No one would have pegged him for the type to hide. It isn't hiding out of fear, not completely, it's survival. People do a lot of things to survive when they have to. Jim knows that. Tarsus, it wouldn't stick out in anyone's mind really, except the people it effected; the ones there and the ones who came to help.

Jim only remembers a handful of names of personnel. Commander Robert April was one. He kind of wondered what happened to him. If he was still around. Would he recognize the scrawny kid he helped rescue in the man about to drop out of the Academy today?

Pike was right, though. He wasn't pretending he knew what Jim was feeling. He wasn't saying that he had all the angles figured cause of a data file someone pushed around for the public to see.

He gives a derisive snort. "You'd be the first."

His eyes are stinging, but he angrily blinks it back. Anger he can deal with. He's got anger in spades and a lot of stupid. Hell, repeat offender, right?

"Everybody thinks they know. Everybody's sorry."