"I can't believe you are alive, kid!"

Kirk stared at the screen seeing Pike had more gray hair then he had before.

"Good to see you too, admiral," Kirk said. "So what has been up back on Earth?"

"Winona married Sarek three months ago." Pike said.

"What?" Kirk asked.

That would make Kirk and Spock step-brothers!

STEP. BROTHERS.

Kirk is soo going to love reminding Spock that.

"It surprised the hell out of me. I never expected they get together." Pike said.

"Interesting. . . I never pictured my mom to be the humanizing type." Kirk said.

"It makes sense on some level," Pike remarked. "They were both stubborn that you two were not dead."

"Good 'ol mom." Kirk said, with a laugh.

"And by the way . . . I am sorry that you have to hear this," Pike's face turned pale. "Your brother is dead. His three sons and wife survived."

///////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Equally, Spock and McCoy were glowing the next day. Turns out Kirk's belongings were sent to Earth where they currently remain in his old room much to his delight. The Enterprise was heading to a nearby starbase that was three days away nothing big. Kirk was not wearing civilian ware but dark clothes. Rumors started to fly once the two went into the cafeteria together.

"Hey, 'yo Spock!" Kirk shouted approaching the Vulcan who was at the botany lab.

It was illogical to jump an inch above the floor.

Spock would never admit that Kirk scared him.

"That is incorrect English." Spock said, with a slap to the back by Kirk.

The plants purred at the presence of Spock.

And some plants had mixed reactions toward Kirk.

"We are brothers!" Kirk announced, throwing his hands out in the air.

Spock raised an eyebrow turning away from a lion plant looking over to the bright human male.

"Step brooooothheeeeeeeeeers!" Kirk sang.

"Sarek married your mother?" Spock said.

"It appears so," Kirk said. "And oh, oh, oh, oh, we are big brothers!" Spock's eyebrow even went up further. "I don't know about you but mini you's running around the house is hilarious." Spock's eyebrow lowered. "Triplets." There was a look of bewilderment on the Vulcan's face. "Three!"

"That is however beyond the realms of logic." Spock said.

"Two boys and one girl," Kirk said. "I don't know about you but I am so going to meet them when we get to the starbase."

"They are already at the starbase?" Spock asked.

"Yes," Kirk said. "It so happens they are on vacation from some of 'Sarek's Ambassador duties' with Steven, Sporn, and T'Flen. What is up with Vulcans and the five letter names for the males? How many Spock's in the past were there? Did they number their Spock's because there were so many running around--"

"Jim." Spock said, exasperatedly.

"They musta' had middle names," Kirk went on. "So many Spock's to think about." Jim poked at the leaf of a plant that had a puffy ball at the middle where it made a purring sound. The plant was beautiful. Spock looked over toward Kirk holding the watering can in one hand. "You know, our parents refused any sort of memorials or funerals or anything for our lanua. It hits me. Is that what I am going to be remembered by?"

"It is only logical." Spock said.

Kirk rolled his shoulders.

"Unnecessary memorials?" Kirk stood upright. "Ships being named? Plagues? The poster boy who died? I don't like being the poster boy. Period. Spock Prime told me that if I wanted to be proud of myself is to make my own destiny, said it was something any Kirk would do." He came to the edge of the table. "I don't even know if being a captain of a starship is my second best destiny. Just being told by Pike. It reminds me why I even joined Star Fleet. To challenge other people's perception on me being my father's son."

"You have done quite the work." Spock said.

"I am thinking of leaving Star Fleet and making my own impression in the galaxy," Kirk said, earning a raised eyebrow. "My father's sacrifice still hangs in the air. Over my shoulders. It is not fair for them to compare me to him. It is just not fair."

"You found yourself on the bridge, many, many times," Spock said. "Jim, you are troubling me with your rationality."

Kirk looked over toward Spock with that look in his eyes.

"Troubling you?" The sad look turned into a bemused one. "I trouble people. That's in my nature."

"Negative," Spock said. "You are a person capable of doing great things."

"You compared me to my father." Kirk said.

"It was only once, and I seem to remember it was for the panel." Spock said, approaching the young man.

"Well, you did a good job stabbing into a man's heart." Kirk felt along the leaf of another plant where the thorns started to come out of the branches.

"That was for cheating not the captain's chair," Spock said. "Sometimes you have to break a stallion to make them great."

Kirk raised an eyebrow looking up toward Spock.

"Have you been talking to Bones a lot?" Kirk asked.

"Affirmative." Spock approached.

"You know, when I die, I know I am going to die alone," Kirk said. "I do not need memorials."

Spock took the man by his shoulders.

"Jim, I understand your depression," Spock said. "But I believe what you are thinking of is illogical. You have to keep your ground. Your mother needs you. After all, who will be there to take care of the children when Sarek and she are gone? You will do more by living and making your father proud, no matter how much you are illogical and irrationally make decisions, a father's love is greater than the scorn of those around you."

Kirk looked back up toward Spock with a little smile.

"Gee,Spock," Kirk said. "I never pictured you to be a ray of sunshine."

Kirk fell against the Vulcan's chest and his eyes closed as though he had fallen asleep.

"Jim?" Spock placed one hand on the man's neck for a faint pulse.

Spock looked down to see the shape of a familiar bite mark on Kirk's hand that belonged to a animal inhabitant on a planet they had last visited.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////

"I cannot believe HE NEVER TOLD US HE WAS BITTEN!" McCoy said, pacing back and forth in front of the biobed with his hands heated.

"Doctor McCoy--" Spock was cut off by McCoy.

"That infant is lucky you were there! If he hadn't visited Botany and instead been cooped up in his room ridin' out the fever he had, Jim would have been dead by now!" McCoy said.

"I believe Jim was unaware the animal was poisonous. There was a period of time when he was gone with the princess which was exactly ten minutes and thirty-two seconds," Spock said. "I was unaware of any activity he had with her. Perhaps he can enlighten us once he gains consciousness what he was doing."

McCoy sighed.

"Spock, you should go get some rest," McCoy said. "You have been up longer than you should be."

"Jim concerns me." Spock said.

"He does that to everyone." McCoy said.

"You do not understand," Spock said. "He was depressed."

McCoy looked up.

"Well," McCoy said. "That is new. Jim is never depressed. Maybe he got his head in his ass." McCoy shook his head. "Jim bein' depressed is unlike him. He is the kind of kid who uplifts women's spirits, encourages them, likes them, and then moves on after fallin' head over heels for them." McCoy took Spock's shoulder. "Go to your temporary assigned quarters. I'll be with the infant until he wakes up. He is lucky you were there."

"I believe a moment like this would deserve a: damn it, Jim." Spock remarked.

"Don't spoil the moment, Spock." McCoy said, with a grunt letting go of the Vulcan's shoulder.

"I was not intending to." Spock said.

"Go to bed." McCoy said.

"Good night, Ashayam." Spock said.

"Let me guess, that is darlin' for Vulcan." McCoy said.

Spock raised an eyebrow at first but then he lowered it.

"Affirmative." Spock turned away and walked his way out of the med bay.

"I am a fast learner, you have been warned!" McCoy shouted.

The doors closed behind the Vulcan. McCoy sat down next to the unconscious man and he let his eyes close briefly then he reopened them keeping an eye out for the young man. What would happen to Kirk if he was the one who died? It would split the kid in two, that McCoy was sure. It would leave Spock in pain. The crew would be left in mourning. He was the man who put them back together when death spit back them back out. McCoy watched the young man's chest rise up and down. Surely, a reminder that Kirk was still there and so was Spock. They weren't going anywhere for the time being.

/////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

"If I do not come back--" Sulu started to say.

"Don't say that, captain, you are comin' back!" McCoy said.

"You know who to put in charge." Sulu finished.

"Captain, if you are goin' to the belly of the beast, then I have to go with you!" McCoy argued back as Sulu went into the transporter room and Dwight stood in the way of the doctor. "That is suicide goin' down to a unmapped Class M planet without a doctor there!" McCoy shook his hand. "Let me through, Mr Right-all-the-time."

"You will not be in the way of the Romulan Empire's plans." Wright said.

Wright delivered a blow to McCoy into the chest knocking him down to the floor catching his breath.

"Romulan. . ." McCoy said, looking up watching Wright's figure stroll into the transporter room.

Great.

He did not expect Wright to be a Romulan.

The doors closed.

"No!" McCoy shouted.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////

The first thing that awoke Kirk was the hiss of a hypospray and a familiar grumpy old face along with a calm face looking right over him. He could see there being a shade of red. The ship was under attack. He bolted right up processing what he had last recalled. He had been in the botany room, talking with Spock, feeling a fever, his vision getting blurry, and the sight of color becoming brighter. One moment he was crystal clear talking with Spock and the next he was not-that-well. But now? His vision was crystal clear. He remembered waking up, hours ago, then acting unlike himself which made Bones hypo him.

Speaking of which, why was he acting unlike himself?

"What happened?" Kirk asked.

"I believe Mr Right-ass is a Romulan Agent intendin' to start a damn war with Star Fleet and the Klingons!" McCoy said. "The landin' party was taken by those Klingons!"

Kirk briefly closed his eyes.

The memories that Spock Prime had deposited returned to Kirk's mind. At least the memories that had resulted from the one and only mind meld shared between the two. The memories of seeing a larger classed starship entitled the Enterprise flying off into space shooting at Romulan air crafts, tearing through hell, and it looked nothing like a Enterprise. It was HUGE. Larger. Wider. Equipped with more weapons than it had needed before.There were several, but consistent, versions of the Enterprise that came before his memory. The last version showed a war fit starship.

Not explorer.

Not eye-viewer-friendly.

"It makes sense why he ignored my messages." Spock said.

"His intention to start a war starting from two year ago?" McCoy said. "Hell,he wasn't on the Enterprise when you two vanished."

"Perhaps it wasn't expected but advantage to be taken of." Spock said.

"And here I thought Wright was a respectable man." McCoy said, shaking his head.

Spock looked over toward Kirk.

"And since you two are the highest rankin' officers on this ship, you two, OFF TO THE BRIDGE!" McCoy said.

There was a faint memory of a Klingon with a star fleet symbol on the bridge serving with humans. Humans. Klingons. Working together. Peacefully, and with harmony. There was the image of a android with golden skin and yellow eyes complete by black hair standing by the side of a bald man in Romulan attire. It was obvious the man was a android. Too obvious.

"Jim?" Spock asked.

Kirk opened his eyes.

"We have to stop this war," Kirk said. "It can not play out like this."

If we don't, Kirk thought, Star Fleet will become weaponized.