A/N: Okay so I know the story kind of starts slow, it first establishes the Character of John Shepherd and how he becomes a time agent, and then crosses into the Movie in chapter 3 where he spends time aboard the USS Kelvin and thats where it starts to get interesting. So if the first few chapters make your eyes glaze over then just skip to chapter 3 where its more interesting. Anyway, I plan to Introduce the enterprise after chapter 8 (currently writing chapter 8 which is going to be a huge battle sequence). anyway read on an review :)

Also while I am going to be adding new chapters, I will also be moving through sections of previous chapters and adjusting them slightly (or majorly as in the opening sequence of this chapter).

The sky erupted in a brilliant array of colors above Romulus, as the planet's primitive inhabitants looked up to watch in deft wonder. Little did they know of the danger that loomed above them, and so they continued to watch on, dazzled by its splendour.

Above the planet, however, thing's were far more dire, as vessels of varying size's had blinked into existence and begun to descend upon the helpless world.

Darana, Lord of the Burarli fleet sat upon the throne of the imperial star cruiser Destarna. He had ruled his empire for eons, conquering entire worlds across the vast expanse of the Beta Quadrant. That was until he encountered the Romulan's. The Romulan's resisted and defied his will, retaliating against his home world and burning it to ash and cinder. Now however, he would have his revenge, though it would herald the beginning of a Time war, he would take this world as his own, 11000 years before the Romulan exodus from Vulcan. Twenty thousand vessels followed suit, blinking into existence and taking up position over the Romulan home world. Already streaks could be seen while drop ships delivered their payloads from high orbit, preparing the world for colonization.

The time drew near for his own Vessel to descend, when every alarm upon his bridge resounded in warning. Darana stood, furious at the intrusion to his tranquility. "What is happening" he shouted, ready to tear the life from whoever had disturbed him.

A page quivered and approached its Lord, "I am sorry" it uttered in a faint and fearful voice "My Lord, we have detected multiple temporal signatures, they are not of our own" it cowered from the fury that was sure to follow.

Darana turned to the page, rage filling his eyes as he reached out with a clawed hand and severed the being's head. He looked down as blood reigned down upon his pristine floor, his anger giving way to the urgency of the moment. "Show me" he shouted as immediately holographic images appeared before him revealing the arrival of another fleet, one that matched his own in power and numbers.

"A message comes my Lord" a second page announced, sure to remain out of arms length of its master.

"Let me see" Darana ordered.

An image then appeared before him of a being he had never encountered "This world belongs to the Castana" It announced, its voice seeped in arrogance "You will depart, Immediately, or we shall destroy you"

"You dare threaten the Burarli!" Darana enraged at the monitor "May your blood reign freely upon my new home" he shouted, terminating the image.

Outside, the Castana vessels unleashed their fury upon the Burarli vessels as the Burarli struggled to recover their drop ships. Below the primitive beings of Romulus watched as new stars began to form, adorning their heavens.

For hour's the war raged between the graceful Castana star cruisers and the utilitarian designed Burarli, turning the planets orbit into a minefield of wreckage. It was then that the Burarli chose to do the unthinkable, in an instant they unleashed a torrent of subspace weapons, weapons that had been outlawed by every known sentient species in the galaxy.

Space ruptured, erupting powerful wakes of energy while the ruptures were torn across the minefields, like zippers, by the engine cores of both the Castana and the Burarli. In an effort to seal the ruptures before they consumed the planet, the Castana sacrificed their ships. In that instant the Burarli had gained the upper hand and soon the war had drawn to an end as the Castana were all but destroyed.

Darana smiled as the last of the Castana vessel's exploded into a million fragments. "Resume colonization of the planet" he ordered, while summoning a page. He picked up a glass from the page's tray and consumed the sweet nectar it contained. And then it happened again, the warning klaxons piercing the still air filling Darana with rage. His page quickly moved to avoid his masters rage, nervously cowering into a far corner of the room. Darana looked up at the monitors and fumed as they spilled forth information about the latest threat.

"Vortex's" he shouted "NOOOO!!!" he shouted, turning to the cowering page he plunged his claws deep within the creatures chest. He then withdrew his hand, still clutching a beating heart.

Outside a thousand vortex's formed spilling forth a fleet of sleek and powerful looking star ships. Darana knew that only one race used such a method of travel through space and time, the federation. The image of a humanoid soon materialized upon his screens "This is Admiral Juran Dax of the Federation star ship Faraday, stand down and prepare to be returned to your own time" it spoke with a cool controlled voice. Darana shook his head, he would not stand down, he would not give up, there was nothing left for him to return to, his home world destroyed, all he had left was his revenge.

Daranas fleet opened fire, seriously outmatched both in numbers and technology they stood no chance. Darana closed his eyes as the last of his ship's exploded and the federation vessels swarmed around his cruiser. "It is over" he uttered as his vessel erupted into a blinding star.

On the surface of Romulus its primitive inhabitants sighed, the show the heavens had put on for them was over, and so they retreated back to the depths from which they came. All except for a single, lone humanoid creature that still stared at the sky. He had watched the events unfold, not as the inhabitants of this world, but through the senses his people had bestowed upon him. The war was over, and now it was his job to clean up the mess. The figure shook his head, he had been a time agent for over five hundred years now, relatively speaking, and yet it still pained him to watch the damage his ancestors had caused, not only to the time stream, but to themselves. Summoning the power of the temporal energy within him, his essence transformed into the slick visage of starship, and he plunged into orbit ready to dispose of the mess of technology that could one day alter the time stream. Little did he know that his own little clean up, would damage the time stream beyond repair.

Director Hanson had overseen the Temporal Accord for over five hundred years now. In that time he had witnessed the joining of hundreds of temporal agents, and only twenty three had successfully completed the joining. Theoretically only 1 percent of all potential joining were successful , in practice it was closer to 0.8 percent. Those that survived however, were given access to technology so advanced they could rewrite the universe. The selection of a candidate took place on two levels, the first was the mental component, much like the symbioses of trill, an unstable personality would be rejected by the joining. The second level was genetic, and very few races possessed the required genetic component. The majority of time agents were in some part Vulcan, however no pure Vulcan had ever passed the genetic screening. It seemed that a random convergence of genetics was required to foster the requisite genome sequence acceptable to the joining.

This is what gave the Director the most pause for the latest potential inductee. Genetically he was purely human, something that was very rare in this day and age. However genetic screening indicated that he had the highest potential match for a joining on a genetic level. On a mental level, he had passed the most standard checks, even though the deeper scans also gave the director reason for pause.

"The Council of the Accord has ruled Director Hanson, we have never encountered a candidate with such a high degree of genetic compatibility, it almost assures a successful joining!" The head of Council spoke. "With a need for temporal agents so great, you will indoctrinate him into the Accord"

Hanson nodded then ended the transmission, around him the room dissolved returning in appearance to his office.

John shepherd had grown up in a world of peace, a world of privilege. As a citizen of Earth, a pure human, he had grown up sheltered from the rest of the universe. Sitting at the heart of federation space, Earth knew nothing of war and strife for over a thousand years. John unlike his parents did not wish to be sheltered, instead he wanted intrigue, adventure, he wanted to explore new worlds, encounter alien civilizations like the explorers of old. As a child he would immerse himself in the history books, engrossed in the stories of Captain Archer, Captain Kir, Picard and Sisko, even the tales of Janeway filled in his mind, the concept of being flung across the galaxy into unknown space, and having to fight her way back to the federation, intrigued John.

It was for this reason that at the age of 18 John enlisted in Star fleet. He was well aware that the adventures of Starfleet officers in this day and age were nothing compared to those of officers in the early 22nd to late 31st centuries. The federation itself, had expanded its borders to encompass twelve galaxies, millions of civilizations living in harmony. Though exploration of space was a mandate of the federation since its inception, it now lacked the appeal it once held. There were no new mysteries, no new civilizations, they had seen it all, every new encounter revealed races that mirrored one previously explored.

John walked alone through the Presidia, a memorial to the great star ships of old. Three hundred hauls dawned the streets forever preserved in time. He came to a stop before the Enterprise, though the original had be destroyed in the battle over the Genesis planet, this ship had be salvaged and restored from its wreckage. The adventures of James T Kirk burned in his mind, those days of untamed exploration had lured him to Starfleet. John realized however, that in recent history only a few vessels did any real exploring, the majority of the fleet stayed within the boundaries of the federation, maintaining peace.

Lost in thought John failed to notice the arrival of another cadet, who came to a stop beside him.

"Beautiful ship isn't it" the soft feminine voice assailed his ears.

He turned to see Sarah, one of his few close friends at the Academy "It sure is" he replied staring into her bright green eyes.

She stepped around him, breaking his gaze and proceeded to touch one of the landing struts that supported the majestic vessel. "They don't make them like this anymore" she smiled.
John stepped beside her and placed his hand on the smooth impure metal "No they don't" he smirked "Could you imagine piloting a vessel like this into the unknown, duranium polymers that could barely absorb a phaser strike yet alone a torpedo hit, shields that barely deserve the name, and weapons that couldn't destroy a modern shuttlecraft yet alone fend off an alien agressor"

Sarah smiled, in truth she would have been frightened to death to man such a fragile vessel. "No, I couldn't" she shook her head then turned to look into John's eyes, a secret burning deep within her, she had to tell him.

"John" she found herself saying "Did you manage to find out what ship you'll be posted on?"

John shook his head "No one can tell me, but I pray to god I get the enterprise" he looked up taking in the majesty of the ancient vessel.

"I've been meaning to tell you" she began "I received my ship assignment a few days ago"

John smiled a broad grin, excitement clearly in his eyes "What did you get!" he asked, enthused.

"The Enterprise"

There was silence for a few moments, John not knowing if he should be sad or happy about the assignment. On one hand it meant that his friend would be aboard the flag ship of the federation, and get a chance to really explore space. On the other hand, it meant that Enterprise assignments had been finalized, and he would not be chosen.

John reached out and hugged Sarah "congratulations" he whispered as she hugged him back.

Sarah smiled, relief clearly shown on her face.

"The Enterprise!" he shouted, startling people walking by.

"One of the only ships that still gets to explore!" he continued much quieter "I envy you, and the places and races you'll get to encounter"

Sarah looked up at the progenitor of her star ship "It still doesn't hold a candle to this ship and its explorations! We've been spoiled by phase jump drives, trans dimensional weapons, quantum shielding, we have flying fortresses where as they flew by the skin of their teeth"

John placed an arm around her and the pair returned to their admiration of the ancient vessel.

John stood on the command pad, suspended in space, looking around at his bridge officers. The bridge of a 45th century star ship looked very different from their ancestors. First of all, there were no seats, instead the platforms on which each officer stood held them within a gravitational field, not only relieving them of the pressure of standing, but ensuring that during a battle they did not get flung around the bridge. Control systems were another huge divergence in design, much of the technology was intuitive, able to read the thoughts of the controller and project information onto the consoles that were made of a crystalline material.

"Status report!" John ordered as a slight tremor passed through the ship.

"We have reached target coordinates, twenty three Benzin cruisers are firing on a federation transport" his helmsman replied as the encounter suddenly appeared on the main viewer.

"Raise shields, open hailing frequencies" He ordered just as a pair of Benzin battle cruisers began firing on his ship. The ship shuddered noticeably as the shields strained to absorb the impact.

"Deploy Armour, bring weapons to bare and target the lead ships, minimal power, we dont want to damage the transport... how are we going with the hail?" he ordered, a little angry that the Benzin would fire upon a federation starship.

"No response to hails captain, the majority of Benzin ships are continuing to fire on the transport, their shields will not hold for long" his tactical officer announced.

"Very well target the lead ships and fire DPB's!" John smiled slightly, the Benzin were a technologically inferior race, the DPB or dimensional phase beam, was capable of penetrating any known shield or armor. "make sure you only disable their ships"

To johns surprise the DPB's lanced out a struck the first 3 Benzin vessels, however instead of losing all power and stopping, they continued their bombardment of the transport.

"Sir DPB's are ineffective they must have found a way to shield against them. Half the ships have broken off their attack on the shuttle and are now firing on us" the ship shuddered as multiple impacts began to deplete the shields. John began to panic, this was wrong after all, the Benzin did not posses this level of technology, yet somehow they did.

"Target the lead Benzin ship full power to weapons system hit it with everything we got!" he barked.

The bridge crew stared at him stunned, at full power the ship possessed more than enough energy to annihilate a planet.

"Do it!" he yelled.

There were nods of affirmation as his orders were carried out. The full destructive force of his vessel bared down on the lead Benzin ship which shattered into a billion fragments, the explosion of which sent out an energy wave that consumed the remaining vessels and ultimately the transport they were there to save.

The bridge dissolved around him leaving him in the middle of his class room, his Vulcan Teacher staring intently at him.

"Interesting strategy" the Teacher mused arching an eyebrow "You effectively ended the encounter by obliterating your objective"

John turned to his classmates to see looks of shock on some of their faces and laughter on others.

Leaving the classroom a hand tapped John on the shoulder, he turned to find himself flanked by Daniel and Nigel on either side of him.
"Good going there, I don't think anyone expected you to blow up the transport" Nigel smiled "Can I ask exactly what you were thinking?"

"I thought they had adapted to our weapons so I figured I'd hit them with enough fire power to drain their core, how was I supposed to know their ships couldn't take a full powered assault?"

"They're Benzin warships, their entire civilization is over two thousand years behind us technologically, why would you think they could take a full powered assault? "