What if Humans won the Eugenics War through Augmentation?

[Timo]

Just that he's embarrassed to see her again and that he didn't want the other crew to see him absconding with her. I assume he was drunk (and her as well?).

Not sure about that. Kirk may be quite embarrassed for having "talked about the stars" with her, but the point seems to be that the encounter was boringly proper in every respect, a fact Noel would then be eager to change with the neural neutralizer. Kirk needn't take recreational drugs to make an ass of himself, by the absurdly strict standards he holds himself to.

...But this is early enough that it might pre-date the five-year mission. Maybe they're in Earth orbit still. Maybe families are visiting the science lab for a Christmas party/Going away shindig. Perhaps Kirk was looser with the uniform restrictions, and like Pike 11 years prior, allowed crew and visitors to waltz around in civvies during off-hours.

Good ideas. And if SD 27-whatever is too late for "early enough", the wording allows for this to have been a Christmas party several years ago. Although this would go a bit against the spirit of the statement at least.

...is chucking to himself when he realizes he is justified in assigning her (because she is qualified) and is able to annoy his buddy Kirk at the same time. Otherwise, the message Kirk asks to be relayed back to McCoy does not seem justified and would not even make sense to McCoy.

Xctly. Now if we only could apply similar logic to Dr Mulhall somehow...

As regards the superhero qualities of our characters, Starfleet can be a pretty exclusive club if it wants to, in a nation of trillions. Three superpowers might be the absolute minimum in the entry requirements - at least for the officers. The ratings seem a rowdy, undisciplined and terminally stupid bunch in the early episodes: in the first onscreen death of a redshirt (okay, blueshirt), Darnell just plain abandons his post and follows a random blonde on a supposedly deserted planet to his painfully obvious death. The officers may be charmed by the salt vampire, too, but none of them fail to notice obvious illogicalities and impossibilities, or to properly respond to a threat. Even McCoy, the beast's arguable main victim, eventually just shakes it off.

Perhaps it's a two-tier thing, then: the ratings are common folks drafted to die for their betters, who enter the exclusive Academy through letters of recommendation from the other Augment families who just keep a low profile and pretend to hate their own kind. Kirk's bloodline may not be quite as pure as Khan's, but he isn't quite five times weaker than the other superman after all...

Timo Saloniemi