Wheels in Motion
Apr. 27th, 2025 01:50 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
madimpossibledreamerpretty much any time phil & chris show up it's parental shenanigans redux
Main Points:
Star Trek (the 2009!movie verse) Cambion AU (New Genesis)
Summary: Boyce and Pike are always up for a good conspiracy.
Word Count: 1221
Rating: Gen
He manages to actually talk through his tears this time, though. “Remember how I said I wasn’t a dad? I didn’t know I was lying.”
“Jim—” Maybe he should let Pike talk and actually react, but he can’t stop talking now that he’s started.
“And Carol Marcus is using the kid as a bargaining chip to keep her father off her back and apparently he’s running Section 31 and I figured the best way to follow through is to get her to un-shelve her Genesis Project to make New Vulcan,” he rambles. He’s feeling weird and floaty, with all the previous anchoring he’d managed to get when he was focused with Spock before gone, but that’s all right, because if anyone’s okay with him being an utter weirdo and is safe and can make sense of his nonsense it’s these two.
Boyce tells him, “Breathe,” and that’s right, even whatever weird species he is needs oxygen. “You’re a bastard for preempting my good news conversation, but we’ll have a walk-through of the ritual later,” he adds, and at least that has Jim smiling now. He’ll be okay, because these two can make anything okay. It’s kind of their superpower.
“Pretty sure I can make that happen, Jim,” Pike says, sounding distracted as he’s already sending off messages, and yeah the more they interact the more similarities he spots. Which if he has to share any similarities with anyone, he’s happy it’s Pike.
He feels kinda bad about all these life-changing shifts he keeps throwing into the life of his favorite Admiral, though. “I figured. I just...sorry for it being Marcus…”
“He’s been acting different since before I recruited you. I think trying to keep me out of it so I didn’t discover any of the less-than-savory things he was doing,” Pike responds quickly. It’s not just deflection—yeah, he’d liked the guy, but had been trusting him less and less over the last, what, five, seven years? He’s definitely feeling hurt and betrayed, but less surprised. Not that Jim could actually feel any of that over the comms, but that’s the exact kind of thing Jim himself would say if he’d been betrayed like that. “Would it make you feel better to be involved?” he adds, almost so off-handed that Jim doesn’t catch it immediately.
He considers rather than answering immediately, mostly because Pike and Boyce are gonna frown at him if he doesn’t. As much as he wants to put lightyears between himself and this, that isn’t the right decision and he knows it. “I have to talk to her in person, because she needs to know this kid isn’t gonna be normal and sooner or later they’re gonna notice the hacking if they haven’t already. I…” He swallows, only letting himself be vulnerable because it’s safe to do that here. “I wanna be there for the kid, like my dad wasn’t able to do for me, but I’m pretty sure Carol doesn’t want that, and as much as that hurts, I respect it. She wouldn’t have even gotten me involved if she wasn’t out of options.”
“It’ll maybe play our hand a bit, but that’s the plan in a nutshell anyway, making a big show of all of this. The Kelvin Baby serving as backup gets the front-page headlines, which is what we need right now.” Jim makes a face and it’s his only consolation that from a similar grimace Pike is equally as unhappy with the nickname. “I’d had my own surprise news to share, so you preempted us both, Jim.”
Kirk’s finally starting to feel just that little bit better, to his own surprise. He actually laughs shortly. “Hey, if I’m the only one with bad news here, you’re going to make me feel a little bad.”
“Too bad,” Pike responds with absolutely no sympathy, which makes him relax just that little much more. “Congratulations, by the way. Of course, the timing couldn’t be worse now, but it’s probably the only chance you’ll have for a good long while. You’re picking up a passenger from Vega colony.”
Oh. Oh crap. Okay. “Bones, huh,” he responds, beginning to feel a little floaty again.
“I really wouldn’t call him that immediately,” Boyce advises, trying not to grin.
Whining doesn’t really befit a starship Captain no matter how much he feels like it. “You two didn’t just...assign him to the Enterprise, did you?” He wouldn’t put it past them.
Boyce apparently hadn’t known about Pike plotting (they do seem to like to keep each other on their toes, huh) but he doesn’t seem too surprised, either. “I did hear through the gossip grapevine that he’s been complaining much more than his usual. As much as I hear he grumbles about danger, in my professional opinion, he’s bored, and he’s right to be. His talent’s wasted somewhere like that. McCoy’s the type of doctor who likes being at the cutting edge of medicine and he’s probably barely even getting journals out there. Sounds like he mentioned his grievances one time too many to someone with the actual ability to have him reassigned.”
“I didn’t have him assigned to the Enterprise directly. You’re going to have to wine and dine him, Jim.” Kirk would be a lot more with the whole ‘finding this amusing’ program like Pike is if he wasn’t busy panicking. “Instead, in the hopes it’d shut him up, he’s getting a tour of different places he might like to serve with the understanding he’s going to choose one of them, and you were going to be assigned to shuttling him. I can just add the Genesis Project as just one more stop in the tour.” They’re all hoping he chooses to stay, but voicing that out loud feels a little too much like tempting fate.
“I’m kinda scared my crew is gonna come on too strong,” Kirk admits. He’s less worried about himself—okay, yeah, he’s going to be a bundle of nerves for this whole thing, but he can manage to get things like the science journals on a padd for the guy, and he has to imagine actually having an onboard chef might appeal, and in the other universe something had to have appealed to the guy enough to stay, but Jim really, really wants this to work.
“Sounds like that’s a conversation you should be having with them,” Pike states firmly, and yeah. He’s got a point. That doesn’t make it any easier. “Is there anything else you need?”
From anyone else, it’d be a dismissal, but thanks to long years of acquaintance he knows it’s absolutely genuine.
It’s actually easy to just go ahead and be honest. “A painkiller and a nice long nap, but Spock took me off the roster, unofficially on account of being ‘emotionally compromised’.”
Pike just shakes his head, mock sternly, even though he’s probably laughing on the inside. Boyce doesn’t even bother pretending.
Vaguely directing the conspiracy can wait until after he’s had both. By then, they’ll have probably official orders, and he’ll feel slightly more ready to tackle the entire mess.
Main Points:
Star Trek (the 2009!movie verse) Cambion AU (New Genesis)
Summary: Boyce and Pike are always up for a good conspiracy.
Word Count: 1221
Rating: Gen
He kind of freezes just like Spock had when he finally gets the comm and it’s both Pike and Boyce, crammed into Pike’s home office. “Kid, what happened?” Pike asks, quiet and gentle, and he breaks again.
He manages to actually talk through his tears this time, though. “Remember how I said I wasn’t a dad? I didn’t know I was lying.”
“Jim—” Maybe he should let Pike talk and actually react, but he can’t stop talking now that he’s started.
“And Carol Marcus is using the kid as a bargaining chip to keep her father off her back and apparently he’s running Section 31 and I figured the best way to follow through is to get her to un-shelve her Genesis Project to make New Vulcan,” he rambles. He’s feeling weird and floaty, with all the previous anchoring he’d managed to get when he was focused with Spock before gone, but that’s all right, because if anyone’s okay with him being an utter weirdo and is safe and can make sense of his nonsense it’s these two.
Boyce tells him, “Breathe,” and that’s right, even whatever weird species he is needs oxygen. “You’re a bastard for preempting my good news conversation, but we’ll have a walk-through of the ritual later,” he adds, and at least that has Jim smiling now. He’ll be okay, because these two can make anything okay. It’s kind of their superpower.
“Pretty sure I can make that happen, Jim,” Pike says, sounding distracted as he’s already sending off messages, and yeah the more they interact the more similarities he spots. Which if he has to share any similarities with anyone, he’s happy it’s Pike.
He feels kinda bad about all these life-changing shifts he keeps throwing into the life of his favorite Admiral, though. “I figured. I just...sorry for it being Marcus…”
“He’s been acting different since before I recruited you. I think trying to keep me out of it so I didn’t discover any of the less-than-savory things he was doing,” Pike responds quickly. It’s not just deflection—yeah, he’d liked the guy, but had been trusting him less and less over the last, what, five, seven years? He’s definitely feeling hurt and betrayed, but less surprised. Not that Jim could actually feel any of that over the comms, but that’s the exact kind of thing Jim himself would say if he’d been betrayed like that. “Would it make you feel better to be involved?” he adds, almost so off-handed that Jim doesn’t catch it immediately.
He considers rather than answering immediately, mostly because Pike and Boyce are gonna frown at him if he doesn’t. As much as he wants to put lightyears between himself and this, that isn’t the right decision and he knows it. “I have to talk to her in person, because she needs to know this kid isn’t gonna be normal and sooner or later they’re gonna notice the hacking if they haven’t already. I…” He swallows, only letting himself be vulnerable because it’s safe to do that here. “I wanna be there for the kid, like my dad wasn’t able to do for me, but I’m pretty sure Carol doesn’t want that, and as much as that hurts, I respect it. She wouldn’t have even gotten me involved if she wasn’t out of options.”
“It’ll maybe play our hand a bit, but that’s the plan in a nutshell anyway, making a big show of all of this. The Kelvin Baby serving as backup gets the front-page headlines, which is what we need right now.” Jim makes a face and it’s his only consolation that from a similar grimace Pike is equally as unhappy with the nickname. “I’d had my own surprise news to share, so you preempted us both, Jim.”
Kirk’s finally starting to feel just that little bit better, to his own surprise. He actually laughs shortly. “Hey, if I’m the only one with bad news here, you’re going to make me feel a little bad.”
“Too bad,” Pike responds with absolutely no sympathy, which makes him relax just that little much more. “Congratulations, by the way. Of course, the timing couldn’t be worse now, but it’s probably the only chance you’ll have for a good long while. You’re picking up a passenger from Vega colony.”
Oh. Oh crap. Okay. “Bones, huh,” he responds, beginning to feel a little floaty again.
“I really wouldn’t call him that immediately,” Boyce advises, trying not to grin.
Whining doesn’t really befit a starship Captain no matter how much he feels like it. “You two didn’t just...assign him to the Enterprise, did you?” He wouldn’t put it past them.
Boyce apparently hadn’t known about Pike plotting (they do seem to like to keep each other on their toes, huh) but he doesn’t seem too surprised, either. “I did hear through the gossip grapevine that he’s been complaining much more than his usual. As much as I hear he grumbles about danger, in my professional opinion, he’s bored, and he’s right to be. His talent’s wasted somewhere like that. McCoy’s the type of doctor who likes being at the cutting edge of medicine and he’s probably barely even getting journals out there. Sounds like he mentioned his grievances one time too many to someone with the actual ability to have him reassigned.”
“I didn’t have him assigned to the Enterprise directly. You’re going to have to wine and dine him, Jim.” Kirk would be a lot more with the whole ‘finding this amusing’ program like Pike is if he wasn’t busy panicking. “Instead, in the hopes it’d shut him up, he’s getting a tour of different places he might like to serve with the understanding he’s going to choose one of them, and you were going to be assigned to shuttling him. I can just add the Genesis Project as just one more stop in the tour.” They’re all hoping he chooses to stay, but voicing that out loud feels a little too much like tempting fate.
“I’m kinda scared my crew is gonna come on too strong,” Kirk admits. He’s less worried about himself—okay, yeah, he’s going to be a bundle of nerves for this whole thing, but he can manage to get things like the science journals on a padd for the guy, and he has to imagine actually having an onboard chef might appeal, and in the other universe something had to have appealed to the guy enough to stay, but Jim really, really wants this to work.
“Sounds like that’s a conversation you should be having with them,” Pike states firmly, and yeah. He’s got a point. That doesn’t make it any easier. “Is there anything else you need?”
From anyone else, it’d be a dismissal, but thanks to long years of acquaintance he knows it’s absolutely genuine.
It’s actually easy to just go ahead and be honest. “A painkiller and a nice long nap, but Spock took me off the roster, unofficially on account of being ‘emotionally compromised’.”
Pike just shakes his head, mock sternly, even though he’s probably laughing on the inside. Boyce doesn’t even bother pretending.
Vaguely directing the conspiracy can wait until after he’s had both. By then, they’ll have probably official orders, and he’ll feel slightly more ready to tackle the entire mess.
