Paint and Powder
A Star Trek anthology by Andrew Joshua Talon
DISCLAIMER: This is a non-profit fan based work of prose. Star Trek: The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager et al are the property of CBS Television, and creation of Gene Roddenberry. Please support the official release.
A brief bit...
Commander Abrams of Section 31 had not been happy to be woken up at oh-dark-thirty for an urgent call. And he was even less pleased when he was told to come to the Daystrom Station.
But what his subordinates had told him couldn't be explained on an open channel... And he soon saw why.
"What do you mean he's gone?!" He screeched, glaring in shock and horror at the empty cold storage tube.
His subordinates all cringed.
"Just... He's gone, sir," some lieutenant whose name he didn't care about explained, "totally gone! We checked the AI records a thousand times, even with Nimrod-He just vanished!"
"TO WHERE? WHO DID THIS?!" Abrams raged.
USS Yorktown
Yorktown-class advanced heavy explorer
Sol System
Yorktown stood with her sisters in her torpedo launching bay. Prometheus was also there, holding hands with the very pregnant Enterprise. The torpedo casing was lowered by mechanic arms into the launch bay, a Federation flag laying over it.
Enterprise took a moment to reach out and touch the torpedo... Her hand lingered, her gaze solemn. Prometheus stepped forward, and took the flag up. He folded it perfectly, and handed it over to his lover. She nodded, and let out a soft breath.
"There are... No words I can speak that would do Admiral James Tiberius Kirk justice," she said, "so much has been said of him. But what mattered most to him was making a difference. In making things better. He is... He was..."
She paused, but then took a deep breath.
"He helped me become more than just a ship. More than just an AI. He made me... Live. He brought out the best in everyone, and that includes me. And I think... It was said best in a book he cherished."
Enterprise cleared her throat.
"'It is a far, far better thing that I do, than I have ever done; it is a far, far better rest I go to than I have ever known.'"
Hornet blew a yeoman's whistle. Yorktown loaded the torpedo, as Enterprise's eyes were locked on it the entire time.
The firing chamber hatches sealed shut. Enterprise then slowly nodded.
Yorktown accessed her bridge.
"The package is loaded and ready, Admiral," she said politely. Her commander, the aging but still smiling Admiral Pavel Chekov, nodded.
"Warpspeed, Keptin," he said, "fire."
The torpedo was launched, and flew straight and true. Enterprise cried silently. Hornet sobbed. Yorktown bowed her head. Prometheus held Enterprise, part sharing in her grief with him... Part worried.
She saw that... And smiled.
"It's all right," she said softly, "it's all right... I'm all right. We'll be all right."
The casket vanished into the heat of Sol, vaporized and gone. No one would ever be able to make use of Jim, to exploit him for anything.
And judging from the smile on his face as he observed her in the torpedo bay... He was glad of it.
He gave her a final wink, and departed.
She knew he'd be around... But as a guide, and not a painful reminder.
"He's never really dead, as long as we remember him," Prometheus said softly.
"No... He isn't," Enterprise said warmly. She kissed him, and he kissed her back.
Everything was perfect.
Because no way Enterprise is letting Section 31 hold onto Kirk's corpse, thank you very much.
