Patience is a virtue, they say. Can't say it's always been one of mine, but I get what you're saying, I think.
[ Jim still hasn't earned a smile from the other guy, considering the circumstances, but there was amusement there, he could tell. It seemed to get snuffed out before it got anywhere near his eyes, and he settled himself for the proverbial long haul in case Adrien wanted to share.
When he does start to speak again, he turns his head to watch him, devoting his whole attention. He's glad he did, but he's also not at the very same time. The story hits too damn close to home. Not the same type of circumstances, perhaps, but the same casual disregard for life to serve someone else's goal.
Jim can swallow the panic that the story threatens to bring up, he can focus through the dark of the rooms around them and try his best to not think about he and Scotty's mad dash through a dead ship to get to Engineering and save everyone. And all of it started with one twisted, broken off cell inside of Starfleet mutating and infecting the heart of them. Deciding that lives were forfeit because they weren't human, and putting them into forced servitude. He's had a little over a year to deal with the consequences of Marcus and Khan.
Consequences that still affect him. After all, he's sitting there right then breathing, isn't he? He waits until Adrien is finished explaining before letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. ]
I'm not saying we should storm the bridge and demand answers. That's the last thing I want, even if I do want answers. But I know what happens if we wait too long. If something breaks off and mutates under our watch, even if we don't know it's happening. People suffer and die if we don't make sure we have the right information.
[ Jim watches Adrien pet Courser, and gives a quirk of a smile that is snuffed out almost immediately. ]
Not long ago for me, I made mistakes that allowed an Admiral from my own---organization to use me for his own ends. I almost ended 72 lives, started an Interstellar war with a species we are at high tensions with still, and when I found out too late and tried to fix it---
We tried to bring a prisoner back to Earth for trial after being pursued into a neutral territory, were chased through our warp channel, overtaken, and blown out of it just within range of Earth. Just so one man could have a war he was convinced was coming and wanted. He was willing to end every life aboard my own ship to have it.
[ He doesn't go into Khan, what happened after with Marcus' death, and the devastation of San Franscisco. He doesn't mention what happened to himself to save the Enterprise. That his best friend broke the oath he took as a doctor to save him. I must not play at God. His entire crew, Spock, Uhura, and all of the rest, they pulled together to save him.
Sometimes he still looks in the mirror wondering if anything came back changed and he just doesn't know it yet. ]
I'm not unfamiliar with doing what one has to in order to survive. So, yeah, I'll dial it back on the electrocuting a bit, just for you. [ And because he won't have another crew suffer for his own rash actions. Jim forces a grin at that, and shifts to stand back up. ]
no subject
[ Jim still hasn't earned a smile from the other guy, considering the circumstances, but there was amusement there, he could tell. It seemed to get snuffed out before it got anywhere near his eyes, and he settled himself for the proverbial long haul in case Adrien wanted to share.
When he does start to speak again, he turns his head to watch him, devoting his whole attention. He's glad he did, but he's also not at the very same time. The story hits too damn close to home. Not the same type of circumstances, perhaps, but the same casual disregard for life to serve someone else's goal.
Jim can swallow the panic that the story threatens to bring up, he can focus through the dark of the rooms around them and try his best to not think about he and Scotty's mad dash through a dead ship to get to Engineering and save everyone. And all of it started with one twisted, broken off cell inside of Starfleet mutating and infecting the heart of them. Deciding that lives were forfeit because they weren't human, and putting them into forced servitude. He's had a little over a year to deal with the consequences of Marcus and Khan.
Consequences that still affect him. After all, he's sitting there right then breathing, isn't he? He waits until Adrien is finished explaining before letting out a breath he hadn't realized he was holding. ]
I'm not saying we should storm the bridge and demand answers. That's the last thing I want, even if I do want answers. But I know what happens if we wait too long. If something breaks off and mutates under our watch, even if we don't know it's happening. People suffer and die if we don't make sure we have the right information.
[ Jim watches Adrien pet Courser, and gives a quirk of a smile that is snuffed out almost immediately. ]
Not long ago for me, I made mistakes that allowed an Admiral from my own---organization to use me for his own ends. I almost ended 72 lives, started an Interstellar war with a species we are at high tensions with still, and when I found out too late and tried to fix it---
We tried to bring a prisoner back to Earth for trial after being pursued into a neutral territory, were chased through our warp channel, overtaken, and blown out of it just within range of Earth. Just so one man could have a war he was convinced was coming and wanted. He was willing to end every life aboard my own ship to have it.
[ He doesn't go into Khan, what happened after with Marcus' death, and the devastation of San Franscisco. He doesn't mention what happened to himself to save the Enterprise. That his best friend broke the oath he took as a doctor to save him. I must not play at God. His entire crew, Spock, Uhura, and all of the rest, they pulled together to save him.
Sometimes he still looks in the mirror wondering if anything came back changed and he just doesn't know it yet. ]
I'm not unfamiliar with doing what one has to in order to survive. So, yeah, I'll dial it back on the electrocuting a bit, just for you. [ And because he won't have another crew suffer for his own rash actions. Jim forces a grin at that, and shifts to stand back up. ]
That means we've still got a book to find, right?