Chapter One

Kirk knew his journey would be ending soon.

That feeling overwhelmed him even as he resolved from the transporter beam and felt the gravity of this world reassert its hold on him-a hold it had never once relinquished over all the years, all the parsecs, which had passed from that first time to now. All that had happened since that first time was but a heartbeat to him, as if his life were dust streaming from the tail of a comet, without mass, without consequence, measured only by the moment he had first arrived at this place, and by the moment of his return.

It had been twenty-eight years since he had first set foot here, and Kirk had no doubt that he would never do so again. He could hear Spock's patient voice in his mind, blandly noting the illogic of that conclusion, given that the unexpected was all too common in their lives. But in some matters emotions took precedence. Which is why he had returned. Everything was coming to an end. No matter what Spock concluded, no matter how McCoy argued, Kirk's heart knew the truth of that feeling.

This is the last time for so many things, Kirk thought, failing into the litany that had grown in him since his retirement. Soon would come his last passage by transporter. His last look at starlight smeared by warp speed. His last glimpse of fleecy skies and Earth's cool, green hills. He thought of the old song for space travelers, written before spaceflight had even begun on Earth. He was saddened that he could not recall all of it.

"Captain Kirk, we are honored by your visi