another appeal
I haven't given up on this story yet, I swear it. Hopefully soon I'll have more time to work on it--and most importantly, less writer's block. But since I do still want some sort of feedback on what was formerly my big bang, I'm just slapping what I've got so far right up here. If you feel the inclination and would like to read it I would very, very, very much appreciate your input. It's K/S, cross between TOS and XI universes.
Jim Kirk battled for his balance on the hard seat of the shuttlecraft as he tumbled off of them, still bleary with sleep. The reason for his nap was only half in subversion; even though part of the reason was genuine fatigue from the last stretch of the five year mission, it was in part to alleviate the awkwardness between himself and his companion. And now he had effectively escaped him until they were close to parting.
Kirk scrambled over to the cockpit of the shuttle to monitor their progress, finding that he could see the orbit of New Vulcan from the view screen. He plopped into the co-pilot’s seat, giving a soft smile to his now former first officer, who had spared him a quick glance from the controls of the shuttle.
“I trust you slept well, Capt-Admiral?” Spock asked quietly.
“I did-Captain. What’s our ETA?”
“Approximately fifteen point seven three minutes, sir.”
Our last fifteen minutes, Kirk couldn’t help but think.
“Good. It seems that this is the end of our journey together, Mister Spock.”
“Indeed.”
“Hey, uh, watch out for those Klingons. I’ve been told to warn everyone that they’re getting a bit riled up with the Federation diplomats.” Kirk scoffed at the memory of his last handshake with Komack at the spacedock on Earth.
“You be careful, Jim,” the admiral had said as he grasped his hand a bit too enthusiastically, a sort of frenzy in his eyes as he vigorously pumped his hand back and forth. “Those bastards aren’t very discriminating when something pisses them off.”
“I shall endeavor to do so, Jim,” Spock replied, almost seeming to share in his amusement. The two exchanged another warm-hearted glance, and lapsed into a comfortable silence for several minutes longer.
“H-hey,” Kirk had sighed and finally spoke. “You sure? Are you absolutely sure about this?”
“Quite sure. I believe it to be the most logical course of action at this juncture.”
“Well,” Kirk suppressed another sigh. “I’m just hoping you don’t lose that glowing sense of humor.”
“And you? I have always been under the impression that you would rather remain in the stars.”
“Yeah, well,” Kirk said, and left it at that.
“Do your plans remain the same?”
“Yes, I still plan on visiting a friend.”
“You are aware that I do know the identity of this friend, correct?” he said, almost slyly.
“Well, sometimes, Spock, I like to think you don’t know everything that has to do with me, okay?” Kirk grinned at him widely, catching a mischievous twitch of the lips that Spock worked quickly to repress.
“I do not believe that is possible, Admiral,” he said as he turned back to the controls.
The landing process had already begun. They had fallen into another silence, unpressured to speak as the shuttlecraft DeLorean slid into place in its hanger at the New Vulcan spaceport. Together the two exited the shuttlecraft, handled all of the procedures at the docking station, and walked out into the planet’s arid atmosphere towards their respective transports. They stopped in the center of the square.
“I guess this is it.” Kirk fisted his hands and placed them on his hips, turning to meet Spock’s passive gaze. “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” he grinned, hoping that it would come out sounding more ironic than anything. To accentuate that irony, he punched him on the arm.
“Indeed. I wish you luck, Jim.” He held out the familiar salute. “Live long and prosper.”
“Isn’t luck illogical?” Kirk smiled back, a little sadly, and returned the gesture. “But you, too, anyway.”
After another quiet moment between them, he put down his hand and gave one last nod of acknowledgement. As Spock turned to leave, Kirk breathed in deeply and turned onto his heel to depart as well. He had only taken a few steps when he stopped and thought better of such a cold, Vulcan goodbye. He turned back around, watching the Vulcan in question already approaching the aircar that would take him to New Gol.
“Spock,” Kirk called without raising his voice, knowing that he would hear. He was right-Spock stopped and turned when beckoned, coming up to meet Kirk as he strode quickly towards him. Kirk grabbed him by the shoulders, pushing him back a little so that their eyes would meet.
“You take care of yourself, you bastard, okay?” he said as he slid his hands down his arms. Spock’s eyebrow twitched in amusement.
“Your concern is appreciated. I should hope you do the same.
“I certainly will, Mister Spock,” he said, and punched him on the arm again. “With or without your ubiquitous presence.”
“Goodbye, Jim.”
“Goodbye, Spock.” Kirk put on his shiniest smile and walked the short remaining distance to Spock’s ride. “See you around.”
“Hopefully that will be the case, sir.” Spock climbed into his transport, giving one last salute as the door closed upon him. Kirk watched it leave, standing in place for a moment. Several moments before it was completely out of sight, he was headed back to his own transport, mumbling swears under his breath the entire time. He reached the aircar after several long minutes of trudging dejectedly in the sand.
“Hello again, Mister Kirk,” it chirped at him upon his arrival. He furrowed his brow in surprise. He had never been near this particular aircar in his life. Regardless, he clambered into it, giving instructions for it to take him to the residence of one Selek of Vulcan.
***
“Ambassador! Ambassador! I hope you don’t mind, but I let myself in!” Kirk shouted in the sterile Vulcan domicile. He wandered about for a minute, irrationally concerned at the silence of the place. He eventually came across an almost hidden room, and stepped inside.
It was made up as a lab, a bit ominous with all its fantastic technology. In the back of the room, the ambassador was hunched over a device on a long table that spread out against the entire wall that partially obscured a tall glowing portal.
“Ambassador Spock,” Kirk addressed him, making him start and quickly turn around.
“Jim,” he answered warmly. “I did not anticipate you at this time.”
“Did I scare you?” he grinned. “I’m sorry.”
“You did not. Although your apology is accepted.”
Kirk suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, still in good spirits from the exchange.
“What have you got there? Looks fancy.”
“May I offer you something?” Spock subverted easily, widening Kirk’s grin by about tenfold.
“No, thank you,” he responded, striding over to meet him and wrap him in a quick embrace. “You’re not getting away from me that easily. What are you working on?”
The older Spock placed his hands behind his back, conceding defeat. “It appears you will not be swayed so easily,” he said ironically. “It is just as well. I was somewhat hoping that you might be part of an experiment.”
“Experiment?” Kirk asked, head craning to view the pulsating source of energy. Spock stepped aside, revealing the portal in its entirety.
It was an ominous looking thing, large and commanding. Images flashed through it at rapid-fire pace, distorted by a large sheer panel placed in front of it. The actual images the portal was projecting seemed clear and concise-they belonged. But the rectangular panel suspended in front of it seemed out of place-the images as seen through it had a foreign quality; although at some times they aligned perfectly with the real images, at others they were totally skewed. It appeared as did the bifocals of centuries before, except the focus through the panel was as if marked with fingerprints and needed a good wipe down with a clean cloth. Kirk gazed at it a moment longer in awe before he realized he was looking at a clip show of the world’s entire history, given away by the occasional flash representing an important event in the shaping of Earth’s current culture as well as events occurring since the formation of the United Federation of Planets.
“It is called the Guardian of Forever,” Spock finally interjected, startling Kirk back to the tangible present. “Many years ago I discovered it in my universe, and was fortuitous to encounter it once again in this one.” Kirk looked at him, completely shocked.
“And you had your house built around it. Hell, you had your entire civilization built around it--”
“It seemed…appropriate. I believe there is a Terran adage referring to the extermination of two ornithoids with one projectile?”
“You sly bastard,” Kirk exhaled. “What the hell are you doing here? What is that panel?”
“It has already been scientifically proven that one is able to travel from one universe to its parallel-you and I serve as empirical evidence of this; your existence alone was precipitated by my inadvertent interference.” Spock stepped over towards the Guardian, reaching over to collect a device presumably related to it. “The technology already exists to create a window to an alternate universe. The Guardian serves as a window through all of time. Why not combine the two; what reason is there not to regulate the process?”
“Logical enough,” Kirk intoned with a hint of sarcasm. “But aside from making great advancements in science, why?”
“…I must admit that I am…curious,” Spock said, not meeting his eyes. That seemed to be that.
“But how do I factor into all of this?” Kirk asked.
“You may simply observe. I feel you deserve to, considering your prior knowledge of the subject.”
Kirk raised both eyebrows and crossed his arms. “I guess that’s so. So what’s the plan?”
“I have created here a permeable pathway to whatever time period in my own universe. I wish to determine whether I can control the progression of the Guardian’s time cycle. At the moment, it is randomized, but I believe that this device will allow me to control it.”
“And what-you would go through and relive parts of your universe?”
“That is not my intention-I simply wish to monitor the progression of events from where I left them. Eventually I would wish to determine if traveling through would not be impossible, although know this, Jim. It is paramount that past events in the other universe not be changed. Your very existence depends on that progression of events, and the paradox it would create could potentially be tantamount to universal destruction.”
“Well damn,” Kirk said simply. “Aren’t you concerned about exposing me to possible future events?”
“No, not particularly, as your timeline has already diverged in several very important places. For instance, it was not your ship which encountered the Botany Bay several years ago, preventing the quite catastrophic chain of events that occurred within my timeline.”
“Catastrophic?”
“One could say.”
“I must ask.”
“Perhaps…I shall show you.” Kirk immediately tensed infinitesimally, bracing for a meld, then relaxed when nothing happened. “You have heard of the Eugenics Wars of the late twentieth century, and the superhumans that it produced?”
“Well, yeah.”
“One of these was a man called Khan Noonien Singh. He and others of his kind were placed in cryogenics and sent off into space to be preserved for a coming future. My Enterprise encountered the ship and attempted to assist the group by bringing them on board. It appeared several centuries did nothing to mollify Khan’s propensity towards domination, and we were forced to exile him. We unwittingly placed Khan’s group on an almost uninhabitable planet, and approximately fifteen years later he came to seek his revenge on your counterpart and the ship, effectively destroying it.”
“Well, obviously not.”
“No, obviously,” Spock said, sounding almost amused. “A warp core breach Khan’s attacks to the ship had caused made it necessary for someone to physically repair it at the time in order to avoid destruction. I elected to go.”
“Into a warp core breach?” Kirk nearly shouted. “But you couldn’t possibly have…”
“Survived? As a matter of fact I did not. It was a sacrifice I was fully prepared to make. One that happened to coincide with a terraforming project being performed on a nearby planet with an experimental prototype called the Genesis device. The purpose of that device was to reform a completely dead planet into one teeming with life. …Fortunately for me, the activation of the device and the launch of my coffin were almost simultaneous, allowing for a rather…dramatic rescue by the former bridge crew of the Enterprise.”
There was probably a point in his life in which Jim Kirk would never have had use for such colorful descriptors as “flabbergasted” or “gobsmacked”. As it were, they proved apt with disconcerting frequency. This particular new discovery had already trumped by the sheer bizarreness of it all of the crazy things he had encountered in his command, including but not limited to vengeful lava-spitting silicon based mommies or any variety of alien happy spores or planets whose cultures had developed eerily similarly to some ridiculously specific part of Earth’s history. This level of insanity had previously been neglected.
“Bullshit,” Kirk finally sputtered.
Funny thing was, he believed it. He had learned relatively quickly that when it came to this old Vulcan, one had to expect the unexpected.
“I assure you, I am not,” he replied. “If you would turn your attention to the Guardian, I could demonstrate. I am now setting it to the year 228-; the past for me, the future for you. I am finding it difficult to pinpoint the precise date, although I have placed the probe approximately two days before the incident.”
“Can you, y’know, fast forward, like in a vid? I think they used to call it ‘TiVo’ or someth--”
Spock looked up suddenly, any semblance of mirth disappearing from his person. The controller for the Guardian hung loose in one of his hands.
“Jim, if you would please. I believe I have heard something rather disconcerting.”
A crash from the outside signified that he was right.
“It appears that the Klingons have located me,” Spock said, reaching over to sweep Kirk forward by the shoulder. “Quickly, you must--”
The jingling of heavy armor and the thud of heavy boots quickly progressed, cutting him off. Hardly a moment later a rather nasty looking Klingon had stepped into the doorway, fixing the two in their spots. Said Klingon held before him a disruptor heated in anticipation of havoc wreaking, and more Klingon cronies approached from behind in total cacophony.
“Commander Kruge,” Spock addressed the head Klingon coolly, sweeping his hands behind his back with finality.
“We should have you know the Klingon Empire does not take well to losing this land, Selek,” Kruge announced. “It appears your Federation would rather flaunt your diplomatic bravado than grant us the land we have fought all these years for, the land which is rightfully ours.”
Kirk looked quickly back and forth from the Klingon to the Vulcan, assimilating the circumstances. Spock took stance, feet confidently placed on the floor, and demonstrated his diplomatic bravado by keeping his gaze level with Kruge.
“Commander Kruge, as you well know, the Empire had staked no proper claim to this land; it is well outside the Klingon Neutral Zone. The Vulcan colony was placed here by need of necessity, appropriateness and convenience. What the Klingons should wish to do with such arid land and dense climate I do not understand. Perhaps you could enlighten me.”
“Enlighten you!” Kruge threw back his head and laughed, the others behind him following suit. “Ambassador Selek, in your years I had hoped you would have come to understand! Klingons have no need for the necessity of land! It is simply about having the land. Certainly you are not naïve enough to believe that we did not know the source of power that lies on this planet--” he gestured in the direction of the Guardian and sneered. “You have swindled us from it and for that you shall pay.”
Kirk saw it coming, lunged for the disruptor as a sudden shot of terror came up in his stomach. There was nothing he could have done. Before he had even taken a step, Kruge had discharged his weapon. Half in step, Kirk whirled around to see Spock crumple to the floor.
“Ambassador!” he cried, moving towards him. “You bastard!” he shouted at Kruge, dropping to his knees beside the old man while tossing wary glances at the congregation of Klingons. He caught sight of the blood slowly beginning to pool before him and shoved away all panic.
“And of course we cannot forget Admiral Kirk,” Kruge scoffed, retraining his disruptor. “The dashing young man who foiled victory over victory for the Klingon Empire. Certainly he would not be missed.”
Kirk’s brain revved, a thousand unsuccessful plots and a thousand chaotic emotions inundating his thought process, all tinged with the hysteria of panic. He didn’t believe in the no-win scenario he didn’t fucking believe in the no-win scenario-
“Tell me, Kirk. Did you enjoy your experience with the mind-sifter?” Kruge taunted, hand steady on his weapon. What of the day you were robbed of your first officer but you took the torture from us in his stead?”
“I certainly did, you bastard,” he hissed, and Kruge fired. Kirk dropped into a dodge roll, narrowly escaping it, and ran towards the Guardian, intent on somehow breaching its surface.
He knew immediately that he had crossed it-the environment had changed entirely, the shots he had anticipated reaching him never came. Regardless he continued to run, only stopping when he spotted a place to take refuge in a wall of trees. Kirk looked behind himself, making absolutely sure that no Klingons had slipped through in pursuit. None had. With a sigh of relief, he doubled over, grabbing his knees and panting as he finally gained awareness of where he was.
It wasn’t hard to figure out. And it certainly wasn’t New Vulcan. In spite of a faint essence of displacement, he knew the taste of the air and he knew the look of the lawn, the Saarinen-esque swoop of buildings against the Bay-this was undoubtedly the Academy. Perhaps not exactly the same Academy he knew, but still not the worst place to end up. At the very least the likelihood of Klingon attacks had greatly decreased.
He surveyed the quad. If judging from the looks of the cadets and personnel strolling down the paths, he was in the completely wrong uniform. Each wore a bright red jacket that couldn’t have been more different from the current Starfleet attire-one that he could not recall ever seeing in any of the history logs. In addition to that, his current state of dishevelment made him too conspicuous for comfort as well. Nobody walking these grounds would have any excuse for looking quite as disheveled as he did, and to add to that suspicion, droplets of jade blood dotted his person. His heart skipped for a moment at the memory of how they had gotten there.
He had to determine more about his situation.
Kirk broke out from the landscaping and made the decision to follow two young cadets that had been passing by. He dropped into a confident saunter and put on his most charming grin as he approached them from the front with a salute.
“Good day, cadets,” he said, halting them in the middle of what seemed to be a rather intense conversation on warp mechanics.
“Hello, er…Admiral,” one, a blonde woman, replied hesitantly, eyes dropping down to check his rank. The other woman wiped her dark braids from her face and stood a little straighter, looking just as wary. “S-sir,” the blonde asked, “may I ask why you’re in the old uniform?”
“My research ship has just come in from an extended deep space mission,” Kirk fired back quickly. “Can you tell me the stardate, cadets?”
“Er…”
“Stardate, please!”
“228-, sir!” the woman with the braids shouted, covering for her startled friend. He acknowledged her with a nod. “Thank you,” he said before marching away, taking the path the two cadets had just traversed.
He was in the future.
***
Eliminate the impossible.
Whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Kirk sat obscured from view in some more foliage closer to the main campus of the Academy, hands on his head. The future! The Guardian of Forever had really worked; he was really this far into the future. Stranded in a reality that he didn’t belong in.
“Stranger things have happened, I guess,” he mumbled to himself.
But there were problems. He wasn’t sure when someone was going to do more than just give him a suspicious onceover, but if he didn’t conform quickly, it would be sooner than he would like. He was going to have to find himself one of those ridiculous things. And, more importantly, he was going to need to find a way out of this predicament. Hopefully the Vulcan he needed to do so with was hanging around here somewhere.
Kirk stood as stealthily as possible and wiped the leaves from his person before stealing away inside the building to search for a replicator.
A lot of sneaking about later he had programmed himself a new uniform set with the inconspicuous rank of ensign and went to make the swap in a restroom. Mechanically, he shoved his obsolete uniform in a disposal chute and cleaned himself up, scrubbing the blood from his arms and running his fingers through his hair. With one final self-appraisal, he slipped back into the world of the Academy.
He stumbled upon a series of access terminals in a wide hall near the main operations room and wandered over to one. Obviously the criteria for his identification were invalid here, but perhaps if he hacked into the system-
“Access denied,” the computer announced.
He absolutely did not need any more attention. He tossed a glance around the hall to determine if anyone had noticed anything out of place. In that time, another man had arrived with a sigh to the adjacent terminal and input his information. Kirk was braced to leave when the terminal made an agreeable noise and verified his neighbor’s access.
“Access authenticated. Kirk, James T.”
Surely his computer hadn’t changed its mind. Gripping the edge of the terminal, he slowly, delicately turned around to take a good look at the man next to him.
“Computer, status report,” his neighbor asked. Kirk knew he should turn around, but he couldn’t keep himself from gaping. He was quite literally beside himself.
“USS Reliant on course towards Mutara Sector,” the computer responded. Kirk quickly looked back at his own terminal, pretending to busy himself with other important matters. “USS Grissom returning to spacedock for minor refits. USS Excelsior under pro-”
“Yes, yes,” the other man-other-Jim, Kirk had immediately begun to think of him as-cut it off, sounding peeved. “What else?”
“Training vessel USS Enterprise slated to host Kobayashi Maru simulation tomorrow at 0800 hours; subsequent ship inspection.”
“Ah, yes.” Another sigh from other-Jim. “Anything else?”
“No other updates available at this time.”
Kirk remained paralyzed at his own station; his counterpart mumbled some sort of affirmation and shut down his terminal, turning to leave. Kirk almost sighed with relief (perhaps the two Spocks of his own universe hadn’t caused galactic chaos by interacting with one another as initially implied, but he was not going to inadvertently bring about any apocalyptic paradoxes, thank you very much) when another figure approached.
“Well, hello there, Jim,” he drawled, and the both of them turned around.
“Hello, Bones,” the Jim who was intended to replied wearily, and Kirk once again shot back to the terminal, chagrined. Bones? This shit was just getting too weird. But perhaps if he played his cards right, the two of them would lead him to precisely where he needed to be.
“I see you squinting at that terminal there, Jim, don’t think I don’t.”
“You’ve caught me,” he replied, stepping into stride with him. “What’s your prescription, Doctor?”
“Still workin’ on it. But you might just end up havin’ to use the traditional method.”
“I don’t think I will,” other-Jim shrugged, his face contorted in a look of half-hearted disgust for a moment. Kirk chose that moment to slide off from his terminal and surreptitiously fall into step within hearing distance behind them.
“Well, you might change your mind.”
“We’ll see.”
“You all set for the inspection tomorrow?” McCoy asked with slight amusement in his voice, turning to look him in the eye.
“I guess so. Does it really matter, anyway?”
“I guess it doesn’t. What matters is if they are.”
They walked in silence for a moment longer. Kirk was strongly considering abandoning them and reducing his chances of getting into any sort of trouble when McCoy let out the same question that was foremost in his own mind.
“So, where’s Spock at?”
Other-Jim skipped a beat before he revealed the answer with almost a resigned breath. “His office.”
“Ah. So you two haven’t made up yet, huh.”
“Well, you would know, Bones; he’s just as stubborn as I am.”
“That’s certainly no lie. But he’s got right to be mad at you, Jim--”
“‘Mad’ isn’t quite the right word; he insists it’s more of a general disappointment, and not in so many words, of course-”
“Well either way you deserve it. You’ve been taking more than you give.”
A guilty pause from other-Jim.
“I guess you’re right.” He passed through the doorway, looking up and squinting into the sunlight as McCoy turned to look at him with an almost sympathetic expression. Kirk rushed through the door as subtly as possible so as not to miss a word. “Just don’t tell him that.”
“Wouldn’t give him the satisfaction,” McCoy scoffed. “Just make sure you don’t let it tear a rift between you.”
“I won’t, I won’t. …Or, at least I hope not.”
“You’ll make it through this, don’t even worry. You’ve been through worse. If Gol is any indication.”
Gol? Kirk thought with a trigger of alarm. What happens at Gol?
“It wasn’t easy. Let’s just hope we’re not too old to do it again.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Hm.”
They stopped then, in the middle of the pathway, gazing at a building at the end of a new path where their current route diverged. Kirk took the opportunity to suddenly find the flowers on a nearby shrubbery very, very fascinating.
“Now’s your chance. Right in those offices there,” McCoy gestured vaguely to the building. Other-Jim looked on for a moment, as if seriously contemplating it.
“No,” he said after a moment. “I’m not sure I’m quite ready for that yet.”
“Well, have it your way. Just make sure you don’t wait three years.”
“C’mon, Bones. Let’s get out of here.”
Just as well. Kirk had heard enough. Maybe the other him wasn’t balls enough to talk to Spock after whatever had happened between them, but Kirk himself wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass. He headed for the offices, tossing one last lingering glance at a Jim and Bones that could (and might still) have been. There was no point in attempting to interpret any of what he had heard. He had his own future to make, and it didn’t involve any bitching and moaning about his friends, as far as he could tell. He trucked on inside after triggering the motion-sensor door.
The offices were clean and cut and sterile, staggered evenly on each side leading into the building and not deviating once all the way down it. Panels of transparent aluminum serving as windows to each room revealed various senior ground workers toiling away at whatever regulation paperwork they had yet to file away, slaves to Starfleet desks. Kirk tried not to remind himself that he’d signed up for exactly the same thing.
It wasn’t long before he spied Spock; he was rather surprised that he did. He wasn’t halfway down the hallway when he caught sight of dark hair and pointed ears through one of the panels. First a wave of shock rippled through him-this was definitely the Vulcan he was looking for, albeit much younger. But immediately following that was a pang of some more desperate emotion. Here was a man whom he knew the future of, what he would do and accomplish in the next part of his life. Up until the very end of it. He looked for just a few seconds longer at the man organizing separate PADDs onto piles, taking in his rank from a sign on the desk before approaching the door. Although it was slightly open, Kirk knocked in short raps before entering.
“Jim?”
“Well, kind of,” Kirk declared as he stepped inside and shut the door, leaning against it in order to remain as far away as possible from any more awkward confrontational position. He smiled sheepishly. “But not exactly the one you’re thinking of.”
Spock took him in with his gaze for a moment, stylus still halfway to its destination. Both eyebrows rose.
“Ah…I see.”
“Captain, I need your help. I’m from…an alternate universe. That you created. In the future. I’m from the past. But an alternate past from this one. So I need to go back. Am I confusing you? I just confused myself a little bit. I’m James Kirk, by the way, but maybe you already figured that one out?”
Spock regarded him cautiously for a moment while neatly replacing his stylus and PADD back onto the desk.
“Oh, man, please believe me. It’s really important that you believe me,” Kirk said, literally sinking a little bit. Spock stood, pulled down the jacket of his uniform, and placed his hands behind his back in a very familiar fashion. Kirk suddenly realized what a long goddamn day it had been.
“I believe you.”
Kirk breathed a sigh of relief. He had been reluctant to offer up a mind meld, as he carried volatile information regarding the future in his head and rather liked existing outside of crazy temporal paradoxes.
“Although I feel that this conversation would best be had in another location,” Spock continued. “I was about to procure myself something to eat. Perhaps you would like to join me, and explain further on the way.”
Kirk stood quickly at attention and moved away from the doorway as Spock made his way towards it, a bit startled by the offer.
“Yes,” he finally said, a bit belatedly, as he was already through the door. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Kirk said as he jogged to catch up.
***
“Pretty swanky place for a first date,” Kirk grinned as he and Spock took their respective sandwiches from a counter-service line and went to go find a booth. The eyebrow it received him was spectacular. He laughed softly and shook his head, falling gracefully into his seat. “But anyway. Can you help me? I mean, I’m not sure if you can do any of that time travel stuff right now...”
“I am certainly capable of ‘time travel stuff’,” Spock said, rather quick to amend. “It is finding a strong enough power source that is the biggest problem. Without one, not only will I be unable to create a portal serving as a wormhole back to your universe, I will not be able to initiate the time travel sequence.”
“So does that mean--”
“Fortuitously a starship has the capability to generate such power. And I am in command of one.”
“Hell yes!” Kirk exclaimed as he unwrapped his sandwich. “I knew I could count on you.”
“Illogical, as you and I were not previously acquainted.”
“Um.” Kirk took a bite of sandwich, holding up a finger to stall for a moment as he chewed. “I think I’m qualified to say that I know you well enough anyway,” he began, not entirely finished. “Besides, you told me yourself that messing up events could fuck up the timeline and create a paradox, or something, and I just can’t risk you knowing too much about your own future. You’ll figure it out when you get there, I guess. Holy shit, I just realized how starving I am. What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You are very different indeed,” Spock said with just a hint of amusement.
“Thanks, I guess,” Kirk said, grabbing a napkin and wiping his face.
“Tomorrow morning the Enterprise will leave on a training cruise-this should give us ample opportunity to utilize the warp core.”
“Wait, the Enterprise? You’re captain of the Enterprise?”
“Yes. I was recommended for the post by you.”
“Oh. Wow.”
“The problem now is finding some way of accommodating you.
It's just straight copy-pasted from my Word document, so there aren't italics and stuff where they should be.
Jim Kirk battled for his balance on the hard seat of the shuttlecraft as he tumbled off of them, still bleary with sleep. The reason for his nap was only half in subversion; even though part of the reason was genuine fatigue from the last stretch of the five year mission, it was in part to alleviate the awkwardness between himself and his companion. And now he had effectively escaped him until they were close to parting.
Kirk scrambled over to the cockpit of the shuttle to monitor their progress, finding that he could see the orbit of New Vulcan from the view screen. He plopped into the co-pilot’s seat, giving a soft smile to his now former first officer, who had spared him a quick glance from the controls of the shuttle.
“I trust you slept well, Capt-Admiral?” Spock asked quietly.
“I did-Captain. What’s our ETA?”
“Approximately fifteen point seven three minutes, sir.”
Our last fifteen minutes, Kirk couldn’t help but think.
“Good. It seems that this is the end of our journey together, Mister Spock.”
“Indeed.”
“Hey, uh, watch out for those Klingons. I’ve been told to warn everyone that they’re getting a bit riled up with the Federation diplomats.” Kirk scoffed at the memory of his last handshake with Komack at the spacedock on Earth.
“You be careful, Jim,” the admiral had said as he grasped his hand a bit too enthusiastically, a sort of frenzy in his eyes as he vigorously pumped his hand back and forth. “Those bastards aren’t very discriminating when something pisses them off.”
“I shall endeavor to do so, Jim,” Spock replied, almost seeming to share in his amusement. The two exchanged another warm-hearted glance, and lapsed into a comfortable silence for several minutes longer.
“H-hey,” Kirk had sighed and finally spoke. “You sure? Are you absolutely sure about this?”
“Quite sure. I believe it to be the most logical course of action at this juncture.”
“Well,” Kirk suppressed another sigh. “I’m just hoping you don’t lose that glowing sense of humor.”
“And you? I have always been under the impression that you would rather remain in the stars.”
“Yeah, well,” Kirk said, and left it at that.
“Do your plans remain the same?”
“Yes, I still plan on visiting a friend.”
“You are aware that I do know the identity of this friend, correct?” he said, almost slyly.
“Well, sometimes, Spock, I like to think you don’t know everything that has to do with me, okay?” Kirk grinned at him widely, catching a mischievous twitch of the lips that Spock worked quickly to repress.
“I do not believe that is possible, Admiral,” he said as he turned back to the controls.
The landing process had already begun. They had fallen into another silence, unpressured to speak as the shuttlecraft DeLorean slid into place in its hanger at the New Vulcan spaceport. Together the two exited the shuttlecraft, handled all of the procedures at the docking station, and walked out into the planet’s arid atmosphere towards their respective transports. They stopped in the center of the square.
“I guess this is it.” Kirk fisted his hands and placed them on his hips, turning to meet Spock’s passive gaze. “Parting is such sweet sorrow,” he grinned, hoping that it would come out sounding more ironic than anything. To accentuate that irony, he punched him on the arm.
“Indeed. I wish you luck, Jim.” He held out the familiar salute. “Live long and prosper.”
“Isn’t luck illogical?” Kirk smiled back, a little sadly, and returned the gesture. “But you, too, anyway.”
After another quiet moment between them, he put down his hand and gave one last nod of acknowledgement. As Spock turned to leave, Kirk breathed in deeply and turned onto his heel to depart as well. He had only taken a few steps when he stopped and thought better of such a cold, Vulcan goodbye. He turned back around, watching the Vulcan in question already approaching the aircar that would take him to New Gol.
“Spock,” Kirk called without raising his voice, knowing that he would hear. He was right-Spock stopped and turned when beckoned, coming up to meet Kirk as he strode quickly towards him. Kirk grabbed him by the shoulders, pushing him back a little so that their eyes would meet.
“You take care of yourself, you bastard, okay?” he said as he slid his hands down his arms. Spock’s eyebrow twitched in amusement.
“Your concern is appreciated. I should hope you do the same.
“I certainly will, Mister Spock,” he said, and punched him on the arm again. “With or without your ubiquitous presence.”
“Goodbye, Jim.”
“Goodbye, Spock.” Kirk put on his shiniest smile and walked the short remaining distance to Spock’s ride. “See you around.”
“Hopefully that will be the case, sir.” Spock climbed into his transport, giving one last salute as the door closed upon him. Kirk watched it leave, standing in place for a moment. Several moments before it was completely out of sight, he was headed back to his own transport, mumbling swears under his breath the entire time. He reached the aircar after several long minutes of trudging dejectedly in the sand.
“Hello again, Mister Kirk,” it chirped at him upon his arrival. He furrowed his brow in surprise. He had never been near this particular aircar in his life. Regardless, he clambered into it, giving instructions for it to take him to the residence of one Selek of Vulcan.
***
“Ambassador! Ambassador! I hope you don’t mind, but I let myself in!” Kirk shouted in the sterile Vulcan domicile. He wandered about for a minute, irrationally concerned at the silence of the place. He eventually came across an almost hidden room, and stepped inside.
It was made up as a lab, a bit ominous with all its fantastic technology. In the back of the room, the ambassador was hunched over a device on a long table that spread out against the entire wall that partially obscured a tall glowing portal.
“Ambassador Spock,” Kirk addressed him, making him start and quickly turn around.
“Jim,” he answered warmly. “I did not anticipate you at this time.”
“Did I scare you?” he grinned. “I’m sorry.”
“You did not. Although your apology is accepted.”
Kirk suppressed the urge to roll his eyes, still in good spirits from the exchange.
“What have you got there? Looks fancy.”
“May I offer you something?” Spock subverted easily, widening Kirk’s grin by about tenfold.
“No, thank you,” he responded, striding over to meet him and wrap him in a quick embrace. “You’re not getting away from me that easily. What are you working on?”
The older Spock placed his hands behind his back, conceding defeat. “It appears you will not be swayed so easily,” he said ironically. “It is just as well. I was somewhat hoping that you might be part of an experiment.”
“Experiment?” Kirk asked, head craning to view the pulsating source of energy. Spock stepped aside, revealing the portal in its entirety.
It was an ominous looking thing, large and commanding. Images flashed through it at rapid-fire pace, distorted by a large sheer panel placed in front of it. The actual images the portal was projecting seemed clear and concise-they belonged. But the rectangular panel suspended in front of it seemed out of place-the images as seen through it had a foreign quality; although at some times they aligned perfectly with the real images, at others they were totally skewed. It appeared as did the bifocals of centuries before, except the focus through the panel was as if marked with fingerprints and needed a good wipe down with a clean cloth. Kirk gazed at it a moment longer in awe before he realized he was looking at a clip show of the world’s entire history, given away by the occasional flash representing an important event in the shaping of Earth’s current culture as well as events occurring since the formation of the United Federation of Planets.
“It is called the Guardian of Forever,” Spock finally interjected, startling Kirk back to the tangible present. “Many years ago I discovered it in my universe, and was fortuitous to encounter it once again in this one.” Kirk looked at him, completely shocked.
“And you had your house built around it. Hell, you had your entire civilization built around it--”
“It seemed…appropriate. I believe there is a Terran adage referring to the extermination of two ornithoids with one projectile?”
“You sly bastard,” Kirk exhaled. “What the hell are you doing here? What is that panel?”
“It has already been scientifically proven that one is able to travel from one universe to its parallel-you and I serve as empirical evidence of this; your existence alone was precipitated by my inadvertent interference.” Spock stepped over towards the Guardian, reaching over to collect a device presumably related to it. “The technology already exists to create a window to an alternate universe. The Guardian serves as a window through all of time. Why not combine the two; what reason is there not to regulate the process?”
“Logical enough,” Kirk intoned with a hint of sarcasm. “But aside from making great advancements in science, why?”
“…I must admit that I am…curious,” Spock said, not meeting his eyes. That seemed to be that.
“But how do I factor into all of this?” Kirk asked.
“You may simply observe. I feel you deserve to, considering your prior knowledge of the subject.”
Kirk raised both eyebrows and crossed his arms. “I guess that’s so. So what’s the plan?”
“I have created here a permeable pathway to whatever time period in my own universe. I wish to determine whether I can control the progression of the Guardian’s time cycle. At the moment, it is randomized, but I believe that this device will allow me to control it.”
“And what-you would go through and relive parts of your universe?”
“That is not my intention-I simply wish to monitor the progression of events from where I left them. Eventually I would wish to determine if traveling through would not be impossible, although know this, Jim. It is paramount that past events in the other universe not be changed. Your very existence depends on that progression of events, and the paradox it would create could potentially be tantamount to universal destruction.”
“Well damn,” Kirk said simply. “Aren’t you concerned about exposing me to possible future events?”
“No, not particularly, as your timeline has already diverged in several very important places. For instance, it was not your ship which encountered the Botany Bay several years ago, preventing the quite catastrophic chain of events that occurred within my timeline.”
“Catastrophic?”
“One could say.”
“I must ask.”
“Perhaps…I shall show you.” Kirk immediately tensed infinitesimally, bracing for a meld, then relaxed when nothing happened. “You have heard of the Eugenics Wars of the late twentieth century, and the superhumans that it produced?”
“Well, yeah.”
“One of these was a man called Khan Noonien Singh. He and others of his kind were placed in cryogenics and sent off into space to be preserved for a coming future. My Enterprise encountered the ship and attempted to assist the group by bringing them on board. It appeared several centuries did nothing to mollify Khan’s propensity towards domination, and we were forced to exile him. We unwittingly placed Khan’s group on an almost uninhabitable planet, and approximately fifteen years later he came to seek his revenge on your counterpart and the ship, effectively destroying it.”
“Well, obviously not.”
“No, obviously,” Spock said, sounding almost amused. “A warp core breach Khan’s attacks to the ship had caused made it necessary for someone to physically repair it at the time in order to avoid destruction. I elected to go.”
“Into a warp core breach?” Kirk nearly shouted. “But you couldn’t possibly have…”
“Survived? As a matter of fact I did not. It was a sacrifice I was fully prepared to make. One that happened to coincide with a terraforming project being performed on a nearby planet with an experimental prototype called the Genesis device. The purpose of that device was to reform a completely dead planet into one teeming with life. …Fortunately for me, the activation of the device and the launch of my coffin were almost simultaneous, allowing for a rather…dramatic rescue by the former bridge crew of the Enterprise.”
There was probably a point in his life in which Jim Kirk would never have had use for such colorful descriptors as “flabbergasted” or “gobsmacked”. As it were, they proved apt with disconcerting frequency. This particular new discovery had already trumped by the sheer bizarreness of it all of the crazy things he had encountered in his command, including but not limited to vengeful lava-spitting silicon based mommies or any variety of alien happy spores or planets whose cultures had developed eerily similarly to some ridiculously specific part of Earth’s history. This level of insanity had previously been neglected.
“Bullshit,” Kirk finally sputtered.
Funny thing was, he believed it. He had learned relatively quickly that when it came to this old Vulcan, one had to expect the unexpected.
“I assure you, I am not,” he replied. “If you would turn your attention to the Guardian, I could demonstrate. I am now setting it to the year 228-; the past for me, the future for you. I am finding it difficult to pinpoint the precise date, although I have placed the probe approximately two days before the incident.”
“Can you, y’know, fast forward, like in a vid? I think they used to call it ‘TiVo’ or someth--”
Spock looked up suddenly, any semblance of mirth disappearing from his person. The controller for the Guardian hung loose in one of his hands.
“Jim, if you would please. I believe I have heard something rather disconcerting.”
A crash from the outside signified that he was right.
“It appears that the Klingons have located me,” Spock said, reaching over to sweep Kirk forward by the shoulder. “Quickly, you must--”
The jingling of heavy armor and the thud of heavy boots quickly progressed, cutting him off. Hardly a moment later a rather nasty looking Klingon had stepped into the doorway, fixing the two in their spots. Said Klingon held before him a disruptor heated in anticipation of havoc wreaking, and more Klingon cronies approached from behind in total cacophony.
“Commander Kruge,” Spock addressed the head Klingon coolly, sweeping his hands behind his back with finality.
“We should have you know the Klingon Empire does not take well to losing this land, Selek,” Kruge announced. “It appears your Federation would rather flaunt your diplomatic bravado than grant us the land we have fought all these years for, the land which is rightfully ours.”
Kirk looked quickly back and forth from the Klingon to the Vulcan, assimilating the circumstances. Spock took stance, feet confidently placed on the floor, and demonstrated his diplomatic bravado by keeping his gaze level with Kruge.
“Commander Kruge, as you well know, the Empire had staked no proper claim to this land; it is well outside the Klingon Neutral Zone. The Vulcan colony was placed here by need of necessity, appropriateness and convenience. What the Klingons should wish to do with such arid land and dense climate I do not understand. Perhaps you could enlighten me.”
“Enlighten you!” Kruge threw back his head and laughed, the others behind him following suit. “Ambassador Selek, in your years I had hoped you would have come to understand! Klingons have no need for the necessity of land! It is simply about having the land. Certainly you are not naïve enough to believe that we did not know the source of power that lies on this planet--” he gestured in the direction of the Guardian and sneered. “You have swindled us from it and for that you shall pay.”
Kirk saw it coming, lunged for the disruptor as a sudden shot of terror came up in his stomach. There was nothing he could have done. Before he had even taken a step, Kruge had discharged his weapon. Half in step, Kirk whirled around to see Spock crumple to the floor.
“Ambassador!” he cried, moving towards him. “You bastard!” he shouted at Kruge, dropping to his knees beside the old man while tossing wary glances at the congregation of Klingons. He caught sight of the blood slowly beginning to pool before him and shoved away all panic.
“And of course we cannot forget Admiral Kirk,” Kruge scoffed, retraining his disruptor. “The dashing young man who foiled victory over victory for the Klingon Empire. Certainly he would not be missed.”
Kirk’s brain revved, a thousand unsuccessful plots and a thousand chaotic emotions inundating his thought process, all tinged with the hysteria of panic. He didn’t believe in the no-win scenario he didn’t fucking believe in the no-win scenario-
“Tell me, Kirk. Did you enjoy your experience with the mind-sifter?” Kruge taunted, hand steady on his weapon. What of the day you were robbed of your first officer but you took the torture from us in his stead?”
“I certainly did, you bastard,” he hissed, and Kruge fired. Kirk dropped into a dodge roll, narrowly escaping it, and ran towards the Guardian, intent on somehow breaching its surface.
He knew immediately that he had crossed it-the environment had changed entirely, the shots he had anticipated reaching him never came. Regardless he continued to run, only stopping when he spotted a place to take refuge in a wall of trees. Kirk looked behind himself, making absolutely sure that no Klingons had slipped through in pursuit. None had. With a sigh of relief, he doubled over, grabbing his knees and panting as he finally gained awareness of where he was.
It wasn’t hard to figure out. And it certainly wasn’t New Vulcan. In spite of a faint essence of displacement, he knew the taste of the air and he knew the look of the lawn, the Saarinen-esque swoop of buildings against the Bay-this was undoubtedly the Academy. Perhaps not exactly the same Academy he knew, but still not the worst place to end up. At the very least the likelihood of Klingon attacks had greatly decreased.
He surveyed the quad. If judging from the looks of the cadets and personnel strolling down the paths, he was in the completely wrong uniform. Each wore a bright red jacket that couldn’t have been more different from the current Starfleet attire-one that he could not recall ever seeing in any of the history logs. In addition to that, his current state of dishevelment made him too conspicuous for comfort as well. Nobody walking these grounds would have any excuse for looking quite as disheveled as he did, and to add to that suspicion, droplets of jade blood dotted his person. His heart skipped for a moment at the memory of how they had gotten there.
He had to determine more about his situation.
Kirk broke out from the landscaping and made the decision to follow two young cadets that had been passing by. He dropped into a confident saunter and put on his most charming grin as he approached them from the front with a salute.
“Good day, cadets,” he said, halting them in the middle of what seemed to be a rather intense conversation on warp mechanics.
“Hello, er…Admiral,” one, a blonde woman, replied hesitantly, eyes dropping down to check his rank. The other woman wiped her dark braids from her face and stood a little straighter, looking just as wary. “S-sir,” the blonde asked, “may I ask why you’re in the old uniform?”
“My research ship has just come in from an extended deep space mission,” Kirk fired back quickly. “Can you tell me the stardate, cadets?”
“Er…”
“Stardate, please!”
“228-, sir!” the woman with the braids shouted, covering for her startled friend. He acknowledged her with a nod. “Thank you,” he said before marching away, taking the path the two cadets had just traversed.
He was in the future.
***
Eliminate the impossible.
Whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth.
Kirk sat obscured from view in some more foliage closer to the main campus of the Academy, hands on his head. The future! The Guardian of Forever had really worked; he was really this far into the future. Stranded in a reality that he didn’t belong in.
“Stranger things have happened, I guess,” he mumbled to himself.
But there were problems. He wasn’t sure when someone was going to do more than just give him a suspicious onceover, but if he didn’t conform quickly, it would be sooner than he would like. He was going to have to find himself one of those ridiculous things. And, more importantly, he was going to need to find a way out of this predicament. Hopefully the Vulcan he needed to do so with was hanging around here somewhere.
Kirk stood as stealthily as possible and wiped the leaves from his person before stealing away inside the building to search for a replicator.
A lot of sneaking about later he had programmed himself a new uniform set with the inconspicuous rank of ensign and went to make the swap in a restroom. Mechanically, he shoved his obsolete uniform in a disposal chute and cleaned himself up, scrubbing the blood from his arms and running his fingers through his hair. With one final self-appraisal, he slipped back into the world of the Academy.
He stumbled upon a series of access terminals in a wide hall near the main operations room and wandered over to one. Obviously the criteria for his identification were invalid here, but perhaps if he hacked into the system-
“Access denied,” the computer announced.
He absolutely did not need any more attention. He tossed a glance around the hall to determine if anyone had noticed anything out of place. In that time, another man had arrived with a sigh to the adjacent terminal and input his information. Kirk was braced to leave when the terminal made an agreeable noise and verified his neighbor’s access.
“Access authenticated. Kirk, James T.”
Surely his computer hadn’t changed its mind. Gripping the edge of the terminal, he slowly, delicately turned around to take a good look at the man next to him.
“Computer, status report,” his neighbor asked. Kirk knew he should turn around, but he couldn’t keep himself from gaping. He was quite literally beside himself.
“USS Reliant on course towards Mutara Sector,” the computer responded. Kirk quickly looked back at his own terminal, pretending to busy himself with other important matters. “USS Grissom returning to spacedock for minor refits. USS Excelsior under pro-”
“Yes, yes,” the other man-other-Jim, Kirk had immediately begun to think of him as-cut it off, sounding peeved. “What else?”
“Training vessel USS Enterprise slated to host Kobayashi Maru simulation tomorrow at 0800 hours; subsequent ship inspection.”
“Ah, yes.” Another sigh from other-Jim. “Anything else?”
“No other updates available at this time.”
Kirk remained paralyzed at his own station; his counterpart mumbled some sort of affirmation and shut down his terminal, turning to leave. Kirk almost sighed with relief (perhaps the two Spocks of his own universe hadn’t caused galactic chaos by interacting with one another as initially implied, but he was not going to inadvertently bring about any apocalyptic paradoxes, thank you very much) when another figure approached.
“Well, hello there, Jim,” he drawled, and the both of them turned around.
“Hello, Bones,” the Jim who was intended to replied wearily, and Kirk once again shot back to the terminal, chagrined. Bones? This shit was just getting too weird. But perhaps if he played his cards right, the two of them would lead him to precisely where he needed to be.
“I see you squinting at that terminal there, Jim, don’t think I don’t.”
“You’ve caught me,” he replied, stepping into stride with him. “What’s your prescription, Doctor?”
“Still workin’ on it. But you might just end up havin’ to use the traditional method.”
“I don’t think I will,” other-Jim shrugged, his face contorted in a look of half-hearted disgust for a moment. Kirk chose that moment to slide off from his terminal and surreptitiously fall into step within hearing distance behind them.
“Well, you might change your mind.”
“We’ll see.”
“You all set for the inspection tomorrow?” McCoy asked with slight amusement in his voice, turning to look him in the eye.
“I guess so. Does it really matter, anyway?”
“I guess it doesn’t. What matters is if they are.”
They walked in silence for a moment longer. Kirk was strongly considering abandoning them and reducing his chances of getting into any sort of trouble when McCoy let out the same question that was foremost in his own mind.
“So, where’s Spock at?”
Other-Jim skipped a beat before he revealed the answer with almost a resigned breath. “His office.”
“Ah. So you two haven’t made up yet, huh.”
“Well, you would know, Bones; he’s just as stubborn as I am.”
“That’s certainly no lie. But he’s got right to be mad at you, Jim--”
“‘Mad’ isn’t quite the right word; he insists it’s more of a general disappointment, and not in so many words, of course-”
“Well either way you deserve it. You’ve been taking more than you give.”
A guilty pause from other-Jim.
“I guess you’re right.” He passed through the doorway, looking up and squinting into the sunlight as McCoy turned to look at him with an almost sympathetic expression. Kirk rushed through the door as subtly as possible so as not to miss a word. “Just don’t tell him that.”
“Wouldn’t give him the satisfaction,” McCoy scoffed. “Just make sure you don’t let it tear a rift between you.”
“I won’t, I won’t. …Or, at least I hope not.”
“You’ll make it through this, don’t even worry. You’ve been through worse. If Gol is any indication.”
Gol? Kirk thought with a trigger of alarm. What happens at Gol?
“It wasn’t easy. Let’s just hope we’re not too old to do it again.”
“Don’t be ridiculous. You’ve got all the time in the world.”
“Hm.”
They stopped then, in the middle of the pathway, gazing at a building at the end of a new path where their current route diverged. Kirk took the opportunity to suddenly find the flowers on a nearby shrubbery very, very fascinating.
“Now’s your chance. Right in those offices there,” McCoy gestured vaguely to the building. Other-Jim looked on for a moment, as if seriously contemplating it.
“No,” he said after a moment. “I’m not sure I’m quite ready for that yet.”
“Well, have it your way. Just make sure you don’t wait three years.”
“C’mon, Bones. Let’s get out of here.”
Just as well. Kirk had heard enough. Maybe the other him wasn’t balls enough to talk to Spock after whatever had happened between them, but Kirk himself wasn’t going to let the opportunity pass. He headed for the offices, tossing one last lingering glance at a Jim and Bones that could (and might still) have been. There was no point in attempting to interpret any of what he had heard. He had his own future to make, and it didn’t involve any bitching and moaning about his friends, as far as he could tell. He trucked on inside after triggering the motion-sensor door.
The offices were clean and cut and sterile, staggered evenly on each side leading into the building and not deviating once all the way down it. Panels of transparent aluminum serving as windows to each room revealed various senior ground workers toiling away at whatever regulation paperwork they had yet to file away, slaves to Starfleet desks. Kirk tried not to remind himself that he’d signed up for exactly the same thing.
It wasn’t long before he spied Spock; he was rather surprised that he did. He wasn’t halfway down the hallway when he caught sight of dark hair and pointed ears through one of the panels. First a wave of shock rippled through him-this was definitely the Vulcan he was looking for, albeit much younger. But immediately following that was a pang of some more desperate emotion. Here was a man whom he knew the future of, what he would do and accomplish in the next part of his life. Up until the very end of it. He looked for just a few seconds longer at the man organizing separate PADDs onto piles, taking in his rank from a sign on the desk before approaching the door. Although it was slightly open, Kirk knocked in short raps before entering.
“Jim?”
“Well, kind of,” Kirk declared as he stepped inside and shut the door, leaning against it in order to remain as far away as possible from any more awkward confrontational position. He smiled sheepishly. “But not exactly the one you’re thinking of.”
Spock took him in with his gaze for a moment, stylus still halfway to its destination. Both eyebrows rose.
“Ah…I see.”
“Captain, I need your help. I’m from…an alternate universe. That you created. In the future. I’m from the past. But an alternate past from this one. So I need to go back. Am I confusing you? I just confused myself a little bit. I’m James Kirk, by the way, but maybe you already figured that one out?”
Spock regarded him cautiously for a moment while neatly replacing his stylus and PADD back onto the desk.
“Oh, man, please believe me. It’s really important that you believe me,” Kirk said, literally sinking a little bit. Spock stood, pulled down the jacket of his uniform, and placed his hands behind his back in a very familiar fashion. Kirk suddenly realized what a long goddamn day it had been.
“I believe you.”
Kirk breathed a sigh of relief. He had been reluctant to offer up a mind meld, as he carried volatile information regarding the future in his head and rather liked existing outside of crazy temporal paradoxes.
“Although I feel that this conversation would best be had in another location,” Spock continued. “I was about to procure myself something to eat. Perhaps you would like to join me, and explain further on the way.”
Kirk stood quickly at attention and moved away from the doorway as Spock made his way towards it, a bit startled by the offer.
“Yes,” he finally said, a bit belatedly, as he was already through the door. “Yeah, that sounds like a good idea,” Kirk said as he jogged to catch up.
***
“Pretty swanky place for a first date,” Kirk grinned as he and Spock took their respective sandwiches from a counter-service line and went to go find a booth. The eyebrow it received him was spectacular. He laughed softly and shook his head, falling gracefully into his seat. “But anyway. Can you help me? I mean, I’m not sure if you can do any of that time travel stuff right now...”
“I am certainly capable of ‘time travel stuff’,” Spock said, rather quick to amend. “It is finding a strong enough power source that is the biggest problem. Without one, not only will I be unable to create a portal serving as a wormhole back to your universe, I will not be able to initiate the time travel sequence.”
“So does that mean--”
“Fortuitously a starship has the capability to generate such power. And I am in command of one.”
“Hell yes!” Kirk exclaimed as he unwrapped his sandwich. “I knew I could count on you.”
“Illogical, as you and I were not previously acquainted.”
“Um.” Kirk took a bite of sandwich, holding up a finger to stall for a moment as he chewed. “I think I’m qualified to say that I know you well enough anyway,” he began, not entirely finished. “Besides, you told me yourself that messing up events could fuck up the timeline and create a paradox, or something, and I just can’t risk you knowing too much about your own future. You’ll figure it out when you get there, I guess. Holy shit, I just realized how starving I am. What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You are very different indeed,” Spock said with just a hint of amusement.
“Thanks, I guess,” Kirk said, grabbing a napkin and wiping his face.
“Tomorrow morning the Enterprise will leave on a training cruise-this should give us ample opportunity to utilize the warp core.”
“Wait, the Enterprise? You’re captain of the Enterprise?”
“Yes. I was recommended for the post by you.”
“Oh. Wow.”
“The problem now is finding some way of accommodating you.
It's just straight copy-pasted from my Word document, so there aren't italics and stuff where they should be.