Chapter 2- Come Here Often?
Jim spun his bottle of beer listlessly until his companion objected. "The sound emanating from your action is quite irritating, Captain."
Jim smiled because what Spock couldn't have known was that he did it on purpose just to get a rise out if his stoic first officer. He had barely twitched the whole time they had been there and it was starting to unnerve him. Jim knew that seedy, dimly lit backwoods bars were not really Spock's scene, but they had been forced to dock for repairs thanks to a run-in with a particularly thick band of asteroids that Chekov swore were uncharted. Sulu did an admirable job in evasive maneuvers that even made Spock a bit greener with sudden shifts and drops, but even he couldn't avoid them all. The ship was moored in orbit while it was being repaired, but Spock and Jim had to report personally to the Admiral and explain exactly what the hell had happened to the fleet's flagship.
With asses sufficiently chewed, they were released to await transport back to the ship from the Riverside, Iowa depot. Jim thought a nice stiff drink was in order after suffering perhaps the longest and most pointless lecture on how expensive and important the Enterprise was to Starfleet yada yada. It wasn't the first time he had a come to Jesus meeting with Starfleet brass and it probably wouldn't be the last, but that didn't make it any more fun to sit through.
He glanced back to the bar and paused as he lifted the bottle to his lips. Standing awkwardly against the bar was an Asian man that was not there just a second ago. He instinctively looked across the table at the door and back to the man as if it would somehow solve anything. Jim would have liked to think he was a fairly observant individual, but if he wasn't he knew damn well Spock was. One look at his right hand man revealed that he had also noticed the man and seemed equally disturbed.
Hiro quickly looked around and took a seat at the bar to try and blend in. He made a few quick glances around and noted strange symbols he didn't recognize and two guys at a table nearest him who were looking back. It must have been Halloween, he thought as he lowered his head. They were dressed oddly and the guy on the right was decked out as some kind of green monster with pointy ears, but they wore the same style shirt.
"Can I help you?" The bartender growled as he put his hands menacingly on the bar.
More than ever Hiro wished he had brought Ando along. Although his English was improving, Ando was far more fluent and seemed to better grasp the nuance of American culture. He would know what to do and say. "Ah….yes. Sake. Domo." He carefully annunciated with a bow and a smile. The bartender squinted hard at him. Perhaps he didn't understand. He pushed his glasses up and tried something more simple. "Water?" The barkeep shook his head with a sigh.
Jim and Spock watched the exchange with interest. Aside from apparently appearing out of thin air, there was something very odd about him. It wasn't like Jim had never seen an Asian man before- he spent all day everyday staring at Sulu's mug; well, the back of his head anyway. It wasn't really the way he was dressed either. Although not many outside of cornfields wore them, denim jeans had never fallen out of fashion since their creation in the 1800's and the plain cotton shirt was pretty normal.
"He is wearing spectacles to correct poor vision." Spock commented in surprise. Jim laughed because he was right! Glasses had gone by the wayside hundreds of years ago when vision could be reliably corrected in seconds with a laser. In fact, he wondered how the man even got a pair since the only ones he had seen were in museums. He took a hit from his bottle and thought it was close to Halloween, maybe they guy just wanted to look old fashioned. Not much of a costume in his opinion, but to each his own.
But just as he was starting to lose interest in the mystery man, he watched as the man pulled out a wad of colorful paper and handed one of the strips to the bartender with a slight bow. Either this guy was trying his best to stay in character or there really was something special about him. Spock turned back to Jim looking as shocked as a Vulcan could, which was to say he raised his eyebrow a fraction of an inch, but for him it was as good as screaming. "I believe that man has attempted to purchase the drink with paper currency."
"What the hell is this?" The bartender yelled waving the floppy bit of paper around. "Don't you have any credits, ya bum? Get out of my bar!" He flicked the paper back at the confused man and pointed to the door.
Jim was up in a flash and scooped up the paper from the floor as he settled in the seat next to the man with a smile. "Don't mind my friend here," he said looking at the barkeep, "he is from out of town. Tell you what, put his drink on my tab and add a little extra for your troubles." The bartender gruffly nodded and gave one last nasty look at Hiro before turning away to wash some glasses.
"Come here often?" Jim laughed glancing sidelong at the still stunned man.
"Thank you, mister…." Hiro carefully annunciated with a bow.
"Kirk. Jim Kirk." He supplied watching the man with amusement. He had never been bowed to before and it made him a little uncomfortable. He looked down at the crumpled bit of paper in his hands and recognized it as a $10 bill from the United States of America- long before it had become part of the Federation of Planets. "Where did you get this?" He asked with just a little more awe than he intended.
"More?" Hiro asked thinking he hadn't paid enough for the drink. He didn't know where he was, but the drinks here were expensive.
"No, no." Jim protested trying to give the old money back to the man. "This is yours, you keep it."
"I insist." Hiro stood firm with a polite smile. This was an artform in Japanese culture and it was expected that Jim would again try to give the money back, but Hiro was shocked when the man just shrugged and tucked it in his pocket. He really wished Ando was here.
"Mr. Kirk," Hiro began with intense purpose, "do you know Nathan Petrelli?"
Jim finished off his beer and set it on the counter with a thud to signal another. "No, Should I?"
"Senator from New York?" Hiro prompted. His English was being stretched beyond his capabilities and was really hampering his mission, but he could safely guess that Mr. Kirk didn't speak Japanese.
"Senator?" Jim parroted. Senators didn't exist anymore, that was part of the old government system. "Who are you and where are you from?"
"Hiro Nakamura." He said with a deep bow. "I can bend time and space."
Jim sat there looking at Hiro blankly wondering what he had gotten himself into. He glanced back at Spock who regarded him with another uplifted brow. With his sensitive hearing, he no doubt caught the conversation from where he was sitting. Jim looked back at Hiro and asked, "Exactly… how ...do you bend time and space?" He knew he shouldn't encourage crazy people, but a part of him couldn't resist.
"It is my ability." Hiro smiled.
Jim raised his eyebrows and asked, "Like a superpower?" Hiro nodded and Jim took the opportunity to lower the boom. "People don't have special abilities. Vulcans can mind meld, but we humans…we're just not special."
Hiro's face fell and Jim felt a twinge of guilt for bursting his bubble. "No special people?" He lamented. "Then Mr. Petrelli has succeeded. I must go back at once!"
"Go where?" Jim inquired looking around for the bartender. He really needed that other beer.
"Back to my time to warn the others." Hiro answered simply as if Jim should have known.
"So there are more like you?" Jim's mind began to twist and bend at the possibility that the strange man just might be telling the truth. If Vulcans could mind meld- and he knew this to be true- then wasn't it at least possible that other races could do similar things? Although it was officially denied, it was rumored that evolved humans existed long ago- people that could do miraculous things like fly and melt metal using only their minds. But at some point they just disappeared but no one really knew how. He sat up in his chair and turned a little more toward Hiro. If his mission as a Starfleet Captain was to search out new life forms and cultures yada yada, then he felt a responsibility to check the one out sitting right next to him.
"Yes!" Hiro eagerly replied with a gleam in his eyes. "And they all do many things. And my friend Peter Petrelli has many special abilities."
"Isn't that the guy you were looking for?" Jim asked confused.
"No. Peter is my friend. His brother Nathan is the flying man. He is a bad man." He answered lowering his voice as though he dare not speak his name aloud. "I must go now. I must warn the others. Thank you Mr. Kirk."
Jim nodded and raised his hand to give him a pat on the shoulder and then they were gone. Spock raised an eyebrow as he observed the two empty barstools where his Captain and the man sat a fraction of a second ago. For perhaps the first time in his life he found himself unable to comprehend what had just happened, let alone come up with a plausible explanation. He calmly got up and retrieved the paper money that Jim left on the bar as though it could give him some kind of clue as to his whereabouts and he went outside into the cool night air.
He removed his communicator from his belt and almost sighed because he just didn't know how it was possible for Jim to get himself into these kinds of situations. "Spock to the Enterprise." He called.
"Aye, Sir." Scotty's thick accent streamed through the earpiece.
"Mr. Scott, perform a scan for the Captain's signature. I have momentarily lost sight of him." He tried to keep the situation from seeming more dire than it was, but he couldn't imagine it being much worse.
After a pause his worried laden voice reported, "Ah don't see him, Sir. It is like he just vanished."
"Fascinating." Spock whispered. "Mr. Scott, you will have command until I return."
Scotty replied, but there was a little static in the transmission so Spock couldn't tell if he said "Aye" or "Shite."