Chapter Text
"Finally, some rest and relaxation. And this time the kid isn't going to run off chasin' some rumor or villain or whatnot." Leonard sighed as he relaxed on the lavender sand watching the group of Federation delegates and Vulcans interact with a pod of dolphins. The whole beach was filled with laughter as children raced up and down it or played in the shallows while their parents watched indulgently from their lounge chairs or played alongside their children.
"I'm pretty sure this isn't what the delegates were expecting when invited to visit your colony world, from what I can tell this place is basically a giant resort and while it doesn't hold a candle, to say Risa, it has it's own not insignificant charm." Captain Pike chuckled from his own spot nearby, the older Starfleet officer was reclining on the lavender sands with an umbrella laden drink having already developed a decent tan over the last month of being on Atlantis.
"Funny you should say that, Atlantis really has turned into our vacation planet. It has a small permanent population made up mostly of Vulcans and Orions with humans and a few stragglers from various species who prefer water environments. Majority of the civilians all moved to Shangri-la oddly enough, I mean the planet is like seventy percent mountains for goodness sake. But they seem happy enough farming or mining or working on the space station there, they will take the shuttle over to play in the seas but they never want to stay." He answered the older man between sips of his own umbrella bedecked drink this was certainly not the worst way to while away a few days but he wouldn't want to live here himself, Tortuga was his home now though if the kid and his pointy eared hobgoblins ever decided to relocate he knew he would be following right behind them because they were his family.
"Yeah we had a chance to visit the other planet, Shangri-la, recently. Let me tell you the Federation Ambassador was frankly shocked when he was told that he was free to take the shuttle to Shangri-la if he wanted to, the lack of any restrictions on the delegation actually made them more worried. Poor guy didn't relax until he was told that he couldn't visit the space station at the lagrange point trailing Shangri-la because he wasn't cleared to do so, the rest of the delegation still seems a bit culture shocked honestly. Not sure what they were expecting from a bunch of children pirates and freed slaves but it obviously wasn't such a smooth well designed society apparently." Pike relaxed back one arm over his eyes as he basked in the warm sunlight, Leonard chuckled at the wry smile on the sandy haired captain.
"Genius pirate children Captain, that first word makes all the difference. Though the damn kid's weird luck certainly didn't hurt either, his ability to make reality bend has even his husband admitting that there is no logical explanation thus luck must exist because there is nothing else that would explain how the kid manages to pull just what is needed out of his hat time and time again." Leonard chuckled as he glanced at the man in question happily wallowing in the waist deep waters while a dolphin squeals at him excitedly, Tiberius's long golden hair was braided and swung behind him as he moved a bright smile on his face as his eyes twinkled with glee.
"How is his majesty the Dread Pirate King Tiberius doing? And is it safe for him to be doing whatever it is that he is doing right now?" Pike had obviously followed his gaze to the heavily pregnant man, it was only five months into his pregnancy but he was already showing a pretty big belly which was honestly not a surprise given the circumstances.
"Complainin' and kicking up a fuss about it being our fault he's knocked up with septuplets, it's great because every time he lays into me I just play the recording where he made me give him the counter agent to his contraceptive. Then the only other person he can complain to is his green blooded hobgoblin who just looks like someone kicked his dog, it's the best thing ever!" McCoy laughed brightly at the thought before settling down to chuckles "As for the whole dolphin bit he's fine, all the cetaceans have been spoken to by a Vulcan or Betazoid turns out they are pretty freaking smart. The local pods know that Tiberius is pregnant, hell the telepaths say that the dolphins can hear the little hobgoblins which is why that one is squealing at him. So yeah he's perfectly safe, specially given his bondmate and father-in-law are hovering nearby."
"You're an evil man Mr. McCoy, the very image of a villain truly." Pike laughed sitting up to look at him so Leonard just gave the older man a smile and a wink.
"Well now, I am a card carrying pirate Captain Pike. If I wasn't a villain of some sort I'd be embarrassed when I went to the various pirate get togethers now wouldn't I?" Leonard chuckled before finishing off his drink, he contemplated the empty cup before getting to his feet looking around at the happy people around him before he shook his empty cup addressing his next words to the attendant AI "Alfred, another of these please."
The drone that had been hovering nearby silently hovered over to the nearby bar before retrieving another umbrella laden drink, Leonard was rather glad that his pops wasn't here to see him enjoying the fruity beverage because as much as he appreciated a good scotch or whiskey the local fruit alcohol was far more delicious. Graciously accepting his new drink he settled back on the warm sands to keep an eye on his heavily pregnant best friend slash adopted brother, the company of the older Fleet officer wasn't terrible either as he rarely enjoyed the company of someone who was actually older than himself.
"Alfred? We have noticed that you all use advanced AI for a number of things but I don't think any of us have asked about why you named them." Pike laughed as he offered his own drink for Leonard to clink against which he did with a slight grin.
"Well Tiberius decided that it was wrong to just go calling them all computer, specially since he had programmed them to have personalities. The butlers aren't too concerned with the whole thing, they have entire planets or large space stations to run after all but the ships will get revenge on anyone who dares to call them computer after being told their name." Leonard chuckled as he remembered Spock's little escapade with Empress, he hadn't realized what was going on at the time but he had heard the story from Tiberius and Tom both well after it had happened.
"Sounds like there is a story behind that warning." Pike laughed taking a sip of his drink, Leonard followed suit as he considered sharing the story with the older man.
"Hmmm...well when we got picked up by the Nameless and her underage pirate crew it wasn't like we got a rulebook on how to interact with them. I didn't have access to Empress because I was being barely tolerated due to a number of reasons but Spock did, must have been six days into that first trip that he called Empress 'computer' even though Tiberius had told him her name. Empress was of course less than impressed, the poor guy spent the next four days with lukewarm showers, human lukewarm mind you, and quarters that were not cool enough to cause issues but not warm enough to be comfortable. Hell even his tea would come out at a temperature that wasn't hot but wasn't cold either, pure torture for a heat lovin' Vulcan. Tiberius laughed his ass off over how miserable Spock looked before apparently telling him that he needed to apologize to Empress for calling her 'computer' before she would fix the temperature issues. The AI's aren't really self aware but Tiberius is probably one of the best programmers alive so they sure as heck fake it really well, and the ship AI's are adaptive to increase their ability to assist their crews. Between the two of us I wouldn't be surprised if one of them jumped to a full on true artificial intelligence that was self aware one of these days." Leonard exasperatedly grumbled the last part scowling at Tiberius, the damn kid would probably throw whichever AI did it a birthday party.
"Well that is both intriguing and terrifying to think about, thankfully it is also well above my pay grade. So I can simply sit back and enjoy seeing and interacting with previously extinct cetaceans while being wined and dined by royalty without having to worry about anything other than making a good impression and hoping that the delegates I am here with do the same." Pike chuckled glancing at the Federation delegates who were also enjoying the beach side celebration, if nothing else the delegates were certainly enjoying the pirate kingdom's hospitality.
"I wouldn't worry too much about the people with you, Tiberius wouldn't lump the entire delegation in with one rotten apple. Honestly between the two of us the kid likes you, he's been keeping track of your career ever since you ended up in charge of the Fleet response to our little tiff with the Orion Syndicate. So even if one of the delegation people, or hell all of them, were to decide to suddenly go on a murder or rape spree as long as you didn't join them you would be just dandy." He kept his eyes on Tiberius where he was now just floating in the salty water but watched how Pike reacted to his statement. He wanted to know how the Fleet officer would react to the information he had just casually provided, mostly because he was curious but also because he wanted to judge how the older man handled the knowledge.
"I guess that's fair, I've been keeping track of him and you guys since the First Consort pulled my husband out of a slaver's hold. It has been an interesting decade for sure." Pike leaned back on the sand a slight smile on his face, Leonard nodded in agreement taking a deep drink. Pike clearly had a good first impression of their little pirate family even if he didn't necessarily agree with everything they had done.
"That it has, but honestly I don't think I would change a thing. I know that I made a difference, that my skills and time were instrumental in saving lives." He glanced at Tiberius again and the thought that he had saved some lost souls along with those lives echoed through him. Leonard leaned back in the sand content for the moment, this might not be where he was meant to end up but as long as he had Tiberius and Spock at his side he felt that it was right as if he was destined to stand with them regardless of where it happened.