Bear & I

(I can be the random admiral, if you'd like for a face to face communique for Kirk and Abigail?)

Abby raised an eyebrow slightly at the sound that  James made. She wondered what could cause such a sound from her commanding officer. She shook her head at those thoughts.  She didn't need them and had enough on her plate at this point.  She didn't dare glance at him. But her curiosity was piqued. Anymore curiosity  won over with Abby. She slightly turned her head to glance from the corner of her eye at Kirk to see what was going. As with James, Abby had a show that she was more productive than normal. But in reality, she was so much less productive. Part of the reason was introducing a new element, Kirk and another was the fact that she was just down right tired. If she didn't keep busy then she could fall asleep then and there.

At the sound of Kirk's little  choking sound, T'Aimnu's head popped up to see what happened happened and if she would be of any assistance.  In the back of her mind, she did wonder what would've caused the sound. Hopefully something not so shocking that would affect ship's operations. "Captain, if I may be so bold as to ask a question and not seem too out of line, what information could cause such a reaction?" She asked. Being that this was the first time she had outright interacted with Kirk on the bridge regarding ship's ops, she wanted to be quite formal. That and she could tell that something had occurred the night before.  She wasn't exactly sure what, but she knew that had Kirk spent the night in Abigail's quarters, he would have seen most of her issues. In addition, T'Aimnu had registered Abby's behavior as rather submissive compared with the behavior she saw the day before. She eyed Kirk, waiting for an answer.

(Yeah, is Kirk going to communicate with the admiral first, then Abby, or both at the same time?)

Spock turned slightly to face the Captain when he heard the noise. He glanced over at T’Aimnu when she spoke, then back at James, waiting for a response. He watched Jim read through the details again, then once more, still not responding to T’Aimnu. This seemed to raise more questions on the bridge. Was something wrong? Perhaps something was wrong with one of the ships working pieces, or a serious plague had broken out in one of the sections. They had just accepted a new cargo to be transported from a inhabited planet to a nearby station. Maybe an illness had boarded on as well. Or maybe someone Jim knew had died. Yes, he had understood humans to have a reaction such as that when a friend of theres had died unexpectedly. “Captain?” Spock attempted to try and wake his own friend from his thoughts. An answer was necessary now, especially after such a delay.

Jim sat there and read through the words in front of him. Perhaps it was a typo. Who else did he know with a similar name. It was a common last name, after all. And a first name? Amelia, perhaps? Or Adam? Maybe it was someone new he wasn’t familiar with. Another Abby on the ship with a similar last name? Or maybe the title was a typo. Maybe the admiral was an old friend who knew Abby would enjoy this mission. But what if this wasn’t a mistake? There was enough time while they were all away that a promotion could have happened. There was enough potential in her, and enough dedication. Still, it seemed... All these thoughts raced through Kirk’s head as he sat there, looking puzzled, staring at the words. He barely heard T’Aimnu, but when Spock spoke again, it finally snapped him out of his thoughts. His mind seemed to come into the present and he barely hesitated, shrugging a little. “Your not out of line. The wording the Admiral chose was just odd, that’s all.” He smiled as he spoke, then closed off the message and looked around. Some of the bridge seemed convinced, but others like Spock seemed to watch him still.

(I think admiral first and then Abby. It would confuse Kirk and would be fun.)

T'Aimnu continued to eye Kirk with a raised eyebrow. She didn't believe the man's statement. She was pretty sure that it had something to do with Abigail. Though only time would tell. And she hoped that she would find out soon. The female Vulcan glanced between Spock and Kirk. But every once in a while she glanced over to Abby. She ended up staring at Spock to see if he had picked up on anything else she had not picked up.

A replacement officer for Uhura spoke up. "Captain, I have a comn coming in for you. Would you like it on screen or in your office?" He spoke, looking at Kirk for an immediate response. "The Admiral says it's urgent and is pertaining to the message you received. That and the briefing. Sir is this a new mission for the ship?"

Once the communication officer was done speaking on the relatively quiet bridge, Abby shifted her body and her entire attention toward Kirk. Abby didn't care that Kirk would probably end up catching her stare. She had a pretty good idea of what was going. James probably and finally got a small chuck of what she had been up to while away from the ship. Although that would mean another mission for her and that would probably mean having to drag Kirk along with her. She didn't want to go another of those mission. Every single time, someone ended up dying or permanently injured despite modern medicine as it was. Plus she was supposed to be done doing this type of stuff. She didn't want Kirk and the rest of them knowing what she did.

(Sounds good.)

Spock watched Kirk, even after some of the bridge turned back around. He knew something had really surprised Jim, and something as simple as unusual word choice wouldn’t have done that. After what had happened last night, something related to Abby could have drawn a similar response from the Captain. He looked briefly at Abby, then over at T’Aimnu, catching her eye. Spock gave her the Vulcan equivalent of a shrug and a look that almost said ‘this is all too much’. After all these years of being around humans, a majority with Jim, he still didn’t understand them or even the one.

Kirk quickly stood up. “In my office.” He said without hesitation, adding. “Yes, it is.” His eyes moved from the communications officer to Spock, who wasn’t looking at him, then went to Abby, who was. He did hesitate then, staring briefly at her, but eventually looked away and headed to his office. Once there, a screen came on. Hopefully, some of this would be explained.

"Hello Captain. I'm Admiral Cartwright Nice to finally meet your acquaintance. Though I wish it were under better circumstances. I understand there maybe some confusion regarding Lieutenant Commander Smith. She's one heck of a woman and one heck of a commander. I've only been her handler for a few missions unfortunately." Cartwright stated. "I wish we didn't have to recall her back into duty but... The circumstances call for it. I'm sending over some vital information both for her and for your eyes only. This will go a lot easier if you could bring her in so I could speak to her face-to-face along with you. Captain." The black man looked between his hands and the screen. "Smith will be having to undergo severely harsh conditions with a team of her choosing. I presume that T'Aimnu will come along. I feel bad for taking away some of your best officers so soon after regaining them." He mused, sounding resigned.

As soon Kirk headed to his office, Abby looked down. She looked at her lap, frowning slightly. She mentally cursed. She looked at T'Aimnu. "We're being called back." She stated simply. T'Aimnu had accompanied her on many missions, but the Vulcan hadn't been there for most of the difficult missions.

"But I thought your time was up?" T'Aimnu replied softly.

"They may be desperate. And whatever the reason... they needed to recall me and in turn you." Abby sighed, looking back at the door James disappeared through.

James smiled at the admiral, a businesslike but friendly smile. He didn’t look confused, not in the least. Not to someone who didn’t know him. He tried to make it this way. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Admiral.” He greeted smoothly. “Yes, I’m afraid I was not completely up to date on Smith’s history, well, after her first being stationed on the ship.” He was down right confused, a little less now as the pieces fell together, but it still ran through his head. Handler, Lieutenant Commander, it was all starting to slowly click together. “I’ll bring her right in, sir.” He did finally hesitate when he spoke of the conditions. “I... see. Yes, I’m sure T’Aimnu will join her.” If those two were going, might as well throw Cam in. Jim didn’t have enough time to listen to her argue that it was imperative she went with her friends. Besides, she was a good engineer, and an engineer may be necessary. “It’s not a problem, sir. Thankfully, I’ve got a ship full of a great crew.” With that, he turned and went back to the bridge, looking to retrieve Abby.

Spock had turned his attention back to his work before he heard Abigail speaking with T’Aimnu. He turned back around, yet again, to look at them, trying to decipher what exactly was going on. When Jim came back in and retrieved Abby, he looked about as confused as a Vulcan could be. What was going on? Was this about last night? Or from when Abby was away?

James stepped on the bridge, not coming in very much before looking over in Abby’s direction. “Lieutenant Commander Smith, will you please come with me?” He asked, waited a moment to give her time to get up, then walked back out and to his office slow enough for her to follow. He wanted more answers.

Abby and T'Aimnu exchanged glances each with a raised eyebrow. It was as she feared. The human stood gracefully and followed Kirk closely to his office. She noticed who was on the screen. She visibly tensed and deflated. It was obvious that Abby had no plans of ever personally seen Cartwright again. "Admiral Cartwright, I didn't expect to ever see you again." Abby replied fairly.

"Abigail, I'm sorry to have to contact so soon. And even then you haven't had time to settle.." Cartwright started.

"Cut to the chase Admiral. I know you aren't. I thought we had an agreement with a term limit. I don't mean any disrespect, but the way things turned out on the last mission... It was nasty. You weren't in the field." Abby nearly hissed, closing in on the screen.

"Lieutenant Commander Smith calm down. I understand. We tried holding off calling you until the last moment. Must I remind you of clause 3.1? We need you and perhaps even the Enterprise." Cartwright explained calmly. Though eveb he started to look a little frustrated.


Abby rolled her eyes. "You can't involve the Enterprise's people, they aren't qualified and they've been through enough crap as it is. I may have not been here, but I can read."

"Captain.." Cartwright warned.

When James entered back into his office with Abby, he gave a nod to Cartwright, opening his mouth to bring some sort of former greeting, even if they did know each other. Before he could, he heard Abby speak, and figured it was pointless. Instead, he fell silent and watched the other two speak. Nasty? What happened? While she hadn’t been there very long, he hadn’t heard anything about any of these missions, from her, T’Aimnu or anyone else. What he did know was the Abby was obviously aggravated by seeing the Admiral on screen. He watched the tensions rise, unsure of the true cause.

All of the Enterprise? Not just a small team? It had seemed earlier that this mission would not be that serious, but now Jim wasn’t sure what to make of it. He wasn’t sure what to make of the interaction in front of him. They both knew something he didn’t. He didn’t even know what that something really was. A mission, maybe, but that was it. Qualified? Kirk was proud of his crew, he couldn’t see them not being at least near qualified for something.

At Cartwright’s warning, Kirk finally spoke up. “Lieutenant Commander Smith, lets remain calm and see what this mission entails. I’m sure Admiral Cartwright has good reason to pull you, and whoever else, into this mission.” He spoke in a very professional way, looking directly at Abby. He didn’t know what had happened, and he trusted Abby’s judgement more the Cartwright’s rank on this, but he couldn’t outright say that. He just needed to keep them both out of trouble.

Jim looked back at the screen and nodded at the Admiral. “Now that all necessary parties are in the room, what needs to be discussed, sir?”

“I don’t think the experiment is worth it...” Logan muttered, watching her yelp, an almost blank expression on his face. He looked back at her leg briefly, watching it for a moment to see if it would heal like his own would, then looked back at her face. “Could’ve been worse, I guess.” He noticed her looking through him. “You okay?” That was a dumb question for that moment.

"Had to see sooner or later. This is better than flying backwards into a cinderblock wall covered by empty boxes on a treadmill." Kate rolled her eyes at Logan's question. "What do you think?" She nearly growled. She was a bit hungry and was in no condition to move. She started to tug her cowl off. After that was off, Kate started to unzip the top portion of her suit.

Alright thanks for telling me. Hope you get better soon.

Also if you feel up to it, search and read for ᴛʜᴇ ᴏɴᴇ ᴡɪᴛʜ ᴛʜᴇ ᴅʀᴜɴᴋ ᴄᴏɴғᴇssɪᴏɴ » ᴊᴀᴍᴇs ᴛ. ᴋɪʀᴋ. To me, it fits James and Abby perfectly. The song that is attached anyways.}}

Logan grunted at her aggressive reply. He knew she meant nothing by it, and the question had an obvious reply, but he was slightly pissed off by it. He was pissed off about nearly anything, really. He watched her take the cowl off and unzip her uniform, visibly confused. “What are you doing?” He asked lowly.


((Not gonna lie I only read three or so replies up because I wasn’t sure you were still around. So if you are still around, and this reply doesn’t make a lot of sense, I’ll read some more and do a new one. I plan on reading a bit more anyways.))

Kirk almost looked guilty when he saw Abby deflate. He was split between his own stressed emotions and his need to maintain a professional appearance. The last thing Jim wanted was to hurt Abby even more, even if it was for just a moment, and that guilt was visible for a moment before he regained himself. He watched Cartwright smirk, almost replying with an ‘outburst’ of his own. He knew something had to have happened before, or else Abby wouldn’t have snapped like that. Jim never really cared too much about what superiors thought of his control over his crew. He was secure enough to know that Abby’s outburst was not a rebellious act by a lower ranking fellow crew member. Something had happened and he intended to find out what it was.

James listened to Cartwright’s information. The mission, while meaningful and dangerous, still seemed like something almost normal. It definitely didn’t sound like a mission that would be connected to a ‘nasty’ situation. The term dogfight did create concerns in Kirk’s head, but he trusted his ship, her crew, and their ability to get out of a dogfight.

Jim noticed an indication that his own briefing from Cartwright had been sent through, then looked back briefly at the higher ranking man. “I guarantee she will be able to, sir. The Lieutenant’s one of my best crewmen.” He responded for Abby, maintaining a mostly professional tone. There was a slightly challenging undertone to his voice, but not quite enough to be easily called out on. “I’m sure your briefings, as well as the Lieutenant’s prior knowledge, will provide us with any information we will need. Thank you, sir.”