(Note: This is a sequel to, and contains spoilers for, 'The Second Life of Janice Lester')

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I'm James T. Kirk.

Or rather, I used to be him. For the past thirty one years I've been Janice Lester; I've been her almost as long as I was him. For most of that time I had no idea who I really was. For most of that time the original Janice Lester was me, was James T. Kirk, Captain of the USS Enterprise. She's dead now, and though I can't prove it I'm betting her death had a lot to do with my memory slowly coming back.

Integrating my returning memories with those I have from the previous three decades, reconciling the person I used to be with the person I am now, has not been easy. I'm a mother of two children and I have a wife, all of whom love and adore me, and I them. That's who I am now, and my family are too precious for me to want to endanger them. My son, David, was killed by an enemy fifteen years ago.

Which is why I'm not revealing to anyone that I'm James T. Kirk.

Yet I'm compelled by duty, by my need to confront something I'm concerned might one day affect all our lives if left unchecked, to put myself in harm's way. I recently learned that six months ago Starfleet Intelligence removed a certain piece of outlawed technology from a secure weapons storage facility in Nevada and shipped to it to Camus II. Camus II is where the alien machine that switched the minds of Janice Lester and me is located. The outlawed technology is Khan Noonien Singh's brainwashing device, the same device that was used to overwrite my memories and make me forget who I really was for three decades. So you can see why something about that whole set-up would make me feel uneasy.

I don't know for sure there's something shady going on on Camus II but my instincts, instincts honed during years of serving on a starship and being responsible for hundreds of lives, tell me there is. I've learned to trust those instincts. If I hadn't I'd be long dead. I intend to discover what is going on, and if necessary to put a stop to it. I'm a middle-aged mom, a teacher, and not even a member of Starfleet, so it isn't going to be easy. Long odds then, but I've beaten worse.

And I intend to beat these.

Because they relied on codewords rather than names or personal contact, I was able to call in a few markers from thirty years ago to check out what Starfleet Intelligence was up to on Camus II. For what comes next I needed to call in another marker, a big one. Which is how I found myself in a shady bar in downtown Portland, largest city in Maine, the state where my wife and I currently live.

I was sitting with my back to the wall, at the table furthest from the door, and keeping a watchful eye on everyone in the place. I'd been there maybe ten minutes, slowly sipping my bourbon, when he finally entered. I wasn't sure he'd recognize me after all these years, but he did. As soon as he spotted me he made his way directly across the bar room. I stood up, and that giant bear of a man wrapped his arms around me.

"Janice Lester, as I live and breathe," he said, "it's been too long!"

"Over forty years, R.B." I said, though for him and James Kirk it was somewhat less than that.

"Hah! You and Jimbo were the only ones who ever called me that," he said.

"And you were the only one he'd ever let call him 'Jimbo'."

John Running Bear took the chair opposite mine and called the waitress over to order us drinks. I took the opportunity to study him. He was greyer, of course, and his face was more lined, but he was still recognizably the man Jim Kirk and Janice Lester had known at the Academy. For a year in there we were as tight as three people could be, then Janice tore everything apart.

"Y'know, I loved you and Jimbo as a couple. I really thought you were going to make it, and then...". His voice trailed off.

"Perhaps we did," I said, "in some other universe."

"When you quit the Academy, I followed what you were doing at first, but I lost track of you after you booked passage to Aragon IV - to get your fortune told, I'd imagine. I was amazed to learn you'd become a xenoarchaeologist, and even more amazed that you used an alien device to temporarily switch bodies with Jimbo."

"You know about that?" I said, surprised. "I thought Starfleet had classified the files on that affair."

"Please - this is me you're talking to. They haven't come up with a system yet I can't hack if I put my mind to it. I'm the guy who wrote the code that let Jimbo hack the Kobayashi Maru simulation, remember?"

"I do. Did you ever put those skills to non-nefarious use?"

"Oh, yeah. For the past few years I've been part of a team working on what we're calling 'holodeck' technology. In a few years, every starship in the fleet will be fitted with it.

"God, it's really good seeing you again, R.B.!" I said, and I meant it. "I heard you got married?"

"Yep, twenty five years ago now. He's a good man. Our daughter just had her first child. Can you believe I'm a grandparent?"

"Me, too," I said. "A grandson. We're getting old."

"Once upon a time, maybe. But with modern medicine sixty is the new forty, and you don't actually look any older than that."

"Good genetics; but you're right. We have the energy and resilience of forty year olds. Unless something happens before then, we should live to see a hundred and twenty."

"So why are we here, Janice. You don't get in touch with someone after forty years just to reminisce."

"I want to ask a favor..."

"Here it comes."

"I need to get into the Starfleet computer system."

"Before you tell me anything else - and you will need to tell me why before I'd do that for you - there's something you need to have."

He reached into his pocket and slid a datachip across the table to me.

"What's this?"

"It's from Jimbo. He gave it to me years ago. Told me to pass it on to you if you ever reached out to me, and only then."

"What's on it?"

"I have no idea."

I gave him a raised eyebrow Spock would've been proud of.

"Seriously. I promised I wouldn't view its contents, and I never have. Scout's honor," he said, giving the old Boy Scout salute, "and Indian scout's honor, too. I suggest you digest whatever's on it, then we'll talk again. Now I have to go."

"Starfleet business?"

"Baby sitting. Me and the hubby have our granddaughter tonight. I wouldn't miss that for the world."