USS Maverick NCC-1746. Federation Starship, Constitution Class Heavy Cruiser. Prime Universe.

--

Captain Richard Constantine, a tall, handsome man with a ginger mullet and striking blue eyes, stared at the temporal anomaly before him in interest. His science officer Jackson watched in equal interest, from his own station. Constantine was in his gold command uniform, the parallelogram mission patch of his ship on his left breast. He looked, in short, like a traditional Starfleet Captain type.

"What can you tell me?" Constantie asked.

"What can I tell you?" Jackson replied, shaking his head. "Lots. About this? Not lots."

Jackson was slightly shorter than him, with cropped black hair, big ears, big nose, and big grin, when he wanted to grin. His eyes were sharp, cold, piercing blue. He had a strange sense of humour that Constantine liked – but not right now.

"Anything you can tell me, Rob?" he asked.

"Well, it's a doorway, in laymans terms," Jackson said. "Looks like it might be a dimensional rift."

"Another dimension?" Constantine pondered.

"Or universe," Jackson motioned. "Parallel universes are quite interesting in their own right," he added. "If something comes out, it might be quite cool…"

Constantine turned to regard the anomaly.

"I hope nothing comes out," he said. "I have enough problems…"

"Captain!" his helm officer, Johan Fitzgerald, called out. "Look!"

He couldn't see it for a moment, and then, suddenly, horribly, he could…

--

It was silver, it was sleek, and it was bigger than the Maverick. It's initial design looked like someone had taken Constitution class starships – vessles primarily designed for science and exploration – made them bigger, then covered them in weapons. But the thing that stood out most was the name of the ship.

Enterprise.

--

"Contact Kirk and his ship," Constantine said.

"But sir," Willems, his comn officer said.

"Do it," Constantine said. "Then hail… that."

"No need," Willems said. "They're already hailing."

"On screen," Constantine ordered. And suddenly – there they were. Kirk, Spock, McCoy, just as Constantine – who only briefly met them at a Constitution class ship launch – remembered. Except that the bridge they were standing on was larger, more open plan, and the uniforms appeared to be slightly different.

Jim Kirk, however, was the same.

"Rich!" he said. "How you doing!"

"Jim," Constantine said, carefully. "Nice ship."

"I might say the same," Spock intervened from Kirks side. "It would appear to be a slightly smaller version of a Constitution class vessel, with less weaponry."

"I would say yours is bigger and more badass," Jackson noted. Constantine shut him up with a glare.

"Look," Jim Kirk said from next to him. "What say we have a talk face to face? This is confusing enough for us, and we sorta know what's going on. For you, I don't know what it'll be like."

Constantine smiled grimly.

"Fair does," he said. "One hour. Your ship or mine?"

"We'll visit yours," Kirk said. "I'm kinda curious about it."

"And I about yours," Constantine replied, nodding. "Mine then. One hour."

The communicator shut off.

--

"Spock, what can you tell me?" Kirk said as soon as the communication ceased.

"They're vessel is far inferior tactically to our own, Captain," the Vulcan – Half Vulcan – replied. "Also, their uniforms are different."

Dr McCoy sighed, and rolled his eyes.

"Mind telling me what the dfference in uniform actually means?"

"It means, Doctor," Spock said, "that we are in a different universe. A parallel."

"Like the universe Nero came from?" Kirk queried.

"Possibly," Spock concurred. "There is only one course of action, now."

"What?" McCoy asked.

"Go meet them," Spock stated.