Whilst waiting for the Pike show, that hopefully will come, I had some thoughts how it could be. How it could start, look like, how much of Christopher Pikes way could be shown, from his childhood till his tragic fate.
Imagine this as a start for a series, maybe a very early trailer or a first scene. It´s just a short one shot, inspired by the latest Short Treks and the existing novels about Chris Pike.
I hope you all enjoy it! Let me know if you like it! And if you have an idea for a better title. ;)
"The Earth, Vulcan, Andoria, Tellar and that's only the beginning. Take the first step towards the future and enlist to Starfleet Academy. Be at the frontline of discovering new planets and exploring alien civilizations. Explore with us the depths and wonders of the galaxy and follow us to where no one has ever been before."
The clip ended in a long shot at Admiral Jonathan Archer before the Starfleet Academy logo in San Francisco took his place. It was old-fashioned, cheesy and somehow antiquated, but he loved it.
He couldn´t count how often he had watched it. Hundreds, thousands of times, and each time he lost himself again in the Admiral's heroic words, in the pictures from the most remote areas of the Federation, the exotic plots, with their exciting inhabitants, and in the photographs of Starfleet spaceships and starbases.
Proud, majestic ships, silvery white shining in front of the infinite star carpet of the galaxy. The ability to visit worlds with a touch of a button, places he couldn´t even imagine in his wildest dreams. This thought intrigued him, carried him through his days and comforted him in moments when nothing goes the way he imagined.
On the PADD in his hand arose the question if he wanted to watch the video again and he hesitated for a moment, then put the device aside and turned his eyes to the night sky overhead.
The climate here allowed a clear and unobstructed view of the stars, only traversed by the networks of satellites and occasional transport shuttles. When his timing was good, he could catch a glimpse of the Challenger Space Dock every few days, and if he was very lucky, one of the big spaceships passed by in the sky above him.
So many times he had imagined living on one of these ships. He remembered exactly how his heart was beating, his skin was tingling, as he first set foot on the bridge of the Enterprise NX-01 in the Fleet Museum. In an unobserved moment he had summoned up all his courage and sat down in the captain's chair. He still felt the touch of the fabric under his fingertips. The short thought that in this chair everything was possible for him burrowed itself deep into his mind.
But in retrospect, this was none of his best ideas.
Three times he had heard that this had been a big stupidity. First by the curator of the museum, who banned him after that for two years, second by his teacher, who considered a huge mountain of punishment work for appropriate before she sent him home for the rest of the week.
And finally from his mother.
She, too, was not necessarily thrilled, but she wasn´t really surprised by his action. Actually, she was rather surprised that he had been so awkward to get caught. After giving him a small sermon in amusement, she had sent him to his room with his detention work and had been chasing him a little more in the household for the next few days.
That had been three months ago and since that he was hooked. When he was not useful in the household, learning or messing around with his friends, he had his nose in his PADD and his eyes in the stars. His thoughts on the worlds out there.
He didn`t care that the ground beneath him was getting cold and the wind freshened as the evening progressed. He knew it might be wiser to look at his notes instead of the stars, but that was somehow physics too, astrophysics if he wasn´t mistaken.
But what could have been so important at the age of eleven that he would have took care of it immediately? He fished for the PADD and looked with his bright blue eyes at the logo of the Starfleet Academy.
"Maybe one day."
From far away the howling of a coyote reached his ears. The sound startled the horses in the paddock a little. He could feel the vibrations in the ground as some of them began to trot around, accompanied by a few soft whinny and the clatter of a door.
"Christopher, please get your head out of the stars and come back to earth. I need you to look after the horses! There will be dinner in ten minutes! Hit it! "
"Yes Mum!"
Chris jumped up from the floor, grabbed his PADD and ran towards the house. He saw his mother standing on the porch, even in the pale light he could see her smiling at him.
"Have you been on Andoria again?"
"No, Vulcan."
He handed her the PADD, then smiled brightly at her, showing the dimples in his face. A flash in the night sky caused both to look up. A ship moved across the farm, it was gigantic, the biggest thing he had ever seen. The prototype of the new Constitution class, he was sure about that.
"Christopher Pike, do I have to say it again?" The same smile on her face like on his, she nudged him before pointing to the paddock. "Ten minutes."
"Sorry mum."
He jumped down the steps and ran under her eyes to the animals. Before he reached the paddock, he turned around, went backwards. The ship spun, sped up, and slowly disappeared into the night sky over the Mojave Desert. He took a deep breath, as if helping to include that moment in his thoughts.
"Yeah, someday."
Just because ... I like this episode because of a casual Pike and his brave move to save a kid by risking his life. When you watch this you know how this man works. I am so glad Anson had the chance to play this wonderful character.
