Chapter Text
Day 71
Jim could feel the metal grid of the catwalk vibrating with the rhythm of a quick walk. The steps were determined, strong, and they were definitely heading his way. He could feel it from the way the vibration was growing stronger.
Shit.
There was nowhere else he could hide, nowhere he could go without being seen. He knew he should’ve stayed in the Jefferies tube. No one would have found him there unless there was some emergency in engineering, and if there had been an emergency he would probably have been found no matter where he was. It was a good hiding place, a safe place where he was warm and reasonably comfortable. But he was just so hungry.
Jim had been aboard the USS Enterprise for twelve days. It had been surprisingly easy to hack his way in. He had made it to Starbase 1 by forging his made-up name on a list of helping hands, which had not been hard since apparently every teenage boy on Earth wanted to help with wheeling cargo and equipment in and out of starships. On the Starbase he had hacked a terminal and given himself access to the next craft shipping out, again as a runner boy. Once on board the ship, which had happened to be the Enterprise, he had simply hacked yet another console and made it look like he had left the ship, when in reality he slipped into a Jefferies tube down in engineering and hid. Really, you would think Starfleet would have better safeguards against internal hacking.
Jim had memorized the ship’s schematics on the Starbase in order to pick a hiding place where he would be least likely to be found. The tube he had chosen was not close to any often used shortcuts, it housed no critical systems and was unlikely to be of any interest to anyone outside routine maintenance, which had already been done at spacedock. The wiring made a sort of shelf-like bend about two meters up, and that was where he had climbed and curled up in. It was dim and the warmth of engineering made the air a bit stuffy, but it was a hell of a lot better than sleeping out in the streets, shaking with cold and being on edge all the time in the fear of someone sneaking up on him during the night.
The first two days after leaving dock had been hard. The engineering crew had been running about, making sure everything worked as it was supposed to. During the night between day two and day three he had finally taken the risk and left his hiding place. He had spied on the officer of the watch until the guy had gone to yell at some ensign, red-faced and stomping like a herd of buffalos, and then Jim had stolen his sandwich. He couldn’t risk it every night, but most days the sandwich he stole during gamma shift was the only food he got. The chief engineer was a scary lady and when she prowled around he always stayed tightly hidden in his nest. This meant that alfa shift was out of the question for exploring, and some days she would still be there halfway through beta. Eight nights in, during gamma shift, he almost ran into the secret poker game of a few lieutenants down in one of the Jefferies. It was dangerously close to his hiding place, and it was a miracle that none of them saw him, but in the end it was a stroke of luck that he did stumble upon their game. They all got called somewhere, he couldn’t hear them so he didn’t know where or why, but they abruptly abandoned their game and all the food they had smuggled down. There wasn’t that much left, mostly scraps and crumbs, but he stretched it to be enough for three days. It wasn’t, but it had to be.
He knew his food-stealing couldn’t have gone unnoticed, but he hadn’t expected security to start wandering around this soon. Someone must have caught a glimpse of him, or maybe he had accidentally set off an alarm, or maybe he hadn’t covered his hacking trails well enough. Either way, they had definitely started looking for something, and Jim was pretty sure it was him. He had stayed in his hiding place, hungry and tired and stiff from sitting and lying down all the time. Finally, during the gamma shift on the twelfth day, the hunger had grown to be too much. He had to risk getting caught.
Which was exactly what was going to happen in about twenty seconds.
Jim was sitting in the farthest corner of a maintenance catwalk, hiding behind tanks of coolant, leaning on the railing. He was largely invisible here, right until anyone came up the walkway and turned the corner to see behind the tanks. It was a dead end and there was nothing he could do. If he were not so weak and shaking with exhaustion, he could have tried climbing over the tanks and maybe into a vent or something, but as it stood, his flee from security had taken the last of his strength. This was it.
Shadows played across the metal grid of the catwalk and the walls of the tanks before a security officer emerged from around the corner, phaser in hand. Jim didn’t even try to speak. It had been such a long time since he had heard his own voice, and this was not the time to find out if it even worked anymore. The lieutenant yelled something over his shoulder, Jim couldn’t make out what since his head was turned and he couldn’t read the guy’s lips. The phaser was still pointed at him. He felt the catwalk vibrate from the impacts of running feet and lifted his hands up. There was no point in resisting, even if he had had the strength to do so. He was done.
••
Jim had been left sitting alone in a small conference room with a glass of water, which he had drank the second it had been set before him. He could have hacked the door and tried to make a run for it, but there was no doubt at least one guard outside. Besides, where would he go? Even if they still hadn’t found his nest in the Jefferies tube, they would know to look for him in engineering and there really wasn’t anywhere else he could hide. So Jim just sat and leaned his head on his hands, trying to battle the unconsciousness of sleep that was pulling on his eyelids.
The door slid open and a dark-haired man in command gold walked in. Jim took note of the captain’s stripes. He wasn’t old, perhaps in his thirties, and had piercing blue eyes that seemed to see right through Jim. The Captain sat on the other side of the table and leaned back, crossing his arms. He studied Jim for a moment before starting to talk. He presumed the Captain was making introductions or asking him why he was aboard, or perhaps telling him how much trouble he was in. It was too fast for his tired brain to make sense of the lips. So when the speaking stopped, Jim simply signed ‘I can’t hear you, I’m deaf’ and hoped the Captain would either give him something to write with or bring out a communications officer who knew ASL. The latter was unlikely though, since modern hearing implants had made sign language an endangered language and few people knew it anymore.
Like he had suspected, the Captain merely called for a pair of padds. To his credit, the man didn’t look the slightest bit fazed by his silence. It wasn’t that Jim didn’t know how to speak, he would just rather not do it when he couldn’t hear himself. A padd was put on the table before him, already linked with the one handed to the Captain. Let the questions begin.
- I’m Captain Christopher Pike. Who are you?
Nobody.
- Do you not have a hearing implant?
Jim didn’t bother to write down an answer; of course he had an implant. He simply turned his head and showed the captain the bumpy scar behind his ear where the tiny external processor had been ripped out. It had happened some time ago already, but he knew the scar tissue was probably still red and ugly. A doctor would have been able to heal it almost instantly, but they would also have reported him, so he had let it heal by itself.
- How did that happen?
Long story.
- What’s your name?
Jim didn’t even touch the padd to answer the question. The Captain waited for a moment, but didn’t look surprised by his continuing refusal to answer.
- How old are you?
16
- How did you get aboard this ship?
Hacked my way in.
- You have been on board since we left from the starbase?
Yes.
- Why are you here?
Needed to get away.
- Why? Are you on the run?
Sort of.
- Did you commit a crime?
No.
- Where were you hoping to go?
I don’t know. I thought maybe I could slip out at the next starbase or something.
Captain Pike looked at him thoughtfully for a moment before continuing.
- What’s your name?
When Jim still wouldn’t answer he frowned slightly.
- Look son, I want to help you, but I can’t do that if you won’t work with me. It’s not a hard question and we have other ways to find out. Your fingerprints have to be listed in some database.
Jim read and sighed. He knew he couldn’t avoid the truth forever.
James.
- All right James, where are your parents?
Dead.
- You have no guardian or foster home?
No.
- What happened to your parents?
Starfleet happened.
Pike looked thoughtful again. Jim was surprised by the captain’s next question; he had expected to be asked more about his parents.
- You are obviously very smart if you could hack yourself into a starship. Why are you not in school?
Couldn’t go without the processor.
Captain Pike studied Jim for a moment with a serious frown on his face.
- Look, James. You are a minor supposedly on the run, illegally aboard a Starfleet vessel. We can cross-reference with missing persons and citizenship register, but you would do yourself a favour by just telling me who you are and why you’re here.
Captain Pike looked at him sternly, waiting for an answer. Jim knew Frank would never have filed a report on a missing person, he would be perfectly happy if Jim was rotting in a gutter, being eaten by rats. His school would have checked with Frank and he would have fed them some bullshit lie, so they wouldn’t miss him either. Jim hadn’t been to Winona’s funeral, so no one at Starfleet should know what he looked like. The only problem was that his fingerprints and maybe even an old picture were probably on record somewhere. He should have taken care of those.
Jim eyed the Captain. He had a kind face, crow’s feet already forming in the corners of his eyes. He really wasn’t the type to trust strangers, or anyone really, especially figures of authority. In his experience they just let him down and betrayed his trust. But the Captain would find out one way or another, and maybe Jim was just a little bit tired of hiding.
I needed to get away, but no commercial ship would hire me.
Jim hesitated for a moment, but decided that it was time to spill the beans.
My name is James Tiberius Kirk.
He could see on Captain Pike’s face the exact moment realization hit him. The light blue eyes studied him, no doubt comparing him with his father. Everyone did. Jim sighed again and waited patiently for Pike to collect himself.
- You have been missing for almost three months.
Who filed a report?
- I did.
Jim looked up at the Captain, genuinely surprised. He had never seen this man in his life. Why would he have filed a missing persons report on him?
Why?
- After Winona’s death I went to your house. I knew both of your parents and wanted to check on their boys, since neither of you was at the funeral. All I found was your stepfather, passed out in a pool of his own vomit.
Jim knew that sight well enough.
Yeah, well, Sam hasn’t been around for years.
- I found him. He’s studying biology with a full scholarship.
That’s nice.
- Why are you here, James?
I told you, I had to leave.
Pike frowned and looked at him with suspicion in his eyes. Jim was tired. His stomach hurt and he had to concentrate to not let his hands shake.
Please don’t send me back. You won’t find me next time.
The Captain looked suddenly very serious.
- I will have to make a report. We’re a long way from Earth, but child services will probably want to talk to you. I don’t know what’s going to happen to you, son, but I’ll make sure you’ll be ok.
Jim highly doubted it.
- Now, I’ll show you to a room and we’ll get you something to eat. You can keep that padd for now so you can communicate with people when you need to.
Captain Pike stood and took a step toward the door, tucking his padd under his arm. ‘Come on’, Jim read from his lips. It took all his control to stand and walk without looking like his legs were going to give in any minute, which was what he felt like. Damn if he was going to look weak in front of these people.