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(Re)Writing Star Trek: Return Of Vulcan


He peered through the old fashioned telescope with one eye. His left hand adjusted the focus, not by computer but by using a small round knob. This ‘technology’ was laughable for the 23rd Century, however by no means did this Starfleet Officer mind. He was off duty and stargazing via the antiquated magnifying device had long been a hobby.

When his grandfather gave him his first telescope at the age of ten, he prized it above all of his computerized gifts and gadgets. Then as he went on stargazing ‘voyages’ with the said relative on top of mountain or hill; he learned how to map the cosmos the same as sailors did when they first circumvented the globe. His grandfather using telescope, paper star charts and even a couple of geometry equipment, taught him with a patience that seemed as infinite as the universe. When his acceptance letter came in from Starfleet Academy, his grandfather’s faded eyes sparkled with quiet pride.

His grandfather has since passed, however his passion for looking to the future in the cosmos, using tools of the past had not.

As Hua Kim readjusted the magnification, he smiled to himself. He liked the way a blurry, white dot with a little tweaking, could become clear. Stargazing by such an old fashioned means reminded him of gazing into shallow pond. When the gazer stared intently enough through the ripples, the murky bottom could become clear. He liked how the ripples in the water could contort a person’s vision, especially when the wind teased the surface of the water. Hua Kim liked to watch the water become distorted, as light could become refracted and dance upon the surface.

It was amongst all of these personal reminisces that Hua Kim started to realize something… that as much as he adjusted the focus? The area of space he was gazing upon just wouldn’t become clear. He was attempting to stargaze on the Aurora Vulcanis; the nebula which used to be situated close to the recently extinguished planet.

The planet Vulcan had been destroyed just three months ago, when the Captain Nero in the futuristic Romulan ship had made the Class M planet implode into itself by a small drop of Red Matter. With the planet’s annihilation, the altered gravity in its remaining solar system had realigned the other celestial objects, which was found fascinating by astronomers, in Starfleet or otherwise.

Hua Kim called himself an amateur astronomer. His hobby incorporated a fold-up chair, his antique, portable telescope and a portable music player on which the late 20th Century musician Bruce Springsteen set the mood. A couple of times in the past he had brought a date with him, but when the stargazing became interrupted by the said date chewing on his ear whilst murmuring sweet nothings? His concentration very quickly left the cosmos to something more earthy. So it was on this evening when he was off duty and he felt like spending some time alone that he returned to his childhood pastime.

“What the…?” he muttered, adjusting the focus on his telescope again and again. However no matter how much he twisted the knob, the Aurora Vulcanis just wouldn’t come into focus.

Just then Hua Kim sucked in his breath and held it. Over the next couple of seconds, he began to realize that it wasn’t anything wrong with his telescope but there was something wrong with the area of space he was looking upon.

Before his very eyes, he watched the same rippling effect which could stir the surface of the pond on a windy day? Apply to this region of space outside of the Aurora Vulcanis. The actual fabric of space was moving like waves in the ocean!

The amateur astronomer was trying hard to make out the Vulcan solar system. Even the other planets looked blurry and no matter how much he adjusted the magnification? The rippling effect became stronger.

“Holy mother of…!” he subconsciously scrambled for his communicator whilst his left eye was glued to his telescope. His hand reached into his pocket to find his communications device to call Starfleet, when it accidentally tumbled to the ground.

Hua Kim turned away from his telescope for just one moment, barely even a second. He simultaneously picked up his communicator whilst returning his eye to the view piece. However what he next saw made his mouth fall open and the communicator topple from his hand and into the dirt once more.

The Vulcan solar system looked as clear and in focus as the smooth surface of a millpond. The ‘waves’ in space which produced the rippling effect was no more. And the planet Vulcan which also used to be no more, was twinkling back.

“Say what?” his eyes almost popped out of their very sockets!

There in plain sight, the red planet with no moon was in its previous position with the entire solar system including the Vulcanis Aurora; also in their prior orbits. It looked just as it did on his previous stargazing endeavors, since he was a boy of ten. With his age now three times of that, he was willing right now to go along with the ole Terran saying, ‘seeing is believing’.

Vulcan was a planet once more. Hua Kim licked his trembling lips, blinked and then he blinked again. Yup, the planet was truly there and he knew it couldn’t be blamed on a speck of dust on the lens either.

Then for some reason the oddest of sayings from his Chinese heritage popped into his head. Some would call this saying a curse? But it was the only saying which could summarize what Hua Kim had just witnessed;

“May you live in interesting times.”

However Hua Kim received a second surprise that night, when a second voice interrupted his thoughts.

“Red Matter my ass!”

Hua Kim turned around startled from the sound, to find not one but two Caucasians standing a couple of meters behind him. One man looked to be in his forties, with dark curly hair and dark eyes and was wearing a peculiar Starfleet uniform he had never seen before. The second person was a very pretty young woman with blonde hair and brown eyes, wearing a futuristic pink dress. It was the man who had spoken, as he looked cranky for some reason.

“I told the Continuum that we shouldn’t let the humanoids play with fire. And what happens? They next invent Warp travel. And low and behold, they’re either using matter and anti-matter collisions to propel their little ships. Then they’re producing Red Matter and annihilating planets and time lines!” the cranky man continued.

“Q, I think you did a really nice thing for the Vulcans.” The pretty blonde smiled in amusement at her colleagues temper.

“Oh please!” the man called ‘Q’ rolled his eyes. “I didn’t do it for the pointy-eared automatons! I did it for the Star Trek Franchise; for the previous films which the writers and producers shot themselves in the foot by wiping out the planet which appears continuously through out the series.”

“Yes but at least the Vulcans have their planet back and Spock hasn’t lost his mother anymore.” The pretty blonde said chirpily.

“Amanda, really.” Q said almost in disgust. “We really are going to have to knock this ‘humanity’ business out of you. I certainly didn’t do this to be ‘nice’!”

“If you didn’t want to be ‘nice’, you wouldn’t have also brought Spock’s human mother Amanda back with the planet.” The blonde smiled on the older man.

“Didn’t you pay attention to your lesson in temporal causalities? Spock’s mother Amanda also appears in ‘The Original Series’ as well as the movie Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home. She had to come back just as the planet did!” Q rolled his eyes.

With that the cranky older man spun on his heel and began to walk off, as if staging a protest.

“Are we going to bring back the planet Romulus as well?” the blonde next enquired as she walked after her mentor.

“No, they pissed me off with the Red Matter debacle. They can stay annihilated for all I care.” The man waved off the idea. “Besides, they die in the future so it’s no skin off my nose or the continuity of the time line.”

“What about the older Ambassador Spock? Are we going to return him to the future?” the blonde queried…

…but the couple were walking away too fast so Hua Kim didn’t catch the rest of their conversation. That was until they did something really surprising which made Hua Kim accidentally knock over his telescope when he stood up too fast.

The mysterious couple vanished in a bright flash of light, just as the Bruce Springsteen song ‘Devils & Dust’ began to play from his small, portable music system.

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"...The point is, if you lie all the time, nobody's going to believe you even when you're telling the truth."
--"Are you sure that's the point, Doctor?"
"Of course, what else could it be?"
--"That you should never tell the same lie twice..."

(Bashir & Garak, on the boy who cried wolf ST:DS9)

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