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Almost every man and woman has a childhood role model. Most often they are athletes, actors, famous musicians or fictional characters. Sometimes they are scientists, politicians or Starfleet officers, leaders, the best in their chosen fields and greatly admired for their accomplishments. People like Zefram Cochrane, Jonathan Archer or Hoshi Sato. For James Kirk it wasn't one of those people mentioned. He discovered his idol in a dusty corner of the public library in Riversides.
The nine-year-old boy had fled inside from the sudden rain on his way back home from school. He set his backpack down and wandered down the aisle between the shelves, his eyes gliding over the datapads- and chips, computer terminals and old-fashioned paper-books. Looking back, he could never explain why that particular datachip had grabbed his attention. It looked quite unremarkable, its inscription not telling him anything about its content: It read NASA-A3-Vlog_S6-S549. But for an undiscernible reason he picked the chip up and took it with him.
Later at home, lying in bed with his datapad, burrowed under the blankets to hide the light from the screen, the little child saw a shaken looking stranger turn on a camera, forcing a smile and saying "I'm pretty much fucked". And James Kirk was captivated. Watching Mark Watney's struggles for survival two centuries ago, he knew he had found his role model. This was how James Kirk wanted to be. Brilliant, optimistic but realistic, never giving up and never giving in, surviving apparently impossible odds with a sarcastic smile and a witty remark on his lips for every occasion.