Ooo, thanks for the rec. I'll have to check it out later.

I adore Kirk most, but I love the whole team and how well they work together, and wanted to root the shiny Reboot characterizations more firmly into the established TOS background. (One of my favorite things to do in fic is find logical reasons for on-screen craziness, and while I love STXI very much, it does have some really interesting plot challenges.)

And yep, that's the unnamed niece. *grin* I'd really love to continue this 'verse in future, perhaps bring in Ael herself, but it depends on when they run the next Big Bang.