The Meeting of Universes, Star Trek TOS/2009, 1/?
Title: The Meeting of Universes
Summary: What would happen is TOS and Re-Boot met? Jim meets Jim, Spock converses with Spock, Russians get drunk and the Sulus compare time pieces and fence. Read the many meetings and conversations between two univeses...Fascinating, isn't it?
Words: 1,554
AN: See bottom for timeline.
Meeting
"Well this is interesting."
When Captain Jim Kirk had woken up that morning, he had not expected anything more than a routine shift. The past few days had been nothing but travelling and empty space, having not discovered any breathable or inhabited planets in the current solar system. Warp speed was only at level 2, as Jim had not wanted to use any more energy than necessary. There was no information about this part of the Universe, meaning there was no way of knowing if they could collect fuel or any lithium crystals they may need.
This level of mundane atmosphere however was not good for morale. Jim had decided that after another week of this he would book shore time for the crew and head to the nearest nitrogen and oxygen atmosphere. However, this also meant that the USS Enterprise had not planned on running into an Ionic storm.
The storm was not strong, nor was it heavy. However, it did block any images coming from the display screen. They were flying visually blind. Luckily, the scanners were intact and managed to pull them all out of the small storm without damaging too much of the ship.
So, when the ship flying out between bits of space debris and ion particles, they were not expecting to see a strange sight that lay before them.
"Indeed, Captain. Very fascinating." Spock's usual monotone did nothing to bring Jim down from his excitable mood. Finally, something interesting!
"Lt. Uhura, would you mind trying to patch us into their frequency? I'm sure you can guess what channel they are on." Indeed, she probably could. Considering the other ship was identical to the Enterprise.
"Of course Captain. Hailing unidentified star ship, this is the USS Enterprise. Identify."
"Unidentified?" The Japanese navigator said, raising an eyebrow with a smirk. It seemed he noticed the similarities too. Jim wondered if it was a bad thing that his crew was all too used to insane and seemingly mind-boggling situation before disregarding the thought. He was just as bad.
"I can hardly call them the Enterprise when we ourselves are the Enterprise, can I Sulu?" Uhura (she still refused to let Jim call her Nyota, so on off-hours Jim would still come up with plenty of imaginative nick names) raised an elegant brow right back at Sulu, as if daring him to disagree. Jim smiled at her cheekily, glad she wasn't afraid to tear down the big boys.
"Very clever Lieutenant."
"Thank you Captain."
Her tone was sarcastic while still being respectful, which was constantly a source of amazement with the male members of the crew. How did women do it? When asked, the female half of the crew just smiled knowingly and walked away, leaving the poor man behind even more confused than before. The only one who seemed to have no care of the subject was Spock, and Jim secretly believed that Nyota had let him in on the secret when they were dating, just because she knew that Spock would never tell anyone.
"This is the USS Enterprise, Starfleet flagship. I see we have a predicament here. I am Captain James. T. Kirk. May I address the captain, please."
The entire bridge stopped to stare at the console from where the voice was emitting. Well this really was interesting. Jim once again grinned happily.
"Great. This is Captain James Tiberius (Chekov stop laughing)-"
(The Russian teenager had seemed to grow more confident in the last two years of their mission, and after months of playful teasing about young Chekov's name, he had discovered what the T in James. T. Kirk stood for, and did nothing but laugh every time the Captain introduced himself. Jim did not believe that this would let up for a while, but he let the younger kid have his fun. Spock had merely raised an uninterested eyebrow at these interactions before going back to whatever work he would be doing at the moment, probably thinking about illogical humans.)
"Apologises Keptin."
"- James Tiberius Kirk of the USS Enterprise, etcetera etcetera. It seems we both have a problem. You identify as identical on our scanner, minus the few odd details."
Spock had silently handed over the scans to the Captain as he was speaking, showing that the Other USS Enterprise was lacking some of the more sophisticated technology that they were privileged with. He related all this back to the other ship.
"Yes, we discovered the same thing. It seems your vessel is much more advanced than ours. I don't suppose you would mind telling us the Earth Date?"
"It is precisely the year 2361.54 Earth time, Captains." Got to love Spock and his internal clock.
"Interesting, Other Spock. Mr Spock, what is the exact date for us?"It seemed that the two Jims shared a sense of humour.
"The Earth date would be 2267.54, Captains." A voice identical to the Spock next to Jim reverberated through the Bridge.
"This is so cool."
"I do not understand how a statement can be any kind of temperature, Captain."
"Just a figure of speech Mr Spock, I merely meant that this is fascinating." Another eyebrow was raised.
"Indeed."
"So it seems that not only have we crossed universes, we've also crossed time."
"Captain, it seems this universe it greatly different from ours."
"Commander Spock is correct, Captain. If the date is 2361, that means they are six years behind us."
Sulu blinked as he heard his own voice. Did he really sound like that? He thought his Japanese accent was much less pronounced then that.
"I had gathered that Mr Sulu. That also means that you have started your five year mission, well before we have."
"Well that's fantastic." Jim couldn't help but still love the novelty of space travel. "Other Jim, I'm guessing that you are also older than us, correct? I presume that the time runs the same speed, you've just jumped back slightly."
"By how young you sound, I must admit I do seem older than you. It seems I've beaten my own record. Captain at 28? Wonderful, three years before myself."
"Twenty five actually, spent a while as an actually decorated captain then started my five year mission. I had to help out at the Academy for a few months."
It was true. After graduating and relieving Admiral Pike of duty, Jim and the crew had been helping around the Academy, teaching a few classes to the remaining students and generally helping on repairs. A lot of the teaching staff and the graduating class had perished during the attack on Vulcan and the upcoming battles, making the Academy extremely short handed. Jim had pitched in and had become a general handy man around the school, as well as the hand-to-hand combat instructor, as the original had died. After the last of the graduating class graduated, Jim was given control of the USS Enterprise and began their five year mission to explore space.
"Still better than me. Am I allowed to ask why I received such a large promotion so early? You must have only graduated from the Academy seven years ago in your time. That's quite a fast jump up the chain of command."
The wording of the statement made Jim cringe slightly. Lots of other seasoned captains and admirals had doubted his ability to captain the ship and its 435 crew because of his age, and it was a rather a soft spot for Jim. Every time someone mentioned his lack of ability, self doubt always grew and his insecurities seemed to overflow. For the next couple of hours he would brood and build himself up to believing himself lacking in everything, but then Bones would show up with a slap around the head, a threat of a hypo and a physical as well as a large bottle of bourbon. His best friend knew him so well.
"I actually started the Academy in 2255, when I was 22. I'm guessing you started with everyone else, at 17?"
Usually a student would stay in High School until 18 but if a student planned to go into Starfleet then they would begin at the Academy age 17, in beginner courses until they turned 18. While students like Uhura and Cupcake were learning, Jim had spent that time in Iowa, getting into bar fights and fixing engines (be they car, motorcycle and even the odd ship. The shipping dock always needed extra hands and Jim was fully prepared to help out for the extra few credits).
"You didn't start until you were 22? Why?" Other Jim's voice seemed incredulous, and slightly curious. He could probably guess that new universes were created because of accidental or purposeful changes in time, or at least Other Spock had probably told them all of the possibility before they opened communication.
"Captains, I do not believe this conversation is appropriate through com-links. I advise that you both meet on one of our ships. As yours seems to be the more sophisticated machinery, perhaps this Universes host would be a better option?"
Spock's timing and logic was impeccable in every universe, it seemed. So, with what seemed to be a permanently etched into his face grin, Jim signed off from the communication with a few parting words.
"Indeed Other Spock, come aboard. I'll warn Scotty."
Timeline:
TOS:
Jim Kirk is born in Iowa: March 22nd 2233
Jim Kirk is sent to Tarsus IV: 2246 (Age 13)
Starts Academy: 2250 (Age 17)
Graduates Academy: 2254 (Purely speculation, this is just me guessing, Jim seems the type to graduate early regardless of the universe he's in).
Promoted to Lieutenant: 2255 (Age 22)
Promoted to Captain: 2264 (Age 31, youngest ever).
Begins 5 year mission: 2265
Re-Boot:
Jim Kirk is born on No. 37 medical pod from the USS Kelvin: January 3rd 2233 (To have been born in space, Jim must have been 77 days premature. I did the math and that's his date of birth.)
Jim drives the antique car into a quarry: 2345 (Age 12, speculation on the actual age and date on my behalf).
Bar fight and enlisting into Starfleet and starting Academy: 2255 (Age 22).
Beats the Kobashi Maru, put on Academic suspension, Vulcan is destroyed, promoted to first officer, commits mutiny, marooned, stows away, becomes acting captain, saves the Earth, promoted to an actual captain, graduated Academy: 2258 (Age 25)
Begins 5 year mission: 2259 (Age 26).
Some inconsistencies have been found between the two universes. For example, Chekov's year of birth. In TOS his birthday is said to be in 2245, making him 20 at the beginning of the 5 year mission. However, in the 2009 Re-boot movie he says he is 17 years old, making his year of birth have to be 2241. If I use the TOS date, Chekov would have been 12 for the 2009 movie, so for the sake of my mental stability, in TOS Chekov is 24 in the beginning of the 5 year mission. Capiche? Thank you.