eighteenth jump;

[mathematically]

CHARACTERS: any and all
LOCATION: Gravity Couches and beyond
WARNINGS: maybe some swearing, or even some violence, and more than likely some implied (and possibly explicit) nakedness.
SUMMARY: Another month, another jump, another round of new faces.
NOTES: Keeping up with the tradition and copy pasted like always from the last one 



You wake up in darkness.

There's a breathing tube jammed down your trachea, and you're suspended in a tube of clear blue fluid. Upon registering your level of consciousness, the gravity couch drains the fluid surrounding you and retracts the breathing apparatus; the doors in front of you open, and you're deposited on the floor of a stark, sterile medical bay.

You are not alone.
There are others who have come before you, others who are awakening beside you. Some may be familiar to you, perhaps even friends. Others have much less amiable plans. Some are merely alien and inexplicable, but there are always those who might mean you harm.

After you catch your breath and your vision returns, you notice a number on the inside of your forearm. Maybe it's a familiar number. Maybe it means something. Maybe it's just a number. But the number—completely unique to you—is a tattoo, and it does not come off.

If you enter the room adjacent to the medbay, you will find a small locker with your number on it, surrounded by rows upon rows of identical lockers. Inside, you will find a few of your personal items, a communications device, and a ship's uniform in your exact size. The comms device is fully powered and connects directly to the ship's network; it's your only means of communication beyond physical conversation. Upon turning the device on, a neutral, automated voice will say, "Please take the blue lift to the passenger quarters." Any other attempts at communicating with the rest of the network are met only with static.

This is your welcome party.

Comments

[goldshirt]

[his choice of words doesn't faze Kirk because it's what he expects of Bones. that heartfelt pessimism wasn't born entirely of bitterness, despite what the doctor put forward. Kirk knew that, probably the same way Bones knew he wasn't just a young guy who thought with his dick. he still feels his insides shaking, and some part of him that's small and hasn't admitted to anything just wants to take Bones and go somewhere safe and sit with him and drink bourbon and be reminded that there are things that are right in the universe. that there are constants that won't shake out from under him, and that he can trust Bones to pick apart his health and yell at him for eating meatloaf and looking after himself and Kirk can tease him about flirting.

his gaze is down when he shakes his head, and with the dip of his chin he can feel McCoy's breath on his forehead before he lifts his face again to speak]

Just me and Spock. You showed up a little while later, helped us try to save the life of an alien on board. There was a sickness that nearly killed us all. You were gone after that. [it isn't accusatory, but he can't seem to stop the ache from coming into his tone. the sense of aloneness, when he'd lost Bones and Dean at the same time. when he'd gone to Godric because he couldn't ask Spock for help and Godric was already inside his head, knew how he felt, wouldn't be soft like a woman when it was the last thing he wanted.

Jim's hands are shaking, and he grips the datapadd tighter.]

We've met people up here from the Ambassador's reality, people who know how our whole lives play out. There was a week we were forced to relive our nightmares. Sulu and Spock and I watched Vulcan be destroyed a second time. We had a power outage and these masks— they showed up, started screwing with people's heads. I tried to mutiny, Sulu tried to help. If it wasn't for Spock and Raven I don't know where we'd be.

Two jumps ago I lost Sulu in the ship for a month before he found his way back. Last month we were boarded by pirates, and though we neutralized the situation and put them in the brig, Ward shot them all in their cells. We heard it over the network.

[the monologue that he seemed to be on a roll with suddenly trips over itself as Kirk privately relives everything he's saying, and realizes that there's no way— there's no way to describe any of this. it sounds like nothing, when he rehearses it like a good little soldier.]

I can't explain to you what it's been like.

[hypospray]

Of course, have me show up, do a little good and take me out before I'm done. Why am I not surprised in the slightest?

[ he says it because it's easier for him. it's the first thing his brain thinks of beyond the fact that he's sorry and that goddammit he wasn't supposed to leave like that. that unless he was forced away, he's supposed to be a constant, something that yanks Jim back when he's being stupid and just steadies him insomuch as anyone can steady him.

Jim's hands are shaking and Bones isn't a tactile person, not like Jim, but he just ends up grabbing Jim's arm ( bicep really ) in an effort to make them stop. ]

Don't tell me all about the other me. Lord knows I— [ have enough to live up to with daddy is what he almost says before he stops himself. ] You'd be dead, most likely. Mutiny on the Enterprise only worked because someone emotionally compromised a Vulcan. I leave and you go off the deep end between masks and nightmares. I'd almost be flattered if I didn't like having you alive.

[ the hand that doesn't have a grip on Jim's arm clenches into a fist before he speaks again. ]

Any kids?

[ because all he thinks is someone shooting someone like his daughter and it takes him a good second before he realizes that Jim looks like he's tripped over the entire explanation. ]

Don't need to know what it's been like exactly. Just want to know what— need to know how you are. What it's been like for you. I can fill myself in on the rest.

[goldshirt]

One, she was sixteen.

[she was the youngest, as far as Kirk could tell, and part of him didn't want to tell Bones at all. he knows what McCoy is like about kids, maybe because he has one of his own, but withholding the information would be as good as lying. he needed to know what a nightmare it was up here, how brutal this universe was in comparison to their own. people had sneered at Kirk before about how safe space was in his universe.

the contact helps to still him, and though Jim's hands don't stop shaking, it softens to something more of a tremor. something he can feel in his gut instead of making the datapadd he holds on to tremble like a glass of whiskey.]

It hasn't been easy. [which is an understatement, one that Kirk can't expand on, but the shadows in his eyes and his physical state explain that much on their own.] There isn't much order up here, half of our number consists of civilians.

[Jim meets his eyes, then, more pointedly, because Jim is a captain and as a rule he is meant to keep the crew safe, but the people on this ship don't view him the same way. it isn't easy for him, putting himself in that position and knowing he won't get that compassion in return.

some might consider it masochistic, but it's all Kirk knows how to do. if he isn't a captain, he isn't anything.]

whatever i can come back to this if i want!!!

[hypospray]

She was sixteen.

[ it makes him think of Joanna more than it should, because Joanna has a while to go before the reaches that age and it's not like every little girl is like his. that doesn't stop the thought though, and it hurts a little just to hear it.

he'll take the tremor as opposed to full blown shaking. it's progress, he'll work off that and make it completely better because that's what he does. ( he's supposed to do. ) ]

Looks pretty obvious. [ it's not meant to be mean, just blunt and to the point. there's a moment or two when Bones just stares at him in the way of saying yeah, so like he thinks that isn't actually something that's problem because hadn't they all been civilians once before. ]
h;
I've noticed, mostly civilians and when they're not, they're military that don't bow to Starfleet. [ a beat. ] You just gotta adjust how you do things with them. How you interact with them. It's not— you forgotten that they're civillians when you do things?