Star Trek XV – Now and Forever

Epilogue

Rkrxt II, Class M Planetoid - Stardate 2265.283

After travelling to the somewhat arid but perfectly inhabitable planetoid Rkrxt II near the Talos system, a landing party formed solely by Captain Kirk, Commander Spock and Dr McCoy had managed to find an appropriate hiding location within a bushy little forest that would also provide them cover from above in case the enemy deployed an aerial recognition party. Kirk was about to decide what to do next when a cantankerous Dr McCoy started complaining.

'Let me get this straight,' he said, 'six months ago we saved the universe from self-destruction, again, and all the damn Federation does is give you a second five year mission and the very first thing we do off-ship is go and investigate some shady operation in a God forsaken planetoid?'

Kirk stared at him for a moment before he smirked and said:

'Pretty much.'

'Splendid,' the doctor sardonically said, 'and tell me, why the hell did you think it was a good idea to enrol me in this whole moronic mission?'

'Well,' Kirk replied shrugging his shoulders, 'I thought you'd be happy to be on firm land for a little while.'

'You know, Jim,' McCoy said pointing his finger at him, 'you and I need to have a nice long talk about what I consider having a good time because landing in dusty balls of rock is not what I think as fun, alright?'

'Doctor,' Spock replied calmly, 'the smugglers appear to be trafficking with stolen medical equipment, the Captain and I require your expertise in an attempt to determine the nature of said machinery.'

Dr McCoy scowled at the Vulcan and was ready to retort when Kirk shushed him and said:

'They're coming.

Looking up from their hiding place, they saw a battered looking shuttle landing perilously on top of a rocky mount. When its doors were opened, they revealed a full complement of...

'GORNS!' McCoy exclaimed awfully loudly, 'they're Gorns, Jim!'

The Captain refused to grace his comment with an answer, instead, he grabbed his electronic binoculars, activating the recording function in them so that he could capture the moment when ten Gorns started unloading several crates, all of them bearing the crest of the United Federation of Planets.

'We need to get closer,' he muttered to his two companions.

'We what?' the doctor wheezed.

'It is logical,' the Vulcan said.

'Logi…listen to me,' McCoy said speaking to the two madmen he called his friends, 'you've never had anything to do with Gorns before, they're vicious creatures and...why are you two looking at me like that?'

'Doctor,' Spock was the first to answer, 'you raise yet another valid point that justifies your presence here.'

'Wha…'

'Come on, Bones,' Kirk added, 'I promise you we won't be in danger: we'll just get a little closer, get visual on the serial numbers of those crates so we can report them to the Federation and we'll be out of here.'

'You promise?' the doctor asked.

'I promise,' Kirk confirmed.

'No going out guns blazing nor any of your usual shenanigans,' McCoy clarified.

'No, none of that,' Kirk promised.

'Alright then,' the doctor said, 'but if any of you two gets hurt, I swear to God I will not help you.'

'That is a moot threat doctor,' Spock dared to point out and, seeing the puzzled way they both looked at him, he felt the need to elaborate, 'as a physician you have the sacred duty to help a patient in need. In the unfortunate event the Captain and/or I get injured, you would be obliged to help, regardless of your personal feelings.'

'Spock, not helping,' Kirk said placing a hand McCoy's shoulder before the doctor could violate his sacred duty and murder the Vulcan, 'Bones, the faster we get this done, the sooner we'll be back on the Enterprise.'

After glaring at an impassive Spock some more, the doctor started making his way out of the forest.

'Come on,' Kirk told his First Officer, 'we must not be seen, or else we might actually need his services.'

'That would be highly inconvenient,' Spock was quick to note.

'You know I have your back, right?' Kirk assured him.

'As I have yours,' Spock replied.

Using their very low numbers as a stealth factor, the three of them managed to make it within a few hundred metres from the entrance to the Gorn base. Once there, hidden behind a large fallen rock, they saw that there were a lot more crates stored inside a small warehouse.

All of those containers belonged to the Federation and now they were sufficiently close, they could clearly see the serial number along with a well known manufacturer of medical equipment with headquarters in Zurich, on the Swiss territory back on Earth.

'Bones,' Kirk whispered as loudly as he dared, 'that brand…'

'Yes,' McCoy confirmed, 'they are the leading makers of human tissue regenerators.'

'Why would the Gorn be interested in such technology?' Spock wondered out loud.

'They don't have any commercial agreements with any human organisation, do they?' Kirk added.

'I don't think so,' McCoy replied, 'but I think we can get the hell out of here now.'

'I agree,' Kirk thankfully said and as promised, he added, 'we'll take what we've learned and hand it over to the Federation.'

With that, he ordered Scotty to beam them up back on the Enterprise. They had just dematerialised when, three humans appeared out of the small warehouse and the sight of one of them made the Gorn bow down in some sort of worship. The leader of the Gorn unit walked closer to the human and, showing his respect, he said:

'Master, we have completed your orders.'

'Well done,' the human said, 'now you are part of my family, you shall be rewarded accordingly.'

'Yes, master,' the Gorn leader said.

Back on the Enterprise, unbeknownst of what had just transpired planet-side and while Dr McCoy returned to Medical, grateful that, for once, he and his first aid kit had not been necessary, Kirk and Spock hurried to the bridge fully aware they were running a little late for their weekly call with New Vulcan.

'Captain on the bridge,' Chekov chirped happily.

'Welcome back, anything interesting to report?' Lieutenant Commander Mitchell asked him as he got up from the Captain's chair.

'Not really,' Kirk replied to his former classmate, 'sorry Gary but, it looks it's going to be another boring day.'

'That's fine by me, Captain,' the man replied returning to his station at tactical.

'What are your orders, Captain?' Sulu asked him.

'Just take us out, Mr Sulu,' Kirk replied grinning at the helmsman, 'go wherever you feel like it.'

'Awesome,' Sulu said exchanging a pleased look with Chekov who adorably smiled back at him.

'Captain, I have their signal,' Uhura announced.

'On screen,' Kirk asked her.

'Stand by,' the Communications Officer said.

A moment later, the darkness of space was replaced by the very light interior of a typical New Vulcan terracotta house, there, on screen, he saw the familiar face of the woman to whom he owed all of his current happiness.

'Martha,' he greeted her, 'I trust you're well.'

'I am better than that, James,' the woman replied, 'Vulcans really are the smartest race in the universe: this warm weather is doing wonders to my health. All this fresh air is great for my skin and I have never felt any younger!'

'I'm glad to hear that,' Kirk said exchanging a glance with Spock who looked a tiny bit proud of his heritage.

'Carol will be here momentarily,' Martha explained, 'Jimmy's just finishing something up for you.'

'Oh,' Kirk said, 'what is it?'

'It's a surprise!' they heard Carol shouting from the background.

'Oh I see,' Kirk said.

A moment later and just as promised, he saw his wife appearing on screen with their two and a half year old boy. The kid was carrying what it looked like a roll of old fashioned paper he was guarding with a lot of care.

'Hello,' Carol greeted him, 'say hello to Daddy,' she then instructed Jimmy.

'Hi Daddy,' the little boy obliged.

'Is that for me?' Kirk asked him pointing at the paper.

'Yep,' the kid replied and, with his mother's help, he started unrolling it slowly. On it, Kirk and the rest of the bridge crew saw a multicoloured drawing on a dark background peppered with carefully dotted silver stars.

'What does it represent?' Spock asked them.

'It's the Enterprise!' Kirk replied feeling slightly offended.

'But…'

'It's the Enterprise, Spock,' Uhura repeated throwing him a warning glance.

'Oh, I see,' the Vulcan said.

'And here,' Carol pointed out at two other figures on the paper, 'who is in here, Jimmy?' she asked the boy.

'Daddy and Uncle Pok,' the kid replied sounding very serious.

'Tell them why they're holding hands,' Carol asked her son.

'Daddy and Pok are t'hy'la,' the boy firmly replied.

The Captain found his gaze travelling to the Vulcan standing by his side holding those brown eyes with his blue ones waiting to see what would happen next then, to everyone's general stupor, Spock nodded once and, speaking to the little boy, he said:

'You are a remarkably smart child and I am proud of being your uncle.'

Hearing this made the boy offer him the mother of all grins.

'Okay,' Carol said recovering before anyone else, 'it's time for your dinner now, Jimmy, say bye bye.'

'Bye, bye!' the kid said.

'Bye, bye, Jimmy,' everyone on the bridge replied then, Kirk alone added, 'I'll see you next week, okay?'

'Yep,' the boy replied.

'And be good to your mother,' he reminded him 'you have to look after her while I'm at work.'

The boy nodded taking the mission very seriously. After that, Aunt Martha came to retrieve the kid, leaving Carol alone to talk to her husband. The scientist went straight to business while she reported her latest news.

'You were right,' she told Kirk, 'I haven't seen the final blueprint yet but, from what Ambassador Sarek told me, the improved design of the Genesis device will make it practically unusable for any other purposes other than the one it was intended for. We still have to run some more preliminary tests but we might be ready to move onto the assembling part of the project at the end of the year, just in time for your scheduled visit.'

'That's great news,' Kirk commented.

'We're all working as fast as we can,' Carol assured him, 'I know this project is paramount in terms of upholding the temporary peace treaty we signed with the Klingon and Romulan Empires. If Genesis becomes a reality…'

'…then there will be no more territorial wars,' Kirk finished for her, 'ever.'

'Yeah,' Carol said, 'there's nothing I want more than that.'

'Me too,' Kirk agreed.

'This way,' Carol ventured, 'who knows? It might be safe enough for children to live onboard a Starfleet vessel.'

'That would be a dream come true,' Kirk admitted.

'I have to go now,' Carol said, 'but I will send you Jimmy's drawing as soon as I can.'

Kirk nodded feeling, as usual, that their weekly calls were way too short.

'Take care of yourself, Carol.'

'You too, Jim,' she asked him.

'I love you,' he added.

'I love you, too,' his wife replied then, glancing at her husband's First Officer she smiled and said, 'Spock, your father sends his greetings and, also, has asked me to convey a message to you: he said he wishes for you to contact him.'

'Is there any emergency?' Spock asked her sounding a little concerned.

'Not as such,' Carol assured him, 'I think he's just a little lonely and wants to hear from his only son.'

'Oh,' Spock just said, 'I see.'

'We'll contact him soon,' Uhura promised her getting up from her seat, 'I'll patch the call through to you myself,' she added smiling at her boyfriend in a way that didn't welcome any arguments.

'Understood,' Spock wisely replied.

'Thank you, Nyota,' Dr Kirk said.

'You're welcome, Carol,' Uhura replied.

'Take care of yourselves,' Carol said to her husband's bridge crew, 'and I'll see you all next week.'

With that, she terminated the transmission making the dark and starry space reappear on the viewscreen. The vastness of it made Kirk think that in such big universe, if the new Genesis device worked as programmed, finding space for all of them to live in peace would not be so difficult anymore. Maybe this way every family could be together, and, as Spock would say, live long and prosper.

THE END (for now?)