“You look nervous,” Nogura said, as though reading his thoughts.

Shaking his head, Kirk replied, “No, sir, it’s nothing like that. I guess I just didn’t expect to be dealing with . . . well, this. . . again.”

“With luck, this will be the last time.” Then Nogura chuckled, as though to himself. “Then again, my luck when it comes to Operation Vanguard hasn’t been very good.”

Walking alongside the admiral, Kirk eyed the gleaming white passageway stretching before them, with closed doors on either side of the corridor. Perhaps fifty or sixty meters ahead was a junction connecting this passage with another, wider one. A moment later he saw an antigrav transport pass through the intersection, its onboard computer interfacing with that of the facility to guide the car and its passengers to their destination.

“This is my first time here,” Kirk said, genuinely impressed with the size of the complex. “I had no idea it was this big.” One of the most secure installations in the Sol Sector, the Aldrin City Archives Annex contained more stringent access protocols than Starfleet Headquarters itself. The use of transporters was not permitted except in the case of emergency, and even entering the base required the formal authorization of the chief of Starfleet Operations. This was fortunate for Kirk, as—thanks to the machinations of Admiral Nogura—it was the position he currently occupied.

Though he had visited the moon on several occasions—the earliest being a trip during his childhood with his father when the elder Kirk had been required to pilot a transport from Earth to another Starfleet installation—those visits had not included this facility. When young Jim Kirk had inquired about it, his father had offered little in the way of useful information, leading the teen to believe that it might well be some kind of top secret base that was home to all manner of sensitive and even dangerous information and perhaps even alien artifacts. It was not until he joined Starfleet himself that Kirk had been something less than surprised to learn the accuracy of that early, youthful assessment.

Nogura said, “Twenty-six levels, each of them occupying five square kilometers. There’s talk of expanding the complex, either outward or downward, depending on whom you ask. Apparently, Starfleet feels it might one day run out of room for all its secrets. Considering how much data and material pertaining to Vanguard we just brought here, I suppose they could use the extra space.” There was no mistaking the bitter tone lacing the admiral’s words, but a glance in his direction told Kirk that the other man had no apparent interest in expounding on this comment. “You should probably get used to the idea of coming here every couple of months or so. There’s never a lack of interesting reading, that’s for sure. Of course, this assumes the chief of Starfleet Operations will even let you in the place. I hear he can be a bit disagreeable.”

Kirk chuckled. “I’ve heard that, too. I’ll have a little chat with him about that.” Despite the shared levity, he knew that Nogura—in his patented oblique fashion—was commenting on the difficulties Kirk seemed to be having as he settled into his new role. Just over two months had passed since his promotion, and already he felt as though something within him—something he could not identify—had gone missing, some quality that no longer asserted itself as he settled into his current duties. Instead of directing the actions of one starship, Kirk now oversaw every ship in the fleet. His perspective on the interstellar political climate—in particular how it affected Starfleet—had expanded far beyond the center seat on the bridge of one vessel. Now the quadrant was a mammoth game board, with Starfleet representing his playing pieces as he and other senior flag officers worked to ensure that their resources were deployed in a manner best suited not only to supporting Starfleet’s mission of exploration and furthering Federation knowledge but also responding to the tests presented by adversarial powers.

Just another day at the office.

But was it enough? Along with the challenges of commanding a starship, Kirk also missed his friends. Spock, already gone to Vulcan, now was supposedly immersed in some form of advanced studies about which little was known or offered to outworlders. Leonard McCoy at last report was considering putting his own extended leave on hold in order to participate in a Starfleet program to send doctors and support services to planets, colonies, and other isolated communities along the Federation border. Such a choice seemed at odds with the doctor’s original and rather vocal intentions to “get lost for a while” following the Enterprise’s return to Earth. Kirk had no idea if his friend had accepted the assignment or carried out his good-natured threat to “disappear.” The rest of his former crew was busy elsewhere, with duties relating to the Enterprise’s upcoming top-down refit, or other assignments as handed down from Starfleet. He did not know at this point just how many of the crew would stay with the ship once its upgrades were completed. The only thing Kirk seemed to know for certain was that another captain would guide her toward her next mission.

Thanks for the reminder.

Following the signage, they traversed several sections of corridor that to Kirk all looked alike, before turning a corner and arriving at a short section of passageway that ended at a large, formidable-looking metal hatch. Positioned outside the hatch was a pair of guards—a human male and an Andorian female—each wearing the standard uniform for a member of the security branch, including maroon body armor and matching helmet bearing the Starfleet insignia. The officers were standing at ease, their hands behind their backs with their phasers holstered on their hips, and both came to attention at the sight of Nogura and Kirk.

“Admiral Nogura,” said the Andorian, a lieutenant. “Admiral Kirk. Captain Czerwinski’s expecting you.”

“Lead on, Lieutenant,” Nogura said, indicating the heavy hatch.

Turning to a recessed keypad set into the bulkhead to her left, the Andorian tapped a sequence, and a moment later the massive hatch slid aside to reveal what to Kirk looked like a typical computer operations center or even the bridge of a starship. The room was square rather than circular, with fifteen workstations of varying configuration lining the walls, only half of which were occupied by base personnel. A pentagonal island at the center of the room featured five additional workstations, only one of them in use. The island’s lone occupant, a human female with short blond hair, had already risen from her seat and now was moving around the station toward Kirk and Nogura. She wore a variant of the current Starfleet duty uniform—a white short-sleeved tunic and blue-gray trousers. On her shoulders were epaulets displaying her rank insignia.

“Admiral Nogura,” she said as she approached, “welcome to Aldrin City. I’m Captain Czerwinski, commander of the archives facility.” Turning her attention to Kirk, she added, “Welcome, Admiral. Congratulations on your promotion. I have to say, sir, that some of the things you and the Enterpriseran into made for lively reading.”

“Only about half of those reports are true, Captain,” Kirk replied, offering what he hoped was a disarming smile. In truth, he remained uncomfortable with the entire notion of somehow being “famous.” Though he did not consider doing as he was ordered to be worthy of any particular recognition, the media had taken great delight in covering the end of the Enterprise’s tour of duty. Much attention was given to comparing it to the starship’s sister Constitution-class vessels, along with the unfortunate and often tragic fates that had befallen several of them. He suspected that at least part of Nogura’s motivation for promoting him was to somehow exploit the good graces in which the former Enterprisecaptain now found himself with the press. Even Timothy Pennington, the former Federation News Service reporter who had been a witness to many of the events pertaining to Operation Vanguard, saw fit to write his own essay on the Enterprise, her crew, and her mission. Having read the article, Kirk was only somewhat surprised to note that his ship’s presence at the “Battle of Starbase 47” had escaped mention.