Jim's speech pulled a growl from Kirk that he wouldn't have let fall in more formal circumstances. Instead, Kirk unwound from himself, staring Jim in the face, "Are you even listening to what I'm saying, Jim? The ship's a ship. I trust you and Spock in your idea that she's somehow recently gained sentience, though how much I really believe she would tell the truth about that is another question."

He gestured with a hand, scowling, "I care less about her newly gained sentience as I care about her masters. Them I want brought to justice. What I'm saying is that I'm not trying to play jury and executioner on her, but on her masters. Think about it realistically though. If we try to do anything to her masters, what is she going to do? She's going to defend them, which means people on our side could die. I don't see how they can be dealt with without her defending them and needing to be taken care of to. By taken care of, I don't necessarily mean destroying her, but it would stop any chance of her being benign. If we could do this somehow where Nero and Ayel are dealt with and the Narada remained alive and not trying to hunt us down? Then I'm all for it."

He licked his lips, anger bubbling in him, "I'm not going to spare them because of her, Jim. I love how you, and Spock, see to value her existence over everything else that's happened." He held up a finger sharply, "Even if you don't, you have no idea how much you're portraying that to me."