John walked the grounds of the Presidia but unlike its 45th century counterpart, the grounds were simply green fields with rose bushes and trees of exotic origins. There he met Jim, whom he had not seen since their arrival at Starfleet academy. Jim looked at his god father with a grin of his face as he approached, flanked by another cadet in a bright red uniform.
"John I'd like you to meet bones" Jim announced pointing to the cadet to his right who was obviously older than him.
John extended a hand, and smiled as the cadet shook it "Bones, an interesting name" he pressed.
"Sorry sir, my name's Lenard McCoy, Bones is just that cadets way at making fun of me, at my expense I might add" Bones stated.
John shook his head "No need to call me Sir, except for a few classes I'll be considered a cadet just like you" he pressed.
"Then what's with the dark and grim uniform? You know instructors only wear that color to make themselves seem mean and intimidating" McCoy replied "Not that you're mean an intimidating John"
"Careful what you say about my godfather" Jim joked, playfully punching McCoy in the arm.
"God father, Are you insane Man? I always thought Godfathers had to be around for your birth" McCoy replied.
"As I was" John answered, looking the cadet straight in the eyes.
McCoy looked from John to Jim waiting for them to burst out laughing, but it never came.
"You're kidding me, how old are you?" he pressed.
"Old enough to be your father" Jim laughed and gestured for the group to start walking.
"Okay so where are we going?" John pressed as the group left the Presidia and headed into town.
"Oh a little bar I discovered, some place called the Loaded Hog" Jim replied.
The Loaded Hog John stopped as his thought's wondered twenty two hundred years into the future, and the images of his Last night as normal human replayed through his mind.
"Come on" Jim pushed him, breaking his concentration "It's almost happy hour"
Both McCoy and John rolled their eyes.
"He's going to be trouble, isn't he?" Bones commented as they followed in Kirk's wake.
"You have no idea" John answered.
Ten minutes later, sure enough Jim had navigated his way to the Bar. John looked upon the bar with fondness, in all the centuries and millennia that had passed; it still looked exactly the same. The group entered to the sound of music coming from a very familiar looking Jukebox. Jim immediately ran up to the ancient device "Wow, never seen one of these so perfectly preserved" he stated as he poured through the albums. After finding something he liked he pressed the buttons, soon frustrated as nothing happened.
"You have to put in a quarter" John stated flatly from behind Jim.
"What's a quarter?" Jim questioned.
"It's a form of currency they used several hundred years ago, back when this thing was built" he replied as McCoy returned from the bar with a pair of drink's in hand.
McCoy tossed a shiny metal object in Jim's direction "There, figured you might need that" he commented and then handed a beer to John.
John took the beer thankfully as Jim turned on the music, then turned to grab the beer out of Johns hand "Thanks" he stated before darting off towards a cluster of female cadets who were gathered around one of the side tables.
"Frustrating little brat isn't he" McCoy laughed "and I've only known him for 2 days"
John nodded and then headed to the bar as McCoy joined Jim.
At the bar John ordered shots of tequila and then looked over to the corner table where he, Sarah, Daniel and Nigel would one day down firewater and drink until morning. He sighed heavily, just as a hand reached out from behind him and touched his shoulder.
John turned and looked into the deep green eyes of Sarah, shock clearly showing on his face.
"Sarah?" he questioned disbelieving.
The woman shook her head "Sorry Sir, my name is Cadet Azani Troi, you just seemed so sad" she commented returning John's gaze.
John blinked as he started to note the subtle differences between the two women "I'm sorry, you just reminded me of someone I once knew"
"She meant a lot to you didn't she?" Azani replied.
John nodded then returned her gaze "You're Betazoid aren't you?" he questioned.
"Half Betazoid, half human" she replied "That's why I can feel your sadness, you lost her didn't you, you lost them. The feeling of loss is so immense it almost consumes you and guilt over not being able to save them..." She paused and reached out hugging John.
"I'm sorry" she whispered into his ear, and then released him, staring at the man with a mixture of shame and fear. "I'm sorry sir, this is my first time away from Betazed, the emotions of human's run very close to the surface and are so hard to filter out" She turned to leave, but John reached out and placed a hand on her shoulder
"Please, don't leave" John requested "Have a drink with me"
Azani nodded and took a seat next to the man she had just met.
"Tell me about her" Azani pressed.
John closed his eyes "Sometimes when I close my eyes I can still see her face" he remarked "We met another lifetime ago, but she's gone, that entire world, destroyed and I could do nothing to save them"
Azani placed a comforting hand on the man's back, and through the tactile connection images of the woman, of the places they had met, of the bar, all came flooding into her mind. She pulled her hand free and stared at the man in shock and awe. "She was here; you were both here in this bar drinking Razadi firewater. But earth is still here, it hasn't been destroyed..." she paused as realization of what she had glimpsed dawned on her, a planet on who's entire surface spanned a city, the gem of a federation that spanned beyond the limits of her comprehension.
John looked at her with shock, she had somehow broken his mental defences and ripped the images from his mind, and then he realized he had allowed it to happen.
"You must not tell anyone, you must keep the timeline intact" he whispered.
She nodded, understanding the full implications of what she had seen. The Temporal Accord, the merging of mind and energy, body and machine, he was special and he had a job to do.
"I have to go now" Azani finally stated, breaking the silence that had grown between them "I hope we can meet again" she added, pulling out a piece of paper and writing her contact details down for him. She then turned and left the bar.
McCoy and Jim had been watching the interaction from across the room "He's got game" McCoy chuckled. Then froze in shock and awe as the woman, who reached out and actually hugged John "Scratch that he's the freaking master" he added.
Jim laughed, in honesty his godfather had never seemed that interested in one night stands, or relationships in general, he just figured the man had outgrown such things. But the sight brought a smile to his face. "Look, she's giving him her number. Score one for the big guy" he laughed and the pair made their way over to John who sat staring down at Azani's details.
"So what's her name" Jim asked in a semi sarcastic tone.
John looked up at Jim and shook his head "sorry kid, that info's for adults only" he laughed then picked up a shot and downed it. His encounter with the Betazoid had left him at peace, the burning guilt that had once clouded his mind had vanished.
The night drew on and the threesome continued to down shot's, already darkness had descended upon the city and more cadets had joined the fray.
"What time do your classes start tomorrow?" McCoy questioned staring intently at Jim who had made his way through several shot glasses.
Jim shrugged "0700 I think" he managed to blurt out as he down another shot of tequila "Woowee" he stammered slapping the table with his hand.
John shook his head, as he downed his own shot of tequila "I'm instructing a class on higher dimensional physics pertaining to the alignment of long range sensors and its effectiveness on resolution" he stuttered as the alcohol began to dull his senses "And I'll teach it when I damn well please" he laughed.
Jim turned to him laughing "Ah, that's the class I'm taking tomorrow morning" he commented.
McCoy shook his head as he downed his shot of apple cider, knowing full well he also had the same class in the morning and laughing hysterically at the pair of morons.
John awoke with a splitting headache, vowing never to drink again he sat up, the clock on the wall revealing that it was only 0500 hours. As a commander, his rank afforded him his own room at the Academy, and he was grateful. Finally getting out of bed, John marshalled over to his bathroom and activated the shower, closing his eyes and savouring the feel of sonic energy upon his skin. As he stepped out of the shower he summoned his uniform, something he could still do by manipulating the nanites within him, utilizing their replication abilities to assemble the clothing around him. He then walked over to his desk and reviewed his lesson plan, finally downloading it into a data pad before leaving for the cafeteria.
As he walked through the halls of the dorm rooms he came to a stop before room 2873 belonging to Cadets Lenard McCoy and James Tiberius Kirk. He knocked on the door and waited for a reply.
From behind the door he heard shuffling and moaning and finally the locking mechanism unlatch as a dishevelled McCoy opened the door. "John?" he questioned covering his eyes from the light of the corridor.
"Can I come in?" John asked.
McCoy nodded and let the man slip by him and into the darkened room.
"Computer Lights" John ordered, and smiled as the Jim jumped out of bed shocked by the sudden brightness.
"What the hell!" Jim yelled.
"It's 0623, you don't want to be late for your first class!" John laughed.
Jim rubbed his eyes, pain clearly visible on his face, the tell tale signs of a hangover. "Damned whoever invented alcohol" he cursed and looked over to Bones who was now awake and alert "Why the hell aren't you hung over" Jim demanded.
Bones laughed at him "Apple cider doesn't give you hangovers" he grinned, as Jim's eyes widened at the realization of what his roommate had done.
"You bastard" he commented then slumped back into his pillow.
"I have to meet with a certain pointy eared Vulcan before class, just be sure you're not late to my class or I'll have to punish you" John stated seriously "I don't want people to think I'm showing favouritism"
Bones nodded in John's direction "Don't worry, he'll be there with a smile on his face" he laughed.
John turned and retreated from the room, passing through more corridors then exiting the dorm complex and heading towards his classroom.
Spock was seated waiting for him when John finally arrived.
"You are two minutes late" Spock stated with indignation.
"Not by my watch" John replied smiling.
"All time devices in the academy are synchronized, your watch cannot be wrong" Spock stated with a raised eyebrow.
"Are you sure about that?" John pressed.
"Certain" Spock replied.
"About as certain as the Kobisashi Maru?" John questioned, savouring the frustration that filled the Vulcan's face. "Now are we going to waste more time arguing about the synchronicity of Starfleet time pieces or do you have the new coding sequence for the deep space 2 sensor processing matrix?" John pushed.
Spock relented and passed the coding sequence over to John "I have done my best to insure stable operation of the matrix, however the processing sequence still does not operate within acceptable time limits"
John pulled up the code and glanced at it, absorbing it into his computer consciousness and deciphered exactly where the problem was "Well why are you using a recursive algorithm here in the sub matrix protocol, it's what's resulting in extended calls and pushing your time boundaries?"
Spock looked at the code and realized that John was right, but even so there would be no way to fix the code, as only a recursive algorithm could collate the information. "There is no other method of collating that data chain" he replied.
John shook his head and rewrote the coding sequence using a bit of twenty fifth century mathematical formulae, and then presented it to the Vulcan.
"That's impossible" Spock replied looking at the code with shock, the human had just rewritten a piece of code that had took him weeks to prepare, and not only repaired it, but repaired it using mathematical formulae's that he had never seen.
John executed the code to demonstrate that it worked in real time conditions just as the first of his students started to arrive taking their seats.
John turned to Spock "Now if you don't mind, I have a class to teach" he stated.
Spock nodded and quickly downloaded the revised code. He then turned and left the room just as McCoy and Jim entered, the pair taking seats at the very back of the classroom.