Phase One…
Captain James T Kirk wanted to a normal man. To fall in love, have children, and roam the stars. But his son, David, was killed in cold blood. And with David's death went any hope of Kirk marrying Carol Marcus and finding that kind of existence. And with all of that behind him, Kirk now dedicated himself to the next phase of his life; the Enterprise.
STAR TREK; PHASE TWO
Canvas
(with much thanks to all the writers of STAR TREK(s) for their ideas and themes)
It had been three months since the destruction of John Gill's once secret island lair. The world's press agencies had spun story after story about the entire event. Accusations that the Unites Space Agency had purposely destroyed the island were starting to fade as life went on and more stories came out detailing Gill's desire to unite the world under one government.
Gill envisioned a fascist regime much like that of Hitler's Germany. Gill had written paper after paper, all of which had been published in various news articles, detailing his bid to model the new world government after what he thought was the perfect template. Then the stories about his support for genetic breeding came out and his hopes in the creation of so called "superman" to rule the new world with power and ambition. As these opinions of his came to light, the world's population lost interest; and life went on.
James T Kirk had gone on with his life as well. Colonel Christopher Pike ordered Kirk to take three months leave and to take that time to deal with the events that had happened. The terrible images of what happened to David Marcus, in those final moments, had been televised over and over to a frantic public that saw Kirk as not only a hero, but now, as a human who had suffered a terrible loss. Jim Kirk took Pike's advice and disappeared into the background of reality. The Enterprise's next tour had been delayed for more repairs. Though, secretly, Pike had ordered the new repairs so as to wait for Kirk's return.
IOWA
He wasn't quite sure why, but James Kirk looked forward to this time of the day. Around four in the afternoon he would saddle up his horse, Sprocket, and head out toward the hills near the canyons.
The sun was about to get lost beyond the distant mountain range, and the last rays of light would rebound through the canyon, providing a most incredible view. And then, as the whispers of light descended, the first stars would begin to take their place upon the stage above Earth.
As the first stars began to poke through the canvass, Kirk reached up and scratched his scruffy face. For a moment he thought about how he had come back here, back to this simple place, to find himself. He hadn't shaved in weeks. He had enjoyed his time back at his family's farm in Iowa, which was now in the care of his late brother's wife Sarah, and their two kids.
Sam, Kirk's older brother, had lost his life to cancer. It was one of those typical sad stories about a person finding out they have cancer and dying six months later. With Sam's death only four years in the past, James Kirk found himself to be the last one left in his immediate family. Sam at least, before his death, got the chance to be a father. Jim didn't let anyone know, but he too had always wanted to be a father. But with what happened to David, not even his death, but in the way Carol had wanted Kirk to have no part of his son's life; Jim wondered if it was worth the possible heart break to try and be a father again. He decided it wasn't. He had a new woman in his life and her name was Enterprise.
He patted Sprocket on the head, right between the ears, and then pulled the reigns to the left. It was time to go home; it was time to go back to the Enterprise.
ONE DAY LATER
TOKOYO JAPAN
Toho studios had been a stable in Japan's culture for a hundred years. From serious movies about Japan's fabled past, or the more profitable movies about monsters and aliens thrashing the island nation, Toho had made its mark.
Sulu was like a kid in toy-land. In his real life, as an astronaut, he had piloted mighty starships to Mars, and beyond, and back to Earth. And yet, sitting in the mockup of a space ship used in the filming of several Godzilla movies, he couldn't have been happier than he was now.
Scotty stood outside the façade like space ship that Sulu was inside of, and it was clear the Scotsman was bored of this trip to Toho. Scotty looked around. Here he was, a grown man, and he was standing beside two skyscrapers, his head several inches above the top floors, and trying desperately not to step on the cars and trucks that were at his feet. He had to give the Japanese model makers credit. The stage set of a city, usually trampled by a man in a Godzilla suit, was remarkably real looking. The movies that were now being made were all CGI, but the old city sets still seemed better than the new perfectly rendered artificial computer versions.
Scotty and Sulu had the same argument about CGI effects in the later Star Wars movies. Scotty felt CGI really couldn't get the mass right of a ship and how it would go through space. CGI, he believed, was a nemesis to the art of movie making and he hoped that someday, modern directors would mount an insurrection against studios that mandated CGI.
"Are you almost done?" Scotty finally asked as he saw Sulu standing up inside the ship.
Sulu stepped out.
"Yes, Montgomery, I am done. Dude, I grew up watching these old movies. There isn't anything else like them." Sulu said.
"Braveheart;" Scotty countered. "Now that is an oldie but goody movie."
"Who wants to see a bunch of men running around in skirts?" Sulu asked. "Oh wait," Sulu said with a coy smile, "that's the only thing good about that movie."
"Oh shut up," Scotty said as the two made their way from the Godzilla museum inside of the massive Toho productions complex and towards the recording studios housed on the twenty-seventh story. The entered an elevator. "Braveheart is a about freedom and finding the strength with-in to go on against incredible odds."
"Yeah yeah yeah," Sulu said. "I just don't find any inspiration from a man who wears blue makeup on his face. Give me Godzilla stomping on some aliens from Nebula M. Now THAT excites me. I just don't get you westerners"
"Us?" Scotty said with a laugh. "You guys brought us classic duds like Pokémon and Power Rangers. Whoop-Dee-doo," Scotty added with a whistle.
"Hey," Sulu added with fake anger, "I liked the Power Rangers. Did you ever see the Mystic Force Power Rangers? You would have loved it. It had elves, and forests, and all that Tolkien crap."
The elevator door opened and they found themselves at the recording studios division.
"We're here; now be quiet," Scott said, "I don't want them to think that professionals such as us, from the United Space Agency no less, fight over dumb things like Godzilla and Pokémon."
"Ahem," Sulu said, "and dumb things like Braveheart and Beatles music."
"Dude," Scotty said as he came to a dead stop, "don't even go there again with the Beatles music."
Moments later they were at the front desk and were greeted by a very attractive Japanese secretary.
"Oh," she said in a quiet voice, "can I have your autograph Mister Sulu?" She handed Sulu a blank pad of paper.
Scotty could only watch the young lady, who had total lust in her eyes. Scotty thought to himself that if Sulu wanted to, he could have taken her in the other room and boffed her and she probably would have PAID for him to do it.
The secretary motioned for them to sit in the waiting area until Niami Yusko, the top producer at Toho Records, came to get them.
As they sat on the comfortable couch, Scotty shook his head.
"What's wrong with you?" Sulu asked.
"Now I know what Captain Mitchell meant all those months ago about you," Scotty said.
"What? What did I do?" Sulu asked innocently.
"Here you are, the most famous gay person in the world, and yet women like her," he pointed at the desk where the secretary sat, "want you in a bad way."
"What are you talking about?" Sulu asked innocently.
"Oh shut up," Scotty said sitting back in the couch and picking up a magazine to read.
At that moment Niami Yusko came in and greeted them.
"Thank you for both coming." she said to them, "But, as it turns out, we won't need you after all."
"Huh?" Scotty asked. "I thought your company needed us to come over here to do some voice over work for the United Space Agency audio-book about the Enterprise being made for children all over the world."
"We did need you. We wanted actual Enterprise crew members to come here and record the opening monologue. Then we called your agent," she said pointing at Sulu, "and booked both of you. It was all good, but then; he came."
"He came?" Sulu repeated. "Who is he?"
She smiled. "Come, and I will show you."
Moments later, Sulu and Scotty were following Niami as she was taking them to the actual recording studios. The walk was rather long, which was fine with Scotty, because he got to look at Niami's shapely rear end the entire way. They made their way past several studios and then Sulu and Scotty came to a dead stop when they came to the studio she was taking them to, and saw who was inside the studio. It was James Kirk. They both smiled at each other. Their captain had returned to the land of the living.
Kirk didn't see them because he was recording and seemed to have his eyes closed. Niami put her fingers up to her mouth, reminding them both to be quiet as the recording was made. There was a small table in the hallway, and on it was the special book that would accompany the audio recording. Sulu reached down and picked it up and saw a very nice drawing of the Enterprise. He opened in and saw a picture of Mars, and in a dialog bubble above the planet was a passage. It was that passage that Kirk was reading. Sulu read along as Kirk began to speak the phrases.
Space… the final frontier. These are the voyages of the Starship Enterprise. It's five year mission to explore strange new worlds; to seek out new life and new civilizations; And to boldly go where no man has gone before.
TWO WEEKS LATER
Jim Kirk opened his eyes. He was sitting in the command seat of the USS Enterprise. Lt. Kelso was looking back at Kirk.
"What heading sir?" Kelso asked, repeating himself.
Jim Kirk smiled. He looked around the bridge and saw the familiar faces that had returned, and some of the new ones. He saw Uhura at her post, looking as elegant as ever. He saw Scotty at the engineering satellite post on the bridge. He saw his good friend Doctor McCoy standing to the left of the command chair, and finally, the new Spock android to the left of his command chair. And then, with the wind to his back, Kirk looked at Kelso and gave the reply.
"Out there…" Kirk said to Kelso with a broad smile, "…Out that'a way."
And with that the USS Enterprise slowly emerged from space dock. It's mission? To leave the Earth star system and join the stream of life that waited beyond; and the vastness of space that was waiting for humanity to add its signature to.
NEPTUNE
The blue planet, named for the Roman God of the Oceans, had been photographed many times by the various probes, Voyager 2 for example, and had been determined not to possess any real reason to explore, other than to catalog its moons and other unimportant aspects of any other ordinary planet.
Two ships shimmered out of the blackness of space. The Romulans found Neptune to be a most interesting planet. The Romulans did not want their interest in the blue planet to be known, which was why the two ships were sent under cloak. They had come to Neptune for a reason. And the last thing the Romulans wanted was their 'cousins' on Earth stumbling upon the secret of Neptune, that if known, could cause a galactic war on a most epic scale. The Romulans were not trying to protect Earth, which was incidentally the world from which the Romulans originally came from. They just wanted the secret to themselves. For if the Romulans were correct, Neptune's secret was the only thing in the universe that could stop the Borg.
Continued…