Disclaimer: I do not own the rights to The Ghost and Mrs. Muir as well as Star Trek.

Captain to Captain

It was a typical evening at Gull Cottage. Carolyn and Martha were in the kitchen working on after-dinner clean up. Candy and Jonathon were upstairs devoting the needed time for their school work. They had managed to delay it since the afternoon weather was nice enough to play outside.

Captain Gregg was in the parlor looking through a few of the books that resided in the beautiful bookcase. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted the contraption that had, at times, captured the attention of his family: the television set. It was both modern and unfamiliar to him. He still was not sure how he felt about it, but he was indeed curious. It seemed to bring images to life and Carolyn tried in earnest to adequately describe what the television could do.

Since he was alone, the Captain ventured over to the infernal thing. Pulling a knob, it came to life. He had watched his family move a dial around which brought about different images, voices, and much of what they called 'snow' on the screen. One of the voices suddenly caught his attention.

"Captain's log…"

These words were familiar to Captain Gregg. Yes, quite familiar! Being intrigued by the words he moved the 'rabbit' ears around in an attempt to obtain a better image. He had seen his family do this many times. The image became more clear along with the voice.

"A ship in space? How?"

It looked nothing like the 'rockets' that he had heard about. This ship was a very irregular shape and had no sails.

"Women were part of the crew wearing handkerchiefs?

As he continued to watch, the Captain recognized many of the same nautical terms that were used aboard the ships that he had sailed himself.

"This may be worth further evaluation," he surmised.

"Who is the man with the ears?"

With Carolyn's help, Captain Gregg watched this program over the next few weeks with great interest. He had found a unique kindred spirit with this 'Captain Kirk' even though he knew the man was not real. This Kirk fellow had many of the same characteristics as Captain Gregg had displayed in his many years at sea. A desire to ensure the safety of his crew, a love to explore, a close friendship and trust with his first officer, respect from his crew and officers. Yes. This Kirk was a strong and confident Captain who enjoyed his women. Most of all, he seemed to love his starship as much as Captain Greg loved his own ships.

One episode he was particularly drawn to.

Two of the starships were trying to defeat what appeared to be an indestructible enemy robot ship. One of the starships was badly damaged when Kirk's ship arrived on the scene.

Ultimately, Kirk ended up on the crippled ship while the commander of that said crippled ship was taking over command of Kirk's ship.

Captain Gregg hung on their words as if he were there.

—-

'I've assumed command according to regulations, since your first officer was reluctant to take aggressive action…

'You mean you're the lunatic who's responsible for almost destroying my ship!'

Captain Gregg rolled out a growl.

'You are speaking to a senior officer, Kirk!'

'Give me Spock!'

'I told you: I am in command!'

The heated dialogue continued between the two Commanders. Captain Gregg sneered at the Commodore whose unwise decisions crippled his own ship and now wanted Kirk's ship.

'There's only one thing I want to say to you, Commodore: get my ship out of there! Spock! Ship Status!"

The First Officer was brought into the conversation.

'I told you, I am in Command here and I will give the orders, Captain. We are going to turn and attack!'

"Fool!" Captain Gregg was on the edge of his chair now.

'Not with my ship you don't! Mr. Spock, Relieve Commodore Decker, immediately! That's a direct order!

'You can't relieve me and you know it according to regulations…'

'Blast regulations! Mr. Spock! I order you to assume command on my personal authority as Captain of the Enterprise!'

At that moment Captain Gregg leapt out of the chair and thrust his fist into the air, giving a victorious shout! "Yes!" The entire first floor shook!

Carolyn came running into the parlor to see that the Captain was fully involved in the action. He spotted her and stood still with his hands behind his back, looking somewhat innocent.

She gave him a warm smile.

"As you were, Captain."

He tried not to look embarrassed.

Every week, at the same time, you could hear the television turn on and the familiar voice being heard.

'Space. The final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise….'