Sleeping Beauty Chekova
Once upon a time on a far away planet, there lived a king and Queen in a great castle. Their forefathers had left earth from Russia many years ago and claimed the unpopulated planet for their own, working very hard to make it habitable.
When the little princess was born, a great celebration was held throughout the land and people came from all over to celebrate her christening. Unfortunately, one of them was hostile Aunt Irina, who was said to be a sorceress and possess dangerous powers. Irina was not happy about not receiving an invitation to the christening of her niece and plotted revenge.
Just as the priest finished blessing Princess Polina, she stormed into the room in a whirl of grey smoke, angrily confronting the king and Queen.
"Alexei! Anna! How dare you insult me so! Why was I not invited to see my own niece?"
Rage filled her and steam came out of her ears as she stared them down. The Queen clutched her baby protectively, nervously glancing at her husband.
"Because, we were afraid of you causing a scene like this," the King said rather warily.
"Oh? Well NOT inviting me has only resulted in an even bigger scene, as you call it. Since you seem to be afraid of me, I will give you something to be even more afraid of."
She raised her wand and a green light flashed around Princess Polina.
"On The day of her eighteenth birthday, she will prick her finger on a needle and die."
With this dreadful curse pronounced, Irina the witch went her way, satisfied.
The people trembled in grief and horror at the eventual doom of the princess, but Irina was not the only one present with magical powers.
A kind noblewoman named Elena stepped forward and amended the curse so that Polina would not die, but sleep in an enchanted state until "with true loves kiss, she will awake."
Despite the cloud hanging over her head, baby Polina grew into a beautiful and extremely intelligent princess who astounded her parents with her high IQ. She much preferred her schoolwork over learning the social graces, but she couldn't avoid it entirely, being destined to rule someday.
Nevertheless, when etiquette lessons were over, she could be found deep in her physics and astronomy textbooks.
"If I was not a princess, I would be an explorer of the stars," she said wistfully. "Flying around in a starship and exploring the galaxy."
"I've no doubt you would be good at it, dear, but we can not spare our princess," her mother reminded her. For the time being, Polina had to be content with stargazing from her telescope and short diplomatic trips to neighboring planets.
Young lords found her curly brown hair and sparkling grey eyes most attractive, but Princess Polina was very shy around men and somewhat awkward, as most of them were bored by her enthusiasm for science.
Despite all the caution they took to prevent their daughter from getting near a needle without telling her why, the curse came true as foretold.
Polina was getting dressed for her birthday party, when she noticed one of the buttons on her dress was loose and needed to be tightened before it fell off. Naturally, she went hunting in her maid's room to find a needle and thread. As she brought the needle up through the heavy fabric, it poked into her finger and she fell into the Enchanted sleep.
Much horror and grief befell the court when the princess was found and the Queen summoned Elena to see if there was anything that could be done.
"She is under the deep sleep, your majesty, and will not be awoken by anything I can do. I am very sorry," Elena said sorrowfully.
"So we just leave her to sleep like this and hope her true love shows up? How are we to know who it is?" Protested the king, motioning to Polina's prostrate form now lying on her bed. "I do not want a crowd of young men test kissing my daughter!"
"I do not believe her destiny is actually living among us or Irina would have had him killed by now. She has been watching like a hawk."
In the end, the kingdom, loyal to their princess asked to experience the same enchantment, not bearing to go on without her. And so Princess Polina, the royal household, and the civilians slept on unchanged for seven years.
James Tiberius Kirk was an adventurous Prince fond of exploring the universe in his bright and powerful starship.
At twenty-five years old, he was quite carefree and somewhat reckless, not looking forward to taking up his royal responsibilities and shying away from picking his future princess, much to the disappointment of his mother, Queen Winona.
He arrived on the Enchanted planet with a simple message of good will from his mother, thinking it looked pretty boring. But, upon reaching the castle, he found it overgrown and abandoned looking.
"Looks like there's no one home, Spock" he said, staring at the thorns and hedges growing up around the walls.
"On The contrary, your highness," Spock replied. "I detect multiple life signs inside the castle. Perhaps they do not wish to associate with the outside world."
"No self-respecting King lets his guard towers get clogged with weeds and empty of lookouts no matter how unsociable they are. Something's off here. Let's try the townsfolk. Maybe they know what's going on."
The town was just as overgrown and quiet, but Spock confirmed life signs in almost every residence. They even broke in to one house to see if there was a sickness involved, but the occupants were in a deep sleep from which nothing would wake them.
"Weird," James muttered. "This smells of magic. I'm calling Bones."
"A good plan, your highness. We have eliminated every logical explanation," Spock commented.
"Bones" was the affectionate nickname for Leonard McCoy, the Prince's best friend and doctor who was also a minor wizard, though he refused to use magic in all but the most dire situations. Surely he would know what was going on here.
Leonard appeared grumbling loudly about the dangers of having ones molecules scattered around in the Transporter, but quickly grew alert and focused as Jim explained what they'd seen and showed them the evidence.
"You're right, Jim," he said, having examined the sleeping people. "This is no natural sleep. These people are under one of the most powerful spells I've ever seen. I can't undo this, but I might be able to pinpoint the source. Give me a minute."
He closed his eyes, held out his hands and muttered something Jim couldn't understand. After a minute, his hands dropped and he spoke again.
"This started in the castle. If you want to find what did this, you're going to have to get in there somehow."
"I thought so," the prince said determinedly. "You guys up for a little adventure?"
"Are you sure it is wise, your highness?" Questioned Spock. "There is no telling what dangers may await you in there. I told the Queen you would return unscathed this time."
"And I will, Spock," Jim insisted. "Don't worry. I'll be fine. We've got security with us in case something goes wrong. What can a bunch of sleeping people do to hurt us?"
"Maybe nothing. It's the magician who did this that worries me," Bones muttered. "But, we're here we might as well go in."
The castle wasn't all that tightly shut after all, with a few scrapes and scratches and spells, they got into the courtyard. Guards and dogs lay asleep scattered around the courtyard. Weeds and vines choked the place and they had to hack through a large burdock to get to the keep door.
Inside the heart of the castle was just as quiet as the outside. Courtiers were sleeping at intervals, maids and butlers snored in the kitchen, and dogs and cats were curled up as spellbound as they owners. James was fascinated by the medieval feel of the place, which clashed with the fact these people did have enough technology for a small space ship. If they woke up, he had a lot of questions for them.
They passed more doors and more zonked nobles until they reached the area of the royal chambers.
"It's this door," Bones directed them. It was unlocked and they slipped in silently. On a luxurious bed, a girl lay asleep, delicate tiara nestled amid dainty brown curls. She was dressed in pale pink satin and had a peaceful expression on her youthful face. Jim couldn't help but stare.
"So this is the princess," he said softly, wondering who she was and what put her in this enchantment.
"According to my information, this is Princess Polina Chekova, daughter of King Alexei and Queen Anna. They are descendants of Russian immigrants who left Terra in search of a more peaceful home," Spock informed him.
"Are they around here, too?"
"Presumably yes, but the key to breaking the spell lies with her," Bones said, nodding to the young woman. "Appears to be a sharp young lady judging by the reading material I've seen around here. Astrophysics!? Star charts, geology, history...she's quite the scholar."
"Impressive," Jim said, eyes returning to Polina's face. "But how do we help her?"
Bones looked a little pained.
"I wish I could be sure, Jim." Was all he said and silence fell on them again as they pondered the problem.
To his dying day, Jim didn't know why he suddenly picked up the Princess's hand and kissed it, but he never forgot the way his heart jumped inside at a pair of big grey eyes opening and blinking at him.
Polina woke up to the sight of a strange man looking at her with the most intense blue eyes she'd ever seen. What was he doing in her room? Why had she fallen asleep while sewing? She gathered her scrambled mind to speak in standard, knowing instinctively, he wasn't Russian.
"Who are you and what are you doing here?"
The man blushed, but stood respectfully and answered.
"I am Prince James from Terra and we came to extend our greetings to the king and Queen. But we couldn't get anybody in this place to wake up and figured out you were all under some spell."
The big eyes widened.
"All I remember is pricking my finger with a needle and feeling really sleepy," she said. "I don't know how long It's been."
"Almost seven years, my child," said her mother's voice from the doorway. Her parents were standing there with two other strange men, one who had very pointy ears. She eased herself out of bed and embraced them.
"Seven years? Must have been some spell," Prince James said.
"It was. The witch who cursed her said it could only be broken by a kiss from her one true love. Which of you gentleman was it?" The king inquired, looking the visitors over.
Polina went scarlet. One True Love?
The handsome blue-eyed prince was blushing as well. Had he awakened her? She couldn't say she minded very much, even if men did make her nervous.
"Prince James here did the job," one of the friends declared, grinning at the Prince. "Just gave her a little peck on the hand and she woke right up."
"Well, we must offer our thanks, young man," declared the Queen. "Perhaps you would not mind extending your stay and becoming better acquainted while we put things back to rights?"
"Not at all, your majesty," Jim replied gallantly. "Does the princess find that agreeable?"
Polina found herself returning his uncertain smile with a shy one of her own. Well, if it turned out he was her "One True Love" getting to know him would be a good idea.
"Yes, your highness," she replied, color coming into her pale cheeks.
In later years, Princess Polina would turn "my one true love" into a joking pet name for her husband. Jim always turned pink and smiled his crinkly eyed grin at her at her affectionate teasing.
"That makes you my sleeping beauty, darling," he'd reply usually right before kissing her-and NOT on the hand.