Happy Holidays, littlewolfstar!
Title: Where No Them Has Gone Before
For: littlewolfstar
From: malicehaughton
Pairing & Genre: Them/New!Star Trek, gen-ish
The Them were bored.
It wasn’t a constant state for them, though neither was it a normal one, since it always felt like Adam could conjure something up to keep them occupied. So, it was with great relief that one of them (Brian of all people, he had secretly been a fan) introduced a small portable television and video player, along with the entire collection of the original series of Star Trek.
Thankfully, given that they didn’t need electricity to make electronics work, they were happy with the arrangement.
They were all immediately hooked, though none of them could really tell you why, exactly, that was.
They all decided that the future and aliens and space travel was just what they wanted to do. Right then. And, as was the way with all things when it came to Adam Young, they soon found themselves on the Bridge of the Enterprise.
They blinked. Then frowned.
“Wait, this isn’t right...” Brian stated, upset that his show wasn’t the same in real life.
“This isn’t anything like what it showed on the telly, Adam!” Pepper stated, crossing her arms under her chest.
“Wow...!” Wensley stated, automatically loving the array of futuristic control panels that seemed to be surrounding them. A grin overtaking his frown.
Adam for his part said nothing, blinking into the big, blue eyes of the Captain of the ship.
“How the hell did you kids get on board?!” came the surprised voice, out of a mouth too young for the part, of the Captain who had been eyeballing their leader.
Adam shrugged. “We’re just visiting. We wanted to see what it would be like to fly on a starship. Not exactly what I thought it would be.”
“Got that right, Adam. Everything’s...different,” Pepper scowled at the thought. She had wanted to see Lieutenant Uhura, who she personally thought was a great woman. Much like herself.
“Nothing wrong with different!” Wensley piped up, making his way slowly towards the nearest console to him, enchanted by the flashing lights. The rest of the Them noted he refrained from touching anything by clenching his fists and biting his lower lip.
Brian was too busy sulking at the floor over the changes from his show to say anything else on the subject.
Seeing the kid looking like he was about to start crying, the Captain sighed and pressed a button on his chair. “Doctor McCoy to the Bridge. We’ve got some interesting strays for you to come poke and prod.”
The Them perked up at that and decided, well, the crew and ship itself might look different, but it was definitely the right ship. They were on the U.S.S Enterprise. They decided, on a unanimous vote, to go their separate ways and explore what interested them the most.
But first, it seemed they had to be prodded and poked.
* * * * * * * * * *
“Dammit, Jim! I’m a doctor, not a babysitter!” were the first words out of McCoy’s mouth when he saw that his latest patients were a bunch of kids that had no right being on a starship in space in the first place. Said kids seemed to perk up immediately after he had said it, God knew why.
“I’m not asking you to babysit them, Bones. I’m asking you to examine them. You know, to do your job as CMO,” he was answered by his Captain and friend.
“Yeah, well, don’t be surprised if next time you end up in the med bay I decide not to give you something for pain...” McCoy muttered, before waving the four children, who could barely say they were teenagers, towards him. “Come on you four. Standard regulation on a starship demands that everyone first beamed aboard gets a full physical.”
He was expecting resistance. He didn’t get it. Instead, the kids seemed to herd towards him, grins now on all their faces, including one of the boys, who a moment ago had looked close to tears. He spared a glare for Jim, before he turned around and herded them towards the turbolift to take them to his med bay.
They followed his every step, and looked happy to do it. He’d never seen a person, no matter how old they were, happy at the prospect of a full physical for any reason. This bunch of kids was just plain acting strange.
Perhaps they had some type of neurological condition or something...
It only seemed to penetrate into their brains that this was actually happening that one of them, the girl, started to get prickly. He knew that one. Teen girl, start of puberty, changing body, male doctor. Not a good combination. He herded her off to Nurse Chapel and took the boys into another exam room.
He looked at the three boys and pointed to a slightly pudgy one. “Right, you first.”
No longer eager, but still with a look of slight happiness on his face, the boy launched himself onto the nearest biobed and all three of the boys were all smiles again as the readouts began to show on the machine above the bed.
He soon had ruled out any neurological reasons for their weirdness. And any other health problem for that matter. Two of the boys, the pudgy one and a boy with glasses (and why the hell did he have glasses to begin with, they were so archaic) showed normal readings for normal, healthy boys their age.
The one with the blond curls to rival Chekov’s, and looks that would be more devastating than Kirk’s when he grew up some, was more than normal. His readings were all so utterly perfect, McCoy was wondering if he was genetically engineered.
The boy looked like some angel that had fallen from Heaven, damn it. He couldn’t believe he was beginning to get jealous of a kid who had barely hit puberty.
“Right, you’re all healthy. Go annoy someone out in the halls or something.”
With that said, the three of them rushed out of the room, to meet with the girl and their heads were soon altogether ad they were whispering excitedly about god knew what.
He left them to it. He had actual patients to look after in other rooms that were much more important than a bunch of annoying kids.
If he had gotten any sign at all of what the kids were planning on the ship, he would have informed the Captain that they should be shipped off to the brig.
* * * * * * * * * *
“I want to go see Engineering, and the Science departments!” Wensley stated, his eyes almost glowing with passion, as he practically danced on his toes in the excitement of seeing more up close and personal, more technology form the future that he might, if he got real lucky, would be able to touch.
Adam smiled at him and nodded, before turning his eyes to Brian. Brian grinned and shrugged. “I wanna see the weapons! And see if I can get my hands on one of those phasers! How cool would that be?”
Pepper scowled at all these choices. “I wanna go see what people do for fun here. And see if there is an actual Uhura. She’s cool!”
Adam smiled at his friends and nodded. “Cool. I wanna go see if I can get back on the bridge. I want a close look at how a captain, a real leader, really works.”
With these goals in mind, the four of them, after staring eagerly at a sign that pointed towards Engineering, took off in separate directions.
* * * * * * * * * *
Scotty, as he usually did when there was nothing else of great importance going on, was playing cards with Keenser. He’d already triple checked that all the engines were working at their optimum speed and performance and had decided against going back for a fourth look for the time being.
If something went wrong, he was sure he’d be able to fix it given time, anyway. He’d done a lot of fixing since his leaving of his post on Delta Vega. He loved this ship. And now he really did have his hands on her gorgeous nacelles.
Life couldn’t have been better.
He wasn’t expecting some weird kid with glasses on, to come from out of nowhere to poke his dirty hands in his ship. Oh no, that was completely not allowed.
“Hey, what are ye doin’ to me engines?” he asked, not really bothering to get up from his seat, though Keenser, sitting on top of the table they were playing on, at least managed a half hearted glare at the boy.
“Oh! I’m sorry, sir. I just wanted to have a look at the engines. I wasn’t touching anything, I swear!”
Leaning back, he looked more closely at the boy and frowned. “How are ye on board at yer age anyway, lad? Ye can’t be more than 14.”
“13 sir. And Adam brought us here. It’s a marvellous ship! I just wanted to see what made it go. How does it run? Do you really use anti-matter?!”
Smiling widely as he noted the genuine interest in the boy’s eyes, he got up off his seat and walked over to him.
“Ye really are interested? Well then, seat yerself down, and I’ll give ye a few bits o’ useful information on how exactly this beauty flies.”
The boy took his vacated seat faster than he had left it.
He sat in the opposite one without a care and begun what was to be a long and info filled lesson on what exactly made the Enterprise go.
It was a lot more fun than playing cards with Keenser.
* * * * * * * * * *
Pepper, finding a sign that read rec room 1 and knowing that’s where the crew aboard the Enterprise went to unwind after or before their shifts, she decided that was the place for her. Entering the room and looking around her, she was instantly disappointed.
There were a lot of seats, sure. There were two replicators on a wall in a corner for those who got hungry or thirsty, yeah. But right then, barely anyone was in there, and those that were, she had no idea who or what they were or did.
There were 3-D chess boards galore, which were rather interesting, though would have been so a lot more if she had any interest whatsoever in chess, 3-D or otherwise. There were other games too, cards mostly. Still, where was Uhura? She hadn’t been on the bridge when they had come aboard, and she was sure that on the show, when she wasn’t on the bridge or sleeping, she was in the rec room singing or playing some music on that lute thing that Spock has.
For that matter, he had been absent from the bridge too, which was a bit weird. And he wasn’t here playing either.
She knew they weren’t in the med bay, because she’d already been there. If she went looking for them, she doubted she’d find them.
Squaring her shoulders and looking quite like a girl set off to wage war on whoever decided to deprave her of what she wanted, she set her sights on a new goal: heading back towards the bridge, where she’d wait, quite patiently if she really had to, for Uhura to rock up and take her post.
For that matter, the command stations weren’t the same on this Enterprise. It looked much more shiny and high tech to the one she was used to seeing. She had no idea which station was the one for Communications.
Damn it. Well, she’d just have to wait!
She marched her way towards the bridge, hoping she remembered the path she had used to get to the rec room to begin with.
* * * * * * * * * *
Brian had given up on his plans to find a phaser when he found the first convenient replicator, made short work picking out a data thingy for whatever, inserted it, and took what came out. It just happened to be a plate of chips, covered in tomato sauce, or ketchup, or whatever it was called in space during the 23rd century.
Licking his lips, he looked around for a place to go to eat, found a nearby Jeffries Tube and made himself comfortable.
He instantly decided that he liked this new plan of his and went back for seconds after the first plate was empty.
* * * * * * * * * *
Captain James T. Kirk, of the starship Enterprise (NCC - 1701) watched as the young blonde boy with the looks that would be more devastating than his own when he grew up, walked out of the turbolift and back onto the bridge.
The boy came down the steps on one side, looked over the helm controls for a short few seconds, before he turned and faced him.
There was something more than just a kid’s look in the boy’s eyes, and he found it oddly frightening. Lucky for him, he was Jim Kirk and nothing frightened him! Well, unless it happened to be running into Spock and Uhura in his First Officer’s cabin again. That had possibly scarred him for life.
There was the unexpected and sudden clarity that this kid, young as he was, was a born leader. Much like himself.
“Hey kid. What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be on the bridge,” he stated, keeping his voice calm and mellow, not wanting to start shouting in alpha male mode, which he was in automatically.
How the hell could this kid possibly get him to act like he needed to save his position on board his ship? A boy his age couldn’t possibly be a competent leader of anything.
“Nothin’ much. Just wanted to watch a real captain at work. You’re the leader here. I’m the leader of my friends. I was almost leader of a lot more than that.”
The kid had some type of British accent. Not really helpful to tell him where the boy was from precisely, but it was kind of comforting to know that it was Earth. He could deal with some Terran kid easy enough, since he had once been one himself. For that matter, he was still called kid by some people. Bones and Uhura mostly.
He should really try to get them to divert that attention onto Chekov who was still a kid. It was completely insubordinate to be calling him kid, especially given one was his CMO best friend and the other a woman he’d been trying to get inside her pants for the past few years.
He had no hopes on that last one anymore. Spock had beaten him to it, and Vulcans mated for life. The only good thing he got out of it was finally knowing Uhura’s first name was Nyota.
And now, to be shown up by a boy who looked like he had only started to understand what the thing between his legs was really for, was not the best thing that could happen to him. Especially not that day. He was getting an odd communication from some nearby planet, and Uhura had gone down to the main communication’s area to try and see if anyone else had heard it.
Before he could ask what the boy meant by watching him be captain because he was the leader of the ship, the turbolift opened once more and the girl, wild fiery hair, came marching back in, took her time to get to the golden haired boy he had been facing down, and glared.
“This place is just not right, Adam. Nothing is as it should be.”
He had no idea what the hell that was supposed to mean, but was surprised even further when Goldie laid a hand on her shoulder, smiled a smile that would even get him all hot and bothered when it was aged up a bit, and calmed her down with a few appeasing words.
“I think it’s an alternate universe, Pepper.”
“What?! How do you know of anything being alternate universes or not?!” he couldn’t help but blurt out, since it was common knowledge to all those on the bridge that, yes, in fact they were living in an alternate reality, since Nero had arrived and disrupted all their lives.
The boy shrugged, smiled and waved a hand around. “Easy. Your crew look different and younger to what we know in our own universe. Yet you all have the same names, and as far as I can see, nearly the same attitudes and mannerisms. You’re not supposed to be Captain yet. But you’d always be the youngest Captain the fleet would have at this time.”
Jim couldn’t help it, he just stared at the two kids. “Okay, that is freaky. You got any Vulcan blood in you, because you are sounding like you’re channelling my First Officer.”
The boy shrugged and shook his head. “No, not Vulcan, but not completely...human. Yet at the same time, I am. It’s weird. And hard to explain. So I won’t bother.”
The girl tugged on his sleeve and the staged whisper she gave was loud enough for the whole deck to hear. “I wonder what a younger Spock looks like!”
God save him from hormonal teenage girls! What was it about that guy that made all the girls go nuts over Spock? He was seriously suspecting it was the ears. Either that or his pale, slightly green skin made women just want to look after him.
Damn it, how come he never had everyone swooning all over him? He was the good looking Captain of a starship.
Well, there had been Gaila, his own green skinned Orion lover, but she had been on the Farragut, and therefore she was no longer among the living...
“A sight lot better than his Prime self, I’m telling you. That Spock is old,” he found himself saying, before he clamped his mouth shut and closed his eyes. No one was supposed to know there were two Spock’s running around.
Ooops.
Well, the universe was still there, so he didn’t seem to have done any real damage to anything by saying that.
The boy’s eyes lit up at that. “You mean both the original Spock and this younger version of him from this alternate timeline are living together and there is nothing bad happening? Wow! I gotta tell that to Anathema! She’ll love to hear about how the same person only one from...what, the future? Yeah! The future, are able to co-exist at the same time on the one plane of existence. She’d love it! She’s into that stuff. She’s a witch, and a professional descendent.”
The entire bridge was now staring at the kid, Chekov’s eyes were also lit up with, dare he say it, a fascination of the topic, while Sulu looked like he was about to crack up laughing. Too bad the Vulcan that was the topic of discussion was busy elsewhere and not here. And Uhura was missing out on her boyfriend being crushed on by a girl half her age.
“What is a professional descendent?” asked Sulu, finally controlling his grinning enough to ask the question he probably had been dying to know. Jim nodded, wondering what it was himself.
“It’s someone who is a professional in being in line of a great family of psychics.”
The silent ‘duh’ at the end of that sentence was possibly louder than the words that had been spoken out loud. “You know, you are loud. Even when you’re silent, kid.”
“Adam. My name’s Adam. And yeah, I can be loud when I wanna be. Especially with what I want.”
Jim nodded. The kid was spoiled. Okay, that explained the attitude. Sure, it was an attitude he shared with this Adam kid, but hey, he came around to it from a completely different angle. “Okay...so how exactly did you get on board my ship?”
Adam shrugged, smiled at him and stated as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do. “Simple. I just thought us here.”
The whispering that was going on around the bridge stopped at that, since it was said in the most sincere and downplayed way ever. “What the hell is the other part of you, if you’re mostly human that you could just think something and it would happen?!”
The kid tipped his head to one side and that hair shifted perfectly and made Jim feel like a pervert for watching it. Not a lot could make him feel like that, all things about him considered. Shaking his head, he waited for his answer.
The quiet made the answer the boy gave amplify and travel much more clearly, even though his voice was soft and matter of fact. “Oh, I’m an antichrist. A son of the devil. Satan. Big evil leader. You know...him. I could destroy the entire planet if I wanted to. I don’t though, so don’t worry about it. I’m a good kid, mostly. My teachers think I’m a right pain though.”
A pin was heard dropping. Yeoman Rand picked it up and cleared her throat. “Sorry, sir.”
No one bothered wanting to know why she had a pin on her to begin with...
* * * * * * * * * *
“...and that, laddie, is how the engines on the Enterprise work! Condensed o’ course.” Chief Engineer Scott finished, and Wensley grinned widely at the Scottish man.
“Wow, thanks!” he replied eagerly, wanting to get back to his friends to tell them all the interesting things about a starship engine and how it went. They’d probably be bored, but he didn’t care. He was their group nerd. He was happy to be group nerd. Someone after all had to do it, and he was definitely the right man for the job.
Not that he was yet a man. He was only just starting that particular life journey after all.
“Think I’ll do any good with it?”
“Hey, anyone named after a food is good in me books, lad,” Scotty replied to his unspoken need to know that in his own way he was looked at as being someone who was easy to speak with. And hey, he was named after a cheese. But it didn’t exactly answer his question.
“No it’s just...where I come from, we don’t have starships. We have normal ships. On oceans and stuff.”
He was blinked at for a few seconds, before Scotty shrugged, waved his hands about and stated, in a loud voice. “Well, maybe ye’d learn something about makin’ one fer yerself then!”
Wensley nodded eagerly. Yes, he could, though he’d probably have to find a girlfriend to marry, have kids and teach them at one point and let it continue down the line, because half the things needed to make it he didn’t have, and neither did the Earth of his time for that matter. “Yeah! Thanks! I’ll leave you to your cards then. Bye!”
He happily skipped in the most mannish way he possibly could back they way he had come, hoping that one of the other Them had made it to the bridge again. Adam at least should be there.
* * * * * * * * * *
Brian had, of all the luck, found a data thingy for plain potato crisps and was in heaven holed up in his Jeffries tube.
That was, of course, where he was found by the guards that were sent to see who had broken into the Jeffries tube in the first place, led by a very young looking Spock. Brian squeaked and tried to bury himself under the tiny mountain of crisp packets he had surrounded himself in.
“What are you doing in there?” came a cool, monotone voice that he didn’t quite recognise, but knew had to be Spock’s, because no one else knew how to talk quite like that as far as he knew.
“Eating!” he replied loudly, trying to back up, but slipping slightly, sending some of the empty packets out of the tube and into the main corridors of the ship. “See? Eating!”
He got a slightly cocked head and a raised eyebrow as an answer to that and, sighing loudly, he crawled out and shut the entry to the tube closed behind him. “Fine. I’m out now, happy?”
Raised eyebrow become arched at that before Brian remembered that this was Spock Jr. He who refused to believe he had emotions, even though everyone knew he did. He got his eyes off the Vulcan and his sights immediately picked up on something entirely more appealing. “Phasers! Wow! Can I hold one?”
The guards looked at him, looked to Spock, looked back at him, before lowering the weapons and putting them away. Disappointment washed through him. He didn’t care that they had been pointed at him, they were still so cool.
“Follow me,” he was ordered in monotone and sighing loudly, he started following behind the very stiff looking back of the commander he had never mentioned to his friends slightly scared him.
No one, absolutely no one, should carry themselves so straight. It was just so unnatural.
In a way to try and get over this, he slouched more than he normally did when in trouble over something. It made him feel at least slightly better about the whole deal he was in. If it was a deal. Felt like it was.
He hoped that Kirk Jr. would go easy on him.
* * * * * * * * * *
Several more pins dropped, before Rand sighed loudly, shook out her hair and the rest of them joined the others on the floor. Her hairstyle now in ruins, she pouted.
Adam found it entertaining. Why was it girls cared so much about what their hair looked like?
Jim laughed and shook his head. “Way to go, lightening the mood in here, Yeoman,” the Captain stated, and Adam couldn’t help but agree. It had been getting pretty much ominous on the bridge.
The crew might have started baying for his blood and to throw him out into deep space if he had continued saying he was the son of the devil. Which he was, so was a completely unfair thing for the crew to want to do.
He wasn’t evil just because his real dad was. He’d been raised good and proper, the British way. Nurture before nature completely had proven its worth in him. Which was lucky for the Earth, really.
If he hadn’t been able to control that part of himself and truly choose what he wanted instead of what his father wanted, James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise wouldn’t be James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise. For that matter, he wouldn’t even have been James T. Kirk, because the world would have ended.
Life was so confusing sometimes. Though, one good thing about being an antichrist, he was sailing through puberty with no problems. He was trying not to interfere too badly with his friends in that regard.
They’d asked him not to. It was rather nice of them, he thought. His friends trusted him not to screw up, so he didn’t.
The door of the turbolift opened again, and a young looking Spock came in with a few security guards, a slouched Brian trudging heavily behind them.
“Captain. I found this boy in one of the Jeffries tubes, contaminating the area with litter. I did not know whether to place him in the brig or not, so will leave that choice up to you.”
Kirk looked to him and grinned. “Another of your friends?” he was asked, and Adam nodded.
“Brian.”
More would have been said, if not for Pepper’s sudden and loud squeal of delight at seeing the Vulcan First Officer. Said Vulcan and anyone in the near vicinity of the girl winced in pain at the noise.
Brian looked at her, frowned and stuck out his tongue, slouching as far as he could while he was at it. Soon all three of them were together.
“So, where’s Wensley then? Get lot somewhere while playing with the engines?” Brian asked, scowling at the floor.
Adam shrugged, cocked his head to one side and grinned. “Nah, he’ll be here in a few seconds. He got talking with Scotty.”
Brian grinned at that. “I would have liked to have met him, instead I got the Vulcan.” Adam watched as Brian shuddered slightly and grinned.
Adam watched as Jim laughed and looked to Spock, who was ignoring everything in a spectacularly stiff way, obviously pretending he hadn’t heard.
The turbolift opened again, but instead of Wensley coming out of it, a young, rather beautiful woman stepped out, her hair in a long pony tail and her skirt very short. She grinned at everyone, sat down and put a thing in her ear.
The squeal Pepper let out this time was deafening to all. “Oh my god, it’s Uhura!”
Spock glared at pepper. An actual, honest glare. It was extremely unsettling to all on the bridge, and Kirk giggled at that. “Not a good idea, girl. Trust me, an angry Vulcan is the last thing I want on this bridge...again.”
Everyone shifted uneasily at that, though some didn’t know why. Even Adam shifted a bit, though that had something more along the lines of looking at Uhura’s small skirt and the little it left to the imagination.
The tension was let out, slowly and softly, by a very happy Wensley walking onto the bridge, a smile wide on his face, beneath his glasses. “Adam! I just learnt what makes the Enterprise go!”
The atmosphere after that soon heated up and melted the awkwardness and, before he knew it, they were all invited to the mess hall for some lunch.
Maybe, just maybe, he would have to visit this version of the Enterprise again sometime. With the others, of course. He wouldn’t come alone, that’d be unfair.
Battles with Klingons and Romulans danced through his head for later times. Right now, it was more a meet and greet of a team of people he respected.
* * * * * * * * * *
There was definitely something about these kids that Jim liked. While he was kind of scared (though he’d never admit that to anyone, and he was sure staying away from Spock just in case he projected) of Adam, he was soon put at ease by how utterly genuinely normal the kid was. He didn’t do any crazy antichrist things, or attack his crew or ship. He honestly just had brought his friends and himself to see the Enterprise and her crew.
It was weird, is what it was, but he was a Kirk, and had grown up with weird. Well, okay, he had grown up dysfunctional, but that was just another word for weird, right? It was in his books anyway, and his books covered a lot of subjects.
What could he say, reading proper books was a hobby of his. They were so rare nowadays.
Well, whatever, the kid was actually growing on him, and had expressed curiosity and a desire to come back and explore more of the ship later.
He couldn’t say no. The boy had the power to wink him out of existence like he had never been thought of by his parents, let alone born. One thing Jim valued was his life, regardless of what some of his crewmembers who were also senior officers, thought on the matter.
So, with great pleasure and also a bit of fear he refused to let anyone know about, he shook Adam Young’s hand and smiled. “Well, you can come along any time you want. Not like we can actually, you know, track when you’ll magically show up again. Uhura hadn’t even been aware you were coming the first time. Not even the tiniest blip on her radars, and she hears everything on that desk of hers.”
Uhura off to the side beamed at the innuendo free praise.
So, that’s how you do it.
Adam grinned at him and nodded. “Thanks, Captain. Maybe next time there will be more stuff happening. We could help out, you know, in a battle.”
“I don’t doubt it, kid. Well, good luck getting back to the right place.”
All four of the kids grinned and nodded at him, before they vanished just as fast as they had arrived. It was damn creepy to see people vanish for no reason right in front of him.
A quiet “fascinating,” behind him said that Spock felt the same way.
* * * * * * * * * *
The Them were back home, in their own universe and their own time. They blinked at the light of the bright, sunny day that it was and grinned at each other.
“So!” Pepper stated, bouncing on her crate in excitement. “Anyone want to go look for alternate version of ourselves? I mean, imagine it. We could, I dunno, be characters in a book or something.”
The three boys looked at her, looked to each other, and as one they all laughed at the stupidity of that idea.
The idea that they would find book versions of themselves was just too silly to even imagine.
For: littlewolfstar
From: malicehaughton
Pairing & Genre: Them/New!Star Trek, gen-ish
The Them were bored.
It wasn’t a constant state for them, though neither was it a normal one, since it always felt like Adam could conjure something up to keep them occupied. So, it was with great relief that one of them (Brian of all people, he had secretly been a fan) introduced a small portable television and video player, along with the entire collection of the original series of Star Trek.
Thankfully, given that they didn’t need electricity to make electronics work, they were happy with the arrangement.
They were all immediately hooked, though none of them could really tell you why, exactly, that was.
They all decided that the future and aliens and space travel was just what they wanted to do. Right then. And, as was the way with all things when it came to Adam Young, they soon found themselves on the Bridge of the Enterprise.
They blinked. Then frowned.
“Wait, this isn’t right...” Brian stated, upset that his show wasn’t the same in real life.
“This isn’t anything like what it showed on the telly, Adam!” Pepper stated, crossing her arms under her chest.
“Wow...!” Wensley stated, automatically loving the array of futuristic control panels that seemed to be surrounding them. A grin overtaking his frown.
Adam for his part said nothing, blinking into the big, blue eyes of the Captain of the ship.
“How the hell did you kids get on board?!” came the surprised voice, out of a mouth too young for the part, of the Captain who had been eyeballing their leader.
Adam shrugged. “We’re just visiting. We wanted to see what it would be like to fly on a starship. Not exactly what I thought it would be.”
“Got that right, Adam. Everything’s...different,” Pepper scowled at the thought. She had wanted to see Lieutenant Uhura, who she personally thought was a great woman. Much like herself.
“Nothing wrong with different!” Wensley piped up, making his way slowly towards the nearest console to him, enchanted by the flashing lights. The rest of the Them noted he refrained from touching anything by clenching his fists and biting his lower lip.
Brian was too busy sulking at the floor over the changes from his show to say anything else on the subject.
Seeing the kid looking like he was about to start crying, the Captain sighed and pressed a button on his chair. “Doctor McCoy to the Bridge. We’ve got some interesting strays for you to come poke and prod.”
The Them perked up at that and decided, well, the crew and ship itself might look different, but it was definitely the right ship. They were on the U.S.S Enterprise. They decided, on a unanimous vote, to go their separate ways and explore what interested them the most.
But first, it seemed they had to be prodded and poked.
* * * * * * * * * *
“Dammit, Jim! I’m a doctor, not a babysitter!” were the first words out of McCoy’s mouth when he saw that his latest patients were a bunch of kids that had no right being on a starship in space in the first place. Said kids seemed to perk up immediately after he had said it, God knew why.
“I’m not asking you to babysit them, Bones. I’m asking you to examine them. You know, to do your job as CMO,” he was answered by his Captain and friend.
“Yeah, well, don’t be surprised if next time you end up in the med bay I decide not to give you something for pain...” McCoy muttered, before waving the four children, who could barely say they were teenagers, towards him. “Come on you four. Standard regulation on a starship demands that everyone first beamed aboard gets a full physical.”
He was expecting resistance. He didn’t get it. Instead, the kids seemed to herd towards him, grins now on all their faces, including one of the boys, who a moment ago had looked close to tears. He spared a glare for Jim, before he turned around and herded them towards the turbolift to take them to his med bay.
They followed his every step, and looked happy to do it. He’d never seen a person, no matter how old they were, happy at the prospect of a full physical for any reason. This bunch of kids was just plain acting strange.
Perhaps they had some type of neurological condition or something...
It only seemed to penetrate into their brains that this was actually happening that one of them, the girl, started to get prickly. He knew that one. Teen girl, start of puberty, changing body, male doctor. Not a good combination. He herded her off to Nurse Chapel and took the boys into another exam room.
He looked at the three boys and pointed to a slightly pudgy one. “Right, you first.”
No longer eager, but still with a look of slight happiness on his face, the boy launched himself onto the nearest biobed and all three of the boys were all smiles again as the readouts began to show on the machine above the bed.
He soon had ruled out any neurological reasons for their weirdness. And any other health problem for that matter. Two of the boys, the pudgy one and a boy with glasses (and why the hell did he have glasses to begin with, they were so archaic) showed normal readings for normal, healthy boys their age.
The one with the blond curls to rival Chekov’s, and looks that would be more devastating than Kirk’s when he grew up some, was more than normal. His readings were all so utterly perfect, McCoy was wondering if he was genetically engineered.
The boy looked like some angel that had fallen from Heaven, damn it. He couldn’t believe he was beginning to get jealous of a kid who had barely hit puberty.
“Right, you’re all healthy. Go annoy someone out in the halls or something.”
With that said, the three of them rushed out of the room, to meet with the girl and their heads were soon altogether ad they were whispering excitedly about god knew what.
He left them to it. He had actual patients to look after in other rooms that were much more important than a bunch of annoying kids.
If he had gotten any sign at all of what the kids were planning on the ship, he would have informed the Captain that they should be shipped off to the brig.
* * * * * * * * * *
“I want to go see Engineering, and the Science departments!” Wensley stated, his eyes almost glowing with passion, as he practically danced on his toes in the excitement of seeing more up close and personal, more technology form the future that he might, if he got real lucky, would be able to touch.
Adam smiled at him and nodded, before turning his eyes to Brian. Brian grinned and shrugged. “I wanna see the weapons! And see if I can get my hands on one of those phasers! How cool would that be?”
Pepper scowled at all these choices. “I wanna go see what people do for fun here. And see if there is an actual Uhura. She’s cool!”
Adam smiled at his friends and nodded. “Cool. I wanna go see if I can get back on the bridge. I want a close look at how a captain, a real leader, really works.”
With these goals in mind, the four of them, after staring eagerly at a sign that pointed towards Engineering, took off in separate directions.
* * * * * * * * * *
Scotty, as he usually did when there was nothing else of great importance going on, was playing cards with Keenser. He’d already triple checked that all the engines were working at their optimum speed and performance and had decided against going back for a fourth look for the time being.
If something went wrong, he was sure he’d be able to fix it given time, anyway. He’d done a lot of fixing since his leaving of his post on Delta Vega. He loved this ship. And now he really did have his hands on her gorgeous nacelles.
Life couldn’t have been better.
He wasn’t expecting some weird kid with glasses on, to come from out of nowhere to poke his dirty hands in his ship. Oh no, that was completely not allowed.
“Hey, what are ye doin’ to me engines?” he asked, not really bothering to get up from his seat, though Keenser, sitting on top of the table they were playing on, at least managed a half hearted glare at the boy.
“Oh! I’m sorry, sir. I just wanted to have a look at the engines. I wasn’t touching anything, I swear!”
Leaning back, he looked more closely at the boy and frowned. “How are ye on board at yer age anyway, lad? Ye can’t be more than 14.”
“13 sir. And Adam brought us here. It’s a marvellous ship! I just wanted to see what made it go. How does it run? Do you really use anti-matter?!”
Smiling widely as he noted the genuine interest in the boy’s eyes, he got up off his seat and walked over to him.
“Ye really are interested? Well then, seat yerself down, and I’ll give ye a few bits o’ useful information on how exactly this beauty flies.”
The boy took his vacated seat faster than he had left it.
He sat in the opposite one without a care and begun what was to be a long and info filled lesson on what exactly made the Enterprise go.
It was a lot more fun than playing cards with Keenser.
* * * * * * * * * *
Pepper, finding a sign that read rec room 1 and knowing that’s where the crew aboard the Enterprise went to unwind after or before their shifts, she decided that was the place for her. Entering the room and looking around her, she was instantly disappointed.
There were a lot of seats, sure. There were two replicators on a wall in a corner for those who got hungry or thirsty, yeah. But right then, barely anyone was in there, and those that were, she had no idea who or what they were or did.
There were 3-D chess boards galore, which were rather interesting, though would have been so a lot more if she had any interest whatsoever in chess, 3-D or otherwise. There were other games too, cards mostly. Still, where was Uhura? She hadn’t been on the bridge when they had come aboard, and she was sure that on the show, when she wasn’t on the bridge or sleeping, she was in the rec room singing or playing some music on that lute thing that Spock has.
For that matter, he had been absent from the bridge too, which was a bit weird. And he wasn’t here playing either.
She knew they weren’t in the med bay, because she’d already been there. If she went looking for them, she doubted she’d find them.
Squaring her shoulders and looking quite like a girl set off to wage war on whoever decided to deprave her of what she wanted, she set her sights on a new goal: heading back towards the bridge, where she’d wait, quite patiently if she really had to, for Uhura to rock up and take her post.
For that matter, the command stations weren’t the same on this Enterprise. It looked much more shiny and high tech to the one she was used to seeing. She had no idea which station was the one for Communications.
Damn it. Well, she’d just have to wait!
She marched her way towards the bridge, hoping she remembered the path she had used to get to the rec room to begin with.
* * * * * * * * * *
Brian had given up on his plans to find a phaser when he found the first convenient replicator, made short work picking out a data thingy for whatever, inserted it, and took what came out. It just happened to be a plate of chips, covered in tomato sauce, or ketchup, or whatever it was called in space during the 23rd century.
Licking his lips, he looked around for a place to go to eat, found a nearby Jeffries Tube and made himself comfortable.
He instantly decided that he liked this new plan of his and went back for seconds after the first plate was empty.
* * * * * * * * * *
Captain James T. Kirk, of the starship Enterprise (NCC - 1701) watched as the young blonde boy with the looks that would be more devastating than his own when he grew up, walked out of the turbolift and back onto the bridge.
The boy came down the steps on one side, looked over the helm controls for a short few seconds, before he turned and faced him.
There was something more than just a kid’s look in the boy’s eyes, and he found it oddly frightening. Lucky for him, he was Jim Kirk and nothing frightened him! Well, unless it happened to be running into Spock and Uhura in his First Officer’s cabin again. That had possibly scarred him for life.
There was the unexpected and sudden clarity that this kid, young as he was, was a born leader. Much like himself.
“Hey kid. What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be on the bridge,” he stated, keeping his voice calm and mellow, not wanting to start shouting in alpha male mode, which he was in automatically.
How the hell could this kid possibly get him to act like he needed to save his position on board his ship? A boy his age couldn’t possibly be a competent leader of anything.
“Nothin’ much. Just wanted to watch a real captain at work. You’re the leader here. I’m the leader of my friends. I was almost leader of a lot more than that.”
The kid had some type of British accent. Not really helpful to tell him where the boy was from precisely, but it was kind of comforting to know that it was Earth. He could deal with some Terran kid easy enough, since he had once been one himself. For that matter, he was still called kid by some people. Bones and Uhura mostly.
He should really try to get them to divert that attention onto Chekov who was still a kid. It was completely insubordinate to be calling him kid, especially given one was his CMO best friend and the other a woman he’d been trying to get inside her pants for the past few years.
He had no hopes on that last one anymore. Spock had beaten him to it, and Vulcans mated for life. The only good thing he got out of it was finally knowing Uhura’s first name was Nyota.
And now, to be shown up by a boy who looked like he had only started to understand what the thing between his legs was really for, was not the best thing that could happen to him. Especially not that day. He was getting an odd communication from some nearby planet, and Uhura had gone down to the main communication’s area to try and see if anyone else had heard it.
Before he could ask what the boy meant by watching him be captain because he was the leader of the ship, the turbolift opened once more and the girl, wild fiery hair, came marching back in, took her time to get to the golden haired boy he had been facing down, and glared.
“This place is just not right, Adam. Nothing is as it should be.”
He had no idea what the hell that was supposed to mean, but was surprised even further when Goldie laid a hand on her shoulder, smiled a smile that would even get him all hot and bothered when it was aged up a bit, and calmed her down with a few appeasing words.
“I think it’s an alternate universe, Pepper.”
“What?! How do you know of anything being alternate universes or not?!” he couldn’t help but blurt out, since it was common knowledge to all those on the bridge that, yes, in fact they were living in an alternate reality, since Nero had arrived and disrupted all their lives.
The boy shrugged, smiled and waved a hand around. “Easy. Your crew look different and younger to what we know in our own universe. Yet you all have the same names, and as far as I can see, nearly the same attitudes and mannerisms. You’re not supposed to be Captain yet. But you’d always be the youngest Captain the fleet would have at this time.”
Jim couldn’t help it, he just stared at the two kids. “Okay, that is freaky. You got any Vulcan blood in you, because you are sounding like you’re channelling my First Officer.”
The boy shrugged and shook his head. “No, not Vulcan, but not completely...human. Yet at the same time, I am. It’s weird. And hard to explain. So I won’t bother.”
The girl tugged on his sleeve and the staged whisper she gave was loud enough for the whole deck to hear. “I wonder what a younger Spock looks like!”
God save him from hormonal teenage girls! What was it about that guy that made all the girls go nuts over Spock? He was seriously suspecting it was the ears. Either that or his pale, slightly green skin made women just want to look after him.
Damn it, how come he never had everyone swooning all over him? He was the good looking Captain of a starship.
Well, there had been Gaila, his own green skinned Orion lover, but she had been on the Farragut, and therefore she was no longer among the living...
“A sight lot better than his Prime self, I’m telling you. That Spock is old,” he found himself saying, before he clamped his mouth shut and closed his eyes. No one was supposed to know there were two Spock’s running around.
Ooops.
Well, the universe was still there, so he didn’t seem to have done any real damage to anything by saying that.
The boy’s eyes lit up at that. “You mean both the original Spock and this younger version of him from this alternate timeline are living together and there is nothing bad happening? Wow! I gotta tell that to Anathema! She’ll love to hear about how the same person only one from...what, the future? Yeah! The future, are able to co-exist at the same time on the one plane of existence. She’d love it! She’s into that stuff. She’s a witch, and a professional descendent.”
The entire bridge was now staring at the kid, Chekov’s eyes were also lit up with, dare he say it, a fascination of the topic, while Sulu looked like he was about to crack up laughing. Too bad the Vulcan that was the topic of discussion was busy elsewhere and not here. And Uhura was missing out on her boyfriend being crushed on by a girl half her age.
“What is a professional descendent?” asked Sulu, finally controlling his grinning enough to ask the question he probably had been dying to know. Jim nodded, wondering what it was himself.
“It’s someone who is a professional in being in line of a great family of psychics.”
The silent ‘duh’ at the end of that sentence was possibly louder than the words that had been spoken out loud. “You know, you are loud. Even when you’re silent, kid.”
“Adam. My name’s Adam. And yeah, I can be loud when I wanna be. Especially with what I want.”
Jim nodded. The kid was spoiled. Okay, that explained the attitude. Sure, it was an attitude he shared with this Adam kid, but hey, he came around to it from a completely different angle. “Okay...so how exactly did you get on board my ship?”
Adam shrugged, smiled at him and stated as if it was the easiest thing in the world to do. “Simple. I just thought us here.”
The whispering that was going on around the bridge stopped at that, since it was said in the most sincere and downplayed way ever. “What the hell is the other part of you, if you’re mostly human that you could just think something and it would happen?!”
The kid tipped his head to one side and that hair shifted perfectly and made Jim feel like a pervert for watching it. Not a lot could make him feel like that, all things about him considered. Shaking his head, he waited for his answer.
The quiet made the answer the boy gave amplify and travel much more clearly, even though his voice was soft and matter of fact. “Oh, I’m an antichrist. A son of the devil. Satan. Big evil leader. You know...him. I could destroy the entire planet if I wanted to. I don’t though, so don’t worry about it. I’m a good kid, mostly. My teachers think I’m a right pain though.”
A pin was heard dropping. Yeoman Rand picked it up and cleared her throat. “Sorry, sir.”
No one bothered wanting to know why she had a pin on her to begin with...
* * * * * * * * * *
“...and that, laddie, is how the engines on the Enterprise work! Condensed o’ course.” Chief Engineer Scott finished, and Wensley grinned widely at the Scottish man.
“Wow, thanks!” he replied eagerly, wanting to get back to his friends to tell them all the interesting things about a starship engine and how it went. They’d probably be bored, but he didn’t care. He was their group nerd. He was happy to be group nerd. Someone after all had to do it, and he was definitely the right man for the job.
Not that he was yet a man. He was only just starting that particular life journey after all.
“Think I’ll do any good with it?”
“Hey, anyone named after a food is good in me books, lad,” Scotty replied to his unspoken need to know that in his own way he was looked at as being someone who was easy to speak with. And hey, he was named after a cheese. But it didn’t exactly answer his question.
“No it’s just...where I come from, we don’t have starships. We have normal ships. On oceans and stuff.”
He was blinked at for a few seconds, before Scotty shrugged, waved his hands about and stated, in a loud voice. “Well, maybe ye’d learn something about makin’ one fer yerself then!”
Wensley nodded eagerly. Yes, he could, though he’d probably have to find a girlfriend to marry, have kids and teach them at one point and let it continue down the line, because half the things needed to make it he didn’t have, and neither did the Earth of his time for that matter. “Yeah! Thanks! I’ll leave you to your cards then. Bye!”
He happily skipped in the most mannish way he possibly could back they way he had come, hoping that one of the other Them had made it to the bridge again. Adam at least should be there.
* * * * * * * * * *
Brian had, of all the luck, found a data thingy for plain potato crisps and was in heaven holed up in his Jeffries tube.
That was, of course, where he was found by the guards that were sent to see who had broken into the Jeffries tube in the first place, led by a very young looking Spock. Brian squeaked and tried to bury himself under the tiny mountain of crisp packets he had surrounded himself in.
“What are you doing in there?” came a cool, monotone voice that he didn’t quite recognise, but knew had to be Spock’s, because no one else knew how to talk quite like that as far as he knew.
“Eating!” he replied loudly, trying to back up, but slipping slightly, sending some of the empty packets out of the tube and into the main corridors of the ship. “See? Eating!”
He got a slightly cocked head and a raised eyebrow as an answer to that and, sighing loudly, he crawled out and shut the entry to the tube closed behind him. “Fine. I’m out now, happy?”
Raised eyebrow become arched at that before Brian remembered that this was Spock Jr. He who refused to believe he had emotions, even though everyone knew he did. He got his eyes off the Vulcan and his sights immediately picked up on something entirely more appealing. “Phasers! Wow! Can I hold one?”
The guards looked at him, looked to Spock, looked back at him, before lowering the weapons and putting them away. Disappointment washed through him. He didn’t care that they had been pointed at him, they were still so cool.
“Follow me,” he was ordered in monotone and sighing loudly, he started following behind the very stiff looking back of the commander he had never mentioned to his friends slightly scared him.
No one, absolutely no one, should carry themselves so straight. It was just so unnatural.
In a way to try and get over this, he slouched more than he normally did when in trouble over something. It made him feel at least slightly better about the whole deal he was in. If it was a deal. Felt like it was.
He hoped that Kirk Jr. would go easy on him.
* * * * * * * * * *
Several more pins dropped, before Rand sighed loudly, shook out her hair and the rest of them joined the others on the floor. Her hairstyle now in ruins, she pouted.
Adam found it entertaining. Why was it girls cared so much about what their hair looked like?
Jim laughed and shook his head. “Way to go, lightening the mood in here, Yeoman,” the Captain stated, and Adam couldn’t help but agree. It had been getting pretty much ominous on the bridge.
The crew might have started baying for his blood and to throw him out into deep space if he had continued saying he was the son of the devil. Which he was, so was a completely unfair thing for the crew to want to do.
He wasn’t evil just because his real dad was. He’d been raised good and proper, the British way. Nurture before nature completely had proven its worth in him. Which was lucky for the Earth, really.
If he hadn’t been able to control that part of himself and truly choose what he wanted instead of what his father wanted, James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise wouldn’t be James T. Kirk of the starship Enterprise. For that matter, he wouldn’t even have been James T. Kirk, because the world would have ended.
Life was so confusing sometimes. Though, one good thing about being an antichrist, he was sailing through puberty with no problems. He was trying not to interfere too badly with his friends in that regard.
They’d asked him not to. It was rather nice of them, he thought. His friends trusted him not to screw up, so he didn’t.
The door of the turbolift opened again, and a young looking Spock came in with a few security guards, a slouched Brian trudging heavily behind them.
“Captain. I found this boy in one of the Jeffries tubes, contaminating the area with litter. I did not know whether to place him in the brig or not, so will leave that choice up to you.”
Kirk looked to him and grinned. “Another of your friends?” he was asked, and Adam nodded.
“Brian.”
More would have been said, if not for Pepper’s sudden and loud squeal of delight at seeing the Vulcan First Officer. Said Vulcan and anyone in the near vicinity of the girl winced in pain at the noise.
Brian looked at her, frowned and stuck out his tongue, slouching as far as he could while he was at it. Soon all three of them were together.
“So, where’s Wensley then? Get lot somewhere while playing with the engines?” Brian asked, scowling at the floor.
Adam shrugged, cocked his head to one side and grinned. “Nah, he’ll be here in a few seconds. He got talking with Scotty.”
Brian grinned at that. “I would have liked to have met him, instead I got the Vulcan.” Adam watched as Brian shuddered slightly and grinned.
Adam watched as Jim laughed and looked to Spock, who was ignoring everything in a spectacularly stiff way, obviously pretending he hadn’t heard.
The turbolift opened again, but instead of Wensley coming out of it, a young, rather beautiful woman stepped out, her hair in a long pony tail and her skirt very short. She grinned at everyone, sat down and put a thing in her ear.
The squeal Pepper let out this time was deafening to all. “Oh my god, it’s Uhura!”
Spock glared at pepper. An actual, honest glare. It was extremely unsettling to all on the bridge, and Kirk giggled at that. “Not a good idea, girl. Trust me, an angry Vulcan is the last thing I want on this bridge...again.”
Everyone shifted uneasily at that, though some didn’t know why. Even Adam shifted a bit, though that had something more along the lines of looking at Uhura’s small skirt and the little it left to the imagination.
The tension was let out, slowly and softly, by a very happy Wensley walking onto the bridge, a smile wide on his face, beneath his glasses. “Adam! I just learnt what makes the Enterprise go!”
The atmosphere after that soon heated up and melted the awkwardness and, before he knew it, they were all invited to the mess hall for some lunch.
Maybe, just maybe, he would have to visit this version of the Enterprise again sometime. With the others, of course. He wouldn’t come alone, that’d be unfair.
Battles with Klingons and Romulans danced through his head for later times. Right now, it was more a meet and greet of a team of people he respected.
* * * * * * * * * *
There was definitely something about these kids that Jim liked. While he was kind of scared (though he’d never admit that to anyone, and he was sure staying away from Spock just in case he projected) of Adam, he was soon put at ease by how utterly genuinely normal the kid was. He didn’t do any crazy antichrist things, or attack his crew or ship. He honestly just had brought his friends and himself to see the Enterprise and her crew.
It was weird, is what it was, but he was a Kirk, and had grown up with weird. Well, okay, he had grown up dysfunctional, but that was just another word for weird, right? It was in his books anyway, and his books covered a lot of subjects.
What could he say, reading proper books was a hobby of his. They were so rare nowadays.
Well, whatever, the kid was actually growing on him, and had expressed curiosity and a desire to come back and explore more of the ship later.
He couldn’t say no. The boy had the power to wink him out of existence like he had never been thought of by his parents, let alone born. One thing Jim valued was his life, regardless of what some of his crewmembers who were also senior officers, thought on the matter.
So, with great pleasure and also a bit of fear he refused to let anyone know about, he shook Adam Young’s hand and smiled. “Well, you can come along any time you want. Not like we can actually, you know, track when you’ll magically show up again. Uhura hadn’t even been aware you were coming the first time. Not even the tiniest blip on her radars, and she hears everything on that desk of hers.”
Uhura off to the side beamed at the innuendo free praise.
So, that’s how you do it.
Adam grinned at him and nodded. “Thanks, Captain. Maybe next time there will be more stuff happening. We could help out, you know, in a battle.”
“I don’t doubt it, kid. Well, good luck getting back to the right place.”
All four of the kids grinned and nodded at him, before they vanished just as fast as they had arrived. It was damn creepy to see people vanish for no reason right in front of him.
A quiet “fascinating,” behind him said that Spock felt the same way.
* * * * * * * * * *
The Them were back home, in their own universe and their own time. They blinked at the light of the bright, sunny day that it was and grinned at each other.
“So!” Pepper stated, bouncing on her crate in excitement. “Anyone want to go look for alternate version of ourselves? I mean, imagine it. We could, I dunno, be characters in a book or something.”
The three boys looked at her, looked to each other, and as one they all laughed at the stupidity of that idea.
The idea that they would find book versions of themselves was just too silly to even imagine.