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Star Trek XV – Now and Forever

Prologue

Captain's Log, Stardate 2265.48

'Commander Spock and I have just landed on the surface of Yunox IV, a class F planet which, our scanners have detected, is about to enter a very geologically active phase which might mark its transition to class G and that needs to be carefully analysed in order to help us further understand the processes involved in the terraformation of planets. For this reason, we will install a ground-level geological station equipped with powerful sensors that will be able to report everything that occurs on this planet for as long as the machine's integrity is not compromised. Kirk out.'

From his seat inside the shuttle, the Captain took a moment to observe the nearly pitch black environment that surrounded them. Yunox IV's star was too far away to provide strong enough light and the dark rocks that covered the planet were only lit by the web of rivers of lava that criss-crossed the barren surface. It kind of reminded him of some ancient documentaries he'd seen of Iceland, a beautiful island back on Earth.

'Captain,' Spock's muffled voice brought him back to reality, 'you should suit up.'

Kirk looked up at his First Officer and noticed the Vulcan was already wearing the massively uncomfortable but very useful copper coloured thermal biosuit that would keep most of the external heat out, as well as providing them with the oxygen and pressure their bodies needed to survive.

'Give me a minute,' Kirk said getting up from his seat.

'Understood,' Spock replied, 'I will commence unloading the cargo.'

'Okay,' Kirk agreed, 'I'll give you a hand as soon as I'm done.'

'That will not be necessary,' Spock said sounding vaguely cheeky.

Kirk smirked at him for a moment then, he walked to the back of the shuttle to retrieve his thermal biosuit.

A few minutes after struggling to get his helmet on, he triple checked everything to make sure the suit was properly sealed then he clipped on his communicator and, just in case, his phaser as well. Sulu had assured him the planet was completely devoid of life but, after five years exploring often hostile territories, Kirk knew better than to walk around unarmed. Stepping out of the pressurised shuttle, he noticed Spock had also thought of taking his phaser with him. Great minds and all of that, Kirk thought feeling proud of his friend.

'Do we have everything we need?' he asked Spock mentally counting the number of crates on the ground.

'Yes,' the Vulcan confirmed.

'Okay,' Kirk said then, obviously speaking to someone else, he added, 'Mr Harris, you can go back now.'

'Thank you, Captain,' replied the young pilot, 'the coils were beginning to overheat a bit.'

'I'm sure they were,' Kirk said, 'tell Mr Sulu the shuttle is fine before he has a nervous breakdown.'

'Yes, sir,' Harris said sounding definitely amused.

'We'll tell you when we're ready to be beamed up,' the Captain finished.

'Yes, sir,' the pilot repeated.

A moment later, they observed the shuttle taking off, its engines making what basically was the only noise that could be heard, other than the occasional explosion coming from one of Yunox IV's many volcanoes.

'Okay,' Kirk said, 'let's get to work.'

'Yes, sir,' Spock replied.

The two of them started unpacking the series of devices that would need to be assembled together. They needed to be careful since some were very delicate and, between the thermal gloves and the lack of light (they only had the one provided by their helmets), their work was made, to say the least, challenging.

Nevertheless, he and Spock had become an exceedingly well synchronised team and by following his accurate instructions, very soon they had every piece of machinery mounted exactly where it belonged.

'You seem dissatisfied,' his First Officer commented while he connected a cable, 'is there something amiss?'

'Not really,' Kirk said checking the seismographer he'd just finished installing, 'it's just that…'

'Yes?' Spock asked him.

'It's a little anticlimactic, isn't it?' Kirk asked him staring at the Vulcan through his helmet's visor.

'Elaborate,' Spock gently requested.

'This,' Kirk replied gesturing with his hand indicating their surroundings, 'after what we've been through, this is kind of a downer as last missions go. I don't know what I was hoping for but…this…this wasn't it.'

'I see,' Spock commented, 'this will probably fail to make you feel better but, the device we are currently installing belongs to the last generation of geological stations. It will serve the purpose of, not only monitoring the planet's activity but, also, to evaluate the practical utility of our latest scientific theories.

'Yeah,' Kirk said shaking his head, 'you're right: it doesn't help me feel better.'

Spock curved his lips in the shadow of smile he usually reserved for his Captain then, before he could make any comment about it, he returned his attention to his work, quietly implying that Kirk should do the same.

Less than half an hour later, the Vulcan turned the device on.

'It appears all is functioning as expected,' he said with his usual monotone.

'Yay!' Kirk exclaimed with faked enthusiasm, 'can we go now?'

'Affirmative, Captain,' Spock replied.

'Good,' Kirk said, 'because I…' he trailed his voice as the torch on his helmet spotted something that he was fairly sure had not been there before, lowering his tone to just above a whisper, he said, 'what's that?'

Spock didn't reply, instead, he too stared at the large rock that had appeared out of nowhere.

'I am uncertain,' the Vulcan replied.

'Well, I am sure it wasn't there before,' Kirk said.

Confused, the two of them were trying to decide what to do when the rock shoot up all of a sudden revealing two things: one, it was even larger than it had previously looked; two, it was very much alive.

'RUN!' Kirk ordered Spock.

Not needing to be asked twice, the Vulcan showed the reason why he was the prime choice for this sort of missions as he ran with the heavy thermal biosuit on with an ease that made Kirk curse his much weaker fully human body.

'I assume this qualifies as an improvement to our mission's parameters,' Spock commented while they ran.

'Very…funny,' Kirk struggled to retort.

They managed to reach the spot where Scott had told them the transporter would be able to beam them up. Spock was about to issue the order when the rock like lifeform jumped aiming at him, as though as it was trying to absorb the Vulcan within its own body.

'Get down!' Kirk shouted while he fired a series of phaser blasts that impacted directly on the creature.

He wasn't sure what would happen but, to his surprise, the thing seemed to temporarily freeze in place.

'Enterprise, beam us up, now!' Spock said barely managing to keep his proverbial cool.

An instant later, they found themselves on opposite landing pads back onboard their beloved ship and as they stared at each other feeling in awe that they were actually alive, they heard Dr McCoy's worried voice:

'JIM!'

'I'm fine,' Kirk said clumsily stepping out of his pad.

'The hell you…'

'Honestly, Bones,' Kirk insisted, 'I am actually fine.'

The doctor stared at him for a moment then he glanced at the Vulcan who was quick to assure him:

'We are both unharmed.'

'Good,' Dr McCoy huffed then, he couldn't help but to ask, 'what the hell happened this time?'

'Help us get out of this thing and I'll tell you all about it,' Kirk bargained pointing at his biosuit.

Ten minutes later and once they were freed from their suits, Kirk and Spock made their way to the bridge while a more furious than incredulous McCoy returned to Medical muttering what sounded like a death threat directed to his best friend, though Kirk only managed to pick up the words neck and hypo-spray.

'The doctor was not happy,' Spock commented as they walked.

'Spock,' Kirk replied, 'do you remember what I said about your habit to understate everything?'

'Of course I do,' he replied.

'You're doing it again,' Kirk said then, not giving him time to retort, he announced, 'I've untied our draw.'

'Draw?' Spock asked him.

'Yes,' Kirk said, 'it's now been thirteen times you've saved my life and fourteen I've saved yours.'

'That is not accurate,' Spock countered.

'What do you…' Kirk started asking then, he got very serious and said, 'that one time doesn't count.'

'It does,' Spock insisted.

'I thought we would never speak of it again,' Kirk said lowering his tone of voice.

'I am aware of that,' Spock said, 'but it makes the count thirteen to fifteen. Besides,' he continued, 'I see no shame in counting that time. After all, if it hadn't been for your intervention, I would have surely perished.'

'Yes,' Kirk agreed, 'but I just don't think it would make for much of a story to tell people I had to seduce a female old enough to be my grandmother in order to give you the time to free yourself from your restrains.'

'Technically,' Spock commented, 'the female in question was only four earth years old.'

'Geez!' Kirk exclaimed looking utterly disgusted, 'that didn't make me feel better then and it still doesn't now!'

'My apologies, Captain,' Spock said sounding more like he was teasing him instead of saying sorry.

'Just don't talk about this again,' Kirk said jabbing his finger onto the Vulcan's chest, 'that's an order!'

'Understood,' Spock replied trying to sound his usual serious self, failing miserably.

'Aargh,' Kirk said clearly giving up.

They entered the bridge where they found most of the Alpha shift there, including Gary Mitchell who was currently trying to impress Janice Rand, a Yeoman who had joined the crew less than a year before. Kirk couldn't blame him, the Yeoman was a beautiful woman but her light blond hair reminded him too much of…

'Captain on the bridge!' Chekov's cheerful announcement happily interrupted his troubling thoughts.

'Captain!' Rand said abandoning Mitchell, 'are you unhurt? We heard from Medical that…'

'I am fine,' he hurried to reassure her and everyone else while he replaced Sulu on the Captain's chair.

'Are you sure?' she insisted, 'if there's anything you need, I can…'

'Yes, there is,' Kirk said eager to keep her busy, 'please get the log I recorded earlier planet-side transferred to the computer, make two backup copies and then ensure it gets properly filed.'

'Yes, sir,' the girl replied looking very happy she could help her Captain.

'Mr Sulu,' Kirk said removing his attention from her, 'you're gonna have to get Yunox IV moved from the list of uninhabited planets to, definitely inhabited. That thing down there was alive and not happy to see us.'

'Yes, sir,' Sulu said having the decency to look sorry, 'but sir, I swear the scanners didn't see anything.'

'I know,' Kirk replied offering him a reassuring smile, 'in your defence, I'm pretty sure that it has never been catalogued before, we've probably found a brand new life form,' he added, excitement obvious in his eyes.

'Captain,' Chekov said, 'I am getting a lot of readings from the device you and Commander Spock installed.'

'Route them to the Science Station,' Kirk ordered exchanging a quick glance with Spock.

'I shall commence the analysis,' the Vulcan said taking his usual seat.

'Perfect,' Kirk said smiling at him, 'we don't have any information about that thing down there so, once you're done, we will assemble another away team to go and collect as much data as we can.'

'That's not going to be possible, sir,' Uhura intervened.

'Why not?' Kirk demanded.

'While you were away,' Uhura explained, 'I received orders from Starfleet. They want us to go to 25-Alpha near the Romulan border to pick up Dr Elizabeth Kirk and her two year old son together with the prototype of a device she has designed for transportation to New Vulcan.'

'Elizabeth Kirk?' Rand asked him, 'is she a relative of yours, Captain?'

'Definitely not,' Kirk replied getting serious.

'They want us to go to New Vulcan?' Spock asked Uhura.

'Yes, Commander,' she replied.

'Spock, silver lining,' Kirk said after regaining his boyish grin, 'you get to go and see your father.'

'And the other me,' the Vulcan agreed.

'That will never stop sounding confusing,' Mitchell pointed out from his tactical station.

Kirk laughed out loud once then, taking a look around his bridge, he took the time to consider their options. The creature had clearly been there for a really long time so surely it would remain there for a while longer and now the Federation knew about its existence, they could send another ship to investigate. If anything, Kirk thought as a consolation, the credit for the discovery would always be Spock's and his.

'Okay,' he said, 'Mr Sulu, set course to the Starbase 25-Alpha, let's go and get that mad scientist'

'Aye, Captain,' Sulu replied.

To be continued…