James Tiberius Kirk (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
universal_charm) wrote in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png)
driftfleet2017-10-01 02:07 pm
universal_charm) wrote in driftfleet2017-10-01 02:07 pm
video/action: open
Who: Kirk + Anyone!
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Yes, on the Tourist and Iskaulit
When: Now!
[ Video ]
[ The video opens to Kirk's bedroom, his hair damp from what one would hope is a shower. A small curl has escaped against his forehead. He doesn't look particularly grim, but he doesn't seem overjoyed to be awake either. ]
Good morning, everyone. Looks like I'm finally awake. For those who don't know me or possibly forgot I was here given how long I was alseep, I'm James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the Tourist - but just call me Jim.
According to my first mate, I've been asleep for a month. And I've missed quite a bit, as it turns out.
[ He took a breath, his voice sounding a touch guilty, even though going into a coma wasn't his choice. ]
I would appreciate a check in with everyone, especially my crew - new and old members. And if anyone wants to talk, I'm here.
[ Action - Tourist ]
[ Awake and showered, now he needed coffee. Coffee and a real meal. There had been... distractions, before now. He made his way to the kitchen to see if he could coax the coffee maker into being kind and cooperating for once, and that done he took up a spot where he could look out at the stars gliding by - and hopefully catch anyone else coming and going.
Once he had finished the coffee, he would start a walk around the ship, looking to catch anyone he hadn't already and get a feel back for her. ]
[ Action - Iskaulit ]
[ More than anything else he craved exercise. Whatever Atroma did while they were in their comas had kept off any major atrophy, but his body still felt tight and unused. It was certainly uncomfortable, to say the least, and after being told of what had happened he didn't want to be caught in anything less than prime condition.
So the Iskaulit went to avail himself of the facilities, running long laps and then switching to weights and back again. If he saw anyone he would talk, of course. He might even slide into the bar at some point. Most professionals would say that going for a drink after waking up from a coma wasn't the best idea, but considering what he had been told? He thought it a necessary medicine. ]
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Yes, on the Tourist and Iskaulit
When: Now!
[ Video ]
[ The video opens to Kirk's bedroom, his hair damp from what one would hope is a shower. A small curl has escaped against his forehead. He doesn't look particularly grim, but he doesn't seem overjoyed to be awake either. ]
Good morning, everyone. Looks like I'm finally awake. For those who don't know me or possibly forgot I was here given how long I was alseep, I'm James Tiberius Kirk, captain of the Tourist - but just call me Jim.
According to my first mate, I've been asleep for a month. And I've missed quite a bit, as it turns out.
[ He took a breath, his voice sounding a touch guilty, even though going into a coma wasn't his choice. ]
I would appreciate a check in with everyone, especially my crew - new and old members. And if anyone wants to talk, I'm here.
[ Action - Tourist ]
[ Awake and showered, now he needed coffee. Coffee and a real meal. There had been... distractions, before now. He made his way to the kitchen to see if he could coax the coffee maker into being kind and cooperating for once, and that done he took up a spot where he could look out at the stars gliding by - and hopefully catch anyone else coming and going.
Once he had finished the coffee, he would start a walk around the ship, looking to catch anyone he hadn't already and get a feel back for her. ]
[ Action - Iskaulit ]
[ More than anything else he craved exercise. Whatever Atroma did while they were in their comas had kept off any major atrophy, but his body still felt tight and unused. It was certainly uncomfortable, to say the least, and after being told of what had happened he didn't want to be caught in anything less than prime condition.
So the Iskaulit went to avail himself of the facilities, running long laps and then switching to weights and back again. If he saw anyone he would talk, of course. He might even slide into the bar at some point. Most professionals would say that going for a drink after waking up from a coma wasn't the best idea, but considering what he had been told? He thought it a necessary medicine. ]
[Action]
Captain, hello. [Not as enthusiastic as might be expected, but things haven't been puppies and sunshine (and he did have the fun of telling Kitty that her friends are dead earlier). He looks about as tired as everyone else in the fleet and there's a fading bruise on his jaw.] Thank you for joining us.
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Kirk looked away from the window when he came in, smiling in relief at seeing Chekov. He had known he was not among the dead, Fenris surely would have told him if he was, but he hadn't wanted to face Chekov when he himself was not fully centered yet. Chekov had lived through what happened, would need support more than Kirk himself, and he needed to be someone who could support Chekov. ]
Sorry I'm a bit late. I overslept.
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He took up a spot next to Kirk, seriously contemplating a hug. He had been in strange prisons and through difficult situations without Kirk, of course, but that didn't keep him from missing him and wishing that he'd been around in the chaos of Lyuku's destruction. He would have known what to do.]
It's fine. I think that Fenris was enjoying his captaincy. [Joking! He wasn't.] ...How are you?
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Okay. I'm okay.
[ Said into Chekov's shoulder. ]
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Are you well rested at least? There must be some benefit to napping for a month.
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Yes, but I feel like I need to stretch for another week before all the kinks are worked out.
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I'm sorry I wasn't there when it happened, Chekov. But if you need to talk about it, you know you can talk to me, right? I'm your captain, but also your friend. So don't let it eat you up.
[ It probably sounded cheesy, saying it aloud, but it was how he felt, and he didn't want the gap that existed in their world, in the Fleet, to exist here if he could help it. ]
Though I take it not much else happened while I was out?
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It's fine. [That's debatable.] You would have chosen a much more convenient time to nap if you could have. ...And thank you.
[Eventually Pavel might even take Jim up on that offer to talk. It's a hard gap to bridge though, and it's not just professional distance. It's also Chekov being two universes and years removed from home. It's his tendency to lose shipmates once he finds them. He has found and lost every senior crew member (except for Scotty, oddly enough) at least once; opening up to them gets harder each time.]
No, nothing of much interest. Drifting, a little time on the planet before the crisis began. If there were scandals, no one told me about them.
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[ Hey, he likes his sleep - heaven knows he needs it, still suffering from his insomnia like he did if he didn't have the right sort of preparations before bed. But a month was excessive, even by his standards.
He knew Pavel was not quite the Pavel he knew, and yet it was hard to remember, hard to not want those same things when Pavel didn't really talk to him about those experiences either. He didn't want to force the telling of them out of his friend, but more and more it felt like Pavel was a clam shell, determined to stay shut. And that gap inched a little wider. ]
Any clue where we're headed next?
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[Just teasing. As much as Pavel might have preferred having Jim around last month, he'd never hold the timing of his long nap against him. Maybe the timing was actually for the best. Making sure Kirk was off the planet before the meteor hit would have been stressful... and a person only needs to see so many planets decimated in his lifetime.]
Away from where we were before. [The Russian brightened a little.] I have been mapping the stars since I came here, and also studying maps and charts in the inhabited systems we visit. This will only be truly helpful if the Atroma begin to take us in circles, of course, but I can say with some confidence where we are not and where we have been.
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That's brilliant, Chekov! Can we look at your charts? I want to see them.
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[ Science! The thing they both like and is comfortably non-feelings based! He will come back around to those, but for now he's happy to discuss something less depressing than a planet being blown to bits. ]
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A simple three-axis system. Not so impressive, but useful and simple enough to render at the communications station using the program I have written. I have been mapping all significant sources of electromagnetic radiation detectable by the Tourist's array... pulsars are the most useful, of course, and now there are enough of them on record for accurate trilateration. Everything else recorded--star systems, planets, other celestial bodies of interest--is mostly of academic interest only at this point. I hope to change that with enough time to refine my methods and maybe some improvements to our instruments.
And of course none of this is useful since we have little say in where we go. All that I can do is calculate our bearing in relation to our previous locations.
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Kirk listens intently as Chekov explains, nodding in points. Because of course he understands
even if the mod doesn't. A simple system was probably the best to hope for and the easiest to work with given their lack of other info otherwise. Perhaps on the next planet they might be able to find some proper star charts or other info to fill out what Chekov had, allow them to get a wider and deeper idea of what it was they were gliding through.But, that wasn't to say what Chekov had done up to now was of no consequence. ]
I still think that's very important. When we eventually break free from Atroma, it would be good to have a bread crumb trail, so to speak. That, if nothing else, can serve as a guide post so we don't end up just wandering in unknown space.
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All you need to know about interstellar cartography is this: it's hard. There are no fixed points of reference because everything is moving in relation to everything else, and the distances between things are so vast and moving bodies involved so numerous that calculating the location of anything with some degree of accuracy requires either an impressive computer or a math genius. And with the fleet drifting through unmapped space and no comprehensive star charts handy (the planets they've stopped at tend to map little more than the local system), Chekov essentially started with nothing. What he has is still rough since the Tourist's scanners aren't built to measure distances as finely as the survey ships at home, but it's still an accomplishment.]
A bread crumb trail will not lead us home. [That was melancholy, wasn't it? He makes an effort to brighten up a bit.] But following it would, of course, be wiser than going blindly forward. At least we know that there is food behind us.
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It might not lead us all the way home, but it could point us in the right direction. We've worked miracles before on less.
[ He clapped Chekov's shoulder. ]
Don't give up on it just yet. Trust me, this is helpful.
[ He cracked a jovial smile. ]
I'll be sure to put you up for promotion when we get home, and a decoration.
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He smiles, pleased.] Thank you, but you will need to promote Sulu as well. He would be endlessly annoyed if I outranked him.
[And, with great sincerity:] I do trust you. I want you to know that.
[Kirk wasn't talking about trust of that magnitude, but it's worth saying. Chekov knows that he's a little too standoffish with his own crew--too worried that they're going to leave again, too afraid that they're going to notice that he's not quite who they want him to be. It's taken six months for him to really trust Kirk this time around.]
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[ Kirk isn't sure in his own personal miracles, in the ones that might save his own life. He used that one up, the big one, and he was fine with that. He would prefer the miracles be spent on others anyways, on saving the lives of those that mattered. ]
Well, I might let it go on for just a little bit. Only a little. You know, to motivate him.
[ He smirked, as if he had just come upon a wicked sort of plan. Oh dear. It faded when the other spoke again, and ever so slightly he nodded. He could hear the sincerity in Chekov's voice, the levity of them. ]
I'm glad to have earned it again, Chekov, and I'm sorry for whatever I did to have degraded it in the first place.
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How cruel. [Not that it wouldn't be fun.
Chekov frowned at the unexpected apology.]
You didn't do anything, captain. Jim. You should have had it from the start, but I... [He trailed off, torn between making some true but brief excuse or being entirely honest. There was a time when he had always erred on the side of honesty.] I have been in these places away from home for three years now, maybe more. This is my third one, and each time... it becomes more difficult to trust anything, does that make sense? Nothing lasts, no one remembers, everything changes. This is the fourth time--fifth, technically--I have found you, and how many times can I tell you the same things with any hope that you will remember them? You could disappear tomorrow and return the next day with no memory of being here and it would begin again.
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[ At first Kirk frowned, not quite understanding, and then it began to dawn on him. He knew Chekov had come from another world previously, not just their own home world, but a prison. Had Chekov been to other places too? Three years away from home in another world, and Kirk popping in and and out forgetting? He could see how that would be mentally exhausting, and it would be a natural defense to simply stop trusting those you knew, or thought you knew. He didn't blame Chekov for that at all. ]
No, I understand. Well, not in the sense that it's happened to me all that much, but I understand what you're saying. I can't say I wouldn't have similar reactions after so many times too. I should have been more understanding of that from the start too.
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Thank you for understanding.
[That was a lot of seriousness all at once. Teasingly:] Yes, you should have known all of the things that I didn't tell you from the first moment I came here.
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It seems being away from you all has made me rusty. Usually I'm better at reading your minds.
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