Chapter 2: The Captain and First Officer

Hi there! I don't own anything. Please read and review, constructive criticism is reluctantly welcome. If you're waiting to see when I will update my TMI fanfic 'Don't let Go' well, I have to tell you that I already have the next few chapters written but in paper so I have to type them and they're kinda long. Sorry.

But if you haven't read that story and you're a Mortal Instruments fan, you should totally check it out. Especially if you like Malec.

This takes place after Into Darkness, in the first year of the 5 year mission.

Also, Carol realizes she's in another universe kinda fast but in the original series Kirk and co. found out pretty quickly too, so yeah.

To jackieleanne, thanks for your support! It means a lot to me.

Love to everyone who reads this story.

"Ensign Espinoza? What are you wearing? And what do you mean what happened to me?"

The man took a few steps forwards, "Did you go down to the planet?"

Carol stepped off the platform, "No, but clearly I'm not on the Enterprise. Now, Ensign-"

"I'm not an ensign, Carol. I'm a lieutenant." He went to the control console, "I think I better com the Captain."

"Yes, I think you should. When did you get promoted?"

Espinoza didn't look at her, "About a year and a half ago? Carol, honestly-"

He was interrupted by the com bipping, "Bridge here"

Weird, thought Carol. It wasn't Uhura's voice.

"Transporter room here. Sir, there seems to be a transporter malfunction and Yeoman Marcus didn't make it to Wacom III. But sir, she's…Something's wrong with her."

Yeoman?

"Very well, Lieutenant. The Captain and Mr. Scott will be right over."

Scott? What about Mr. Spock? And wait...

Now Carol frowned, she knew that voice. Of course she knew that voice, it sounded remarkably like that of Khan's, the terrorist they had encountered when she had first joined the crew of the Enterprise. She grabbed Espinoza'a arm as soon as he ended the transmission, "Who was that!? What happened to Uhura?"

He stepped away from her though Carol didn't release her grip. "The captain's yeoman? What about her? And come on, you know Khan, right?"

"Khan!?" Carol stepped away, "He's supposed to be in criofreeze! He's can't be here. He…"

"Carol! Calm down! Khan is our friend. Why would he be frozen? We haven't had to freeze anybody since we got Warp." He looked at her with something like pity, "God, what happened to you?"

She was saved from answering by the swoosh of the doors opening. And in walked the Captain. Of course it wasn't the Captain Carol was expecting, it was Hikaru. Lieutenant Hikaru Sulu, the Chief Helmsman of the Enterprise. And it was indeed Mr. Scott who walked in. They were both dressed in command gold, their pants were black and the shirts seemed to be more like jackets. Sulu's had an open high collar and Montgomery's was an open collar too but shorter, underneath you could see a simple black shirt. The Starfleet insignia was in their belts, which were high in their waist, rather than in the left side of the chest and seemed to serve as belt buckles, much like in Espinoza's red uniform.

Sulu looked very much the same, but Carol frowned as she noticed Mr. Scott. He must have dyed his hair, she thought; for it was not his usual ginger, rather it was blond. Also, he had a short beard, which he could have grown in the two hours that had passed since Carol had last seen him.

Sulu stopped in from of her. Frowning, he asked, "Yeoman Marcus. Did you arrive to the planet's surface?"

Carol was beginning to lose her temper, but she was also getting confused. Could this all be a prank? It seemed too elaborate and performed at an extremely bad time. Plus, Jim would not ignore Mr. Spock's request to have her go down. Unless Mr. Spock was in on it too, which she doubted.

Another thing caught her interest.

"It is the second time I've been called Yeoman. I am a lieutenant. And no! Like I told Mr. Espinoza here, I didn't get to the planet. I got on the transporter while Captain Kirk and Mr. Scott were talking and now I'm here. So I would very much li-"

"Captain Kirk?" Sulu asked her with an eyebrow raised. "I am the Captain of the Enterprise, Ms. Marcus. And I assure you, Mr. Scott was on the bridge this whole time, not here."

Carol just stared at him and Scott, she was beginning to think that she had been correct when she first thought that she was no longer on the Enterprise, at least… not hers.

"This is the USS Enterprise?"

Sulu nodded, "Yes."

"NCC-1701?"

"Quite right, Ms. Marcus."

Carol simply nodded at him, and started thinking. It had of course been theorized that one could possibly travel to a different universe if the right circumstances arose. Mr. Spock had shared with her that the elder version of him that resided on New Vulcan, Ambassador Spock, had come from an alternate universe to their own.

"Captain?" Mr. Scott said to Sulu, who turned to him. "I think it's best that we take her to sickbay." His accent wasn't as marked as she was used to, Carol never had problems understanding him when he talked but some of the crew did. She imagined that they would better understand him if he spoke like this, with the accent toned down, all the time. Though she would never ask that of him.

Before Sulu could speak, Carol said, "I believe I know what has happened, Captain Sulu."

"What would that be, Yeoman?"

Carol took a deep breath. "I am not the Carol you know. I am Dr. Carol Marcus. A lieutenant on the USS Enterprise. But not this Enterprise, rather I come from an alternate universe that mirrors yours." She looked at their confounded faces, "My proof I look at you and you are not the Sulu, Scott, or Espinoza I know. And it's clear that you do not know me either. Rather you know Yeoman Marcus, but I am not her. Do you understand, Captain?"

This universe's Sulu stared hard at her, she could clearly see that he was debating himself. In his eyes there was astonishment, mistrust, but also reason, which told him that the woman standing before him was the Carol Marcus he knew. This Sulu was so much to read that the one she knew, who kept his barren of what he felt while working, unless something happened that made him really upset or really happy.

This world's Scott had his narrowed, looking at her with the distrust. It was clear that this Montgomery was not as friendly as the other one.

"Say we believed you, miss." Scott started. "Could you tell us what happened to the Carol Marcus of our Enterprise?"

Carol looked at him, "Well, I suspect she ended up in my universe, or in another which also mirrors your own. I cannot know for certain… This has never happened to me before."

Finally, Sulu- Captain Sulu, spoke again. "What could have caused this? The Ion Storm?"

Carol nodded, "Most likely, there was also an Ion storm in my universe when I got on the transporter to beam down. You have to believe me, I want to get out of your universe and back to mine as soon as possible."

Captain Sulu examined her, she seemed to be telling the truth but Carol always was a great actress. However, she could not have changed out of her uniform in the seconds she was in the transporter room and Lieutenant Espinoza also seemed shocked at her appearance. "Lieutenant!" He called at him.

"Yes, sir?" Espinoza stepped forward.

"Report."

After looking at the faces of the other three people in the room, the man opened his mouth. "It's my shift so I here just manning the console then Lieutenant Singh commed me telling me that Marcus was coming down for transportation. Then she arrived, we shared a few words." At this he blushed for some reason then cleared his throat and continued, "I already had the coordinates put in but I had a bit of trouble getting the transporter to work. You know how the storm was very violent and unpredictable so I assumed it was because of that. I did my best to make it work and it did! I swear it, she was gone. But then…" Espinoza frowned.

As did Sulu and Scott, the Commander's eyes searched the other's face, "Then, Lieutenant?"

The man recovered, "The power beam jumped, sir. After that there she was, looking just as confused as I felt."

Carol stepped in, "The power jump may have been what caused the momentary inter dimensional contact between our universes. Look, I've studied the theories about travel between parallel universes, and I know that must have been what happened. I just want to get home."

Sulu turned to speak with Scott for a moment, they walked away so that neither Espinoza or Carol heard them very well. But she caught the words 'Sickbay' and 'Grayson' she hope they didn't mean to have her sent to sickbay for a psych eval or something like that.

Finally they turned and the commander stepped forwards, "We believe you, but you're still going to sickbay." Apparently the captain saw how her face fell because he added, "Simply to check that you weren't harmed in the transportation or that you didn't bring anything harmful to our universe."

Carol nodded, she understood where they were coming from and she knew that Sulu wasn't lying because she could see the small concern and something like fear in his eyes.

"After that, " Scott continued, "You'll be going to the science wing, Dr. Grayson will be able to help you get home."

"Thank you, sirs." She gave a tentative smile, which Sulu returned but his first officer didn't.

The Captain turned to Espinoza, "Take her to sickbay. I have to tell the heads of department the situation." He turned to Carol, "From there, I'll arrange a security detail. I'm sure you understand my need for precautions."

"Of course, Captain."

Sulu nodded once and turned to leave with Scott at his side. Once the doors had shut behind them, Carol turned to the Lieutenant and moved her right hand in the direction of the door. "Lead the way."

And he did.