Memories encouraged memory. Sometimes it was like finding the match in the pile of upturned cards, two pictures that were the same - the old farmhouse in Iowa, for example, two that were similar yet not the same - their image of Starfleet (which Kirk almost shyly showed as being something he had dodged most of his life), and some that were very different - like the idea of parents.

Jim had had Gary, Kirk had had Bones. They had lost different people (thousands of his friends, gone, thanks to Nero).

The Pacific Ocean would always be freezing cold, and the memory made Kirk shiver.