He brings the motorcycle to a stop on the hill, just on the other side of the fence. On the other side, lit up by countless bright lights, the dark bulk of the starship looms high. Her hull plates have yet to be installed, showing great gaps in the structure, and it's clear that she has a lot of work to be done before she's ready to fly.
Jim knows how she feels. His broken nose still throbs from the fight in the bar, his shirt still stained with his own drying blood, and he can feel a dozen bruises blossoming underneath his clothes from the cadets' fists.
Starfleet. Him.
It seems so ridiculous that he should enlist in the organization that killed his father, stole his mother, abandoned him on Tarsus. He owes Starfleet nothing. No loyalty, no belief in their goals or aspirations.
But looking at this ship, still being built into the beautiful creature she's meant to be... maybe he can evolve too. And what the hell, it'd be worth turning the Academy upside-down to see the looks on the faces of those who think that a fuck-up like him doesn't have the first clue what he's doing. And he doesn't know how to back down from a challenge.
Oh-eight-hundred, Pike had said. Plenty of time to make it to the shuttle.
Jim blinks, absently reaching up to make sure his nose isn't still broken and bloody, as he reorients himself to reality.
Right, Hunter had asked a question. "We were both pretty broken," he says, once he has a moment to remember what the question even was. "She had a whole team of people putting her together, bit by bit. I hadn't even been trying. She's what made me decide to enlist after all."
no subject
Jim knows how she feels. His broken nose still throbs from the fight in the bar, his shirt still stained with his own drying blood, and he can feel a dozen bruises blossoming underneath his clothes from the cadets' fists.
Starfleet. Him.
It seems so ridiculous that he should enlist in the organization that killed his father, stole his mother, abandoned him on Tarsus. He owes Starfleet nothing. No loyalty, no belief in their goals or aspirations.
But looking at this ship, still being built into the beautiful creature she's meant to be... maybe he can evolve too. And what the hell, it'd be worth turning the Academy upside-down to see the looks on the faces of those who think that a fuck-up like him doesn't have the first clue what he's doing. And he doesn't know how to back down from a challenge.
Oh-eight-hundred, Pike had said. Plenty of time to make it to the shuttle.
Jim blinks, absently reaching up to make sure his nose isn't still broken and bloody, as he reorients himself to reality.
Right, Hunter had asked a question. "We were both pretty broken," he says, once he has a moment to remember what the question even was. "She had a whole team of people putting her together, bit by bit. I hadn't even been trying. She's what made me decide to enlist after all."