[the video clicks on to Kirk standing in the armory, communicator held level with his face. his expression, though not hostile, certainly holds something unyielding in it. right now, Jim is every bit a starship captain, ready to go to bat for his ship. even if this ship wasn't theirs, as the pirates have been so quick to declare, it was the place they were forced to call home. they have enough trouble as it is without these guys coming in and thinking they can take whatever the want, and to Kirk- the people on this ship might as well be his own. they haven't heard from Ward or Resnik, last they'd heard they were missing. The pirates have said otherwise, but considering their line of work Jim isn't inclined to believe much of what they say.]

Captain Laurens, my name is Jim Kirk.

I'm sure you've noticed the people of this ship don't take being boarded and threatened lightly. We know why you're here, but we can't allow you to clear out our stores when we need them ourselves. I think we both want to avoid as much bloodshed as possible. I'm inviting you to come forward for negotiations.

[he's aware it's a long shot, that these guys aren't going to want to negotiate, but half of this is for Kirk to find out first hand out how they'll respond and where their movements might take them. They need to take back the ship and to do that, they need to find out where those pirates are. The pings he sends out don't ask for a response, but their meaning is clear: report in, we're going to move out.]

PING :: ENTERPRISE ENCRYPTION :: ALERT

PING :: GUNNERY ENCRYPTION :: ALERT

[Takeshi is near the front doors of the oxygen gardens, because some people would totally have a heatherfit if he were far off in the halls. Which he was, but shhh, we don't need to let Ned or Heather know that.]


Don't fight!!

Don't fight each other, there are real monsters to fight--don't fight pirates! Pirates, please don't fight, too! --why are we all not getting along? There are scary things we can stop together; we can give each other stuff. We can be really smart and not hurt each other!

[Huff--this is hopeless, but he hates how scared or angry people are. And if not those two, then too willing to fight people who could have easily been with them.

Hitting someone who hurts your friends, he gets. Hitting a monster, he gets.

But--when did it end up where you're enemies just because?]

I saw some of the pirates. They talked to me before. They talked to you, too! Some might be bad, but maybe they're not bad; maybe they're just playing the game, and they're scared of losing. They're just trying to get their points so they don't die. [What, that makes total sense. To him it does, anyway.]

I--maybe I can talk to them. Maybe we can talk and make this better. People're getting hurt.

And stealing is wrong. Stop stealing from us! Stop shooting stuff! Why're we fighting if we don't got any reason to fight? We're not monsters. Nobody's monsters. Why are we fighting when we're all not monsters??

....

We're all just people... 

... I don't get it...