PROLOGUE
Many years ago the great British explorer George Mallory, who was to die on Mount Everest, was asked: why did he want to climb it. He said, 'Because it is there.' Well, space is there, and we're going to climb it, and the moon and the planets are there, and new hopes for knowledge and peace are there. And, therefore, as we set sail we ask God's blessing on the most hazardous and dangerous and greatest adventure on which man has ever embarked. - John F Kennedy
An "Unexplored World", Eridan Belt Sector, known by inhabitants as "Third Earth"…
Celebration filled the air of New Avista. After weeks of reconstruction, power was finally fully restored. All thanks to unified help of all the animals, led by the Cats, especially Lord Lion-O, King of the ThunderCats. Not everyone was celebrating though. Lion-O walked out of the central palace of the city, and leaned on the railing. He looked over the well-lit city, then up to the stars that shined brightly in the night sky. He had no worries of being disturbed. Panthro was down working on the Thundertank, Wily Kit and Wily Kat were enjoying the elephants company, and Cheetara and Tygra were dancing the night away. So, here he was with his thoughts as company.
"Coin for your thoughts?"
Or so he thought.
The young lion glanced to see the pretty cleric leaning against the railing beside him. "Surprised you're not still showing these birds how to properly dance with my brother," Lion-O smiled slightly.
"Tygra can fly an aircraft very well, but when it comes to the art of dancing…" Cheetara smirked, "He has two left feet." She lifted her bare foot and rubbed her toes. "A girl can only stand her feet stepped on so many times before she needs a break. And when I saw you leave, I thought this would be a good time to talk. Ancients know we haven't had a chance since… things happened."
"If I've learned anything in the last few weeks it's to roll with the punches, Cheetara," Lion-O smiled slightly as he looked back up to the stars.
"Are you sure you're ok?" She asked the young King.
"I will be, Pumyra… hurt. Everything she said to me was just lies to get close," Lion-O sighed, glancing down at his hands, "That's twice now I've misread a girl's signals… at least with you it was well intentioned, you trying to help me master the Sword…"
"Yes…" Cheetara said tightly, averting her eyes.
"Leo had trouble with Panthera too," Lion-O said with a faint smile, gaining questioning eyes from the cheetah. "I still have his memories from the Book of Omens. His hardest struggle wasn't organizing Thundera and keeping peace among all the animals… but getting Panthera's hand and holding on to it. Maybe… I've just been going about things wrong."
"What do you mean?" Cheetara asked, and before he could answer Tygra appeared behind her, draping an arm around the cheetah's shoulder.
"There're tons of girls in here, Lion-O, of ever species you can think of, even Thunderians!" Tygra smirked somewhat playfully toward his brother. "Why you have to tie mine up?"
Cheetara sighed in annoyance but allowed Tygra to lead her back to the party, giving Lion-O one last parting glance, finding his gaze back up to the stars.
"Leo struggled with problem to problem, small thing to small thing… which only added more problems… I think I'll try focusing on the big picture instead…" Lion-O whispered to himself as he stared at the blinking stars. A thought struck his mind as he recalled what he had learned from the Book of Omens. He knew from Leo's memories the ThunderCats on Mumm-Ra's ship weren't the only ones. What became of the rest of his people?
-TC/ST-
Planetoid Memory Alpha, Alpha Centauri Sector, Alpha Quadrant
Scientists and Scholars of the United Federation of Planets busily buzzed through the seven dome instillation on the planet Memory Alpha. The Instillation held the combined information from exploration from the very first Federation star craft and even back to the early travels and studies by the Vulcans. Few were allowed to even know the location of the planet, and fewer were allowed to access the station's vast storehouses of knowledge and information.
How this group of individuals who rapidly approached the planet in their cloaked warships came to know of Memory Alpha none would know. None the less they were coming and no one on the station was had a even a slight chance of being aware before it was too late. Likelihood any would survive their arrival was even slimmer, prisoners and survivors were not common among Klingon raids.
A group of scientist busily went about studying the various data sources when an odd buzzing sound filtered the air. They looked up and fear filled them at the red energy forming around them slowly taking the shapes of the ten warriors teleporting into the station. They were tall dark tan skinned humanoids with rigged foreheads and long dark hair, and sharp threatening uniforms and large fearsome weapons in their hands. "Klingons!" A woman screamed before a phaser rifle blast silenced her forever.
"HoH! tera'ngan 'Iw pa' SoD!" One Klingon yelled as they began to fire on the unarmed scientists, moving through the area of complex, killing anything that moved. "yoS ngaQ, peQ chang."
One final Klingon teleported onto the station, unlike the others he was bald headed with less severe ridges on his forehead, and an eye patch bolted to over his eye showing the emblem of the Klingon Empire. One of the Klingon General's warriors pointed him to what looked like one of the oldest data platforms in the complex and he made his way to it. With a slight snort, the Klingon General began keying in the information and a moment later his eyes widened as a satisfied smile graced his violent face. "'oH wIghaj."
"Sa'!" One of the warriors called out, "warped vaj mIch 'ej nughoS nom DIvI' 'ejDo'. 'entepray'Daq."
"Kirk…"the general smiled predatorily, "ghom maH tagha'."
"Please… mercy… I have a family back on earth…" a woman breathed as she tried to drag herself toward the general's feet.
"Thou know'st 'tis common," the general said, surprising the woman by speaking not only English but Shakespearian English. "All that lives must die." He said pulling a hand phaser from his belt and firing point blank to her head. "Passing through nature to eternity." He glanced around the group of warriors. "jorwI', tIHmey Duj lan. lom nuH Samta'meH wIghaj."
The Klingons busied themselves with assembling a large explosive device to the computer their leader had accessed. They had almost finished when the buzz-like ringing of teleportation once again filled the chamber. A group of Federation officers appeared and began firing on the Klingon Invaders. The leader was a young man, relatively tall with blond hair and a gold uniform tunic, next to him was a taller dark haired Vulcan in a blue uniform, with perfectly trimmed dark hair, pointed eyebrows and ears. To their right was a young woman of African descent with her long dark hair tied back in a ponytail over her red uniform skirt. And with them were two officers in red shirts. "Uhura, try to talk to them and find out why they're attacking,"" the man in the gold tunic called.
"You really want me to ask them why they're trying to kill us, Captain?" Uhura called back as they ducked behind cover as one of the two officers fell from phaser hits.
"No need for a translator, Captain Kirk," the general spoke with a smile.
"You have me at a disadvantage," Kirk said from his cover.
"You have no idea, James Tiberius," the General laughed, "All the world is a play, and all the men and women merely actors. They have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts." The Klingon chuckled to himself, "I have many parts left to play, Dear Captain. But you, my friend, your stage exit is at hand. It's an honor to be your final foe." He said as he and his remaining men beamed out.
"Spock! What did they do?" Kirk asked as the three ran forward to the console.
"Explosive, Captain," the Vulcan stated examining the bomb attached to the console.
"You don't say, Spock," Kirk said as he, Spock and Uhura examined the bomb. "What kind?"
"Uncertain, Sir," Spock narrowed his eyes, "Perhaps the demolition expert would be better suited to give a diagnostic."
"Right," Kirk nodded, but Uhura tapped his shoulder and pointed back to the two dead bodies. "Could be a problem there… they didn't make it…" He then pulled his communicator from his belt. "Kirk to Enterprise. M'ress, do you read?"
"Enterprise here, Captain," a purring voice came through as well the sound of explosions.
"I need Scotty," Kirk said, noticing the timer getting shorter.
"Stand by…" A few moments later a Scottish accent snapped. "What!?"
"Need you down here, Scotty, we don't want Memory Alpha blown to hell," Kirk stated.
"Aye, and we don't need the Enterprise blown to hell either, now do we?" Scotty replied.
"Scotty, I'm serious," Kirk bit his lip staring at the countdown.
"So 'm I, Captain," Scotty replied, "We have three Klingon Birds-of-Prey firing on us at one time, and 'tis all I can do to keep 'er shields up."
"Scotty, we have a BOMB set to explode," Kirk growled out.
"Ah, why didn't ye say so?" Scotty's tone changed instantly, "I'll send one of my best engineers, Ben'll fix it right up." Scotty screaming the name Ben could be heard as the com was cut off.
A moment later, a young male teleported before them. He was a humanoid feline in a blue star fleet uniform. White fur with black stripes covered what wasn't covered in his uniform, and a long thin tail swished behind him. "Lt. Bengali reporting for duty, Captain," the young feline saluted.
"Great, lieutenant, come fix this!" Kirk said, pointing to the bomb, "We don't die and you're up for a promotion."
Bengali went to one knee before the bomb and examined. "They're not playing with this one, Captain," He said, biting his lip. "I've done drills with this type of bomb several times back at the Academy." He said as he began unscrewing the front of the bomb.
"Good, you're familiar…" Kirk breathed a sigh of relief.
"How many of those drills were successful, Lieutenant?" Spock asked.
"You'll feel better if you forget you asked that, Sir," Ben gave a tight smile getting a quirked eyebrow from Spock.
"Maybe you and Uhura should beam back to the Enterprise," Kirk said glancing to his first officer and lead communications officer.
"Out of the question," Uhura shook her head.
"We all beam back or no one beams back, Jim," Spock said, without taking his eyes off the carefully working feline.
"No pressure, Kid," Kirk placed a hand lightly on Bengali's shoulder.
The three officers watched in silence as the engineer went from working on the bomb to the console that it was attached to. Uhura took a hard swallow but glanced to the side when Spock took her hand in his and gave it a squeeze. She glanced up at the Vulcan and whispered "Love you, too…"
"Lt. Commander Uhura, public displays and declarations of affection are strictly prohibited on high risk away missions by Federation Code 2484-A, paragraph three," Spock said officially, earning an eye roll from his girlfriend.
Kirk watched as the countdown closed in to fading away completely. He closed his eyes as it made its final count. He stayed stock still and stiff. He cracked open one eye after a moment to see Bengali working solely on the console. "Lieutenant?"
"Oh, sorry… I disarmed the bomb a while back and been working on trying to see what the Klingons were after. I just didn't bother with the digital timer. Requires reading Klingon and that's one of my weaker studies…"
Kirk and Uhura breathed a sigh of relief while Spock raised an eyebrow. "Great work disarming the bomb, Lt. Commander," Kirk said. "But you have midnight shift duty for a week for the mini heart attack you gave me." He patted the boy's back, "Did you find what they were after."
"Yes sir, a flight path of an ancient ship through Romulan space to the Eridan Belt," Bengali stated.
"Scotty, this Caitian has earned a promotion," Kirk said into his com.
"Aye, Ben is one of me best, Jim, was gonna vouch for him in the next officer meeting," Scotty replied. "Dunno what they were after, but those Birds-of-Prey cloaked and got out of here fast, sir."
"Um, sir, I'm not a Caitian," Bengali stated sheepishly, "I'm a Thunderian."
"Fascinating…" Spock muttered.
"Doesn't matter that they're gone, we know where they're headed. Beam us up, Scotty," Kirk stated.
As soon as they found themselves on the teleportation pads, the officers quickly walked toward the exit, Kirk motioning Bengali to follow. "You're with us on the bridge."
The group quickly entered the bridge, an officer announcing that the Captain on the bridge as Kirk made his way to his chair. "Bengali, give Mr. Sulu the flight path." The young thundarian nodded, and went to the Asian pilot, pointing on his screen what he had taken from the console.
"Mr. Sulu, take us after them."
Space… the final frontier…
In orbit of the planetoid the Federation starship lifted from the shadow, the light of the system's star shining on the white metal along the long nacelles with glowing red tips and blue lights along the edge connected to a long sloping cylinder hull leading to a large saucer section.
As the light hit the saucer, English writing could be read: "USS Enterprise" over "NCC-1701".
These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise…
Engines at the back of the saucer pushed it out of orbit of the planetoid.
Her five year mission:
The ship slowly increase speed as it completely left the orbital range of Memory Alpha.
To explore strange, new worlds…
The engines came to a stop as a faint roaring sound began to escape the ship into surrounding space as the nacelles began to glow.
To seek out new life and new civilizations…
The roar increased in volume as the lights on the nacelles became almost blinding.
To boldly go…
As the roaring and light reached a crescendo, the Enterprise launched forward beyond the speed of light, leaving behind twin trails of blue energy.
Where no one has gone before.
STAR TREK/THUNDERCATS
To the Stars
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