MARCH, 2273"Welcome to The Missing. Perhaps they are hurt. Perhaps they have hurt someone else. But on GNN's award-winning The Missing, we don't care. We only want them found. Even though some will never be. Case in point--tonight marks the fifth anniversary of The Kirk murders."
"In the sleepy Iowa town of Ottumwa, a woman named Brianna lived peacefully with her orphaned grandson, Peter. This in itself was unremarkable. But the happy little family had a problem--their last name was Kirk."
"The most famous son of The Kirk family is, of course, the highly controversial maverick, Captain James R. Kirk of The Spaceship Enterprise. A man who lives by his own rules, he has been instrumental in turning back two separate probes sent to destroy the Earth. He has also been a source of consternation to both Starfleet's enemies and to Starfleet itself."
"Attempts to contact either Kirk or his daughter, a young woman named Victoria Saav, were largely usuccessful. Saav, it has been speculated, is the child of the late Doctor Elizabeth Dehner."
"So it is only from neighbors that we draw a picture of a happy little family that never knew a day of strife. Peter was a straight-A student, the pride of his grandmother, said to be a sweet and loving woman. The bond between the two was deep."
"Born on the colony world of Deneva Three, Peter Kirk entered the news the first time by being the sole survivor of a mysterious plague that GNN's sources say may have had its start in the worlds of The Klingon Empire. Peter was a youth leader on Deneva, and often exhorted other youth to do their part in the work of building a world."
"What happened that night in Iowa, we may never know. But this much is clear - an enemy broached the heart of The Federation, and butchered two members of one of its premiere families. Rest assured--people, we will find them."
"If you have any information that might help us crack this case, send it over. Let the ghosts of Brinoa Kirk and Peter Marcus Kirk go to rest. And now--a very special plea."
"Greetings. I am Rear Admiral Brock Cartwright, Chair of Admiralty Hall. It takes a special kind of monster to take a child away from its family. If you know anything at all about this--let us at The Hall know what you do. I mean this, quite sincerely. If you know--then we need to know about you. Thank you."
"Starfleet took this one personally, folks. That family was one of their own. So help find who killed Pietro Kirk. Its important to us all. Next on The Missing---just where is Kirk's predecessor? The man called Christopher Pike did NOT get up and walk away. Where is the Captain and noted author of children's horror, anyway?"
Fall, 2283"Welcome to Reason and Hope--the show designed by your demands for less hot-button reality Vid. Today, we have a story that truly defies reason and inspires hope. We may be a month late with this story, folks—but that means we have perspective--and we mean to show you why we wait."
"We all remember mourning as a Galaxy when senseless tragedy, in the form of terrorism, struck at the heart of The Federation. When Starfleet's greatest hero was shown in a brutal manner that his family was not immune to revenge, even on Earth. Some say our protected paradise was lost when Brianna and Peter Kirk were murdered in their homes in Iowa. Ironically, this region was once considered the heart of old America, as well. But as the radioactive remains of Oklahoma City remind us, almost 300 years later, it takes only one lunatic to shatter the illusion of peace. One lunatic--or a team of them."
"Was it Klingon renegades? Romulan agents? Orion Mercs? Some unknown party, desperate for revenge? We still don't know. Again, we only know what was found that night by Starfleet security forces. Brianna Kirk lay dead in her living room. The killers had made a sloppy attempt to make it look like a suicide, belying the notion of a professional hit. No trace was found of grandson Peter Kirk. No transport signature. No residue from a phaser blast. Nothing left of him except the memories of a grieving uncle and his crew, with whom he had apparently become quite close. As close to total erasure as is possible in this day and age, short of a conspiracy."
"But all this is known, and life goes on without one 13-year old boy, however well loved. In fact, the legend of James Kirk only grew in the years after the murder. Perhaps having lost his entire family, the great man felt he had nothing left to lose. Starfleet knew what it had, and so certainly did their best to keep him out there, amidst the stars."
"We forward now to this tragic past month on Vulcan, when Klingon renegade Kruge subjected Vulcan to a specially-designed EM-Pulse. Except for Vulcan's nearly-sacrosanct and well-protected water supply system, the entire sector was rendered tech-less. People outfitted with pacemakers and other implants died from internal implosions. Monitors exploded, decapitating people where they sat. Holo-matrixes erupted, erasing the people using them as well as their sketchy holograms. In short, it was a disaster."
"Disaster seemed likely to strike at Captain Kirk yet again. A young Vulcan woman named Saavik, who resides at Ambassador Sarek's house, is the Captain's adoptive daughter. She was home alone, during the critical period of maturity called the 'Nuo Pon Farr' -- the First Amok Time, when, as we all know, a Vulcan's reason and logic falls away to nothing--until such time as they mate. Her only potential mate in isolation? A human male of about 18 years named Richard Grayson."
"Mating with a Vulcan involves a deep bond, a commitment most sentients cannot hope to comprehend. Jokes about wild sex once every seven years fall away to nothing in light of the fact that personal boundaries must be surrendered completely and forever. Humans who have tried unassisted have experienced heart failure, madness--and yes, death. Despite this, Richard Grayson, said to be a young male relative of Lady Amanda Grayson, helped Saavik Kirk to complete the bond. In so doing, he gained a wife-- and saved her life."
"A sentienterest story, you say? A minor happiness in the midst of a disaster? Well, yes. But then, something else developed. Because relatives of Sarek's human wife loudly proclaimed that they had never heard of this young man. Because research revealed that Captain Kirk's adoptive son-in-law was a fiction. 'Richard Grayson'--a private joke of some kind-- was in fact an alias. This is why we were late, folks. Because Richard Grayson and Peter Kirk are one and the same. The Captain's adoptive daughter had married his nephew and adoptive son. The one who was supposed to have been dead for 15 years."
"A statement from Ambassador Sarek's office stated merely this : 'After the successive loss of his parents and younger brother during the Denevan Plague, a less-than-ideal guardian in Brianna Kirk, a brutal kidnapping, ten years in cryo-genic stasis, followed by a long and painful rehabilitation, it was decided to protect Peter from both his former captors and the oft-withering gaze of the public eye. Hence the fiction of Richard Grayson, crafted with the help of Captain Kirk and Commanders Spock and Uhura. No fraud was intended. Merely the granting of peace to a young man who has known so very little.' End statement."
"Our attempts to reach the Federation's Klingon Ambassador, former Enterprise Captain Spock, on this matter referred us to a Vulcan ritual called Kalifee, which at air time, we had not yet fully translated as it applies to this marriage and false ID."
"So it is still completely unknown who killed Brianna Kirk and kidnapped Peter, all those years ago. But now beginning their final year at Starfleet Academy, Cadets Kirk and Kirk are living a fairy-tale come true. It reminds this reporter of the old Andorian rhymes of my childhood, about the End Of Days, and two champions who would arise to beat back The Last Thing Which Was Also First. For you see, the names Peter and Saavik both translate as 'The Rock'. We from the press, say, we wish you success--its good to have the both of you back. For Reason And Hope, I am Vanz Teararlaen."
On screens everywhere across the quadrant, the footage of Peter Kirk punching out Ghidorah and of Saavik Kirk climbing up onto the hull to cast him back played endlessly."This is GNN's coverage of AD - Day 99. Tally of the fallen, as it now stands. Romulus, Q'onos, Andor, Tellar, Delta Prime, Sigma Iotia, Vendikar, Anthunia... I'm sorry, I can't go on. Because these aren't the names of individuals. They are the names of whole worlds. Worlds that contained people that just aren't there anymore."
The announcer gathered herself.
"So far, the path of The Doomsday Machine seems random, as though sluggish in reacting to King Ghidorah's presence. The path of the Ancient Destroyer seems all too clear. There are as of now only two planets left with any significant populations. Vulcan--and Earth. Until now, we as a galactic population perhaps never fully realized how concentrated and yet how scattered we really were. On Earth, all Starfleet personnel, and I mean all Starfleet personnel are currently mobilizing an armada of all remaining ships. If it can be outfitted with weapons, they're using it. Due to current problems achieving warp speed, all ships are headed at best impulse to a point just outside Earth's solar system. Hopefully, the lessons learned from the Klingon fleet and The Enterprise's encounters with Ghidorah will serve us all well, there."
"Oddest of all has been the Vulcan response to Ghidorah's coming. The Defense Ministry has been quoted as saying : 'King Ghidorah is only a myth. Vulcan has never been successfully invaded within living memory. No evacuation is therefore planned.' "
"Despite this statement, some Vulcans are leaving, as we speak. But many seem in denial. Call it Logic, C'Thia, or Reality-Truth. It seems the Vulcan belief system has no place in it for The Ancient Destroyer."
"Only One May Stop Ghidorah--that's what the prophecy of The Rock reads. But we have two champions, apparently of equal power. Both of these young marrieds have been in the news, it seems, all their lives."
"Many older Starfleet Officers once called Peter Kirk 'The Reminder'. It has been speculated that as he was born on December 8, 2255, his grandfather died aboard The USS Constitution, now recognized as the first Starfleet casualty of King Ghidorah. They called him 'The Reminder' of the fact that Starfleet life can be unforgiving--but that life itself goes on. A child of tradition, from the moment he breathed his first."
"Later, when spores now known to be those of King Ghidorah wiped out the population of Deneva 3, Peter Kirk was the only survivor. Some headlines then ran 'Last Son Of A Doomed Planet'. At least then, he seemed to share in his famous uncle's luck."
"Not two years later, he became known as 'The Impossible Victim'. Not knowing that Starfleet Command itself lay behind the vanishing, the public asked itself how Earth could be violated in that way."
"As a young girl, Saavik Brianna Kirk, in 2271, attended the infamous Hellguard hearings, and gave damning testimony about Romulan atrocities towards prisoners, forever shattering the myth that those captured were given a quick death." "This exchange between the feisty 11-year old and The Romulan Ambassador is still justly regarded as a vid classic :
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"Little One--do you know what happens to those who spin well-thought out lies?""No, Mister Ambassador. I have never been to Romulus."
--------------------------------------------"The room roared with laughter, and the arrogant diplomat withdrew--never to be seen again. We later learned that the scenes of Captain Kirk proudly hugging his adopted daughter cost her on Vulcan itself. How odd to me that seems. Perhaps a word of reprimand was in order. But not the fire a little girl was made to walk through. The next time we heard of her, it was during the so-called Santa Search of 2273. I was one of those wishing Saavik would find him."
"In their private lives, the two finally met when sister saved brother from the corrupt Admiralty. Well-documented is their disaster-defying marriage, and subsequent forced annulment. But now they are remarried, and certain truths known. They are Psis of unfathomable power. They are creatures of Prophecy. They are the biological son and daughter of the strongest team in Starfleet. They are expecting a child."
"A message from Secretary Of State Uhura, issued in the name of CIC Kirk, acting head of the UFP, indicates that Peter and Saavik are very uncomfortable with the veneration that they are receiving from many people. While some border on the fanatic, this reporter has this response to the young heroes understandable concerns." The reporter breathed in, then said her peace.
"Please, save us. You are all we have left. We need heroes. Your family has always given us that. Now you must, too. Its no greater an unfairness than life and fate have already placed upon you. For us who can't even fathom the power you wield--fight the enemy. Fight The Enemy."
Wiping away genuine tears, the reporter finished.
"For GNN News, this is Tasharana Yarskov, wishing us all well, in this, our finest----"
She stopped, checking her internal prompt.
"This news just in to GNN. King Ghidorah has landed on Vulcan! Champions--Where Are You?"
And the question carried over a galaxy : Who Will Defeat Ghidorah?