A/N: Well, it looks like I am the first person to write a Star Trek/Final Fantasy VIII crossover! Been awhile since I've been first at anything. I think the last time was at a science fair in elementary school. I did a project on bending a chicken bone in different solubles. Seems vinegar works the best there. Anywho! I hope those of you who are fans of both Star Trek and Final Fantasy VIII will enjoy this and hope I don't botch it up. I am starting the Final Fantasy storyline just before the main characters enter Esthar. I know that's like leaving out a lot of the plot, but I have ideas for incorporating all of that in, so bear with me. I just figured that Esthar was a good place to have the Enterprise crew enter, but I didn't want them to be there the whole time while all the other stuff was going on, so I compromised.

Chapter One

Captain James T. Kirk was being put through the ringer by the Enterprise's CMO, Dr. Leonard McCoy. Jim hated physicals, and Bones loved to force him to go through the rounds of the mandatory procedure. "Bones," Jim panted. He was slightly out of breath after his exercise. "Explain to me why I have to do this."

"Because it's Starfleet regulation, Jim. And I enjoy getting to boss you around for a change."

"You know you could let me off the hook just once. You still owe me for the Mudflee vaccine thing."

"I do not! I paid you back by getting you on the Enterprise, which turned out to be a good thing. If I hadn't we wouldn't be here and there wouldn't be an Earth to call home."

"Yeah, Yeah. Rub it in. I guess you could say you were the reason everything and everyone was saved. The rest of us just did all the hard stuff."

"Jim, I'm a doctor, not a genius. I heal people, you figure out all the good ways to get us out of sticky situations."

"What you tend to forget, Doctor, is that he usually first gets us into those "sticky situations" as you call it."

Jim turned to see Spock standing in the doorway of the physical room. He'd never been happier to see the pointy-eared logician in the whole time he had known him. "Mr. Spock, I'm going to ignore that comment. Do you have an update for me on our situation?"

"Yes, Captain. Mr. Scott has informed me that all systems are up and running and we are now continuing our mission to Gamma Sector Twelve system five as ordered. We should be arriving in eight minutes sixteen seconds."

"What do we know about that system?"

"Not much, Captain. It's never been explored. It is a system with nine planets that orbit around a sun such as our own system does. The third planet is the only one that seems capable of sustaining human life and is extremely similar to Earth." The comm unit in the medical bay sounded, and Jim walked over to it.

"Kirk here."

"Keptin," Chekov's Russian accent floated through the speaker. "Ve haf something here you should see."

"What is it Chekov?"

"I'm not sure, sir. Eet iz hard to describe."

"Alright, Mr. Chekov, Mr. Spock and I will be there shortly. Kirk out." Jim turned to Bones, who knew what the captain was about to say.

"Save it, Jim. We can finish this up later. You better find out what's going on. If Chekov doesn't know what it is then it usually means trouble for us."

"Let's hope," Spock started, "that it does not end up putting us in another "sticky situation" Doctor. Captain, I'll meet you on the bridge." He turned and left the sickbay.

"I don't believe it, Jim. That green-blooded hobgoblin just used air quotes."

"As Spock would say, Bones, 'That is most illogical as seeing is believing, Doctor'."

Bones smacked his friend on the back of the head. "Hey! That's considered as assaulting your commanding officer."

"Nonsense, Jim. That was just part of the physical. Just testing your reaction time. Bit sluggish by the way. That was the last part of the physical so get out of my medical bay and up to the bridge. I'm giving you a clean bill of health."

Jim left without having to be told twice. He arrived on the bridge a minute later and as soon as he saw the view screen he exclaimed, "What the hell is that!?"

"No one knows, Captain. It's just floating there stationary. We did pick up some life forms aboard when we scanned it. They are humans, both male and female, no more that one hundred fifty-five on board."

"Thank you, Mr. Spock. Run an analysis on the structure and cross reference it with our database. See if we can find out what that thing is. It doesn't seem to have any propulsion devices so it obviously can't move. Have they been alerted to our presence, Lieutenant Uhura?"

"I've tried all hailing frequencies, but they aren't responding, Captain. It's as though they don't have the capabilities to pick up our frequencies. I do believe they have seen us though." After Uhura spoke something clicked in Kirk's brain. "Mr. Spock, I know what it is. I'm just surprised you haven't figured it out yet."

"Well, I would be very delighted to know, Captain, so if you're up to sharing, please do."

Kirk smiled, "It's an old space station. I'd say around early twenty-first century style. See the observation deck? In that time period they only had the capabilities to observe the immediate surroundings of Earth, you know like the moon. I'll bet this planet is only as technologically advanced as that. Lieutenant is there anyway you can kind of dumb down our frequencies? Did you ever study about the old digital communications links of the twenty-first century?"

"Yes, Captain. I do believe I can change one of the frequencies to transmit digital signals instead of Federation Standard. Just give me five minutes." She got out her tools and sat on the floor under her console. She quickly pulled off the circuit board cover and got to work. Four minutes later, she replaced the cover and sat back at her station. She tried the digital frequency this time and was shocked to hear a response. "Sir, they're hailing us."

"Let's hear it, Lieutenant." She switched it over to the loudspeaker on the bridge.

"Unidentified spacecraft, identify. Repeat, identify."

"This is Captain James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise." There was a lot of confused questions and exclamations in the background noise of the transmission.

"Starship? Sir, do you think Galbadia has out matched our technology?"

"No, it's not possible. They haven't even mastered the last bit of technology they stole from us, and that was twenty years ago. There is no way they could have built that thing. They don't have the resources, not to mention a big enough place to hide it from everyone."

Kirk looked at Spock and asked the question that most everyone on the bridge wanted to ask, but was scared to for fear of looking stupid. "What's Galbadia?" Spock looked slightly taken aback, but not because Jim had caught him off guard, rather because he had been wondering that very same thing. "Captain, I can honestly say I do not know the answer to that question, but in theory I would say it is possible that it is a country on this planet."

"Thank you, Mr. Spock. That does seem likely." The transmission from the space station was still active and the sounds of bickering filled the bridge. "Lieutenant, shut that off. It's giving me a headache. We're beaming onboard that station. I don't think we are going to get anywhere talking to these people through transmissions. Mr. Spock, Sulu, Bones, you're with me. Scotty you have the bridge."

"Aye, sir. She'll not have a scratch on her when ya come back."

"I'm holding you to your word on that Mr. Scott. I haven't had her long."

"Ya donnae have to worry, Captain. I'll take good care of her." Jim, Spock, and Sulu entered the turbolift and made their way to the transporter room.

It came as quite a shock to Piet when four men materialized right in front of him. It nearly gave him a heart attack. "Are you gentlemen from the ship we were communicating with?"

"Yes, we are. I'm Captain James T. Kirk," he stepped forward and extended his hand, which Piet shook warily. After Kirk released the man's hand he continued the introductions. "This is my first officer, Mr. Spock, my CMO, Dr. Leonard McCoy, and Lieutenant Commander Sulu."

"Pleasure to meet you gentlemen. The name's Piet. I'm in charge of this facility."

"What exactly is it you do here, Mr. Piet?" Spock was quite curious about this place. Of course anytime they approached a new system, Spock got curious. He always thought everything new was fascinating, but Jim always just put that down to his constant infatuation with learning about new things.

"We monitor the moon's activities and the monster levels on it's surface."

"Monster levels? What exactly are we talking about here, Mr. Piet?" Jim didn't like the nonchalant way the man had thrown around the word monsters.

"Don't they have monsters where you come from?"

"No. We are from a planet called Earth that is about five hundred light years from here. I guess some of the animals on our planet could be called monsters, but they don't always harm humans."

"Well these do Captain Kirk. Follow me. I'll take you to the observation deck where you can see them for yourselves." They followed Piet down a series of hallways and doors until they emerged into the domed room of the observation deck. People that Kirk assumed were scientists sat at computer stations that lined the glass walls and that were set up in rows in the middle of the room. It was one of these stations that Piet led them to. "Theyra, magnify the surface to one hundred twenty percent." The technician did as she was told and replied, "Surface magnified, sir. It should be viewable on the screen in a few moments." True to her word, the surface of the planet's moon appeared on a large screen that covered one wall in front of them. All that the Enterprise crew could make out on the surface was what looked like a bunch of worms crawling around. "Theyra, magnify to two hundred percent." The scene change again and then there was a collective gasp from the visitors. "What the hell is that?" Sulu was disgusted by what he saw. There were all different kinds of creatures crawling on the surface. Ugly creatures. Destructive creatures. It was like looking at a real life picture of Hell. "Those creatures, Mr. Sulu, are the monsters I was telling you about earlier. They are born and live on our moon, but throughout our history, when there are so many of them that the moon is overpopulated, a Lunar Cry occurs, bringing some of the monsters to the surface of our planet. For years we have watched the numbers of the population grow, and just as it is about to reach it's limit, we destroy as many as we can with spaceships to prevent the usual occurrence. Of course, there are still many monsters on the planet from the last Lunar Cry, but we have managed to find ways to protect ourselves from them." One of the scientists rushed up to Piet and whispered something to him. He turned back to his tour group and smiled. "It would seem our president would like to speak to you."

"Is the president here on the station or is he on the planet?"

"At the moment he is still on the planet. We can shuttle you there if you would like."

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Piet. We have capabilities onboard our ship to reach the planet. We thank you for the tour and the information."

"Of course, come back anytime. President Loire is in the presidential palace at the heart of Esthar. He, of course, will have more questions for you than I did. I'll let you be on your way now." He shook hands with all of them and went about his work. Kirk removed the communicator from his belt. "Kirk to Enterprise. We're ready to beam up."

"Aye, sir. We are locked on to your signal." It wasn't long before they were back onboard the ship. "Mr. Spock, I want phasers equipped for our next trip. Sulu, you might want to bring your sword. You never know when you might need it."

"Yes, Captain. I have it. Like you said, you never know when it will come in handy."

"Bones, do you have a full med kit ready?"

"Well, yeah, Jim. I am a doctor you know."

"Just being cautious." The doors to the transporter room swished open and Scotty entered. "Scotty, you're gonna be in charge a little longer. We have to go to the planet's surface and meet with some president from some country called Esthar. It seems they are slightly more technologically advanced than we thought, but nothing compared to our standards. Keep an eye out for any strange activity from that moon and whatever you do, do not go anywhere near that damn thing with my ship. It's infested with all kinds of horrible creatures."

"Aye, sir." Jim attached the phaser Spock handed him to his belt and then the group stepped back onto the transporter pad. "Energize."

A/N: Okay. So the next chappy is all about meeting Laguna, Kiros, and Ward. And of course I'm bringing in all the other lovely, important characters. So please read and review. I welcome all reviews. Critical reviews are considered a good start to improvement for me, so give all you want. Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Toodles!