Final Frontier

by Carey, Diane

  “Good riddance. And good luck.”

  Her cheeks dimpling as she tried to keep from grinning, Uhura cut off the communication as she sensed the captain wanted her to, and awaited his next order.

  “Signal Starbase Command that we’ll be pulling out,” Kirk said, “and log in the details of our next assignment.”

  “Yes, sir.” She seemed glad of something to do at that particular moment.

  However, this deprived Kirk of any more distraction, and he had no choice but to face the bridge again.

  Now McCoy was watching him, his face a matte of curiosity and pathos. The unspoken question was plain as a billboard: What changed your mind?

  Kirk looked down at his hand, at the hurriedly scrawled letter, the last of the letters that had come during that mysterious time so many years ago. Slowly he raised it, and read it again.

  Dear Sam and Jimmy—

  I know I don’t usually call you that, but since that’s what you call each other, I think I’m going to start. There are a lot of things I’m going to start as soon as we’re together again. Jimmy, I’m sorry I didn’t make it home for your birthday, but I’m going to make it up to you. I’ve changed my mind about having you boys up at the starbase. Why shouldn’t you come here? Space is great and what the Federation’s doing out here is great, and we’re not going to sit it out. It’s a tremendous feeling when you get the chance to save lives or cut new paths, and nothing’s newer than what’s out here. There really is a lot to see if you know how to look at it. We’re on the verge of becoming a true interstellar community. I’m not going to make you boys miss it. My little problems won’t get in the way anymore. Who knows? Maybe we can even convince your mom to come along. You ask her for me, okay?

  So come on. Come out to space.

  I’ll be waiting for you.

  Love —

  Dad

  The captain looked up from the letter when his eyes began to blur. He folded the note carefully, tenderly, and held it against his chest as he stepped down and took his place near the command chair.

  He felt more than saw Spock appear beside him.

  “Welcome, Captain. Are you not going to finish your leave?”

  “I did.” Kirk gazed out at the velvet expanse of space beyond the starbase. “Contact Starfleet Command. Tell them I don’t want any more patrol time. I want an exploratory mission.” Under Spock’s mellow expression, one of pleased understanding, the captain slid into his command chair and spoke softly.

  “Someplace no one’s ever gone before.”

  Hope and a Common Future

  “My eminent friends, the time has come for me to step aside and allow the future of this program to unfold into hardier hands. The Fleet Starship program has taken wing, and I am gratified. Five ships of the Constitution class are already embarking on missions, and seven more are under construction.

  “These ships tend to have strong military-sounding names—Enterprise, Potemkin, Farragut, Excalibur, and so on. But the overriding theme is the name of the class of these ships—the Constitution class. We must never forget that we are obliged to ensure domestic tranquility even as we provide for the common defense. These two phrases walk hand in hand through the Preamble of that great document, and neither should be divorced from the other. We must always represent that tranquility as well as that defense, in order that we can indeed have the blessings of liberty.

  “Today, domestic tranquility must extend throughout the galaxy, to all life forms, and it must include a promise that they will be allowed to live by their own standards, not by ours.

  “The Constitution speaks of our posterity. This means, my friends, that we owe these rights not only to ourselves, but to our descendants. It means we have the obligation to keep a peaceful and secure present, that our children may have a peaceful and secure future. That document, centuries old now, was an investment for the future. These Constitution-class starships must carry its sentiment as they carry us outward.

  “We’ve learned valuable lessons over recent years, both about our technology and about our conscience as one of the first known races to explore our galaxy for exploration’s sake. We now know, at great cost, that we have a responsibility. To the galaxy we open up, we owe justice and choice. To ourselves and those who join us in years to come, we owe strength and the courage to use it. To everyone everywhere, we owe care in choosing wise individuals to mete that justice and that strength.

  “The council has accepted my recommendation, and it is with highest pride that I announce my successor to the captaincy of our flagship. Upon recommendation of two close and respected consultants of mine, as well as my own acquaintance with his common sense and sense of adventure, I pass along my legacy to Captain Christopher Richard Pike, and entrust to him the command of the United Federation Starship Enterprise.

  “Under Captain Pike, a very special ship and a very special crew will soon embark on the first of a series of exploratory assignments in deep space. With them they take our hearts, our hopes, our support, and our trust.

  “It’s a thrilling concept, isn’t it, my friends? Space . . . the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission—to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life, new civilizations . . . to boldly go where no man has gone before.

  “Thank you all. And farewell.”

  Captain Robert April

  Address to the United Federation

  of Planets General Assembly,

  October 2, 2192

  Epilogue

  THE EARLY INCIDENT in Romulan space was kept secret, known only to those few aboard the Enterprise who really understood what had happened. The decision was made not to log the incident because it had become clear that the two budding civilizations were not yet ready to meet. How they would eventually rediscover each other, fate alone could tell. Other than the rescue of the S.S. Rosenberg, no log was filed of the first voyage of the first starship.

  Captain Christopher Pike took the legacy of Robert April’s dreams and turned them into reality in deep space. The exploration program, spearheaded by valiant people aboard the fleet of starships, changed the course of the Federation and its growing policies into a truly functional, strong, and unified body. The marriage of exploration and defense proved both wise and workable in the practical application of Federation policy, and ultimately became the most attractive element to new races who were courted as potential members.

  A Federation consultant from the private sector, civilian botanist Cale Sandorsen, was foremost in the development of Federation intersystem policy and diplomatic precepts. Almost singly, he provided the precedent for ambassadorial ethics between races. His example made humanity a truly noble and open-minded race, whom other cultures soon learned to trust, and even to emulate. He became known in inner circles as the father of Federation justice.

  Robert April went on to become one of the Federation’s great early explorers, discovering many alien civilizations on many worlds, several of which he convinced to join the Federation. Sarah Poole April went with him, and made up for her dislike of space travel by pioneering the evolution of space medicine to include unfamiliar life forms and unusual biological conditions.

  George Kirk remained in Starfleet to serve as Sandorsen’s military adjutant and adviser, which enabled him to remain near or on Earth until his elder son, George Jr., entered the Graduate Academy of Biosciences and his younger son, James, entered Starfleet Academy as a junior midshipman. Shortly thereafter, he was on board a Federation vessel on special diplomatic assignment when the ship mysteriously disappeared with all hands.

  The Enterprise continues.

  ON THE DIGNITY OF EXPLORATION . . .

  Space has been midwife to the birth of a new global consciousness. Two decades ago, with my first serendipitous sighting of a satellite, I was one of the lucky few to be touched for a moment by this philosophy. The children of the future, however, will be raised with the benefits of these space-age lesso
ns . . . With this new education, we may provide our progeny with a delight and an insight we ourselves have not yet experienced. When they travel in their spacecraft, creating the illusion of falling stars across the heavens, perhaps they will look down on earth and think, with reverence, of the tiny creatures making stardust in the sea.

  —Jacques-Yves Cousteau

  ON THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES . . .

  The Constitution is more than literature, but as literature, it is primarily a work of the imagination. It imagined a country: fantastic. More fantastic still, it imagined a country full of people imagining themselves. Within the exacting articles and stipulations there was not only room to fly but also tacit encouragement to fly, even the instructions to fly, traced delicately within the solid triangular concoctions of the framers.

  —Roger Rosenblatt, Time Magazine

  ON THE MORALITY OF DEFENSE . . .

  No man may initiate the use of physical force against others. No man—or group or society or government—has the right to assume the role of a criminal and initiate the use of physical compulsion against any man. Men have the right to use physical force only in retaliation and only against those who initiate its use. The ethical principle involved is simple and clear-cut: it is the difference between murder and self-defense.

  —Ayn Rand

  Author’s Note

  By coincidence or by omen, the final revisions of this novel—the last time the manuscript was worked on in our home—happened to be done on September 17, 1987, the 200th birthday of the Constitution of the United States. All patriots please rise.

  Diane Carey

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  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Permission to print Ayn Rand quotation on self-defense granted by the Estate of Ayn Rand.

  Roger Rosenblatt quotation excerpted from “Words on Pieces of Paper.” Copyright 1987 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reprinted by permission from TIME.

  Excerpt from The Cousteau Almanac by Jacques Cousteau © 1980, 1981 by the Cousteau Society, Inc., reprinted by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam, Doubleday, Dell Publishing Group, Inc.

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  Copyright © 1988 Paramount Pictures. All Rights Reserved.

  STAR TREK is a Registered Trademark of Paramount Pictures.

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  ISBN: 0-671-69655-6

  ISBN: 978-0-7434-5426-1 (eBook)

  First Pocket Books printing January 1988

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