1 Prologue

Admiral Komack threw back another glass of whisky, relishing the burn of the amber liquid as it went down. A weary sigh escaped the middle aged man as his shaking hand reached for the crystal bottle to pour himself another shot. With a newly refilled glass, he leaned back into his overly plush desk chair and glanced at the PADD lying a foot away from him on his desk. Just seeing the offending piece of technology made a scowl cross his features. Still, he had to respond to the message.

"Lights at 30 percent." Light filled the previously dark room so that he could read without straining his eyes. Running his hand through his graying hair, he picked up the PADD quickly rereading the invitation. Another commendation ceremony being planned for that punk everyone kept calling "the Golden Boy of Starfleet."

He couldn't for the life of him understand why everyone was so enthralled with that kid. He was a terror at the academy. Sure his test scores were the top of the class even competing with the top academy test scores that were set by his current Vulcan First Officer a few years back, but he wreaked havoc on the campus to teachers and other students alike, yet when he cheated on the Kobayashi Maru and was caught, he was awarded the commendation for creative thinking.

That was his problem. Captain Kirk always did whatever he wanted and was consistently rewarded for it. He saved the planet from being sucked into a black hole, but what about the methods on how he got there? He went against regulations to board a Federation ship, staged a mutiny against the acting captain, emotionally compromised said acting captain, and disobeyed a direct order from a captain and fought Nero head on, putting the crew in harm's way unnecessarily. He couldn't even stomach the things that happened with Khan. He flushed out a corrupt admiral, but not before almost causing a war with the Klingons. Then he had the audacity to literally cheat death. Of course he also got commendations for those actions as well.

During Kirk's short captaincy, he continuously went against regulations, omitted things from his reports, occasionally violating the prime directive, and the only consequence was encouragement by the other admirals through commendations and a slight slap on the wrist. He was headstrong, rash, stubborn, and relied on his luck to save him. The kid did not know how to lose. No one punished him for his actions. One day, it was going to land them in a shit storm, and when that day came, Kirk would be at a loss for what to do and would be unable to do what a real captain needed to do. His façade would crumble, leaving his much more capable first officer to pick up the pieces of his incompetence.

Setting his glass down, he picked up his PADD and scrolled through Kirk's file. He knew exactly how to show the admiralty that Kirk wasn't ready to take this responsibility. That he needed to go through the ranks like every other cadet. It had been a year and a half since his promotion, and the start of the five year mission was just underway. He pulled up another file, scanning over the new mission that had just appeared in his inbox. As he read, his scowl slowly turned into a smirk. He knew exactly what mission he was going to send the Enterprise on.