Chapter 14

Chapter Fourteen - Headaches, Thoughts and Proposals

Pike and Archer went to one of the conference rooms to call the Admiralty. They figured that it would be better than their shared quarters. No need to give Alexander more reasons to make this as unpleasant as possible. Archer also felt it would avoid them seeing the hooch that he demanded Scotty drop off there for them. He was going to need it when they got done with this call. They settled at the conference table and nodding thanks to an ensign that came and brought them some coffee. After dismissing him, they settled back and relaxed as they waited for the Admiralty to call back. The view screen lit up with a group of very unhappy faces. Archer sighed, this was going to be one long meeting. He also noted that Hargrove was there for this meeting, little annoying shit.

“Well, gentlemen. This is a fine kettle of fish that we are in,” Blackwell said as she fixed them with a gimlet glare.

“Now Margaret, we just disabled them. They decided to blow themselves up after they failed to blow us up.” Archer raised his hands in a placating manner.

“You sure they decided or did Captain Kirk help them?” Hargrove sneered.

Archer felt his temper rise, “They did it themselves as you can obviously see from the footage from the bridge.”

‘Really,” he sneered again.

“Anyone with half a brain can see it.”

“How dare…”

“Enough!” snapped Nogura. “We need to deal with this mess and fighting amongst ourselves is not helping.”

“You are correct, Heihachiro,” Barrett said looking around at the others present. He had hoped that once Komack had been removed that they would not have to deal with this again. Now Jorge was taking up Komack’s mantle of leader of the ‘We hate Jim Kirk’ club. He wondered not for the hundredth time where do they find these men.

“Yes, be that as it may. We now have a pissed off Empress of the Star Empire and the Klingon Council up in arms over this.” Marcus rubbed his head with his hands. “We were able to deflect blame back to the Romulans. Apparently they told the Empress that we kidnapped them. We were able to prove that we rescued them and they sought asylum with the Vulcans.”

“How they hell did you pull that off?” Chris asked.

“We just told her that her men when they tried to rescue their Captain and First Officer, attempted to kill them.”

“Well, that heads off that problem. Now we just have to deal with the Klingons.” Chris stared at Marcus. He could see dark circles under the man's eyes and he was quieter than he had ever seen him. He would have to discreetly check around to see what the others knew. Something was very off with him. No smart mouth rude comments about Kirk and Spock. No homophobic slurs. Yup, something was up. Chris figured it could wait until later and focused on the matter at hand.

“We have them on violating Federation Space and firing on one of our ships without provocation,” Whatley said as he thumbed down his PADD.

“According to Jim, the Captain of the vessel was a relative to Kor and Korath. They told him that he was an Uncle. Apparently he came to avenge the dishonor done to his Clan by committing an honor killing.” Archer leaned back in his chair and shot a quick speaking glance at Pike. He noticed Marcus’ change as well.

“Barbarians,” Blackwell sniffed in disgust.

“Well, I for one am glad that he did not succeed,” Barrett said. “It does make matters difficult now that he committed suicide but not something that we can’t resolve.”

Nogura nodded and picked up where Barrett left off, “Correct. They broke the treaty. They entered into what was clearly Federation space and attacked. We have brought the matter before them and they are handling it internally. There may not be anything done on the matter to the perpetrators but there will be no calls for war either.”

“Good to hear as it was their fault.”

“Yes, Jonathan, we know,” Admiral Blackwell said.

“And they know it. So war is avoided and they will deal with their own,” Whatley added.

“I’m glad that this was so quickly handled. Now we can let the four know that this was dealt with and they should be safe now,” Archer groused.

“Who handled it so quickly?” Pike asked.

“Alexander,” Whatley said with a smirk.

“I’m impressed,” Archer said as his brows rose to his hairline.

“It was a simple matter. Just laid out the facts and told them is coached terms that it was their fault.” Marcus shrugged as if it was no big deal.

“Not to be a pain the ass, but did you received Scotty’s report?” Pike asked.

“Yes, and we are working on implementing it on a couple of ships to see how it goes. If it is a success, then we will be bringing back ships in groups to have them all fitted with the device he came up with,” said Barrett as he flipped through the PADD next to him.

“It more than likely will work. He was able to pretty quickly scramble the portable devices so that we could catch the Orions,” said Pike.

“Yes, speaking of them. We have a ship coming to meet you and transport them back to Earth to stand trial. Since they are already heading back here, we have them stopping to get them,” Berman remarked.

“Which ship are we watching out for?” asked Pike.

“The USS Altine. Captain Hurley is finishing up the mission and retiring so they are coming back for a retrofit and to get the new Captain situated,” Bernan said checking his PADD.

“Who is taking over?” Pike asked. They were still recovering from the disaster with Nero. Numbers were still low but climbing every time the boys played hero, so they were slowly getting back to an even keel.

“His First Officer has been promoted to Captain. We’re going to hold a ceremony for all those who have been promoted and are on rotation to return to Earth,” Berman said.

“Mario Steigerwald is a good man. Who will take over as First Officer?” Archer asked.

“We are putting Michael Ehlinger as his second. They worked together when Steigerwald was on the USS Clement,” Whatley said to them.

“So they are used to each other already. Nice. Hopefully this will be smooth,” said Archer.

“Well, gentlemen. Some of us have work to do, so we will have to cut this call short.”

“Nice, Margaret. We are working. We are trying to keep the fires out on our end before they reach yours.”

“Not working too well is it?” Barrett smirked.

“It’s Jimmy remember? Murphy’s Law applies and so does extreme amounts of good luck. Helps that he is a genius,” Pike said with a smile.

“Don’t remind us. Only genius repeat offender on record.”

“We’ll keep in touch,” said Pike.

“You do that,” Blackwell said and cut the call.

“Well, now that that is out of the way. Time for the hooch.” Archer rubbed his forehead tiredly.

“God yes,” Pike said and followed him back to their quarters.

**********

Both Archer and Pike sat back with a sigh as they each took a healthy swig of Scotty’s brew. Archer had to admit that that illegal still of his put out a good drink, not that he should be encouraging such things but right now he didn’t care. He’ll say something to him before they leave officially and unofficially let him know to hide it. He wrapped an arm around Chris’ shoulders and pulled him in tight to his side. He chuckled when he remembered Jim’s comment to them on the bridge. Mom and Dad, he liked that Jim felt that they were family. Maybe they could do something to make it official, yeah he was an adult but that didn’t matter in the scheme of things.

“So, I see that you noticed Alexander’s behavior and appearance as well.”

“Yeah, not sure what’s up with him,” Pike said as he laid his head back on Archer’s shoulder.

“He looks like hell. Wonder what happened?”

“I heard from Jim that he recently called his daughter and it did not end well. I was going to tell you but then the shit hit the fan and it went out of my head. Maybe that was the cause of it?”

“I don’t know. Something seems off. No snarking and homophobic comments. No disparaging remarks about our boy and his mate.”

“True, I know something like that can make you down but not a complete 360 on your personality.”

“I know. You would think if they fought as usual over Jim he would be more vicious.”

“Maybe we should discreetly look into this. From what Jim has said about the Betazed Ruling Council being off and now Alexander maybe something is going on.”

“They may not be connected.”

“This is Jimmy we are talking about. What are the odds they aren’t?” Pike looked at him with a raised brow.

“Good point. I have something on a sort of related topic to ask you.”

“What is it, Jon?” Pike shifted to look at him better.

Archer squirmed a little in his seat. He knew that they haven’t been together that long but they have been working together for years. He took a deep breath and popped the question that he knew in his heart would break him if he said no. “Will you marry me, Chris?”

Pike sat up straight with wide eyes, “What?” he breathed out as he licked suddenly dry lips.

Archer cleared his throat, “Will you marry me? I know we haven’t been together romantically long but I do love you. We can make Jimmy officially our son too.”

‘You’re serious? You want to marry me and adopt Jim?”

Archer swallowed hard and nodded, throat suddenly dry. He took a gulp of his drink and waited.

Pike thought about it and realized that he did love Jon despite the short time together and wanted Jim to be their son. He took a deep breath and gave his answer, “yes!”

Archer dropped his drink in shock, never noticing it hitting the floor. He grinned and grabbed Pike and started kissing him senseless. Neither cared that their drinks were on the floor as they ripped clothes off in a frenzy and hurried to their bed. They could always clean up later, right before they told their boy that they wanted to make their family official. Archer smiled as he slid into his fiance; that could wait until later. Really later.