Starfleet Academy Years

by Starsinger

This is a series of stories centered around our favorite group and their years at the Academy before Nero attacked Vulcan. We'll start with Jim. Jim is attending tactics class along with the rest of his year's command track classmates. He is thoroughly bored. He's read the book, gone through all the simulations, and thought about how he would do things differently. The teacher suddenly throws something new at them and we have the very first "lightning storm in space" moment. Don't own them.

"Alright," Jim announced sarcastically, "I'll go to your Bio-Chemistry class and you can go to my Tactics class!"

McCoy winced. His teacher was so boring Jim wouldn't have been noticed, and probably would have aced the lab without opening his eyes. Unfortunately, McCoy had no intention of being in a class where he would stick out like a sore thumb. "No, that's okay," McCoy handed Jim's PADD back to him. "I'll meet up with you later."

"You're no fun," Jim muttered as he stalked into the classroom. He sat at the back of the auditorium, doodling on his PADD. The class filed in behind him and the instructor, Commodore Scott Powell, came in behind them.

Jim looked up and was startled to see several Admirals sitting at the table behind Powell, "Alright everyone, we're going to try something different today, since some of you are bored enough to have finished all the assignments already." He looked straight at Kirk who simply smiled, "Today's scenario is in the Organian system near the Klingon Neutral Zone. Hypothetically speaking, our fleet is on their way to the system to defend it against their neighbors, the Klingons…"

Jim zoned him out, as always, looking at the PADD. The Organian system had twelve planets, three of which were inhabited. This densely populated area of the galaxy had fifteen Earth sized moons around five of the outer planets. Those planets were, typically, gas giants. Two were as big as Jupiter. The third and fourth planets were the major hubs of commerce and trade for the Organian people. They were humanoid, peaceful, and quietly traded with anyone who landed on their planet peacefully.

Jim's thoughts centered around how there would probably be an enemy fleet hovering around the fifth moon of the tenth planet of the system. There would probably be other elements scattered throughout the Saturn sized planet and its rings. He'd startled making smiley faces on the planets clouds long before he heard his name called.

"Cadet Kirk, how would you handle this?" Powell asked. Kirk looked up and around before realizing he was being beckoned to come up and explain his position and what he would do.

Kirk walked down and smiled at Professor Powell, "First, I would enter the solar system angling toward the sixth planet as a cloak. There will be an enemy fleet in and around the fifth planet."

"Why do you think that?" Powell asked.

"Its size and rings are similar to Saturn's, making it an obvious point to hide. Also, the eighth planet, while on the other side of the solar system, is large enough to hide more of the fleet." Powell and the Admirals watched and listened incredulously as Jim outlined what the Klingons would do, what the Federation should do, and pointed out some other places that more ships could hide.

"Now, given the area of space interferes with their cloaking devices, it is unlikely…" Jim suddenly trailed off as all Admirals and the Professor took off out the door and vanished. Jim shrugged, "Alright, anybody else have any ideas on how else this should work?"

One other man who wasn't a cadet stayed in the classroom: Christopher Pike. He'd warned the admirals about Jim. He just hadn't anticipated Jim's quick thinking. What Jim didn't realize was that this conflict was hours from happening. The Admirals and Powell were out informing the Captains of the various ships of the conclusions of a single cadet.

Jim took the rest of the class through the "scenario" as each cadet came up with their own plans and how they thought it would play out. Jim never looked down at the slightest idea, took each suggestion into consideration, and all the cadets left the room talking excitedly about how interesting the class was. Jim walked up the steps to his desk, and put his stuff in the bag, and turned around to find Pike staring up at him.

"Jim, you were brilliant, you probably have been tested out of this class with what you just did," Pike said with a laugh.

"That wasn't a 'fake' scenario, was it? That fleet really is going into battle isn't it?" Kirk asked.

"I thought you'd see that," Pike said with a grin. "And, the rest of the class was being filmed for the Admiralty to review at their leisure. Let's go to lunch, my treat."

"Are you sure we have enough time?" Jim asked, looking at his watch.

"Yes, I'm sure," that was Pike's introduction to Kirk's eating habits. He was an hour late for his appointment with Admiral Archer.

The next class was quite different. Powell shortly retired and Kirk was teaching the class.

Hope you enjoyed. Please review.