-it has three corners. [Wednesday Evening]

[highfunctioning]

 Of course.

It was so simple.  So utterly, embarrassingly obvious.  

How had he not seen it before? 

This is why he'd been brought here.  The feeling had been building for days, that he'd been missing the bigger picture, that he was going about things the wrong way.  He was attacking his current predicament with science; scrutinizing blood samples, messing about with cybernetically enhanced rats, trying to put together patterns of the people that came on board... But to what end?  What was the point of knowing the cage, if he was powerless to break free?  How much more interesting to use what was at hand to his advantage, and thus gain the ultimate freedom?!  This morning Sherlock had woken to find himself completely certain that the Proserpina was not a test, nor a punishment, but his great reward for being so extraordinary and working so tirelessly.  He was on a vessel in space; a vast, untamed frontier.  The possibilities were endless for a man with a quick mind, no fear, and nothing to lose.  

For a pirate.


Abandoning his supper of sugar cereal and chocolate milk, which he'd forgotten was the perfect meal, Sherlock stood and practically sprinted to the wardrobe.  A familiar voice usually wouldn't have dissuaded him from this kind of mission, but he was actually dying to share his revelation with someone.  

Besides which, he'd be needing a crew...

Comments

Locked to Jim!

[firstcylon]

Zoe had been feeling more and more restless over the last couple of days. Ever since everybody else had gone down to the planet - Earth, they said, but she hadn't felt God's revelation. She hadn't felt anything but humid heat and the bite of bugs, and she had come back up quickly enough. Now, though, she was feeling God's touch upon her, guiding her feet until she came to the observation deck.

She had half expected to find Gaius there, but instead she found Jim, and the slight clicks of her stilettos on the floor announced her arrival before she even walked through the doorframe and into the room.

God had led her there.

"The beauty of creation..." she stated, her voice trailing off.

Re: Locked to Jim!

[to_boldly]

Jim grunts in reply. While he won't readily admit it aloud, he still feels like absolute ass, albeit slightly improved from yesterday. If things continue on at this rate, he'll be well enough to go down to the planet by tomorrow. With a stubborn frown, Jim ignores the voice in his ear that sounds suspiciously like Bones reminding him he's a Captain, not a doctor, and that someone more qualified should be making these assessments.

"Don't care," Jim tells the voice, then startles, remembering he has company. "Sorry," he says to Zoe, pressing at the ache in his head with a finger pressed hard between his eyebrows. "Not you. Somebody else."

Re: Locked to Jim!

[firstcylon]

Zoe frowns, and comes closer. God has brought her here, and then it is clear. Jim's index finger is between his eyebrows, and it is clear that he is fighting off a headache, but he would not be the first to be chosen by God before he believed. Gaius is proof, and her angel came to her long before she turned to the One True God.

She smiles, and sits beside him, reaching out to lay a hand on his arm. "It's okay. And it's going to be better than."

Re: Locked to Jim!

[to_boldly]

Her hand is cool on his fevered skin, steadying in a way Jim wouldn't have expected from a girl of such diminutive stature. "Will be," he agrees, turning to blink at her with too bright eyes. "If I can get down there. I gotta get down there, Zoe."

[firstcylon]

"I don't think so," she tells him, and she doesn't understand why he's so hot. People have been looking under the weather, maybe it's a virus she just doesn't get that way because she's a Cylon. She hasn't been feeling so hot herself, but his skin is way warmer than hers. "There's nothing down there. I've been. We're needed here, Jim. God wants us here."

[to_boldly]

It hurts to blink. It hurts to breathe, it hurts to think, and for a moment, Jim can't understand what she's saying to him. "I'm supposed to be a Captain," he says when he parses it at last. "I had a ship. I had a destiny." He presses his finger again to his head, but the ache won't go away. "I'm supposed to be out there, not here."

[firstcylon]

"No," she tells him, and she's smiling all of a sudden, because it all makes sense, why her place wasn't down there, and why he would be chosen. "No, no, no." She reaches over and pulls his hand down from his forehead, presses the back of her curled fingers to it, hoping her cooler temperature will alleviate it some for him, and her other hand cups his face so she can lift it and she can meet his gaze and hold it, because this matters, this is God's will. "You're supposed to have a ship. You have a destiny right here. You're supposed to have this station, Jim. We've been fumbling in the dark without a leader. You're the leader we've been waiting for. You've been chosen."

[to_boldly]

She's smiling at him, huge and bright, and Jim remembers a time when he'd sought just this, to make the girls smile and swan and come home with him night after night. But this is different. She's giving him more than a night of simple pleasure, offering him something he's been craving for so long, he was just too ashamed to admit it.

But why should he be? Why should James Tiberius Kirk, son of a hero of war feel arrogant just because he's the most qualified out of all the station's residents to command the Proserpina? Pike saw it. Spock saw it. Why shouldn't everyone else? "You're right," he says slowly, fevered expression opening like a flower to the sun. "I thought my destiny was the Enterprise, but maybe it's this. I'm supposed to lead you."

[firstcylon]

You, yes, but not her. She'll be by his side, guiding, helping, and everything makes sense. It makes so much sense that she half expects her angel to appear and agree, bless this union of destinies to accomplish God's will.

"I'll help," she tells him, her hands leaving his face because he doesn't need them anymore. He's seeing her, and he's seeing their destiny, all for himself.

[to_boldly]

She releases him, but Jim doesn't let her go far, clasping both her small, cool hands inside his own. "How did you know?" he asks. He might be a leader, but she has answers to questions Jim hadn't even realized he'd been harboring, and he needs them. "How did you know it'd be me? How did you know I'd been chosen?"

[firstcylon]

Zoe smiles, because it is still glorious, that feeling inside of her, and she squeezes his hands, gently. "God led me to you, Jim. He has a plan for you. He has a plan for both of us." She stands, without slipping her hands out of his, meaning for him to come with her. "Come on. We have work to do."

[to_boldly]

Jim has no idea what that means, but he doesn't care. He feels better than he has in days, buoyed up with purpose and the faith of the girl in front of him. She believes in him, so fiercely in fact, that it doesn't seem to matter to him that she's citing God. Jim's been athiest all his life, but who is he to say there's no one looking out for him? Who is he to say that it's just Pike and an elderly Spock who believe he has a destiny, when it's possible that it's God himself?

"More things in heaven and Earth," he murmurs, letting her pull him from the room. "I need a crew. Zoe, we have to gather me up a crew."

[the_iceman]

Likewise it was perfectly obvious to Mycroft why he had been put here; to protect and to serve. (And to eat copious amounts of cake and chocolate chip cookies, but that was beside the point.) His brother was an unguided missile, a hurricane blind to its destruction, a unique mind threatened by its own recklessness. This space ship was a dangerous place and as with any dangerous place it became only more dangerous when his brother was set loose in it.

He was here to protect his brother. He needed to be guarded and guided. From the world, from this ship, from himself.
And apparently, from the wardrobe.

“What are you doing?” He asked, a frown wrinkling his forehead and worry evident in his eyes.

[highfunctioning]

"Mycroft! Perfect, you're here. It's going to be brilliant. I can't believe it never occurred to me before!"

He saw the look on his brother's face, and rather than barreling through it or walking away, he felt the burning desire to make him agree.

"Don't be cross, it's so perfectly obvious -it's what's needed! We can't just sit here and let things happen to us anymore. We're going to make things happen! I'll never be bored again, and every day will be a new adventure because we won't have to wait for someone to get murdered and Lestrade to call or John to drum up interest with his insipid blog!"

[the_iceman]

"Oh god, are you going on a killing spree?" Mycroft asked, aghast, and not quite joking. "Have you lost it completely?"

[highfunctioning]

"No! Well, possibly. Probably, but it's really an occupational hazard, don't you think? You make it sound like I'm off to kill everyone myself. Don't be ridiculous and stop spoiling the fun!"

He seized his brother by the shoulders to help him focus.

"I know you, Mycroft. You pretend to be socially responsible, but you're just disinterested in what other people want as I am. It's why you at play puppet master and carry an umbrella. It's why you do at least one of those things. You know what I'm trying to say." Sherlock released Mycroft and changed tactics.

"You know as well as I do that we're wasted as cogs in the machinery; we're supposed to be pushing the buttons."

[the_iceman]

"I thought you liked being a cog in the machine - the most crucial one, yes, but still; a cog. That's where the adventure is. It's why you became a consulting detective. It's why you wanted to be a-" Halt. Full stop. "What are you doing?" He repeated his former question.

[highfunctioning]

Sherlock's eyes glittered with the intensity of his glee.

"We're taking the ship. We're going to be pirates."

[the_iceman]

"No," Mycroft argued in return. True, it wasn't the most eloquent of arguments he had ever given in his life, but it was one of the few heart-felt ones.

Was it liquor that had caused it, or had a replicator supplied his brother with a few bags of cocaine?

"That's an idiotic plan, and- you're not going to do that." Again not his best line of reasoning, but one he felt very strongly about.

[oneandtogether]

Spock had been feeling physically better by the minute since the others had left to go down to the planet's surface. Ironic, since he had only gotten progressively more annoyed by the fact that he had been unable to accompany them. He had started out yesterday attempting to control his annoyance, but the reduction in his symptoms seemed accompanied by an equal reduction in his control over his emotions.

He was aware, somewhat distantly, that he would normally be concerned by this occurrence. But here, now, he did not think it was anything to worry about. He was annoyed; what of it? If other people disapproved, they did not have to vocalize it-- and if they did, Spock had no problem teaching them to regret their forwardness.

He was looking for Jim, but rounded the corner to find Sherlock and Mycroft engaged in heated conversation. "Good afternoon," he said, nodding at them with a pleasant smile.

[highfunctioning]

Sherlock turned on his heel, Mycroft forgotten, mind moving on to more exciting conversations.

"Spock! Just the person I need. You've some command experience, which makes you uniquely qualified to help me."

He grinned, which was an unnerving sight when you weren't prepared for it.

[firstcylon]

"Something befitting your station," Zoe agreed, meaning the clothing they were on their way to get from the wardrobe room, as they rounded the corner, and came in view of Mycroft, Sherlock, and Spock. She stopped walking, her hand in the crook of Jim's elbow, and smiled, then turned that smile on Jim. "Spock would fight for you, wouldn't he. He must be your second-in-command, Jim."

God had led them here to find him. Maybe there would be positions for the two men from Earth, as well, although one of them she did not know.

[to_boldly]

"He would," says Jim, sure of it. Spock doesn't recall his time in service as his First Officer on the Enterprise, but that's exactly what he is. He's Jim's, just as the Enterprise is Jim's, as will soon be the Prosperpina.

He looks to Zoe, eyes taking on an almost manic light. "It's what God wants, isn't it?"

[firstcylon]

"He's on our path," Zoe confirms, serenely, happily. It is all going according to God's plan. "God put him there, the first of your crew."

[oneandtogether]

Spock's eyebrows both rose. "Help you with what?" Sherlock looked even more manic than usual, and Mycroft appeared to be standing near him only under great duress. He looked back at Sherlock and frowned, concerned. "Has something happened?"

[to_boldly]

"Yes," says Jim, leaving Zoe's side to join Spock's. He takes him by the shoulders, the new energy thrumming through him making it the easiest thing in the world to turn Spock away from Sherlock and towards him.

"Spock," he says, "Spock. I'm taking over the Proserpina, and I want you to be my First Officer. Again."

[highfunctioning]

Sherlock did like the pair who had just arrived. They were entirely too pretty and talking about God besides.

"I'm very sorry to say that God, however you understand him, has nothing at all to do with what's happening to us. Also the Proserpina is unavailable because she is now The Adventure Galley and we're going to be pirates."

He wasn't upset and certainly didn't need to raise his voice; it was a dispassionate statement of fact.

[the_iceman]

Protecting Sherlock was always a first priority. From himself when he was attempting something idiotic, such as taking over the ship to become a pirate. Or from others, when they were attempting the ridiculous.

That said, he didn't like the implication of 'we're going to be pirates'.

"I'm most certainly not. Nor are you," he said - demanded - to Sherlock. "Nor, for that matter, that drunk rioter with a Mozes complex. I'm sure you will understand." To Spock, who would certainly bring that man Kirk to order.

[firstcylon]

"There is a right, and there is a wrong, and only through the one true God can we know the difference," Zoe stated as she walked up to them, more slowly, her eyes on the two men from Earth. "We won't be pirates. We'll be doing God's will. You can stand with us, or you can step aside, but I would advise against standing in our way."

She looked like a dressed up doll, but there was a real threat to her words - that which only came from one with true and utter faith. In God, in herself, and in Jim.

[to_boldly]

Pirates. Jim is briefly jealous of the idea, and the sweet ship name all the moreso, but he knows neither is his path. He's an explorer, a scientist, and he can't allow the Prosperpina - his ship - to be sullied.

"Like hell," he says to Sherlock in the wake of Zoe's magnificent approach. How he hadn't seen her for the oracle she is before, Jim has no idea.

"Spock?"

[oneandtogether]

Spock listened to everyone talking at him-- Mycroft, whose argument was logical and sensible; Sherlock, who Spock usually judged to be right about everything; Zoe, who was smarter than anyone gave her credit for; and Jim, who had the ability to make none of that matter to Spock in the slightest.

"Mr. Holmes, I regret that I must decline your generous offer." He may have been initially surprised to learn that he became Kirk's first officer, assuming that he would leave Starfleet to aid in the rebuilding of Vulcan culture. But here, now, nothing made more sense. Believing in destiny was not logical, but Spock was finding it difficult to do anything else.

"Captain," he said, addressing his friend with a nod. "What is your plan?"