| 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 |
| SNW : A Quality of Mercy |
