RIVERSIDE, IOWA, 2268

She stared with a mock-glare over at his bed.

"So you think you're too old for this story? Peter, I've read this to you since you were newborn. I knew Sam and Aurelan before they even intended to have a child. So lay back and enjoy. That's an order, Mister!"

With no response, she finished up and got to his favorite part.

"The King and Queen could not believe their eyes. For over the hill came their son The Hidden Prince, alive and not dead, as the rebellious dukes had told them was so. In one hand, he held the Great Sword, obtainable by only the bravest of heroes. In the other hand--he held the huge horn of the Old Evil Dragon, whom he had slain. He fell to his knees before the monarchs, but was raised up and  at long last told who he truly was. And he was held by his true parents, and the pains of slavery, depredation, depravity and cruelty at the hands of those dragon-loving dukes, all now slain, fell away to nothing. The King commanded that for his bravery, the story of the adventures of the Hidden Prince be told forever, with different names and different faces, so that he should not ever be forgotten. On that day, The Crown Prince, Hidden no more, was even given to sit in his father's throne in the great round hall, and from there he watched the moon's rise, and felt the call of the stars above as was his heritage. It was the end of all his tears."

Uhura looked over at the bed.

"There--now was that so bad?"

A voice came from the connecting foyer.

"Nyta? Nyta, honey. Its--time."

In dress uniform, the captain of The Enterprise saw the woman he had loved since Tarsus in her own dress uniform, sitting in a chair—and staring at a bed that had lain empty for three weeks. She began to tear up, not for the first time. His own tears were long past spent.

"Its not fair, Jim. Whoever they were, whatever they wanted--couldn't they have at least left his body?"

She was not a weak person. She was not a 'Captain's choice'. She had a function most smart people knew as vital. But at this moment, she was again a thirteen-year old, her transport waylaid by Kodos' forces for his ambush of the colonists. As sadistic guards grabbed at her tunic, she found hope in the form of a sixteen-year old titan who made them regret they were ever born. And when his eye began to turn toward the girl who looked older than she was, she didn't correct either his assumptions or his presumptions.

That was when being heroic accomplished something, she thought. Before an unknown enemy, striking at the Federation's heart, found a way to silently kill Brianna Kirk and seemingly erase Peter Kirk.

"Nyta--I need you to be strong for me. Spock's not here."

The Vulcan had not been himself for a while, now. Not since his delivery of the captured Romulan Commander from the cloak incident had been interrupted by Romulan agents who retook and executed her. But for him to be away from Kirk at a time like this?

"I'm with you, Jim. I just wish I didn't have to be."

Kirk closed the book.

"He's in Heaven, Nyta. Its the end of all his tears. Now lets go and remember his life."

Wiping away her own tears, Nyota Uhura thought she briefly saw a crystal coffin, with Peter Kirk sleeping inside of it. But that quickly faded, and the nearby funeral would push away all such images.

For the dragon was not yet slain. For the rebellious dukes ruled the land, and had, from their Admiralty Hall in San Francisco, ordered the kidnapping of The Hidden Prince.

But in ten years' time, The Hidden Prince would indeed come over the hill, alive as you or me. And eight years after that, he would join his true father, The King, and The Queen who loved them both well, aboard a castle in the stars--called Enterprise, together to vanquish evil.

Fairy tales can come true.