| Sam Kirk :  | "Am I off the record here, sir? Jim was always at the top of his class. Smart and highly skilled, obviously. But he's not above relying on charm, or even luck."  |  
   | Pike :  | "Sounds like a wild card."  |  
   | Sam Kirk :  | "A whole deck of 'em. He doesn't like taking the path everyone else does, and he doesn't like to lose."  |  
   | Pike :  | "Should we be worried that he's gonna start a war?"  |  
   | Sam Kirk :  | "Look, I'm not gonna say Jim isn't a pain in the ass. He is. He is huge pain in the ass. But the truth is, he's as fine a captain as Starfleet has."  |  
   | Pike :  | "Okay, good to know."  |  
   | Sam Kirk :  | "Like I said, he does like to bend the rules sometimes. No, more like all the time."  |  
   |   | discussing James T. Kirk  |  
 
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