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Title: The Movie Never Ends (It Goes On and On and On and On)
Series: Star Trek XI: waterpark 'verse
Rating: PG-13 for swearing and some fade to black hanky-panky
Total Word Count: Are you ready for this shit? 44,841. It's just...it's full of stars.
Summary: Welcome to the Enterprise's newest mission, a voyage to a little planet called Castro III. For once, obeying the Prime Directive is the least of their worries. It's hard to be in Starfleet when you have to deal with transporter malfunctions, video game sessions, rings, jail cells, matador costumes, bowling matches, miscommunications, spies, observation deck talks, champagne, disciplinary hearings, new nicknames, romantic dinners, and a pair of people who won't be talking when the dust settles.
Pairing Notes: Kirk/Bones, Spock/Uhura, Sulu/Chapel
Notes: This takes place a year and eight months into the five year mission, meaning Kirk and Bones have been dating for eight months. (LOL POSTING IN MY OWN UNIVERSE OUT OF ORDER.) If you haven't read everything else in the land of waterparks and roller rinks, certain things will be confusing to you.
In which, we find out why Jim hasn't asked a certain question, what Christine's been up to, and a bowling match happens.
This morning
After she lay awake for four hours, Nyota Uhura realized she was going to be unable to sleep. She was too worried and too upset to do anything except stare at the ceiling.
Spock eventually came to bed himself, and she turned to face the wall away from him. She sensed that he looked at her for a while before finally laying down himself. He made no attempt to reach out to her or to touch her.
Once she was certain he was asleep, she had quietly gotten back up and gone out into their living room. It was where she still sat hours later.
Spock was acting strangely.
He pulled away from their kiss in the transporter room.
He became irrationally jealous over the doctor patching up her wrist, then acted as if it was her fault he became upset.
He kept starting to say something to her, only to abruptly stop speaking and tell her it was nothing.
He had insulted her and admitted it was to instigate an argument.
He played that awful song.
He was being somewhat secretive.
The last time he had even tried to touch her was the incident in the transporter room. He hadn't so much as touched her hand or kissed her since several days ago.
Nyota picked at her fingernails, a bad habit from her childhood. She breathed in, deeply and slowly.
After being together for three years, Nyota knew how to read Spock's emotions in spite of how he may have downplayed them. When she asked Spock if he was unhappy, he had not answered her. He had, however, become guilty. She saw it in his eyes.
Spock was unhappy, unwilling to touch her, unable to talk to her about something, and doing things completely out of character to try and push her away.
Tears began to fill her eyes and her lips trembled. As much as it pained her, she knew what all of that meant.
After all, she had been dumped before.
Her hands were shaking and she brought one of them up to cover her mouth.
She just didn't understand why. Had she done something? Had she not done something? Was it because she was human and he decided it wouldn't work after all? Had he just grown tired of her?
Nyota choked back several sobs, resulting in a kind of stilted and loud breathing. She moved her hand down to her throat.
Slowly, she began to calm herself. The tears remained unshed and she was able to put her hand back into her lap.
So she was being dumped. That was fair, her and Spock had never really discussed forever or marriage, even though she was hoping maybe once the five year mission ended they could go that route. Better for them to get out now if it was no longer working for him.
She couldn't be in this room any longer.
As soon as she realized she would be unable to sleep, she brought a pair of jeans and a shirt out with her. She changed out of her nightgown into the clothing, slipping on a pair of flats she kept by the front door.
Nyota opened the door and slipped out into the hallway.
Now the question was where to go. She wasn't dressed for a work out, she didn't have the security clearance to sneak onto the water deck. Her hands were still shaking a bit.
Well, she could always go to one of the certainly deserted rec rooms and catch up on her reading.
She stepped into the turbo lift and pushed the button for deck six.
Nyota began to feel anger creep through her body and her hands clenched into fists.
She may have been able to accept that he wished to end things, but she was not willing to accept his complete cowardice in handling the situation. Obviously, the only reason why he would be so hesitant to break things off with her was that he was afraid of hurting her, of making her upset.
He had never treated her emotions as if they were a liability in the past; in fact, he had always told her he was grateful for them. So now all of a sudden when his actions were going to cause her to react in an understandable and justified fashion, they were a problem.
How dare he.
How dare he take the easy way out. Nyota did not use the word owe often, but Spock definitely owed her better than that.
She stepped off the lift and turned down the hallway towards her destination. The door opened for her, and she stepped inside. “Lights,” she called out softly. The lights all came up and Nyota blinked for a moment at the sight before her.
She was expecting the room to be quiet and empty.
She was not, however, expecting to find the captain asleep on a sofa.
Nyota tilted her head to one side and looked at him curiously.
Incredibly Kirk was still in the traje de luces, although he was using the jacket as a pillow. His right arm was thrown across his eyes haphazardly and his tie and shoes were laying on the ground by the sofa.
Why wasn't he sleeping in his and Leonard's quarters?
Nyota walked quietly over to the couch and knelt beside it. After looking at him for a minute, she slowly reached out a hand and gently shook Kirk's shoulder.
“Mmph, Bones, it's not time yet,” he grumbled.
Nyota sighed. “I'm not Bones and this isn't your bed.”
Slowly, Kirk moved the arm off of his face and blinked sleepily at her. Once he finally registered who she was, he abruptly sat up straight. “Uhura...I...”
“Having a rough night?” Her voice and face were both gentle.
“Understatement,” Kirk answered while cracking his neck. “I'm going on a limb and guessing you are too, because I set an alarm for nine and I know it's not that early.” He thought for a moment. “Or late. Whatever.”
Nyota's face fell for a moment. “I...” Damn it, her lips were trembling again.
Jim's eyes widened and he turned so that he was facing her. “Are you okay?”
“No,” she replied with a shake of her head and a forced laugh. “I'm really not.” She took a deep breath and got a hold of herself. “How about you? Why are you sleeping in here?”
Kirk's face became incredibly sad for a moment before he shrugged. “Don't want to talk about it.”
Oh, she knew that feeling all too well. “Likewise.”
An understanding passed between the two of them, and Kirk pat the space on the couch next to him. Quickly obliging, she sat down with him. They stayed in companionable silence for a good few minutes, neither of them quite knowing what to say.
If someone were to go back in time and tell her five years ago that her and Kirk would be moping together on a couch, she would have laughed before having them sent to Starfleet General for a psych evaluation. Not for the first time, she marveled at how much things between them had changed for the better since their time at the academy.
After a while, he nudged her shoulder with his own. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“This sucks and I'm not doing it,” he declared.
“What sucks?”
“This.” He gestured to the two of them. “Fuck this. Want to help me brush up on my Andorian or something?”
Uhura smiled. “Your Klingon is worse. Much worse.”
Jim rolled his eyes. “Whatever, fine, brush up on my Klingon then.” He brushed some imaginary lint off his shirt. “Never know who I'll need to impress.”
It was Nyota's turn to roll her eyes. “We don't have that kind of time.”
“Zing,” he said. “Anyways, help a man out?”
“Of course.” They changed positions so that they both were sitting sideways on the couch Indian-style and promptly began Jim's brush up lesson.
Also not the for the first time, she was glad to call him her friend.
-----
Pavel Chekov used his sonic brush on his teeth, taking special care around his gums. He turned it off and made a cheesy grin in the mirror to examine his handiwork.
Not bad.
“Stop hogging the mirror,” Sulu complained good-naturedly. He licked his hand and pressed it to the right side of his head. “I keep getting these stupid cowlicks.”
Pavel moved over slightly so they could both be seen in the mirror and snorted. “There is no help for you.” He finger-combed the curls at the front of his face. “I, on other hand, am perfect.”
Hikaru looked at him in amusement. “Yeah, okay. You just go right ahead and think that.” Hikaru grabbed his own sonic toothbrush and began to take care of his teeth with nearly the same vigor as Pavel. “You think we'll win this today,” he asked and his voice was muffled by the brush.
“We should, have not seen them practice at all,” the navigator answered with a shrug. “Think we want it more.”
Hikaru nodded his agreement as he turned off his toothbrush. “Yeah, I think so too. We're all really good at this.” He looked at Pavel somewhat closely for a moment. “You and Spock in particular seem to be naturals.”
Pavel shrugged. “Was easy once I got the hang.” He walked out of the room to the living area, and sat down so he could put on his sneakers. “What time is it?”
Hikaru finally decided that his hair didn't suck completely. “A little after ten, we've got plenty of time before we head down. We should probably grab breakfast, it'll be a long time before we'll get to eat if we don't.”
The Russian pulled up his messages on his PADD. Riley and DeSalle had sent a message wishing them good luck and he could where they carbon-copied it to Sulu. That was nice of them. He grinned at the part where they told them to “kick some ass.”
“Hey, you think we should do something for everyone to bring morale up?”
“What?”
Hikaru sat next to him. “We should do something to pump everyone up. Like...a chant or something.” He suddenly brightened. “Wait, I know. After the meeting the other day, I checked out some holos of twentieth century bowling teams and they all had these really cool shirts. We should go down to the quartermaster's and see if we can get the machines to make us some for everyone.”
Pavel's grin was for a different reason now. “Excellent idea! Everyone will be very happy with them!”
Sulu nodded enthusiastically. “Let's do it, but after we grab breakfast. I think Muriel was doing french toast today and I'm starving.”
Chekov brightened; he loved Muriel's french toast, it was just about his favorite thing in the world. Before they began to head out, he stopped for a moment. “Hikaru?”
“Yeah?”
He didn't know why, but for some reason he felt compelled to say, “You are my best friend. Never forget it.”
Hikaru looked touched. He smiled. “Thanks, Pavel. You too.”
Pavel felt like his smile became a little bit brighter at this. “Will remember you said that,” he said.
They left their quarters and went to breakfast.
-----
Jim stood in front of his door at ten thirty on the dot.
He and Uhura had a lot of fun and laughs while practicing their Klingon, but he had hidden long enough. Besides, he really needed to shower before they beamed down. He grimaced at that; he really hoped that transporter was fixed this time.
He punched in the entry code and walked into his quarters. He needed a different outfit, so to the bedroom first he went.
“Where the fuck have you been,” Bones snapped from where he sat on the couch. He was already dressed and had clearly gone without sleeping.
Jim regarded him coldly. “Out. What do you care?” Without so much as another glance, he walked into their bedroom and opened the closet. Rather forcefully, he picked out a shirt and a pair of jeans.
Apparently, Bones followed him because he shortly heard “What the hell is that supposed to mean? How am I supposed to react when you disappear on me all night and you disable the computer from locating you? I looked everywhere on this rust bucket for you, Jim, and I didn't sleep a God damn wink!”
“Aw,” Jim said sarcastically. “Your life's so hard.” He needed something to put over his shirt, he kept getting cold. He reached for something when he suddenly remembered; of course he lost his favorite sweater yesterday. He grabbed a longer-sleeved shirt to put over the other one and turned back around. Bones was standing right in front of him, blocking his way to the bathroom. “Excuse me, I need to shower.”
Bones didn't move.
Jim rolled his eyes. “Fine, I'll get out of your way.” He moved to the right and Bones followed. “Do you have a problem, Leonard?”
At the use of his given name, Bones took a step backwards with a horrified expression. Good, maybe if he could hurt him just a fraction of what Jim was feeling... “Jim, I just...I was so worried. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been short with you just now.”
“No kidding,” the captain said. “You're not my fucking mother.”
“I never tried to say I was,” Bones said in a sad voice.
“Oh look. We finally agree on something.” Jim finally had enough and shoved his way past him.
Leonard turned and tried to keep up with a confused look. “Finally agree, what are you even talking about?”
The blond threw his clothes into the bathroom. “Let me guess, this is the part where you call me an idiot.”
“Of course not, but I have no idea what you're going on about right now and...”
Jim barked out a sarcastic laugh. “Of course you don't. You've done nothing wrong, right?”
“No, Jim,” Bones said with a shake of his head. “I've obviously done something. I just...just talk to me. Please.”
Jim grit his teeth. “Oh, so now you want to talk. Now you care enough to say something,” he spat. “Well that's just too fucking bad, because I'm not listening!” With that, he stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
“Jim, come on!” Bones' voice was muffled through the thin metal of the door. There was a long, heavy silence. “Fine. I'll see you in the transporter room.”
Jim sighed and looked at his reflection in the mirror. His hands were shaking and he no longer felt any anger, just a quiet sort of dull pain. He placed his hands on the sink and took several deep breaths.
Jim wasn't stupid, he knew why he neglected to answer any of Bones' questions directly. Why he lashed out at him instead of talking.
He was scared.
No, he wasn't scared. He was completely fucking terrified.
Nothing in his life had been as stable, as healthy, or as wonderful as his relationship with Bones. He couldn't remember a time where he was ever happier than the past eight months. He loved Bones, more than he previously thought it was possible for him to love another person.
But Bones...Bones didn't love him back.
While he was taking his walk the night before, he realized that Bones had never once said the words I love you to him. Not one single time. And God, that filled him with a pain that he never knew in his entire life.
If Bones never said it...then obviously he didn't feel the same way as him.
Jim took another deep breath and looked again at his reflection. He swallowed around the lump in his throat.
Bones didn't love him.
Maybe he just wasn't there yet, but regardless he didn't. If they talked about it...if he asked Bones point-blank and was told “You're right, I don't”...then he was done for.
He was done for and he had no idea what the hell he was going to do.
Jim finally understood why there were so many songs about this, and why so many people derided this in poetry. More than anything else he ever faced, he knew that this was his real Kobayashi Maru, that this was the real no-win scenario. If he held on and just settled for what he was given, it would eat him alive. If he let Bones walk out the door, he would be wrecked.
God, he couldn't even meet his own gaze in the mirror. With a growl, he forced himself to look again.
“You're pathetic,” he said to himself, soft and bitter. “You're a mess.”
Jim sighed loudly and then repeated the action. He slid the door open and stepped out into the living area to check the time.
Shit, it was going on eleven.
He didn't have time for this, he had a goal to meet and a crew to lead.
Jim promptly turned on his heel and stepped back into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
Time to go to work.
-----
As Scotty was in command up on the bridge, Keenser and Richards were the only representatives from engineering in the transporter room.
“You're absolutely certain you've got it this time,” Kirk said flatly.
Richards nodded.
“We hadn't realized there some kind of weird energy field in that debris,” Keenser supplied. “It's a huge cloud of several different types of radiation. This radiation is what's been spiking and is what's been interfering with the memory patterns in the computer banks. Not enough to turn you all into evil duplicates or scramble your atoms across space, but just enough to play havoc with your clothes.” Keenser crossed his arms, as if daring Kirk to question him further. “It took all night to make the calculations and we tested it twice. There'll be smooth sailing from here on out.”
Jim was not entirely convinced, but he nodded anyways. He supposed they would see when they were done with the match.
Regardless he was still pissed about his cardigan.
Chekov and Sulu arrived in the transporter room at that moment, each with a pile of black fabric in their arms.
“Do I want to know?” Jim pointed to the piles. His navigator and his pilot exchanged a look.
“You'll see when everyone gets here,” was all Sulu would say.
Spock was the next person to arrive, and he raised an eyebrow at the fabric in their arms as well. The pair still said nothing and he simply took a spot on the transporter pad. He placed his hands behind his back.
Uhura was next and she smiled at Jim and the others before she noticed Spock. The smile abruptly faded and she stayed on the ground near Team Goldshirt.
“You ready?” Kirk nudged her lightly.
“Of course,” she answered. She nudged him back, then glanced towards Spock. The Vulcan was watching her interaction with the captain curiously. She gave him a look that plainly dared him to say something. He looked down at the floor instead and she felt her confidence waver a little.
Nyota noticed Jim suddenly stiffen next to her and she looked at the door where McCoy was standing with an uncertain look on his face. He looked at the captain beseechingly for a minute, but all he got for his trouble was a glare. Bones wilted a little, but he didn't seem all that surprised by the reaction. Without so much as a hello, he walked over to the transporter pad and stood on it next to Spock.
Chekov looked up at Sulu with a weird expression. The pilot didn't notice at first, he was too busy looking at all of his friends.
It was fairly obvious that none of them had talked yet.
Hikaru shook his head sadly. It didn't matter if there was a four-way murder-suicide when they got back, they just needed to behave for three hours or so. Then again, they were all professionals and this was their job. They had to do it and do it well, and he had enough faith in them to know that they would.
Pavel elbowed him, and he looked down to meet his gaze. The ensign lifted up the pile in his arms. Oh, right.
“Hey guys,” Hikaru said and everyone turned their attention to him. “Pavel and I had some time this morning so we decided that, like all teams, the six of us need a uniform.” He handed part of his pile to Pavel and held one piece of black fabric up.
It was a short-sleeved button up shirt. The embroidery above the front pocket spelled out Chekov in a shade of gold that matched the two stripes running down the front and the cuffs on the sleeves. Two of the shirts had similar stripes and embroidery in blue, and the last one was in red.
“There is one for everybody,” Chekov said helpfully. “Should put on before we go!”
The other three humans all looked oddly touched by this and came forward, Sulu handing them out to each person. Spock hesitated somewhat before moving, and Sulu chose to believe that meant he was touched as well.
“These are great, guys,” Kirk said as he buttoned his up. “Thanks.”
“Very welcome,” Pavel replied. “Here, Doctor.”
“Thanks,” Bones said quietly. He slid his on, choosing to leave it open over his current shirt.
Jim stepped over to the console and pushed the intercom to the bridge. “Kirk to bridge.”
“Bridge, Scott here.”
“Scotty, we're going to beam down in a second. Spock's comm will remain open, in case anything hinky goes down.” Something clicked and he realized he hadn't yet checked on the thing with sick bay. “Did you ever figure out what happened last night?”
“Not yet,” came Scotty's answer. “It looks unlikely that it'll happen a second time. Some of my men are still there working on it, though, in the off-chance it should. This way they'll be able to open her up straight away. Until we know the cause, I can't make any promises.”
Jim nodded. “Okay, that's all I needed.”
“Captain? You sure you don't need any security or anything?” Scotty sounded somewhat curious.
Jim sighed. “It's a bowling match, Scotty, and these people are friendly. It'd be superfluous.”
“All right then, just figured I'd ask in case you changed your mind,” came Scotty's reply.
Jim nodded. “Thanks for having our backs. Kirk out.” He closed the commlink and turned to join everyone else on the pad.
The others were wearing their shirts and the group of them looked oddly impressive together. Sulu couldn't help but notice that Nyota and Kirk were as far away from Spock and McCoy as they could get. It occurred to him then that Christine was nowhere to be found after she promised to wish him luck. Oh well, she was in all likelihood tied up with work. He sighed.
“Stand by,” Keenser called. “We're all set.”
“Energize,” Kirk answered.
As he felt the pull of the transporter begin, Sulu reminded himself that it was only going to take three hours. What could possibly go wrong?
-----
After beaming in successfully Team Enterprise, as Jim was now referring to them in his head, made their way into the bowling alley that served as Lebowski's town hall.
The other team did not appear to have arrived yet, so they waited a moment.
A girl that Jim recognized as the one he had spoken with the other day approached them. She smiled at him. “You're Kirk, right?”
Jim smiled back. “I am, yeah.”
“Good,” she said. “Go ahead and get your shoes, you guys are going to be on lane twenty-two today. The Dude and his advisors will be next to you at twenty-one.” She gave a little wave and with that, ran off to the snack bar.
Jim looked at his crew, some of which looked less enthusiastic than the others. “Okay guys, you heard her. Shoes then warm up.” They all got in a line and began to wait patiently. The guy at the counter knew them all by now and without asking handed each person the appropriate size.
“How come you have purple,” Pavel asked as he pointed to Uhura's shoes.
She shrugged. “Probably because I'm a woman. I didn't really think about it, honestly.” She didn't really mind either, as it was her favorite color.
Two pairs of shoes were placed up on the counter at the same time and Jim reached for a pair absently. He made sure they were the right ones (they were) and he began to lead his troops to the lane.
Hurriedly, everyone grabbed their preferred bowling balls and sat them on the machine. Spock began to put everyone's name into the computer; Jim would have stopped him, but as this was the real deal their actual names were more appropriate today.
For obvious reasons, he wasn't in much of a joking mood.
Chekov and Sulu began to throw practice balls while Uhura began to tape up her wrist the same way Bones did the day before. Jim cracked his knuckles.
“Captain,” a voice called from behind him and he turned around.
The Dude had arrived. He stood, sunglasses on like always with five other people behind him. Jim shook his hand with a smile.
“Dude,” he said. “Always a pleasure.”
The Dude nodded in return. “I'd like to introduce you to my team. This here's the Vice Dude,” he said and a man also in sunglasses nodded his hello. “Also we have the Sheriff, Agriculture Chief, School Superintendent, and Head Librarian.” Jim looked at him quizzically at the last. “I told you we like to read.”
“Right,” Jim said. “Thanks again for letting us have the use of this place to practice.”
“Not a problem,” the Dude answered. “We like things to be...fair. It was the least we could do.”
A crowd was beginning to form in the bowling alley. It was at least as large as the crowd on the day of their election, if not bigger. “Invited a lot of spectators?”
“I declared it a holiday,” the Dude said with a smile. “A lot of the children wanted to see it and I just couldn't break their hearts.”
There didn't seem to be all that many children present, but maybe there would be more soon. Jim cracked his knuckles again.
The Dude's advisors began to get warmed up themselves; soon, everyone was taking turns throwing practice balls. After about twenty minutes of that, a gentleman in a referee outfit raised both arms and the teams abruptly stopped what they were doing.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first ever Lebowski-Federation bowl off,” he said and the crowd around them cheered. “Whatever team wins the best out of three games wins it all.” He looked pointedly to team Enterprise. “Remember, this is scratch bowling so no handicaps.”
Jim grimaced. Shit, they were counting on that. He leaned into Spock. “That gonna mess things up?”
Spock shook his head. “The largest handicap was Lieutenant Uhura's and her bowling has improved since they were calculated.”
“Good.” Jim calmed himself.
“Our home team is going to go first,” the ref continued. “Federation will bowl second.” He smiled at both teams in turn. “Let's have fun and keep things clean everyone. Good luck to both of you.” He dropped his arms. “Let's bowl!”
The crowd cheered and the music started pumping through the speakers once more. The Dude grabbed his ball and began to start his first turn. Jim rotated his wrist thoughtlessly before he sensed someone staring at him. He looked up and Bones had moved somewhat close to him. “What,” he snapped.
“Nothing,” Bones snapped back before he even realized it. He shrank a little where he stood before saying in a dull tone, “Just...good luck, Jim.”
Jim didn't answer or thank him, but he did incline his head in a slight nod.
The crowd started to cheer a third time and he looked up at the screen above him. The Dude had opened with a strike. Jim sighed, and then cleared his head.
Without another thought, he grabbed his ball and began to bowl.
-----
Christine Chapel gave a frustrated shout as she threw the PADD across her room in disgust.
It wasn't bad enough she had to break her word to Hikaru because of this stupid assignment. No, of course it wasn't, so on top of everything she was having a hard time making heads or tails of these files.
She knew the people on Castro were stuck in the twenty-first century but this was fucking ridiculous.
All of the information she grabbed about their government basically read like sports stat sheets. For each person in their government, there was a total of their wins and losses. It also listed things like their handicaps, what hand they preferred to bowl with, time in office, and ball weight.
In all likelihood it was the absolute most useless and boring intel she had the misfortune of ever coming across in all of the time she had been doing this.
She needed to keep reviewing it though, it was part of the job description. She also had to do it quickly, as the away team was probably almost done bowling at this point.
Everything looked run-of-the-mill and routine. There was no mention of the Federation in these reports, even though the Icarus had crashed there two hundred years ago. That was somewhat odd, as they did have low-level warp drives. Most planets with that at least had heard of the Federation. Typically there was some sort of mention or yay or nay in the files. Everything she was examining was simply a bunch of bowling achievements.
This was really beginning to drive her insane.
Something kept nagging at her over the these reports, though, and so she forced herself to keep running over them. There was something she just intrinsically did not like about these people when she went planetside the other night and she was determined to find out what it was.
Spies with bad instincts didn't tend to last very long and Christine had been active now for two years.
Sighing, she stood up and walked across the room to grab her PADD back. Chris pulled the file back up and began to review it again. It hadn't taken her long to find the files once she had been looking, but she couldn't find anything important at all in them. Ignoring all the references to some old film, they were also riddled with image files of bowling trophies.
Wait, that was weird.
The trophy under their leader, The Dude's, picture didn't match any of the ones he was said to have. It actually looked a lot like a stock photo now that she was examining it more closely. She scrolled down further in the reports.
Now that she paid them more attention, they all looked like stock photos.
“Let's see,” she said as she began to chew on her lower lip. If she could isolate the images from the reports, she might find something worth reporting back.
Her last couple rounds of intel gathering had been boring and mundane, so she was about due for something interesting.
The image files had been isolated, and she saw that several of them had been repeated throughout the paperwork. Maybe there was some kind of code in the trophy names themselves. She opened one of the images separately from the others in order to catch a glimpse of the file name.
Christine was fairly up on her technological history, so she knew that once upon a time people would name these simple files, called .jpegs, things like “can_roof.jpeg” or something similar. Descriptive names that told you immediately what the file was. People even did it with holos, that way they always knew what they were getting.
This file had a string of gibberish about thirty characters long and a weird extension name.
Wait a minute, didn't people used to have a type of cryptography with images? She wanted to say it was visual cryptography or something like that. You'd have several images and when you put them over top each other you got a hidden message.
Taking her stylus, she took the first image file and began to pile them in order on top of each other. It took several minutes, as there were twenty-four images in total. She flattened them out to make one big file.
Some of these were plans for spaceships. It seemed like all of them had failed, due to the debris field surrounding the planet.
She caught a mention of the transporters and it made her eyes widen.
These weren't just plans for spaceships. These were plans for...oh shit.
She needed to get to Scotty right now.
-----
It was the last bowler of the ninth frame and Jim was starting to worry. At this point, he honestly thought he'd rather deal with Nero again than ever have another bowling mission.
The first game, the Lebowskians had won. They started with a fair lead and Team Enterprise only was able to bridge the gap towards the end of it. Chekov let his nerves affect him a little, which Jim had not blamed him for at all. For something that was supposed to be so much fun, the pressure was mounting exponentially.
The second game went to Team Enterprise, thanks to Chekov regaining his confidence and some sweet pick ups by Sulu and Bones. Everyone bowled personal bests that round and Jim found he was incredibly proud of all of them.
This entire third game they were virtually neck-and-neck the whole time, although Team Enterprise was currently in a slight lead. It probably was going to come down to the very last frame for both teams. He wiped the sweat off his brow and prepared to grab his ball. Slightly nervously, he let the Dude go ahead of him.
The Dude went, and with ease bowled a strike.
Shit, that meant he got two more turns and Jim had to get a strike himself to keep them all in the game.
Luckily on his second go, The Dude only hit nine of the pins. Cursing under his breath, he picked up the spare unhappily.
Feeling the pressure, Jim bowled.
All ten of the pins went down with a loud crash.
Thank God. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Do it again, Jim. Just do it again.
He narrowed his eyes and let loose.
The ten pins went down a second time.
Jesus.
He bowled for the third time and knocked eight of the pins down, which was fine. He had pulled them far enough ahead for now.
The next bowler went and also got two strikes, but he only took down six pins on his third shot. Spock quickly pulled out three strikes of his own.
Their School Superintendent went next and she got one strike and a spare, which meant that Team Enterprise was still leading. Bones also got a strike and a spare, which made the gap shrink a little. The Lebowskians held their own against Sulu and Uhura, and their final bowler pulled a strike while only knocking down seven more pins.
This was it. It all came down to Chekov.
“Come on,” he whispered to the navigator. “You can do it, just do it like you did the whole time. You make this and you'll get a commendation.”
Pavel looked at him with an oddly blank expression. “May I use the restroom first?”
Without so much as a single word, Jim handed him his bowling ball. He raised his eyebrow.
Chekov took the ball, sulking a little. “Forget I said.”
As stupid as it was, since the kid had bowled a perfect game already, Jim found himself incredibly nervous. Chekov, however, was perfectly calm as he took his ball and made his way to the foul line.
Naturally, he threw a strike.
Jim clenched his hands into fists. Just do it two more times, Chekov. Just two more times.
His ball came through the return, and Chekov grabbed it. Once more, he strode to the foul line.
Another strike.
The only sound in the room was that of the music playing over the speakers.
Sulu stood next to him with a serious look on his face. Even Spock looked nervous.
Chekov placed the ball on his right hand and swallowed. He stared, resolute, down the lane.
Without another moment's delay, he went to the foul line. Chekov brought his arm back and released his ball.
The entire room was holding their breath.
The ball made its way down the lane and hit the pins.
It wasn't a third strike, but nine of them went down and it was enough.
“Yes!” Jim shouted triumphantly. They had done it! They had won, although barely, and Castro was going to join the Federation! Finally something was going right for him!
He quickly turned and fist-bumped Chekov and Sulu before hugging Uhura. She was surprised for a moment, but she quickly hugged him back. She then moved to hug the other two boys and he turned around with a smile.
Bones had just finished congratulating Spock when he looked at Jim with a tentative smile. Jim felt his face harden, and he quickly turned and looked away. He knew it was childish, but he just...he couldn't right then.
Bones slowly stopped smiling. Obviously, Jim was still upset.
All right then.
He quickly moved to congratulate Sulu, giving the captain another sad glance.
Uhura finished hugging Chekov, ruffling his hair affectionately. She studiously avoided Spock all together.
“Congratulations,” the Dude finally said. “Y'all did a fine job. You kept us on our toes, that's for sure.”
Jim shook his hand with a grin. “You too. For a minute there I thought you had us.”
At that, the citizens surrounding them suddenly all drew guns. The Enterprise bowling team all stopped celebrating and clustered more tightly together.
“Oh you've been had all right,” the Dude answered and his smile was sharp like a knife.
Chapter Three | Chapter Five
Series: Star Trek XI: waterpark 'verse
Rating: PG-13 for swearing and some fade to black hanky-panky
Total Word Count: Are you ready for this shit? 44,841. It's just...it's full of stars.
Summary: Welcome to the Enterprise's newest mission, a voyage to a little planet called Castro III. For once, obeying the Prime Directive is the least of their worries. It's hard to be in Starfleet when you have to deal with transporter malfunctions, video game sessions, rings, jail cells, matador costumes, bowling matches, miscommunications, spies, observation deck talks, champagne, disciplinary hearings, new nicknames, romantic dinners, and a pair of people who won't be talking when the dust settles.
Pairing Notes: Kirk/Bones, Spock/Uhura, Sulu/Chapel
Notes: This takes place a year and eight months into the five year mission, meaning Kirk and Bones have been dating for eight months. (LOL POSTING IN MY OWN UNIVERSE OUT OF ORDER.) If you haven't read everything else in the land of waterparks and roller rinks, certain things will be confusing to you.
In which, we find out why Jim hasn't asked a certain question, what Christine's been up to, and a bowling match happens.
This morning
After she lay awake for four hours, Nyota Uhura realized she was going to be unable to sleep. She was too worried and too upset to do anything except stare at the ceiling.
Spock eventually came to bed himself, and she turned to face the wall away from him. She sensed that he looked at her for a while before finally laying down himself. He made no attempt to reach out to her or to touch her.
Once she was certain he was asleep, she had quietly gotten back up and gone out into their living room. It was where she still sat hours later.
Spock was acting strangely.
He pulled away from their kiss in the transporter room.
He became irrationally jealous over the doctor patching up her wrist, then acted as if it was her fault he became upset.
He kept starting to say something to her, only to abruptly stop speaking and tell her it was nothing.
He had insulted her and admitted it was to instigate an argument.
He played that awful song.
He was being somewhat secretive.
The last time he had even tried to touch her was the incident in the transporter room. He hadn't so much as touched her hand or kissed her since several days ago.
Nyota picked at her fingernails, a bad habit from her childhood. She breathed in, deeply and slowly.
After being together for three years, Nyota knew how to read Spock's emotions in spite of how he may have downplayed them. When she asked Spock if he was unhappy, he had not answered her. He had, however, become guilty. She saw it in his eyes.
Spock was unhappy, unwilling to touch her, unable to talk to her about something, and doing things completely out of character to try and push her away.
Tears began to fill her eyes and her lips trembled. As much as it pained her, she knew what all of that meant.
After all, she had been dumped before.
Her hands were shaking and she brought one of them up to cover her mouth.
She just didn't understand why. Had she done something? Had she not done something? Was it because she was human and he decided it wouldn't work after all? Had he just grown tired of her?
Nyota choked back several sobs, resulting in a kind of stilted and loud breathing. She moved her hand down to her throat.
Slowly, she began to calm herself. The tears remained unshed and she was able to put her hand back into her lap.
So she was being dumped. That was fair, her and Spock had never really discussed forever or marriage, even though she was hoping maybe once the five year mission ended they could go that route. Better for them to get out now if it was no longer working for him.
She couldn't be in this room any longer.
As soon as she realized she would be unable to sleep, she brought a pair of jeans and a shirt out with her. She changed out of her nightgown into the clothing, slipping on a pair of flats she kept by the front door.
Nyota opened the door and slipped out into the hallway.
Now the question was where to go. She wasn't dressed for a work out, she didn't have the security clearance to sneak onto the water deck. Her hands were still shaking a bit.
Well, she could always go to one of the certainly deserted rec rooms and catch up on her reading.
She stepped into the turbo lift and pushed the button for deck six.
Nyota began to feel anger creep through her body and her hands clenched into fists.
She may have been able to accept that he wished to end things, but she was not willing to accept his complete cowardice in handling the situation. Obviously, the only reason why he would be so hesitant to break things off with her was that he was afraid of hurting her, of making her upset.
He had never treated her emotions as if they were a liability in the past; in fact, he had always told her he was grateful for them. So now all of a sudden when his actions were going to cause her to react in an understandable and justified fashion, they were a problem.
How dare he.
How dare he take the easy way out. Nyota did not use the word owe often, but Spock definitely owed her better than that.
She stepped off the lift and turned down the hallway towards her destination. The door opened for her, and she stepped inside. “Lights,” she called out softly. The lights all came up and Nyota blinked for a moment at the sight before her.
She was expecting the room to be quiet and empty.
She was not, however, expecting to find the captain asleep on a sofa.
Nyota tilted her head to one side and looked at him curiously.
Incredibly Kirk was still in the traje de luces, although he was using the jacket as a pillow. His right arm was thrown across his eyes haphazardly and his tie and shoes were laying on the ground by the sofa.
Why wasn't he sleeping in his and Leonard's quarters?
Nyota walked quietly over to the couch and knelt beside it. After looking at him for a minute, she slowly reached out a hand and gently shook Kirk's shoulder.
“Mmph, Bones, it's not time yet,” he grumbled.
Nyota sighed. “I'm not Bones and this isn't your bed.”
Slowly, Kirk moved the arm off of his face and blinked sleepily at her. Once he finally registered who she was, he abruptly sat up straight. “Uhura...I...”
“Having a rough night?” Her voice and face were both gentle.
“Understatement,” Kirk answered while cracking his neck. “I'm going on a limb and guessing you are too, because I set an alarm for nine and I know it's not that early.” He thought for a moment. “Or late. Whatever.”
Nyota's face fell for a moment. “I...” Damn it, her lips were trembling again.
Jim's eyes widened and he turned so that he was facing her. “Are you okay?”
“No,” she replied with a shake of her head and a forced laugh. “I'm really not.” She took a deep breath and got a hold of herself. “How about you? Why are you sleeping in here?”
Kirk's face became incredibly sad for a moment before he shrugged. “Don't want to talk about it.”
Oh, she knew that feeling all too well. “Likewise.”
An understanding passed between the two of them, and Kirk pat the space on the couch next to him. Quickly obliging, she sat down with him. They stayed in companionable silence for a good few minutes, neither of them quite knowing what to say.
If someone were to go back in time and tell her five years ago that her and Kirk would be moping together on a couch, she would have laughed before having them sent to Starfleet General for a psych evaluation. Not for the first time, she marveled at how much things between them had changed for the better since their time at the academy.
After a while, he nudged her shoulder with his own. She looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
“This sucks and I'm not doing it,” he declared.
“What sucks?”
“This.” He gestured to the two of them. “Fuck this. Want to help me brush up on my Andorian or something?”
Uhura smiled. “Your Klingon is worse. Much worse.”
Jim rolled his eyes. “Whatever, fine, brush up on my Klingon then.” He brushed some imaginary lint off his shirt. “Never know who I'll need to impress.”
It was Nyota's turn to roll her eyes. “We don't have that kind of time.”
“Zing,” he said. “Anyways, help a man out?”
“Of course.” They changed positions so that they both were sitting sideways on the couch Indian-style and promptly began Jim's brush up lesson.
Also not the for the first time, she was glad to call him her friend.
Pavel Chekov used his sonic brush on his teeth, taking special care around his gums. He turned it off and made a cheesy grin in the mirror to examine his handiwork.
Not bad.
“Stop hogging the mirror,” Sulu complained good-naturedly. He licked his hand and pressed it to the right side of his head. “I keep getting these stupid cowlicks.”
Pavel moved over slightly so they could both be seen in the mirror and snorted. “There is no help for you.” He finger-combed the curls at the front of his face. “I, on other hand, am perfect.”
Hikaru looked at him in amusement. “Yeah, okay. You just go right ahead and think that.” Hikaru grabbed his own sonic toothbrush and began to take care of his teeth with nearly the same vigor as Pavel. “You think we'll win this today,” he asked and his voice was muffled by the brush.
“We should, have not seen them practice at all,” the navigator answered with a shrug. “Think we want it more.”
Hikaru nodded his agreement as he turned off his toothbrush. “Yeah, I think so too. We're all really good at this.” He looked at Pavel somewhat closely for a moment. “You and Spock in particular seem to be naturals.”
Pavel shrugged. “Was easy once I got the hang.” He walked out of the room to the living area, and sat down so he could put on his sneakers. “What time is it?”
Hikaru finally decided that his hair didn't suck completely. “A little after ten, we've got plenty of time before we head down. We should probably grab breakfast, it'll be a long time before we'll get to eat if we don't.”
The Russian pulled up his messages on his PADD. Riley and DeSalle had sent a message wishing them good luck and he could where they carbon-copied it to Sulu. That was nice of them. He grinned at the part where they told them to “kick some ass.”
“Hey, you think we should do something for everyone to bring morale up?”
“What?”
Hikaru sat next to him. “We should do something to pump everyone up. Like...a chant or something.” He suddenly brightened. “Wait, I know. After the meeting the other day, I checked out some holos of twentieth century bowling teams and they all had these really cool shirts. We should go down to the quartermaster's and see if we can get the machines to make us some for everyone.”
Pavel's grin was for a different reason now. “Excellent idea! Everyone will be very happy with them!”
Sulu nodded enthusiastically. “Let's do it, but after we grab breakfast. I think Muriel was doing french toast today and I'm starving.”
Chekov brightened; he loved Muriel's french toast, it was just about his favorite thing in the world. Before they began to head out, he stopped for a moment. “Hikaru?”
“Yeah?”
He didn't know why, but for some reason he felt compelled to say, “You are my best friend. Never forget it.”
Hikaru looked touched. He smiled. “Thanks, Pavel. You too.”
Pavel felt like his smile became a little bit brighter at this. “Will remember you said that,” he said.
They left their quarters and went to breakfast.
Jim stood in front of his door at ten thirty on the dot.
He and Uhura had a lot of fun and laughs while practicing their Klingon, but he had hidden long enough. Besides, he really needed to shower before they beamed down. He grimaced at that; he really hoped that transporter was fixed this time.
He punched in the entry code and walked into his quarters. He needed a different outfit, so to the bedroom first he went.
“Where the fuck have you been,” Bones snapped from where he sat on the couch. He was already dressed and had clearly gone without sleeping.
Jim regarded him coldly. “Out. What do you care?” Without so much as another glance, he walked into their bedroom and opened the closet. Rather forcefully, he picked out a shirt and a pair of jeans.
Apparently, Bones followed him because he shortly heard “What the hell is that supposed to mean? How am I supposed to react when you disappear on me all night and you disable the computer from locating you? I looked everywhere on this rust bucket for you, Jim, and I didn't sleep a God damn wink!”
“Aw,” Jim said sarcastically. “Your life's so hard.” He needed something to put over his shirt, he kept getting cold. He reached for something when he suddenly remembered; of course he lost his favorite sweater yesterday. He grabbed a longer-sleeved shirt to put over the other one and turned back around. Bones was standing right in front of him, blocking his way to the bathroom. “Excuse me, I need to shower.”
Bones didn't move.
Jim rolled his eyes. “Fine, I'll get out of your way.” He moved to the right and Bones followed. “Do you have a problem, Leonard?”
At the use of his given name, Bones took a step backwards with a horrified expression. Good, maybe if he could hurt him just a fraction of what Jim was feeling... “Jim, I just...I was so worried. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have been short with you just now.”
“No kidding,” the captain said. “You're not my fucking mother.”
“I never tried to say I was,” Bones said in a sad voice.
“Oh look. We finally agree on something.” Jim finally had enough and shoved his way past him.
Leonard turned and tried to keep up with a confused look. “Finally agree, what are you even talking about?”
The blond threw his clothes into the bathroom. “Let me guess, this is the part where you call me an idiot.”
“Of course not, but I have no idea what you're going on about right now and...”
Jim barked out a sarcastic laugh. “Of course you don't. You've done nothing wrong, right?”
“No, Jim,” Bones said with a shake of his head. “I've obviously done something. I just...just talk to me. Please.”
Jim grit his teeth. “Oh, so now you want to talk. Now you care enough to say something,” he spat. “Well that's just too fucking bad, because I'm not listening!” With that, he stepped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him.
“Jim, come on!” Bones' voice was muffled through the thin metal of the door. There was a long, heavy silence. “Fine. I'll see you in the transporter room.”
Jim sighed and looked at his reflection in the mirror. His hands were shaking and he no longer felt any anger, just a quiet sort of dull pain. He placed his hands on the sink and took several deep breaths.
Jim wasn't stupid, he knew why he neglected to answer any of Bones' questions directly. Why he lashed out at him instead of talking.
He was scared.
No, he wasn't scared. He was completely fucking terrified.
Nothing in his life had been as stable, as healthy, or as wonderful as his relationship with Bones. He couldn't remember a time where he was ever happier than the past eight months. He loved Bones, more than he previously thought it was possible for him to love another person.
But Bones...Bones didn't love him back.
While he was taking his walk the night before, he realized that Bones had never once said the words I love you to him. Not one single time. And God, that filled him with a pain that he never knew in his entire life.
If Bones never said it...then obviously he didn't feel the same way as him.
Jim took another deep breath and looked again at his reflection. He swallowed around the lump in his throat.
Bones didn't love him.
Maybe he just wasn't there yet, but regardless he didn't. If they talked about it...if he asked Bones point-blank and was told “You're right, I don't”...then he was done for.
He was done for and he had no idea what the hell he was going to do.
Jim finally understood why there were so many songs about this, and why so many people derided this in poetry. More than anything else he ever faced, he knew that this was his real Kobayashi Maru, that this was the real no-win scenario. If he held on and just settled for what he was given, it would eat him alive. If he let Bones walk out the door, he would be wrecked.
God, he couldn't even meet his own gaze in the mirror. With a growl, he forced himself to look again.
“You're pathetic,” he said to himself, soft and bitter. “You're a mess.”
Jim sighed loudly and then repeated the action. He slid the door open and stepped out into the living area to check the time.
Shit, it was going on eleven.
He didn't have time for this, he had a goal to meet and a crew to lead.
Jim promptly turned on his heel and stepped back into the bathroom, closing the door behind him.
Time to go to work.
As Scotty was in command up on the bridge, Keenser and Richards were the only representatives from engineering in the transporter room.
“You're absolutely certain you've got it this time,” Kirk said flatly.
Richards nodded.
“We hadn't realized there some kind of weird energy field in that debris,” Keenser supplied. “It's a huge cloud of several different types of radiation. This radiation is what's been spiking and is what's been interfering with the memory patterns in the computer banks. Not enough to turn you all into evil duplicates or scramble your atoms across space, but just enough to play havoc with your clothes.” Keenser crossed his arms, as if daring Kirk to question him further. “It took all night to make the calculations and we tested it twice. There'll be smooth sailing from here on out.”
Jim was not entirely convinced, but he nodded anyways. He supposed they would see when they were done with the match.
Regardless he was still pissed about his cardigan.
Chekov and Sulu arrived in the transporter room at that moment, each with a pile of black fabric in their arms.
“Do I want to know?” Jim pointed to the piles. His navigator and his pilot exchanged a look.
“You'll see when everyone gets here,” was all Sulu would say.
Spock was the next person to arrive, and he raised an eyebrow at the fabric in their arms as well. The pair still said nothing and he simply took a spot on the transporter pad. He placed his hands behind his back.
Uhura was next and she smiled at Jim and the others before she noticed Spock. The smile abruptly faded and she stayed on the ground near Team Goldshirt.
“You ready?” Kirk nudged her lightly.
“Of course,” she answered. She nudged him back, then glanced towards Spock. The Vulcan was watching her interaction with the captain curiously. She gave him a look that plainly dared him to say something. He looked down at the floor instead and she felt her confidence waver a little.
Nyota noticed Jim suddenly stiffen next to her and she looked at the door where McCoy was standing with an uncertain look on his face. He looked at the captain beseechingly for a minute, but all he got for his trouble was a glare. Bones wilted a little, but he didn't seem all that surprised by the reaction. Without so much as a hello, he walked over to the transporter pad and stood on it next to Spock.
Chekov looked up at Sulu with a weird expression. The pilot didn't notice at first, he was too busy looking at all of his friends.
It was fairly obvious that none of them had talked yet.
Hikaru shook his head sadly. It didn't matter if there was a four-way murder-suicide when they got back, they just needed to behave for three hours or so. Then again, they were all professionals and this was their job. They had to do it and do it well, and he had enough faith in them to know that they would.
Pavel elbowed him, and he looked down to meet his gaze. The ensign lifted up the pile in his arms. Oh, right.
“Hey guys,” Hikaru said and everyone turned their attention to him. “Pavel and I had some time this morning so we decided that, like all teams, the six of us need a uniform.” He handed part of his pile to Pavel and held one piece of black fabric up.
It was a short-sleeved button up shirt. The embroidery above the front pocket spelled out Chekov in a shade of gold that matched the two stripes running down the front and the cuffs on the sleeves. Two of the shirts had similar stripes and embroidery in blue, and the last one was in red.
“There is one for everybody,” Chekov said helpfully. “Should put on before we go!”
The other three humans all looked oddly touched by this and came forward, Sulu handing them out to each person. Spock hesitated somewhat before moving, and Sulu chose to believe that meant he was touched as well.
“These are great, guys,” Kirk said as he buttoned his up. “Thanks.”
“Very welcome,” Pavel replied. “Here, Doctor.”
“Thanks,” Bones said quietly. He slid his on, choosing to leave it open over his current shirt.
Jim stepped over to the console and pushed the intercom to the bridge. “Kirk to bridge.”
“Bridge, Scott here.”
“Scotty, we're going to beam down in a second. Spock's comm will remain open, in case anything hinky goes down.” Something clicked and he realized he hadn't yet checked on the thing with sick bay. “Did you ever figure out what happened last night?”
“Not yet,” came Scotty's answer. “It looks unlikely that it'll happen a second time. Some of my men are still there working on it, though, in the off-chance it should. This way they'll be able to open her up straight away. Until we know the cause, I can't make any promises.”
Jim nodded. “Okay, that's all I needed.”
“Captain? You sure you don't need any security or anything?” Scotty sounded somewhat curious.
Jim sighed. “It's a bowling match, Scotty, and these people are friendly. It'd be superfluous.”
“All right then, just figured I'd ask in case you changed your mind,” came Scotty's reply.
Jim nodded. “Thanks for having our backs. Kirk out.” He closed the commlink and turned to join everyone else on the pad.
The others were wearing their shirts and the group of them looked oddly impressive together. Sulu couldn't help but notice that Nyota and Kirk were as far away from Spock and McCoy as they could get. It occurred to him then that Christine was nowhere to be found after she promised to wish him luck. Oh well, she was in all likelihood tied up with work. He sighed.
“Stand by,” Keenser called. “We're all set.”
“Energize,” Kirk answered.
As he felt the pull of the transporter begin, Sulu reminded himself that it was only going to take three hours. What could possibly go wrong?
After beaming in successfully Team Enterprise, as Jim was now referring to them in his head, made their way into the bowling alley that served as Lebowski's town hall.
The other team did not appear to have arrived yet, so they waited a moment.
A girl that Jim recognized as the one he had spoken with the other day approached them. She smiled at him. “You're Kirk, right?”
Jim smiled back. “I am, yeah.”
“Good,” she said. “Go ahead and get your shoes, you guys are going to be on lane twenty-two today. The Dude and his advisors will be next to you at twenty-one.” She gave a little wave and with that, ran off to the snack bar.
Jim looked at his crew, some of which looked less enthusiastic than the others. “Okay guys, you heard her. Shoes then warm up.” They all got in a line and began to wait patiently. The guy at the counter knew them all by now and without asking handed each person the appropriate size.
“How come you have purple,” Pavel asked as he pointed to Uhura's shoes.
She shrugged. “Probably because I'm a woman. I didn't really think about it, honestly.” She didn't really mind either, as it was her favorite color.
Two pairs of shoes were placed up on the counter at the same time and Jim reached for a pair absently. He made sure they were the right ones (they were) and he began to lead his troops to the lane.
Hurriedly, everyone grabbed their preferred bowling balls and sat them on the machine. Spock began to put everyone's name into the computer; Jim would have stopped him, but as this was the real deal their actual names were more appropriate today.
For obvious reasons, he wasn't in much of a joking mood.
Chekov and Sulu began to throw practice balls while Uhura began to tape up her wrist the same way Bones did the day before. Jim cracked his knuckles.
“Captain,” a voice called from behind him and he turned around.
The Dude had arrived. He stood, sunglasses on like always with five other people behind him. Jim shook his hand with a smile.
“Dude,” he said. “Always a pleasure.”
The Dude nodded in return. “I'd like to introduce you to my team. This here's the Vice Dude,” he said and a man also in sunglasses nodded his hello. “Also we have the Sheriff, Agriculture Chief, School Superintendent, and Head Librarian.” Jim looked at him quizzically at the last. “I told you we like to read.”
“Right,” Jim said. “Thanks again for letting us have the use of this place to practice.”
“Not a problem,” the Dude answered. “We like things to be...fair. It was the least we could do.”
A crowd was beginning to form in the bowling alley. It was at least as large as the crowd on the day of their election, if not bigger. “Invited a lot of spectators?”
“I declared it a holiday,” the Dude said with a smile. “A lot of the children wanted to see it and I just couldn't break their hearts.”
There didn't seem to be all that many children present, but maybe there would be more soon. Jim cracked his knuckles again.
The Dude's advisors began to get warmed up themselves; soon, everyone was taking turns throwing practice balls. After about twenty minutes of that, a gentleman in a referee outfit raised both arms and the teams abruptly stopped what they were doing.
“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the first ever Lebowski-Federation bowl off,” he said and the crowd around them cheered. “Whatever team wins the best out of three games wins it all.” He looked pointedly to team Enterprise. “Remember, this is scratch bowling so no handicaps.”
Jim grimaced. Shit, they were counting on that. He leaned into Spock. “That gonna mess things up?”
Spock shook his head. “The largest handicap was Lieutenant Uhura's and her bowling has improved since they were calculated.”
“Good.” Jim calmed himself.
“Our home team is going to go first,” the ref continued. “Federation will bowl second.” He smiled at both teams in turn. “Let's have fun and keep things clean everyone. Good luck to both of you.” He dropped his arms. “Let's bowl!”
The crowd cheered and the music started pumping through the speakers once more. The Dude grabbed his ball and began to start his first turn. Jim rotated his wrist thoughtlessly before he sensed someone staring at him. He looked up and Bones had moved somewhat close to him. “What,” he snapped.
“Nothing,” Bones snapped back before he even realized it. He shrank a little where he stood before saying in a dull tone, “Just...good luck, Jim.”
Jim didn't answer or thank him, but he did incline his head in a slight nod.
The crowd started to cheer a third time and he looked up at the screen above him. The Dude had opened with a strike. Jim sighed, and then cleared his head.
Without another thought, he grabbed his ball and began to bowl.
Christine Chapel gave a frustrated shout as she threw the PADD across her room in disgust.
It wasn't bad enough she had to break her word to Hikaru because of this stupid assignment. No, of course it wasn't, so on top of everything she was having a hard time making heads or tails of these files.
She knew the people on Castro were stuck in the twenty-first century but this was fucking ridiculous.
All of the information she grabbed about their government basically read like sports stat sheets. For each person in their government, there was a total of their wins and losses. It also listed things like their handicaps, what hand they preferred to bowl with, time in office, and ball weight.
In all likelihood it was the absolute most useless and boring intel she had the misfortune of ever coming across in all of the time she had been doing this.
She needed to keep reviewing it though, it was part of the job description. She also had to do it quickly, as the away team was probably almost done bowling at this point.
Everything looked run-of-the-mill and routine. There was no mention of the Federation in these reports, even though the Icarus had crashed there two hundred years ago. That was somewhat odd, as they did have low-level warp drives. Most planets with that at least had heard of the Federation. Typically there was some sort of mention or yay or nay in the files. Everything she was examining was simply a bunch of bowling achievements.
This was really beginning to drive her insane.
Something kept nagging at her over the these reports, though, and so she forced herself to keep running over them. There was something she just intrinsically did not like about these people when she went planetside the other night and she was determined to find out what it was.
Spies with bad instincts didn't tend to last very long and Christine had been active now for two years.
Sighing, she stood up and walked across the room to grab her PADD back. Chris pulled the file back up and began to review it again. It hadn't taken her long to find the files once she had been looking, but she couldn't find anything important at all in them. Ignoring all the references to some old film, they were also riddled with image files of bowling trophies.
Wait, that was weird.
The trophy under their leader, The Dude's, picture didn't match any of the ones he was said to have. It actually looked a lot like a stock photo now that she was examining it more closely. She scrolled down further in the reports.
Now that she paid them more attention, they all looked like stock photos.
“Let's see,” she said as she began to chew on her lower lip. If she could isolate the images from the reports, she might find something worth reporting back.
Her last couple rounds of intel gathering had been boring and mundane, so she was about due for something interesting.
The image files had been isolated, and she saw that several of them had been repeated throughout the paperwork. Maybe there was some kind of code in the trophy names themselves. She opened one of the images separately from the others in order to catch a glimpse of the file name.
Christine was fairly up on her technological history, so she knew that once upon a time people would name these simple files, called .jpegs, things like “can_roof.jpeg” or something similar. Descriptive names that told you immediately what the file was. People even did it with holos, that way they always knew what they were getting.
This file had a string of gibberish about thirty characters long and a weird extension name.
Wait a minute, didn't people used to have a type of cryptography with images? She wanted to say it was visual cryptography or something like that. You'd have several images and when you put them over top each other you got a hidden message.
Taking her stylus, she took the first image file and began to pile them in order on top of each other. It took several minutes, as there were twenty-four images in total. She flattened them out to make one big file.
Some of these were plans for spaceships. It seemed like all of them had failed, due to the debris field surrounding the planet.
She caught a mention of the transporters and it made her eyes widen.
These weren't just plans for spaceships. These were plans for...oh shit.
She needed to get to Scotty right now.
It was the last bowler of the ninth frame and Jim was starting to worry. At this point, he honestly thought he'd rather deal with Nero again than ever have another bowling mission.
The first game, the Lebowskians had won. They started with a fair lead and Team Enterprise only was able to bridge the gap towards the end of it. Chekov let his nerves affect him a little, which Jim had not blamed him for at all. For something that was supposed to be so much fun, the pressure was mounting exponentially.
The second game went to Team Enterprise, thanks to Chekov regaining his confidence and some sweet pick ups by Sulu and Bones. Everyone bowled personal bests that round and Jim found he was incredibly proud of all of them.
This entire third game they were virtually neck-and-neck the whole time, although Team Enterprise was currently in a slight lead. It probably was going to come down to the very last frame for both teams. He wiped the sweat off his brow and prepared to grab his ball. Slightly nervously, he let the Dude go ahead of him.
The Dude went, and with ease bowled a strike.
Shit, that meant he got two more turns and Jim had to get a strike himself to keep them all in the game.
Luckily on his second go, The Dude only hit nine of the pins. Cursing under his breath, he picked up the spare unhappily.
Feeling the pressure, Jim bowled.
All ten of the pins went down with a loud crash.
Thank God. He wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Do it again, Jim. Just do it again.
He narrowed his eyes and let loose.
The ten pins went down a second time.
Jesus.
He bowled for the third time and knocked eight of the pins down, which was fine. He had pulled them far enough ahead for now.
The next bowler went and also got two strikes, but he only took down six pins on his third shot. Spock quickly pulled out three strikes of his own.
Their School Superintendent went next and she got one strike and a spare, which meant that Team Enterprise was still leading. Bones also got a strike and a spare, which made the gap shrink a little. The Lebowskians held their own against Sulu and Uhura, and their final bowler pulled a strike while only knocking down seven more pins.
This was it. It all came down to Chekov.
“Come on,” he whispered to the navigator. “You can do it, just do it like you did the whole time. You make this and you'll get a commendation.”
Pavel looked at him with an oddly blank expression. “May I use the restroom first?”
Without so much as a single word, Jim handed him his bowling ball. He raised his eyebrow.
Chekov took the ball, sulking a little. “Forget I said.”
As stupid as it was, since the kid had bowled a perfect game already, Jim found himself incredibly nervous. Chekov, however, was perfectly calm as he took his ball and made his way to the foul line.
Naturally, he threw a strike.
Jim clenched his hands into fists. Just do it two more times, Chekov. Just two more times.
His ball came through the return, and Chekov grabbed it. Once more, he strode to the foul line.
Another strike.
The only sound in the room was that of the music playing over the speakers.
Sulu stood next to him with a serious look on his face. Even Spock looked nervous.
Chekov placed the ball on his right hand and swallowed. He stared, resolute, down the lane.
Without another moment's delay, he went to the foul line. Chekov brought his arm back and released his ball.
The entire room was holding their breath.
The ball made its way down the lane and hit the pins.
It wasn't a third strike, but nine of them went down and it was enough.
“Yes!” Jim shouted triumphantly. They had done it! They had won, although barely, and Castro was going to join the Federation! Finally something was going right for him!
He quickly turned and fist-bumped Chekov and Sulu before hugging Uhura. She was surprised for a moment, but she quickly hugged him back. She then moved to hug the other two boys and he turned around with a smile.
Bones had just finished congratulating Spock when he looked at Jim with a tentative smile. Jim felt his face harden, and he quickly turned and looked away. He knew it was childish, but he just...he couldn't right then.
Bones slowly stopped smiling. Obviously, Jim was still upset.
All right then.
He quickly moved to congratulate Sulu, giving the captain another sad glance.
Uhura finished hugging Chekov, ruffling his hair affectionately. She studiously avoided Spock all together.
“Congratulations,” the Dude finally said. “Y'all did a fine job. You kept us on our toes, that's for sure.”
Jim shook his hand with a grin. “You too. For a minute there I thought you had us.”
At that, the citizens surrounding them suddenly all drew guns. The Enterprise bowling team all stopped celebrating and clustered more tightly together.
“Oh you've been had all right,” the Dude answered and his smile was sharp like a knife.
Chapter Three | Chapter Five
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Date: 2010-02-23 01:42 am (UTC)From: