“Thanks for the vote of confidence,” Kirk said. “Now I know how you motivated your engineering teams all these years.”

“Don’t blame me,” Scotty said. “You’re the one running a bloody decathlon across the galaxy.”

“‘A ship in harbor is safe,’” Kirk quoted, “‘but that is not what ships are built for.’” He paused, then dryly asked, “Are you sure you don’t want to make a jump yourself?”

“The only jump I plan on making,” Scotty said, “is into my boat once I reach the Norpin Colony.”

“He says that now,” Chekov cracked, “but I bet less than a week after he arrives there, he’ll be working on the colony’s generators or power grid or transporters.”

Scotty looked at Pavel with an expression that seemed to indicate that he’d taken offense at the comment, but then he said, “Only if the equipment needs it.” Without waiting for a response, he turned and opened the airpod’s hatch. Kirk glanced over at Chekov, who smiled in obvious amusement at Scotty’s remark.

After the engineer had exited, Chekov and then Kirk followed him outside. The clean, slightly sweet scent of wheat filled the air, the aroma at once calling to mind his childhood. He didn’t fight to suppress the memories, as he so often did, but let them settle within him. “When I was a boy,” he said, “the air in certain areas around town would smell like this.” He breathed in deeply, and the three men stood quietly for a few seconds, taking in their surroundings. Finally, Chekov pointed off to one side.

“There,” he said. He walked ten meters, then squatted and waved away some of the panic grass, uncovering a squat cylinder that rose about half a meter from the ground. “This is your homing beacon.”

Kirk walked over and examined the device, which appeared well anchored in the ground. He strolled around it, then leaned down when he saw a small access panel on one side. He pushed it and it glided open, revealing a thumbprint scanner, a single control, and a small display. Kirk placed his thumb on the pad and a ray of light immediately shined across it. Almost at once, the words

ORBITAL SKYDIVER

-

IDENTITY CONFIRMED appeared on the display, and the control came to life with a red glow. As he’d been instructed when he’d signed up for his jump, Kirk pressed the button. The readout blinked and read

PERFORMING DIAGNOSTIC

. He waited until the color of the control changed from red to green, indicating the functional status of the homing beacon. The display also confirmed the successful completion of the diagnostic.

“All set,” he said, swinging the access plate closed and standing back up. Chekov rose as well.

“That’s it?” Scotty blustered. “You really ought to let me have a look at that equipment.”

“And how long would that take?” Kirk asked, playing along with the engineer.

“I could have it running at maximum efficiency in six hours,” he said.

“It’s a miracle that we could ever plan on the Enterprise making it from one planet to another in less than a year,” Chekov gibed.

“Engineers,” Kirk said with a shrug. “Just wait until you make captain and have a chief engineer of your own, Pavel.”

“Do you think they’ll let me do without one?” Chekov joked.

“Somebody’s got to be aboard to keep you command types from blowing up the ship every five minutes,” Scotty said in mock indignation.

“Well, that’s true,” Chekov said. “At least in your case, Captain.”

“Now, now,” Kirk said. “I only destroyed the Enterprise once.”

“Not for want of trying to do it more often,” Scotty said. “There was the time when the Kelvans hijacked the ship when you ordered me to rig the ship to explode on your order.”

“There was also the time when Bele and Lokai came aboard,” Chekov said.

“And then there was the time- ” Scotty began, but Kirk interrupted him.

“All right, all right, I give,” he said, holding up his hands before himself in a pose of surrender. “Well, I guess I should be on my way to Tunis.” Together, they all started back to the airpod, and Chekov flew them back into Wichita.

When they’d returned to the public transporter at which they’d all arrived earlier, Kirk said, “So I’ll see you gentlemen out at the landing zone this afternoon?”

“Four forty-nine,” Chekov confirmed. “We’ll be there.”

“Good,” Kirk said. “I’ll see you then.”

Chekov beamed away first, heading back to San Francisco, and then Scotty transported out to Aberdeen, Scotland, where he’d been living since beginning his own retirement. As Kirk stepped up onto the platform, he thought again about how much he’d enjoyed seeing his old friends. As much as he’d been anticipating his orbital skydive today, he now thought that he looked forward even more to the dinner that he and Scotty and Pavel had planned on having together this evening.

After I get back from the Enterprise launch tomorrow, Kirk thought, I’m going to contact Spock and Bones. McCoy had actually reached him last week, but Kirk hadn’t really said much, other than to tell his friend about agreeing to participate in the Enterprise-B ceremony. That’s got to change, Kirk thought. He realized that he really needed to reconnect with his friends.

At the console across the room, the transporter operator signaled his readiness, and Kirk nodded in reply. The operator worked his controls, and the hum of the transporter grew, bringing with it the blue-white light of dematerialization. Moments later, Kirk was not in Kansas anymore.

Kirk set down the carryall in the den of his counterpart’s San Francisco apartment, then squatted down and hunted through it until he found the blue data card he’d brought back with him from his days in Idaho. He took it to the computer terminal, where he sat down and inserted it into an input/output receptacle. He wanted to review one last time the message he’d recorded, since once he left here today, he wouldn’t have an opportunity to safely do so again.

On the display, his own face appeared. “Jim,” the message began, and as he implored the earlier version of himself to listen to the entire recording before taking any action, the strangeness of the situation struck Kirk. He had traveled in time before, but never had it resulted in such peculiar circumstances as these. It did once for Spock, though, he thought, remembering when his friend and first officer had leaped into his own childhood in order to save himself as a boy.

“I am you, but at a future date,” his message continued. “To make and leave you this recording, I arrived here through the Guardian of Forever. Because I am you, I know what the mere mention of the Guardian does to you, even after all these years.” Kirk knew that mentioning the time vortex in that way would have an impact on his alter ego.

When he’d finished watching the complete message and found himself satisfied with it, Kirk removed the data card and set it aside. He then accessed the Earth comnet and opened a transmission. After a few seconds, the Starfleet emblem faded in on the empty screen, replaced in the next moment by the face of Admiral Sinclair-Alexander’s assistant. “Captain Kirk,” the young ensign said. “May I help you with something?”

“I’d like to speak with the admiral,” he said.

“Admiral Sinclair-Alexander is in a meeting and therefore unavailable at the moment,” the ensign said. Kirk could not recall her name. “May I ask what this is in regard to?”

“The launch of the Enterprise tomorrow,” he said, aware that when Sinclair-Alexander heard why he had contacted her, she would be concerned that he had changed his mind about attending the ceremony. Kirk remembered that when she had invited him in the first place, he had not particularly wanted to do as she’d asked.

“Is there anything that I can help you with?” the ensign wanted to know.

“No, thank you,” Kirk said. “I really would like to discuss this with the admiral. The sooner, the better.”