Khan. Khan. That had been his name. Four years after the enterprise had put him back to sleep, Captain Jim Kirk still thought about him. He was leaning against the railing on the rooftop of one of Starfleet's largest HeadQuarters; that in London, England. The wind ruffled his mussed up dirty blonde hair, and the sun rendered his eyes to narrow azure slits. It was early in the morning, and the sky was grey. Before him lay the vast expanse of a waking city; tall, glass buildings reflected the sun's first rays. Between all of the skyscrapers, her could perceive nothing of the horizon. The Gurken and The Shard, buildings of over two hundred years old, could be seen from the roof. Kirk let his eyes trace the queer shaped of both buildings; one like the upper end of a cucumber; the other like a shard of glass. Their names were unsurprising to Kirk. And then, suddenly, the towers fell. One by one, the skyscrapers of London shattered to the ground, accompanied by the distant screams of those waking up to tumble to their deaths in a sea of broken glass. And then, there was nothing left but a mirror-like wasteland, all around Kirk, and what was a sleeping city but a dozen minutes ago was now wide awake with the whispers of the ghosts of those who died; echoes of a nameless and distant past. Before he knew it, Starfleet's headquarters was exploding all around him in a multitude of different coloured light; a beautiful sight, which turned to something dangerous. His palms were sweating, threatening for him to lose his grip on the glass railing of the rooftop as the building fell to its knees underneth him like the rest of London had done.
The building underneath him was a beast; it rippled underneath him, its furious tremors coursing through the soles of his feet. Adrenaline pumped thorugh his veins, searing, like white light; and a sudden urge overtook him to simply jump off the building and fall into the glittering void of broken glass below. It was as if the dying building underneath him was filling him up with waves of energy, devoid of anything anaemic or slow. It was this rush of power and spontaneous life that made him want to fly towards a more permanent destination.
Jim watched as the glas underneath his fingers began to crack. Criik, it said. Step back, it warned him. Step away from the glass, or it will trap you... trap you... trap you... Jim looked up and an image of Spock and Uhura, of Bones and Sulu and young, young Chekov, all dead, impaled by icicles of glass, made him furious at whoever did this. He longed to find them and to kill them... But the glass underneath him exploded, and he fell into this darkness, screaming, the earlier longing gone, and as he looked up, a figure clad in a long, high-collared silver coat looked down at him, and he was screeching; "you should have let me sleep!"
"Jim. Jim. Jim." A faint slapping sound could be heard, and with it came the dim pain which James T. Kirk had often felt as a child from his mother, especially the night he had crashed his uncle's car and let it fall into one of the ravines of Iowa. "Jim, wake up."
Slowly, slowly, James opened his aure eyes, and ound himself looking up into the familiar but worried face of his friend, Bones. His brow furrowed in confusion. "What-?"
"You were having another dream."
"We thought you were havin' a wee bit of a fit," Scotty said.
Tired still, Jim sat up on his bed abord the enterprise ship, and kneaded his temples thoroughly with his knuckles. "Jesus, what time is it?"
"We are in space, Captain. It would be illogical to figure out what time it is, given that our schedule is already set." Jim looked toward the doorway of his dorm, and there stood Spock, clad in his blue Starfleet uniform as always.
Jim rubbed his eyes free of sleep, and stood up, slapping his stomach through his. "Right, I'm starving. Anyone ready for breakfast?"
Once they were seated in the small canteen on the space vessel, they started talking about today's plans. Well, that is, everyone with a place assigned in the hull, including Scotty and his little green companion, and excluding Bones. Doctor Leonard McCoy was too busy grumbling about their space food, and how he was so sick of having bread and crusty peanut butter every breakfast.
"Relax, Bones," Jim said. "One more week, and our five year voyage will be over."
"God help me, I thought this was our last day," Bones said, shaking his head. " Five years, Jim. Five goddamned years in outer space."
Jim simply laughed and bit into his sandwich.
"Hey! You!" Scotty barked over the pristine white hall, at his little engineering friend, "get down from there, will you?"
Keenser simply shook his wrinkly green head, his black eyes unblinking.
Jim turned back to Sulu and Pavel, who were both sitting there, quiet, as usual. Spock had insisted at least two people remain inside the hull at all times. Jim had given hiim and Leiutenant Uhura the job. He only had to hope right now that they weren't making out or anything.
"So, Mr Sulu, Mr. Chekov, any plans for today?" He asked them.
Sulu was the first to speak. "Well, just heading west, probably, at Warp speed, for half the time, going here and there. To make it on time it would be best to start heading back towards earth."
"Ah- yis, Captain." Chekov sided.
"Ah, did you hear that!" Bones exclaimed as he clapped a large hand on Sulu's shoulder and Chekov's. "Back towards earth," he quoted. "Wise words, Mr Sulu. FInally! Someone on here who's got some sort of intellectual capacity."
Scotty, meanwhile, was trying to coax and bribe Keenser to come don from where he was sitting on a perpendicular cross-over of metal structural rods, with his peanut-butter breakfast. The little green beings wasn't falling for it in the slightest.
Jim looked around before standing up and calling them back to their positions. One they were all seated, Jim said, "Mr Sulu, ready for Warp?"
"All locked in, Captain."
"Hit her, then Mr. Sulu!" Jim replied enthusiastically as he leaned back in his captain's chair.
"Yes, sir."
A few moments and quick movements of Sulu's fingers, and the vessel was in warp, trailing blue lines behind her. Jim looked around and grinned. This was going to be a strange day.
