The Reality Of It All; The Reports Of His Death Are Greatly Exaggerated

As the energy ribbon approached Veridan III, a major battle of great significance was in progress on the planet below. The past and present Captain’s of the legendary Enterprise were in a struggle with the madman Soran. He was obsessed with returning to the energy ribbon he’d been snatched from so many years ago, and nothing was going to stand in his way. Whole worlds or even universes meant nothing to him. It did not occur to him that his gravitational manipulation of the ribbon was creating effects other than just a change in its direction. The very fabric of the universe was increasingly in jeopardy with each abrupt change. The effect of each gravity field on the ribbon was the same as if someone had thrown a rock into a pond. Normally these were proverbial small rocks. Soran was effectively throwing large boulders into the mix. As drops of water rise due to displacement, so were drops or splinters of the ribbon displaced. Normally, these fell harmlessly back into the energy of the ribbon and were known as the ‘aura’ of it. However, with each new violent displacement, the very fabric of the ribbon was in great danger of flying apart. This would very likely create several mini-ribbons, of which, the eventual meeting of any two would quite likely destroy time itself and the universe with it. Even in its currently unstable state, if given time, the danger would pass and it would return to its normal chaotic stable state. However, Soran was unaware of its need for recovery time, nor would he have cared. Therefore, the conflict below had far greater significance than either Captain could have imagined. As Kirk and Picard fought to save the millions of lives Soran’s device would kill, they were also in fact fighting to save the trillions of lives inhabiting the universe. The significance of Kirk’s presence and subsequent death was, therefore, raised to a level far above what history has recorded. However, with the limited knowledge of the energy ribbon, and the effects Soran had on it, who’s to say what really happened on Veridan III? Is it not logical to deduce that a splinter of the ribbon could have picked up a falling object such as a Starship Captain up on its way back to the ribbon? Wait, you say, Picard saw Kirk die. Did he? Have not transporters malfunctioned before and created copies (albeit flawed) of people, even Kirk. What if the transporter properties of the energy ribbon could under certain circumstances, such as large gravitational disturbances coupled with the unusual properties of the minerals on Veridan III, create an exact copy of what it’s absorbing? Could it not then lose that copy due to it’s unstable state and somehow keep the original within its boundaries? Well that in fact, is exactly what happened. And though Kirk has been thought of as dead all this time, those rumors have been greatly exaggerated. As people in both centuries have mourned the loss of a living legend, they’ve had no idea how living he really is.

Kirk had no idea he was in the ribbon. Memories of his past ribbon account and his encounter with Picard and Soran were fuzzy at best. Occasionally those memories would give him nightmares, but he just chalked them up to eating the wrong foods late at night. What mattered most to him now was living the retired life with his wife Carol Kirk (formerly Marcus), and their three children James David, Lisabeth, and Leonard. His Kentucky ranch gave him a great deal of a satisfaction as well. He had an unbridled passion for horses and a seemingly endless supply of money. He missed the crew of the Enterprise, especially Spock and McCoy. They had all been through death…and life…together. But he figured they were probably enjoying their retirement too. So went living the good life for James T. Kirk, until one day, when out of the blue…

(As Spock has said many times, “There are always possibilities.”)

Written by Curtis Fox - June 4, 2004

[William Shatner] [Star Trek TOS]