A tall ship and a star to steer her by (starwreck) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2017-07-01 16:59:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, diana meade, james kirk |
Up here, there are no boundaries or borders.
Who: Diana and Kirk
what: Lunch and space
When: Late June
status: complete
Rating: PG
Being bothered by friends, especially attractive lady ones, was never something that Jim turned down. His dreams hadn’t been terrible lately, but it felt like things were about to get a whole lot worse. It was just a gut feeling he had.
So he arranged to meet Diana at a cheap little cafe, and got there early to get his favorite table.
Diana didn’t mind her friends coming to her if they needed to. She really didn’t. She also didn’t mind spending time with them even if they didn’t. She had a feeling that Jim’s level of charm was something that made him popular among womenfolk, but there wasn’t any harm in flirtation. So she agreed to meet him at a cafe.
She was a few minutes early, spotting him rather easily. There was a quick smile and a wave before she walked over. “Hello! How are you?”
Jim was the kind of guy who’d still respect you in the morning. Even if he might not love you in the morning.
“I’m better now.” He flashed a smile at her.
She felt herself rolling her eyes at him before taking the seat across from him. She was smiling all the same. “Well, aren’t you the charmer? I suppose I’ll have to accept your answer as fact anyway, because I am of the belief that I am excellent company. It makes disagreeing with you more difficult.” She did wonder if he’d had more dreams and if they’d been okay. Really, with the way things sounded, it wasn’t going to be great. But then being in space sounded so amazing.
It also seemed better than her dreams where things seemed intense and there wasn’t much besides magic to make the experience more awe inspiring. There was also the matter of there being no place called Chance Harbor in Washington State. She’d checked. She had her Book of Shadows tucked away neatly in her purse, not really wanting to leave it lying around for someone to find. It was easier to keep track of it anyway. “Any recommendations for food?”
“Chicken fingers. You can’t go wrong with those. If you want something more substantial they make this delicious mozzarella grilled sandwich that’s just … it really should be illegal.”
Jim gestured at her. “How’s it going?” He wasn’t ready to talk about himself and he knew things got weird for Diana. He was willing to listen.
“Chicken fingers, then.” Not that the sandwich didn’t sound great, but she wasn’t sure if she could really eat it at the moment. Next time she was here, she considered. “But I will try the sandwich sometime later. I’ll keep it in mind.” Maybe she’d order it to go and share it with her dad later. He might give her a weird look, but that happened from time to time.
“It’s okay. Still a bit weird about the magic thing.” She sighed, pulling her Book of Shadows out of her bag. “This seems to be where the spells are.” She opened the book to the binding spell. “This is the spell we used to bind our circle.”
“Fair enough. Just know you’re missing out if you never try it!” He leaned over, curious about the book and Diana’s spells. He’d experienced magic-like things, of course. It had always turned out to be advanced science, but then that was probably all magic was in any universe. “Does it involve blood?”
“I know, but I don’t want to hurt anyone. And some of these spells require ingredients. Though, I guess I do work at an occult store. The irony is not lost on me.” She shrugged slightly before looking at the book. “No. Not outside of each of us being part of the original families. You just say the incantation and everyone says they accept and then bound.” She shrugged again. “I don’t think the binding has come over from the dreams. It would be a little frustrating.”
“Which means you have access to most of the ingredients you need. Unless you need like, flake of witch. Can’t help you there.” Jim winked at her. It was a bit of a relief that it didn’t require blood. Honestly anything that required blood was probably something that shouldn’t be done anyway. “Do you feel it in any way? Like read thoughts?”
There was a nod at the statement. “That is helpful. It’s probably easier than trying to set up a place with everything inside. I don’t think our abandoned house exists outside of the dreams.” She was sorry that it didn’t because it would already have everything there. “Flake of witch? You really know nothing about spells.” Not that she knew any more than he did.
At his question, she shook her head. “No reading thoughts. We haven’t done much working together in the dreams yet. But I can definitely say there has been no mind reading.”
“Careful what you wish for, you’ll suddenly find yourself with property you weren’t expecting.” Jim wouldn’t be surprised.He’d been gifted with a space ship of all things. A house seemed mundane.
“No mind reading is probably good. Spock could do it, with physical contact.”
“But see, I’d be okay with that. I’d have to ask...well, I’m not sure what to call him. A customer? He knows about how to ward things using...I forget now if it was the herbs or the scales.” She pressed her forehead against her palm. “Well, he knows how to do warding spells. I wouldn’t want people I don’t know going in there. It’s already enough of a mess as it is. I don’t think I need random strangers waltzing in and making it more of a mess.” Which would be...a pain, really. There were things in there that needed to be cared for. Most especially the plants. “He didn’t treat me like an idiot when I asked him about a million questions, so it was nice. Though, a million is really exaggerating.” She had asked a lot of questions, though.
“Really? He sounds interesting. Only I really don’t know that anyone reading my mind is something I’d be hoping to have to worry about. Who knows what they’d read in there. Spock is one of your friends from space?”
“A house is a lot easier to walk into than a starship. Color me curious though, i’d like to see it. Danger or not.” Jim lowered his voice an octave. “But I do love danger.”
Returning his voice to normal, he nodded. “He wouldn’t do anything without your permission unless it was to save a life. Strict taboos against that sort of thing. He’s my best friend, and my first officer.”
She laughed at that. “I’m sure it is. But I’ve certainly never had reason to walk into a starship.” But if he wanted to see it, well, she could hope that it showed up. It would give them all a place to go. “The house isn’t too dangerous as far as I can tell. I mean, it’s not exactly falling apart, but then it’s also kind of old...and abandoned.” And...okay, no one would live there if they were in their right mind.
“Well, that’s good. I think it would be really weird if you just sort of went into someone’s mind unannounced without permission. But I guess if lives were in danger…” She shrugged slightly. “I’m pretty sure Adam is my best friend in the dreams. We’ve known each other since we were little and we’ve been dating for three years if I remember the facts right. But still no mind reading. He’s just very good at reading me.” It was kind of strange to dream about, though. Having a boyfriend in the dreams when you didn’t have one outside was unusual, but probably not as unusual as she thought.
“There’s never not a reason to walk into a starship,” Jim pointed out helpfully. As far as he was concerned he could live on the Enterprise. That probably wasn’t healthy.
“Yeah, I get that too. Know someone long enough and you don’t need to read their minds to read their minds. Spock always got me. Bones too. Didn’t need any special powers.”
Diana smiled. “Well, I don’t happen to know all that many people that have a spaceship. Outside of you, of course.” They just had a lot of emotions and magic. It was more than enough.
“Yeah. No one gets me quite like Adam. Not even my dad. But he does his best.” She shrugged. He had to work, so it made sense that he didn’t always have time. It wasn’t like he had someone else to raise her and work to make money at the same time. It was just him. “It’s nice to have people like that.”
Her comments made him miss Spock and Bones. But he seemed to be doing that a lot as his dreams got older, and older. He’d always expected to die on a starship, but now he wondered if he was going to fade away of old age. It was depressing.
“It really is.”
It was sad to think about the people she didn’t have in the dreams. But she had her dad and her grandmother, so that would have to be enough. That and she had some people from Valar, too. They would make good friends. “On a less depressing note...when do I get to see your spaceship?”
“How about we finish eating and then we can go see it right now? Something about the Enterprise always made Kirk’s day. She was home, she was his lady, she was all his dreams come true.
Diana smiled and nodded. “Okay. We’ll finish our lunch and then go see it because we don’t really have spaceships...or at least, we don’t have spaceships I can go on.” Not that she’d had a strong urge to go on a spaceship before, but perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she’d believed that it wasn’t going to happen. Only now it could and she definitely had to be part of it.
“She’s my wife,” Jim said, a soft grin crossing his face. Oh, he was joking, but in a lot of ways he’d been married to his job. It’s why no relationship ever worked out, and the ones that could have? Were messed up for other reasons. At least in his dreams, Jim Kirk would always be alone, even when he didn’t want to be.
Diana looked at him with an eyebrow raised. “Your wife, huh? I didn’t realize it was that serious.” But she supposed most captains of boats and starships were prone to affection toward their ships. She’d seen it with people and their cars also.
“Oh, it’s not a monogamous relationship, she understands. But like how a sailor’s true love is the sea, the stars are mine.” He put his hand over his chest to emphasize the dramatic seriousness of the moment.
“I guess the stars are very understanding as well? Your heart and soul belong to it, but no physical commitment?” She shook her head slightly before sitting back in her chair. “I expected something like that. Only not the stars being your true love and you’re having a starship for a wife. That was a little surprising.”
“Exactly.” He grinned at her. “I’m fairly open when it comes to most relationships. If there was a true love for me in my dreams who wasn’t the Enterprise...”
He trailed off, frowning, then shrugged. “Can’t dwell on the past.”
Diana nodded at the knowledge. It was good to know these sorts of things with charming gentleman with very convincing smiles. “I’ve met others of a like mind.” But she didn’t really do much more than flirt when it came to that. “I haven’t had my big love, I guess, but I’m sure it’s still out there waiting for me.”
There was a slight furrowing of her brows as his expression changed. “So are you saying there was someone, but not anymore? Or you’d wanted there to be and it didn’t work out?”
Jim wet his lips. “It’s a crazy story. One of those star-crossed things. Never meant to be. You know the word almost is one of the saddest words in our language. This is an almost.”
That was sad. “Well, maybe you’ll get lucky one day and find someone. If not in the dreams, then outside of them. You’d probably have to want it to happen for it to happen, though.” She paused briefly, thinking things over. “But my dad says that sometimes it just happens. Even when you’re not looking for it or expecting it.” She shrugged.
“That’s how it happened.” Jim shrugged. He’d fallen for Edith Keeler immediately. But history said that she died. And in the history where she didn’t die, humanity had never survived the second world war.
The needs of the many.... But it didn’t mean he didn’t grieve, or wonder what he could have done to change things.
Diana considered that for a moment before nodding. “I think we can probably consider that topic closed.” If only because she wasn’t sure he really wanted to talk about it and there wasn’t a reason to drag it out. “Have you seen any stars up close considering your adventures in space?”
“Plenty. Birth of stars, death of stars, many stars in between. A lot of cataloguing and study of stellar phenomenon. You might think it’s boring.” Jim grinned at her, “Sometimes it is.”
Once lunch had been devoured, Jim paid and led Diana outside. He ducked down an alley way and pulled out what looked like a flipphone. After giving the order, they were beamed up.
It probably felt really weird for a first timer.
“Maybe, but it sounds amazing.” For someone who was never in space, everything about it sounded so vast and wonderful that the idea that it might be boring sometimes as well seemed absolutely impossible.
She almost made a joke about leading girls down alleys before he pulled out the...whatever it was he had.
Was that a flipphone? Did anyone honestly still have those?
And then she was on the Enterprise. She really hadn’t been absolutely sure that she believed there was a spaceship until she was on it. Diana opened her mouth, attempting to say anything, but she closed it a moment after before stepping forward.
“Are we actually in space right now?”
“Come on!” Jim grabbed her hand, pulling her out of the Transporter Room. While the lights were dim to conserve power, the Enterprise still had the bright reds and yellows that had made her famous. He led her into a turbolift and grabbed the handle. “Deck 5 observation lounge.”
The lift hummed for five seconds, and then the doors swished open. “This way.”
He led her through another set of automatic doors. The lounge had wide and tall windows, Earth displayed beneath them, with the moon just beginning to rise on the other side.
There was a small, surprised noise when he started to pull her out of the room. Once she recovered from the surprise, she caught up pretty quickly and was able to keep up with him. She tried to make note of all the things around her, but she couldn’t keep track of everything. It was a good thing she wouldn’t be moving around on her own.
Once they got to the observation lounge, however, she couldn’t help but stare. They were in space. Actually in space. The surprise didn’t wear off after a few seconds, but she finally forced herself to stop looking so surprised. She walked forward so she could look out the windows. “This is amazing.” Because what other explanation was there for it? What other possible words existed to explain it? Probably a lot, actually, but she was at a loss. She could see the moon and Earth and it all seemed so surreal.
“I can’t believe this is actually happening.”
“For all the bad in my dreams, and all the bad happening in the world, I have this to remind me of the good things.” He gestured towards the planet, and the stars beyond it. “Up here, there are no boundaries or borders. Up here, you can see it’s just our one planet. Have you ever heard Carl Sagan’s quote on the pale blue dot?”
She shook her head at his question, but she had yet to look away from the picture in front of her. As subtly as she could, Diana pinched the back of her hand to see if it still hurt. It did, which meant this was real. “What’s the quote?” She was listening even if she seemed distracted. There was just so much to take in. She’d be able to look away soon. Probably.
"It's from Carl Sagan, talking about an image one of the Voyager probes took of Earth. A mote of dust suspended on a sunbeam." Jim had most of it memorized. It was an important speech. He put his arm around her, "But we can hear it in Sagan's voice, even though he's long dead. Computer. Carl Sagan. Pale Blue Dot."
A man's voice started to speak. "Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives..."
Diana’s gaze moved from the scene in front of her to look at Jim curiously. She didn’t move when he put his arm around her, but her gaze shifted back to stare at Earth.
She’d heard Carl Sagan’s name, but she’d never really known all that much about him. So she listened as he spoke, parts of it making the experience all that more surreal. “It’s crazy to think that this is what it looks like. I feel a lot smaller than I did a few minutes ago. But that could also be delayed because of the initial shock.”
“We should feel small, but on the other hand, think of it this way.” Jim smiled, tilting his head and searching for the right words. “Everything that ever was was made in the heart of stars. And that’s what we’re made of too. We have stardust inside of us.”
“So you’re saying that we’re all part star?” She thought that line sounded like something she ought to have recognized from somewhere, but she couldn’t place it and she was pretty sure trying to use her phone in space would cost a lot of money, so she decided not to try. Her dad wouldn’t forgive her for it. “It’s all so crazy to think about. But I guess it makes sense in a way.” A pause. “My dad always said I was a star.” Because it was always the time for bad jokes.
It actually took Jim a moment for the pun to catch, and he started to chuckle. “In that, I think your dad is right. You’re a star. And maybe some day soon I’ll be able to take this ship to the stars.”
Diana felt a brief moment of triumph in the fact that he laughed. That girl Yang had encouraged her bad jokes, so now they seemed to happen more frequently. “So you’re planning to come visit more?” She tried for a serious expression, but she couldn’t keep the amusement from showing. “But if you get her up and running someday, you’ll have to tell me. I probably can’t stay in space forever or my dad will miss me too much, but some space travel is acceptable, I’m sure.”
Yang was a bad influence in that way. Or maybe a good one!
“If I could move up here, i would. Not really sustainable right now. And without a full crew the options are limited. Some automation would allow me to at least tour the solar system. Visit a few nearby stars. Nothing permanent.” He almost sounded sad about that.
There was a small nod. “Maybe more of the crew will show up or maybe there are other people that would be open to going into space with you.” She was curious to see more of space now that she’d seen just this little bit of it. Maybe she didn’t need to see the sun or anything, but the other planets, stars. She reached up to pat his arm. “Maybe it’s not much, but it’s more than it is now. Eventually you might work your way up to more.”
“I’d sacrifice a kidney.” To see Spock. Sulu. Nyota. Any of them. He’d sacrifice more than that if he had to. “The Enterprise was like a piece of me returned, but without the crew, a chunk is still missing.”
Diana knew how it felt to miss people. She missed Cassie and Adam. She might not miss the others as much, but it was still true that they were better together than apart. She wasn’t sure what it would look like at the end. She wasn’t sure she’d sacrifice a kidney for any of them, however. She just wanted to see them. “I’ll just have to hope it will happen. Until then, I guess you might just have to teach me a few things. I just can’t heal people or drive.”
“I like to think I can be a good teacher.” Jim chuckled. He had to remind himself he did have friends. Diana and Clara, Anne and several others. It was something to rely on.
She smiled. “I should be good to go, then. I do intend to learn a lot of things. Or at least that’s what I’ve been doing.” Because she somehow couldn’t figure out what she wanted to do. So she just aimlessly moved forward. Hopefully she’d figure something out soon. If not, she wasn’t really sure where to go from there.
“You’ll figure it out,” Jim assured her. “Sometimes tells me you might not even need my help.”
It was better for people to figure things out on their own. But being a friend, offering guidance and a little bit of distraction now and again, could help. So that’s what he’d do.