Ranma knew it was too good to last. All his problems seemed to be disappearing.

After the failed wedding, his and Akane's fathers stopped pressurizing them to get married – no doubt they were encouraged by Nodoka's Katana. His mother herself seemed to considered the entire question of Ranma's manhood answered and closed for good. Ryouga showed up less frequently, opting to spend more of his time with Akari at her farm. Ukyo had not shown her face since the wedding debacle. Kuno had passed his classes and moved on to a college away from Nerima; and his hentai squad, deprived of their fearless leader and directly exposed to the ire of Ranma and Akane, seemed to have decided that discretion was the better part of valour. Shampoo, Cologne and Mousse seemed to have packed up and left for China.

Happosai and Kodachi were still... well, Happosai and Kodachi. But with lots of spare time on his hands, Ranma found their antics a nuisance at best.

Without the fathers to pressurize them, Akane and Ranma found themselves getting along quite well. It helped that they were given lots of useful advice and timely interventions by Kasumi and Ranma's mother.

In short, everything was going too well for Ranma. And since his name was Ranma Saotome, he knew the other shoe was about to drop at any time.

And he was proved right when Akane was kidnapped by a man named Khan.

"Saotome to the transporter room"

The call over the comm system woke up Ranma from his musings of the past. He decided to reminisce at a later point, and headed over to the transporter room.

He was still uneasy over using the matter transporter, privately wondering if it was killing him every time and assembling an identical clone on the other end. He had long decided that if it was so, he would never be able to tell the difference... but the doubts lingered. Certainly, his ki was a pittance of what it used to be since he'd entered this future world; and he suspected the transporter was bleeding his ki out every time he used it.

But that was neither here nor there.

He entered the transporter room to find Commander Kyle at the controls. He greeted him.

"Evening commander. What's going on?"

Kyle looked up and smiled "Evening, Saotome. There's been a last minute addition to the away team – the Captain felt that your 'special' skills would be useful on this mission."

"Gee commander. You need my knitting skills on this mission?" Ranma joked.

"Of course we do, Saotome. But meanwhile, your ability to kick ass without weapons will make you right at home on this planet. It seems they hate to use weapons too, and not because they're some sort of peacenik hippies!" Kyle answered.

"Interesting" Ranma mused "What's this place?"

"Capella IV" answered Captain James T Kirk, just as he entered the transporter room. Kyle and Ranma stood to attention immediately.

Kirk continued, "Seems Kyle has told you everything you need to know. Just keep in mind that these people are very quick to take offense, and very dangerous if angered. Be very, very careful."

"Don't worry, boss. I'm always careful" Ranma assured the Captain. "It comes with the red shirt I'm wearing."

"Well, just remember that most of the people I knew who wore that shirt, are dead now." Kirk said, sternly, and Ranma appeared appropriately chastened.

The whole team – Kirk, Doctor McCoy and the security team (comprised of Saotome and Grant) stood up on the transporter dias. Kyle nodded at Kirk, and Kirk gave the command.

"Energize."