He walked outside.  It was a beautiful morning on the Iowa farm.  Kirk thought of the work he'd have to do...the fence on the south side would need mending.

Damn it, I'll never get used to retirement.  He saw an old man leaning on the fence.  Funny Kirk thought, I didn’t notice him there a second ago.

Kirk looked at the man, he seemed familiar as if he should somehow know him.

“Hello Jim.”

“I’m sorry have we met.”

“Not in this reality.  But in others we’ve fought side by side.”

“Really?” Kirk was incredulous, but still, his experiences had taught him that strange things were possible in the galaxy.

“I’m coming to tell you 'thank you'.  On behalf of everyone.  Because of your Herculean efforts, everything was saved.  Sauron was defeated, the creatures from the Outside repelled, and the Old Ones were defeated.”

“The Old Ones?  I thought that was just a horrible dream?”

“Ahhh...but dreams are older than brooding Tyre, or the contemplative Sphinx, or garden-girdled Babylon.  Everything is as it once was.  The temporal inertia has been set back on its proper course.  But still...someday...the stars will come right again.”

“Well if you’re telling the truth, I hope not someday soon.  I’m retired, I’ve done my bit for King and Country.  My chapters have been written, my story done.”

The old man laughed, smiled a wholesome warm smile, “Oh Jim, if you truly understood the nature of the universe, you’d know that this story hasn’t come to the end.  It is only just beginning.  Ah but time runs short.  And I must go, I fear my travels are just beginning as well.  Oh you’d better get that.”

“Get what?”

He heard the comm unit in his house chirp.  But by the time he could be surprised the old man had vanished.  Kirk hurried back inside and answered the comm unit.  A young tech's face greeted him, "James Kirk.  I have Captain McCoy on discreet." The tech was replaced by McCoy's familiar face. 

“Jim!  How the hell are you!?”

“I’ve been better Bones, something unsettling just happened to me.”

“Not something serious I hope.  Listen, I’m stopping down to Earth in a couple of hours.  I thought it’d be great if we got the old crew together again and told some war stories.”

Kirk relaxed, the last lingering feeling of dread lifting from his spirit.  “It would indeed Bones!  Call me when you get down here!  I’ll get ready.”

He clicked the communicator off, a new bounce in his step at the idea of reminiscing with old friends.  It was going to be a good day...no matter how it had started.

But Kirk had a feeling he couldn’t quite shake, an instinct, an irrational premonition...as if....

Something had gone horribly wrong in the timestream...  

THE AUTHORS AT GENCON

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