- 14 -

Grace Coleman stared down at the bodies of Janice Lester and Janice Rand on the mortuary slab, face grim.

"And there was no way to save them?"

"There was not," said Spock. "Both were critically injured but might have been saved had Doctor Abdullah or Doctor McCoy been available. Unfortunately, Doctor Abdullah had been murdered by Yeoman Jill Finn, and Doctor McCoy was in a hypnotic trance we have as yet been unable to break him out of. We believe this was deliberate, the assailant having removed the doctors so that if he did not succeed in killing his target, only in injuring him, those wounds might still prove fatal."

"By 'the assailant' you mean the former Admiral Cartwright."

"That is correct. He had stolen Lieutenant Commander Shaw's body, as we confirmed when we discovered his own, dead body in front of this planet's alien bodyswapping device. Your biological mother grew suspicious when she saw he was wearing his phaser on his right thigh rather than the left, as Kate Shaw always did. She was watching him from the corner of her eye and so was able to save the Emperor's life when Lawrence Cartwright made his move."

Grace sighed. When the Endurance arrived at Camus II this was the very last thing she had expected to find. What were her mothers even doing here?

"I'll have the bodies shipped back to Earth for burial, of course."

"Thank you," she said. "I think you'd better take me to meet them now.

"As you wish," said Spock.

He led her to a room where two young women awaited her: Kate Shaw and Jill Finn. They snapped to attention when she entered.

"At ease," said Grace. "Well look at you both. You're younger than me now. How does it feel to be in your twenties again?"

"Amazing!" said Kate Shaw, and with that the two rushed over to Grace and they all hugged.

"While we could do nothing to repair the injuries suffered by Janice Lester and Janice Rand there was another solution," said Spock. "We had two healthy young Empire agents in custody, both of them murderers. So I followed the logical course of action. Dr McCoy would have had an ethical problem with using the alien bodyswapping device on this planet to have your mothers live on while they died in their place. I did not."

"Neither do I," said Grace. "Thank you, Director Spock, thank you so much."

"And now that you finally know about the device there's nothing preventing me from telling you why your father and I ended up being confined to Earth for so long," said Kate.

"You mean you've been here before?"

"Yes. It was Arthur and I who first discovered the device and figured out its operation. We used it to swap my body with Jim Kirk's so that I could take over the Enterprise."

"You did *what*? Why?"

"Because at that time no woman had been appointed captain of a starship in twenty years, and I had always desperately wanted to be a starship captain. Jim eventually got his body back, of course. I was judged insane and sent to Elba II. I later convinced Jim to let them use the brainwashing device on me that Khan - our Khan - had utilized during the Eugenics Wars in order to overwrite my original personality with a modified one I created that was less obsessive and destructive. I was then released to Earth, where Jim interceded with the tribunal on behalf of Arthur so that he wouldn't be sent to a penal planet. Instead we were both confined to Earth."

"Everyone in that courtroom and everyone who had ever heard of the bodyswapping device was sworn to secrecy," said Jill. "It was considered a military secret of the highest order, which is why we were never able to tell you about it before this."

"Wow," said Grace, looking stunned. "Just wow!"

"That's not all," said Kate. "The link the device forged between us obviously remained in some fashion because when Jim Kirk was killed by that mysterious energy ribbon I started getting his memories. At first I thought I must be going mad, but over the course of a year I gradually acquired his memories. All of them. And some of his character traits."

"So *that's* why you got more assertive all of a sudden," said Jill. "I wondered what had happened. You always used to be such a femme, but not anymore."

"There's now the matter of what to do with you both," said Spock. "You cannot return to the USS Spencer because while you have the bodies of Jill Finn and Kate Shaw you have none of their memories and would soon find yourselves under suspicion. That just leaves Starfleet Intelligence or..."

"I'm taking them," said Grace, firmly. "I'll approve their transfer to the Endurance immediately. If Kate does indeed have the memories, skills and confidence of Jim Kirk she's more than capable of being my First Officer and leading away missions. It's a shame Jill's only a yeoman, though. Mom Janice Rand started as a yeoman, but she's way more experienced than that now."

"That will not be a problem," said Spock. "I will affirm that Ms Finn has been working undercover for Starfleet Intelligence all along and in fact holds the rank of lieutenant. I will create the appropriate records to support this story."

"Then that's settled," said Grace. "Two of the three women I've admired most in my life is a great addition to my crew. I'm only sorry Uhura couldn't be here, too."

"Ah," said Kate, "about that..."