Enjoy!
Epilogue
A Rihannsu lay sprawled against the desert sand, his green lifeforce bleeding out onto the sands. He could not summon enough strength to pull the sword from his stomach, and he knew he was going to die. He looked around at his slain companions, and averted his gaze to rest on the familiar, and yet unfamiliar, stars.
He was still staring at those stars when a silent figure approached. Seeing the white form through the green haze, he looked toward him.
"Admiral Kirk," it said, and the Rihannsu was startled. He had not heard Standard in nearly fifty years...
"I am he," he whispered in Rihanha. He peered closely at the figure. "Ayelborne?"
Ayelborne the Organian knelt down at the dying man's side. "My gravest apologies, Admiral Kirk. We did not realize out intervention would cause such pain and destruction."
"Your...intervention?" He struggled to make himself heard as his lifeforce rapidly drained out of his body. "What...did you...do?"
"We encouraged you to direct your attention toward Spock on the bridge, during the battle with your nemesis Khan. It was only interference of one second, no more, yet the timeline seems to have greatly suffered as a result," Ayelborne said, extremely apologetic.
"Why are you...telling me this? What good...will it...do now?"
"I have come to offer you a choice." And in his mind, Kirk saw everything that should have been and wasn't. He saw Spock die, his body burned badly by radiation. He saw David dead, a dagger wound in his heart. He saw himself "die" as he was swept into the Nexus. He saw himself emerge to defeat Soran, and die in another captain's arms. And he saw the galaxy as it should have been, and hundreds of billions of beings who lived longer and happier lives because of circumstance.
"You may choose to stay in this timeline, and all the galaxy will suffer," Ayelborne said. "Or you may choose for us to take you back to that one instant, and undo that which we interfered with. The decision is yours."
Kirk was extremely weak now, and every breath was a monsterous effort. With his dying breath, he whispered, "Take me home."
The universe came to a standstill.
~~~~~~~
Kirk suddenly found himself sitting back in the command chair on the old Enterprise, red emergency lights bathing the bridge in a crimson glow. On the viewscreen, a fatally wounded Reliant drifted, an energy buildup ready to detonate.
Kirk stood up and hit the intercom, recognizing that moment. "Scotty! I need warp speed in three minutes or we're all dead."
"There's no response, Admiral," Uhura said, and Kirk sat down again. "Scotty! Do you read me? Scotty!" And abruptly, he knew that this was THE moment. He sat rigid in his chair, and he did not know if he had the strength NOT to turn around and look at Spock. Instead he looked at David, almost overwhelmed at seeing him alive. Alive!
He barely heard the turbolift doors hiss shut, sealing his fate.
And then he remembered nothing.
~~~~~~~
"Time has resumed its shape, Ayelborne. Admiral Kirk will not remember our proposition until his time to die."
"All that was meant to be will happen, Claymare. We are no longer responsible."
"Indeed, Trefayne. And what of us?"
"We must never again interfere with the natural proceedings of this universe. And so, we shall join our predecessors in relative oblivion."
The three lights dimmed and vanished, and all of Organia was empty. Not a single being remained, not a single building stood. The planet was devoid of life.
And where the council chambers had been, a lone green-bronze obelisk kept its watch over eternity.