Chapter Text
Jim stared out the viewscreen of the space ship. Before him, just the beautiful vastness of space. He smiled to himself then turned in his chair, eyeing his crew. Their face’s shadowy—just out of reach for him to fully make out. They spoke to him sometimes, telling him the ship’s status.
Jim turned his chair, looking behind him. The broad shoulders of another, also just out of reach. Jim always tried to focus on the back of his head, but he could not never quite get his eyes to focus. Black hair maybe?
He opened his mouth to call to the man. He always tried. He reached out. The man started to turn around…
Beep beep beep
"Ugh," Jim groaned. Squeezing his eyes shut, not ready to get up, not quite ready to lose the dream. He turned over and tried to get back to where he was. The ship. His crew.
Beep beep beep
"Shut up," Jim fussed. He struggled for a moment to free an arm from his blanket cocoon. The beeping continued as his arm was finally free. He blindly reached for the end tale, hitting air a few times before finally striking the surface.
Beep beep beep
"Shut up!" Jim smacked at table in a few spots until his hand connected with alarm clock. The beeping stopped.
Jim slowly opened his eyes and stared at the offending device.
08:00 PM
"I hate you," Jim muttered. He turned and stared up at the ceiling. He closed his eyes, but it didn’t come back to him.
He sighed and got out of bed.
A little while later, Jim left his apartment, backpack on, and a plate of food in his hands. He locked his door, turned, and opened the apartment door next to his with another key.
"Bonesy!" Jim called.
"Shut up!" A gruff voice responded.
Jim smiled and walked over to the small kitchen table in the room and sat the plate of food down. His neighbor and best friend walked out of his bathroom and approached.
Bones was in his pajamas which consisted of pants and a loose shirt that read Emory University Alumni. Bones looked at the plate that held a chicken breast with baked potato and green beans.
"What would I do without you?" Bones asked.
"I don't know. Drink yourself into a stupor?"
Bones nodded and sat down at the table. "I haven't had a drink in two years, six months, and nineteen days."
"I know." Jim patted his friend on the back. He dropped his backpack down with a loud thud and puttered about the kitchen.
Bones eyed the bag. "How much shit do you have in there?"
Jim shrugged. "Books, more books, notebooks, Gameboy, Walkman-the usual."
"No laptop?"
Jim shook his head. "Wouldn't fit. I tried. Besides, I prefer taking notes with pen and paper.”
His friend eyed him then said, "You took apart your computer again?"
Jim shrugged. "No. Maybe. Just a teensy bit but it is working fine."
"Uh-huh," Bones picked a piece of chicken off of his plate. "Can't you just come back here and get stuff, so you don't have to carry that back ache waiting to happen around?"
Jim grabbed a few utensils from a drawer and two cans of cokes before returning to Bones. "No, I can't. I get off work at six am. I meet you for breakfast around six-thirty, if the bus runs on time and then I dash over to Berkeley for my eight am class."
"I wish you'd take later classes. Or work somewhere else."
"Tried that. Didn't work out. Gotta work to pay for school and I can only work at night."
"Jim, you have some money to... "
"I have some money to pay for rent and my books," Jim countered, reaching out and picking a piece of chicken off of Bones’ plate. "I need to save the rest of it. I may have to put some money into the old house, though."
"When do you go to Iowa again?"
"A couple of months. Need to get that estate lawyer and my uncle off my back and get the house out from under me." Jim stole another piece of food off of the plate. He wasn’t looking forward to the trip, especially during winter but he needed to close that chapter of his life.
"Did you eat lunch earlier?" Bones pushed his plate closer.
Jim pulled his hand away and nodded. "I have food."
Bones looked to the bag and raised a brow. "Crammed in that bag?"
"Where else would it be?" Jim chuckled. He pushed the plate back to his friend. "I eat and sleep just fine."
"No, you don't. How much sleep did you get today?"
Jim scratched the back of his head. "Um... five hours." More like four-ish, but Bones doesn't need to know that.
"That's not enough."
"It is for me. Hey, how was work today? Any interesting cases?" Jim grinned. "Another patient with something lodged where it shouldn't be?"
"No," Bones replied before looking seriously at his friend. "I got results back from two patients yesterday. Both positive…"
Jim sighed, interrupting his friend. "Bones, I'm fine."
"Dammit, Jim, I get new cases every other week. It was worse in the eighties, but I still get them."
Jim had had a few scares when he'd first moved to the west coast. Fooled around with people he shouldn't have, dabbled in one thing or another that he shouldn't have and that's how he had met Bones. Sitting scared shitless in the small walk-in clinic down the block after hearing that a friend of a friend had died. The worst two weeks of his life waiting for the results to come back negative.
"You just tested me a month ago. I'm healthy. No virus. And I haven't had sex in like six months and even then, condoms were involved. I don't do drugs, nor do I touch other people's bodily fluids."
"Jim, you clean toilets."
"Not with my bare hands!" Jim sighed. "Bones, believe me, if I need to be tested, if I had any inkling that maybe I was sick, I would come to you in a heartbeat. You know I would, and I have."
Bones reached out and patted Jim’s arm. "Yeah, I know, kid."
"I'm like eight years younger than you."
Bones smiled at him. "Still a kid. The annoying kid brother I never asked for."
Jim shook his head at his friend then said, "Besides, the only reason I clean toilets and other shit at work is because my boss is a bible thumping, homophobic dick. You know, he stands at least ten feet from me like he's afraid he's going to catch something and then every now and again, he'll make a comment that I need to come to his church for saving. If it wasn't for that asshole, I'd have that paid internship at the center and wouldn't be a custodian."
"I know," Bones said. He patted Jim's hand. "People are shit, but you'll be graduating soon and then you'll have new job where you'll be appreciated. You're the smartest person I know, Jim. You' re going places."
Jim smiled at his friend. "Thanks. Plus, at least I know we're not alone out there." Jim waved his hand out the window, towards the stars.
Bones shook his head. "We're alone. Your lab just finds freakshows to put in the lab and study. I still don't believe you had a giant lizard man or some crazed human like person that spoke a weird language."
"I'm not lying! This humanoid thing was tall and muscular with long braided black hair, brown skin, and ridges on its forehead! Uhura tried to converse with him, learn his language, but then that fucking military guy showed up and... well ... specimen one zero five was taken for treatment." Jim made air quotes when he said treatment.
Bones stared at his friend. "You sure it wasn't just some black guy with a skin condition that was, I don't know, speaking whatever language is native to his home country?"
Jim shook his head. "Uhura tested all the African and Middle Eastern languages with this thing. None seemed to register with it. She was making some progress with its language when military guy showed up and confiscated everything."
"That sucks."
"Yeah. Now eat your dinner that I slaved over."
"Brat."
Jim held his bookbag to himself as he sat on the bus and stared out the window of the bus. He had his headphones on, listening to a mixtape of his favorite tunes as he watched the people on the streets and stared into cars they passed.
When they were out of the city limits, Jim looked up at the stars and smiled. The stars always brought him comfort. Since he was a kid and the dreams of his spaceship started. Always the same dream.
He wanted to be up there so bad but had no way of getting there. His smile turned into a frown and his eyes dropped down to the floor of the bus.
Born too late to explore the oceans and new worlds, born too early to explore the stars, he thought sadly. The military wouldn't take him. He had tried only to be denied. To get to NASA he needed a master’s degree or doctorate.
So here he was, going the science route hoping it would lead him to the stars some way, somehow.
Jim shook his head and then took out his Gameboy from his backpack and played it for the rest of the bus ride.
"You're late."
Jim offered his boss a smile as he punched his timecard in two minutes late. As usual, his boss was standing several feet away from Jim. "Sorry, Mr. Garst, the bus... "
"Runs at the same time it always does," Mr. Garst interrupted. "Next time, get here on time or don't come at all."
Jim nodded. "Yes, sir. Sorry, Sir."
"There's a mess in men's room on floor two. Go deal with it."
"Yes, Sir."
Jim turned and headed for the locker rooms to change into his custodian jumpsuit before heading out to clean.
"If you're going to have explosive diarrhea, be considerate and have it at home," Jim said as he sat down in the cafeteria two hours later.
Uhura looked up from her tray of food and made a face. "Well hello to you too, Jim."
"Sorry. Hi, Uhura, how are you?"
"I'm not experiencing any gastrointestinal problems."
''I'm glad to hear that," Jim chuckled. He placed his brown bag of second dinner on the table and took out his food. A chicken salad sandwich and potato chips. "Sorry about the explosive…" Uhura gave him a look, so Jim shut off that line of dialogue. "Sorry. How are things in the linguistics lab? Anything new and exciting?"
"I picked up an odd frequency early.”
“Odd how?”
“Not quite the frequency we use, or the military uses. Not a frequency any other known agency uses either. Sounded like a mix of everything in a weird way. I couldn’t pinpoint its location; it was bouncing around.”
“Interesting. What was the frequency?”
“Almost like an SOS signal but not quite. It was there briefly then disappeared. I logged it and will check back later to see if it reappears.”
“Interesting.”
“Yes. I recorded some of it. I’m going to listen again and try and pick it apart. Probably picked up someone's ham radio. Again.”
Jim nodded. “Anything else exciting happening?”
“Nope. Nothing. Not since we had specimen one zero five. I liked that guy."
"He tried to kill me."
Uhura shrugged. "You got to close offering him a marshmallow."
"He looked hungry and who doesn't like marshmallows?"
His friend chuckled. "Before he tried to kill you, I was close to figuring out some of his language. I do believe tera'ngan means Terran which is what we are. Earth residents-humans."
"Tera-gnagn?" Jim tried. "No. Tera'ngan."
"Tera'ngan."
"Good."
Jim smiled. "Yeah, specimen one zero five was interesting. Lizard like. Too bad they sent him for treatment." Jim made air quotes. Whenever someone was sent it away, it never came back.
Uhura sighed. "Treatment. Yes. I hope we get another specimen one day. A nice one." Uhura smiled and shrugged. "Maybe by then you'll be working here too. As an actual scientist and not a custodian."
"I hope." Jim took a big bite of his sandwich.
"Hey, Kirk!"
Jim rolled his eyes as he turned his head and saw Gary standing not too far away. Gary smirked then dropped his tray of food onto the ground.
"Whoops. Clumsy me," he snickered before walking away.
Jim stood up and cleaned up his own food. He looked at Uhura. "Gotta go. Duty calls."
She smiled apologetically at him. "See you at the next meeting?"
Jim nodded and walked off to clean up Gary's mess.
After cleaning Gary's mess, Jim pushed his custodian cart around the government lab. A few scientists and other workers nodded at him as he passed. For the most part, it was an alright job. They hadn't had any unusual specimens in months, which Jim was glad about. The last one they had was the giant lizard man thing that had tried to eat one scientist. That had been a real mess.
"Treatment my ass," Jim muttered. A perk of working in a somewhat secret government lab, Jim was able to see what was out there in the world-new discoveries to be made. New discoveries that were sent to 'treatment' once they got mean or proved to not be cooperative.
When specimen one zero five had been there, Jim had tried to be friendly to it, offering it a marshmallow, but of course it had to be mean.
Jim touched his neck at the memory. "Not fun."
"Jim!"
Jim stopped pushing his cart and turned around. He waved at his friend walking quickly towards him. "Hey, Scotty."
"Hello, laddie," Scotty replied when he was close enough. "Um, I need your help."
"My help?"
A lab worker walked by and gave them a look. Scotty coughed then said loudly, "There's a mess in my lab. Paper, trash, stuff everywhere. I need it cleaned. Now."
Huffing out a light laugh, Jim nodded. "Sure, sure, lead the way. I am here to clean." Jim turned his cart around and followed Scotty to his engineering lab.
When they entered a few minutes later, Scotty went to the small metal trashcan he had by his desk and dumped the contents out onto the floor. Jim eyed the mess then his friend.
"You do know that I am great at looking like I'm actually working, right? I don't need a real mess to deal with."
Scotty made a face. "Sorry. Um, I'll clean it myself later."
"Of course, you will." Jim pushed his cart further into the room. "So, what do you need help with?"
"I thought my math was sound, but I think it’s off." Scotty pointed to the chalkboard on the other side of the room before going over to it. "See, I think this part," he pointed to an equation. "is off because it’s just not adding up right."
Jim stepped closer and looked around the board. He picked up an eraser and piece of chalk then started to help Scotty fix the error.
An hour until the end of his shift, Jim laid on the roof of the building and looked up at the stars. He popped a marshmallow into his mouth.
Jim raised his hand towards the stars, tracing the constellations. He put his finger over the moon.
His whole being felt he was meant to be there, that his current life just wasn’t right. Jim sighed and dropped his hand.
Maybe in another life…
A flicker of light appeared in the night sky. Jim blinked and sat up, staring up at the sight.
"What the?"
The flicker appeared again and then it looked as if it was moving across the sky. Jim stood up and watched. The light got closer and closer until it appeared to enter Earth's atmosphere and fly across the sky far from Jim.
"No way!”
When Jim met Bones at a diner a few hours later, Jim slid into the booth across from his friend with a huge grin on his face. "Guess what?"
"What?" Bones asked.
"I think a meteorite fell to Earth a few hours ago."
"Bullshit."
Jim shook his head. "When I left work, the whole lab was all in a buzz. Apparently, the thing crashed somewhere in Oregon. A team was being sent up there to investigate."
Bones snorted. "Jim, if that had happened then the news... "
"Breaking news this morning," they heard come from the mounted TV in the corner of the restaurant. They both turned. "NASA officials have just confirmed that a small meteorite crashed in Tillamook State Forest about sixty miles west of Portland. NASA and government officials are investigating the crash and will update when they know more. So far there are no reports of injuries as the crash took place in a remote part of the forest."
Jim turned back in his seat, still grinning at his friend. "Meteorite."
"Meteorite," Bones repeated.
"Work is going to be so interesting now. A meteorite to get their hands on and I get to see it!"
Bones smiled at his friend. "Sounds like fun."
The waitress appeared and laid out their menus and silverware. "I'll have orange juice, coffee, chicken fried chicken and eggs with the sausage gravy, potatoes, and a biscuit," Jim ordered without looking at the menu, his eyes still glue to the TV.
"No, he'll have the vegetarian omelet with a side of fruit," Bones ordered instead without Jim’s objections. "And I'll have the classic breakfast with coffee."
The waitress nodded and walked off. Jim turned away from the television. “How was your night?”
“I slept.”
“Lucky.”
A little while later she returned and placed their orders before them. Jim looked down at his plate.
"What the hell is this?"
"Healthy food. Now be a good boy and eat."
Jim looked at his friend with a blank expression on his face. "Why are you so mean to me?"