The Stars Above Us

Chapter 3

The ship shuddering pulled Jim out of her sleep. She didn't know what was going on, just that her dad was pulling on his gold uniform shirt as the Red Alert sounded. Jim grabbed her boots and a sweater, knowing what he was about to say.

"Go to my designated evac shuttle and do what I'm told," she said just as he opened his mouth.

"Yes. I love you, kiddo," he said as he kissed the top of her head.

"Love you too," she said. They left their quarters at the same time, going in opposite directions. Her dad headed for one of the turbolifts while Jim went to take the ladder down one deck to the emergency shuttle bay, she knew to leave the lifts for the officers who needed them.

"Jim," Leonard called after her. Jim looked at the kid. Like her, he was in his pajamas but he had on a pair of sneakers and his hair was a mess. She would've laughed but she could only image what she looked like to him.

"Hey. Come on," she said.

"What is going on?" he asked and they quickly climbed down.

"No idea. Red Alert could mean anything. Did Miss Pippa tell you where to go?" Jim asked as she pulled him along.

"Yea, shuttle nineteen," Leonard told her. "You know where that is?"

"Yep. It's were I'm going. It's really simple. You get in, sit down, strap in and stay quiet. The officers with us will tell us what to do if we have to leave the ship. Hopefully, we won't have to evac but this is SOP for non-essentials," she said as they got to the hatch.

"Evac? SOP? Non-essentials?" the southerner asked as they climbed in. Jim rattled off her info and Leonard's for the officer at the hatch who ushered them in. It was something that her dad taught her to do in case she got hurt or knocked out so someone would know who she was.

"Evac is short for evacuate, which you probably already know. SOP means standard operating procedure. Non-essentials means civilians and the officers that are not vital to the combat operations of the ship, which is a good chunk of the crew because this is a science mission," Jim sat down and strapped herself in. Then she reached over and helped Leonard strap in too. "We're gonna be okay."

"How can you be so sure?" he asked.

"I'm not, just hopeful that universe doesn't hate us that much," she said.

"I wouldn't bet on it," Leonard muttered. Jim actually chuckled at that, mostly because she was thinking it.

Because the shuttle was still in the ship, they could feel every shudder and rattle, Jim was sure that someone was firing on the vessel. Leonard reached over and grabbed her hand after the whole craft shook. Usually, she doesn't like to be touched unless she initiated it but the kid was terrified. She could understand. The first time Jim had to do this, she was eight and she held hands with the officer in the seat next to her since her dad was on the bridge.

"It's gonna be okay, Leonard," Jim told him. He just squeezed her hand. She looked around the shuttle at the officers and waited.

"Jim," her dad called when he walked onto their quarters.

"I'm right here, no need to yell," she said with a yawn.

The shuttles didn't have to evac and eventually, they were all ordered to disembark. There were damaged compartments all over the ship and Jim figured the safest thing to do was go back to her quarters. Leonard asked to tag along. He wasn't exactly sold on being in the CMO's quarters alone. To be fair, they were new to Pippa too and she hadn't had the chance to settle in. The old CMO retired out right before she left to get Leonard.

"Have you seen…?" Chris stopped when he noticed the sleeping twelve year old on the other end of the couch. "He's in here with you. I thought you didn't like him."

She shrugged, "He was scared. I couldn't just leave him to fend for himself. I may not like him but I'm not mean. Besides, we were in the shuttle together and figured there was safety in numbers. You might want to comm Miss Pippa so she knows where he is."

"And here I thought I was the adult."

"That's what I let you think," Jim told her dad.

"Brat," the officer chuckled as he sent a quick message to Pippa. She was still in sickbay. "I gotta get back, I just wanted to check on you."

"I'm fine. I'm gonna go back to sleep as soon as you leave," she said.

"Okay. I don't have to tell you to stay out of the way, do I?" he asked. Jim shook her head. "Good. I'll be back as soon as I have some time. Classes are cancelled for the day, so, for now, just stay here."

"Can do," Jim sighed.

"I love you, kiddo," her dad kissed the top of her head.

"I love you too," she said before wrapping her arms around her pillow and going back to sleep.

"You have interesting taste in music," Leonard said. Jim rubbed her eyes and noticed that he was sitting at the desk, looking through the console. Her dad's stuff was locked but Jim didn't have anything that warranted security, just music, movies and research for school.

"I like classic stuff, so what?" she asked.

"Nothing. I just never met anyone with remotely the same taste in music as I do. Beastie Boys, Johnny Cash, Hendrix, Sinatra, the Stones. I can actually listen to most of the stuff on here without pulling my hair out. There's something about music from the twentieth that I always liked," he said.

"It was real. The crap that people listen to now is over processed and..."

"Annoying. I mean, why listen to someone singing with the help of a computer over music created by a computer?" Leonard asked.

"I don't know. It always drove me crazy. There are some people with real talent but you have to weed them out. Stuff from back in the day is just… good. I get a warm feeling listening to it," Jim said.

"We sound like old people," he chuckled.

"Dad says I'm like a forty year old in an eleven year old's body," she said with a smile.

"My dad used to say something like that. Called me his middle-aged twelve year old," Leonard said with a touch of sadness in his voice.

"What was he like?" Jim asked.

"He was so cool. He was a doctor, took care of people. That's what I'm gonna do. I'm gonna be the best doctor in the universe," he told her.

"I have no doubt."

"Really?" Leonard raised an eyebrow.

"I can see it. You got the brains for it," she said. He was in the same classes as her, which meant he was gonna graduate around fourteen.

"What about you? What are you gonna do?" he asked.

"I'm gonna be a Starfleet Captain. My father was a captain for twelve minutes. He saved over eight hundred people before he was killed in action. If I can be half as good as he was, I'll die happy. Who knows, maybe we'll serve together," Jim said.

"What makes you think I'll join up? I don't even like space," Leonard gave her a look.

"Yet. You don't like space yet. Stick with me and I can almost guarantee that you'll join up too," she told him.

"I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you."