It had been a while since my last Star Trek fanfiction, Similarities and here comes the sequel which I had written a few chapters before Similarities were written. Thanks to Similarities I'm able to develop the relationship between Dr. McCoy and Dr. Marcus which otherwise can't be done in this one.

The setting of this story is inspired by "It Goes On" by Penn Flinn where Jim is dead and the rest of the crew went on a journey to fulfill his dream to go on their five-years mission, to tell the stories of their adventures, and to boldly go where no one had gone before.

This fic and my previous fic, "Similarities" especially were also inspired by this fanvideo, "Dirt in my Eyes" (youtu . be / qpH0hSTHkQo) remove the space when you paste the link. It suits Jim nicely. I can't stop listening to the song or watch the video when I wrote my fic.

Yes, I had so much doubt in my writing so much that I don't dare to post until now. Thank you Starsinger for the beta and a friend for giving me ideas on my summary, helping me out and encouraging me to post. I'm sorry for dragging this for so long.

Reviews are greatly appreciated. You never know that a review can become an idea in plot development.

Star Trek is not mine.

Chapter 1: Birth

"Space, the final frontier. These are the voyages of the starship Enterprise. Her five-year mission: to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no one has gone before."

The Enterprise was on their on-going five years mission. The crew busied themselves with their positions dutifully.

A lady in red shirt with her hair tied in ponytail came through from some place walk through the corridor before heading in the turbolift where she was taken upstairs to where the bridge was located. She headed straight to the centre of the bridge where the captain chair was.

"Captain, the observation deck is ready," the lady called out to the person on the chair. A person with a pair of pointed ears turned to her direction.

"Thank you for the hard work, Lieutenant," Spock thanked his subordinate who was also his girlfriend, Uhura, for her effort. Nyota Uhura gave him a small smile before returning to her position. Spock stood up straight and headed to the turbolift. The door of the lift opened up to a corridor of white. He headed straight to the sickbay.

"Damn it! Hobgoblin! I'm a doctor, not your butler. Can't you see that I'm busy?" the man in blue yelled, seemingly knowing who had come in despite having his back face him while he was washing his hands. He never bothered with the etiquette despite their difference in rank when comes to Spock. Spock only came here when he had something he wanted him to do. A blonde lady in blue came over to the man.

"Doctor, I had him cleaned up." She held up a new born baby who had been fidgeting around after all the crying since he was being opened up to a brand new world.

"Thank you, Carol," the man known as McCoy smiled brightly. He picked up the baby from the lady.

It was a baby born thanks to the blossoming of love between the crew onboard the ship. It was something inevitable especially they were on a long journey. The sickbay was equipped for that for their five-year mission. It was something important to the crew other than all the unexpected adventure they might have on their journey. During the long journey, they would have a home to return to and Enterprise was their home, the crews of the Enterprise were their family.

Spock observed the interaction between McCoy and Carol with the baby. It reminded him of a beautiful dream where his mother, Amanda had him in her arms and she had Sarek, his father, with her. They looked like a family. McCoy headed to the biobed where the mother was resting and handed the baby to her.

"Have you decided on his name?" McCoy asked the female Ensign who was under Uhura's command. The man in red shirt from the Engineering was grinning from ear to ear.

"Dear, let's call him Gerard," the man sat on the bed kissed his wife tickling with their newborn in the bed lovingly.

Spock gave a small smile but kept it as soon as someone had his eyes on him. McCoy smirked.

"Finally, our hobgoblin Captain is smiling," he commented. Spock flushed green and kept his arms on his back acting oblivious. He ignored the comment and approached the couple who were caught in surprise as they bowed and greeted him.

"Captain," Spock nodded in response.

"Congratulations!" he took a glimpse on the new born on the arms of the female Ensign. "May I?" Spock wanted to have a good view of the baby.

"Of course, sir!" the man handed his baby to Spock. Spock smiled at the new life who seemed to be giggling away probably curious of his pointed ears as he tried to reach for his ears. Little did they expect that the baby peed on Spock right in his face all a sudden.

"Sorry, Captain," the man took the baby back from him to clean up as the baby cried. Spock remained emotionless despite his face being covered by the urine. McCoy turned away trying to contain his laughter while Carol covered her mouth. Uhura, Chekov, Sulu and even Scotty, who left his job to Riley, came by to join in the fun and they were shocked to see the same scene McCoy tried not to laugh about.

Uhura came over to hug her colleague, congratulating her finding her own happiness and building her own family. They hung around a while before going back to their other business.

"Sir, we will be waiting for you at the observation deck." Sulu reported trying to look away as Spock wiped the urine off his face. The group waved to Spock, McCoy and Carol before heading off.

"I will go and help them. See you later," Carol cleared her stuff upon realizing the date today. She gave a small peck on McCoy's cheek and ran off.

"I came to tell you that," Spock said after washing his face on the sink.

"Of course I remember what day it is today." McCoy turned and smiled at the couple before giving out his orders.

"M'Benga, I leave the rest to you."

He followed his Captain to the observation deck where the senior crew was gathered, sitting around the deck. It was dark. The crew planned to star gaze which their former Captain had always liked to do alone. He would always be missed.

1.25 years had passed since the start of their mission and 1.35 years since Spock was promoted to the position of the Captain of the Enterprise and Hikaru Sulu as his First Officer. It had been 2 years since their former Captain, James T. Kirk passed away under the stars after succumbing to the side effects of Khan's blood and this day was the anniversary of his passing.

"He was smiling when he breathed his last," McCoy recalled how beautiful the sky was that night before Jim closed his eyes falling asleep peacefully under the starry sky. Everyone was listening attentively as this was the first time McCoy finally talked about Jim's passing. No one had the heart to visit Jim one more time in the hospital before he left them once more. Even so, they were loyal to Jim and they were determined to see through his dream of undertaking the five years mission. Through their eyes, they would see, they would narrate their adventure to Jim wherever he was in the stars. They believed that Jim would be happy to know.

"Jim, are you able to see us from the stars?" McCoy smiled as he looking up to the blinking stars outside the deck.

In the dark, despite Spock trying to hide it, he had teared up. He wished that Jim could be here, here to command them and lead them through the five year mission. With Jim dead, he would never get to know what he was meant to learn about the friendship him and Jim had to discover like his other counterpart had.

He recalled his elder self looking away in sadness when he learnt about Jim's passing from him.

Come to think of it, the Enterprise will be meeting up with him in 24.56 hours time fetching him from his diplomatic engagement to his next destination since the ship is en route.

Chekov was tapping on the PADD frantically as some incoming signals were detected, hinting at an occurrence of a supernova nearby.

"A star is born nearby!" He exclaimed excitedly. The crew looked out of the observation deck in awe as the ship dropped out of warp at Spock's order. They were to keep a distance from the supernova in case they were caught in it.

It was a beautiful sight to see a star eventually forming in the galaxy. Carol watched attentively in awe while McCoy placed his arm over her shoulder and held her close against his body. Uhura leaned on Spock's shoulder pulling his arm over her. Chekov jumped around in excitement with Scotty while Sulu smiled to himself. It was a beautiful sight.

It was after a while they realized that it was not a star which was formed but a planet.

The Supernova that occurred had revealed a ruined planet which separated from the planet system before the Enterprise. Being explorers, Spock ordered a scanning on the planet which did not exist in their record. Feeling assured that the planet seemed safe, he sent an away party to survey the planet.

Other than the empty terrain with no life except for plants, all they could find was a grave and a set of remains which was skeleton of something near to human. Spock ordered a forensic anthropology study, which, as usual, incurred the wrath of the Chief Medical Officer when the crew carried in a body bag which revealed the skeleton.

"Damn it man! I'm a doctor not a forensic anthropologist!"

On another planet not far from the Enterprise, somewhere in the dark, a man in his sixties was observing. Many screens with many happenings in many places appeared before him. One present scene showed an image of the doctor nagging at his Captain about his funny order to "dissect" a man long dead when he was supposed to be a doctor.

"That is just like my old friends back in my time," the man laughed and commented.

At the same time, he conversed with an ambassador of the New Vulcan, Ambassador Spock who was attempting to forge a diplomatic relation with the planet he was taking care of, on diplomatic issues. Glancing at the two screens of the Sickbay of the Enterprise and the blue planet, he had decided as he responded to the ambassador request for a visit, "Let's meet up, my old friend. I don't believe in the no-win scenario. Let's fix this."

He turned to his back to face an unknown individual who was staring at him with blank eyes not answering to his comment; the elderly man decided would put the chess pieces to good use. A purring was heard somewhere in the corner of the room.