Star Trek XI | Between Us and Them | Kirk Prime/Spock Prime
As he exits the Nexus, Jim realizes that Spock had thought him dead for 78 years, and wishes--only for a second--that he could correct the error. One second is enough.

Background Information for anyone who hasn't seen TOS/Generations: In the Star Trek movie Generations, TOS!Kirk disappears on Enterprise-B's maiden voyage and is presumed dead. 78 years later, Picard finds out that Kirk was, in fact, sucked into the Nexus ("a blissful realm where time has no meaning") and manages to convince Kirk to exit the Nexus and help him stop the evil mad scientist trying to get into the Nexus. They save the world and Kirk is killed in the process. The ending of (and most of) the movie rubbed me the wrong way so here I am changing it only as a fanfiction writer can. Enjoy. :D

The stainless steel door slides open and he finds himself on the bridge of a starship. Strange, he thought, looking about idly. It wasn't Starfleet's habit to revert back to previous uniform designs.

"Captain," a voice from a panel across the bridge rings out sharply. "We have an intruder on the bridge."

The speaker is a Vulcan, and there is something achingly familiar about both him and the young man in command gold who approaches him.

"Identify yourself," the boy demands. (Really, the standard age of Starfleet captains must've dropped in the last century.)

"That," he says without thinking, "is definitely not protocol, Captain."

The boy-Captain's eyes ghost over the insignia of his jacket, and falters.

"I am Captain James Kirk of the starship Enterprise," he finally says. "Identify yourself and how you got onboard my ship." A pause. "Sir."

Jim's eyebrows lift at that. He thinks of Jean-Luc Picard, what he'd been told about the Nexus, and everything clicks into place.

"Oh my," he chuckles. "This is new."

//

A security team had arrived on the bridge, half of crew had a hand on their phasers, and still the intruder emanates an infuriatingly smug sense of calmness.

"Well," the man says. "We have something in common, Captain. My name is also James Kirk—but you can call me Jim."

Jim's entire body suffers a near imperceptible jerk. The man continues as if speaking to expressions of disbelief was completely normal.

"Is Spock around, by any chance?"

And then his eyes roll and his body slumps to the ground, Spock's fingers curled around the space where his shoulder was.

'That was uncalled for, Mr. Spock' and 'That looks so much cooler when you're not the one who's going to wake up with a headache' and 'What the hell was that' all catch in his throat, and Jim finds himself at a rare loss of words.

"Captain," Spock says, a millimeter difference of eyebrow height betraying his otherwise unfazed exterior, "should we confine him to the brig?"

Jim looks down to where the stranger lay.

"No," he replies. "Sick bay, I think."

The furrows in Spock's forehead deepen. "It could be a trick."

"Then keep a security team posted."

"Captain—"

"Whoever he is, he retired from Starfleet with high honors," Jim interrupts. He forces himself to look away from the prone form. "Have Bones check him out."

Spock glares at him. "Aye, sir."

//

"I don't know to tell you this, Jim," McCoy says, throwing his hands up. "But that...person over there might actually be you."

"Would you perhaps like to clarify that?" Jim replies with similar frustration.

McCoy draws up the chart. "I mean, your DNA is a match."

Jim gives the two sequences a thorough once-over and sure enough, the two strands were identical.

"How is that even possible? Is there some alien genetics lab we don't know about where they can clone and raise and not to mention age whoever they're cloning to--oh."

"Oh?" McCoy repeats. Jim's face had drawn into a grimace. "Something click in that pretty little head of yours?"

"Yeah." Jim grits his teeth. "And given that the universe hasn't imploded upon itself, I can only conclude the impossible: Spock lied."

A throat clears from the doorway.

"If you are referring to my coming into contact with my future self," Spock says slowly, "I must remind you, Captain, I cannot lie about something I was never asked."

Jim whirls around, outraged.

"I was talking about the other you, actually, but while we're on the subject—seriously you never thought even once that maybe I'd like to have known?"

Spock's face, miraculously, does not even twitch. "My mistakes, I had thought it irrelevant. I will keep your wishes in mind for the next time we encounter an alternative version of ourselves, sir."

Jim glowers, but three months of Captaincy allow him better focus on the matters at hand. "Wake him up, Bones."

"You sure about this?"

"We're not getting any answers with him just laying there," he says. "Wake him up."

One hypo to the neck later, the figure on the bed awakens with a groan.

"My goodness," he says. "I haven't been on the receiving end of one of those in, oh I don't know—it must've been at least ten years."

"Captain," Jim tries, but it doesn't sound right. Neither does "Kirk" and "Jim" or "Sir".

"Take your time, son," the older Kirk says, not unkindly. "It never gets easier, you know—and you'll never quite master the art of it, you just get a little better each time."

Bones is gaping openly now, looking back and forth between the two of them.

"To answer your previous questions," he continues, "I am James Kirk. I was the former Captain of both the Enterprise and Enterprise-A. As to how I came onboard, well, I made a wish and the next thing I knew, here I was. Although this…" His gaze flickers briefly to Spock. He looks sad. "…is not quite what I expected."

"The man is babbling, Jim," Bones mutters under his breath. "Should I knock him out?"

"How is that going to help?" Jim hisses back.

"How do you know this isn't some kinda trick? For all you know the man is some kind of alien spy."

"What was it you said during the paternity hearing, Bones? Word for word, DNA doesn't lie."

"It doesn't," he growls. "But alien spies do."

"Captain," Spock finally interjects. "I believe I may have a solution to your conundrum."

"Do tell, Mr. Spock."

"A Vulcan mind-meld, sir," Spock says. "I will know what he knows."

"I haven't had one of those in a while," the visitor says brightly, as if he had proposed having pie for dinner. "Please, proceed at will."

At his Captain's nod, Spock steps forward, hand outstretched, and closes his eyes.

//

"Have I ever mentioned you play a very irritating game of chess, Mr. Spock?"

"Is that your best recommendation?"

"Don't tell me that again science officer! It's a theory! It's possible! We may go up in the biggest ball of fire since the last sun in these parts exploded, but we've GOT to take that one-in-ten-thousand chance!"

"I don't believe in the no-win scenario."

"You can't tell me that when you first saw Jim alive that you weren't on the verge of giving us an emotional scene that would have brought the house down."

"You are closer to the captain than anyone in the universe. You know his thoughts. What does your telepathic mind tell you now?"

"No. Not like this. I haven't faced death. I've cheated death. I've tricked my way out of death and patted myself on the back for my ingenuity. I know nothing."

"Sir! He's dead already."

"…I never took the Kobayashi Maru test…until now. What do you think of my solution?"

"Sir, your son meant more to me than you can know. I'd have given my life if it would have saved his."

"…Jim. Your name is Jim."

"You said history considers me dead. Who am I to argue with history?"

"Don't let them promote you. Don't let them transfer you. Don't let them do anything that takes you off the bridge of that ship, because while you're there, you can make a difference."

"…I have been, and always shall be, your friend…"

//

Spock exits the meld inelegantly, with a sharp breath and an unschooled expression on his face.

"Spock," Kirk—his Captain Kirk—says, touching his arm. "Are you alright?"

The other Kirk, the one sitting on the table, looks at him with something akin to pity.

"I am fine, Captain," he bites out. "He...he is who he says he is. I believe the two of them are acquainted."

Understanding dawns on Kirk's face and he grins. "That's excellent—"

"Captain," Spock cuts in. "If there is nothing else, I must take my leave."

And without another word, he spins on his heel, and—there is no other word for it—flees.

"There's something you don't see every day," Bone says, turning his gaze back to the older-Kirk. "Someone wanna tell me what the hell is going on?"

"I will Bones, I will," Jim promises with a wide smile as he smacks his friend on the back. "I have to go send a transmission first though. Look after our guest for a second, will ya?"

Then, he too high tails it out of sickbay, leaving McCoy alone with the alien spy.

Dammit, Jim.

//

"The intruder on the bridge is hereby deemed a passenger until further notice," Spock's calm, flat voice announces through the speakers. "Captain's orders."

//

"You look different; but then again, I suppose all of you look different."

A snort. "Of course there're gonna be differences, old man. Doesn't mean we're not all essentially the same people."

"Oh? How do you figure?"

"You guys still share the same DNA, don't ya?"

A quiet laugh. "I see your point, doctor."

A moment of silence.

"And how is your daughter?"

A pause and a inquisitive glance. "What're you talking about. I don't have any kids."

"Oh. My mistake."

//

"This is Captain James Kirk of the Enterprise, requesting audience with Ambassador Solvak of Colony XVII on New Vulcan. Classified: Urgent. Message: Ring me back as soon as possible, old man, this is important."

[ // ]