Alongside the other senior officers, Spock stands at parade rest in the shuttle bay awaiting the arrival of Lieutenant James T. Kirk of the U.S.S. Farragut, who has been posted to the Enterprise for six months to shadow Captain Pike as part of a Starfleet command training initiative. The elder Kirk has naturally expressed satisfaction at the prospect of an extended visit with a brother he sees only rarely, and the rest of the human crew are – as ever – excessively diverted by novelty; but Spock has his own, private reasons for eagerly anticipating the shuttle’s arrival. James T. Kirk’s presence aboard the Enterprise will provide an unprecedented opportunity for Spock to observe the behavior of another pair of adult siblings approximately his own age. The Kirk brothers may prove invaluable as a control group to assess human sibling dynamics, and understand to what degree his relationship with Michael deviates from the mean, due to his mixed heritage and their shared Vulcan upbringing.
This epic slow-burn is everything I could have hoped for in a post!SNW season 1 fic for these characters. Not just Kirk and Spock, but everyone else, too, including Michael Burnham, whose absence makes Spock reevaluate some important things…