Who: Kathryn Janeway & Christopher Pike Where: Coffee Shop When: A Saturday afternoon (backdated) Rating: Tbd Status: incomplete started in gdocs
Kathryn had enjoyed meeting Christopher at the Starfleet drinks and the conversation they’d had. He seemed like a nice person, sensible but not too sensible like some people in Starfleet could be. He could see why he was such a popular captain though. Talking to him had been fun, he had the experiences she had in leading a ship but came from such a different time and universe it wasn’t exactly the same either. She didn’t remember mention of her Pike ever being in a wheelchair but to her that didn’t matter. She was curious as to what happened but she knew better than to ask.
Making her way to the agreed meeting place, Kathryn found a table and waited for Pike to arrive. Being here had taught her to no longer react like a fangirl when people like Pike and the Enterprise crew had arrived - long before they had arrived. That didn’t stop her from silently doing so when they did arrive, she just could control it.
Still, getting to know them was interesting and an opportunity that she wouldn’t have otherwise.
Pike arrived a few minutes before their scheduled time, promptness having been drilled into him at the Academy. He was looking forward to this, meeting other Star Trek captains and sharing experiences. Starfleet was familiar, more than that, it was who he was.
"Kathryn," he said with a smile, forcing himself to use her given name and not stand on the ceremony of rank. After all, they were fellow officers. "How have you been?"
“Christopher,” she greeted him with a smile. “I’m well, keeping myself busy and all of that. How have you been? I’m guessing you’re settling in well?” she asked him with a smile. Passing him the menu she gave him a smile. She had ordered herself a drink of water once she had arrived which arrived just as she did so.
She wanted to ask him some more questions but thought it best to at least get the conversation flowing instead of diving in to what she wanted to know.
"Fairly well. I must say, it's rather nice to have other members of Starfleet here," he said, well aware that he had a fair amount of his Enterprise crew while her other captains weren't quite that lucky. He ordered a coffee and a scone, grateful that McCoy hadn't prohibited coffee yet.
"I'm looking into teaching," he said. "At least for the moment. It would allow me to focus on my physical rehab while not getting bored. Besides, I figure the refugees can't be any worse than Academy cadets," he teased.
"Are you managing to stay busy somehow?" he asked, knowing boredom was often the worst thing for a Captain.
Kathryn nodded. “That is true, I have to admit I’ve had a lot of fun getting to know a lot of you. In my time I had met Spock briefly but not your Spock obviously. It wasn’t well either. Here it is different and I am grateful to have that opportunity.” She really was having a good time though she hadn’t gotten on with all of the other Starfleet people here she had made some good friends with some of the others though and she wasn’t all that fussed when it came down to it.
“Teaching could be fun and yes definitely can’t be worse than the recruits.I doubt they’ve really changed between your time and mine. What would you teach?” she asked curiously.
“I am, I joined SHIELD recently to work as a scientist, I was working in a private lab before that though,” she told him. “It’s fun and it’s challenging enough to keep me from growing bored,” she explained.
"A bored captain is an extremely dangerous thing," Pike commented, a smile dancing on his lips as he sipped his coffee. It was one of the reasons he worked his cadets so hard - to keep them from getting bored.
"What sort of research?" he asked curiously. "I always wanted to go command track so I didn't focus as much on science during the academy. More tactics, strategy and diplomacy."
“That’s true and that can often lead us to act oddly and endanger our crews with who knows what,” she replied with a shrug. She had seen that time and time again. Then again danger was a part of Starfleet. There was just a big difference between stupidly dangerous and the other sorts of danger that they encountered during their career.
“I’ve been working on astrophysics or what passes for it here. I didn’t swap to the command track myself until I was a Lieutenant, before that I was obviously in the science track,” she told Pike. “I have to say though I preferred the command track. I would have been content in the sciences if I hadn’t experienced it. I did still practice the sciences though even as a Captain.”
"The difference in progress in terms of science, technology is frustrating," Pike commented. "It's been a difficult transition for me, especially in terms of the medical technology. Though my arms are getting stronger from a manual wheelchair as opposed to a hover chair."
There was a bit of levity in his tone. He was really trying to make the best of this and even if walking here didn't put him any closer to space, it might at the very least allow him the chance to fly again, as Kirk was doing. "I'm one of those assholes who went straight to bridge crew," he admitted with a teasing tone. "Made Captain in four years, new record until Kirk showed up. But he always was a bit of a show off."
He paused as he took a drink. "Where were you flying before you got pulled through?"
Kathryn nodded. “It is definitely hard. Even after so long I try and voice activate things when I’m not fully thinking about what I’m doing,” she admitted to him. “You get used to it somewhat after time but it still sometimes surprises me. Though yes the medicine is the most drastic in differences. The sciences have at least the basics the same.” she didn’t comment on the mention about the wheelchair, not sure what to say so decided it would be best to leave it alone.
“Nothing wrong with that, I mean some people are just like that. I know one of my friends was supposed to do something like that until he decided to instead become the longest serving commander instead,” she joked.
“I’ve been on my ship for four years before I was pulled here. Due to an alien entity we were pulled into the Delta Quadrant,” she told him. “Was supposed to take us about seventy years to get home according to our estimates - it doesn’t thankfully but still it is an awfully long time.”
"Delta quadrant? You managed to get back from there? I'm incredibly impressed, Captain," he said with a smile. "Hardest thing for me was losing my ship," he admitted, running his fingers over the coffee cup.
“Not for another three years after my time,” she told him. “Also according to the show not by the most standard ways. I mean it involved time travel and using futuristic technology to get through a Borg Transwarp Hub - you wouldn’t know the Borg would you?” she asked. “I understand that though, it is always hard losing a ship.”
"No, haven't heard of the Borg at all. We just had red matter and Nero's anomaly which affected George Kirk and his son, years apart," Chris explained. "Easier in battle than with a promotion," he commented wryly before waving his hand. "Sorry, didn't mean this to become a woe is me discussion. So, what was the most interesting thing you encountered out there?"
“I didn’t think you had. We discovered them around my time,” she told him. “Just wasn’t sure with the alternative universe and all of that,” she shrugged. “That’s alright, sometimes we just need to talk about it even when we don’t want to,” she brushed it off simply enough. She didn’t mind, really. Plus it was interesting to see how things varied. “Oh that’s tough. Everything is interesting and unique in it’s own way. There was Species 8472 which is lives in fluidic space - between our universe and something else. The Ocampans who only lived to the age eight and communicated telepathically for the most part though they did have the ability to speak out loud too. Everything really I suppose,” she admitted. “I know in the future - well my future, we encounter an area of space with literally nothing in it - no stars, no planets absolutely nothing.”
"Space with nothing?" Pike asked incredulously, barely able to believe that such a thing could exist. "Not just undocumented, uncharted territory? Nothing? Remnants of a big bang or a black hole? Did you figure out what caused it?"
"Logically I would assume a Big Bang or Black hole since it seemed to be naturally occurring though yes it literally had nothing in it. Not even a star. It originally was going to take us two years to cross it from what I've learned but fate was on our side once again," she explained to him. "Of course the show doesn't go into much detail so there might be facts regarding it that I'm not aware of."