PROLOGUE

When Joanna McCoy was ten years old, she was allowed by her mother to visit her daddy on the Enterprise for two whole days. At first she was nervous, but as soon as she beamed on board and saw the crowd of people waiting for her, Jo knew she was going to have a great time.

"Daddy!" She giggled, running off of the platform and into her daddy's waiting arms. "I missed ya." She muttered, face squashed into his blue shirt.

"Hey, baby girl. Your momma treatin' ya good?" Her daddy's accent was thicker when she was here in real life, she noticed.

"Yeah, Daddy." She lied. "But Mr. Clay's not as good as you." Clay was her momma's new husband. Jo didn't like him very much. He didn't hug her like her daddy did. He only hit her.

"Of course he's not!" Her daddy scoffed. "Damn wife-stealing—" Jo stuck her small finger on his lips. "Yeah, I know." He said a bit grumpily. "Language."

Laughter filled the room to see the loud-mouthed doctor humbled by his daughter. "Well, JoJoBear, I see you've still got it!" Said a familiar voice.

Jo's eyes widened. "Uncle Jim!" She hadn't seen him since her daddy was in his second year at the Academy, when she was eight.

He ruffled her hair affectionately and laughed. "You're the only one I know who can tame Bones' potty mouth, JoJo." Joanna knew this was true. She'd heard her daddy's swearing her entire life, and never stopped trying to clean his mouth up a bit. If SHE wasn't allowed to swear, she reasoned, HE shouldn't be allowed either.

Jim didn't hug her, but then again, he never did. He wasn't the type of person who hugged very often, but he was far from unaffectionate. Their relationship was primarily words and pats on the head, and Jo was happy with that.

Then her father and Uncle Jim began to introduce her to his friends, whom he called the "command crew." First was a tall young man with pale skin, black hair, and pointy ears. 'A Vulcan', she thought. "This is Mr. Spock, Jo." Said Jim cheerfully. "Say hello."

"Hello, Mr. Spock." She said seriously. "I heard that Vulcan was destroyed a few months ago— was it very sad?"

The tall man appeared to be not emotionally involved with her words, but she saw a flash of astonishment pass through his eyes. "Yes, Miss McCoy, it was very... sad." He said.

"Oh. I hope ya stop bein' sad soon! It's okay, ya don't need to hide it— I can tell." She said with a frown. Her father hushed her quickly and introduced her to the next person, a dark skinned and dark haired woman who was very beautiful. Her name was Nyota Uhura, apparently. "Hi, Miss Nyota. You're very pretty. Do ya think one day I'll be as pretty as you?" This was something that worried Jo of late. Her aunts on her daddy's side weren't very pretty, and Jo tended to take after her daddy in his looks, with her dark hair and eyes and stubborn personality, and Jo wanted to be pretty like her momma while still looking like her daddy.

Miss Nyota smiled at her. "Thank you, Joanna. I'm sure you'll be very beautiful when you grow up— you're already quite pretty."

Jo flushed at the compliment, and decided she quite liked the woman. Next in the proverbial line was a fidgety Scotsman. Jo liked Scottish accents, but couldn't imitate one to save her life. "M' name's Scott, Montgomery Scott, but ye can call me—"

She cut him off. "Monty. I'll call ya Monty." The man stopped mid-word, looking oddly disappointed at something. "Is this your ship, Mr. Monty?" She asked cheerfully.

Pride glowed on his face. "Well, technic'lly she's te Cap'n's, Jo, but we both know who does all te WORK now, don' we!" Monty said, touching her nose with a long finger and making her giggle.

She decided she quite liked Monty, too. The next man, Mr. Sulu, was nice, but she wasn't too interested in him until he mentioned he could fight with a sword. "Can ya REALLY sword fight, Mr. Sulu? Like the Three Musketeers?" Jo had always loved old Earth literature, especially the old adventure stories.

He grinned widely. "Just like the Three Musketeers. McCoy, you had her read old Earth literature like that? I'm impressed."

Jo pouted. "DADDY didn't make me. I read those books all by myself! Momma doesn't like me reading big books like that. She says it's unnatural. But that doesn't stop me from reading The Lord of the Rings, though, it's my favorite!"

Mr. Sulu looked like he'd met his next best friend in the ten year old. "J. R. R. Tolkien is MY favorite author, too!"

Before they could really begin talking about the books, Jim and her daddy dragged her away to meet the last person in the room. At first she was pouting, but once she laid her eyes on the young man, she decided that she wouldn't mind meeting him after all. He was young, with a mass of golden curls on his head, wearing a golden shirt like Uncle Jim and Mr. Sulu, with big shy eyes and a big shy smile.

"JoJo, this is Pavel Chekov. He's our Navigator. He's only seventeen years old." Jim said proudly, ruffling the young man's hair just as he did to Joanna.

Her eyes widened as she did a quick calculation. "You got into the Academy when you were thirteen? That's so cool!" She gasped.

He smiled. "Eet vas nozzing. I'm sure you are wery smart, too." He had a Russian accent, Jo realized. Her hero-worship mindset quickly shifted into crush mode. Her cheeks flushed crimson.

"I'm not as smart as you, Mr. Pavel..." She mumbled. Her daddy's eyes narrowed at her uncharacteristic shyness, and her Uncle Jim looked highly amused.

Chekov scoffed. "Vat ten-year-old reads Lord of Ze Reengs? You are wery smart. I zhink you vill geet accepted at thirteen, too. Vat do you vant to be vhen you grow up?"

She smiled broadly. "I want to be a nurse, like Miss Christine Chapel. My daddy says she's the best of the best, and that she's helped him save lots of people's lives. Do ya think I should do that, Mr. Pavel?"

He smiled gently at her, but not as though she were a child. He smiled at her as though she were his equal. "Da. I zhink you should."

Hey, Author here!

How do you like the first chapter of my story? I know, I know, nobody actually READS Star Trek Fic anymore... but that won't stop me! Anyway, if anyone ever ends up reading this, I would love to hear of your existence. And I sadly do not own any of these people, so please don't think I do. Also, don't sue me. Yes, it's short, but it IS the Prologue. Longer chapters to be uploaded almost immediately after this one, so yeah.

Trellya