Janice T. Kirk was sitting in the dining room sharing a formal meal with her senior officers.  She wore an elegant dress of pink and black and white that flattered her figure and retained an air of authority.  She liked to do this once a week, to get to know her crew better, plus now that she was a woman they reacted to her in slightly different ways.  Spock was still the same, for the most part, although he tended to take a more defensive role nearby when they were on away missions, she’d have to have a talk to him about that.  Sulu and Chekov were more afraid of her, before she’d been one of the guys a big brother if you will; now she was more of a mother figure to them and they showed her that sort of deference.  Scotty was more flirtatious but only during these occasions, at other times he was the same duty-first engineer she’d known for years.  Bones was always gentlemanly, but every time he spoke she’d go all squiffy inside and it was hard to notice anything about him except the way he smiled and the way he liked to use his strong hands to gesture with.  Christine and Nyota were friendlier, before they were distant and reserved; now they were close girlfriends and confidants of each others secret crushes.

The meal was a simple and time honoured dinner, tomato soup followed by roast beef flavoured soya with terran and Vulcan vegetables.  Kirk thought it was important to have a vegetarian banquet that allowed Spock to share the repast while also appealing to the palettes of his human crew.  She let Spock carve, after all it was the duty of the chief male to carve and she was eager to see how he handled the duty now that it had been passed to him.  In the six months since the swap Kirk had become quite used to being female, learning the subtle differences of human gender customs, letting men push her seat in for her, getting used to the admiring looks of men, being half as light as before and now unable to bench press even her own slight weight.  Besides she found she preferred aerobics anyway.  She had to learn a whole new style of command, to lead with her intellect and intuition rather than her ego and vanity.  She felt that she commanded even more respect than before, perhaps this was all for the best.  She liked to think so, although those uniforms showed off her panties if she didn’t sit just right and cross her legs just so.  She’d already put in a request for longer hemlines to Starfleet after a Vulcan diplomat complained that he could see right up her dress!

The morning rituals had changed too, now she had to get up an hour earlier to wash and shave her legs and armpits, then put on her make up.  Luckily she was a quick study and she’d made up for years of inexperience thanks to a few tips from the other female captains, and also some frank and honest comments from Christine about not tarting herself up too much.  She liked to look at her bronzed fingernails, they looked nicer than the gold and made her look even more feminine, especially during diplomatic missions, she found that her womanly attributes had a disarming effect on the males and she used it to her advantage during negotiations, after all if a smile got the Federation 10% in their favour then she smiled until her mouth ached.

She waited as Yeoman Brad Sumner, a cute twenty something with…her mind was wandering and she was staring, he poured her a glass of wine and she thanked him.  Then she waited until the others had their glasses filled and she stood up.  “A toast, to the best crew I’ve served with.”

“To the captain.”  Spock added.

“Cheers.”  They all said at once and then they dined.

“Captain’s log, star date 6014.6, all is quiet; we’re on route to the Vega system to bring relief supplies to the colony there.”  The bridge was quiet.  Kirk was sitting idly by, waiting for something to happen.  Spock was not on duty yet and so Kirk had another three hours to wait before she could go off duty and have a quick tour of the ship before going back to her room to rest and read her latest romance novel.  She wasn’t sure how she’d gotten the reading bug, but she’d just had the urge to read one that Christine had said was a great book about star-crossed lovers and it had been all that and more.  Now she was a romantic, always wanting the heroine to get her man.  She could so identify with that, but this was off-duty thinking.  She was on duty, she shouldn’t let her mind wander like this, it was unprofessional to think about romance and guys and his mouth, his eyes, his hands.  Now she felt self-conscious, was she flushed?  She forced herself to think about quadratic equations and combat scenarios.

“Captain, I’m getting a distress from the planet Gemini Prime.  They’re requesting emergency aid and evacuation.”

“Any other ships nearer?”

“We’re the closest ship; the Invincible is half a day further away.”

“We may need them.”  Kirk said slowly.  “Change course for Gemini Prime and ask Captain Powell of the Invincible to rendezvous with us as soon as he can.”

Uhura nodded.  “Yes capt…I’m getting another report.  It’s the Klingons.”

“They’re attacking?”

“No, they’re offering to send aid.”

“Well I guess we can’t refuse, Gemini Prime is twice the size of Earth, it would take days to rescue everyone.”

“I.K.S. Gr'oth will meet us there.”  Uhura said quickly.

“That’s Koloth’s ship, isn’t it?”

“Yes sir, Captain Koloth is commanding the Gr’oth.”

“I wonder if he’s forgiven me for all those Tribbles.”  Kirk said and smiled to herself.

Koloth smiled to himself too.  “Kirk’s ship?  Enterprise?  I must think him properly for almost destroying my ship some time.  If not for this peace treaty I would take my revenge and regain my honour.”

“We could say it was an accident.”  First Officer Krant said softly.  “The Federation could be given enough proof, they are weak cowards.”

“They do not understand our concept of honour, but they are honourable in their own way.”  Koloth buried the blade of his knife in Krant’s heart.  “I will not break an oath that is an even bigger stain on my humiliation that Kirk’s childish prank.”  He stared coldly into the eyes of his dying officer.  “You are not fit to wear that uniform.”  He kicked the dying officer to the floor.  “Take that trash away; tell his family he died in combat.”

“A deception?”  The new first officer – Targ – asked, uncertain.  He kept one hand near his own blade, just in case.

“He died with my blade in his heart, is it my fault he was not warrior enough to anticipate the blow?  I gave him a better death than he deserved.  His family should not pay for his weakness; he has no sons to carry his sins so why punish others needlessly by giving him a dishonourable death?”

Targ nodded.  “You are the Captain, the crew stands ready to obey your orders, we give you our lives.”

“This is a rescue mission, Targ, we’re here to save a few lost humans and perhaps when they see the strength of Klingon might as we rescue them then they will learn their place in this galaxy, we are strong, they are weak.”

“And Kirk?”

“Kirk is mine.”  Koloth said slowly.

Gemini Prime was a warm orange planet, its skies filled with clouds of reds and pinks.  The ground was laced with purple rock strata and the water was a vivid shade of turquoise due to the high copper concentrations.  The landing party beamed down in the middle of the capitol city, in a stone plaza.  Kirk, Spock, McCoy, Chapel and two burley security guards looked around.

“This is where we’re supposed to meet.”  Kirk said to Spock.  “So where are they?”  She tossed her light brown hair to one side as she looked around again.  “I don’t see anyone at all.”

Spock held up his tricorder.  “I’m sensing no life forms.”

“That can’t be right.”  Bones said to Spock.  There’s supposed to be two million people in the capitol alone.”  He held up his medical tricorder and did a slower sweep of the immediate area.  “That pointy eared, green-blooded Vulcan is right.  No life signs, at all.  No bacteria, no viral strains, wait, I’m detecting one thing.  It’s the damnedest thing; it’s similar to that strange Romulan substance we detected last month.”

“I believe that Dr. McCoy has stumbled upon something, rather like Pasteur discovering penicillin, quite by accident.”

Kirk didn’t like the way they traded insults so casually, but they both gave as good as they got and underneath it all they backed each other 1000% when the stakes were down.  Maybe it was best for her to simply let them slug it out?  “Perhaps we should split up?  Dr. McCoy, you take Nurse Chapel and Crewman Hernandez and check out the hospital, we’ll check out the governor’s office, see if there’s anything there.”  That solved that little problem, duty before personal lives meant that she and Christine were both separated from the men they loved.  Did she just admit to herself that she was in love with Bones?  Yes, it didn’t feel wrong or weird either.  Just…inappropriate given that they were in the middle of a situation.  “Come on Spock, Crewman Raj.  Maybe we’ll find some answers?”

Koloth was sitting in the governor’s chair when the Federation finally turned up.  “I’ve been waiting for you…wait, where’s James Kirk?”  He saw the Vulcan he remembered from K-7 but there was no sign of his human commander.”

“Captain Koloth.”  Kirk said slowly.  “That really isn’t your chair, in this state of emergency it is rightfully mine.”

Koloth looked at the human female, she was forceful and arrogant but in a courteous manner.  “Who are you?”  He asked.  “Don’t tell me that Kirk has passed on?  A quick death in battle perhaps?”

“Something like that.”  Kirk replied.  “For the body anyway, not the mind.”

Koloth was stunned at first, but he was intelligent and saw Kirk’s intellect in those soft human eyes.  “Kirk?”

“Captain Janice Kirk and you’re still sitting in my chair, Koloth.”

Koloth looked at the Vulcan for a second and saw nothing, this was no deception, somehow this woman had Kirk’s mind.  Well this was most interesting, perhaps even for the better?  He stood up and offered the chair to ‘Kirk’.  “Here you are, madam governor.”

“Thank you.”  Kirk replied and took her seat; she was somewhat surprised when Koloth began to give her a summation of recent events.

“We arrived little more than two of your hours ago.  We found the planet deserted, there is no sign of any of the citizens, anywhere on the planet.”  He paused for a second.  “We found no record of any emergency apart from the initial call for help.  I believe that whatever attacked your colony, which borders very close to ours, acted quickly and mercilessly.  If such a force exists then it is a threat to both the Empire and the Federation.”

Kirk nodded.  “We detected an unusual substance.”

“Yes, we registered a random concentration of particles.  We believe that they are harmless.”

“Now, perhaps.  We encountered something very similar to them before, a month ago.  They were leaking from a rogue ship in Federation space.”  She didn’t want to reveal the possible Romulan connection.  Not yet anyway.”

Bones, Chapel and Hernandez found the hospital empty, the beds, the wards, the offices were all abandoned.  Machines were left switched on, it was like the Marie Celeste, it was as if everyone had just gone and left everything behind.  Bones scanned the area with his tricorder.  “Particle emissions are stronger here.”

“Are they dangerous?”  Chapel asked.

Hernandez was about to speak when he felt like he was on fire.  “I don’t feel…”  He couldn’t speak anymore, couldn’t breathe, couldn’t even stand up anymore.  He collapsed to the floor.

Chapel let out a shriek as the crewman simply disintegrated in front of her eyes.  “What did that?”  She asked Dr. McCoy.

“I don’t know.”  Bones replied as he scanned the area.  “There’s a massive elevation of particles.  That confirms it; this is some sort of biogenic weapon.”

“A plague?”  Chapel asked.

“Yes, and we could all be infected.”