The landing party materialized to the surface in the middle of a empty street where hovercars were on the road left leaning on their sides. Spock turned on his tricorder scanning for any differences that the Enterprise could not. Kirk became more aware of his surroundings. Figures became solid. People were not transparent talking figures that had words coming out. Kirk heard a buzzing around his ears which was loud and quite annoying. Kirk shook his head.

"We will find the ones who sent the distress call," Pike said. "Doctor, you go with the lieutenant and commander to the post office. The others and I will span out the search."

Kirk could sense, strangely, that there were people who were not there all around him.

"Post officer closed down decades ago," Bones said. "Why would anyone go there."

"Safety from threats." Pike said.

The group split up into two.

The buzzing returned to Kirk's ears.

"What the hell?" Kirk said, smacking the side of his ear.

Spock ignored that phrase.

"Mosquitoes do that to you." Bones said, as they went into the post office.

"Fascinating." Spock said.

Kirk noticed there were tables over turned, there were skeletons laid about with tatters of clothing, there were spider webs. There was dust all over the place. Spock put on a pair of gloves then turned on what was apparently a twenty second century computer with a screen dotted by a green diagram. The Vulcan carefully activated a program. It felt eerily familiar. It was like he had done this before, of course, he hadn't come across a planet like this on the Yorktown. Kirk opened the closet door where a body headed his direction. He stepped aside letting it collapse with a thud. Rats came out. White and black rats. There were three of them.

"Yuck." Kirk said.

The buzzing returned.

S-Smack!

"There are no mosquitoes inside the building, lieutenant." Came Spock's voice.

Kirk looked into the room to see other curled up skeletons that appeared to be protecting one another, most of which were children and adults. Kirk could see there being a broken widow shattered into pieces. There were burn marks all over the place. Kirk didn't notice the sound of Spock approaching to his direction as he covered his mouth feeling a disgusting feeling traveling up from his stomach to the throat.

"Lieutenant?" Spock asked.

Kirk darted by, and then he puked what he had eaten for lunch outside. Spock looked in to see the dead skeletons. The Vulcan raised an eyebrow, half out of surprise, half in disgust, and half in fascination. Bones came over to see what the fuss was all about. Bones stopped in his tracks feeling horrified to see a sorry ass sight.

"Oh god." Bones said.

"It appears there was a nuclear event that wiped most of the populace out." Spock noted.

Spock left outside where Kirk was getting a grip on himself. He was trembling, leaning over, his eyes closed. It indicated to Spock that Kirk hadn't been around on missions to planets such as these. If he were human he would have patted on the man's shoulder telling him they must have died without feeling pain or something along the lines of comfort. But he was a Vulcan. Vulcans do not feel.

"You have not encountered a Class M planet like this before?" Spock asked, raising a arched eyebrow with his hands behind his back.

"No," Kirk said. "Never in this manner." Kirk straightened himself then he glared at the Vulcan. Spock lowered his eyebrow. "If you bring my father again in that way you did at the trial then god have mercy on you."

"Why would a nonexistent god have mercy on me?" Spock asked.

Kirk sighed.

"You are a wall I cannot move." Kirk said.

"I fail to see how I am like a wall." Spock said.

Kirk turned his head away from Spock.

"One day you will understand, Mr Spock," Kirk said, briefly closing his eyes counting to ten under his breath. "Two. . . three. . four. . five. . six. . . seven. . eight. . . nine. . .ten."

"Why are you counting to ten?" Spock asked.

"I am doing everything I can to not punch you at your perfect face," Kirk said. "No one uses my father like that." He looked over to Spock. His crystal blue eyes became daggers. "If we are going to work together then get this straight between us. We do not bring up our parents as weapons against each other. Do not talk about my arm. Do not talk about Kobyashi Maru."

Spock raised an eyebrow.

"Why talk about your arm?" Spock asked.

Kirk sighed.

"You have missed the point." Kirk said.

Spock lowered his eyebrow.

"You wish to not talk about the parent who was never there," Spock said. "One who you are competing against."

"I am not competing against my dead father." Kirk said, his voice clearly indicating anger.

Kirk heard that same annoying buzzing sound close to his ear.

S-Smack!

"If you say so." Spock said.

S-Smack!

"Should I get the doctor about your ear?" Spock asked.

S-Smack

"No, it is fine." Kirk said.

S-smack.

"Lieutenant, you might be having a heari. . . ng. . pra-blem-" Spock's speech became slower and slower as the seconds ticked by. "Lie-" His right hand slowly started to reach forwards in the direction of Kirk. "Lieu. . . ten. . a. . . n. . .t!"

And then Spock was frozen, his hand outreached, his words becoming slower and slower until nothing was out. He slowly was slowing his arm. There was a mix of emotions on the Vulcan's face. The concern and confused state was replaced by a stoic one was his arm lowered down to his side,slow, very slowly.

"Mr Spock?" Kirk asked, waving his hands in Spock's vision. "Mr Spoock!" He pinched the Vulcan's neck. Kirk was generally confused, folding his arms, with a frown. "Um, can you please stop standing there and talk to me?" No response came from the Vulcan who's eyes were changing direction from where Kirk stood. "Commander!" He folded his arms. "This is not funny. I didn't know Vulcans had a sense of humor!"

Kirk stepped back rubbing his chin.

"He cannot hear you." Came a woman's voice.

Kirk felt a hand wrap around his shoulder and he looked over to see a woman, a gorgeous woman, with blonde curly hair resting on her shoulders with a garment on her forearms that had a latch of some form. She had a smile on her face. She had a pink and white uniform along with a jewel below her neck. She had a smile that could kill. There was something about that made Kirk forget about Star Fleet for that moment. Forget about the recent six months of his life. Forget about everything that this stupid Vulcan made him go through.

"Hello,Lieutenant, my name is Deela," Deela said. "Queen of the Scalosians and you are my king."

The word 'King' sunk in faster than she would have expected.

"No!" Kirk shoved her away. "I am no king!"

"You can not go back to the life you lived." Deela said.

"What do you mean?" Kirk asked.

Deela smiled.

"You can never go back to normal time, besides, if you tried. . . It would kill you." She came a step forwards toward Kirk. "It would take hours for these people to move."

"Mr Spock is a Vulcan."Kirk said.

"He is a person and he cannot move as you are accellerated in time, hyper mode," Deela said. "You will aid in the restoration of our civilization. You are only hope."

"I am not a HERO!" Kirk said. "I am no captain, I am no king! I tried to be a hero and look what that got me!"

"It got you here." Deela said.

Kirk sighed.

"Are there others like you?" Kirk asked.

"Twenty-two," Deela said. "We must re-plenty our gene pool . . . Our males are sterile because of the radiation."

"Let me think about this." Kirk said.

"You have your entire life to think about this," Deela said. "And your friends will join us when it is convenient for them."

Kirk kept his cool as he stared at her, in all regards, in his serious position.

No, Kirk thought.

"I have to make my own choice." Kirk said.

Kirk went into the post office.

"And I will be waiting." Deela said.