognizes as her teacher voice. “Either way, you should tell the Captain, shouldn’t you?”
McCoy grumbles, but he gets up to go find Kirk. He finds him strangely stationary, sitting at one of the desks and not actually buzzing around with far too much energy, but the man probably deserves a little rest in the face of everything’s that’s going to happen. There won’t be too much time for rest soon.
“You’re not going to believe this…” he begins, before he actually processes the man trying to surreptitiously wipe at his eyes. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
“Nice.” Jim wipes a hand over his face. McCoy’s not about to apologize for his bedside manner, but it doesn’t seem like the kid is even asking him to do that. “I, uh. We’re actually missing someone else. Carol’s baby.”
His voice is a little lost. Adrift. McCoy’s still not a psychologist, but he’s still a doctor and can keep an eye out for medical necessity, and even for a bit, he might need that blanket. “You’re in shock.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Kirk swallows. “I hadn’t seen him yet—didn’t want to push, since she didn’t really want me involved—and now this. I wasn’t ready to be a dad, but now I don’t know if...”
“Don’t talk like that,” McCoy orders, and Jim actually obeys orders for once and shuts up. “How long has it been?”
“Since anyone’s seen him? Doesn’t matter; there’s an actual ransom note. Harrison took him, ordered us all not to follow him. Carol’s the head researcher, so she trusted them all to help out—kind of the old ‘it takes a village’ mentality, you know? Bones, Harrison did a DNA scan from my uniform, the ones we trashed. They know. They picked the perfect hostage to try to make sure none of us go after Genesis—which is missing, by the way, you were right about that too—not us, not Carol, not the Admiral.” He’s still fairly focused and coherent, despite the slight hitch in his voice.
Which makes Leonard’s news worse. He sits down next to him, reaches out a hand. Jim accepts almost immediately, which eases whatever petty part of him was planning on bitching about that, at least. And he does seem to be drawing some strength from it, so Leonard doesn’t feel completely foolish about presuming anything.
Jim shakes his head, pulling himself together. “You, uh, you had news too. What’s up?” McCoy glances over the man, trying to determine if he’s ready to hear the information or if it’ll just make the shock worse, and he just smiles. Slightly broken, but challenging, daring the doctor to declare him unfit for duty. “It’s not like we have all the time in the world. We’re kind of on a timeline, here.”
“John Harrison is a fairly common name, but none of them on the personnel lists are a scientist. Amanda was able to find the name attached to a scientist in the history books, though—a lieutenant of Khan Noonien Singh. I figure you’ve paid attention to your studies there, on account of being something of a secret nerd,” he teases, not entirely sure Jim had been too accurate about him not going into shock, again.
“Not so secret,” Jim drawls, squeezing Leonard’s hand and lacing their fingers more securely together. “That actually makes perfect sense.”
He seems to realize that genocidal madman joining them from a different century isn’t exactly your everyday event for the average person, because he adds, “Something else from the other timeline. I had been hoping they wouldn’t pop up again, but...a lot of other stuff has. The thing that had been bugging me was that I’d thought Harrison was Marcus’s guy. Maybe the whole ‘give us Genesis’ thing was pageantry, him putting on a show to try to say ‘hey, I’m not the guy who stole it’, but he seemed a little too genuine for that. And sure, he’s a bastard spy Admiral, but he still has his tells, same as anyone else, and I have the advantage of knowing one of his protégés. If there’s actually a third faction in this—like, say, an Augment or several used as agents for Section 31 looking out for the moment they can turn against him and get away with it—that actually makes all of this make perfect sense.”
And he’s looking and sounding energized again. Like this is somehow good information. He might very well be a madman. “Great, fine, so we got this jigsaw puzzle assembled. How does that help us?”
Jim pats Leonard’s shoulder with his free hand. It manages to almost not be condescending. “Well, it’s good to know the state of the board. Like, uh, Battleship mixed with chess. And sure, Marcus is probably going to try to scapegoat, court martial, or kill us, but he’s not going to try that yet because we’re a plausibly deniable resource to help him against his escapees.”
“Just what I’ve always wanted, a delayed execution,” Leonard grumbles, and the bright smile is genuine, reaching the eyes.
“Every day alive is a victory,” the man states brightly, maybe only slightly worryingly like a mantra. “Anyway, I’m going to run it by Carol, but David—she finally mentioned his name—might actually be useful here, too, as long as he stays alive and I’m ripping them apart if not. Because if Marcus thinks he can blackmail us into helping him, he’s less likely to go the nuclear route. And he might also be more likely to spill something useful. The more we know, the more prepared we’re gonna be.”
“What do you want us to do in the meantime?” McCoy asks. They’re running toward the end of the deadline.
“You, Amanda...uh, maybe some of the Vulcans or scientists, if they think they can spare anybody. We need to swap to doing two things: figuring out how to stop Genesis after it’s been deployed, and figuring out if Augments have any weaknesses.” He pauses and adds, “I know you’re no physicist, so you’re probably better off in the second group, even if your genetics is a little rusty on account of…” he waves vaguely.
“Genocidal megalomaniacs killing the field?” McCoy lets himself use the driest tone possible, since Jim seems to like it.
“Funny how these things work out,” Jim agrees, letting go not a little reluctantly.
As Kirk stands, a thought occurs to Leonard. “We should look at Harrison’s contributions specifically, any notes he kept, get a feel for the man and maybe more of what he’s planning.” As objective as these things are supposed to be, personality has a way of getting through anyway.
“That’s why I brought you,” Kirk tells him, proud, and then straightens his shirt slightly and goes off to find his ex, again, while Leonard needs to get his act together, stop letting this bother him, and head off to hand them all marching orders.
Star Trek (the 2009!movie verse) Cambion AU (New Genesis)
Summary: Kirk and McCoy both have bad news that helps paint the bigger picture.
Word Count: 1213
Rating: Teen
Leonard sits back, staring at the computer he and Amanda have commandeered. “Goddamn, there’s no way that can be right.”
“It could be wrong. We are cut off, and we certainly don’t have access to some of the databases out there,” Amanda agrees mildly, a tone that he immediately recognizes as her teacher voice. “Either way, you should tell the Captain, shouldn’t you?”
McCoy grumbles, but he gets up to go find Kirk. He finds him strangely stationary, sitting at one of the desks and not actually buzzing around with far too much energy, but the man probably deserves a little rest in the face of everything’s that’s going to happen. There won’t be too much time for rest soon.
“You’re not going to believe this…” he begins, before he actually processes the man trying to surreptitiously wipe at his eyes. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
“Nice.” Jim wipes a hand over his face. McCoy’s not about to apologize for his bedside manner, but it doesn’t seem like the kid is even asking him to do that. “I, uh. We’re actually missing someone else. Carol’s baby.”
His voice is a little lost. Adrift. McCoy’s still not a psychologist, but he’s still a doctor and can keep an eye out for medical necessity, and even for a bit, he might need that blanket. “You’re in shock.”
“Yeah, no kidding.” Kirk swallows. “I hadn’t seen him yet—didn’t want to push, since she didn’t really want me involved—and now this. I wasn’t ready to be a dad, but now I don’t know if...”
“Don’t talk like that,” McCoy orders, and Jim actually obeys orders for once and shuts up. “How long has it been?”
“Since anyone’s seen him? Doesn’t matter; there’s an actual ransom note. Harrison took him, ordered us all not to follow him. Carol’s the head researcher, so she trusted them all to help out—kind of the old ‘it takes a village’ mentality, you know? Bones, Harrison did a DNA scan from my uniform, the ones we trashed. They know. They picked the perfect hostage to try to make sure none of us go after Genesis—which is missing, by the way, you were right about that too—not us, not Carol, not the Admiral.” He’s still fairly focused and coherent, despite the slight hitch in his voice.
Which makes Leonard’s news worse. He sits down next to him, reaches out a hand. Jim accepts almost immediately, which eases whatever petty part of him was planning on bitching about that, at least. And he does seem to be drawing some strength from it, so Leonard doesn’t feel completely foolish about presuming anything.
Jim shakes his head, pulling himself together. “You, uh, you had news too. What’s up?” McCoy glances over the man, trying to determine if he’s ready to hear the information or if it’ll just make the shock worse, and he just smiles. Slightly broken, but challenging, daring the doctor to declare him unfit for duty. “It’s not like we have all the time in the world. We’re kind of on a timeline, here.”
“John Harrison is a fairly common name, but none of them on the personnel lists are a scientist. Amanda was able to find the name attached to a scientist in the history books, though—a lieutenant of Khan Noonien Singh. I figure you’ve paid attention to your studies there, on account of being something of a secret nerd,” he teases, not entirely sure Jim had been too accurate about him not going into shock, again.
“Not so secret,” Jim drawls, squeezing Leonard’s hand and lacing their fingers more securely together. “That actually makes perfect sense.”
He seems to realize that genocidal madman joining them from a different century isn’t exactly your everyday event for the average person, because he adds, “Something else from the other timeline. I had been hoping they wouldn’t pop up again, but...a lot of other stuff has. The thing that had been bugging me was that I’d thought Harrison was Marcus’s guy. Maybe the whole ‘give us Genesis’ thing was pageantry, him putting on a show to try to say ‘hey, I’m not the guy who stole it’, but he seemed a little too genuine for that. And sure, he’s a bastard spy Admiral, but he still has his tells, same as anyone else, and I have the advantage of knowing one of his protégés. If there’s actually a third faction in this—like, say, an Augment or several used as agents for Section 31 looking out for the moment they can turn against him and get away with it—that actually makes all of this make perfect sense.”
And he’s looking and sounding energized again. Like this is somehow good information. He might very well be a madman. “Great, fine, so we got this jigsaw puzzle assembled. How does that help us?”
Jim pats Leonard’s shoulder with his free hand. It manages to almost not be condescending. “Well, it’s good to know the state of the board. Like, uh, Battleship mixed with chess. And sure, Marcus is probably going to try to scapegoat, court martial, or kill us, but he’s not going to try that yet because we’re a plausibly deniable resource to help him against his escapees.”
“Just what I’ve always wanted, a delayed execution,” Leonard grumbles, and the bright smile is genuine, reaching the eyes.
“Every day alive is a victory,” the man states brightly, maybe only slightly worryingly like a mantra. “Anyway, I’m going to run it by Carol, but David—she finally mentioned his name—might actually be useful here, too, as long as he stays alive and I’m ripping them apart if not. Because if Marcus thinks he can blackmail us into helping him, he’s less likely to go the nuclear route. And he might also be more likely to spill something useful. The more we know, the more prepared we’re gonna be.”
“What do you want us to do in the meantime?” McCoy asks. They’re running toward the end of the deadline.
“You, Amanda...uh, maybe some of the Vulcans or scientists, if they think they can spare anybody. We need to swap to doing two things: figuring out how to stop Genesis after it’s been deployed, and figuring out if Augments have any weaknesses.” He pauses and adds, “I know you’re no physicist, so you’re probably better off in the second group, even if your genetics is a little rusty on account of…” he waves vaguely.
“Genocidal megalomaniacs killing the field?” McCoy lets himself use the driest tone possible, since Jim seems to like it.
“Funny how these things work out,” Jim agrees, letting go not a little reluctantly.
As Kirk stands, a thought occurs to Leonard. “We should look at Harrison’s contributions specifically, any notes he kept, get a feel for the man and maybe more of what he’s planning.” As objective as these things are supposed to be, personality has a way of getting through anyway.
“That’s why I brought you,” Kirk tells him, proud, and then straightens his shirt slightly and goes off to find his ex, again, while Leonard needs to get his act together, stop letting this bother him, and head off to hand them all marching orders.
