“I’ll see you back at the apartment,” Kirk told him with a quick wave.

“Good night,” Spock said, returning Kirk’s wave with his own clumsy gesture. Given their circumstances, Spock had done what he could to blend in to their ancient setting, his efforts essentially succeeding, though to varying degrees.

As Spock moved off down the sidewalk to the right, Kirk put his arm around Edith’s back and started into the street. They stepped down from the sidewalk, but then two quick beeps sounded to their left. At the same time that Kirk saw an automobile bearing down on them, he hauled Edith backward. Tires squealed on the pavement as the automobile stopped right before them. The driver honked his horn again, and then once more for a longer burst.

Kirk’s heart raced. Not only had Edith just been endangered, but he realized that he might at that moment have changed history, relegating Earth to a Nazi victory in World War II. But McCoy’s not here yet, Kirk told himself. This can’t be the time.

Edith’s hand had gone up around his back, and now she urged him forward. As they passed in front of the stopped automobile, Kirk made an effort to cover his anxiety, offering a wave of apology to the driver. He dropped his arm from around Edith and took her hand as they hurried to the far sidewalk.

“Oh,” he began, remembering that he and Edith had earlier talked about taking a romantic walk down by the waterfront. Before he could continue, though, Edith excitedly suggested that, if they hurried, they could see a movie over at the Orpheum. As she mentioned how she’d love to see the film, Kirk said, “What?” He knew that he’d much prefer spending time with Edith in a setting where he could interact with her, rather than in a place where they would have to remain silent.

As they stepped up onto the sidewalk, Edith said, “You know, Doctor McCoy said the same- “

The name struck Kirk as effectively as a blow to the face. He whirled around to Edith, letting go of her hand and grabbing her by her upper arms. “McCoy?!” he said. “Leonard McCoy?”

Edith gazed up at him in evident confusion. “Yes,” she said. “He’s in the mission, he’s- “

“Stay right here,” Kirk told her forcefully. He looked past her then, down the street in the direction that Spock had walked. He shouted his friend’s name, then let go of Edith and started back across the street, back toward the mission. “Stay right there,” he called back to her. As he saw Spock hurrying back along the sidewalk, Kirk could only think one thing: McCoy! If they had found him, then maybe they could determine some means of repairing the damage to the timeline without having to let Edith die. Maybe they could even find a way of bringing her back with them to the future.

Kirk ran in front of another automobile, earning him another beep of a horn, but he paid it little attention. He leaped the curb in front of the mission just as Spock arrived there. “What is it?” the first officer asked.

“McCoy,” Kirk said, pointing to the front doors. “He’s in- ” He stopped in midsentence as he looked toward the mission and saw the doctor emerging from within. “Bones!” he yelled, and he rushed toward his old friend.

“Jim!” McCoy called. Kirk embraced Bones, saying his nickname again, almost as though trying to confirm his presence here. Beside them, Spock had reached for McCoy’s hand, and now the two shook enthusiastically, a rare show of emotion for the Vulcan.

“I’m so happy to see you two,” Bones said. As he spoke, Kirk peered back toward Edith. He saw that she had started walking back across the street, her eyes focused on the trio in front of the mission. Without looking, Kirk heard the sound of an approaching vehicle, and in an instant, he knew that the time had come. “I didn’t know where I was, or how I got here,” McCoy began, but he stopped as Kirk stepped away from him and back across the sidewalk.

Kirk staggered forward even as both of his friends yelled to him. “No, Jim!”

Kirk stopped at the curb. “Edith- ” he said, the single, desperate word not much more than a whisper. Edith continued walking toward him, seemingly unaware of the danger. Kirk wanted to go to her, wanted to throw himself into her path and save her from her fate, no matter the consequences.

Instead, he stood there.

And then somebody bumped him from behind, attempting to push past him. Kirk knew it had to be McCoy. He raised his arm to block the doctor’s progress, then turned and threw his arms around his friend. Unable to watch, Kirk buried his head atop McCoy’s shoulder, his eyes slammed shut. He heard the whine of tires on the street, and then he heard Edith scream. He did not even recognize her voice, but then a terrible sound reached him as her head struck the pavement.

That quickly, Kirk had lost everything in his life that could have been.

The beat of footsteps went up as people rushed to the scene of the accident. Kirk couldn’t move, couldn’t even open his eyes. The pain of his loss pressed in on him, filled him, and he wanted nothing more in that moment than to let go, to crumple lifeless to the ground beside his beloved.

“You deliberately stopped me, Jim,” McCoy accused him, and Kirk realized that he still held on tightly to the doctor. He opened his eyes as McCoy continued his indictment. “I could have saved her,” he said. “Do you know what you just did?”

Kirk pushed away from McCoy then, lurching over to the front doors of the mission. There, he leaned heavily against the jamb. What have I done? he thought, and even though he knew the answer, it didn’t matter; he knew that the question would remain with him always.

“He knows, Doctor,” he heard Spock say. “He knows.”

Kirk felt empty and weak. He clenched his fist, fighting just to maintain his equilibrium. In his mind’s eye, though, all he could see was Edith’s face.

EIGHTEEN

2293/2371

Within the mysterious mists of the Guardian, the events of Captain Jean-Luc Picard’s life played out once more. Jim Kirk had completed his preparations for the journey to come, taking the shuttlecraft out of the crater and hiding it in the base of a deep crevice. He then fixed its engines to explode in a way that would leave behind as little evidence as possible, then beamed back to the Guardian of Forever. There, he watched closely, waiting for the right moment. When it came, he jumped through the time vortex.

As he landed softly on a rocky surface, he saw a sandstone wall rising before him. A hot, dry wind blew past, bringing with it the scent of dust and the grit of the air. He turned and peered out across the rocky terrain, recognizing the surface of Veridian Three from the images he’d seen within the Guardian. He looked for any sign of Picard or Soran, but then an explosion ripped apart a stone ridge twenty or twenty-five meters away. Rubble rained down on the landscape as a cloud of dust rose into the air. Through it, Kirk thought he saw movement, a dash of color, red and black, but then it vanished behind other rocks.

He stepped forward, believing that he’d just seen Picard. Suddenly, two bright green pulses screamed through the air, obviously shots from an energy weapon. Kirk backed up against the sandstone wall, taking cover as best he could as the ridge where he thought he’d seen Picard exploded again. Above it, the orange spark of a massive force field blinked on and off. On the ridge, a rock slab fell from its place and tumbled heavily to the ground.

More debris showered down around Kirk. He waited, not wanting to reveal himself to whoever had fired the weapon-Soran, no doubt. As the seconds ticked away, he watched the surrounding area, which offered numerous places to conceal oneself: fissures cut the ground and boulders stood tall all around.

Finally, unwilling to wait any longer for fear of failing in his mission, he started forward. But then he saw a hand appear at the edge of a crevice just in front of him. Cautiously, he stepped over to it and looked down. There, he saw Picard attempting to pull himself upward. The future captain of the Enterprise saw him and froze, clearly unsure what to make of another person here on Veridian Three.