For King and Country:
The Life of James T. Kirk 

By Michael Marek, First Officer, USS Crazy Horse

Author's Note:  Although the fact receives little attention, it is not unusual for Starfleet captains to receive their doctorates.  It is in the best interests of the United Federation of Planets for an educated officer corps, and advanced study is encouraged.  Developments in subspace communications in recent decades makes real-time interaction between teacher and student possible over hundreds of light years, and non-synchronous interaction possible over an even wider spatial geography.

I must confess that I delayed my terminal degree.  I convinced myself that I was busier than most first officers and didn't have time for formal study.  The Dominion War, of course, did not make for regular coursework.  So, when the war ended, along with the knowledge that the USS Crazy Horse would be undergoing a lengthy refit, the time seemed right.  In retrospect, completion of my degree was one of the things that led to the end of the limbo of my first-officer-with-absent-captain status.

The article below is a popularized version of a significantly longer term paper I wrote for one of my classes.  It takes a contemporary look at the famous (and infamous) Starfleet officer James T. Kirk.  While this version does not include citations of sources, much of the information was gathered first-hand by me during the Crazy Horse refit and my temporary duty in Earth.  Where opinions are rendered, they are my own.

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CHAPTER ONE
THE EARLY YEARS
 

Riverside, Iowa, is a sleepy community in Washington County on the southern outskirts of the sprawling Iowa City/Cedar Rapids metropolitan area. It lies on the banks of the undistinguished English River, a minor tributary of the Mississippi River, at the edge of parkland which has returned thousands of acres of former farmland to its natural prairie state.  Once a summer, the village comes to life to celebrate the birth of it's favorite son, James T. Kirk. 

Kirk was born in Riverside in 2233, the second son of George and Winona Kirk.  Branches of the Kirk family had lived in Washington County for over 300 years, homesteading there after a brief 19th century flirtation with the far western frontier of Arizona, and the gold rushes of Colorado and the Black Hills.

James Kirk's father, burly George Samuel Kirk, was a Starfleet Officer, specializing in security, and was mostly absent from the family farm south of Riverside. His mother, Winona, was a botanist involved in managing the nearby Ottumwa Grasslands Park. His older brother, George Samuel Kirk II, was more interested in his mother's life in the world of science than his father's life in Starfleet. Young James, perhaps unable to accept that his brother bore his idolized father's name, insisted on calling his sibling Sam.

Kirk rarely talked about his early childhood, and little surfaces from research that seems unusual. In 2241, at the age of eight, James contracted the virulent Rigelian Meningitis. His long convalescence lead him to investigate the Iowa Library Computer Network to help pass the long days of inactivity. James' grades were consistently excellent, except for a brief faltering in his teenage years. He learned to ride horses young in life, a pursuit he enjoyed but in which he was rarely able to engage during his career in Starfleet. At this same time, George Junior was deciding that his life's work would follow his mother's study of botany. As a result, James seems to have decided that the obligation was on him to carry on his father's tradition by becoming a member of Starfleet.

At the beginning of his teenage years, however, James' placid early childhood, gave way to the first of the trauma's which were to become so instrumental in the makeup of his personality. He was visiting his father on Tarsus IV during his school summer vacation of 2244. Sam and Winona Kirk had remained in Iowa, during the critical summer growing season in the Ottumwa Park. A fungus attacked and almost instantaneously destroyed much of the food supply of Tarsus IV. The government of the colony sent out an urgent distress call and the Federation launched relief ships as soon as possible, but from the estimated time of arrival of the rescue ships, it was clear that prolonged starvation faced the colony.

At this point a previously unremarkable man, named Kodos, lead a rebellion which overthrew the elected government and instituted martial law. He arbitrarily selected half of the residents of the colony and put them to death, so that the surviving residents would not starve. It is ironic that the first rescue ship arrived earlier than expected. Had Kodos not seized power, tragedy would have largely been averted.

Eleven-year-old James was right in the middle of the terror. In later years Kirk was rarely willing to discuss details, but it is an established fact that James was one of only a handful of people who actually saw Kodos' face and survived. Twenty-year-old Thomas Leighton and 4-year-old Kevin Riley were two other survivors. Starfleet rescuers discovered a burned body which they incorrectly identified as that of Kodos. The former dictator actually escaped and created a new identity as a Shakespearian actor, until he was unmasked 20 years later. George Kirk Senior died on Tarsus IV, battling Kodos' rabble, and was decorated posthumously for valor. Young James escorted his father's body home to Iowa.

James' years in high school were unhappy. His mother retreated farther into her research, giving little time to her sons. In the fall of 2248, when George Kirk Jr. left for Iowa State University, James was even more alone. He compensated in part by excelling in his studies, and drew satisfaction reading the classics of literature.  The only bright light of James high school years was a girlfriend named Ruth. In later years James described her as his ideal woman. When she eventually cooled their relationship, due to religious differences, James took months to recover. [1]

CHAPTER TWO
MIDSHIPMAN TO CAPTAIN, 2250-2264
 

In 2250, Kirk entered the Starfleet Academy, in San Francisco, Earth. He was 17, the youngest age possible. His roommate, 18-year-old Gary Mitchell, quickly became his best friend -- a relationship that endured for a dozen years.

Kirk's bookworm habits continued at the Academy, in spite of the constant distractions from the more boisterous Mitchell. In fact, the friendship of the two may show the truth of the aphorism that opposites attract. Mitchell was brash, constantly on the lookout for alcohol and women, and usually had grades toward the middle of his class. Kirk, on the other hand, was goal driven and was usually near the top of the grading curve. They drew strength from each other. Mitchell benefited greatly from Kirk's scholastic tutoring, while Mitchell's prodding helped James recover from the remaining trauma of the Tarsus IV tragedy. In fact, the command style of Kirk's later career seems to have evolved in part from the "go for broke, don't accept defeat" role model set by Mitchell. 

While the Starfleet Academy does not condone hazing, Kirk ran a foul of the unofficial academy tradition of practical jokes and harassment of "plebes" by upperclassmen. In particular, he was singled out by a senior named Seamus Finnegan, who made it his mission to make Kirk's life miserable. Kirk survived by avoiding Finnegan when possible, and by keeping the vision of his Starfleet goal in front of him. [2]  

Particularly important to Kirk during his academy years were his studies of the tactics of the Federation's Garth of Isar and the Klingon Captain Korrd, according to the personal log he kept as a cadet. He was also particularly fond of two instructors, Captain Garrovick and John Gill, both of whom came to unhappy deaths under Kirk's eyes later in his career.

Each cadet is required to take a summer training cruise.  Kirk was assigned to a ship escorting a Federation peace mission following the famous Battle of Annexar. During the mission he served on the security detail with the Federation party. This duty was excellent training for Kirk because it taught him to relate positively to other intelligent species. Those few non-human cadets at the Starfleet Academy were from similar species, whereas the diplomats and others participating in the Annexar conference came from a wide range of races. Kirk received a commendation for this duty.                           

During his junior year, James had his first experience with the Koybashi Maru simulator. This simulation of a starship bridge gave a "Captain" and bridge crew an opportunity to face a critical command situation. The scenario actually played out such that nothing could be done to achieve ultimate success. This "no-win" scenario served as a test of character, to show how the "Captain" would face defeat. In the scenario, a freighter sent a distress call from inside the Klingon neutral zone. When the starship entered the zone for a rescue, overwhelming numbers of Klingon ships appeared to prevent retreat. Kirk served as helmsman for a lieutenant attending Advanced Command Training. In the debriefing, this lieutenant commended Kirk on his work, stating that Kirk had prolonged the survival of the ship.

A turning point in Kirk's life came in his senior year at the Academy, with his relationship with Carol Marcus. She was a laboratory technician, employed at the Academy as she worked her way through a biological sciences program at a nearby university. At that point in his life, Kirk was still recovering emotionally from his loss of Ruth and had rarely dated. When Mitchell introduced James and Carol, she swept him off his feet. [3]   Kirk and Marcus were intimate and Kirk seriously considered marriage. But he demurred, in part in knowledge of the unhappiness of his own parent's marriage, caused largely by their prolonged separations. Kirk knew that upon graduation he would be assigned to a starship for a standard two years before returning to Earth. Carol was also unhappy at the prospect of an absent husband. They agreed that when Kirk returned to Earth, if they still felt the same, they would "go from there."

Kirk graduated the Starfleet Academy in 2254, the tenth in his class, down from third at the end of his junior year. He was assigned to the USS Republic and was surprised to learn that one of his Academy instructors, Captain Garrovick, would command the ship.  Kirk left Earth not knowing that Carol Marcus was pregnant. She gave birth to a son in the summer of 2256, naming him David Marcus. Carol did not inform James of her pregnancy, allowing him to wait until he returned to Earth for the revelation.

While on board the Republic, Kirk was forced to make a major ethical decision, concerning his friend Lieutenant Ben Finney. The older man, assigned to engineering with Kirk, had befriended James. With Mitchell assigned to a different ship, James felt the need for friendship, and soon became close to Finney. When Ben's wife delivered the news that a daughter had been born, Ben convinced her to name the girl Jamie, after James Kirk. But the friendship came to a disastrous end when Kirk forced himself to make a log entry pointing out a serious flaw in Finney's job performance. Finney's improper work on an auxiliary nuclear reactor had seriously endangered the ship and Kirk discovered the problem when he came on duty. Finney blamed Kirk for torpedoing his career and remained cold to Kirk, in spite of the latter's repeated efforts to heal the wound. (See chapter three.)

Kirk performed satisfactorily in engineering but soon concluded that he did not have the inspiration to be an outstanding engineering officer. Shortly after the incident with Finney, he requested transfer to helm duty, which Captain Garrovick granted. In spite of Kirk's own feelings about his engineering ability, he learned valuable lessons about starship design and limits. Crewmates serving under CAPTAIN Kirk reported being constantly amazed at Kirk's ability to push a ship to the absolute limit of its danger line, without calling for the tiny fraction more that would cause its destruction. [4]

Kirk served admirably in his helm position. A report written by Garrovick, recommending Kirk for Advanced Command Training, said, "Ensign Kirk is an outstanding helmsman. In combat, he instantly evaluates the tactical situation and is ready to execute my commands almost before I have formulated them. He shows clear potential for command."

In early 2256, Garrovick was transferred to command of the Constitution Class Starship, USS Farragut, and Ensign Kirk joined him on the new ship. Garrovick assigned Kirk to the Security department, to "allow you to get down a planet now and then." Kirk's orders to attend Advanced Command Training came during mid-year, along with a promotion to Lieutenant (JG).    

Only a few weeks later, however, shortly before leaving the ship to return to Earth, the second of the great tragedies of Kirk's life occurred. A gaseous entity attacked the Farragut, killing most of the crew by individually draining their bodies of red blood cells. Kirk was one of the few survivors.

He was serving on a landing party, visiting a previously unexplored world when the cloud began picking off crewmembers. At one point, Kirk was able to fire a brief phasor burst almost point blank into the cloud, but the blast had no effect. For years, Kirk berated himself for freezing and waiting critical seconds that lost him the opportunity to kill the cloud. A second time, Kirk escorted bodies back to Earth, including that of his commanding officer, Captain Garrovick. [5]

In the fall of 2256, the new Lieutenant Kirk, his self-confidence shaken by the Farragut incident, began Advanced Command Training. Kirk forced himself to be decisive and aggressive to compensate for what he considered to be a character flaw. In time, he was named Captain for a Kobyashi Maru exercise, and as all other candidates in history had, he failed to escape from the overwhelming Klingon attack thrown at him by the computers. On the other hand, Kirk's simulated ship had survived a full fourteen minutes under coordinated attack by six Klingon war ships, destroying two of them. Ultimately he gave the destruct order to avoid capture of his ship.

His instructors complemented Kirk on his efforts, but he argued that there should have been a way to escape defeat. After a long subspace conversation with Gary Mitchell, the contents of which has never been divulged, Kirk requested a second try at the no-win scenario. Such a request was rarely granted, but the instructors were openly curious as to how Kirk thought he could better his already exceptional performance.

Kirk's third and final participation in the scenario began as usual, with the noisy report that the SS Kobyashi Maru had struck a gravitic mine and was disabled. With few preliminaries, Kirk took his ship deep into the neutral zone, in violation of treaties. As usual, the damaged ship disappeared and three Klingon war ships uncloaked around him and began firing. Kirk's instructors quickly became suspicious when the Federation ship's shield held under the Klingon assault. 

When the first barrage was over, Kirk opened hailing frequencies to send the following message to the Klingon:  "A substance has been installed on this ship that makes it impossible for it to be defeated. This material, known as Corbomite is capable of instantly reflecting all offensive energy directed at this ship back at the aggressors. We entered this space in good faith to perform a rescue mission. If you attempt to prevent our withdrawal by firing on us, you will destroy yourselves."  

Kirk then ordered the "Corbomite" activated, and had to explain to his bewildered weapons officer which switch to use. A simulated Klingon ship fired, and its disruptor beam bounced back at it, crippling its shields. Kirk's ship then beamed the simulated survivors on board and made a leisurely retreat to Federation space.

The instructors, of course, were astounded -- an emotion which rapidly transformed into rage when it became clear that Kirk had found a way to tamper with the simulation computers. At the conclusion of a lengthy hearing, Kirk was issued a letter of reprimand for "unauthorized after-hours presence in the computer core," the most serious actual violation of regulations they could find. He also received a commendation for original thinking, and was asked to consult on improving computer security at Starfleet Headquarters.

Kirk's success in Advanced Command Training was tempered by his inability to revive his interrupted relationship with Carol Marcus. In an encounter shortly after his return to Earth, which was painful for them both, Carol introduced Kirk to their son David but told Kirk he was not welcome to visit. In spite of apparent continued affection for Kirk. Carol's friends said she insisted that she would not have an absentee father be a role model for her son, and particularly not one in the glamorous Starfleet.

Kirk left Earth again with mixed emotions in 2257. He carried orders to lead a planet survey crew on a newly discovered inhabited world, which was valuable First Contact experience for him. But his personal life was in shambles. This three-year long survey mission taught Kirk many things about dealing with alien races. He eventually developed a close friendship with a leader of one of the primitive tribes of the planet, a man named Tyree, living with him for several months. Any traces of xenophobia left Kirk during this time, and he learned an unusually high tolerance for alien cultures.

On his return to Earth, during final preparation of the survey report, he struck up a relationship with Dr. Janice Lester, a biologist. Their romance was torrid but stormy. Kirk found Lester to be emotionally troubled, claiming that she was being unfairly kept from advancing in her career by a male conspiracy. She voiced a desire to become a starship commander, Kirk's own goal, and claimed that men had caused her to be ineligible. In fact, she had selected the wrong career track to be eligible for starship command. Kirk ultimately walked away from the relationship.

2260 was a pivotal year in Kirk's early career, the first time he actually saw battle, other than a few skirmishes on the Republic and Farragut. Spotty relations with the Klingon Empire had been deteriorating for the Federation, which had bungled its first contact years earlier, resulting eventually in the inconclusive Battle of Tonatu V over a substantial volume of disputed space. The Starfleet Admiralty was reluctantly preparing for war. [6]   Lieutenant Kirk was named Second Officer of the USS Yorktown, also serving as Chief Helmsman and Tactical Officer. Yorktown was assigned to a front-line position as part of the Starfleet task force which would take the brunt of any Klingon attack. The Klingons, possibly borrowing from Romulan probe-and-retreat tactics, continuously tested Federation strength. 

"If we had been the Klingons," Kirk reflected later, "the war would have started the first day. But our orders were to contain the enemy, so we repulsed their sorties, but did not pursue back into Klingon space. It was damn frustrating."

There were several inhabited planets in the fringe space between the two combatants, most primitive, agrarian societies. On several occasions, Klingons attempted landings and occupation of these worlds. As tactical officer, Kirk worked closely with Starfleet security detachments assigned to protect capital cities or major population centers. Once, he was trapped on a planet surface for five days when Klingons landed unexpectedly, before Starfleet ships managed to drive off the invaders. Kirk and the other security forces waged a strong resistance effort, which helped convince the Klingons to abandon their half-hearted occupation effort.

The tension eventually cooled, with the Klingons apparently redirecting their expansionist efforts to a less contested region of space. In 2261, as a direct result of Kirk's performance during the Klingon crisis, he was promoted to Lieutenant Commander, a full five years ahead of the normal time-in-grade for that rank. Concurrent with this promotion, he was appointed First Officer of the Yorktown. Due to the need to monitor the Klingon Empire, the Yorktown was stationed at the nearest starbase, number 14, and charged with continuous vigilance. While the ship made frequent cruises throughout the area, it repeatedly visited Starbase 14.

It was during one of these visits that Kirk met Lieutenant Areel Shaw, on the staff of the starbase judge advocate general--a lawyer. Slender, blonde, unattached, and not part of his chain of command, Areel was many of the things Kirk was looking for in a woman, and they developed an intense relationship.

"I would have married him," Shaw said somewhat wistfully in her memoirs, "but he never asked." Kirk usually brushed off questions about Shaw in later years, but the failure of their relationship was apparently buried deep inside his psyche. His son David was 6 years old, and while Carol remained cool, Kirk certainly was aware of David, and regretted what he called his "family that never was." [7] Kirk was also unswervingly committed to his work on the Yorktown, developing the habits which later lead him to say, not jokingly, that he was married to his ship and so could not marry a woman. [8] The relationship between Kirk and Shaw lasted for two years, and ended gently in 2263, when Kirk was again promoted, to commander, and given his own command, a ship located far from Starbase 14.

The USS Sutherland was a fairly small starship, carrying a crew compliment of 103, but was heavy on firepower, making it the equivalent of a destroyer in the former oceanic navies of Earth. Its primary assignment was escort duty to lesser armed ships, both diplomatic and cargo.
 

CHAPTER THREE
ENTERPRISE: THE FIRST TOUR, 2264-2269
 

In 2264, at age 30, Kirk received a duty assignment from Starfleet command that was to be the dominant factor in the remainder of his Starfleet career. He was promoted from Commander to Captain and named to command the Constitution Class Starship USS Enterprise, NCC-1701. [9]   A wealth of information has been published about his initial five-year mission aboard the Enterprise and this text does not propose to review all of his important missions and accomplishments. Several events happened during this time, however, which were important to Kirk personally. Kirk's brother died, he met one of the great enemies of his career, and Kirk formed many personal relationships that were to sustain him through the rest of his life.

One of the first major incidents in Kirk's command of the Enterprise was the death of Gary Mitchell. Kirk had requested Commander Mitchell aboard his ship, and named him first officer. Mitchell also served as chief helmsman. [10]       

A Federation outpost received a message from the missing USS Valiant, sent 100 years earlier. The Enterprise went to investigate the disappearance of the ship, and encountered the energy barrier at the boundary of the galaxy. [11] [12]   The Enterprise was unable to cross the barrier, but Mitchell and another crewmember with high ESP potential were radically affected by the energy. Both had their ESPer power increased exponentially, and rapidly went insane. The two killed each other on Delta Vega. Kirk, barely escaping death himself, witnessed his friend's death under remarkably unpleasant circumstances. [13]

With the Enterprise far from the nearest starbase, Kirk promoted his science officer, Lieutenant Commander Spock, to first officer. According to his logs, Kirk originally considered Spock, half Vulcan and half human, to be highly efficient, but cold and difficult to like. Over the months, however, they developed a relationship which even Spock considered to be a close friendship, in spite of his Vulcan background suppressing emotions.       

Immediately after the Enterprise returned from that fateful mission, Kirk met the second of a set of new close friends, when Lieutenant Commander Leonard H. McCoy was assigned to the Enterprise as ship's surgeon and chief medical officer. McCoy, who entered Starfleet to escape an unhappy divorce, and Kirk, who had just lost his best friend, instantly took to each other. The CMO, by the nature of the job, is the emotional advisor to the Captain. Kirk found McCoy to be easy to unwind with, given the doctor's southern gentleman charm and dry wit. [14]      

The third leg of this triangle was formed between Spock and McCoy. Outwardly they antagonized each other, with Spock accusing McCoy of rampant illogic, and McCoy trying to awaken Spock's humanity. But in reality, within weeks, they had each come to look forward to their sparring. In fact, just a year later Spock requested the presence of both Kirk and McCoy at an intensely personal and private ceremony on Vulcan, thus proclaiming his regard and closeness to them both.            

In terms of women, Kirk's personal life was almost on hold during these years. Although he virtually never mentioned Carol Marcus and her son, he was unhappy about his alienation from them. His relationship with Areel Shaw never had the chance to develop fully. To his credit, Kirk rarely let himself become involved with women who were his subordinates. However, when away from the ship, Kirk bounced from woman to woman through most of his first tour on the Enterprise, unconsciously looking for a "fling" on many of the planets he visited.        

There was one significant exception in the second year of Kirk's command when Kirk fell, and fell hard, for a woman he could not have. In an unlikely, but confirmed series of events, Kirk, Spock, and McCoy were transported to Earth in the year 1930 A.D. Before they could return, Kirk fell in love with a woman of that time, named Edith Keeler. All three men agree that she was a remarkable woman, but she was accidentally struck and killed by an internal combustion automobile. Kirk faced the hardest decision of his career, because historical records had told him exactly when Keeler would die. He had to choose to allow the woman he loved to die in order to preserve his future. [15] [16]

Outwardly, Kirk's cavalier treatment of women became, if anything, more self-destructive after his experience with Keeler, even falling on love with an android in female form.  McCoy's medical log shows that Kirk lived with fits of depression for a period of time after his return from 1930. He did not, however, allow that depression to affect his work and he remained outwardly enthusiastic and professional.

The Keeler incident was not the only event of 2265 which put Kirk under strain. Earlier in the year he had been the first starship captain in history to be court martialed. He was eventually cleared when it was discovered that the charges against him were based on evidence fabricated by Ben Finney. Finney, the former co-worker who harbored a grudge against Kirk, claimed that Kirk ruined his career by pointing out a repair job Finney bungled. The fact that Kirk was prosecuted by Areel Shaw made the proceedings even harder for Kirk to cope with, despite his bullish demeanor. [17] [18]     

Popular histories of Kirk usually make much of his blood feud with a Khan Noonian Singh, portraying it as the archetype of the battle of good and evil. Khan was genetically engineered, born on Earth in the 20th century. During the famous Eugenics Wars of the 1990s Khan was the absolute ruler of most of Asia, but he could not hold his domain. He and 100 of his compatriots escaped Earth in suspended animation, and were recovered and awakened by Kirk in 2265. Khan at first concealed his identity, and later attempted to capture the Enterprise, an effort in which he almost succeeded. To avoid sentencing to a Federation penal colony, Khan accepted exile on the uninhabited Ceti Alpha VI. Kirk thought he was rid of Khan, but the superman escaped Ceti Alpha VI twenty years later to seek his revenge on Kirk. [19]

Hostilities with the Klingons were growing throughout this period, and finally the two great governments came to the verge of war in 2265. The Enterprise's part of the hostilities came on the planet Organia, where Kirk and Spock were trapped by a Klingon occupation army. They struggled unsuccessfully to organize a resistance among the planet's pastoral citizenry. Later, Kirk and the Klingon governor Kor were both surprised to learn that the Organians were beings of energy, merely projecting a humanoid appearance for the primitives visiting their world. The Organians, abhorring violence, unilaterally disarmed both sides galaxy-wide, thus preventing the war, and imposed a peace treaty. [20]

The final traumatic event of 2265 for Kirk was the violent death of his brother George "Sam" Kirk, Jr., Sam's wife Aurelian, and two sons, on Denova. Sam had received his Ph.D. in botany and had emigrated to Denova to further his research. He and his wife were killed by a form of flying parasite which invaded the planet. The Enterprise discovered the invasion and was eventually able to save most of the residents by learning how to kill the parasites without harming the host. One of Kirk's nephews, Peter, survived the attack and returned to Iowa to live with relatives. 

Luckily, most of Kirk's first tour of duty on the Enterprise was less traumatic, although he certainly had his share of adventure and danger. His problems with the opposite sex did not desert him completely. In addition to Keeler, Kirk loved and lost a second time during his first assignment to the Enterprise. On a beautiful planetoid, Kirk suffered a memory loss and married a native woman, named Mirramani. Kirk lived with the natives for one month before the Enterprise was able to return for him. Mirramani was killed, pregnant with his child, and again, Kirk lost what he saw as an opportunity for happiness.        

Two major unfinished episodes in Kirk's earlier life were put to rest during this time -- Kodos and the Farragut incident. In spite of the thousands of deaths caused by Kodos, the man's fate remained unknown for close to 20 years. A burned body had been found, but even the most detailed autopsy was unable to conclude positively that the body was indeed that of Kodos. The details of how Kirk came to unmask Kodos and the final fate of the man known as the Executioner have been recorded elsewhere. The resolution of the mystery lifted a weight from Kirk's mind. [21] In 2266, a second catharsis resulted when Kirk finally convinced himself that he was not to blame for the Farragut disaster. Kirk had a repeat engagement with the entity which had decimated his former crew. After several of his Enterprise crew members had also been killed by the entity, Kirk pursued it across many parsecs to what was apparently its home world, and destroyed it in a carefully planned matter/antimatter explosion. Kirk himself served as the bait to attract the entity to the explosion site, along with the former Captain Garrovick's son. Spock proved, and finally convinced Kirk of what the original board of inquire had concluded -- that Kirk, with one hand phasor, could not have stopped the entity, no matter how quickly or how long he had fired. 

Closure of the two incidents broadened Kirk's horizons. For years, starship command had been his ultimate personal ambition. According to the log of McCoy, who constantly psychoanalyzed his commanding officer, Kirk's ambition had been to prove that he was brave enough, and decisive enough, to command a starship, in reaction to what he saw as his failure on the Farragut, and even a child's failure on Tarsus IV to save his father's life.

Slowly, Kirk began to realize that his horizons were broadening, and his ambitions began to be aimed at Starfleet Command. In 2269, at the conclusion of his five-year assignment to the Enterprise, Kirk accepted promotion to Admiral and assumed the job of Starfleet director of operations. [22] [23]                     
 

CHAPTER FOUR
ADMIRAL KIRK:  2269-2284
 

Being a member of Starfleet Command did not meet Kirk's expectations. He rapidly came to miss his adventures on the Enterprise and felt burdened by the paperwork. Control of the utilization of Starfleet resources was little compensation for the excitement of first contacts with new civilizations.

The Enterprise was assigned to space dock for a total refit. After due consideration, Wil Decker was named her new Captain. Kirk was able to watch over her, figuratively at least, from his San Francisco office.

As director of operations, Admiral Kirk was intimately involved in managing Starfleet's operational resources. The job description for the position was as follows:  

• Develop and implement Starfleet operations programs and directives.
• Establish reporting procedures to determine success of operations programs.
• Coordinate operations matters with other staff departments and interested agencies.
• Develop standing operations procedures for the control and operation of all Starfleet ships.
• Develop necessary operations policies and procedures to ensure mission accomplishment and to provide adequate guidance to subordinate personnel.
• Request the issuance of transportation and personnel authorizations as required.
• Must be familiar with Starfleet regulations SFP 210, SFP 211, and SFP 212; Starfleet directives in the 50, 55, 60 and 62 series and parts 20, 43, 60 and 62 of Federation spaceflight regulations.

Kirk rapidly found that his was a paperwork-shuffling job. While his experience on the Enterprise led to some directive changes which were acclaimed by starship commanders, Kirk was unfulfilled. The reports on exciting missions flowing across his desk only aggravated his yearning to return to starship command. 

Kirk made several attempts, but was unable to reach an accord with Carol Marcus, by then a research Ph.D. Kirk did get an opportunity to meet David Marcus, then age 14, but was not permitted to reveal their blood relationship. He compensated with a brief affair with Admiral Lori Ciani, a xeno-psychologist supervising Starfleet's relations with non-human species. She had originally sought him out because of his extensive first contact experience and remained intrigued. However, her personal log indicated she found Kirk somewhat neurotic and was looking for an opportunity to cool the relationship. She was killed in a transporter accident, on her way to the Enterprise to assist in the encounter with V'Ger.

Kirk endured his job for 30 months and when a command opportunity finally presented itself in the form of the V'Ger mission, he seized it. During this time, Spock and McCoy had gone their own ways, each retiring from Starfleet. McCoy was in Georgia, relaxing and living on his pension, planning to write textbooks on "space medicine." [24] Spock returned to Vulcan to undergo the Kholinar discipline, an ancient but little known procedure in which a Vulcan is said to eliminate the last vestige of illogic from the psyche. The three friends were reunited for the V'Ger mission, in 2272, when Kirk was 39. They remained more or less together until Kirk's retirement twenty years later. 

Admiral Kirk's performance during the V'Ger incident has been highly controversial. He convinced Starfleet's commanding admiral, Heihachiro Nogura, that his experience made him the best man to command the only ship able to intercept the massive energy cloud that was V'Ger. But Kirk's own log indicates he spent most of the mission struggling with a lack of self-confidence.  Kirk arbitrarily had McCoy's reserve commission activated, over McCoy's vocal but not very serious protests. Spock, fresh from Vulcan, met the Enterprise in deep space and offered his assistance. [25] Ultimately, Kirk and his Enterprise command staff located the core device which was V'Ger, and prevented it from destroying Earth, a feat which guaranteed him any assignment he wished. Kirk picked the Enterprise and was given the extraordinary reward of a starship to command, with his Admiral's rank intact. Once firmly in captain's seat of the Enterprise, Kirk held it resolutely for over a decade. McCoy slipped easily back into his chief medical officer's job when his replacement, Dr. Christine Chapel transferred to Starfleet Medical, Earth.

Spock was the most affected, personally, by the V'Ger mission. His curiosity about mental impressions from the distant V'Ger had caused him to fail in his Kholinar discipline. But Spock said later that his mental contacts with V'Ger taught him that a total lack of emotions is undesirable. Rather, he said, that proper control and use of emotions can be constructive. [26] Spock nominally remained assigned to the Enterprise, but was given several leaves of absence to pursue research and other scientific and diplomatic projects. [27] Most of the key department heads from Kirk's first tour on the Enterprise remained, although eventually Pavel Chekov and Winston Kyle accepted a transfer to the USS Reliant.

The records of Kirk's various missions during this ten year period are easily accessible from the Starfleet public computer net, and do not need to be repeated here. Suffice it so say that Kirk was happy, but stagnant. He continued his tradition of excellence in his duty assignment and had no significant entanglements with women. 

In 2282, at age 48, twenty-seven years after graduating from the Starfleet Academy, Kirk was the senior starship commander; his peers either had been promoted to other assignments or had left Starfleet. Kirk was under growing pressure to surrender command of the Enterprise and return to the Starfleet general staff. The Admiral, on the other hand, was beginning to feel his age. He realized that he should have accepted reassignment long ago, but flatly refused to return to a paperwork job such as he had escaped a decade earlier, fearful that he would quickly stagnate.

Kirk returned the Enterprise to Earth for a refit, and took a prolonged leave of absence. It would have been a natural time for him to retire. While visiting an uncle's ranch in Idaho, Kirk met a woman he names only as Antonia. The two lived together for some time, and as he had many times in his life, Kirk considered making the relationship permanent.  He bought a home on the area, acquired a dog, and enjoyed uncomplicated life for a while.  Ultimately, however, he was unable to make that commitment, and broke the news to Antonia that he was returning to Starfleet. [28]

After some negotiation, Kirk accepted an assignment as superintendent of the Starfleet Academy. McCoy had taken a position in Starfleet Medical. Spock was promoted to captain, and became an academy instructor. He was given the additional duty of captain of the Enterprise, which was assigned to the Academy as a training vessel. Noyta Uhura and Montgomery Scott also accepted Academy positions, while nominally retaining their Enterprise assignments. [29]  So, while the crew had in a sense gone their own ways, most of them remained in close association, with Kirk the de-facto leader.
 

CHAPTER FIVE
THE PIVOTAL YEARS:  2285-86
 

Kirk served at the Academy more or less happily for three years. [30] [31] He enjoyed working with the cadets, and their constant admiration and respect for the exploits of his earlier career fed his ego comfortably. He acquired a roomy home in a high-rise 2000 unit condominium complex over looking San Francisco bay, occasionally visiting Iowa as well as his home in Idaho.  He and moved his many keepsakes out of storage and into this San Fransisco home. [32]                           

Each year Kirk rode as a guest on the Enterprise for a two week training cruise, and worked hard to convince himself that he was happy with the job. But as the months passed, Kirk became more and more obsessed with his age. In 2285 he celebrated his 52nd birthday, feeling rather sorry for himself, and immediately left on a training cruise that was to collapse into greatest chain of crises in the history of Starfleet.

This cruise was clearly an attempt to "go home again," with most of Kirk's command crew from the 20-year earlier Enterprise assignment returning in their old jobs. Hikaru Sulu, the ink on his promotion to captain still wet, served as helm officer. Noyta Uhura headed the communications section. Scott, of course, presided over the engine room. Spock was nominally the captain of the Enterprise, with Admiral Kirk no more than a passenger on board to observe the cadets. Only Pavel Chekov was absent, serving as first officer and science officer of the USS Reliant, a Miranda Class starship assigned to the Genesis project at Regula I.

The events of the Genesis/Whalesong Crisis are well known as are so many of the missions of the Enterprise. However a brief summary is appropriate.  The Reliant blundered into the hands of the exiled Khan Noonian Singh [33] who quickly discovered the existence of the Genesis Project. Khan attacked spacelab Regula I and stole the Genesis device, which had been developed by Kirk's former love Carol Marcus, and their son David (Kirk) Marcus. Kirk and the Enterprise arrived to investigate the silence from the scientists, and fought Khan, culminating when the device exploded, creating the Genesis planet. Spock died from radiation exposure, but was rejuvenated over a period of weeks by the decaying Genesis wave. Kirk returned the Enterprise to Earth, and then he and his long-time command staff immediately hijacked it back to Genesis, recovered Spock's living body, and delivered it to Vulcan to have Spock's consciousness refused with his body. In the process, the Enterprise was destroyed and Kirk and company commandeered a Klingon Bird of Prey, inciting violent protests from the Klingon Empire. Tragically, Klingons from this ship killed Kirk's son, David, an action for which he was never able to forgive the Klingon species.

Three months later, when the ex-Enterprise shipmates finally agreed to return to Earth from Vulcan with the captured Klingon ship, they found the planet under attack from an alien probe which was enraged because the Humpback Whale species was extinct. Kirk took the Klingon ship back in time to 1986, had Spock use Vulcan mind meld techniques to converse with two whales, and returned them to 2286. The whales communicated with the probe which broke off its attack, and thus Kirk saved all life on his home planet the second time.

Kirk survived a pro forma court martial, his second, was technically convicted, demoted to Captain and "sentenced" to the position of Starship command, in the USS Yorktown, renamed the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701A. The Federation Council itself noted its gratitude, and that the verdict was in thanks for Kirk's work in the crisis. Scott, Chekov, McCoy, Uhura, Sulu, and Spock all elected to join Kirk in this assignment. [34] [35]

In spite of the deathly serious nature of these events, they left Kirk rejuvenated and feeling young, ready for another five year-plus mission of deep space patrol and exploration. For him, only the death of his son made the chain of events anything less than a total success. For David, he grieved, but rarely openly. [36]       

Kirk's first weeks on board the new Enterprise were not easy. The ship was virtually inoperable due to electronic component damage done by the whalesong probe. Scott and his legions labored valiantly to put the ship in working order. Unexpectedly, before a proper shakedown cruise, Kirk was ordered to investigate an ambassadorial kidnapping on the "Planet of Galactic Peace." The Enterprise was hijacked to the literal center of the galaxy by a renegade Vulcan before Kirk was able to wrest control back. Kirk again encountered Klingons in the process and in spite of his distrust, started a thaw in Klingon-Federation relations when he helped General Korrd regain influence in the Klingon High Council.
 

CHAPTER SIX
ENTERPRISE:  THE FINAL TOUR, 2287-2293
 

In spite of the less than auspicious start of Kirk's final tour of duty on the Enterprise, things soon settled down into the familiar routine on which Kirk thrived. Two years into the cruise, Sulu's ship, the USS Excelsior, was ready for duty with its refitted, standard warp engines. At age 55 Sulu finally assumed command of his own ship.             

All through this six-year period, there were sinister machinations afoot in the Starfleet admiralty, as well as in the Klingon and Romulan empires which were influencing, and some would say perverting, Starfleet. Oddly, the motivation stemmed from the thaw in the Federation/Klingon/Romulan cold war. This reduction of tensions had been a long time in the making and many of the nudges toward peace resulted from events in which Kirk was a player. The first dated all the way back to the Organian peace treaty of 2265, when the Federation and the Klingons were forced to begin coexisting peacefully. This treaty, among other things, lead to establishment of Nimbus III as a tri-partied development project, placing representatives of the three governments in close working proximity. [37] At about the same time, the Klingons and Romulans signed a treaty of alliance in which the Romulans received advanced starship technology from the Klingons, and the Klingons received Romulan cloaking technology. [38] In 2267, Kirk and the Klingon Captain Kang had cooperated to defeat a common enemy, learning a lesson about their common interests and the benefits of cooperation. Kang eventually sat on the Klingon High Council and while he did not openly advocate peace, he was a powerful voice for moderation. To be sure, there were still numerous skirmishes, but when even some of the contacts between the Federation and the Klingons were amicable, it represented an improvement. The Genesis crisis two decades later even led to a certain lessening of tensions, because of the prolonged association of Federation delegates and the Klingon ambassadorial corps.

But a few isolated officers in Starfleet, the Klingon, and Romulan militaries found the changes intolerable. While Starfleet has never been primarily a military organization, it has been charged with defense of the citizens of the Federation, and these officers found that a state of "controlled confrontation" was preferable to peace. During the time that the Klingons were on Earth in connection with the Genesis crisis, contacts were made. These contacts grew into secret alliances. Ultimately a conspiracy was formed, lead in Starfleet by Director of Operations Admiral Cartwright, in the Klingon Empire by General Chang and in the Romulan Empire by Nanclus, who became ambassador to the Federation. Each developed an organization of several dozen confidantes, who worked to maintain the hostilities. This escalation was carefully managed to maintain the levels of threat and tension, but not allow them to break into open warfare.

The six years of Kirk's final tour on the Enterprise saw elaborate preparations for war. In 2290 a completely redesigned bridge module was installed on the Enterprise with greatly improved tactical efficiency. Many other portions of the ship were refitted to prepare the ship for a war footing. Over the years Starfleet had used personnel other than officers for selected technical positions. These crewmembers completed a six-week training program at the Starfleet Academy. On Earth of a previous century the military would have called them enlisted personnel. In 2286-2293 the number of "crewmen" was substantially increased in the ships of Starfleet, with the standard crew compliment on the Enterprise growing from 430 to 1060. The additional 630 personnel were trained combat and support forces, ready for ground action.

In spite of Kirk's repeated comments during his career that "I'm a soldier, not a diplomat," he was troubled by this trend in Starfleet. In late 2292, on his 59th birthday, Kirk announced his intent to retire. Admiral Cartwright reluctantly accepted Kirk's decision and an effective date was set for six months later. But no more than a few weeks before retiring, Kirk was unwillingly injected into the last crisis of his Starfleet career, the Praxis Crisis.

He was ordered to escort the Chancellor of the Klingon High Council to Earth for peace treaty negotiations. Such negotiations were not acceptable to the conspiracy, so Chancellor Gorkon was assassinated, with Kirk and McCoy framed to appear to be the killers. The two friends were sentenced to the Klingon prison world Rura Pente, leaving Spock in command of the Enterprise to ferret out the conspiracy and help free Kirk. The Enterprise then, assisted by the Excelsior under command of Sulu, prevented further assassinations and also prevented the collapse of the relocated peace negotiations on Khitomer. The conference was ultimately successful, and led to over 40 years of placid relations between the two governments. [39]  

The Enterprise-A eventually returned to Earth from Khitomer, its place in history assured. Since Kirk's retirement coincided with the end of a slightly more than standard five year mission, the Enterprise crew was scheduled for a mass reassignment, informally termed a "decommissioning." The ship itself remained in limited service for a short time before being mothballed in lunar orbit. The Constitution Class starship, no matter how often refitted, was a 50-year-old model. The Excelsior Class had proven to be an excellent hull design, once the transwarp experiment was abandoned. Well before the Praxis Crisis, the Federation had made the commitment to convert to that design for its primary ships of the line. [40]   The name Enterprise was not long idle, however. The USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 B was already under construction when her predecessor was removed from service.

Following the retirement of Kirk, his remaining command staff went different directions, having served together through almost 30 years. Spock entered the Federation ambassadorial corps, serving with distinction. He nominally resided on Vulcan. Years later, at age 140, he secretly landed on Romulus where he led the resistance, made up of Romulans who wished to follow Vulcan ways. Leonard McCoy, age 65, was promoted to Captain of Medicine and transferred to Starfleet Medical. Five years later he became Chief of Starfleet Medical, with the rank of Admiral -- a post he held until retiring on his 111th birthday (he called it his "eleventh-first birthday," an allusion to a 20th century fantasy novel). His antagonistic friendship with Spock continued on and off until Spock departed for Romulus. Uhura returned to her Starfleet Academy instructor's position. Chekov became First Officer of the USS Excelsior, joining his long time friend Captain Sulu. Spock's protégé, Saavik, was also assigned to the Excelsior upon her promotion to Lieutenant Commander and served with distinction as Science Officer. Scott was assigned to Starfleet Headquarters, where he supervised revision of many key engineering regulations, until his own retirement two years later. [41]
 

CHAPTER SEVEN
ENTERPRISE-B, 2293 and 2371
 

In retirement, Kirk became somewhat of a recluse, returning to his family home in Iowa and rarely granting interviews. [42]  He did appear before the media a year after his retirement, and the occasion turned out to be Kirk's fateful last voyage aboard a starship. Kirk, Captain Montgomery Scott, and Commander Pavel Chekov attended the commissioning ceremonies for the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 B, as representatives of crew of the original Starship Enterprise. During the VIP cruise, the new ship responded to a distress call from two ships carrying El Lorean refugees. The ships were trapped in an energy field which later became known as the Nexus. 

The Enterprise, operating with a skeleton crew, rescued several of the EL Loreans, but became trapped in the energy field itself. Alone in engineering, Kirk reprogrammed a photon torpedo which was fired and used to throw the ship free of the energy field. In the final seconds a collision with an energy tendril damaged the deck of the ship where Kirk was, and his body was never recovered.

For over 75 years, those events were on record as the final minutes of Kirk's life, but an incident in 2371 suggests that Kirk may not have died on the Enterprise B. In the report of the final mission and destruction of the USS Enterprise, NCC-1701 D, Captain Jean-Luc Picard claimed to have actually met Kirk alive, in 2371.

According to that somewhat convoluted story, the survivors of the El Lorean ships in 2293 had been momentarily pulled into a region of space called "The Nexus" where they could experience any fantasy. The experience was described as sheer joy. One survivor, Dr. Soran, became obsessed with reentering the Nexus, permanently. He charted the 39.1-year course of the Nexus around the galaxy, and made plans to reenter the Nexus in 2371. Picard reports that Soren apparently distrusted the ability of any spacecraft to insert him into the region of joy properly, so Soran contrived to actually destroy two stars, and deflect the course of the Nexus to pass precisely over the planet Veridian III. He planned to be pulled into the Nexus from the safety of the planet surface.

The Enterprise D tracked Soren to the planet, where a Klingon Bird of Prey was guarding Soran's flank. The Klingons allowed Picard to beam down alone, and from Picard's perspective, Soren successfully destroyed the star, the Nexus passed, and both Picard and Soran were pulled inside the Nexus. There, Picard says he found Kirk alive and well, and convinced him to return to 2371 with Picard to work together to stop Soran. Picard says he had determined that inhabitants of the Nexus could exit at will, with a destination of any place and time they chose. 

Kirk and Picard did, in fact, prevent Soran from destroying the Veridian star, thus saving several million pre-industrial inhabitants of another planet in the system. Kirk, however, was fatally injured in the effort, and died a few minutes later. Picard buried the body identified as Kirk on a nearby mountaintop, and the USS Farragut later recovered the body, and transported it to Earth. Kirk's body was finally interned in a family cemetery south of Riverside, Iowa. [43] Picard's report leaves many unanswered questions, if it is true. Is there still a part of Kirk remaining inside the Nexus, alive? The answer may never be known, due to the incomprehensibility of the nature of the Nexus. [44]

Kirk may have written his own epitaph a few weeks before his disappearance in 2293.

"I was never really looking for a place in history," said Kirk during a rare public appearance at the Offutt Air and Space Museum in Omaha, Nebraska, Earth.  "Since I apparently HAVE such a place, I'd rather let people judge me by my actions, not by the memories of an old man."   [45]

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Footnotes