A/N: Thanks for all your reviews, the few that I have...even you, D. Thanks for not making it a flame, but more of a critical analysis. Much appreciated. On the note of Kazuya's 'OOCness', there's a reason behind that. If you read the prequel, 'Jakunen Mirai', you'd know he's developed into quite a different character; situational change. Again, he's undergone situational change...think about it, if you were thrown into his new environment, chances are you'd have to change who you were slightly to adapt, or you'd be like Anderson. At this point he's interested in making a completely new life for himself – since his last attempt was horrible, what with being hated by everyone, his family in particular; you can't blame him for wanting to make a change. He's a shrewd man; he knows this is his last chance.

Besides, we're just getting going with the story. I promise he'll be back to his normal self, the Kazuya we know, once he's back in his natural habitat; a position of power.

Another major point to note; no one remembers who he was from the history books – so no one knows him – so no one hates him. He wouldn't want to jeopardise his reputation by being cold and nasty, as most people portray him. Still, he's not too different from Jakunen Mirai; just not as pessimistic. Friendliness doesn't come to him naturally, but still, he's willing to try for the sake of what's left of him.

Final note: This story was developed from a random idea of putting Kazuya in the captain's chair, and imagining what sort of a captain he'd make. In that initial idea, he was still very much Kazuya, only a little happier...since he didn't have any particular enemies. However, as much as I wanted to write about it, I couldn't simply throw him into the 24th century and try to make ends meet. I've gotta start at Starfleet Academy – University, basically. Now, being in a strange world, and heading to the bottom of the pecking order...even Kazuya himself wouldn't try bossing people about, acting dark and smarmy, and generally digging himself a hole. He's going to save that for later

The idea was ridiculous, but still, despite the workload that had been dumped on them, despite how much they had yet to learn, despite how inappropriate it was as far as training to become an officer, Kazuya submitted to a game of baseball. So far it had been going nowhere...the ball was being hit in all directions, it was being dropped left right and centre once it was finally caught, and people were slipping on the damp grass.

The youthful Mishima took off after the ball as it was hit in his general direction, caught it in a gloved left hand, then threw it back at home base...only to land on his backside after slipping on the grass. Sighing, he stood up and brushed himself pointlessly, and glanced across at the fielder standing beside him.

"I honestly don't know why we're bothering with this...it's just been raining, everyone's tired, and this isn't achieving a thing..."

Shrugging, the younger man wandered forward somewhat as the next batter stepped up. "Well, the Commander seems to think it's a good idea...but then again, he's always been quite partial to the ancient sports of the USA...when it existed."

The ball soared off in the other direction with a loud SWOK of the metal bat, and off into the distance...a few cadets raced after the errant piece of game equipment, and Kazuya folded his arms over his chest with another sigh. "I cannot WAIT for the next lecture. Finally learning about something interesting about propulsion theories..."

His companion shuddered. "You're crazy you know...I don't get how you can love academic subjects so much."

He shrugged. "I've been through most of them, that's why...I'm not as young as most of you, I've had some hands-on experience in the real world out there. Academic subjects are easier for me because I understand them a lot more easily than you do, clearly."

Before the younger man could reply, the ball whizzed past his head as it was thrown back to home base, though the runner had managed a home run beforehand. The game continued on for a few more batters, then it was time to clean up and get to the next lecture, which started in half an hour.

A short shower and change of clothes later, Kazuya headed down to the foyer of the accommodation hall, and outside, across to the science block a hundred metres away or so. At least it wasn't raining this time. He arrived inside the lecture theatre reasonably early, and took a seat further to the front of the hall, tossing his Padd down on the desk in front of him, and waited for the lecturer. Others eventually poured in over the next ten minutes, all dressed in that same uniform; red shoulders, black pants and jacket beneath the red. The insignia on the right side of the neck, he'd discovered, indicated which year one was in, rather than rank; he had, for the last eight months, been wearing a single pip on the lilac collar of his uniform, like most of his peers in this particular lecture.

As usual, perfectly on time, the lecturer arrived and launched directly into his spiel about the technology behind warp drive, the mechanisms and physics involved, and so on...all in the wavering, monotonous voice of a bored old man. He was an admiral, but had been given a job at the academy rather than that of commanding warships...clearly because he was old, closed-minded, and boring. In fact, even Kazuya had difficulty taking notes without zoning out or yawning. Most of the others had long since fallen asleep.

Gary, sitting next to him, was one of those taking a nap. As much as he tolerated the kid...that's as far as it went for Kazuya. He was too bouncy, too immature, too interested in nothing but girls, girls, girls...that he was a frustration to be tolerated. After a while, the snoring finally got to him, and he gave the younger cadet a sharp nudge in the ribs with his elbow. At least he had the good grace not to cry out as he was roused from his sleep; he merely shook his head about, and continued taking notes.

The lecture finally ended, and, drained of motivation from the ninety minutes of monotony, Kazuya headed straight for the mess hall for some much-deserved food, though of course, he wasn't looking forward to the panicked and hyperactive mob of young people surging forth for sustenance.

Running his hands through his hair, Gary sighed and headed for the turbolift at the bottom level of the accommodation hall along with several other cadets. He was looking forward to an early night, but he knew it would take some persuading to get his room-mate to comply. He'd read up on the ancient populations of Earth, and discovered that many 'Asians', as politically incorrect as it was to group such a large number of people together, had a tendency to overwork themselves mentally...they were usually intense studiers. Kazuya, he'd discovered, was no exception.

Tonight, he wanted to sleep...perhaps the older cadet would grant him this wish...just this once. There was something dangerous and formidable about the man, though on the outside, he seemed merely calm and solitary. He was almost always polite and receptive...but something about the dark-haired creature told Gary to tread lightly, and watch himself, lest something drastic happened. He didn't quite know what it was.

As he waved off his friends, he opened the door to his quarters, only to hear strangely tinny and distant...music? There was a definite beat in the air, and the distinct sound of someone screaming to it. He saw Kazuya sitting on his bed a moment after contemplating the noise, wearing the day's socks, black trousers, and lilac singlet. Yes, he'd seen his room-mate nude a few times – it seemed Kazuya wasn't at all shy or anything silly, not that he had the need to mind you – but the powerful body still intrigued him beyond description.

Before he got caught staring, Gary wandered inside and sat down on his bed, pulling his uniform off and dumping it onto the pile on the floor – his side of the room was like ground zero compared to the other mind you – and as he was stripped of the day's garb, he rested back on the covers, and glanced over at Kazuya again...who apparently hadn't noticed him at all. He was wearing cordless headphones and was nodding his head gently to the beat of the horrendously loud music, whilst scribbling on a piece of...paper? He hadn't seen someone doing that in ages.

At least a minute passed before Gary made a move...he simply sat and watched curiously as the Japanese cadet continued to write on his pad of paper and nod his head to the beat of the music. As another song came on, he began to whisper the words as they played over the headphones. He sighed eventually, seeing that the work and music had completely distracted, and reached out to poke a finger against Kazuya's solid bicep.

The result was relatively amusing; for the first time ever, Gary witnessed an expression of surprise and mild shock on Kazuya's face...and watched him almost dump all of his stuff onto the floor between the beds in the process of half leaping out of his skin.

After a moment, he pulled off the headphones and blinked at the younger cadet vacantly. "How long have you been sitting there?"

"Uh, not too long actually...what the heck is that noise you're listening to?"

Smirking, Kazuya offered him the headphones. Hesitantly, Gary put them on over his ears...flinched...and pulled them back so they were a few inches away from his head. "Whoa...what is this?" His ears were being blasted with the sounds of a male screaming at the top of his lungs, rock guitars, and angry lyrics.

Kazuya sat his papers on his lap and leaned back into the pillows behind him. "Linkin Park."

Gary shuddered. "Isn't that uber-hard 'rock' from the early 21st century?"

"Uh, no...they're relatively mild. System of a Down, Metallica, Blindspott...those kinds of bands...they're 'heavy'...Linkin Park isn't heavy."

Hesitantly, Gary put the headphones back on again, and listened a few seconds...before handing them right back again. "What sort of a song is that?"

"One Step Closer." He tapped a button on the side of the headphones, turning the blaring noise off, and set them on the table between the beds. "Most people take one look at me and assume I like classical music, or something. It's a pity I never had the opportunity to show them otherwise."

"Well, guess it can't hurt to show all of us here at the academy one day." Gary reached down and snatched one of the pieces of paper, and stared at it, trying in vain to understand the writing scrawled across it. "Uh...how do you read this stuff?"

A slight smile graced the older cadet's face. "It's Hiragana; I prefer to write in Japanese rather than type in English when I'm studying."

Gary stared at it for a while longer, pulling various faces as he examined the unusual characters. Finally, he gave up trying to see what they meant, as if staring might have opened up that window of understanding, and handed the notes back. "Suit yourself. I haven't seen anyone writing on pen and paper for years..."

"I'm going to be working for a few more hours yet, hopefully, so..."

He was interrupted a moment later by a loud yawn. "Actually, I'd like to get an early night tonight, if you don't mind..."

Silence engulfed the room for a moment, then, sighing, Kazuya dumped his stuff onto the floor beside his bed, and yawned as he stretched his arms above his head. "Fine, suits me..." With those as the final words of the evening, the two cadets readied themselves for a nice long sleep before the weekend...though, of course, one would make use of the weekend, and the other would most likely treat it like any other day of the week.

Time seemed to fly for the next entire year or two; nothing but study, training, more study, lots of learning, more study still...it was a never-ending routine that continued right through into the end of the third year of the academy. Many of the younger cadets were busy partying and messing about the city in their free time, but such activities were never on Kazuya's mind. In his free time, he made himself busy studying or training; in the third year, he added flight training to his list of activities. Despite the workload he was creating for himself, he never grew tired of it.

That's when he realised Jun was right; he was a workaholic. Perhaps he should have gone to university after he was kicked out of home in his youth; he would have handled the intense study better than most.

Gary constantly complained that he couldn't drag him out to have some 'fun'. It turned out that the kid thought it was cool to have a friend like Kazuya; from way back when – pre-warp civilisation – and one of the only professional martial artists anywhere in Starfleet. Whenever he complained, however, Kazuya had always simply continued to politely refuse the offer, and continued work.

As the fourth and final year of Starfleet Academy began, the cadets were finally tapered off into the directions they would most likely pursue; tactical, science/medical, and technical. From there, they trained in specific areas; security, tactical, engineering...every position Starfleet could ever require was open for training.

Because for him the work was that much harder – as he hadn't grown up with such technology – Kazuya worked twice as hard as everyone else and surprisingly, achieved better results, while everyone else was busy finding time for parties. More and more work was thrown the cadet's ways, and many found themselves on training missions at the same time. Some at this point elected to drop out; the stress was too much.

The thought had never crossed Kazuya's mind, however. What did annoy him, on the other hand, was his growing tendency to lash out at people with sarcastic remarks when he found himself being interrupted or drawn away from his work. People quickly learned that he really didn't want to be dragged out to do random stuff when he could be studying, and stopped asking, for the sake of their humility. By the time the final months before graduation crept up, he was more or less left to his own devices, studying in the libraries, reading and writing in his quarters, attending lectures, and little else. Most of the cadets were left in awe at the man's ability to stay seemingly interested in usually rather dull learning.

Time flew horrendously quickly over the last month or so, with everyone preparing for the final exams, sitting them, panicking about the results, learning last-minute information. Before they knew it, the Starfleet Academy cadets found themselves sitting in the main hall in San Francisco's Starfleet Headquarters, ready to accept their certificates and placements in the Federation's fleet.

Around him, Kazuya could see almost everyone in a state of nervousness or hysteria over the occasion. Normally he wouldn't have felt any nervousness at all, but the effect of the sheer volume of nervous people around him was making his stomach churn slightly. This occasion was really a big deal, after all. Finally, he would be an officer, not just another of the kids dreaming to become one.

After several boring speeches, everyone was called up one by one – all several hundred graduating cadets – to receive their graduation certificates and their postings. The whole process was doomed to take hours, and it did indeed. Thankfully his name was somewhere in the middle of the crowd, and he spent only half the evening standing in line.

With names being read out in the background, and the occasional round of clapping and cheering as someone was given a distinction in this that or the other, Kazuya read over the Padd he'd been handed along with his certificate. Great; he'd been assigned to an Oberth-class science vessel. What an anticlimax!

By the time he got back to his quarters later that evening, Gary was already cramming his gear into his bags, ready to move onto the next place. Obviously he'd been posted aboard a ship too, since he was looking happier than ever.

Kazuya sat down on the end of his bed and began pulling clothes out of the drawers next to it rather unenthusiastically. After a few moments, Gary bounced over and landed on the bed behind him, and leaned heavily over the Mishima's broad shoulders. "Where'd ya get posted?"

"The Watson." He continued backing his bag nonchalantly.

"What are you so depressed about then? You're on a ship! You're an ensign now!"

He leaned forward so Gary would have to get off him. "It's a science vessel. And I'm not depressed; it's just somewhat of an anticlimax. All that work just to be dumped on a science vessel." It looked like he was doomed for life to be tied in with the science-types...all that time with the G-Corporation, and now this. Oh well, at least he wasn't a science experiment now.

"...'Just' a science vessel?! Oberth-class ships are scouts too!" Gary bounced off the bed and back onto his own, sending a few pieces of junk clattering to the floor.

"Whoopee." Kazuya rolled his ebony eyes dramatically.

"It's better than being posted on a Starbase in the middle of freakin' nowhere."

Kazuya paused a moment, considering that remark. Yes, being stuck on a Starbase would suck, to put it lightly. "Good point." After packing one bag full of gear, he zipped it up and tossed it aside. "So where'd you get posted?"

Gary's excited mood seemed to increase for a moment. "The USS Palmerston! It's a Nebula-class cruiser..."

"Nebula class!" Kazuya groaned. Great, Gary did almost nothing the entire four years, and gets posted on a Nebula-class ship? "How the hell did you get posted on that?"

"No idea. I'm in Engineering, so s'all good." He threw a little more junk into another bag. "Where are you stationed?"

Kazuya began tidying up his desk. "Security for now. It's a small vessel, only forty personnel on board, so I'll be one of the few on security." As calm as he sounded, the rough way he handled his gear as he threw it into the nearest bag would suggest he was a little more disgruntled than he was willing to let on.

Gary, despite his usual air-headedness, was beginning to catch on. "You're really not happy about this, are you?"

He was answered with a sardonic glare.

The younger cadet stuffed a few more uniforms into yet another stuff-bag, and smiled to himself. "You know, Galaxy-class and Oberth-class vessels are the only ones that get to explore new worlds and races..."

"I know that."

"And that's good, right?"

Kazuya sighed. "Yeah, I suppose it's good." He was beginning to grow impatient, and proceeded to stack his bags beside the door fiercely.

"So why aren't you happy?"

"Because I am not a security guard, nor am I an explorer. I am a warrior and a businessman!"

Gary froze for a moment, before gathering his senses. Kazuya certainly was quite terrifying when angry. "Then why did you join Starfleet?" He sounded rather timid as he spoke.

After a moment, Kazuya sat down on the end of his bed, and looked down at the floor in thought. He never really had any motivation to do so, did he? "I don't know. I'm not cut out to be taking orders from people with nothing but a rank above me, or to be leaping into Phaser fire intended for someone else. I'm a leader and a born fighter." With a sigh, he stopped to think again. "On the other hand, there's nothing else for me to do in this goddamn century. Business doesn't exist any more, I don't know anyone, and there's nothing familiar on Earth for me. Everything's changed...I guess my only choice was to go the whole hog and do the only thing that would ever get my anywhere."

Before Gary could find himself searching for a reply that didn't exist, his watch alarm went off. Automatically reaching to turn it off, he stood, and began dragging his bags to the door. "Well, I have to take my gear up to the cargo hold of Spacedock now. One more night here, and I'll be transferred to the Palmerston."

Kazuya didn't look at him, and began to pack the final bits and pieces of his belongings into the bag beside him. "Congratulations."

He ignored the sarcasm-laden comment. "When are you moving out?"

"Tomorrow." With the packing all done, Kazuya grabbed a towel, and headed down the hall to the bathrooms.

After the grumpy Mishima left, Gary opened the door and began dragging his bags out of the room. He managed to put most of them over his arms and shoulders, but ended up carrying two. With great difficulty, he stumbled down the hall toward the Turbolift, and found himself having to really strain to get himself through the doors with all the bags still on.

Finally he managed to fight his way to Starfleet Headquarters, and had his belongings transported to Spacedock. He was exhausted at this point, after graduation and having to pack his bags to be shipped up that same evening. After a coffee break, he dragged his tired body back to the cadet accommodation hall, headed for his room.

When he got there, the lights were dimmed to 5% luminosity, and Kazuya was asleep. At this point, he'd kicked his blankets off, and was lying face-up in his singlet and boxers, snoring lightly. After four years of sharing a room with Kazuya, Gary knew he'd miss the quiet and, lately, often grouchy warrior. He had him to thank for his success at the academy; he'd failed the semester before he'd met him, and it was the older cadet's influence alone that inspired him to keep to his books. They were only meant to be flatting together for one year, but neither could be bothered moving after the first year, and though it probably wasn't the same story from the other side, Gary thought of him as one of his best friends.

As he curled up into bed, he gave his friend one last gaze, before closing his eyes. This would be the last night in this bed, in this city, on the planet...tomorrow, he would be an ensign aboard one of the more powerful warships in the fleet...it was an experience almost worth leaving everything behind for.