My blog idea is to try and maybe see just how far out there some of us have gone, are considering going, or wish we could go in the pursuit of IDIC in our fanfics. So, of those who are doing it, what other shows/media (or even star trek eras) are people pulling into their fanfics as crossovers? What crossovers do some people wish we could see, or want to try and write themselves. How do you feel about crossovers in star trek in general?
From the wonderful TemplarSora comes this equally wonderful idea … and I actually have something to contribute here. I have fiddled in the crossover realm, briefly, many ages ago. It was during one of the monthly challenges, the Haunting Challenge as I recall. It was, as you can imagine, a challenge that was supposed to be scary or some such. Maybe ghostly.
Now, I don’t know if TS threw this prompt out there because he remembered this one time I did a crossover (I told him about it and he seemed intrigued) but I did in fact do a pretty fun crossover. I never got it finished for the challenge, and one day I may come back to it … so, ladies and gents (not ‘in gents’) I present to you the Eulogy of my one and only crossover.
I was, at the time, on a Ghostbusters kick. I had watched the two movies recently and was reminded of why I loved the guys so much in the first place. I dug up some old Youtube clips of the cartoon show, hoped for a third movie, and then the Haunting Challenge dropped into my lap. I wanted to do a ghost story, I wanted to write some Ghostbusters, and I wanted to so a good Star Trek haunting story.
But Trek isn’t know for its ghost stories. All the episodes I could think of that had ghostly elements always ended up with a scientific or technobabble explanation. There was never a true ghost story. Plus, as Trek went on, it went away from that pseudo-science and made its own pseudo-science.
I had to think on which Trek crew to write this story with. I decided pretty early on that only one Trek crew really worked for this kind of story and that was the TOS folks.
And then it struck me … the TOS crew sure did have a lot of skeletons in their closets. This made their selection all the better. The idea of combining of the Ghostbusters with Kirk/Spock/McCoy … well, it was just too enticing to pass up.
So, I wrote the story. I didn’t finish it, but it was fun. Perhaps one day I’ll come back to it.
Titled “Who You Gonna Call?” the story featured a few things that no other story I’ve written since has. It has titled chapters and the chapters themselves are short. I generally don’t title chapters nor do I write short chapters (I feel like a chapter should be 2000 words long at least, or pretty close to it).
Here’s the story in its entirety. It’s written in the style I was writing at the time, so it doesn’t read as well as my current stuff I think. But you can determine that:
Haunting Challenge
Ghostbusters/Star Trek crossover
New York, 1984
“Venkman!!” Ray yelled as he held his proton pack with as much strength as he had; which admittedly wasn’t a lot. He wasn’t known for his workout routine and Pete Venkman had taken the money Ray wanted to spend on a home gym and blew it on a new TV.
Ray wasn’t really concerned with any of that right now; he was staring at the portal of death and doom ahead of him. This portal was where the greatest single threat to mankind emerged moments ago and took the form of a…giant marshmallow man.
Pete took his proton pack and combined its stream with the others. “Ride’em cowboy!”
The portal wailed; Gozer wailed. The entity tried its best to kill them. It’s giant, flaming hand, reached for them.
It was then a piercing light burst through the entire rooftop. The building shook and then an explosion…
Planet Y 234, 2270
The transporter effect brought him back. It brought him back to where his most trying…his most heartbreaking moment of his entire life occurred.
Spock and Bones materialized right beside him.
“Amazing…just a few years and this place looks like a damned theme park,” Bones commented.
“Doctor, this is not a ‘theme park.’ This complex has been designed specifically to monitor and study the capabilities of the Guardian of Forever.” Spock looked over the large shape of the Guardian before him. “It was logical for Starfleet to create this.”
Bones glared at him. “Study it for scientific pursuit? Damn it, Spock, this could be a weapon in the making!”
“Your suppositions are, as usual, incorrect Doctor McCoy.”
Jim Kirk began to walk towards the complex, letting the conversation play out. He didn’t have anything to add and it was better for the two to have it out now. He didn’t feel like playing referee this day.
“Captain, I’m detecting a temporal disturbance.” Spock’s tricorder beeped and whirred in excitement as the stoic Vulcan looked over the readings.
Jim looked at the Guardian and then back at Spock. “What’s going on?”
“Jim!” Bones’ yelled. Jim turned his eyes back to the Guardian and stared in silence.
Before them all, the gate to the past activated itself. It spoke no words. The center of the gaping oval began to glow red.
“Energy readings are off the scale, Captain!” Spock said with a raised voice. “We must find shelter!”
Bones tried to grab him, but Jim held his ground. “No! I want to see this!”
“Can’t we see it from somewhere safe?!” Bones yelled.
There was no more time for argument; there was no more time for anything. The Guardian made a loud, groaning, noise as though the strange instrument was dying. There was a bright flash of white light and an explosion.
Jim and Bones were thrown back from the force, landing on their backs hard.
Spock was able to hold his ground, his hair fluttering in the wind as his eyes were focused on the Guardian. The force disappeared and the Guardian spoke for the first time.
“I…have failed…” The booming voice announced.
The gateway to the past crumbled before them. The Guardian of Forever was gone.
Jim stood up and helped Bones up as well. He looked at the crumbled ruins of the Guardian and frowned.
Bones stared at it in shock. “Is…is it dead?”
Spock flipped his tricorder shut. “Inconclusive at this time, Doctor.”
Jim clenched his fists. “Good riddance.”
Bones looked down at his uniform and pulled some white goo off him. “What…is this?”
Spock opened his tricorder and scanned the goo. He raised an eyebrow. “Fascinating.”
“What the devil are you talking about?!” Bones sniffed the goo and grinned. “It’s…marshmallow.”
Jim drew his phaser and put a finger up to his lips, signaling his two officers to follow his lead. Spock and Bones did just that; though Bones didn’t look happy about it.
Jim had heard something though; there were others here. He began to walk towards some rocks behind the ruins of the Guardian. His finger inched closer to the trigger on his phaser. The voices were getting louder.
His arm was solid. He counted down in his head the moments. One…two…three…
He pulled out from behind the rocks and aimed his phaser. “Drop your weapons!”
Spock and Bones pulled out behind him, but that only made the odds slightly better.
Four men stood before Jim, all of them covered in white goo, all of them holding what looked like some kind of weapon.
One of them stepped forward. “Yours first pretty boy.” He aimed his weapon at Jim and smiled. “You look so cute when you’re mad,” he said sarcastically.
Jim tightened the grip on his phaser.
Whoever these people were, they picked the wrong day to mess with him.
*****
Chapter One: Who You Gonna Call?
Ray didn’t even notice the white goo dripping down his face and onto his shoes. His eyes were too busy staring at the men before him. He didn’t’ recognize them, but he was in awe of them. One of them even looked alien! Ray was smiling as wide as he could.
Egon took out the PKE meter and scanned the three men before them. “They’re not ghosts, Venkman. I think it may be safe to touch them.”
Pete rolled his eyes. “Thanks, Egon; real helpful.”
The lead man before them aimed his weapon at Egon. “What is that?!”
The tallest of the three men took out another device, box like. “Captain, I’m detecting concentrated levels of an unknown energy emanating from the packs on their back.”
“This is insane!” Winston said as he wiped the marshmallow off his face. “We’re the good guys!” Winston began to walk towards the three men.
“Hold it right there,” the lead man in the gold shirt said. He pointed his weapon at Winston and looked back to the last of three men, an older man. “Doctor, is he human?”
“Of course I’m human!” Winston yelled to no avail.
The last of the three, referred to as the doctor, took out another box like instrument and pointed it at Winston. “Seems to be…I can’t see anything that would make him alien.”
Pete aimed the proton pack at the gold shirted man. “Buddy, take our word for it, we’re human.”
“Lower your weapons or I will fire!”
“That would be highly dangerous and probably kill us all,” Pete said smugly.
“We may already be dead,” Egon added.
Ray’s eyes drifted up towards the sky. “Heaven sure is dark.”
“Dead?! I’m still alive and kicking!” Pete said with a smile. “Let’s test that theory; on the count of three I fire and we’ll see just how tough your gold shirt is, big man. One.”
“Captain, I recommend we lower our weapons-if we engage in a firefight we could destroy a large portion of the surrounding area.”
“Beautiful,” the doctor said sarcastically.
“Two,” Pete said slowly.
The lead man lowered his weapon and Pete, thankfully, did the same.
“My name is Captain James T. Kirk, of the starship Enterprise. This is my science officer, Commander Spock, and my Chief Medical Officer, Doctor McCoy.” He gestured to the corresponding men and glared fiercely at Pete. “And you?”
Pete lowered his proton pack and shrugged. “My name is Laverne and he’s Shirley,” Pete said while pointing to Egon. “We got lost in Queens and were wondering if you could point us to a nearby payphone. Shirley is willing to trade favors.”
Egon looked at Kirk, Spock, and McCoy. “I’m not.”
Ray stepped forward, his face lit up in excitement. “It’s…an honor to meet you. All of you…really…we never thought in a million years we’d be able to crossover!”
Egon looked at Ray. “That’s a possibility…but the PKE isn’t detecting anything out of the ordinary.”
“Maybe it broke on reentry?” Winston suggested.
“Look, ladies,” Pete said quickly, “we don’t give away our numbers to strangers on the first date!” He clapped his hands. “Let’s try and be a little more discreet, huh?”
“Who are you people?” McCoy asked.
Pete shrugged. “We’re not Laverne and Shirley…we’re the Marx Brothers—”
“Shut up, Venkman!” Ray yelled. He blushed in the excitement but turned his attention back to the three before them. “Look…we’re the Ghostbusters.”
McCoy leaned in to Kirk’s ear and said loudly, “I think they need medical attention.”
Spock stepped out in front and approached Ray. “What year is it?”
Ray stared at the taller being for a moment. “You’re…not human.”
“I am a Vulcan. I am only half human.”
“Ray!” Pete rushed to his side and pulled him away. “What are you doing?”
Ray ignored him and walked back to Spock. “You’re an alien? A real…live…alien?”
Spock gave a slight nod. “I am. Now please, answer my question; what year is it?”
“1984,” Ray answered.
Spock gave Ray a quizzical look. “Fascinating.”
“Ray, what if we’re not dead, but merely in a sub dimension of Gozer’s choosing?” Egon proposed.
Pete hung his head. “Nice optimism there, Egon.”
“Don’t think anything!” Winston said as he looked up at the sky. “We won’t fall for it again!”
Pete put a hand on Winston’s shoulder. “Chill out, comrade. I think Egon was being hopeful.”
“I was,” Egon said with a tinge of sadness.
Kirk stepped forward. “I’m going to have to insist on you coming back to our ship with us.”
McCoy took out his box like device again. “Their scans don’t show any abnormalities, but I want them in sickbay just in case.”
Kirk took a small device. “Kirk to Enterprise.”
“Scott here, sir.”
Spock turned to Kirk. “I request permission to stay on the planet and consult with the sensors of the science complex, Captain.”
Kirk nodded. “Very good, Spock. I want a report in an hour.”
“Understood.” Spock began to trudge off into the distance.
Pete pointed at Spock. “Why does he get to leave? What’s the magic word?”
Kirk frowned and looked back at the small device. “Scotty, I want you to lock on to our coordinates and beam us up-all six of us. Mr. Spock will be staying on the planet for the moment.” He looked back at Pete. “Have a security team ready.”
“Aye, sir. I have your coordinates. Security team has arrived,” the voice responded.
“Energize,” Kirk said quickly.
Ray felt a slight tingle going through his arm.
“Ray!” Pete yelled as he disappeared…seemingly disintegrating in gold energy before him. Ray’s vision became filled with the gold energy and he screamed.
In moments it was all over, and they were standing on a circular pad of some sort. Men in red shirts and black pants were pointing weapons at them. Kirk stepped off the pad along with McCoy.
“Take off your…packs,” Kirk said cautiously.
Pete stared at them. “Where the hell are we? And what the hell was that?”
“That was a transporter beam,” McCoy responded. “I’m not a big fan either. If you can take off your packs so we can go to sickbay, I can get you all cleaned up.”
Egon looked over the room and began to take off his proton pack.
Pete stared at him. “Egon?! Hello, we’re in unknown territory! What if they screw up our instruments!”
“Venkman, it’s clear their technology is a far more advanced than ours.” He set his pack on the floor. “I think this is all a dream anyway.”
Pete scoffed. “If this is a dream then where are the pretty women?”
The doors to the room opened and a pretty blonde haired woman stepped in. “Doctor McCoy, I’ve run the…” She stopped speaking when she saw Pete.
He was still covered, like all of them, in marshmallow goo, but his charming smiled wasn’t. “I think I found one,” he said happily. He began to take off his proton pack.
Winston threw up his hands and did the same.
Ray stood there, still shocked. He slowly slid his pack off as he looked around the room. The equipment didn’t look that advanced…but looks were deceiving here apparently. They stood on a large circular pad, and whatever means they had been transported here with wasn’t apparent. Ray could barely hold in his excitement.
Kirk nodded. “Good.” He turned to the men in red shirts. “Escort these men to sickbay and have those,” he said pointing at the proton packs, “put in a high security force field area.”
“Aye, sir,” the lead red shirted man responded.
McCoy motioned for them to follow and Ray stepped off the pad first. He walked slowly making sure it wasn’t a dream. He really didn’t want any more of his childhood memories being aired out in front of these people; he already knew Venkman wouldn’t let him live the marshmallow man down.
Pete limberly jumped off the pad and flexed his muscles. “Yeah…so, what’s a pretty girl like you doing in a place like this?”
The woman looked to McCoy and then walked up to the doctor. Pete’s advances were clearly rejected, but Ray knew that wouldn’t stop him.
As they left the room they entered the busy hallways of wherever they were. Ray was amazed.
Whatever had happened to bring them here, he was glad it did happen.
******
Chapter Two: Meeting of the Minds
Jim spun around in his chair and looked at Scotty. “Status report.”
“Ship’s workin’ fine, Captain. Nothing can shake her right now.”
“I’m worried that whatever destroyed the Guardian could damage us.”
Scotty shook his head. “No, sir. Whatever happened to the Guardian, it was a local anomaly.”
Jim nodded slowly. “I hope so.” He rose from his chair. “You have the bridge.”
“Aye, sir,” Scotty said with his usual amount of enthusiasm.
Jim boarded the turbolift and began the ride to sickbay. His mind was uncharacteristically out of sorts at the moment. He watched as the Guardian crumbled into nothing but chunks; rather than mourn the scientific loss, he was glad the Guardian was gone.
The device had led him to murder a woman in order to preserve history. There was no other way around it; Edith Keeler had to die in order for the Enterprise to live. The woman he loved had to die in order to keep everything he knew alive. He had questioned his decision then and he questioned it now.
Logically, Spock would tell him he was left with no other choice. What good was being with the woman he loved if he had to watch the world burn with her? Given the choice to do it again, Jim wasn’t sure what he would do. In the years since that journey through the Guardian he had been with other women; yet none of them really compared with Edith. Whatever quality made him love her was unique to her alone; it would be lost forever to the depths of history.
Now the Guardian was gone and in his place were four men who spoke the same language as Jim, who seemed human, but came from a time foreign to everyone aboard the Enterprise. He had read his history when he got back to the Enterprise and the year 1984 wasn’t one they had much information on.
It was, many Federation historians theorized, a year that was filled with a growing sense of dread for the population of Earth. The Eugenics War was going to take place nine years later and historians believe that the 80s were a cold war of sorts between the various powers of Earth. What exactly happened and to whom was unknown, most of the history of that time lost to World War III.
These men had come from that year but didn’t seem to be fearful.
The turbolift stopped and Jim got out, strolling towards sickbay. Any questions he had he’d be sure to get answered here.
The doors opened and Jim strode in. “Doctor McCoy?”
“Here,” Bones said as he appeared in the doorway, leaning against the wall. “They’ve behaved themselves, though they’re talking nonsense I can’t make heads or tails of.”
Jim gave a slight nod and entered the room. All four of the men were standing and the lead man, a Pete Venkman as Jim had heard him referenced, smiled at him. “Captain Kirk, a pleasure, really.”
The words seemed insincere to Jim but he played along. He flashed a smile. “The same to you Mr. Venkman.”
Venkman raised a finger. “That’s Dr. Venkman-I worked long and hard for that degree.”
“You didn’t,” the man named Egon said with a small grin.
Jim stared at Venkman. “If I could get your names-your real names.”
Venkman pointed at himself. “I’m Peter Venkman, he’s Egon Spengler, he’s Ray Stantz, and that’s Winston,” Venkman paused. “…uh…Smith.”
“Zeddemore,” Stantz corrected.
Venkman snapped his fingers. “Right, Winston Zeddemore.” He shrugged. “We’ve had a rough day-my girlfriend gets turned into a dog, we blow up half of Manhattan, and I got covered in marshmallow.”
Jim looked to Bones for help, but the good doctor only grinned in amusement. “Don’t ask me; I barely understand Spock, why the hell would I understand them?”
“None of that matters right now,” Stantz said excitedly. “We want to know more about you-are you ghosts?”
Jim shook his head. “We’re alive and well.”
Stantz looked disappointed. “You’re alive…and we’re alive…so…where are we?”
Jim looked to Bones again. “I didn’t tell them anything,” Bones said quickly. “I figured it was best to have the man in charge deliver the news.”
Jim nodded. “All right,” he said as he looked back at the four men, “the year is 2270 and you’re aboard a starship…a space traveling vehicle in the most basic sense.”
Spengler furrowed his brow. “We’re not in the ethereal plain?”
“The what?” Bones said confused. “You’re alive; how much clearer can we get?”
“Oh boy…” Stantz sat down. “We’ve…been taken to the future.”
Venkman scoffed at the notion. “If this is the future I demand a refund; my VCR is more advanced than this stuff!”
“I can assure you, you are indeed in the future.” The calm and cool voice of Spock silenced the room.
Jim turned and flashed a small grin. “Spock, welcome back.”
“Thank you, Captain.”
Bones frowned. “I was just getting used to the silence.”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “Doctor, even in my absence there could be no silence aboard a starship.”
Jim waved his hand to cut Spock off, albeit gently. “Spock, don’t mind Doctor McCoy; your report, please.”
Spock clasped his hands behind his back. “Very well, Captain. Upon reviewing the readings recorded by my tricorder and comparing those to the sensors of the science complex, I have determined that an unknown energy source emerged from the Guardian at the exact same time as these men. This energy source collapsed the Guardian.”
Spengler stepped forward. “Can I see the signature?”
Spock looked to Jim and Jim gave him the go ahead. Spock took out his tricorder and Spengler looked over it.
“Well, I think Egon’s found a date,” Venkman joked.
Spengler seemed to ignore him. “Peter, this energy signature is the same as Gozer’s.”
Stantz got up and looked at the signature. “Wow…it is Gozer…how did she make it here?”
“I’ll have to get more information to make that determination. It’s possible when we crossed the streams we tore open a hole in the time space continuum.” Spengler looked to Jim. “This gate we came through…what was it?”
“A time travelling device built by a species millions of years ago,” Jim answered.
“That’s bad…oh, that’s bad.” Stantz clapped his hand over his forehead. “The energy to run a time portal like that must be enormous! If Gozer came through that she could have fed off it.”
“Judging by the readings here, I think that’s just what she did. Ray…we could be looking at an extinction level event in the making.” Spengler’s face turned to stone.
“The 1693 Salem witch trials…” Stantz shook his head.
Spock raised an eyebrow. “Colonial America.”
Spengler nodded. “That’s right. A huge amount of paranormal activity was reported in the Salem area in 1693; the only reason that an extinction level event was avoided was due to the death of the witches themselves.”
“You’re saying that there were real witches in Salem?” Bones looked back at Jim. “Maybe I should examine them again.”
“The witches served as conduits to the Earth; if they had remained alive, disease, death, and destruction would have swept across the planet thereby causing humanity to become extinct.” Spengler looked over the entire room. “Gozer has absorbed enough energy to wreak that kind of destruction; she can literally raise the dead at this point.”
“Not to mention she’s probably pretty pissed at us,” Zeddemore added.
“Let’s go get her!” Venkman threw up his hands. “We have a date to finish.”
Jim looked to Spock. “Thoughts?”
At that moment the red alert klaxon sounded. “Captain to the bridge!”
Jim slammed his hand on the comm. panel. “Scotty, what’s going on?!”
“Captain, we’re under attack by some sort of energy field…shields are failing! Captain—” The line went silent.
The lights in the room dimmed. Spock took out his tricorder and scanned the room. “Captain, we’re experiencing a massive power drain.”
Jim looked back to the four men and scowled.
Venkman stepped forward. “Looks like we’re all you got.”
Jim clenched his fists. He didn’t like being forced into a decision…but he didn’t have a choice now.
No one on the Enterprise did.
******
Chapter Three: MIA
Ray put on the proton pack and groaned. “They just seem to get heavier every day.”
“I’m sure your scale says the same thing,” Pete responded.
Egon activated the PKE meter and scanned the surrounding area. “This room is dangerous. We need to leave.”
“Come on, man! We’re in the future, being attacked by Gozer? It’s got to be a dream.” Winston looked at them all. “Right?”
Egon shook his head slowly.
Kirk walked into the room quickly, his weapon drawn. “Are you ready?”
“Hold on, pretty boy.” Pete walked to Kirk and then struck a pose. “Ghostbusters, assemble!”
Ray rolled his eyes and walked by Pete, along with everyone else.
“Fine, we’ll work on it!” Pete yelled after them as he followed. Kirk trailed behind him.
The corridors of the ship were darkened, the lights flashing on and off quickly. It provided a near strobe effect to the entire area.
The PKE meter grew louder. “Ray!” Egon yelled before an explosion of light erupted and all of them were blown on their backs.
An apparition appeared of a woman, kindly looking. Her figure was outlined in a strange purple glow and Ray could see through her. They all stood pulling out their proton guns from the packs and took aim.
“Wait!!” Kirk stepped in front of them, his arms dangling by his side. He seemed to recognize the apparition.
“Pretty boy, you let us get our guns to play cowboys; so let’s play!” Pete yelled.
Kirk shook his head weakly. “No…” he stepped toward to apparition. “Edith?”
Egon and Ray exchanged a look. This wasn’t good by a long shot.
“Man, it’s a ghost! Let us nab it before it kills us!” Winston’s hand inched toward the trigger on his weapon. “Come on, Kirk, move!”
The apparition took notice of them and her eyes flashed. In a second the room dissolved around them and the Ghostbusters were somewhere else, somewhere different.
“Get down!” An officer in a gold shirt lunged at Ray and took him to the deck as a bright beam of light flew over them-scarring the nearby wall.
Ray looked wide-eyed at the burned metal near him.
“Oh, hell!” Pete opened fire, further destroying the walls near him.
The man in the gold shirt stood and helped Ray up. “We have to get out here!”
“…what was that?!” Ray stared at the wall.
“A phaser blast-set to kill.” The gold shirted man extended his hand. “Sulu.”
“Ray…” he answered anxiously.
“This place is a death trap!” Winston pointed his gun into the darkness ahead. “I don’t see them.”
“No,” Sulu answered, “you wouldn’t. They looked like security forces…but it’s…it’s not possible.”
Egon scanned the area. “This isn’t good.”
“All those security officers…they died…years ago.” Sulu looked back towards the darkness. “They can’t be alive.”
“It’s happening, Ray.” Egon turned the PKE meter off. “The ship is highly conducive; the PKE in this room is off the charts. Gozer is raising the dead.”
“We have to find her,” Ray said quickly.
“I left her my number, I don’t know why she hasn’t called,” Pete joked.
“This isn’t some game, Venkman! We could be looking at the end of everything!” Ray clasped his hands over his forehead. “We’ve got to find her!”
“Okay, let’s, for the sake of argument, say that this is all true.” Pete walked around them. “We all have been transported to the 29th—”
“23rd,” Sulu corrected.
Pete frowned. “23rd century. We’re in the future, where technology is less advanced then my VCR—”
“You did have a Panasonic.” Ray added.
Pete ignored him. “And somehow Gozer has become even more powerful.”
“That’s basically it,” Winston said unenthused.
“I hate to interrupt…but we have a problem.” Sulu pointed in the direction of the darkness.
Ray watched and saw dozens of red shirts emerging from the darkness. Some had been burned, others bruised and beaten, while still others had body parts missing. All of them were holding weapons-phasers as Sulu called them.
Pete aimed his weapon. “Lock and load, boys!”
Ray pointed his weapon as his eyes widened in fear.
This was going to get messy.
******
Chapter Four: Stronger Than Life
Jim couldn’t believe his eyes. Before him the woman he would have given the world to be with. She was just…floating there; a strange purple hue encompassing her, yet not detracting from her beauty. She was still the same Edith he knew. The kind smile, the live eyes, and the face of a goddess…all of them were Edith’s.
The glow faded and she materialized fully. Her color, her skin, everything about her was there…the last time he saw her she was wearing the same thing.
“Jim,” she said as her hand touched his face, slowly tracing its way down his cheek.
She felt so real…she was so real…
His hand shot up and grabbed her wrist, pulling it away violently. “What have you done with them?!”
“They’re safe.” She smiled at him. “I sent them away so you and I can be alone. It’s been…so long.”
His hand let go of hers. He put it behind his back to hide the shaking. “Edith…I…”
“Jim!” Bones rounded the corner but immediately put on the brakes. His eyes shook. “…can’t be…”
Spock, his tricorder in hand paused, his eyebrow rising. “Fascinating.”
“Spock…it’s Edith!” Jim smiled. “She’s here…she’s really…here.”
“Jim…she’s dead…I saw her.” Bones stepped forward but stopped. “She can’t be here.”
“Doctor McCoy is correct.” Spock scanned her. “She’s giving off no lifeform readings, Captain.”
His eyes met there’s. “I won’t give her up again…I…can’t do that again.”
Edith looked at them both. “Doctor…Spock…” She raised her hand. “I need a moment.” She waved her hand and before Jim they disappeared.
He stared at where they stood.
He grabbed her and pinned her against the wall. “Bring them back!!”
And his love…his goddess…she wasn’t real. She couldn’t be real. He heard her die…he saw her body. He saw his future…his happiness…die with her.
She smiled. “Jim…you’ve been a bad boy.” Her voice changed to something other worldly…something dark and dangerous.
He tried to pull his arms away but he was locked in. He couldn’t move any of his limbs.
She phased through him and left him stuck against the wall.
“You humans are all pathetic…I am Gozer…and you shall all die!”
“I’ll kill you!” He yelled furiously, struggling against the wall.
She laughed. “Try…”
“WHOA NELLIE!” Pete blasted another redshirt away. “That’s 65 for me!”
Ray glared at him. “Venkman!” He fired his proton pack again and destroyed another redshirt apparition. “We can’t keep this up!”
“He’s right, Venkman. The energy discharge from the proton packs could overload the electronics throughout this ship-we have to stop them now.”
“Then let’s do it, huh!” Winston destroyed another redshirt.
“Well, Egon, what do we do? Dance, sing, or dirty favors?” Venkman asked.
Egon combined his stream with Ray’s. “Cross the streams!”
“Again?! Where’s the originality?!” Venkman crossed his stream with Winston’s and then they pulled theirs together with Ray’s and Egon’s.
The light from the streams was too bright and Ray closed his eyes. Within seconds it was over and the walls of the corridor were burned.
Sulu stepped forward and whistled. “What was that?”
Venkman hoisted his weapon with a smile. “That’s the power of Mr. Clean.”
Ray sighed. “Now what?”
Egon brought out his PKE meter. “Something’s not right. I’m detecting a PKE surge down that corridor…coming towards us.”
Sulu straightened up. “Mr. Scott?”
Scott’s hand drew a blade…dripping with blood. “Redjac…Redjac…Redjac!”
Sulu’s eyes widened. “No! It can’t be!”
“What’s a Redjac?” Venkman asked.
“An entity that committed atrocities during the 19th and 20th century…it’s been long thought to be destroyed.” Egon gripped the PKE meter tighter.
“Dear God…if Gozer and Redjac have partnered…” Ray held his breath. He didn’t dare utter the words.
“It could mean the deaths of everyone in this galaxy and more…Redjac feeds off fear and pain…Gozer is the perfect partner.” Egon drew his weapon. “We have to trap it.”
Sulu looked at all of them. “You can’t harm him…you can’t.”
Ray nodded. “We’ll try…but he’s being possessed. And if we don’t stop him, no one else ever will.”
Venkman grinned. “Just the kind of reassuring speech we here at Ghostbusters provide.”
Ray aimed his proton pack at the possessed man, his hands trembling. “Egon…ideas?”
“Trapping it is the only way to effectively contain the situation…Gozer will more than likely come after him, and the opportunity to trap her is too great to pass up,” Egon said quickly as he calibrated his pack. “Removing the spirit from the possessed will make trapping easier…”
At that moment, Spock and McCoy appeared behind them, each with a strange look on their face.
“Damn it, Spock, do something!” McCoy yelled as he saw Scott coming towards them, a murderous rage in the man’s eyes.
Spock calmly aimed his phaser and fired. Scott was hit and collapsed towards the ground, the knife clattering along the deck.
McCoy rushed over to the man’s side, his medical training taking over. “Damn it, Spock, I said do something, not shoot him!”
Spock approached Ray and the rest of the Ghostbusters, a quizzical look on his face. “Doctor, it was the only logical course of action. If I had hesitated, Mr. Scott would surely have been killed by the weapons these men have…he is now only stunned, and has a chance for survival.”
“Stun? Did you get that setting at Radio Shack?” Pete said with a smirk.
Egon nodded in agreement with Spock. “Good…with him unconsciousness we can remove the spirit and use it to bait Gozer.”
“Gozer…I think it has the Captain trapped,” McCoy said sourly. “We got whisked away here by something…not human.”
“An accurate, if crude observation Doctor. It is highly likely Gozer has the Captain and will use him to control the ship,” Spock said quickly. “It is paramount we rescue him before Gozer infiltrates his mind.”
Ray rubbed his forehead nervously. “Oh boy…oh boy…”
Pete patted Ray on the shoulder. “It’s okay, Ray…we’ll get nap time when we go back home.”
“Venkman, we need to move quickly,” Egon said seriously.
“Well?” Winston demanded.
Pete sighed and shrugged. “Why the hell not? It’s not like I got a date later…the whole turning into a dog thing is a bit of a mood killer, you know?”
******
Chapter 5: If All Else Fails…
“This is highly illogical,” Spock said with certainty as he watched the four travelers from Earth’s distant past-the Ghostbusters, as they called themselves-set up a machine he had never witnessed before. It was made up of four small devices from their packs, traps as they had explained it to him.
“All right…I think everything’s in place,” Ray said with a smile. “I can’t wait…been dying to try this theory out.”
“Dying is what made these things, I think we should stay away from it,” Wilson said confidently. “I’m not ready to die-not yet. I still have to see Michael Jackson in concert!”
“You know, I think he’s a fluke to be honest…no man can get girls dressed in all that leather and glitter,” Peter said with a smirk. “Well, no man besides me anyway…”
“I agree with Ray, we’re ready. Activate the traps,” Egon said.
McCoy leaned in close to Spock and said, “Do you think this has a shot in hell of working?”
Spock raised an eyebrow. “Doctor, if I may be so bold, I believe ‘hell’ is where we currently are.”
McCoy scowled. “You’re going to pick now to start having a sense of humor? Jim could be dead for all we know!”
“You’re hysterics are unwarranted Doctor McCoy; the captain is quite capable of surviving desperate situations.”
“You’re calling this a desperate situation?!”
Spock didn’t answer, but turned his attention to the traps. “Fascinating,” he uttered.
…
And that was it. I never finished the story. Sad? Yes. I did enjoy writing the Ghostbusters and TOS crew, though I did abuse the ‘Fascinating’ bit way too much. The story has its merits though and I hope to one day return to it.
I love Trek Crosovers. I’ll read any of them, even if they’re horrible, because there’s always one moment of fun.
Thanks for reading.
