The Enterprise docked at Caleb IV which was a Federation station. "This is the closest place," Jim said. "Maybe they came here."

"You mean we have to search this whole place?" Tony asked.

"That's usually how it works. But we'll ask if there have been any strange ships or strange people."

"Right."

"You come with me."

"Yes, Sir," Stark replied with a salute.

Jim just scowled at that and headed into the space station. "You been here before?" Stark asked.

"Yes," Jim replied. "It's been a long time."

"So, this just hangs out here in space all alone. How does all this work? Doesn't it need maintenance? Upgrades?"

"I don't handle all that. I just command ships. You need to be looking for that guy, Hammer. Who's the other guy?"

"Ivan Vanko. He has a strong Russian accent, maybe even speaking Russian to confuse anyone around here. I had thought he was dead but he has a knack for surviving explosions."

"Oh. So, he has some super powers too?"

"No. He stole my arc reactor technology and…well, it's a long story."

"I thought the other guy stole that."

"Well, he actually broke this guy out of prison so he could work for him and create the technology for him. See, Vanko is more of a genius than Hammer."

"Oh."

They walked around to the command center. "Admiral on deck!" someone said when they saw Jim Kirk.

"As you were," Jim said.

"You always get announced like that?" Stark asked.

"Sometimes."

"You're not gonna be very inconspicuous like that."

"Just relax." Jim walked over to one of the controllers. "Excuse me."

The lieutenant looked up seeing Jim Kirk and would have stood up. "Sir!"

"At ease. I want to know if any odd ships have come to this station," Jim said.

"Odd? Sir, there are a lot of odd ships that come in here every day."

"One that is not with the Federation or any ships you've ever seen or heard of."

The lieutenant considered that. "Well, there was a strange ship earlier that had no registration, and they didn't have a signal associated with the Federation either."

"Where is that ship? Was it allowed to land?"

"Yes. It's in hangar ten. Is something wrong?"

"I don't know yet. Alert security quietly that there may be two dangerous men on this station. They should stand by."

"Yes, Sir."

Jim and Tony left the command center. Jim took out his communicator. "Solan."

"I'm here," Solan answered.

"We're on our way to hangar ten. It could be where our quarry is."

"I'll be there."

"Maybe I should get my suit," Tony suggested. "I don't actually know what they have with them. They could be a real danger to this station."

Jim looked at him. "What could they have with them?" he asked.

"Well, they could have something like I have. Point is, if they do, you're not gonna defeat them with…a phaser."

"Can you create something that can penetrate that suit?" Jim asked.

"No. It's invincible. Besides, I wouldn't want anyone to have that. Things have a way of falling into the wrong hands."

They stopped by the ship while Tony called his suit to him. Jim watched as it closed around him. "Well, let's go," he said.

Tony's feet clanged on the deck as they walked around to the hangar, so Jim did not think they were going to be able to sneak up on anyone like that. Solan was waiting for them outside the hangar. "You seen anyone?" Jim asked as he looked in at the ship which was clearly the one they were looking for.

"I'll go in there," Tony said.

"Hold it," Jim said. "You're gonna have to work with us on this. You can't be a one-man vigilante here."

"What do you suggest then? You'll need me if they attack."

"I didn't say we didn't want you with us, but you have to wait. We'll get security guards up here."

"You can't send other people in there to die. These are dangerous people we're dealing with. I wish they weren't on this station. Do they have a habit of letting just anyone land here?"

"I don't run this station…"

"Well, Tony!" someone inside the hangar said. "Nice of you to drop by."

Jim and the others hid behind the wall beside the door to the hangar. Tony closed his face mask. "Hammer, why don't we take this away from this station?" he asked. "There are a lot of innocent people here. There's no need to endanger them."

"You know, Tony, that's your weakness," Hammer said. "You care about the other people around who get in your way."

"It's your flaw that you don't. You can't possibly think you can take over this station. Give up!"

"I can very well take over this station…Tony. Pay close attention to that light outside this hangar."

Jim, Solan, and Tony looked up at the light as it blinked twice. "He's already into the system," Tony said.

"Do I have your attention now?" Hammer asked.

"What do you want?" Jim asked.

"Well, at first, I wanted Ironman there, but now, I think I want this station. I've never owned a space station."

"You're not taking this station!" Tony declared. "This fight is ours; it doesn't involve the people here. If I give up, we can go back to our time and fight this out ourselves."

"How noble, but I think I might like this time. So much more technology to work with. I suggest you start worrying about evacuating everyone from this station, or they will soon find it very difficult to breathe."

"What do we do?" Solan asked.

Jim looked at Ironman. "You can't risk the lives of all the people on this station because of your argument with him," he said.

"You can't let him take this station," Tony replied.

"Even if he does, we'll get it back. There are only two of them."

"You don't know that. He could have required more help from criminals on this station."

"Tick tock, tick tock!" Hammer said. "You're wasting time! Your friends there will have a hard time breathing as well, and Tony…or should I say, Ironman, you best not try anything because you'll never get to Ivan in time to save the people on this station. You have ten minutes to get everyone off this station!"

Jim was alarmed now. He grabbed his communicator. "Spock!"

"Yes, Admiral," Spock answered.

"Get everyone off this station! He's about to compromise the life support systems! We don't have time to explain this to the admiral in charge."

"I will relay the message, Admiral."

In only a few seconds, the red alert alarm was blaring and the "evacuate now" message was ringing throughout the station. Jim's communicator chirped. "Kirk here," he said.

"Admiral Kirk, I haven't even had time to call you to my office and already you're causing an incident aboard this station!" Admiral Greg Shapel said.

"Sir, I…"

"We're going to have a long talk, Admiral Kirk! Aboard the Enterprise! And I'm reporting this to Starfleet!"

Jim frowned. How did he always get the blame for these things? He did not bring that criminal there. "Let's get out of here!" he said. "We'll figure out something later!"

"I can stay here somewhere and fight him to take back this station!" Tony declared.

"You're coming with us! You're gonna explain all this to Admiral Shapel."

Jim could not see the glare on Tony's face inside his mask. "Fine, but I intend to stop him from causing anymore damage once that's over."

They all ran back to the Enterprise where many people were taking refuge. Jim found Spock at the boarding ramp. "Spock, don't let too many strangers aboard," he said. "We don't want to end up with our enemies on here."

"Admiral, there are too many people on the space station for all the escape pods," Spock replied. "Many of them live here with no means of transportation."

Just then, Admiral Shapel came up the boarding ramp looking plenty angry. Jim and Spock both stood at attention, as did Solan who was standing with them. Shapel glared at Jim as he walked up at his face. "I will speak with you," he said.

"Yes, Sir," Jim replied. He looked at Spock. "Make sure everyone's aboard."

"Yes, Admiral."

Jim went with Admiral Shapel to the conference room, and Tony came along as well. He exited his suit as they got into the room. Shapel was surprised at that motion. "Who is this?" he asked.

"Well, he's…a new friend of ours," Jim replied. "He knows more about that enemy in there than any of us. Maybe you should sit down, Sir."

Shapel just glared at Jim a moment but he sat down at the conference table. Jim and Tony also sat down. "Go ahead," Shapel said. "I want to know what's going on."

"Well, it all started when we found Mister Stark here floating in space in his suit there," Jim said. While Jim explained things to the admiral, the Enterprise moved away from the station.

"And what do you have to do with this person?" Admiral Shapel asked as he looked at Tony Stark who sat at the table.

"I don't know how we got here," Tony said. "But he was trying to destroy me, and the next thing I know, I'm waking up in the medical bay here on this ship with a bunch of strangers staring at me."

"How did you end up on my station?" Shapel asked as he looked at Jim again.

"We thought he might try to hide there or something," Jim replied. "I would never have thought he would be able to get into it like that, but we didn't bring him there. He found it himself."

Admiral Shapel could see that this situation was not Jim Kirk's fault. "So, what do we do to get that station back into Federation hands?" he asked.

"We're gonna try to figure that out," Jim said. "We have to figure out how to get back aboard the station first, and we will do that, Sir."

"What are we supposed to tell Starfleet? They're gonna hear about this."

"Hopefully they won't hear about it until we've already got the station back."

Shapel rubbed his face. "I'm no fighter, Kirk," he said.

"Just leave it to us, Sir. We'll get your station back, and I'm sure Mister Stark here will help us."

"Absolutely," Tony agreed. "I think we just have to figure out how to get back into the station. I can cause a distraction for you while you do that."

Jim leaned on his hands and thought about that. "The station has powerful weapons for defense," he said. "It's not just hanging out here with nothing."

"I'm a good dodger. I always knew being a fan would pay off one day."

"This is no time for jokes," Shapel declared. "This is serious. This guy has taken over a stopover point for ships coming through this area."

"Sorry."

Jim knew Tony was a lot like Bones: he joked to avoid thinking of the severity of the situation all the time…or came up with some sort of weird metaphor. "I don't think he's really joking, Admiral," Jim said. "We can use our electro-suits for this. That way, even if he does turn off the life support systems while we're there, we won't be affected."

"Electro-suits, huh?" Stark said. "Interesting. What are electro-suits?"

"Something we've developed onboard our ship," Jim replied. "Different situations created the need for them. Now, we need to know what sorts of weapons this guy has that he can use by hand against someone in front of him."

"Well, he has guns of all sorts, grenade launchers, missile launchers. Are your electro-suits bullet proof?"

"No."

Tony leaned on the table. "You wanta make them bulletproof?"

"You can do that?"

"I absolutely can."

"Great."

Jim took out his communicator. "Spock."

"Yes, Admiral," Spock answered.

"Show Admiral Shapel to his quarters. I'm gonna be busy for a while."

"I'll be right there."

Soon, Spock arrived to escort the Admiral to his quarters. Admiral Shapel stopped at the door. "I guess all the things I've heard about you are true," he said to Jim. "Good luck."

"Thank you, Admiral," Jim replied.

Jim looked at Tony Stark. "I guess it's about time I introduced you to some more of my crew members," he said.

"I think I'm looking forward to it," Stark replied.

They headed for the science lab. "Mister Gordon," Jim said into the communicator.

"Yes, Sir," Gordon answered with his usual eagerness.

"Meet me in the science lab."

"Yes, Sir."

"If you meet Solan and Ajah along the way, bring them too."

Jim put his communicator away, and they soon arrived at the science lab. Stark looked around that lab. "This is awesome," he said as he looked at all the equipment. "No holographic projections?"

"I'm sure we can set up something in the holodeck again if you just have to have that," Jim said.

"I like to study what I'm doing before I start creating. It gives me more insight."

Just then, Artemus Gordon walked in. He was a young man, in his twenties, with black hair, brown eyes and tan skin. "Admiral, Lieutenant Gordon reporting as ordered, Sir," he said as he stood at attention.

"At ease," Jim said. "Mister Gordon, meet Mister Stark."

They shook hands. "Just call me Tony," Stark said.

"You can call me Artie."

Solan walked in next. "You wanted me to meet you here?" he asked.

Jim wished Solan could stand at attention just once when there was a stranger present. "Yes," Jim said. "We're going to make some adjustments to our electro-suits. Mister Stark here knows how to upgrade them into something…invulnerable."

"Invulnerable? I wish he had shown up with that a long time ago."

Ajah walked in next. Tony was rather startled at his glowing eyes. "Mister Stark, meet Ajah," Jim said. "He's my personal assistant. My wife will be here soon as well. She, Mister Gordon, Spock, and Scotty are the ones who developed the suits. They can tell you all about them. They were developed to counteract electrical charges and to hide us from scanners."

"So they have stealth technology?" Stark asked.

"They have black hole technology."

"This I gotta see. I'm totally intrigued."

"Guys, work with Mister Stark to make the suits better. Ajah, I want you to take notes for them and keep me informed and also help them set up a program on the holodeck to work. Mister Stark likes to see what he's about to work with before he starts."

"Yes, Sir," Ajah replied.

"Well, all of you just work with Mister Stark as though he's part of this crew."

Jim walked out of the science lab almost running into Spock. "I assume you will want me on the team as well, Admiral?" he asked.

"Yes, Mister Spock," Jim said. "I think we're about to have a better suit than we've ever had."

Jim walked on down to his own quarters where Carol was with their two children, Alex and Joy. He picked Joy up as she ran to him. "Carol, you need to go to the science lab," he said.

"Jim, what are you about to do?" she asked.

"We have to take that station back. Mister Stark is going to improve our electro-suits."

"How?"

"You should love it. They'll be invincible."

"Oh really? This I have to see."

Carol went to the door. "You will see after the children, I assume?"

"Of course."

Carol smiled. "I love you."

"I love you too."

Carol went on to the science lab where the others were already discussing the project. She was as intrigued by the invincibility as Stark was about the stealth. "I take it you guys have been in some pretty intense situations," Stark said as he was studying the details of the suit.

"Yes, we have," Carol replied.

"And you needed a suit to repel…electricity?" Stark looked at Ajah. "It wasn't because of someone like him, was it?"

"No. It was because of the Nausicaans. They use lances that send electrical pulses and we had to have something to combat that."

"And you used stealth technology as well. Fantastic."

"The stealth technology, or black hole technology, was picked up when someone tried to kidnap Jim Kirk from his own ship by using it to hide from the scanners."

"Oh. So, you have a lot of enemies."

"Not quite as many now as we did then."

"Nice to know. You wouldn't happen to have gold titanium alloy lying around, would you?"

The others all looked at him. "It is attainable," Spock said.

"Really? Well, how long would it take to get it?"

"I am not certain. Since we intend to wait out this time in the Klingon system, I am certain that they will have an idea since they are a mining people."

"This is sounding better all the time. I'll do the analysis while we wait, and maybe by the time you get what we need, I'll have the formula."

Tony worked on the formula non-stop for two days until they got to Klingon Space and the planet Kronos. "Doesn't that guy ever sleep?" Jim asked as he and Spock were standing in the corridor.

"I have not noticed if he has gone to his quarters," Spock replied.

"Maybe he thinks it's that urgent. I'll talk to him."

Jim went into the holodeck where Tony was working now. "So, how's it going?" Jim asked.

"Very well," Tony answered.

"Excuse me for asking, but don't you ever sleep?"

"Not very well. I prefer to work."

"Could I ask why?"

Tony looked at him. "Do you always ask such personal questions?" he asked.

"I do when someone's aboard my ship," Jim said. "You don't have to punish yourself about this situation. We've been in tough scraps before."

"I think I'd like to hear about them, Admiral."

"You can rest like everyone else."

Tony looked back at his project. "Jarvis, analyze what we've done so far."

"Yes, Sir," Jarvis answered.

"Admiral, I have my own problems. I'm not really used to sharing them with anyone…except. Well, do you think I'll ever be able to get back to my time? Do you know anything about time travel?"

"We have traveled through time…through spacial rifts. I guess it all goes with being in space for five years."

"I don't like talking about my reasons for not sleeping. I'd just as soon keep it to myself."

"That's your choice, but we do have a doctor onboard, and if anything is bothering you, he can help you."

"I'd rather just stop talking about this," Tony said, sounding a little breathless.

"I'm sorry."

Jim looked at the layout that Tony had displayed on the hologram. It was a display of the suit he intended to build for them…or add to what they already had. "We can most likely make this onboard the ship in the clothing replicator like we usually do, but we may need a little supply of titanium. It's not something we use often."

"So you may have some onboard."

"I'm sure we do, but it might be better if it was made in the lab on Kronos. The Klingons are our allies now."

"What are Klingons?"

Jim smiled slightly. "I think once you meet them, you won't ever forget them."

Jim's communicator chirped at him. "Kirk here," he answered.

"Admiral, we are coming up on Kronos," Spock said. "The Klingons are expecting us."

"Good. Did you discuss the problem with them?"

"Yes. Korax and Grakar are ready to help us, as usual."

"I'm sure they are."

"They are ready to receive us as soon as we can come down to the planet."

"Okay. Let's get ready."

"Jarvis, download our work," Tony said. "We'll take it with us to the planet."

"Yes, Sir," Jarvis answered.

"I'll have everything ready by the time we get down there."

"Just meet us in the transporter room," Jim replied.